PROFED L1 PDF - Child Development

1.1 What is "development"? Recall how you have changed from the earliest time you can remember, from when you were very young up to your present age. How have you changed? How have you developed? When you hear the word "development,"what comes to your mind? What do you t...

1.1 What is "development"? Recall how you have changed from the earliest time you can remember, from when you were very young up to your present age. How have you changed? How have you developed? When you hear the word "development,"what comes to your mind? What do you think is development? You will notice that there is plenty of disagreement about what development really is. At least, scientists agree on one thing: that development impliesa "systematicand successive change." Developmentcan be defined as "progressive, orderly and continuing changes over time in a person's physical and neurological structure." In other words, developmentis a series of age-relatedchanges that happen across the life span. People pass through differentstages in a specific order, with each stage building up on the other. People also build capacities through those stages.  of child development? 1.2 What are the stages to development of children from birthto Stages in child developmentrefers 18 years. Children develop physically, intellectually, socially, emotionally, the age of different rates of growth for each category. and linguistically through the years with life stages, and in this course, we The human life span can be divided intofour will study only the first three: "infant," "toddler") — During (1) INFANCY (birth to 2 years old — "newborn," infancy, the child is totally dependent on the caregiver for the fulfilment of his/ her needs. The child experiences rapid growth during this period. (2) CHILDHOOD ("earlychildhood"—2 to 8 years old, and "middlechildhood"- 9 to 12 years old) —At this time, the child refines his/her skills he/she learned in earlieryears, from basic to more complex skills; he/she also learns new skills. The most rapid period of growth and development is seen in early childhood. (3) ADOLESCENCE (12 to 18 years old) —This stage is marked by puberty (11 to 14 years old) when a child undergoes a series of changes in the body. (4) ADULTHOOD —This is the period when an individual has reached his/her maturity.This is usually above 18 years of age. How did these terms come to be? Let us look at a little history of child-rearing. In the Middle Ages (800s—1300s), the church did not approve of "family planning," so birth rates were very high. Women usually gave birth to 12 to 14 children.  how many siblings your great Try to trace your family history and find out times, the average During those grandparentsand great-great-grandparentshave. those times were also life span was around 35 to 40 years. The mortalityrates in before reaching adulthood. Consequently, very high. Three out of five children died because many parentingwas differentin that childrenhad little or no affection In other countries, they even have a of themwould probably.die at a young age. age. There were grandcelebrationwhen a child survives and reaches 5 years of have not been no health care benefits back then, and vaccines and antibiotics 8 years old were inventedyet. In those times, children who reached the age of 7 or and girls who alreadysent to work like adults. Boys and girls worked in the farm, startedto menstruate were already sent off to be married. learning and During the Renaissance (1300s—1600s),there was a rebirth of They saw culturein society. People began to think about their place in the world. with rights. themselvesas individuals and began to see their children as individuals that our In 1693, John Locke had his theory of tabula rasa (blank slate), arguing and that we brains are empty at birth and are waiting to be filled with experiences, realized that are products of our social environment.When parents and teachers experiences. they could write on that "blank slate," they started to control children's time the Families can even shape the personality of the children. This was the first started "childhood"was seen as a separate developmentalstage. Parents, thus, showing affection to their children. Duringthe Industrial Age (late 1700s to late 1800s), there was the rise of industrializationand machinery. Many people moved from rural to urban areas because many jobs could be found in the cities. The economy around the world was changing and children were seen as an economic asset. Just like in the old days, children aged 7 were already sent off to work to help support the family. This timein factories to do jobs that big adults cannot do because of their size. At the start of the Modern Age or the beginning of the twentieth century (early 1900s), the wives of factory owners, with the crusaders of social rights, were able to enact child labor laws, which came to effect in the late nineteenth century. The laws dictatedthat children under the age of 16 should not be made to work in factories, althoughthey were still allowed to work in their family farm. This was the first time the term"CHILDHOOD" became a legal definition (early twentieth century), not just a developmentalphase. Since children were out of the factories, many schools were builtto contain these children in urban areas. This led to Compulsory Education. It startedout as Sunday schools to be moral citizens, then subjects for academics were introduced.Around the time of World War Il, the concept of adulthood was around 18 years of age, commonly due to drafting into the army.  In the early twentieth century, the term "childhood"was divided into stages. ADOLESCENCE, in terms of biology, begins with puberty and ends in a cultural recognition of adulthood by the age 18, a legal age. Relationships within the family shift and peers become more influential at this stage. It is to be noted that the term "DEVELOPMENT," meaning how we "change," is not defined by age alone; although a person's age can give an average or a rough estimate of the various stages. Remember that there are exceptions to the rule. For example, people reach puberty earlier or later than the average age.  domains of child development? the 1.3 Whatare development, remember that the growth in one child Whenwe study about Child psychologists classify different areas other domains. domaininfluences the seen on the outside, many development. Even if there is little change of a person's However, there are differences in opinion regarding inside a person. thingschange of development. Some psychologists classify them as follows: the critical domains development, (2) motor development, (3) cognitive development, (1) physical development, and (5) emotional development. Other psychologists say (4) social social, (2) emotional, (3) physical, (4) cognitive, thatthe five critical domains are: (1) Still, another classification is listed as follows: and (5) language/communication. socioemotional, and (5) adaptive. (1) physical, (2) cognitive, (3) communicative, (4) Otherpsychologistsconsider seven domains; others have nine domains. Here, we will use threemore general and encompassing domains: physical, cognitive, and psychosocial/socioemotional. Three Domains of Child Development Cognitive PhysiCal Socioemotional 4. 1.3.1 PHYSICAL DOMAIN The physical domain includes growth of the body size and proportions, appearance, brain development, sensory capacities (taste, touch, sight, smell, hearing, and proprioception,which is bodily awareness of your orientation in space), motor skills, and overall physical health. The physical domain is about the measurable, visible changes in the body of a child from birth to old age. Motor development refers to the increasing amount of control that a child has over his/her body. It includes the different levels of skills that he/she can master. This domain also involves gross motor skills (major movements of the body involving large muscles) and fine motorskills (movementof fingers and hands). Adaptive development refers to the ability of a child to do age-appropriate life skills. It may refer to how a child adapts to the environment and is able to perform things independently. Although others may consider these as motor skills, some psychologists define them as self-care skills. These might include drinking from a bottleor cup, feeding, toileting, dressing, or avoiding common dangers. Children, however,may also develop other adaptive behaviors that may encompass not just the physical domain, but also the cognitive and socioemotional domains like self- sufficiency, personal responsibility, and social skills. An example of physical developmentthroughthe years is when the brain grows in complexity in infancy, learning how to walk and talk, then during early childhood, handedness appears. During middle childhood, health is better than any period, and during adolescence, puberty starts. When children go through a physical growth spurt, it affects them cognitively and emotionallyas well. Like when someone is about to get sick or is already sick, he/she may become moody or disorganized. So when something in the physical domain happens, it impacts everything else. Teachers need to look at how changes in a student's physical development is affecting him/her. 1.3.2 COGNITIVE DOMAIN Cognitive domain or developmentis about the changes and progression in the thought processes—thinking abilities of a person from infancy up to old age. The mental processes include learning, attention, memory, language, thinking, reasoning, problem-solving, creativity, imagination, academic knowledge, everyday knowledge, and understanding what is happening around you. The developmental psychologistJean Piaget talked about differentstages in cognitive development. This will be discussed in detail in the next unit, which is all about Cognitive Development.  of Jean Piaget Cognitivestages SensodmotorStege 12yrs - above 7. 12yts Formal Operational Stage' ConcreteOperationalStage according to Jean Piaget Figure 1. Stages of Cognitive Development Language developmentor communicative domain is about how a person's languageor communicationskills develop from crying to laughing, to babbling, and thento talking. This involves one's ability to comprehend, use, and manipulate language. Four Aspects of Language Nom nom Me, drink. Figure 2. Four Aspects of Language Development  There are four aspects of language development.These are phonology (forming sounds into words), syntax (creating sentences from these words using language rules and conventions).semantics (understandingmeanings and shades of meaning), and pragmatics (how to apply language to communicate in practical and personal use). Many toddlers start communicating like a telegraph, using one or few simple words just to convey what they need or want. An example of cognitive development through the years is when infants develop the use of symbols, then during early childhood, memory and language improve. During middle childhood, egocentrism diminishes, and during adolescence, the ability to think abstractly develops. 1.3.3 PSYCHOSOCIAL DOMAIN The psychosocial domain incudes emotions, personality, and social relationships. Social development is all about the child's relationships with different kinds of people and his/her unique way of interacting with them. It also includes self- knowledge (self-esteem, metacognition, sexual identity, and ethnic identity) and moral reasoning. Emotional development refers to how a child's emotions develop, how he/ she understands and expresses his/her emotions (anger, fear, anxiety, sorrow, joy, happiness, and others) in socially acceptable ways, or regulating one's emotions, having confrontations without violence. Many times, the social development and emotional development are mentioned togetheras one, known as the socioemotional domain.This is all about living at peace with oneself in the context of living with others. A child learns how to read social cues of other people to control his/her emotions and express them properly. It also includes understanding others, learning how to sympathize and empathize withother people. It includes temperament,interpersonalskills, and friendships.  Stages of Play Unoccupied Play Solitary Play Onlooker Play Parallel Play Associative Play Social Play Figure 3. Stages of Play By 6 monthsor younger, a baby usually reacts to facial expressions and also reciprocates.By one year, the child can show preferences and can recognize familiarfaces, shying away from unfamiliar ones. Shown above are the stages of play wherea childengages in unoccupied play (birth to 3 months), then solitary play (birthto 2 years), then shows onlooker or spectator behavior (2 years). By a littlemorethan the age of two years, the child will be engaging in parallel play, playingwith himself/herselfbut beside other children. By the age of 3 to 4 years, the child engages in associate play, where a child plays with a child near him/her,sometimesengaging with the other child once in a while, but not coordinatingefforts.Then by the age of 4 and 5 years, the child starts to interact with otherchildren in social play, being interested in both the play activity and in other children. An exampleof psychosocial development through the years is when self- awareness develops during infancy. Then during early childhood, independence and self-control improves. During middle childhood, peers become more important to the child. And during adolescence, there is a search for identity. We should take note, however, that developmentin one area affects the development in other areas. Even if we study each domain separately,we should rememberthat these are all interconnected.