WU Classifications of Life Span Development Response Discussion

Read a selection of your colleagues’ posts.

Respond to at least two colleagues whose classifications differ from your own by critiquing their classifications. In addition, suggest one way you might apply each colleague’s life-span classification to your social work practice.

Be sure to support your posts with specific references to the resources. If you are using additional articles, be sure to provide full APA-formatted citations for your references.

Colleague 1: Paul

Post a new classification (or possibly multiple classification) to replace the authors’ young and middle adulthood classification.

My new classification is classified into 9 categories. They are as follows: (1) Prenatal Development, (2) Infancy and Toddlerhood, (3) Early childhood, (4) Middle childhood, (5) Adolescence, (6) Early Adulthood (7) Middle Adulthood (8) Late adulthood and (9) Death or Dying.

A definition of my new classification(s)

My new classification simply means that classification of life span-development begins in conception and ends in Death or dying. It simply means that life span development is more than just childhood, young and middle adulthood.

Support for my new classification(s). For example, this support may include references to theory and empirical research findings and should reflect the current understanding of biological, psychological, social development.

There are different stages of childhood and adulthood, while both 8-month old and 8-yearold are considered children, they have very different motor skills, social relationships, and cognitive skills. Their nutritional needs are different and primary psychological concerns are also different. The same is true for 18-year-old and an 80-year-old adults, both considered adults but very different in their physical appearance, way of reasoning and social life style.

An implication my new classification might have regarding social work practice

My new classification of the life span development will make social workers to expand their understanding of childhood and adulthood in general. Proper classification will help social workers to prepare effective therapy for their clients. For instance, the same therapy that works for 3-year old might not work for 10-years old even though they are both children. According to Dr. Burk, early adversity dramatically affects health across lifetime.

References:

Burk, N. (2014) September). How childhood trauma affects across a lifetime [Video File] Retrieved from https://www.ted.com/talks/nadine_burk_harris_how_childhood_affects_health_across_a_life

Lifespan Development(2015) Retrieved from courses.lumentcarning.com/suny-lifespandevelopment2/chapter/periods-of-development/

Colleague 2: Jessica

Zastrow, Kirst-Ashman & Hessenauer (2019) define young adult hood as the time where an individual has reached physical development and can legally establish themselves as an adult, age 18-30. In this definition the authors continue to look at the physical development of an individual as well as the health status (Zastrow, Kirst-Ashman & Hessenauer, 2019).

I believe it is very difficult to make a definitive age range definition of young adulthood, as there are so many environmental factors that affect the development of individuals. Leijser, Siddqi & Miller (2018) speak to the differences in socio-economic status and brain development. Children born into low socio economic statuses are more likely to have lower neurological function and without any intervention this will follow the individual into adulthood (Leigser, Siddqi & Miller, 2018). The individual’s socio economic status affects their nutrition and therefore also affects their physical development (Leigser, Siddqi & Miller, 2018). Therefore a definition of young adult hood should be based upon a cognitive maturity level as opposed to an age range.

This would mean that social workers would need to be able to assess that cognitive maturity level in some manner. Also, in assessing the cognitive level the social workers would need to look at the individuals environment, what socio-economic status did they grow up in, what conditions was the individual exposed to? These are all factors that should determine whether an individual is considered a young adult or adulthood.

Reference:

Leijser, L. M., Siddiqi, A., & Miller, S. P. (2018). Imaging Evidence of the Effect of

Socio-Economic Status on Brain Structure and Development. Seminars in Pediatric Neurology, 27, 26–34. https://doi-org.ezp.waldenulibrary.org/10.1016/j.s…

Zastrow, C. H., Kirst-Ashman, K. K., & Hessenauer, S. L. (2019). Understanding human

behavior and the social environment (11^thed.). Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.