The Lifespan Development Process

The Lifespan Development Process
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Part A
Infants are children within the 0-12 months age bracket. Infant development begins at birth, with the majority attaining critical milestones in development by the time they are aged one. Some of the fundamental changes in infants by the time they are one year old are as follows:
* Physical development
Physical development refers to the growth and changes of both body and brain in infancy. Normal development is measured with increased physical coordination and development of the brain and muscles. Infants’ development starts at the head and progresses to other body parts (Bornstein et al., 2019). For example, sucking comes first, followed by sitting and later walking. Between birth and two months, newborns can lift and turn their heads and flex their arms. 3 to 4 months of infant shows improved eye muscle control, increased hand and feet control, increased vision, developed neck muscles, and primitive reflexes faded. 5 to 6 months, an infant can sit alone for about 30 seconds and even rolls from back to stomach (Bergelson, 2020. 6 to 9 months, the infant is already crawling, walks when supported, can sit steadily, and sits from a standing position. 9 to 12 months, an infant attains some balance while standing and may take a few steps without support.
* Cognitive changes
Cognitive development refers to attention, learning, memory, thinking, language, creativity, and reasoning. Infants’ mental changes improve more at infanthood than in any other development stage. Every time they interact with their environment, they create new connections and pathways between their brain cells and nerves and their bodies and brains. It is much easier to measure physical changes in infants, but it is hard to measure cognitive changes at this stage. Children’s mental changes are best told using Piaget’s cognitive theory. According to Piaget, infants use more instincts and involuntary reactions to ask for attention, food, air, and comfort. Piaget explains the cognitive development of infants in stages (Sanghvi, 2020). For example, from 0 to–1-month, infants engage in reflexive activities such as sucking when offered the breast. At 1-4, they learn to repeat actions that please them.
For example, one will such on his fist because it feels nice. At this stage, they already see patterns of cause and effect, and when they see a bottle, they will expect food. At 4-8 months, infants start to show secondary circular reactions such as feeling things. For example, children at five months will follow objects until they disappear (Immordino-Yang et al., 2019). Finally, at 8-12 months, they start showing strong coordination of secondary schemes sub-stage. They build on what they have learned to achieve some goals. For example, they will mimic others, dropping things to see what happens.
* Nutritional needs/changes
Infants’ nutritional needs do not change within 0-12 months. But breast milk is the primary source of nutrition, especially in the first six months; their birth weight typically triples by the time they are one. Mothers are expected to breastfeed their children f...