7 Types of Development That Affect You as You Grow ...

As infants, we learn to speak and communicate to get what we need. Linguistic development is a huge part of how we function today. Think about those individuals who are bilingual. What ways do they differ to you? They are put into circumstances where they need to use a different word to express the same concept. It mirrors the similarity between “couch” and “sofa.” Simply, another word in French to say the same thing would be “canapé." Language learning is only one type of development but it affects you your entire life.

Toddlers aren’t the best with identifying their emotions and working through them. They either erupt in a temper tantrum or shut down in isolation. It’s important to have conversations about emotions and how they manifest in your body. It’s normal for your heart to race and your palms to sweat when you are nervous or afraid. Being able to recognize these cues early on can help lead to healthy coping skills, and prevent against mental illness or substance abuse later in life.

We are social creatures, craving the attention of others. Schools help young children assimilate and find solace in their peers. Negative experiences such as bullying can lead an individual to isolate and deprive themselves of this area of development. It can lead to social awkwardness and anxiety. The Early Childhood Council reports that socially developed children have high levels of empathy, self-control and conflict resolution.

Taking the microscope in a little further, it’s time to look at the role one-on-one relationships have on development. It’s important to listen to what the other person has to say. You may not necessarily agree but you will get farther with honey than vinegar, so be open. Working on that can help resolve conflicts later in life with colleagues. Trust is a big player in interpersonal development because in order to confide in them, you need to trust them and vice versa. You can deepen relationships and find rich and meaningful moments of trustworthiness and loyalty.

What do you stand for? You may or may not be able to shout out a list but this form of development is very important. As you hit puberty, you begin to test the morals and values held by your family and peers. You form your own as you open your awareness to new ways of thinking. You strengthen your own belief system as you grow. Some people cling to the unity of family and others put their values in loyalty and sincerity.

I heard an interesting tidbit of information the other day that said the problem with cyberbullying is that we don’t hear the insults in the voice of the abuser, but in our own. Cognitive development, or the way we think, affects our behavior and mental well-being. If you develop negative self-talk from a young age, it attributes to low self-esteem, self-expression and self-approval. Positive self-talk attributes to feelings of belonging, confidence and security.

With the number of years you spent in school, it’s no wonder why intellectual development is an important indicator of how you grow. The way in which you learn new information, such as history, math, art and literature, affects the way you view it. I had a phenomenal public speaking teacher so I valued the lessons we learned in that class immensely. One of my psych teachers didn’t seem to convey much information, which made me apathetic towards the material at hand.

These are only a few forms of development that affect you as you grow. What are some other forms of development? How do you think they affect who you are?