1. There is an increasing amount of elderly rising in today’s society. According to the U.S census bureau, and the 2010 census taken, the elderly percentage in America is steadily on the rise, due to the baby boomers (Ortman, Velkoff, & Hogan, 2014). In 2010, the elderly population made up approximately 13% of the entire U.S population, in one decade, the number of adults 65 and older, increased by six million people (Werner, 2011). According to this census, a group of analysts were able to estimate the total population for the elderly population until 2050. In 2015, the elderly population was estimated to be roughly 43.1 million people, that is a huge increase in just 5 years. According to this same census, the population of elderly adults
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Before one can understand the decline in adolescents and the elderly, one must first understand how the brain and cognition is formed and develops throughout infancy, childhood, and early adolescents. When the child is first born, they have low cognition in any form. As the child matures and develops, the brain does also. The cerebellum, frontal lobe, parietal lobe, hippocampus, etc. all begin to develop along with the child. The child first begins to develop simple cognitive functions, according to Piaget, this appears in four stages, the first stage is the sensorimotor stage. The sensorimotor stage (birth-2 years) is composed of: simple reflexes, first habits and primary circular reactions, secondary reactions, coordination of secondary reactions, tertiary reactions, and the internalization of schemas (Santrock, 2013). Also, according to John Santrock, children begin to slowly develop cognition through several different things, observation of their surroundings, imitation, concept formation, and implicit/explicit memory (Santrock, 2013). The child primarily deals with things through their own perception of the world around them. The infant in this stage also has no abilities to understand object permanence (Santrock, 2013). Following the sensorimotor stage, comes the preoperational and concrete operational stages (Siegler, 2013). In these stages, the child’s brain capacity is now greater than in infancy. The child should be able to understand object permanence, begin to …show more content…
Lastly, in this paper, it is crucial to provide practical steps to decrease the cognitive decline in older adults. This is perhaps the most important thing that scientists are attempting to learn about when it comes to the elderly adults and memory. There is a huge incline of adults, as previously mentioned, this jump in more elderly will cause a higher percentage of diseases like dementia and Alzheimer’s. With the rise in these horrid diseases, scientists will want to know practical steps to delay the end results of the diseases, complete memory loss. According to Cavanaugh in his textbook, adult development and aging (2011), one of the most beneficial things that an older adult can do to prevent memory loss, is to exercise daily. Upon reading this, I became very curious, and therefore found a separate article to confirm these results. The article discusses four unique ways to prevent memory loss. The first step is to have a balanced diet, the article discusses that what we eat can play a major role in our abilities to cognate effectively at a later period (Kuchins, 2007). The article goes on to list three more steps, taking vitamins, specific vitamins have been known to assist in better memory; continually learn new tasks, by continuing to use the brain repeatedly, the article discusses that the brain will not decline or deteriorate as rapidly, this task can be as simple as a new hobby (ex. The guitar); and lastly, as mentioned previously by Cavanaugh, exercise
Before one can understand the decline in adolescents and the elderly, one must first understand how the brain and cognition is formed and develops throughout infancy, childhood, and early adolescents. When the child is first born, they have low cognition in any form. As the child matures and develops, the brain does also. The cerebellum, frontal lobe, parietal lobe, hippocampus, etc. all begin to develop along with the child. The child first begins to develop simple cognitive functions, according to Piaget, this appears in four stages, the first stage is the sensorimotor stage. The sensorimotor stage (birth-2 years) is composed of: simple reflexes, first habits and primary circular reactions, secondary reactions, coordination of secondary reactions, tertiary reactions, and the internalization of schemas (Santrock, 2013). Also, according to John Santrock, children begin to slowly develop cognition through several different things, observation of their surroundings, imitation, concept formation, and implicit/explicit memory (Santrock, 2013). The child primarily deals with things through their own perception of the world around them. The infant in this stage also has no abilities to understand object permanence (Santrock, 2013). Following the sensorimotor stage, comes the preoperational and concrete operational stages (Siegler, 2013). In these stages, the child’s brain capacity is now greater than in infancy. The child should be able to understand object permanence, begin to …show more content…
Lastly, in this paper, it is crucial to provide practical steps to decrease the cognitive decline in older adults. This is perhaps the most important thing that scientists are attempting to learn about when it comes to the elderly adults and memory. There is a huge incline of adults, as previously mentioned, this jump in more elderly will cause a higher percentage of diseases like dementia and Alzheimer’s. With the rise in these horrid diseases, scientists will want to know practical steps to delay the end results of the diseases, complete memory loss. According to Cavanaugh in his textbook, adult development and aging (2011), one of the most beneficial things that an older adult can do to prevent memory loss, is to exercise daily. Upon reading this, I became very curious, and therefore found a separate article to confirm these results. The article discusses four unique ways to prevent memory loss. The first step is to have a balanced diet, the article discusses that what we eat can play a major role in our abilities to cognate effectively at a later period (Kuchins, 2007). The article goes on to list three more steps, taking vitamins, specific vitamins have been known to assist in better memory; continually learn new tasks, by continuing to use the brain repeatedly, the article discusses that the brain will not decline or deteriorate as rapidly, this task can be as simple as a new hobby (ex. The guitar); and lastly, as mentioned previously by Cavanaugh, exercise