Significant Impact and Disability

¶ … Human Development and Disabilities Developmental stages are categorized into six phases, which include pregnancy and infancy, toddlerhood and early childhood, school age, adolescence, adulthood and midlife and the young elderly and the elderly. There are various ways in which these stages of development are impacted by disability. The stage of development of a person at the time of inception or identification of a disability has a significant impact on the person's response to the disability.

When a person acquires a disability, it can have a dominant impact on the person's negotiation of developmental phases. It can give rise to a person missing out on significant developmental learning and completion of tasks (Smart, 2011). There are three distinguishing elements that will bring people with disabilities into the American culture. First, there is the populace explosion of people with disabilities. Secondly, there is the element of people with disabilities shifting away from stigma management and lastly the media altering its depiction of people with disabilities (Smart, 2011).

It is imperative to note that the suitable term to employ is response to disability instead of adjustment or adaptation. The selection of words is significantly influential. The use of the latter unfitting terms pathologizes disability, and this makes the implication that a disability is by design a detrimental experience. In addition, they may imply that reacting to disability is a one-off occurrence instead of being a lifelong process. There are three key disability adaptation theories and these include the cognitive restructuring model, stage model and the social moratorium theory.

To begin with, the developmental stage theory is akin to the phases of dying and death. In this model, the person experiences particular expected phases in dealing with and getting accustomed to the disability. The stages of adjustment include shock, denial depression, regression, anger and finally acceptance (Smart, 2011). The second model is the social moratorium model and this encompasses the person being handed some time off any responsibilities.

There is a clear distinction between the life the individual had prior to the disability and the life the individual has after the disability. This period of time is employed in redefining oneself and in breaking away from previous disadvantages like financial shortage, lack of education and substance abuse. Third of all, there is the cognitive restructuring model. This solely takes into account physical disabilities and is deemed to be the initial model of acceptance of disability. It is made up of four components.

These include the enlargement of the range of values, physique subordination, disability-effects containment and the transformation to asset from comparative values (Smart, 2011). As several theories and model of human growth and development indicate, the development process is signified by an ascending way and the objective to be greater capability, independence and distinctiveness. On the other hand, disability is wrongly perceived to be abnormality, flaw, and pathology, therefore life with a disability cannot be a life as aforementioned that has capability, independence and individuality. It is imperative.