Human Development

Personal Journal A person's development includes the changes that continue throughout one's life. Development is usually described in periods of time, so there is consistency among different theories that describe the stages that people go through in their learning process. The most widely used way of classifying developmental periods consists of the following order: the prenatal period, infancy, early childhood, middle and late childhood, and adolescence.

Healthy brain development during the pre-birth period is best when the mother has a nutritionally balanced diet, takes needed vitamins and does not abuse substances. When this is not followed, there is the possibility of brain development and behavior/learning problems such as learning disabilities. My mother is a Cherokee Indian who, like many Native Americans, was raised in a terrible physical and emotional situation. She was only 15 years old when she became pregnant with me.

Because she was young, poor and basically alone (she was a single mother and had few family or friends to help out), she probably did not eat the right foods and exercise. I am not sure if she drank or did drugs when she was pregnant. Since her life was so difficult, I would not be surprised if she did. A newborn baby needs to be encouraged mentally and taken well care of physically, or he/she may not have proper intellectual growth.

If what they call "windows of opportunity" are lost, problems can occur in certain skills such as in math and language and emotional problems may come later on in life. Although my mother loved me, she was young and emotionally and socially unable of taking care of a baby. She probably did not provide me with a lot of the positive learning experiences when I was young. My early childhood was not a very happy one.

I did not know my biological father; and I did not know that my step father (who my mother married when I was 2) was not my real father until I was about 10 years old. My real father, who was Caucasian, left my mother to take care of herself and the baby. My step father abused my mother, often when I was nearby. My mother had five children by the time she was (age?). From the ages of 4 to 6, we lived in the Jewish section of (city?).

I was also bussed to a Jewish school every day. We felt out of place, because we were very different in background, culture and religion. We then moved to more of an integrated neighborhood, until I was 10. The psychoanalytic theory of learning, suggested by Sigmund Freud, is not much followed any more. However, most likely, it did not help my image and self-esteem that I watched my mother be abused by my step father.

Jean Piaget's learning theory says that the developing child builds cognitive ideas, or ways to get through life, on learning how to understand and respond to physical experiences within his/her environment. Because I had little physical interaction with my environment while growing up, I'm sure that some of my present learning problems arose. Piaget also found that children's language development comes between the ages of 2 and 7, and that their problem solving ability comes about the ages of 7 to 11. These were also very difficult years for me.

After elementary school, I started going to a middle school. When I was about 10, we moved to a predominantly black neighborhood of black professionals in the city of Baltimore. Again, this was a very different environment to get used to, since I was raised in such a unusual neighborhood when younger. Middle school was hard, because I was of light color in a school that was predominantly black. Of course, being part white and part Cherokee did not help much.

Finally, when I was 14, I started going to this white high school. Although things are still not easy, they are getting better for me. Somehow I have some internal strength that I can count on when needed. Eric Erikson was another scholar who specialized in learning development stages or critical periods. He believed that a person with a strong sense of identity is one who knows where he/she is in life, has accepted this position and has reachable goals for change and growth.

he/she also has a sense of uniqueness with a sense of belonging and wholeness. Those with weaker personalities or egos have much more difficult times or with poorly developed egos get trapped in what is termed an identity crisis. According to Erikson, an identity crisis is a time in a person's life when he/she lacks direction, feels unproductive, and does not feel a strong sense of self-esteem.

He believed that we all have identity crises at one time or another in our lives and that these crises are not always negative, but can be something that motivates people toward a more positive approach in life. I can really understand this identity crisis problem, since there have been many times when I have felt this way. Erikson noted eight distinct stages, each with two possible results. According to his theory, successful completion of each stage results in a healthy personality and successful interactions with others.

Failure to successfully complete a stage can result in a reduced ability to complete further stages and therefore a more unhealthy personality and sense of self. The stages up to adolescence are: trust vs. mistrust, autonomy vs. shame and doubt, initiative vs. guilt, industry vs. inferiority, and identity vs. role confusion. Later in life the stages are: intimacy vs. isolation, generativity vs. stagnation and ego integrity vs. despair.

If you look at Erikson's stages and my life up to this point, it is easy to see that my experiences could keep me from having a healthy ego or personality. Trust, autonomy, initiative, industry and identity have not been key things in my household with my mother or me. We have had many tough times over the years. Erikson, as well as other developmental educators, however, also believes that people can change their lives despite the fact that they have had a troubled youth.

The cognitive theory of learning seems the most helpful to me. It says how people can actually be involved with their learning process, organize the things they learn, develop new ways of learning and have control over one's own learning abilities. The other learning theories do not give the person much chance of.