Child Development

As understood By Christy Robinson

Development starts at conception ! Fertilization takes place. This is when the

female and male chromosomes unite creating a new being.Weeks 1-2 are called the period of the Zygote: this is when the male and female chromosome material unite.Weeks 3-8 are called the period of the Embryo: during this time body structures and internal organs develop.

* Prenatal development is important: Mothers need to obtain prenatal vitamins and learn as much as possible about what can harm and what can help in the development of the fetus.

Weeks 9-38 are called period of the fetus: rapid growth continues, most body systems begin to function and the fetus reaches the age of viability.

BEWARE OF TERATOGENS

Recap: Conception to Birth

Wk ٩: Differentiation of ovaries and testesWk ١٢: Circulatory system working

Wk ٢٠: Hair forming

The Newborn

Wk ٢٤: Sucking and swallowing beginsWk ٢٨:: Brain specialization

WK ٣٢: Age of viabilityWK ٣٦: Rapid weight gain

Wk ٣٨: Birth

The Fetus (wks: ٣٨-٩)

The Embryo (wks ٨-٣)Cell specialization takes place

Facial features are apparent / the brain and nervous system begin developingMost organs are in place (except the sex organs)

Male and Female chromesomes unite:Zygote (wks ٢-١)

Cells begin to developeZygote reaches the uterus and implants itself.

Growth and development can be effected at any stage.

Physical growth is rapid – around 2-months 40% of babies energy is devoted to growth.

Beginning at 4 to 6 months child begins to eat more than formula or mommy’s breast milk. Cereal and strained fruits and vegetables become meals.

7-9 months strained meats are introduced

10-12 months finely chopped table foods can be eaten.

Things to be aware of:

Nutrition is important!

Sleep is essential for normal growth!

Physical Growth : 0-2yrs. Average growth is 19-32 inches and weight increases from 7-22 pounds.

Boys reach half their adult height by age 2; girls by 18 months.

Growth Spurts: Elementary school years: in an average year,

a 6 to 10 year old will gain 5 to 7 pounds and grow 2 to 3 inches.

During a growth spurt: a girl may gain as much as 20 pounds in a year and a boy 25 pounds.

These spurts typically start at age 11 forA girl and 13 for a boy.

What is happening during a growth spurt?

• Bones are becoming longer and more dense

• Body fat is increasing

• Heart and lung capacities increase

•Children become mature sexually

The Brain

The brain begins to develop three days after conception.

•a babies senses are working when they are born

•they taste sweet, bitter and sour

•they feel pain

•they use sound to judge distance •by 1, they have approximately the same

visual acuity as an adult.

Motor Development

Infants have very little control over there movement when first born.

Fetal posture is the norm for 0-1 month of age.

1-month – most infants can hold up their chin

2-months – their chest

3-months – can reach and miss

4-months – sit with support

5-months – sit on a lap and grasp an object

Locomotion 6-7 months – sit alone 7-8 months – stand with help, and

crawl 8 months – pull to stand by furniture 11 months – stand alone 12- months – walk alone

According to Piaget: Children are like scientist and learn in stages:

Stage 1 – Sensorimotor (birth to 2): infant progresses from simple reflex actions to symbolic processing. They discover objects and what they are used for.

example: mom takes care of me, dad plays with me, if I cry I get my way, if I smile they smile back

Stage 2 – Preoperational (2 to 7): uses symbols to represent objects and events. Child begins to to use common symbols: words, gestures, graphs, maps and models.

This is a period of egocentrism (they see things as revolving around them).

They have a high self-esteem

Piaget continued:

Preoperational thinking begins with egocentrism, but develops into centration, focusing on one aspect of a problem but ignoring all other relevant aspects. It ends with the appearance as reality. The child believes that what he/she sees is true.

Stage 3-Concrete operational stage (7-11): thinking is now based on mental operations, strategies and rules.

2+3=5; 3+2=5; 5-2=3; 5-3=2

Egocentrism becomes less as children begin to have friends and siblings. They learn that events can be interpreted in different ways and that things are not always as they appear to be.

Piaget continued:Stage 4- Formal operational stage (11 and older): children, adolescents and adults apply mental operations to abstract things. They can now think hypothetically and reason deductively.

“When I grow up I will be…”

“If I eat a lot of fat, I will become fat”

Vygotsky’s view of child developmentChildren develop knowledge by being little apprentices.They learn or advance when they work with others who are more skilled then they are:

– learns to talk because parents talk

– learns to read because siblings read

– learns to draw well because a friend draws well.

*Vygotsky termed the zone of proximal development – this is what a child can do with help, but would not be successful alone

AND

*Scaffolding: The ability to give a child only as much help as needed.

HE VIEWED A CHILD’S COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT AS A COLLABORATION BETWEEN A NOVICE CHILD AND A MORE SKILLED TEACHER WHO SCAFFOLD CHILDREN’S LEARNING

Cognitive Development:As we grow, our information processing abilities become greater.

As an infant and small child we learn through our senses.

An infant holds knowledge when it is presented: sees the ball, the ball exist; does not see the ball anymore, it no longer exist.

We develop knowledge by viewing it, working with it, and storing that information in our long term memory.

*With the teaching and learning of strategies, we develop our computers…we increase our capacity of working memory and can retrieve things faster from our long term memory.

Language DevelopmentLanguage is complex and learning it also begins at birth. >a baby mimics its mothers facial expressions and learns how to get what it wants by how an adult reacts to its different noises and facial expressions.

>2 months – infants can produce vowel-like sounds

>6 months – babbling begins

>8-11 months-babbling becomes more like speech

>1 year olds – can say their first words

>By age 2 - most children have a vocabulary of a few hundred words.

>By age 6 – they have over 10,000 words.

More on Language

Children begin learning words and that they have meaning. They learn language has rules.

Then they learn how to speak in sentences.

( “My ball”)

As they learn more rules to express meaning they begin forming longer sentences.

According to our text, the critical time to learn language is from birth to 12 years old.

A language rich environment is extremely important between these years.

Emotionally and Socially

Emotions begin at birth: infants show emotion through facial expressions.

NEWBORNS: experience only two general emotions: pleasure and distress.

By 8 or 9 months:infants are thought to express all basic emotions (joy, anger, fear)

Complex emotions (pride, guilt, embarrassment) – develop or emerge at 18-24 months.

They depend some understanding of the self, which usually occurs between 15-18 months.

Learning to regulate and stabilize:

Its not enough to experience an emotion, but one must learn to regulate their emotions and stabilize them.

*infants regulate their emotions to get what they want.

*infants also look to their mother to see how they should react.

Child Development is complexChildren develop physically, mentally and emotionally.

Development begins at conception and continues beyond adolescence.

Development is fragile and can be affected by many things: environment, drugs, self motivation, etc.

Everyday is a day for learning and developing and once you reach maturity the development depends on the individual.

One can continue to challenge oneself or not.