¶ … Cognitive Changes
Developmental cognitive occur starting age 50 moving end life.
Developmental and cognitive changes
The essay aims at exploring the developmental and cognitive changes that occur starting at the age of fifty years moving through end of life. The developmental changes are easily noticeable or observable, hence not much of literature or scholarly articles have been written about it. On the other hand a lot of materials, studies and researches have been conducted on cognitive changes because cognition is a key requirement needed in both the young and old to meet the job demands, challenges of education and day-to-day life of an individual (MacDonald, Hultsch, & Dixon, 2003, p 32-52).
Before the essays embark on the changes that occur at the age of fifty and beyond its important to consider the early changes right from when a baby is born up to middle life for us to understand the topic better.
Developmental and cognitive changes prior to the age of 50 years old
Anstey, et al. (2003 p 132) in their studies and published book, they are quoted as having concluded that human beings experience certain changes in their lifetime not only about their physical changes but also changes in the way they construct or organize their thoughts, memorization capabilities, their decision making skills and their abilities in solving problems, all these aspects of a man goes through certain phases of change that span from childhood through to adolescence up to adulthood.
As infants begin to grow and so does their body which experience growth in size and shape, they also develop their thinking skills and perception of things around them by collecting, sorting and process information in the surrounding environment (Hertzog & Bleckley 2001, p 29).
Numerous theorists and researchers have all contributed to the topic of developmental and cognitive changes in individuals and have increasingly focused on areas such as information processing, language skills, reasoning capabilities, intelligence level and memory as the main factors that determine cognitive development in individuals.
Freund & Baltes (2002 p, 426-434) have given a detailed account of these changes right from when a baby is born to past adolescents age and they summarized their findings that suggested; between the ages of eighteen months to three years babies develop rudimentary thought which involves visually following falling objects, they seek for independence from their caring parents, understand what's wrong and right. At preschool age that's between age three to six years a child can imagine, pay attention, learn and memorize what he/she was taught also his social interaction skills shall also be developed. Between the ages of six to twelve years a child will have developed skills in problem solving and thinking, the attention span will also have increased and they can now use past experience to reason out why some things happen. At the adolescents stage an individual shall have gained increased independence in thinking and solving problems, he or she can learn and apply what he learnt to adapt in certain situations or occupation it is also the stage of cognitive transition, as thinking capabilities become more advanced, efficient and complex. Past adolescent into youth and then middle age physical development shall have increased with the body and its organs increasing in size while the thinking skills shall have also increased greatly together with perception of things which shall become relative rather than absolute.
Developmental and cognitive changes at the age of 50 years and beyond
Finkel, et al. (2003, p 39) in their book 'Developmental Psychology'; have used the term 'half a century old' to describe to fifty years old persons and such persons they continue to say, have had five whole decades of exposure which has taken toll of their body resulting to wrinkles developing, some organs in their body no longer functioning as they did before, an example being the functioning capabilities of their heart and lung which reduces, the level of physical strength also declines, co-ordination, reaction time, movement skills and sensation also decline.
Hofer, Berg & Era (2003, p 285-385) studies on developmental changes at the age of fifty years old and beyond, categorized this changes into two conditions namely presbycusis and presbyopias. The presbycusis refers to difficulty experienced on hearing of high-pitched sounds due to aging while presbyopias refer to difficulty experienced in reading.
Perhaps for a more comprehensive look at the developmental changes at the age of fifty years old and beyond this essay will refers to studies conducted by Park, et al. (2002, p 299-320) among other authors in the...
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