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A-1 ❐❐❐❐❐ Human Growth and Development
Unit - 1 : Approaches to Human Development
Structure
1.1 Introduction 1.2 Objectives 1.3 Human developments as a discipline from infancy to adulthood. 1.4 Concepts & Principles of development 1.5 Developing Human Stages (Prenatal to Adulthood) 1.6 Nature vs. Nurture 1.7 Demains of Human Development 1.8 References
1.1 Introduction
This course exposes student teachers to the study of child and human development in order to gain a better understanding about variations and the influence of socio- cultural-political realities on development. A critical understanding of theoretical perspectives of development would aid in their application in teaching learning process. Through close observation of children in their natural environments the teacher trainee- would be able to situate their theoretical knowledge within realistic frames. This course would also be able to equip the trainees to reflect and critique the normative notions of childhood and adolescence.
1.2 Objectives
After studying the Unit 1 the student-teacher will be able to -
- ••••^ Explain the process of development from the pre-natal period to adulthood
- ••••^ Analyze the typical development of children from birth to five years of age
- ••••^ Comprehend the different domains of human development
1.3 Human Developments As A Discipline From Infancy To
Adulthood
Human development is a multifaceted process and involves different aspects. One aspect involves biological and physical development. The size and complexity of the human
body change dramatically between conception and maturity.
Another aspect involves cognitive or intellectual abilities and processes. What children know, learn and can remember changes greatly as they grow with the time.
A third aspect involves social behavior and relationships. A newborn has limited ability to participate in social interactions but before reaching adulthood the child forms many relationships and knows how to behave appropriately in a variety of social situations. All the different facets of development are inter related.
Child development is the scientific study of how and why children change over time. Although development is a continuous process it can be broadly divided into five periods
a. The prenatal period - Conception to birth
b. Infancy and toddlerhood -Birth to age 3
c. The preschool period -Ages 3 to 6
d. Middle childhood / the school years - Ages 6 to 12
e. Adolescence - Age 12 to adulthood
Influences on Development: What Makes Change Occur?
Each child inherits certain genetic potential from the parents. Although the gene set the limits for particular behavior, it is the environment that determines where within those limits the behavior will be expressed. Major environmental influences include :
i. Culture-the impact of Indian values
ii. Race
iii. Social class - the influence of wealth, poverty, middle-class status
iv. Ethnicity-the impact of common language, religion, or national origin
v. Key people in the child’s life - parents, peers, relatives, heroes and others who exert a powerful influence,
vi. The media - information and attitudes conveyed to children on TV, over the radio,and through books, magazines, newspapers, records, tapes and CDs
vii. Unpredictable life events - the unexpected turns ( sudden wealth or poverty, the loss of a parent, sudden disability and other factors) in life can alter the course of the child’s life
Stages of Prenatal Development
The word prenatal literally means ‘before birth’. It is now recognized that the prenatal organism is vulnerable to a variety of factors that can influence the course of its development. This period is extremely important as the periods of prenatal development
the fifth month the fetus develops nails and sweat glands, a coarser, more adult like skin, and a soft hair which covers the body. By 6 months the eyes develop, and opening and closing of the eyes occur. If an infant is born prematurely at 6 months, the regulatory processes and respiratory systems are usually not mature enough for survival without intensive intervention.
Prenatal Influences on Development
During the period of prenatal development many agents may raise the incidence of deviations or produce malformations in the fetus. These agents are called teratogens, which derives from the Greek word ‘teras’, meaning ‘monster’ or ‘marvel’. Teratology is the study of environmental factors that affect prenatal growth and cause birth defects (Moore,1989).
Six classes of teratogens have been identified that account for 10% or fewer of all congenital malformations {Brent & Beckman, 1990)
1. Disease or illness in the mother - hypertension (high blood pressure), diabetes, eclampsia (a type of hypertension), Rubella, chicken pox, mumps and measles (caused by viruses), toxoplasmosis (infected animals may pass the parasite, or it may be present in the raw meat eaten by animals), Sexually transmitted diseases (syphilis, AIDS,etc), Blood (Rh) incompatibility. 2. Prescription and social drugs :- laxatives, tranquilizers, diet pills, headache and cold remedies, antacids and even aspirin can have complicating effects. Steroids may have devastating consequences for fertility for both men and women. Illegal drugs, e.g., cocaine, heroin, morphine and other addictive drugs, cigarette smoking, alcohol use. **3. Nutritional deficits and inconsistencies
- Stress and emotional factors
- Radiation exposure
- Chemicals, toxins, and pollutants**
1.4 Concepts and Principles of Development
Development refers to change through time but not all changes are developmental. Developmental changes are systematic rather than haphazard and successive rather than independent of earlier conditions. Werner (1957) suggested that changes are considered as developmental when they are from a global form of organization to a more differentiated and complex form.
- •••• Knowledge of the pattern of human development helps to know what to expect from children, at (approximately) what ages to expect different patterns of behavior to appear and when these patterns will normally be replaced by more mature patterns. This understanding is important so that we can expect from a child accordingly, in relation to the norms of her/his age group. If we expect too much the child may develop a feeling of inadequacy or if we expect little then they are deprived of incentives to develop their potentials.
- •••• The pattern of development for all typically developed children is approximately the same, so it is easy to evaluate each child in relation to the norms of her/his age group. The typically developed children may make adjustments to social expectations. But the children who deviate from the normal pattern may improve with help, opportunities and motivation.
- •••• Knowledge about the pattern of normal development may facilitate the parents and teachers to guide, provide opportunities and encouragement for the delayed children.
Growth and Development Many people use the terms ‘growth’ and ‘development’ interchangeably. In reality they are inseparable and neither takes place alone.
Growth Development
- • • •• Growth refers to quantitative changes • •••• Development refers to both qualitative (physical) - increase in structure and size and quantitative changes
- • • •• Size and structure of the internal • •••• Development involves both structure and functions organs and the brain increases
- • • •• Growth can be measured with some • •••• Development may be defined as a degree of reliability in terms of weight, progressive series of orderly, coherent bone age , etc. changes
- • • •• The child grows mentally as well as • •••• Progressive signifies that the changes lead forward physically. - •••• Orderly and coherent indicates that there is a definite relationship between the changes that are taking place and those that preceded or will follow them - •••• Development is a continuous process that starts even before birth - •••• Numerous and simultaneous progressions of development are closely related and manifest many individual variations i.e.
Early Child- hood (3 to 6 years)
Middle Child- hood (6 to 11 years)
Adolescence ( to about 20 years)
ÿ Growth is steady: appearance becomes more slender and proportions more adult like. ÿ Appetite diminishes, and sleep problems are common. Handedness appears; fine and gross motor skills and strength improve.
ÿ Growth Slows. ÿ Strength and athletic skills improve. ÿ Respiratory illnesses are common, but health is generally better than at any other time in life span.
ÿ Physical growth and other changes are rapid and profound. ÿ Reproductive maturity occurs. ÿ Major health risks arise
ÿ Thinking is some what egocentric, but understanding of other people’s perspectives grows. ÿ Cognitive immaturity leads to some illogical ideas about the world. ÿ Memory and language improve. ÿ Intelligence becomes more predictable. ÿ Attending preschool is common, kindergarten more so.
ÿ Egocentrism diminishes. Children begin to think logically but concretely. ÿ Memory and Language skills increase. ÿ Cognitive gains permit children to benefit from formal schooling. ÿ Some children show special educational needs and strengths.
ÿ Ability to think abstractly and scientific reasoning develops. ÿ Immature thinking persists in some
ÿ Self-concept and understanding of emotions grow: self-esteem is global. Indepen- dence, initiative/ self-control, and self-care increase. ÿ Gender identity develops. ÿ Play becomes more imaginative, more elaborate, and more social. ÿ Altruism, aggression, and fearfulness are common. ÿ Family is still focus of social life, but other children become more important.
ÿ Self concept becomes more complex, affecting self-esteem. ÿ Co-regulation reflects gradual shift in control from parents to child. ÿ Peers assume central importance
ÿ Search for identity, including sexual identity, becomes central. ÿ Relationships with parents are
attitudes and behaviors. ÿ Education focuses on preparation for college or vocation.
ÿ Cognitive abilities and moral judgments assume more complexity. ÿ Educational and career choices are made.
ÿ Most basic mental abilities peak; ex- pertise and practical problem solving skills are high. ÿ Creative output may decline but improve in quality. ÿ For some, career success and earning powers peak; for others, burnout or career change may occur. ÿ Most people are mentally alert. ÿ Although intelligence and memory may deteriorate in some areas, most people find ways to compensate.
generally good. ÿ Peer groups help develop and test self-concept but also may exert an antisocial influence.
ÿ Personality trait and styles become relatively stable, but changes in personality maybe influenced by life stages and events. ÿ Decision are made about intimate relationships and personal lifestyles. ÿ Most people marry, and most become parents. ÿ Sense of identity continues to develop; stressful midlife traction may occur. ÿ Double responsibilities of caring for children and elderly parents may cause stress.
ÿ Retirement from workforce may offer new options for use of time. ÿ People need to cope with personal losses and impending death. Relationship with family and close friends can provide important support. Search for meaning in life assumes central importance.
Young Adult- hood (20 to 40 years)
Middle Adult- hood (40 to 65 years)
Late Childhood (65 years and above)
from behavioral issues, such as eating disorders and drug abuse.
ÿ Physical condition peaks, then declines slightly. ÿ Lifestyle choices influence health. ÿ Some deterioration of sensory abilities, health, stamina, and skills may take place. ÿ Women experience menopause.
ÿ Most people are healthy and active although health and physical abilities decline somewhat. ÿ Slowing of reaction time affects some aspects of functioning.
or writing need training. Without training the said skills may not develop. No hereditary endowment can mature fully without environmental support.
In the field of child development
- •••• Both biological and environmental factors are influential
- •••• Biological extremists argue that biology is destiny and development is maturation, course of development is predestined and predetermined by genetic factors.
- •••• Modern developmental psychologists are exploring, how biological and environmental factors interact to produce developmental differences.
1.7 Domains of Human Development
To understand the similarities and differences in development we need to look at different Domains of human development. The domains can be categorized under three major directions such as-
- •••• Physical Development (Organized as motor development and posture and large movements)
- •••• Cognitive Development
- •••• Psycho-social Development
The following illustrations can provide a starting point for prompting age-appropriate information for making observations and for obtaining a comparative view of the child’s achievments against the average expected achievments: i.e. typical developmental progress. These will provide information and sequence of development and key stages within each domain.
PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT (Organized as motor development and posture and large movements)
The progress in motor development is the result of an on going bi-directional interaction between maturation and experience, which results in a continuously self-organising dynamic system. (Thelen,1995)
The influences of motor development:
Biologically dependent neural maturation consist of
i) Maturing muscle tone and muscle strength
ii) Improving balance and co-ordination
iii) Developing information processing abilities
Experience - ongoing action perception cycle consist of
i) Perceiving possibilities and self-capabilities
ii) Interaction with other domains such as motivation, social and cognitive development
iii) Specific and flexible learning
Conditions that influence the Rate of Motor Development
a) Genetic constitution which includes body build and intellectual level
b) Favourable pre-natal conditions, e.g. maternal nutrition
c) Intellectual level
d) Stimulation
e) First born ahead of others (parental encouragement)
f) Sex, race and socio-economic differences
Phases of Motor Development
Birth - 4 months • •••• Primitive reflex movements 4 months- 1 year • •••• Inhibition of primitive reflexes by 6 months
- • • •• Improving muscle tone with reducing flexor muscle tone in the limbs and improving extensor tone in the trunk
- • • •• Improving postural control and balance
- • • •• Movements become differentiated and functional, such as reaching, grasping, sitting, walking 1-2 years • •••• Better differentiated and more precise movements
- • • ••^ Improving stability and power 2-7 years • •••• Maturing functional movements such as running, jumping, catching, throwing, writing, cutting
- • • •• Improved rhythm, sequences, integration and flow to achieve efficient, co-ordinated and controlled performance in day to day activities 7 years onwards (^) • •••• Applying motor skills to specialized activities of sports and work
AGE 6 MONTHS
- •••• In supine - raises head up and moves arms up to be lifted
- •••• When hand grasped - braces shoulders and pulls self to sitting
- •••• Kicks strongly, legs alternating
- •••• Sits with support and turns head from side to side to look around
- •••• Can roll over from prone to supine at around 5-6 months and usually from supine to prone at around 6-7 months (Bly, 1994)
- •••• Held sitting - head firmly erected with back straight
- •••• May sit alone momentarily
- •••• In prone- lifts head and chest well up, supporting self on flattened palms and extended arms
- ••••^ In supported standing with feet touching hard surface - bears weight on feet and bounces actively
AGE 9 MONTHS
- •••• Sits unsupported 10-15 minutes on the floor
- •••• Can lean forward and pick up toy without losing balance
- •••• Can turn body to look sideways and grasps toy
- •••• Very active movements of whole body
- •••• Progresses on floor by rolling or squirming
- ••••^ Attempts to crawl and sometimes succeeds
- •••• Pulls to standing holding support for a few moments but cannot lower himself and falls backwards with a bump
- •••• Held in standing - steps purposefully on alternate feet
- ••••^ When being carried by an adult, supports self in upright position and turns headto look around
AGE 12 MONTHS
- •••• Sits well on floor for indefinite time
- ••••^ Can rise to sitting position from lying down with ease
- ••••^ Crawls, shuffles on buttocks or ‘bear walks’ rapidly
- ••••^ Pulls to standing and sits down again holding onto furniture
- ••••^ Walks around furniture lifting one foot and stepping sideways
- ••••^ Walks forwards and sideways with one or both hands held
- •••• May stancj for a few moments, may walk
- •••• May crawl upstairs (average 13-14 months)
AGE 15 MONTHS
- •••• May walk alone usually with uneven steps: feet wide apart, arms slightly flexed and held above head or shoulder level for balance.
- •••• Let’s self-down from standing to sitting by collapsing backward with a bump Kneels unaided or with support
AGE 18 MONTHS
- •••• Walks well with feet only slightly apart
- •••• Starts and stops safely
- •••• No longer needs to hold up arms in extension to balance
- •••• Runs carefully, head held erect in midline, eyes on the ground but finds difficulty in negotiating obstacles
- •••• Pushes or pulls toys or boxes
- •••• Can carry a large doll or teddy bear while walking
- •••• Backs into small chair or slides in sideways
- •••• Climbs forward into adult’s chair, then turns around and sit
- •••• Squats and rises with hands helping
- •••• Walks upstairs with helping hand
- •••• Creeps backwards down stairs or (occasionally) bumps down on buttocks
- •••• Kneels upright on flat surface without support
AGE 4 YEARS
- •••• Walks or runs alone up and down stairs, one foot to each step
- •••• Navigates self-locomotion skillfully, turning sharp corners, running, pushing and pulling
- •••• Climbs ladders and trees
- •••• Expert rider of tricycle, executing sharp U-turns easily
- •••• Stands on one foot (preferred) for 3-5 seconds and hops on preferred foot
- •••• Arranges and picks up objects from floor by bending from waist, with knees straight
- •••• Sits with knees crossed
- •••• Shows increasing skill in ball games, throwing, catching, bouncing, kicking, etc., including use of bat
AGE 5 YEARS
- •••• Walks easily on narrow line
- ••••^ Runs lightly on toes
- •••• Active and skillful in climbing, sliding, swinging, digging, and various ‘stunts’
- ••••^ Skips on alternate feet
- •••• Moves rhythmically to music
- ••••^ Grips strongly with either hand
- •••• Can stand on one foot 8-10 seconds, right or left and also stand on preferred foot
with arms folded
- ••••^ Can hop 2 or 3 yards forward on each foot separately
- •••• Can bend and touch toes without flexing knees
- •••• Plays all varieties of ball games with considerable ability, including those requiring
appropriate placement or scoring, according to accepted rules
Cognitive Development
All children can learn. Learning refers to adaptation to one’s environment through the use of cognitive or intellectual development. Intellectual development can be
defined as an individual’s ability to cope with the changing world through continuous organization and re-organisation of experiences.
Cognitive development refers to the processes involved in -
- •••• Attention - focuses on selection of sensory stimuli
- •••• Perception - include detection, organization, interpretation of sensory information
- ••••^ Memory^ - refers to retention and recall of perceived information
- •••• Reasoning - using knowledge to make association between familiar and new information, make inferences and draw conclusions
- •••• Reflection - evaluation of the quality of ideas and solutions to problems
- ••••^ Insight -^ recognition of new relationships between two segments of information
Learning is facilitated by both the Internal and External environment.
The Internal environment broadly comprises of
i) Sensory organs and sensory integration
ii) Smooth functioning of other bodily systems
iii) Mental health
The External environment consists of
i) People around us
ii) The air we breathe, the food we eat and the water we drink
iii) Flora and Fauna
iv) Our social and emotional experiences
v) Opportunities and Access
Stage Theory
Studies on children suggest that biological drive is not enough for children to move from one stage to the other. Opportunities, access to facilitative adults and a stimulating environment that promotes activity based learning and discovery learning are required for children to move across the stages.
~ Each stage evolves from the previous stage
~ No sub-stage or stage is skipped
SPEECH, LANGUAGE AND COMMUNICATION (Major development)
Age in months
1 Stops whimpering; and usually turns towards sound of nearby soothing human voice
2 Definite differentiation of cries, screaming (between hunger, need for change, need for attention) Laughs out loud 3 Cries when uncomfortable or annoyed Often sucks or licks lips in response to sounds of preparation for feeding Shows excitement at sound of approaching voices, footsteps, etc Vocalises delightedly when spoken to or pleased Fixes eyes unblinkingly on parent’s or carer’s face Begins to show reactions to familiar situations by smiling, cooing, and excited movements Responds with pleasure to friendly handling, especially when accompanied by playful, tickling and singing Babbles - beginning of repeated consonant sound 4 Smiles meaningfully 6 Perceives people and events in his /her environment Responds to negative commands Turns to mother’s voice Begins negative expression - nah. nah sound 9 Recognizes names of familiar objects Understands “no-no” and “bye-bye” Uses gesture language - shakes head Says ‘Da-da’, ‘Ba-ba’ without meaning
10 Knows and immediately turns to own name
Says and means ‘Mam-mam’, ‘Ba-ba’
12 Comprehends simple commands associated with gestures (Give it to mama, clap hands) Uses jargon speech
15 Makes many speech-like sounds
Says a few recognizable words Comprehends simple questions Points to familiar persons
18 Enjoys nursery rhymes
Identifies simple pictures Attempts to sing Imitates animal sounds
2 years Comprehends verbs - points to appropriate action pictures, e.g., eating, running Combines two or three words - ‘Bye papa’ Refers to self by using name Joins in nursery rhymes and action songs Indicates body parts Carries out simple instructions
2+ to 3 years Uses 200 or more recognizable words
Knows full name Imitates phrases (echolalia) Asks questions beginning - what? who? Where? Listens eagerly to stories and demands favourites over and over Counts by rote up to ten or more but little appreciation of quantity beyond two or three
3+ to 5 years Speech grammatically correct and completely intelligible
Understands some abstract concepts, e.g., ‘one of, ‘before’, ‘after’, ‘if Listens to and tells long stories Counts by rote and beginning to count objects by word and touch in one-to-one correspondence up to four or five Enjoys jokes Can repeat nursery rhymes correctly Speech fluent, grammatically conventional and usually phonetically correct Gives full name, age and usually birthday
