by Sarah Ganly

Created on: July 09, 2010

There is a strong relationship between the physical, cognitive, and social-emotional development of humans. All of these areas of human development have their unique traits, but they are all dependent of each other as well. This article will describe the traits of these areas of development and discuss their connections.

Physical Development

Human development happens physically starting from conception. Physical development consists of the growth of the body and brain. It is also categorized by the development of motor skills and behavioral patterns.

Physical development is very rapid in childhood and teenage years. Throughout child hood physical development starts with learning to crawl, walk, and use the hands and feet efficiently. In the teenage years physical development is characterized through puberty.

Cognitive Development

Cognitive development is represented in terms of logic and reasoning. This area of human development pertains to thought processes and their complexity. It is also reflected by improved ability to understand theory and an increased vocabulary level and usage.

In childhood human development of the cognitive nature is evident through learning to speak and write. It is also reflected by the use of theories to rationalize and comprehend. As children turn into teenagers cognitive learning is increased, and it continues increasing as a human ages and develops.

Social-Emotional Development

This part of human development relates to feelings, emotions, morals, beliefs, and ethics. Social-emotional development in humans occurs throughout age. It is reflected through thoughts on what are right and wrong and other matters of belief and opinion.

As a human develops its thoughts include more reasoning and complexity. Through this development a human becomes more aware of their selves and others, and a human will be able to deal with social-motional developments better.

Relationships in Human Development

Human development is separated into different areas because all of these areas have specific traits. The physical, cognitive, and social-emotional developments in humans all influence each other in different ways.

Physical development influences both cognitive development and social-emotional development. Cognitive development is influences by physical development because the brain and motor skills naturally affect the development of thought patterns. Behavior is also influential over cognitive development because behavioral patterns will cause thought development to be different.

Cognitive development affects social-emotional development because the ability to think and reason will affect a person's ability to understand feelings and emotions. It will also impact a human's ability to understand themselves and others.

Social-emotional development is also impacted by physical development and vice versa. A human's development of confidence may be affected by the physical development. Puberty is another reason why physical development affects social-emotional development.

The different areas of human development all have specific characteristics, but they also all have impact on each other.

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