EDUP3023

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

Similarly, birth weight doubles by age 5

Health and Physique: The course of
physical growth
Human beings experience a long period of
physical growth from birth to adulthood
Changes in body size
The most obvious signs of physical growth
are changes in overall body size
The rate of change is fastest during infancy:
after 1 year, the infants height has increased
by 50%, after 2 years, by 75%
months, triples by 1 year, and quadruples
by age 2
Growth slows down in early and middle
childhood, when children add about
2-3 inches in height and 5 pounds in weight
each year
Then, during puberty, there is a sharp
acceleration: adolescents gain 10-11 inches
in height and about 50 to 70 pounds in
weight

Changes in body proportions This pattern of growth explains why

As the child grows, different parts of the
adolescents appear awkward and out of
body grow at different rates
proportion long-legged, with giant feet
and hands
The head, chest, and trunk grow first, then
the arms and legs, finally the hands and feet
Adolescent girls hips broaden relative to
During puberty, growth proceeds in the the shoulder and waist while adolescent
reverse direction the hands, legs, and feet boys shoulders broaden relative to the hips
accelerate first, followed by the torso, which
accounts for the adolescent increase in
height

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 Changes in muscle-fat makeup
Body fat (which lies underneath the skin)
increases in the last few weeks of prenatal
life and continues after birth to about 9
months of age
This baby fat helps to keep the infants body
temperature constant; starting in the second
year, most toddlers slim down
At birth, girls have slightly more body fat than
boys do, a difference that persists into early
school years, and then magnifies
Skeletal growth
The best estimate of a childs physical
maturity is skeletal age a measure of
development of the bones of the body
The embryonic skeleton is formed of soft,
pliable tissue called cartilage; in the 6th week
of pregnancy, cartilage cells begin to harden
into bone, and it continues throughout
childhood and adolescence
Just before birth, special growth centers in
the bones, called epiphyses, appear in the
extreme ends of the bodys long bones
Increased body size and muscle strength
lead to continued motor gains in
adolescence
Children learn to integrate previously
acquired motor skills into more complex,
dynamic systems of action as they grow
Boys advantage over girls in many gross
motor skills is largely due to parental
expectations and practice
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Around age 8, girls start to add more fat on
their arms, legs and trunk; they continue to
do so throughout puberty, while the arm and
leg fat of adolescent boys decreases
Muscle growth is slow and gradual
throughout infancy and childhood but
increases dramatically at adolescence
Both sexes gain muscle at puberty, but this
increase is 150% greater in boys, who
develop larger skeletal muscles, hearts
and lung capacity
Cartilage cells continue to be produced at the
growth plates of these epiphyses, which
increase in number throughout childhood and
then, as growth continues, get thinner and
disappear
After that, no further growth in bone length
is possible
Girls are considerably ahead of boys in
skeletal growth and also in the development
of other organs as well
Gains in gross motor skills
In early childhood, body growth causes the
childs center gravity to shift toward the
trunk
Balances improves, paving the way for new
gross motor skills
During the school years, improved balance,
strength, agility and flexibility lead to
refinements in physical activity such as
running, jumping, hopping, and ball skills
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 HORMONAL INFLUENCES
(Refer to Factors influencing development)
Structure of a Neuron
During infancy and early childhood, neural
fibers grow at an astounding rate and
surrounding neurons die (a process called
programmed cell death) to make room for
these connective structures
Neurons that are seldom stimulated lose
their synapses in a process called synaptic
pruning, which returns neurons not needed
to an uncommitted state until it is needed
in the future
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Brain development
The human brain reaches its adult size
earlier than any other organ
The human brain has 100-200 billion
neurons (nerve cells) that store and transmit
information, many of which have thousands
of direct connections with other neurons
The neurons are not closely packed together
Between them are synapses tiny gaps
where fibers from different neurons come
close together but do not touch
A Synapse
Stimulation is vital for the survival of neurons;
this happens when a child learns new things,
and acquires new skills
Glial cells, which are responsible for
myelination, multiply dramatically through
the 2nd year and continue to so more slowly
through adolescence
Myelination contributes greatly to swift gains
in brain size
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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

The frontal lobes (speech) have the most

extended period of development, reaching an
adult level of synapses in adolescence

Although some lateralization (specialization)

of the cerebral hemispheres exists at birth,
brain plasticity remains high for the first few
years of life

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

Experience-dependent brain growth Handedness (preferring to us the left or right

Consists of additional growth and hand), reflecting the individuals dominant
refinement of established brain structures cerebral hemisphere, first appears in infancy
as a result of specific learning experiences
and extends to a wider range of skills a sign
that occur throughout our lives, varying
widely across individuals and cultures of strengthening lateralization
(reading, writing, playing computer games,
weaving, playing musical instruments) Body position during prenatal period and
practice can affect handedness
Rushing early learning harms the brain by
overwhelming its neural circuits, thereby FACTORS AFFECTING PHYSICAL GROWTH
reducing the brains sensitivity to the
everyday experiences it needs for a healthy (Refer to Factors influencing development)
start in life

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 STAGES IN PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT
AND THEIR IMPLICATIONS
Birth to 2 years of age
Infants use motor and perceptive abilities
to form and change their understanding
and knowledge of the surroundings
Implications
Use visual and auditory stimuli to
encourage development
Implications
Teacher should provide help but only to a
certain extent so as not to encourage over
dependence on adults and lack of
confidence
Teachers should develop self confidence
among children by guiding them to succeed
at the tasks they are learning
Children will experience a sense of
achievement when they succeed in doing
tasks on their own
Middle childhood (7-12 years)
The rate of growth and development at this
stage is stable and not as fast as in the
previous stages
Growth and development is characterized
by an increase in psychomotor skills
Adult dentition starts, replacing the
milk dentition
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Early childhood (2-6 years)
Rate of growth is slow compared to that in
the first year of life
Children begin to develop gross motor skills
but fine motor skills have yet to be
perfected
Girls at this stage develop faster than boys
Children develop at different rates avoid
comparing one child with another
Children are rather active at this stage
prepare learning activities where they
have the chance to run or move around a lot
Activities chosen should be suitable for
children, bearing in mind their muscle
development at this stage fine muscles
have yet to be developed
At age 11 years, children are about to
reach puberty; their eye sight improves,
they are able to focus better on tasks given
Fine motor development, eye and hand
coordination has improved, enabling the
child to write neatly, play musical
instruments, sew, do gymnastics, swim,
play tennis and take part in sports activities
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 Implications
Children can be taught to play musical
instruments and drawing/art
Involve children in games and exercise such
as swimming and gymnastics to strengthen
their muscles, and to improve their stamina
and agility
Involve boys in more strenuous physical
activities such as football and girls in games
and sports to help develop their motor skills
Early Adolescence (12-15 years)
Growth and development occurs at a rapid
rate during this stage, similar to that at the
infancy stage
Physical changes such as increase in height,
size, and body structure begin to take place
as the child reaches puberty
This is faster in girls than in boys; girls
reach puberty one to two years earlier
At puberty, girls begin to have the physical
features of an adult female: breasts, pubic
and armpit hair (secondary sexual
characteristics)
Implications
Talks and counseling sessions should be
conducted to help adolescent children
accept and understand the changes they are
going through
Prepare games and training to help
adolescents increase their stamina and
strength
Plan physical activities for enjoyment and
healthy social interaction
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Children should be taught the importance
of exercise and proper nutrition
The teacher should not make comparisons
regarding body size and weight among
children, especially if there are obese
children, as this will create social and
emotional problems for obese children
Adolescent boys who reach puberty begin
to experience change in their voice, and
development of secondary sexual
characteristics as well
Change in height during puberty occurs
earlier in girls than in boys, but boys have
a longer period of physical growth
Muscle growth is more prominent in
adolescent boys than girls as a result they
are stronger than girls physically
Adolescents are rather sensitive to the
physical changes in their bodies provide
them with advice on healthy living, proper
nutrition, exercise and the need to stay away
from negative influences such as drugs and
smoking
School authorities should provide courses on
sex education so that adolescents
understand the changes in their bodies know
how to avoid sex related problems such as
HIV and venereal diseases, unwanted
pregnancies
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 HAVIGHURSTS THEORY
OF DEVELOPMENTAL TASKS
The concept of developmental tasks
If you examine the changes in your own
life span, you can see that critical tasks arise
at certain times in your life
Can you give some examples?
At age 3 4 years: ___________________
In preschool: _______________________
In primary school: ___________________
A developmental task is a task that arises at
or about a certain period in the life of the
individual, successful achievement of which
leads to his happiness and to success with
later tasks, while failure leads to
unhappiness in the individual, disapproval
by society, and difficulty with later tasks
(Havighurst, 1953, p.2)
To foster development, then, educators had
to introduce students to these critical tasks
at the right time. This right time was
described as the teachable moment. When
the body is ripe, and when society requires,
and the self is ready to achieve a certain
task, the teachable moment has come
(Havighurst, 1953, p. 5)
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How did you feel when you could do those
tasks?
What was the effect of success in doing
those tasks?
What was the effect of failure to do those
tasks?
Mastery of these tasks is satisfying and
encourages us to go on to new challenges
Difficulty with them slows progress toward
future accomplishments and goals
As a concept, developmental tasks were able
to merge the relative influences of nature
and nurture, as Havighurst wrote:
Nature lays down wide possibilities in the
developing of the human body, and which
possibilities shall be realized depends on
what the individual learns. This is true even
of such crude biological realities as feeding
habits and sexual relations, while the more
highly social realities of language, economic
behavior, and religion are almost completely
the product of learning at the hands of
society
Three sources of developmental tasks
(Havighurst, 1972)
Tasks that arise from physical maturation
For example, learning to walk, talk, and
behave acceptably with the opposite sex
during adolescence; adjusting to life with
a spouse; starting a family; menopause
during middle age
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 Tasks that arise from personal values and
aspirations
These personal factors result from the
interaction between ontogenetic (to do
with development of an individual) and
environmental factors, and play an active
role in the emergence of specific
developmental tasks (e.g., choosing a
certain occupational pathway)
The developmental-task concept occupies
middle ground between two opposed
theories of education:
The theory of freedom - that the child will
develop best if left as free as possible
The theory of constraint - that the child
must learn to become a worthy, responsible
adult through restraints imposed by his
society
STAGE (Years) DEVELOPMENTAL TASK
1 Eat solid foods, walk, talk
Infancy & Control elimination of wastes
Relate emotionally to others
Early
Know right from wrong - development of a conscience
Childhood Learn sex differences and sexual modesty
(Birth-5) Achieve personal independence
Form simple concepts of social & physical reality
2 Learn physical skills, required for games
Middle Build healthy attitudes towards oneself
Learn to socialize with peers
Childhood
Learn appropriate masculine or feminine role
(6-12)
Gain basic reading, writing & mathematical skills
Develop concepts necessary for everyday living
Formulate a conscience based on a value system
Achieve personal independence
Develop attitudes toward social groups & institutions
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Tasks that are related to socio-structural
and cultural forces
Such influences are based on, for instance,
laws (e.g., minimum age for marriage in
certain cultures) and culturally shared
expectations of development (e.g., age
norms) determining the age range in which
specific developmental tasks have to be
mastered in order to be socially and
culturally acceptable
A developmental task is midway between
an individual need and societal demand
It assumes an active learner interacting
with an active social environment
(Havighurst, 1971, p. 6)
Havighurst suggested the following
developmental tasks for different age
levels, starting from the pre-school and
kindergarten age to old age:
STAGE (Years) DEVELOPMENTAL TASK
3 Establish more mature relationships with peers
Adolescence Achieve a masculine or feminine social role
Accept own body
(13-18)
Establish emotional independence from parents
Achieve assurance of economic independence
Prepare for an occupation
Prepare for marriage & establishment of a family
Acquire skills necessary to fulfill civic responsibilities
Develop a set of values that guides behavior
4 Select a partner
Learn to live with a partner
Early
Start a family
Adulthood
Manage a home
(19-29) Establish self in a career/occupation
Assume civic responsibilities
Become part of a social group
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 STAGE (Years) DEVELOPMENTAL TASK
5 Fulfill civic & social responsibilities
Middle Maintain an economic standard of living
Adulthood Assist adolescent children to become
(30-60) responsible, happy adults
Relate to ones partner
Adjust to physiological changes
Adjust to aging parents
6 Adjust to physiological changes & alterations
Later Maturity in health status
(60 >) Adjust to retirement & altered income
Adjust to death of spouse
Develop affiliation with ones age group
Meet civic & social responsibilities
Establish satisfactory living arrangements
Teachers need to:
know the tasks appropriate for each stage
of development
provide opportunities that will foster
development of those tasks
The pre-school/kindergarten age ushers in
an era of formation of simple concepts of
societal and physical reality
It is a stage of adapting to new surroundings
and a widening social circle (school) outside
the home
Teachers are expected to serve as desirable
role models and expose children to many
objects and experiences
They should patiently answer their curious
questions
Provide opportunities for children to explore
/experiment as they construct understanding
of what they are learning
Provide opportunities to develop their social
skills through group activities with peers
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Implications of the theory in the
primary school
Acceptance of the developmental task
concept has been partly due to recognition of
sensitive periods in our lives and partly due
to the practical nature of the tasks
Havighurst emphasized the importance of
the right timing for teaching children these
tasks called teachable moments
Children are curious at this stage of asking
questions
The questions, if answered expose them to
experiences they hitherto do not have
The child would want to relate emotionally
with his parents, siblings and other people
around mostly through imitation
He would like to distinguish right from
wrong and develop a conscience
Knowing that a youngster of a certain age is
encountering one of the tasks of that period
helps adults to understand a child's behavior
and establish an environment that helps the
child to master the tasks
Another good example is that of achieving
personal independence; this is an important
task for the middle childhood period
(6-12 years); dont be too quick to do
everything for them give them the chance
to succeed!
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 Youngsters test authority during this phase
and, if teachers and parents realize that this
is a normal, even necessary phase of
development, they react differently than if
they see it as a personal challenge
During the Elementary Grade, children have
to master a lot of challenging developmental
tasks:
learning physical skills necessary for
ordinary games
building wholesome attitudes towards
oneself as a growing organism
learning to get along with peers
GESELLS THEORY OF PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT
Gesell was guided by a maturational
conception of development
Gesell: "Growth is a process so intricate and so
sensitive that there must be powerful
stabilizing factors, intrinsic rather than
extrinsic, which preserve the balance of the
total pattern and the direction of the growth
trend
According to Gesell, maturation is a name
for this regulatory mechanism" (Gesell, 1933,
p. 232)
It is endogenous factors which determine
the basic differentiation and patterning of
development in both their normal and sub-
normal (e.g., feeble-mindedness)
manifestations, and it is these intrinsic
regulatory factors that correspond to
"ancestral genes" which reflect the
evolutionary adaptive achievements of the
race (Gesell, 1933)
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learning appropriate masculine or
feminine roles
development of fundamental skills in
reading, writing and calculations
developing concepts necessary for
everyday living
developing conscience, morality and scale
of values
achieving personal independence
developing attitudes towards social group
and institutions
As for the influence of exogenous factors
(e.g., environment) on development, Gesell
(1929) commented that they "may play a
screening or selective role determining
which of competing potencies are to be
realized ... but the basic mechanism of
realization is one of maturation..." (p. 658)
Gesell proposed an embryological model for
all aspects of human growth - structural,
physiological, behavioral, and psychological,
which are obedient to universal laws of
developmental morphology (Gesell, 1954)
As for the role of the environment on
development, Gesell (1934) said
"Environmental factors support, inflect
(change) and modify, but do not generate
the progressions of development" (p. 295)
The "progressions of development" are
regulated and determined by the maturation
process
In an early study, Gesell compared the
performance of identical twins, one trained
and the other not, in stair-climbing
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 Results revealed that although training can
sometimes cause behavior to appear slightly
sooner than it might have appeared without
such training, the performance of the
untrained twin when presented with the
same task, after a few weeks of growing,
equaled that of the twin trained early
This finding was used as support for nature
transcending nurture in determining
behavior
Age Development
(Year)
Birth - 1 At age one month, the infant can produce different
sounds to signify different needs (example an infant
who is hungry cries in a different way compared to
when he/she wants the mothers attention)
1-2 Infants are able to walk a few steps, understand the
word NO; at the end of this stage, they can walk and
run a few steps and say a few words in their mother
tongue
2-3 Toddlers learn to walk with guidance from adults, feed
themselves, and say a few simple sentences
3-4 Toddlers learn to ride three-wheeled bicycle, and are
able to understand instructions from adults
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Based on his research, Gesell concluded that
all children progress through stages of
development in more or less the same manner
Children can achieve these stages naturally,
Without being taught to do so
Gesell identified 4 major aspects of
development: physical, language, adaptation,
and social-personal behavior
Can you identify these aspects in the
following stages of development?
4-5 Children start to socialize, ask questions, and are
ready to go to pre-school
5-6 Transition to a new environment: Children learn to
adapt to being in pre-school, - peers, school rules
and schedule, formal and social behavior
7-11 Primary school years: A period of consolidation
and adapting to school life; acquiring new
knowledge and skills inside and outside the
classroom
11-14 Secondary school years: A time of learning to
manage conflict, puberty, adolescence problems;
the teenage learns to overcome all these challenges
15-16 Period of consolidation and getting ready to face
working life and the adult world
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