Abstract
Humans’ growth and development process explain why individuals have distinctive features and personalities. Various events influence biological (physical), cognitive, and socio-emotional developmental processes in the life of individuals. Numerous events in my life, including learning and recognizing that some situations require a cautious approach, drawing, coloring, and painting, using utensils and participating in physical activities and games, shaped and facilitated my physical development. I developed my cognitive abilities through learning, which shaped my memory, creativity, language, and knowledge. The process involves four distinct stages of learning, including sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, and formal operational phases. Socio-emotional development includes such factors as expression, self-confidence, management of emotions, and establishment of positive and mutually beneficial relationships with other people. Interaction with teachers, parents, and peers was vital in shaping my capability to express and regulate my emotions in a social context.
Introduction
Growth and development is a significant human process that occurs throughout their lifespan. It is a process in which individuals change over time as they acquire new skills or knowledge. People go through different growth and development stages, from infancy to adulthood. Each of the phases has distinct features and processes that explain how individuals at a particular level of life are supposed to be. Various events happen throughout the stages that change and shape a person into who they become. In this paper, I will self-reflect on events in my life that helped shape and develop me, focusing mainly on biological (physical), cognitive, and socio-emotional developmental processes.
Biological Development Process
The biological development process gives an individual the physical ability to execute various activities. According to Schutte et al. (2022), the process focuses on a person’s physical development in perceptual and motor capacities and changes in their body size. Although there must be numerous events in my life that shaped and facilitated my physical development, I will reflect on a few that I remember. Events in my early childhood played an instrumental role in developing my perceptual and motor capabilities. For instance, I learned and recognized that some situations require a cautious approach from my mother. She used to walk slowly whenever holding a cup of water or anything that could spill off. Additionally, she could fill a cup of juice in my presence and stop it before it reached the brim. She could sometimes let it overflow, sigh with disgust and then wipe the table. My parents also allowed me to play with different objects and used loud voices and whispering when reading storybooks.
Other events in my early childhood that helped develop my perceptual capacity included drawing, coloring, and painting with my parents and discussing how I felt after playing with my friends or when we did different tasks together. That is when I learned to imitate adults’ activities, such as drawing and coloring. I also perceived how the hand or the body feels after engaging in tedious activities. My ability to process sensory information was improving every time. These events facilitated my capability to use sensory information to modify my behavior when interacting with the environment.
Motor capacity encompasses what an individual can do with their muscles. While it is hard to explain how I developed gross motor skills in infancy, some events during my early, middle, and late childhood considerably helped enhance my fine motor abilities. According to Schutte et al. (2022), motor capabilities are crucial because they allow children and adults to participate in various physical activities and improve self-image and emotional, social, and mental development. Learning how to use utensils, hold crayons, color, play with playdough, draw, and trace letters using pencils are some events that helped develop my motor skills in early childhood. Practices such as writing letters using uppercase and lowercase alphabets, and playing different games further enhanced my fine motor skills in middle childhood. At this stage, I could run, turn to dodge a ball, and do other activities that require flexibility, strength, agility, and balance. These events helped me become an active basketball player in a community-based club.
Participating in physical activities and games also significantly shaped and developed my motor capability during late childhood. Schutte et al. (2022) indicate that motor abilities become more efficient at this stage due to improved coordination, balance, agility, and speed. Activities such as catching and throwing the ball and dodging developed and shaped the way I coordinated my movements to perform efficiently in the field. The events further enhanced my capacity to maintain balance when moving from one point to another using the shortest time possible and the ability to accurately and rapidly change the direction of my body. Eating healthy foods such as plenty of fruits and vegetables and engaging in regular physical activities are key events that have helped develop and shape the size of my body.
Cognitive Development Process
The cognitive development process is about learning, encompassing memory, creativity, language and knowledge. According to Cherry (2022), the process involves four distinct stages of learning, including sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, and formal operational phases. The events in these stages, as defined by an individual’s age, help people develop. Manipulation of objects and sensory experiences are two ways I acquired knowledge during the sensorimotor stage (up to the age of 2 years). Events such as grasping an object, seeing people doing things, and listening helped me learn about my environment and discover how the world around me works. For instance, watching my parents and siblings moving around the house and listening to them when talking helped to learn how to walk and develop my language and accent.
The preoperational stage was instrumental in further developing my language and thinking. Events such as listening and reading pictured stories, drawing, coloring, and naming developed my symbolic thinking as I learned to use pictures and words to represent objects. Undeniably, my thinking and language improved when I joined kindergarten because I was exposed to an enhanced learning environment. Individuals’ thinking becomes more logical and organized at the concrete preoperational phase (Cherry, 2022). Events such as participating in different games at school and completing my homework on time without much assistance from my parents from age seven further developed and shaped my cognitive capability. For instance, being hurt while playing made me start thinking about what other people might feel. Equally, having different answers to questions asked in classes made me understand that I have unique thoughts and opinions from others.
The last stage of cognitive development, the formal operational phase, involves individuals having increased capability to utilize logic. According to Cherry (2022), the stage starts at the age of 12 years, when adolescents and adults can effectively use deductive reasoning and understand abstract ideas. They can see various potential solutions to problems and adopt scientific thinking about their environment. Teachings in classes and attendance to school-based counseling seminars for the youths are some events that have shaped how I think about other people and practice acceptable social morals and ethical behaviors. Additionally, I have developed the ability to find possible solutions to daily issues and interact effectively with friends, families, and classmates. For example, the knowledge I have acquired in school helps me to plan my schedule for different activities throughout the semester and critically evaluate possible outcomes for my actions.
Socio-Emotional Development Process
Socio-emotional development is instrumental in human life since it determines how people interact and express themselves. Schutte et al. (2022) indicate that socio-emotional development includes such factors as expression, self-confidence, management of emotions, and establishment of positive and mutually beneficial relationships with other people. Events from my infancy up to date have considerably shaped how I express my feelings in social contexts, how I understand other individuals’ emotions and the possible consequences of emotional reactions. Additionally, they have facilitated learning of how various sociocultural factors influence emotions and their regulations and the impacts of the latter on social behavior. For instance, the love and care from my parents during infancy and early childhood made me develop an emotional attachment to them and have a sense of safety in their presence. Such emotional attachment to familiar people makes me feel uneasy and anxious in the presence of strangers. Moreover, I am more selective when choosing people to interact with to ensure that I have an emotionally satisfying life.
Modeling of socially appropriate behaviors by the parents and teachers during middle and late childhood was instrumental in my socio-emotional development. My parents would always tell me how I should behave in the presence of adults and that hurting or using abusive language to other people is wrong. Teachers respected and valued all students regardless of their cultural, ethnic, or language backgrounds. They used polite language when dealing with students and encouraged us to imitate their behavior. These factors helped me to develop respect for all individuals. Moreover, they have helped me in self-regulating my behaviors by positively interacting with my peers and inhibiting negative impulses such as yelling and hitting.
The interaction with my peers in the classroom and when playing games and seeing their reactions when being hurt or happy further developed my emotional understanding. For instance, some of my friends would be distressed when they performed poorly in their favorite subjects. Equally, others celebrated when their team won on the field. Such events allowed me to develop the ability to accurately identify other people’s emotions and manage my strong emotions such as frustrations and excitement. Further, they facilitated a better understanding of other individuals’ perspectives and made me empathetic.
Conclusion
Humans’ growth and development process explain why individuals have distinctive features and personalities. Various events during biological (physical), cognitive, and socio-emotional developmental processes influence what people become and behave in their life. Events such as coloring and painting with my parents helped my physical development in perceptual and motor capacities and changes in their body size. Learning in classes and interacting with peers, teachers, and parents shaped my cognitive and socio-emotional development.
References
Schutte, A. R., Torquati, J. C., & Stevens, J. R. (2022). Nature and psychology: Biological, cognitive, developmental, and Social Pathway to Well-being. Springer Nature.
Cherry, K. (2022). What is Piaget’s theory of cognitive development? Verywell Mind. Web.