This document discusses key theories and theorists of human development from conception through end of life. It covers physical, cognitive, and socio-emotional development in infancy, childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. The major developmental theorists discussed are Erik Erikson, Jean Piaget, and Lev Vygotsky. The document emphasizes that human development is influenced by interdependent biological, cognitive, and socioemotional processes that occur throughout the lifespan.

1. LIFE SPAN
DEVELOPMENT
PAMELA K. NOBLE
EDUC 600
DR. ALBRIGHT
LIBERTY UNIVERSITY

2. DEVELOPMENT DEFINED
Systematic changes and continuities from conception to end of life.
GREENWOOD DICTIONARY

3. NEWBORN
• CONCEPTION
• PRENATAL DEVELOPMENT
• THE COMPETENT NEWBORN

4. INFANCY & CHILDHOOD
Birth-Two Years
• COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
• PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT
• MORAL DEVELOPMENT
• ATTACHMENT

5. CHILD DEVELOPMENT SUMMARY
INFANTS COGNITIVE
DEVELOPMENT
SOCIO-
EMOTIONAL
PHYSICAL
DEVELOPMENT
TODDLERS I CAN FEEL AND TASTE I BABBLE, BUT SCARED IF I
DON’T KNOW WHO YOU ARE
I LIKE TO MOVE MY LEGS
AND I GRAB FOR THINGS
THAT LOOK PLEASING
PRE-SCHOOLERS I CAN POINT TO MY BODY
PARTS & SPEAK AT LEAST 300
WORDS
I LIKE HAVING MY WAY ALL
THE TIME
I JUMP, STUMBLE AND FALL
GRADE-
SCHOOLERS
I TALK TO MUCH AND
LAUGH WHEN I HEAR
FUNNY RHYMES
I LIKE MY FRIENDS BUT I
GET SAD WHEN THEY ARE
GONE
I LIKE TO IMITATE ADULTS

6. ADOLESCENCE & ADULTHOOD
ADOLESCENCE
• Physical Development
• Cognitive Development
• Social Development
• Emerging Adulthood
Twelve-Twenty Years
ADULTHOOD
• Physical Development
• Cognitive Development
• Social Development
Early: Twenty-Forty Years
Mid: Forty-Sixty Years
Late: Sixty-Five and Beyond

7. DEVELOPMENT PROCESSES
Biological
Processes
Cognitive
Processes
Socioemotional
Processes
Human Development is influenced by
simultaneously occurring changes in each
of these three areas.

8. INTERDEPENDENT PROCESSES
According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, or HHS, "Development is the product of
the elaborate interplay of biological, psychological, and social influences." In other words, as children develop
physically, their psychomotor controls increase along with their brain function which in turn, helps them become
more sophisticated cognitively. Furthermore, they become more adept at thinking about and acting upon their
environment. So, these physical and cognitive changes sequentially, allow them to develop socio-emotional
bonds with other people while forming their own individual identities. Hence, as described by the HHS, human
development is "a lifelong process of growth, maturation, and change.“

9. DEVELOPMENTAL STAGE THEORIST
• ERIK ERIKSON PSYCHOSOCIAL THEORIST
 Believed that development is life-long.
 Identified 8 stages:
 Basic trust vs mistrust (birth - 1 year)
 Autonomy vs shame and doubt (ages 1-3)
 Initiative vs guilt (ages 3-6)
 Industry vs inferiority (ages 6-11)
 Identity vs identity confusion (adolescence)
 Intimacy vs isolation (young adulthood)
 Generativity vs stagnation (middle adulthood)
 Integrity vs despair (the elderly)

10. DEVELOPEMENTAL STAGE THEORIST
CONT…
• JEAN PIAGET COGNITIVE THEORIST
 Children "construct" their understanding of the
world through their active involvement and
interactions.
 Studied his 3 children to focus not on what they knew
but how they knew it.
 Described children's understanding as their
"schemas” and how they use:
 assimilation accommodation.

11. DEVELOPMENTAL STAGE THEORIST
CONT….
• LEV VYGOTSKY
Socio-Cultural Theorist
 Agreed that children are active learners, but their knowledge is
socially constructed.
 Cultural values and customs dictate what is important to learn.
 Children learn from more expert members of the society.
 Vygotsky described the "zone of proximal development", where
learning occurs.

12. CONSEQUENCES
It is critical that all three developmental processes occur naturally because when a person does not successfully master one or more of
the developmental stages .
 A child who fails to achieve basic milestones of physical development may be diagnosed with a developmental delay.
 A child with a learning disability may fail to master the complex cognitive processes of a typical adolescent.
 A middle-aged adult who does not successfully resolve Erikson's stage of generativity versus stagnation may experience
"profound personal stagnation, masked by a variety of escapisms, such as alcohol and drug abuse.
IN CONCLUSION, we are unique and complex individuals and as such we must tackle each developmental tasks that
confronts us at every age.

13. You shall teach them to your children, talking of them when you are
sitting in your house, and when you are walking by the way, and when
you lie down, and when you rise.
Deuteronomy 11:19

14. REFERENCES
• Collins, J. (2003). The Greenwood dictionary of education. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press.
• Feldman, R. (2006). Infancy. In Development across the life span (12th ed.). Upper Saddle River,
N.J.: Pearson/Prentice Hall.
• Http://www.surgeongeneral.gov/library/mentalhealth/chapter2/sec4.html. (n.d.).