Jeffery Mc Leod
ECE 205 Introduction to Child Development
Crystal Mealor
January 11, 2013
Growth and Development
Children of the same age will experience progression differently, their progression is based on a dynamic process termed growth and development, both often used interchangeable, these terms however have completely different meanings.
Growth usually refers to a noticeable increase in the child’s actual size, for instance the child’s weight, height, or head circumference. Development is a broader term than growth the rate and level of development are closely related to physiological maturity of the nervous, muscular, and skeletal systems. For example at birth the neurons in a child’s brain begin to make critical connections, which will be used in adult functions, such as vision. This is considered development and not growth because there is no increase of size and can observed without an advanced instrument.
Development is also a sequence of composed of predictable steps along a developmental pathway common to the majority of children. Development usually focuses on several major domains: physical, motor, perceptual, cognitive, social-emotional, and language. According to Novella J. Ruffin Ph.D., Assistant Professor and Extension Child Development Specialist, physical development refers to “physical changes in the body and involves changes in bone thickness, size, weight, gross motor, fine motor, vision, and perceptual development.” “Growth is rapid during the first two years of life. “The child’s size, shape, senses, and organs undergo change.” ‘As each physical change occurs, the child gains new abilities.”
Motor development is holding their head up, sitting, pulling, rolling, eye-hand coordination, reaching or grasping. “The gross motor skills develop in a head to foot progression (Gesell, 1940), “Head control is the first movement that a baby achieves, and is necessary to attain other movement skills such as sitting, crawling, and walking” (Illingworth, 1983). Head control is vital because The ability to roll smoothly from back to stomach, or stomach to back requires some degree of head control, and a rotation movement that occurs along the trunk of the body, between the hips and the shoulders. Rolling is the first movement that allows a baby to change his position, and usually develops between 4 and 5 months of age (Caplan, 1978).
The ability to maintain a sitting position requires a baby to have developed equilibrium reactions and protective responses in the forward, backward, and side to side directions (Bobath, 1964). Although if the baby has difficulty maintaining balances, the parents can play with the child to improve equilibrium reactions. “Once an infant develops strength, coordination, and balance to move about freely on the floor, he will begin to pull up to stand and discover ways to explore things that were previously out of his reach (Bly, 1980)
Perceptual development is an aspect of cognitive development that allows young children to start interpreting and understanding sensory input. Cognitive development is the changing of thought, learning and perception as a child develops from infancy to childhood.
As a child begins to understand who they are and what they are feeling is social-emotional development. The greatest influence on a child’s social-emotional development is the quality of the relationship that the child develops with their primary caregivers. Positive and nurturing early experiences and relationships have a significant impact on a child’s social-emotional development.
Language development begins early in life; however there are different theories on how to explain just how language development occurs. For example behaviorist theory of B.F. Skinner suggests “that the emergence of language is the result of imitation and reinforcement.” Yet the nativist theory of Noam Chomsky suggests “that language in an inherent human quality and that children are born with a language acquisition device that allows them to produce language once they have learned the necessary vocabulary.”
Some newborns have developmental differences caused by unfavorable conditions before, during, or after birth due to genetic or environmental influences; these factors could lead to atypical child development. The term atypical describes children with developmental differences, deviations, or marked delays—children whose development appears to be incomplete or inconsistent with typical patterns and sequences. There are many causes of atypical development, including genetic errors, poor health and nutrition, injury, and too few or poor-quality opportunities to learn. (Pg 34, Ch.2, Principles of Growth and Development)
Atypical physical growth can also be called physical development delay, this only becomes a problem when the motor skill does not emerge by the expected date, and the child is making no progress on the learning skill. Atypical cognitive growth will tend to arise from a developmental delay. Some of the most common causes of these delays are brain injury, abuse and neglect, and gene or chromosomal abnormalities.
In conclusion children can be the same age, the same weight, and the same height, but each child will develop differently, each will have their own unique pattern of growth. Each child will develop differently with the influences of environmental factors, culture, and family values that are uniquely to each individual. As children grow there are points of developmental milestones. Each milestone helps the progress of new milestones such as walking, which requires muscle strength and coordination. There are different sequences of development each as equally as important as the other. Every child will learn from their environment, and a loving and positive environment will have loving and positive children.
Reference
Allen, E.K; Marotz, L.R. (2010) Developmental Profiles Pre-birth through Twelve
Bly, L. (1980). The components of normal movement during the first year of life.
Bobath, K. & Bobath, B. (1964). The facilitation of normal postural reactions and movements in the treatment of cerebral palsy.
Caplan, F. (1978). The first twelve months of life.
Gesell, A. (1940). The first five years of life.
Illingworth, R.S. (1983). The development of the infant and young child: normal and abnormal.
Novella J. Ruffin Ph. D., (2011). Understand Growth and Development Patterns of Infants.
You May Also Find These Documents Helpful
-
As a child grows and develops there are a number of different factors that will affect them and how they grow. This includes not just physical growth but emotional and psychological growth as well.…
- 1238 Words
- 4 Pages
Better Essays -
The expected physical development for a baby of 0-6 months at this stage is laying on their backs and side, they are also learning to suck. Slightly older newborns are beginning to learn to move their head with their eyes, hold a rattle in one hand this is using gross motor skills. They have also begun to hold their head and are able to sit with support also rolling completely over from their back to their front or their front to their backs.…
- 3382 Words
- 10 Pages
Powerful Essays -
by genetic factors such as abnormal genes or inheritance of an abnormal number of chromosomes.…
- 4666 Words
- 19 Pages
Powerful Essays -
Infants can move their head and limbs, will reach up to hold their feet when lying on their backs and will put everything in their mouths. By 6 months they will move from sitting with support to sitting alone, raises the arms to be lifted and pass objects from hand to hand..…
- 1565 Words
- 7 Pages
Good Essays -
Each and every child develops at a different rate to other children, no two are the same.…
- 3324 Words
- 14 Pages
Powerful Essays -
Physical development is physical growth of the body. During childhood, physical growth includes gross motor, which are the big muscles, and fine motor, which help gain control of the body. Physical growth patterns start with gross motor development and then fine motor development occurs. At approximately one year old, a baby can walk by itself. By the age of three, a child has shown sufficient growth by sitting, walking, toilet training, using a spoon, scribbling, and sufficient hand-eye coordination to catch and throw a ball. Around age five a child’s fine motor skills are obvious and the child can perform actions like scribbling. From age five to approximately age 12, huge developments are not apparent and the child’s skills are simply refined. While many physical developments, like growing taller, are concrete; the amount of vertical growth heavily depends on a child’s diet. Socioeconomic status is a big contributor to physical development because if the child’s parents do not have the money to provide essential food to the child, the child will not grow as tall as they could be (Eitzen, Zinn & Smith, 2011).…
- 1308 Words
- 6 Pages
Good Essays -
Children and young people develop at different rates, but the sequence in which they develop is mostly the same.…
- 4771 Words
- 20 Pages
Powerful Essays -
The human life span is set in age stages; these are called Life Stages. The stages are listed from 0-3 years to 65+ years. Growth is a term used within describing the life stages because it’s a term to describe an increase in quantity. For example, as children grow the height and weight increases. We also use the term development; this describes the development of someone’s abilities, as they grow older. We can also use this term to describe the development of quantity change, such as height and weight. Also describing the lift stages, we use the term called maturation. This is different to development and growth. Puberty is an example of maturation because when development is expected to be due to a genetically automated sequence of change. Development norms, is another term we use to describe a set of average expectations to an infants or child’s development. Holistic development is similar but instead its describing someone’s physical, emotional, intellectual and social development in one.…
- 6075 Words
- 25 Pages
Powerful Essays -
All babies and young children can show different rates of development. It is often linked to experiences during conception, pregnancy and childbirth.…
- 1721 Words
- 7 Pages
Good Essays -
Development is the process of learning new skills in all areas of life. When we talk about child development we use the baseline of an 'average child '. Most children will go through the same stages of development but not necessarily at the same age/time. Some children may miss a stage altogether e.g. Missing out crawling and going straight to walking. When thinking about child development, although we use the 'average child ' as a baseline we must also remember each child is unique and we must consider their developmental process on an individual level. There are different types of development for children and young people and although I am going to look at each one separately,…
- 2708 Words
- 11 Pages
Powerful Essays -
Babies and young children show different rates of development, but this is because sometimes it is linked to experiences during conception, pregenecy and birth.…
- 842 Words
- 4 Pages
Satisfactory Essays -
However as each child is unique, the rate that their development takes place may be different. Each child achieves milestones at sometimes very different times and…
- 1224 Words
- 5 Pages
Powerful Essays -
Development is often referred to on a timeline and is broken down in ages. As development is more rapid in early years the milestones start by being quite close together before becoming further apart as baby becomes a child and then a young adult.…
- 2115 Words
- 9 Pages
Better Essays -
From birth to adulthood, children continually grow, develop and learn. They all do but not always at the same rate, speed or time.…
- 1148 Words
- 5 Pages
Good Essays -
4. Mosser, K. (2010). Introduction to ethics and social responsibility. San Diego, Bridgepoint Education, Inc.…
- 669 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays