Psychology
Physical Development in Childhood
Physical development in childhood refers to the changes in a child's body and motor skills as they grow. This includes improvements in muscle strength, coordination, and the development of fine and gross motor skills. It also involves changes in height, weight, and physical appearance as children progress through different stages of development.
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5 Key excerpts on "Physical Development in Childhood"
eBook - ePubThe Early Years Foundation Stage
Theory and Practice
- Ioanna Palaiologou, Ioanna Palaiologou(Authors)
- 2021(Publication Date)
- SAGE Publications Ltd(Publisher)
- show accuracy and care when drawing and copying. (DfE, 2018i: 11)
However, physical development is a dynamic process that impacts on all aspects of the child’s development. When working with young children to meet the EYFS ELGs of physical development you need to understand the complexities of this dynamic process so you can offer learning environments that will enhance physical activity.This chapter thus defines physical development as ‘all these biological changes that occur in the body and the brain, including changes in size and strength, integration of sensory and motor activities and development of fine and gross motor skills’ (Levine and Munsch, 2021: 7). These are shaped by the environment and culture, and impact on health, well-being and cognition which include mental processes such as memory, attention, problem solving, language, and personal, social and emotional competences. Together these allow children to acquire knowledge and understanding of the world to function within society.Physical development, as with all other aspects of development such as language and problem-solving, is characterised by qualitative and quantitative changes. The quantitative changes are more obvious, especially in their bodily proportions, but the qualitative ones are less easy to measure, especially when it comes to brain growth. Seeing children growing in size is a quantitative change, but children’s growth of brain is a qualitative change as they are able to move to complex tasks which is obvious in their play. For example, traditionally peek-a-boo is played with babies and they do enjoy it. As they get older and their brain is developed as well as their physical growth (which allows them to walk and run) they like playing hide-and-seek and can find their own hiding places and are able to search for others.When children are born they display a number of skills crucial to their survival. In the first few months of infants’ lives reflexes play an important role in physical development as they help to build social relationships, essential to all other aspects of their development. Infants’ reflexes, such as breathing, sucking, swallowing and blinking, help babies and parents to establish interactions and attachment (see Chapters 12 and 15
eBook - ePubChild Development
Concepts and Theories
- Jean A. Mercer(Author)
- 2018(Publication Date)
- SAGE Publications Ltd(Publisher)
Chapter 4 Concepts of Physical Growth and DevelopmentChapter 4 continues to apply broad concepts of developmental change through examination of physical growth and development from birth to age 12. Developmental trajectories, or predictable pathways of growth and developmental change, are understood because of information provided by research on populations of children; growth charts allow us to compare individuals to larger groups and to identify typical individual differences as opposed to atypical development. Bone growth, brain development, and reproductive development all show the existence of plasticity, the continuing effects of environmental factors in the shaping of development. Sensory and motor development also demonstrate much more plasticity than is usually assumed.Introduction
At birth, typically-developing children already have all the organ systems that they will ever possess, although these are far from adult-like either in size or in function. Growth and continuing development after birth are needed to ensure typical development through early and middle childhood. The present chapter will present concepts that help us understand the progress of this complex developmental change from birth to about age 12. Advances in size and body proportions will be discussed, as will changes in the nervous system and the reproductive system. Other important topics will be motor development (increases in voluntary control over movement) and sensory development (advances in the structure and functioning of sense organs).Development story 4.1Six-year-old Ibrahim was short in stature but appeared healthy and was doing well in school. His parents were concerned about his height because he was not only smaller than all his classmates, but smaller than they remembered his older brothers being at this age. Ibrahim’s family history was a difficult one. Before Ibrahim was born, the family had lived a comfortable and peaceful life, but soon before his birth civil war in their country forced them to go first to a refugee camp, and then, much later, to a European nation. These disruptions included a period of time when food was scarce. While there were technically enough calories and nutrients to go around, Ibrahim, then between 18 months and 3 years of age, did not have adequate nourishment. Food that adults could consume easily was difficult for him to chew, and his mother did not have the pots or cooking facilities to provide better choices for him. Anxious and depressed, as well as eating less than usual, Ibrahim’s mother was no longer able to breastfeed him as she normally would have done. Ibrahim’s growth slowed and he became lethargic and less interested in eating or exploring the world around him. By the time they arrived at their new home, Ibrahim’s parents had noticed that he was smaller than they had expected and did not behave like other children his age. With a much improved diet, Ibrahim recovered his appetite and became lively and inquisitive once more. He began to grow at a better rate, but did not catch up with other children his age.
eBook - ePub- Thomas Keenan, Subhadra Evans, Kevin Crowley(Authors)
- 2016(Publication Date)
- SAGE Publications Ltd(Publisher)
child development. Understanding children is important in its own right and also has the potential to significantly inform us about the nature of human development. By studying the earlier forms of behaviour and the changes which behaviour undergoes, we can gain a better understanding of the ‘end product’, that is, adult behaviour. While this text focuses specifically on children’s development, the wider principles of life-span developmental psychology (which we discuss shortly) apply as equally to this area as they do to the study of development across the life span.What is ‘Development’?
When we speak of development, what in fact are we referring to? One frequently used definition refers to this as patterns of change over time which begin at conception and continue throughout the life span. Development occurs in different domains, such as the biological (changes in our physical being), social (changes in our social relationships), emotional (changes in our emotional understanding and experiences), and cognitive (changes in our thought processes). Some developmental psychologists prefer to restrict the notion of development only to changes which lead to qualitative reorganizations in the structure of a behaviour, skill or ability (Crain, 2000). For example, Heinz Werner (1957) argued that development refers only to changes which increase the organization of functioning within a domain. Werner believed that development consisted of two processes: integration and differentiation. Integration refers to the idea that development consists of the integration of more basic, previously acquired behaviours into new, higher-level structures. For example, according to Piaget (1952), a baby who learns to successfully reach for objects has also learned to coordinate a variety of skills, such as maintaining an upright posture, moving their arm, visually coordinating the position of their hand and the object, and grasping the object under an integrated structure called a scheme
eBook - ePubDevelopmental Psychology
A Course Companion
- Carol Brown(Author)
- 2008(Publication Date)
- SAGE Publications Ltd(Publisher)
Recent theories would postulate that the left and right hemispheres of the brain assume different functions, such that the left engages in processes concerned with speech, hearing, verbal memory, decision-making and language while the right is more focused on visuo-spatial processing, sensation and emotion. Children will tend, however, to show lateral preferences.Physical development: puberty
Physical development shows a significant change at puberty – defined as the point where sexual maturity is reached. In girls this is easier to define as it is marked by the first menstrual period (menarche) and increased breast size, while in boys it is more subtle and marked by growing penis and testicles, change in voice and, in both cases, growth of pubic hair. A growth spurt will also occur in both sexes, although this will generally be later in boys than girls and takes the form of increases in both height and weight.Physical development is obviously a biological process of maturation, but it will also be influenced by factors such as nutrition, illness, emotional factors and stress, leading to failure to thrive.REMEMBER
Physical development:
- The key areas of physical development that undergo change involve those in height and weight, skeletal and muscular development, those to the brain and nervous system and the changes that occur at the time of puberty.
Key theories/stages of motor development
Harris and Butterworth (2004) provide excellent summary tables of the stages of motor development in children, ranging through the pre-natal period to the post-natal. A general adapted summary of what happens in the pre-natal period is provided below:WEEK MOTOR PATTERN 3 No movement but nerve cells present and some aspects of nervous system. 7 Limited research indicates small foetal movement. 8 General writhing movements and a startle response of indistinctive sequence occur. Spinal cord present but not yet separated. 9 Hiccups can occur, as can isolated arm or leg movements and limited head, jaw and tongue movements. 10 Hand-to-face contact is possible, as is rotation of the body. Connections established between sensory fibres and interneurons. 11 Stretches and yawns may be observed. Significant increase of motor neurone synapses. 12 Fingers move. (Cont’d) 14 Hand rotates. Connection of neurons to major parts of body become more developed and myelinisation occurs. 
eBook - ePubUnderstanding Physical Development in the Early Years
Linking bodies and minds
- Anne O'Connor, Anna Daly(Authors)
- 2016(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
3The stages of physical developmentThis chapter looks at the key stages of physical development with a particular focus on movement and the developmental importance of what takes place before a child learns to walk. Throughout this chapter we will be referring to primitive reflexes and their importance – these will be explained in much more detail in the next chapter.Milestones
HAVE A THINK ABOUT… LEARNING TO WALKWhen did you start to walk? Not all of us have information from our early life, but perhaps you remember being told about when you started to walk and maybe even have photos of the event. Do you know when you first sat up? Started to crawl? Did you shuffle along on your bottom or did you crawl on hands and knees? Perhaps you did these things earlier or later than your peers, or perhaps not at all?A ‘unique child’?
Any parent, or practitioner who works with babies, knows that there is something special about the way each unique little person tackles these major milestones. Two babies born on the same day, with similar rates of development, may not roll over for the first time on the same day. Nor will they sit up without help, begin to crawl or take their first faltering steps at the same time – there could be several weeks or even months between babies of the same age reaching the same stage of development. This is why Development Matters , the non-statutory guidance for the Early Years Foundation Stage in England (2012), was organised into overlapping age bands and clearly stated on every page:Children develop at their own rates, and in their own ways. The development statements and their order should not be taken as necessary steps for individual children. They should not be used as checklists. The age/stage bands overlap because these are not fixed age boundaries but suggest a typical range of development.
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