Growth and Development Quiz

Study Notes

Growth and development start from conception and extend throughout life, with major changes occurring from conception to adolescence.
Understanding growth and development is essential for providing adequate nursing care to children.
The study of growth and development helps nurses in learning what to expect from a child at a particular age, evaluating normal growth and development, detecting deviations from normal growth and development, determining a child's needs according to their level of growth and development, planning and providing holistic nursing care, teaching and guiding parents and caregivers, developing a relationship with the child, and improving healthcare provision.
Growth is the process of physical maturation resulting in an increase in body size and organ size, while development is the process of functional and physiological maturation resulting in an increase in the ability and capacity to function.
Maturation is an increase in competence and a change in behavior and capacity to function at a higher level depending on genetic inheritance.
Growth and development are interdependent processes that proceed in stages, with individual differences and exclusivity for each child.
The sequence of growth and development is predictable and the same in all children, but there may be differences in the timing of achievement.
There is coordination between size increase and maturation, and growth and development proceed in a cephalocaudal and proximodistal direction.
The rate of growth and development is interrelated and is rapid in infancy and puberty but slow in preschool and school age.
Growth and development depend on the combination of many interdependent factors, especially genetics and the environment.