Lifespan Development and the Human Services (Essay Sample)

Lifespan Development and the Human Services
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Lifespan Development and the Human Services
Human development is the continuous change in humans over their lifespan from birth to death in psychological, cognitive, and physical aspects. The psychological part of human development comprises social relationships, personality, and emotions. Physical development entails growth and changes in the brain and body, health and wellness, the senses, and motor skills. Lastly, the cognitive domain consists of learning, language, creativity, reasoning, thinking, memory, and attention development. The lifespan of human beings is categorized into infancy and toddlerhood, childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. Human services is a knowledge discipline aimed at satisfying human needs over an applied information base, concentrating on problem remediation and prevention, and upholding a commitment to enhancing the quality of life of individuals. A direct human services employee works in families with infants, adolescents, children, and adults still living at home. The knowledge of human development is important in enabling human services to identify ways that would provide the appropriate support.
Infancy and Toddlerhood
This stage occurs in the first two years after birth and is responsible for significant change and growth in the body and brain function. At this stage, a newborn with poor vision yet acute hearing learns how to talk and walk within a short period. Infants mostly communicate by crying when they are hungry or uncomfortable (Berk, 2017). Moreover, the caregiver's role changes from managing sleep schedules and feeding to consistently guiding and ensuring safety for a very energetic, active, mobile child. Additionally, an infant is completely reliant on their caregiver to satisfy their needs, including safety, food, love, nurturing, and warmth. Therefore, the quality of care provided by the caregiver influences the development of trust between the infant and the caregiver (Berk, 2017). Thus, gaining accurate information on the infancy and toddlerhood stages enables the social worker to