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Child and Adolescent Learners

• Children (under 10 or 18) require hands-on activities and a supportive learning environment to build confidence.
• Adolescents (ages 10–19) need activities encouraging problem-solving, teamwork, and exploring interests to develop critical thinking, emotional maturity, and independence.
• Children learn best through interactive and playful activities.
• Adolescents benefit from lessons that challenge their thinking and allow decision-making.
• Teachers should create safe, inclusive classrooms for both groups.
• Understanding differences helps teachers plan lessons to meet students' needs.

Approaches to Human Development

• The traditional approach suggests extensive changes from birth to adolescence, with little change in adulthood and decline in late old age.
• The life-span approach posits that developmental change occurs throughout life, including adulthood, similar to childhood.

Life-Span Development Characteristics

• Development is lifelong and continues beyond adulthood.
• Development shows plasticity, indicating the potential for change throughout life.
• Development is multidimensional, consisting of biological, cognitive, and socio-emotional dimensions.
• Development is contextual, with individuals responding to and acting on various contexts, including biological, physical, cognitive, historical, social, and cultural factors.
• Development involves growth, maintenance, and regulation, with individuals' goals varying across developmental stages.

Stages of Development and Developmental Tasks

• The pre-natal period involves the transformation from a simple beginning to complex forms, with birth marking a transition between two worlds.
• In middle and late childhood (6-12 years), children belong to a generation and are ready to learn, seeking knowledge and understanding.
• Adolescence (13-18 years) involves searching for identity.
• Early adulthood (19-29 years) focuses on work, love, and finding a place in adult society.
• Middle adulthood (30-60 years) involves evaluating life.
• Late adulthood (61+ years) involves understanding life in retrospect and coming to terms with oneself.

Havighurst Developmental Tasks and Education - Units of Study:

• First Semester: Historical Fiction and Mythology
• Second Semester: Short Stories and Folklore

Methods of Assessment

• Unit Exams: 25%
• Quizzes: 10%
• Projects: 20%
• Essays: 30%
• Homework: 10%
• Participation: 5%

Physical and Motor Development of Children and Adolescents

• Child development refers to a child's ability to perform complex tasks, involving language, social, and motor skills.
• Stages of motor development include Infanthood (0-2 y.o.), Early Childhood (2-6 y.o.), and Middle Childhood (6-12 y.o.).

Physical Development During Early Childhood

• Age range: 2 to 6 years.
• It is known as the "preschool age".
• Follows a directional pattern in growth.
• The rapid increase in body size during the first two years slows down.
• Children grow 2-3 inches in height and gain about 5 pounds each year, with boys slightly larger than girls.
• Larger muscles develop before smaller ones, starting with the core, legs, and arms.
• Development occurs from the top down, from head to toes.

Brain Development During Early Childhood

• The brain reaches 70% of its adult weight.
• 90% of a child's brain develops before age 5.

Physical Development in Children

• Development of motor skills involves using the body.
• It is defined by gross motor and fine motor skills including balance and coordination.
• Fine motor skills relate to using upper extremities to manipulate the environment, involving smaller muscles in hands and wrists like writing or waving.
• Gross motor skills involve large muscles for movements like walking, running, jumping, or climbing.

Physical Development in Middle Childhood

• Age range: 6 to 12 years
• Corresponds to Grade 1 to 6

Adolescence: Physical Development

• Puberty involves significant changes and growth spurts.
• The adolescent or pubertal growth spurt refers to rapid height and weight gain.
• In girls, rapid growth occurs earlier, starting around age 9, while in boys it begins around age 12.
• Puberty involves the emergence of primary and secondary sex characteristics.
• Primary sex characteristics relates to reproductive organs.
• Secondary sex characteristics encompass other bodily changes, such as body form and hair growth.

Neuroscience and Brain Development

• Neuroscience studies the structure and function of the nervous system and brain.
• Technological advances in neuroscience have allowed in-depth research on the human brain, especially during the first six years of a child's development.
• This period features greater neural plasticity, enabling the brain to change through new experiences.

Nervous System Function

• The nervous system functions as the body's command center with three basic functions.
• It receives sensory input, integrates information, and responds to stimuli.
• It contains the Peripheral Nervous System and the Central Nervous System.
• The Peripheral Nervous System handles the input and output and contains sensory and motor nerves, and is subdivided into the Somatic and Autonomic Divisions.
• The central nervous system (CNS) consists of the brain and spinal cord.
• The Somatic Nervous System connects to sensory receptors and skeletal muscles, permitting voluntary action.
• The Autonomic Nervous System oversees involuntary functioning of blood vessels, glands, Internal organs and comprises of Parasympathetic and Sympathetic Nervous Systems.
• The Parasympathetic Nervous System slows the body down to conserve energy
• The Sympathetic Nervous System mobilizes the body for action and increases heart rate.

Central Nervous System

• The spinal cord is protected by bones and transmits nerve signals for sensation and movement.
• The brain controls thought, memory, emotion, motor skills, temperature, and processes that regulate the body.
• The brain consists of the cerebrum, cerebellum, and brainstem.
• The cerebrum, the largest part of the brain, handles higher-level thinking with two cerebral hemispheres connected by the corpus callosum.
• Each cerebral hemisphere has four lobes including the Frontal, Parietal, Occipital and Temporal.
• The frontal lobe is towards the front of the brain and is involved in voluntary movement.
• The parietal lobe is the top of the brain and and integrates sensory information for pressure, touch and pain.
• The occipital lobe is in the back of the brain and integrates visual information.
• The temporal lobes are on the side of the brain dealing with memory, emotion and language.
• The left hemisphere is mainly responsible for language and speech.
• It contains Broca's area for speech production and Wernicke's area for language comprehension.
• The right hemisphere handles non-verbal areas with spatial comprehension, drawing music and emotions.
• The cerebellum is the second largest part of the brain to maintains balance and posture.
• The brainstem sends messages to regulate balance, breathing, and heart rate.
• The brain stem contains the Midbrain, Pons and Medulla.
• Three distinct regions of the brain are: the forebrain, the midbrain and the hindbrain.

The Neurons (Neurons or Nerve Cells)

• Neurons are fundamental to the brain and nervous system and transmits messages.
• In a typical neuron dendrites act like receivers.
• The Cell body contains biochemical machinery
• The Axon transmits messages away from the cell body.
• Myelin Sheath insulates and speeds up signal transmission
• Afferent Neurons carry nerve impulses towards the brain
• Efferent Neurons carry nerve impulses away from the brain
• Ganglia are clusters of nerve cells.
• Some axons are wrapped in a myelin sheath formed from the plasma membrane of specialized glial cells known as Schwann cells.
• The gap between Schwann cells is known as the node of Ranvier.

Lessons on Biological Beginnings

• Evolutionary perspectives include the natural selection of adaptive behavior.
• Adaptive behavior promotes an organism's survival.
• Evolutionary Psychology emphasizes adaptation, reproduction, and survival, explaining human features and behaviors.
• Genetic foundations explore genes, mitosis, meiosis, genetic principles, behavior genetics, and molecular genetics.
• Chromosome and gene-linked abnormalities, and reproduction challenges and choices are other areas of focus.
• Heredity-environment interaction influence traits.

Natural Selection and Adaptive Behavior

• In 1859, Charles Darwin postulated that species adapt to survive and reproduce.
• Adaptive behavior promotes an organism's survival.

Terms

• Genes provide the blue-print for human characteristics.
• Chromosomes consist of coiled DNA, originally thought to be 100,000 genes.
• Recent studies suggest that there are around to 30,000 genes.
• Units of short hereditary information are DNA.
• DNA is carries genetic information. A single cell created is known as Zygote.
• All the genetic Material is known as the genotype.
• The phenotype presents the observable characteristics.

Heredity-Environment Interaction Description

• Intelligence is impacted by environmental factors and heredity.
• Passive genotypes, evocative-environment, and active genotype-environment are three correlations
• The heredity and environment are extensive.

Prenatal Tests:

• Ultrasound Sonography: Perform 7 weeks to throughout pregnancy.
• Chorionic Villi Sampling: Small sample of placenta taken (10-12 wk) detect genetics defect/chromosome abnormalities
• Amniocentesis: Samples amniotic fluid (16-18 wk). Test for chromosome or metabolic disorder
• Maternal blood test: Blood screening for spina bifida/down syndrome, risks for birth defect

Chromosome Abnormalities:

• Down syndrome: An extra chromosome causes mild to severe retardation and physical abnormalities.
• Klinefelter syndrome (XXY): An extra X chromosome causes physical abnormalities.
• Fragile X syndrome: An abnormality in the X chromosome can cause mental retardation, learning disabilities, or short attention span.
• Turner syndrome (XO): A missing X chromosome in females can cause mental retardation and sexual underdevelopment.
• XYY syndrome: An extra Y chromosome can cause above-average height.

Birthing

• 3 stages of birth include contractions, pushing baby through the birth canal, and the baby head emerging
• Midwives
• Doulas
• Hospitals and Pediatricians
• Medicated and non-medicated techniques are used to help with pain