CONTENTS
STAGES OF CHILD DEVELOPMENT &
RELATED DEVELOPMENT THEORIES: The course of physical growth
PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT Hormonal influence
Brain development
Dr. Mary Wong Siew Lian
Factors affecting physical growth
Jabatan PIPK
IPG KBL Stages in physical development
and their implications
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Changes in muscle-fat makeup Around age 8, girls start to add more fat on
Body fat (which lies underneath the skin) their arms, legs and trunk; they continue to
increases in the last few weeks of prenatal do so throughout puberty, while the arm and
life and continues after birth to about 9 leg fat of adolescent boys decreases
months of age
Muscle growth is slow and gradual
This baby fat helps to keep the infants body throughout infancy and childhood but
temperature constant; starting in the second increases dramatically at adolescence
year, most toddlers slim down
Both sexes gain muscle at puberty, but this
At birth, girls have slightly more body fat than increase is 150% greater in boys, who
boys do, a difference that persists into early develop larger skeletal muscles, hearts
school years, and then magnifies and lung capacity
Increased body size and muscle strength Gains in gross motor skills
lead to continued motor gains in In early childhood, body growth causes the
adolescence childs center gravity to shift toward the
trunk
Children learn to integrate previously
acquired motor skills into more complex, Balances improves, paving the way for new
dynamic systems of action as they grow gross motor skills
Boys advantage over girls in many gross During the school years, improved balance,
motor skills is largely due to parental strength, agility and flexibility lead to
expectations and practice refinements in physical activity such as
running, jumping, hopping, and ball skills
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HORMONAL INFLUENCES Brain development
The human brain reaches its adult size
(Refer to Factors influencing development) earlier than any other organ
During infancy and early childhood, neural Stimulation is vital for the survival of neurons;
this happens when a child learns new things,
fibers grow at an astounding rate and
and acquires new skills
surrounding neurons die (a process called
programmed cell death) to make room for
Glial cells, which are responsible for
these connective structures
myelination, multiply dramatically through
the 2nd year and continue to so more slowly
Neurons that are seldom stimulated lose through adolescence
their synapses in a process called synaptic
pruning, which returns neurons not needed Myelination contributes greatly to swift gains
to an uncommitted state until it is needed in brain size
in the future
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Development in different parts of Different parts of the brain
the brain
Regions of the cerebral cortex develop in the
order in which various capacities emerge in
the infant and child
Part of Function
the Brain Two types of brain development:
Frontal lobe Controls your ability to speak
Experience-expectant brain growth
Parietal lobe Controls the sense of touch, and how you use your hands to do things
Refers to the young brains rapidly
Temporal lobe Signals from our ears are processed here
developing organization, which depends on
Occipital lobe Processes what your eyes see, and turns it into a picture of the world
around you ordinary experiences opportunities to see
Cerebrum Top part of the brain, covered by the cerebral cortex, which contains and touch objects, to hear language and
your memories and language, and correlates information received from other sounds, and to move about and
your senses; controls voluntary movement, emotions, and thinking
explore the environment
Cerebellum It automatically coordinates all of your limb and muscle movements, to
help you sit, walk and balance
This occurs early and naturally and prepares
Pons Breathing, the regular beating of the heart, and other involuntary
activities of the body (the ones that happen without you having to think the way for later-occurring experience-
about it) are controlled here dependent brain growth
Brain stem This collects all the body-controlling messages from the brain, and
passes them on to the rest of the body
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STAGES IN PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT
AND THEIR IMPLICATIONS Early childhood (2-6 years)
Rate of growth is slow compared to that in
the first year of life
Birth to 2 years of age
Infants use motor and perceptive abilities
to form and change their understanding Children begin to develop gross motor skills
and knowledge of the surroundings but fine motor skills have yet to be
perfected
Implications
Use visual and auditory stimuli to Girls at this stage develop faster than boys
encourage development
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Implications
Children should be taught the importance
Children can be taught to play musical of exercise and proper nutrition
instruments and drawing/art
The teacher should not make comparisons
regarding body size and weight among
Involve children in games and exercise such
as swimming and gymnastics to strengthen children, especially if there are obese
their muscles, and to improve their stamina children, as this will create social and
and agility emotional problems for obese children
Early Adolescence (12-15 years) Adolescent boys who reach puberty begin
Growth and development occurs at a rapid to experience change in their voice, and
rate during this stage, similar to that at the development of secondary sexual
infancy stage characteristics as well
Physical changes such as increase in height,
size, and body structure begin to take place Change in height during puberty occurs
as the child reaches puberty earlier in girls than in boys, but boys have
This is faster in girls than in boys; girls a longer period of physical growth
reach puberty one to two years earlier
At puberty, girls begin to have the physical
Muscle growth is more prominent in
features of an adult female: breasts, pubic
adolescent boys than girls as a result they
and armpit hair (secondary sexual
are stronger than girls physically
characteristics)
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HAVIGHURSTS THEORY How did you feel when you could do those
OF DEVELOPMENTAL TASKS tasks?
The concept of developmental tasks What was the effect of success in doing
those tasks?
If you examine the changes in your own
life span, you can see that critical tasks arise What was the effect of failure to do those
at certain times in your life tasks?
Can you give some examples? Mastery of these tasks is satisfying and
encourages us to go on to new challenges
At age 3 4 years: ___________________
In preschool: _______________________ Difficulty with them slows progress toward
In primary school: ___________________ future accomplishments and goals
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Tasks that arise from personal values and Tasks that are related to socio-structural
aspirations and cultural forces
These personal factors result from the Such influences are based on, for instance,
interaction between ontogenetic (to do laws (e.g., minimum age for marriage in
with development of an individual) and certain cultures) and culturally shared
environmental factors, and play an active expectations of development (e.g., age
role in the emergence of specific norms) determining the age range in which
developmental tasks (e.g., choosing a specific developmental tasks have to be
certain occupational pathway) mastered in order to be socially and
culturally acceptable
The theory of constraint - that the child Havighurst suggested the following
must learn to become a worthy, responsible developmental tasks for different age
adult through restraints imposed by his levels, starting from the pre-school and
society kindergarten age to old age:
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STAGE (Years) DEVELOPMENTAL TASK
5 Fulfill civic & social responsibilities Implications of the theory in the
Middle Maintain an economic standard of living primary school
Adulthood Assist adolescent children to become
(30-60) responsible, happy adults Acceptance of the developmental task
Relate to ones partner concept has been partly due to recognition of
Adjust to physiological changes sensitive periods in our lives and partly due
Adjust to aging parents
to the practical nature of the tasks
6 Adjust to physiological changes & alterations
Later Maturity in health status Havighurst emphasized the importance of
(60 >) Adjust to retirement & altered income
the right timing for teaching children these
Adjust to death of spouse
Develop affiliation with ones age group tasks called teachable moments
Meet civic & social responsibilities
Establish satisfactory living arrangements
The pre-school/kindergarten age ushers in The child would want to relate emotionally
an era of formation of simple concepts of with his parents, siblings and other people
societal and physical reality
around mostly through imitation
It is a stage of adapting to new surroundings
He would like to distinguish right from
and a widening social circle (school) outside
the home wrong and develop a conscience
Teachers are expected to serve as desirable Knowing that a youngster of a certain age is
role models and expose children to many encountering one of the tasks of that period
objects and experiences helps adults to understand a child's behavior
and establish an environment that helps the
They should patiently answer their curious
child to master the tasks
questions
Provide opportunities for children to explore Another good example is that of achieving
/experiment as they construct understanding personal independence; this is an important
of what they are learning task for the middle childhood period
(6-12 years); dont be too quick to do
Provide opportunities to develop their social everything for them give them the chance
skills through group activities with peers to succeed!
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Youngsters test authority during this phase
learning appropriate masculine or
and, if teachers and parents realize that this
is a normal, even necessary phase of feminine roles
development, they react differently than if development of fundamental skills in
they see it as a personal challenge reading, writing and calculations
developing concepts necessary for
During the Elementary Grade, children have everyday living
to master a lot of challenging developmental developing conscience, morality and scale
tasks:
of values
learning physical skills necessary for
ordinary games achieving personal independence
building wholesome attitudes towards developing attitudes towards social group
oneself as a growing organism and institutions
learning to get along with peers
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Results revealed that although training can Based on his research, Gesell concluded that
all children progress through stages of
sometimes cause behavior to appear slightly
development in more or less the same manner
sooner than it might have appeared without
such training, the performance of the Children can achieve these stages naturally,
untrained twin when presented with the Without being taught to do so
same task, after a few weeks of growing,
equaled that of the twin trained early Gesell identified 4 major aspects of
development: physical, language, adaptation,
This finding was used as support for nature and social-personal behavior
transcending nurture in determining
behavior Can you identify these aspects in the
following stages of development?
Age Development 4-5 Children start to socialize, ask questions, and are
(Year) ready to go to pre-school
Birth - 1 At age one month, the infant can produce different 5-6 Transition to a new environment: Children learn to
sounds to signify different needs (example an infant adapt to being in pre-school, - peers, school rules
who is hungry cries in a different way compared to and schedule, formal and social behavior
when he/she wants the mothers attention)
7-11 Primary school years: A period of consolidation
1-2 Infants are able to walk a few steps, understand the and adapting to school life; acquiring new
word NO; at the end of this stage, they can walk and knowledge and skills inside and outside the
run a few steps and say a few words in their mother classroom
tongue 11-14 Secondary school years: A time of learning to
2-3 Toddlers learn to walk with guidance from adults, feed manage conflict, puberty, adolescence problems;
themselves, and say a few simple sentences the teenage learns to overcome all these challenges
3-4 Toddlers learn to ride three-wheeled bicycle, and are 15-16 Period of consolidation and getting ready to face
able to understand instructions from adults working life and the adult world
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