Child development refers to the biological and psychological and emotional changes that occur in human beings between

birth and the end of adolescence, as the individual progresses from dependency to increasing autonomy. Because these developmental changes may be strongly influenced by genetic factors and events during prenatal life, genetics and prenatal development are usually included as part of the study of child development. Related terms include developmental psychology, referring to development throughout the lifespan, and pediatrics, the branch of medicine relating to the care of children. Developmental change may occur as a result of genetically-controlled processes known as maturation, or as a result of environmental factors and learning, but most commonly involves an interaction between the two. It may also occur as a result of human nature and our ability to learn from our environment. Human beings have a keen sense to adapt to their surroundings and this is what child development encompasses. Every child would struggle to find their culture and identity in child development. [1] There are various definitions of periods in a child's development, since each period is a continuum with individual differences regarding start and ending. Some age-related development periods and examples of defined intervals are: newborn (ages 04 weeks); infant (ages 4 weeks 1 year); toddler (ages 13 years); preschooler (ages 4 6years); school-aged child (ages 613 years); adolescent (ages 1320).[2] However, organizations like Zero to Three and the World Association for Infant Mental Health use the term infant as a broad category, including children from birth to age 3. The optimal development of children is considered vital to society and so it is important to understand the social, cognitive, emotional, and educational development of children. Increased research and interest in this field has resulted in new theories and strategies, with specific regard to practice that promotes development within the school system. In addition there are also some theories that seek to describe a sequence of states that compose child development.

Approximate outline of development periods in child development.

Contents
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1 Theories o 1.1 Ecological systems theory o 1.2 Piaget 1.2.1 Piaget stages o 1.3 Vygotsky o 1.4 Attachment theory o 1.5 Erik Erikson o 1.6 Behavioral theories o 1.7 Other theories

2 Continuity and discontinuity in development o 2.1 Mechanisms of development 3 Research issues and methods 4 Developmental milestones 5 Aspects of child development o 5.1 Physical growth 5.1.1 Speed and pattern of development 5.1.2 Mechanisms of developmental change 5.1.3 Individual variation versus disease o 5.2 Motor development 5.2.1 Speed and pattern of development 5.2.2 Mechanisms of motor development 5.2.3 Individual differences 5.2.4 Population differences o 5.3 Cognitive/intellectual development 5.3.1 What develops? 5.3.2 Mechanisms of cognitive development 5.3.3 Individual differences 5.3.4 Population differences o 5.4 Social-emotional development 5.4.1 What develops? 5.4.2 Speed and pattern of development 5.4.3 Mechanisms of social and emotional development 5.4.4 Individual differences 5.4.5 Population differences o 5.5 Language 5.5.1 What develops? 5.5.2 Speed and pattern of development 5.5.3 Mechanisms of language development 5.5.4 Individual differences 6 Risk factors for poor child development o 6.1 Socioeconomic disadvantage and child development 7 See also 8 References 9 Further reading 10 External links

[edit] Theories
[edit] Ecological systems theory
Main article: Ecological systems theory Also called "development in context" or "human ecology" theory, ecological systems theory, originally formulated by Urie Bronfenbrenner specifies four types of nested environmental systems, with bi-directional influences within and between the systems. The four systems are microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem, and macrosystem. Each system contains roles, norms and rules that can powerfully shape development. Since its publication in 1979,

Bronfenbrenner's major statement of this theory, The Ecology of Human Development[3] has had widespread influence on the way psychologists and others approach the study of human beings and their environments. As a result of this influential conceptualization of development, these environments from the family to economic and political structures have come to be viewed as part of the life course from childhood through adulthood.[4]

[edit] Piaget
This section does not cite any references or sources. (May 2010) Main articles: Jean Piaget and Theory of cognitive development Piaget was a Swiss theorist who posited that children learn actively through the play process. He suggested that the adult's role in helping the child learn was to provide appropriate materials for the child to interact and construct. He would use Socratic questioning to get the children to reflect on what they were doing.[citation needed] He would try to get them to see contradictions in their explanations. He also developed stages of development. His approach can be seen in how the curriculum is sequenced in schools, and in the pedagogy of preschool centers across the United States.[citation needed] [edit] Piaget stages Sensorimotor: (birth to about age 2) During this stage, the child learns about himself and his environment through motor and reflex actions. Thought derives from sensation and movement. The child learns that he is separate from his environment and that aspects of his environmenthis parents or favorite toycontinue to exist even though they may be outside the reach of his senses; this is called object permanence.[citation needed] Teaching for a child in this stage should be geared to the sensorimotor system. You can modify behavior by using the senses: a frown, a stern or soothing voiceall serve as appropriate techniques.[citation needed] Preoperational: (begins about the time the child starts to talk to about age 7) Applying his new knowledge of language, the child begins to use symbols to represent objects. Early in this stage he or she also personifies objects.[citation needed] They are now better able to think about things and events that aren't immediately present. Oriented to the present, children have difficulty conceptualizing time.[citation needed] Their thinking is influenced by fantasythe way they'd like things to be. Children's at this age show egocentrism-they assume that others see situations from his or her viewpoint.[citation needed] They take in information and change it in their mind to fit their ideas. Teaching must take into account the child's vivid fantasies and undeveloped sense of time. Using neutral words, body outlines and equipment a child can touch gives him an active role in learning.[citation needed] However a child still can not grasp the concept of conservation - an ability to understand that specific properties of objects such as volume,weight or number remains the same despite the changes in shape or arrangement of those objects.[5] Concrete: (about first grade to early adolescence)

During this stage, accommodation increases. The child develops an ability to think abstractly and to make rational judgments about concrete or observable phenomena, which in the past he needed to manipulate physically to understand. In teaching this child, giving him the opportunity to ask questions and to explain things back to you allows him to mentally manipulate information.[citation needed] Formal operations: This stage brings cognition to its final form. This person no longer requires concrete objects to make rational judgements. At this point, he is capable of hypothetical and deductive reasoning. Teaching for the adolescent may be wideranging because he'll be able to consider many possibilities from several perspectives.[citation needed]

[edit] Vygotsky
Main articles: Lev Vygotsky and Cultural-historical psychology Vygotsky was a theorist who worked during the first decades of the former Soviet Union.[citation needed] He posited that children learn through hands-on experience, as Piaget suggested. However, unlike Piaget, he claimed that timely and sensitive intervention by adults when a child is on the edge of learning a new task (called the zone of proximal development) could help children learn new tasks. This technique is called "scaffolding," because it builds upon knowledge children already have with new knowledge that adults can help the child learn.[6] An example of this might be when a parent "helps" an infant clap or roll her hands to the pat-a-cake rhyme, until she can clap and roll her hands herself.[7][8] Vygotsky was strongly focused on the role of culture in determining the child's pattern of development.[6] He argued that "Every function in the child's cultural development appears twice: first, on the social level, and later, on the individual level; first, between people (interpsychological) and then inside the child (intrapsychological). This applies equally to voluntary attention, to logical memory, and to the formation of concepts. All the higher functions originate as actual relationships between individuals."[6] Vygotsky felt that development was a process and saw periods of crisis in child development during which there was a qualitative transformation in the child's mental functioning.[9]

[edit] Attachment theory

Main article: Attachment theory Attachment theory, originating in the work of John Bowlby and developed by Mary Ainsworth, is a psychological, evolutionary and ethological theory that provides a descriptive and explanatory framework for understanding interpersonal relationships between human beings. Attachment theorists consider the human infant to have a need for a relationship with at least one caregiver for normal social and emotional development to occur.[citation needed]

[edit] Erik Erikson

Main articles: Erik Erikson and Psychosocial development

Erikson, a follower of Freud's, synthesized both Freud's and his own theories to create what is known as the "psychosocial" stages of human development, which span from birth to death, and focuses on "tasks" at each stage that must be accomplished to successfully navigate life's challenges.[10] Erikson's eight stages consist of the following:

Trust vs. mistrust Autonomy vs. shame Initiative vs. guilt Industry vs. inferiority Identity vs. role confusion Intimacy vs. isolation Generativity vs. stagnation Ego integrity vs. despair [11]

[edit] Behavioral theories

Main article: Behavior analysis of child development John B. Watsons behaviorism theory forms the foundation of the behavioral model of development 1925.[12] He wrote extensively on child development and conducted research (see Little Albert experiment). Watson was instrumental in the modification of William James stream of consciousness approach to construct a stream of behavior theory.[citation needed] Watson also helped bring a natural science perspective to child psychology by introducing objective research methods based on observable and measurable behavior.[citation needed] Following Watsons lead, B.F. Skinner further extended this model to cover operant conditioning and verbal behavior[citation needed].

[edit] Other theories

In accordance with his view that the sexual drive is a basic human motivation,[citation needed] Sigmund Freud developed a psychosexual theory of human development from infancy onward, divided into five stages.[citation needed] Each stage centered around the gratification of the libido within a particular area, or erogenous zone, of the body.[citation needed] He also argued that as humans develop, they become fixated on different and specific objects through their stages of development.[citation needed] Each stage contains conflict which requires resolution to enable the child to develop.[13] The use of dynamical systems theory as a framework for the consideration of development began in the early 1990s and has continued into the present century.[14] Dynamic systems theory stresses nonlinear connections (e.g., between earlier and later social assertiveness) and the capacity of a system to reorganize as a phase shift that is stage-like in nature. Another useful concept for developmentalists is the attractor state, a condition (such as teething or stranger anxiety) that helps to determine apparently unrelated behaviors as well as related ones.[citation needed] Dynamic systems theory has been applied extensively to the study of motor development; the theory also has strong associations with some of Bowlby's views about attachment systems. Dynamic systems theory also relates to the concept of the transactional process,[15] a mutually interactive process in which children and parents simultaneously influence each other, producing developmental change in both over time.[citation needed]

The "core knowledge perspective" is an evolutionary theory in child development that proposes "infants begin life with innate, special-purpose knowledge systems referred to as core domains of thought"[16] There are five core domains of thought, each of which is crucial for survival, which simultaneously prepare us to develop key aspects of early cognition; they are: physical, numerical, linguistic, psychological, and biological.[citation needed]

[edit] Continuity and discontinuity in development

Although the identification of developmental milestones is of interest to researchers and to children's caregivers, many aspects of developmental change are continuous and do not display noticeable milestones of change.[17] Continuous developmental changes, like growth in stature, involve fairly gradual and predictable progress toward adult characteristics. When developmental change is discontinuous, however, researchers may identify not only milestones of development, but related age periods often called stages.[citation needed] A stage is a period of time, often associated with a known chronological age range, during which a behavior or physical characteristic is qualitatively different from what it is at other ages. When an age period is referred to as a stage, the term implies not only this qualitative difference, but also a predictable sequence of developmental events, such that each stage is both preceded and followed by specific other periods associated with characteristic behavioral or physical qualities.[citation needed] Stages of development may overlap or be associated with specific other aspects of development, such as speech or movement. Even within a particular developmental area, transition into a stage may not mean that the previous stage is completely finished. For example, in Erikson's discussion of stages of personality, this theorist suggests that a lifetime is spent in reworking issues that were originally characteristic of a childhood stage.[18] Similarly, the theorist of cognitive development, Piaget, described situations in which children could solve one type of problem using mature thinking skills, but could not accomplish this for less familiar problems, a phenomenon he called horizontal decalage.[19]

[edit] Mechanisms of development

Girl playing in a play ground See also: Nature versus nurture Although developmental change runs parallel with chronological age,[citation needed] age itself cannot cause development.[citation needed] The basic mechanisms or causes of developmental change are genetic factors and environmental factors.[citation needed] Genetic factors are responsible for cellular changes like overall growth, changes in proportion of body and brain parts, and the maturation of aspects of function such as vision and dietary needs.[citation needed]

Because genes can be "turned off" and "turned on",[citation needed] the individual's initial genotype may change in function over time, giving rise to further developmental change. Environmental factors affecting development may include both diet and disease exposure, as well as social, emotional, and cognitive experiences.[citation needed] However, examination of environmental factors also shows that young human beings can survive within a fairly broad range of environmental experiences.[19] Rather than acting as independent mechanisms, genetic and environmental factors often interact to cause developmental change.[citation needed] Some aspects of child development are notable for their plasticity, or the extent to which the direction of development is guided by environmental factors as well as initiated by genetic factors.[citation needed] For example, the development of allergic reactions appears to be caused by exposure to certain environmental factors relatively early in life, and protection from early exposure makes the child less likely to show later allergic reactions.[citation needed] When an aspect of development is strongly affected by early experience, it is said to show a high degree of plasticity; when the genetic make-up is the primary cause of development, plasticity is said to be low.[20] Plasticity may involve guidance by endogenous factors like hormones as well as by exogenous factors like infection.[citation needed]

Child playing with bubbles One kind of environmental guidance of development has been described as experiencedependent plasticity, in which behavior is altered as a result of learning from the environment. Plasticity of this type can occur throughout the lifespan and may involve many kinds of behavior, including some emotional reactions.[citation needed] A second type of plasticity, experience-expectant plasticity, involves the strong effect of specific experiences during limited sensitive periods of development.[citation needed] For example, the coordinated use of the two eyes, and the experience of a single three-dimensional image rather than the twodimensional images created by light in each eye, depend on experiences with vision during the second half of the first year of life.[citation needed] Experience-expectant plasticity works to fine-tune aspects of development that cannot proceed to optimum outcomes as a result of genetic factors working alone.[21][22] In addition to the existence of plasticity in some aspects of development, geneticenvironmental correlations may function in several ways to determine the mature characteristics of the individual. Genetic-environmental correlations are circumstances in which genetic factors make certain experiences more likely to occur.[citation needed] For example, in passive genetic-environmental correlation, a child is likely to experience a particular environment because his or her parents' genetic make-up makes them likely to choose or

create such an environment.[citation needed] In evocative genetic-environmental correlation, the child's genetically-caused characteristics cause other people to respond in certain ways, providing a different environment than might occur for a genetically-different child;[citation needed] for instance, a child with Down syndrome may be treated more protectively and less challengingly than a non-Down child.[citation needed] Finally, an active genetic-environmental correlation is one in which the child chooses experiences that in turn have their effect;[citation needed] for instance, a muscular, active child may choose after-school sports experiences that create increased athletic skills, but perhaps preclude music lessons. In all of these cases, it becomes difficult to know whether child characteristics were shaped by genetic factors, by experiences, or by a combination of the two.[23]

[edit] Research issues and methods

1. What develops? What relevant aspects of the individual change over a period of time? 2. What are the rate and speed of development? 3. What are the mechanisms of development - what aspects of experience and heredity cause developmental change? 4. Are there normal individual differences in the relevant developmental changes? 5. Are there population differences in this aspect of development (for example, differences in the development of boys and of girls)? Empirical research that attempts to answer these questions may follow a number of patterns. Initially, observational research in naturalistic conditions may be needed to develop a narrative describing and defining an aspect of developmental change, such as changes in reflex reactions in the first year.[citation needed] This type of work may be followed by correlational studies, collecting information about chronological age and some type of development such as vocabulary growth; correlational statistics can be used to state change. Such studies examine the characteristics of children at different ages.[citation needed] These methods may involve longitudinal studies, in which a group of children are re-examined on a number of occasions as they get older,or cross-sectional studies, in which groups of children of different ages are tested once and compared with each other, or there may be a combination of these approaches. Some child development studies examine the effects of experience or heredity by comparing characteristics of different groups of children in a necessarily non-randomized design.[citation needed] Other studies can use randomized designs to compare outcomes for groups of children who receive different interventions or educational treatments.[19]

[edit] Developmental milestones

Main article: Child development stages Milestones are changes in specific physical and mental abilities (such as walking and understanding language) that mark the end of one developmental period and the beginning of another.[citation needed] For stage theories, milestones indicate a stage transition. Studies of the accomplishment of many developmental tasks have established typical chronological ages associated with developmental milestones. However, there is considerable variation in the achievement of milestones, even between children with developmental trajectories within the normal range. Some milestones are more variable than others; for example, receptive speech

indicators do not show much variation among children with normal hearing, but expressive speech milestones can be quite variable.[citation needed] A common concern in child development is developmental delay involving a delay in an agespecific ability for important developmental milestones. Prevention of and early intervention in developmental delay are significant topics in the study of child development.[citation needed] Developmental delays should be diagnosed by comparison with characteristic variability of a milestone, not with respect to average age at achievement. An example of a milestone would be eye-hand coordination, which includes a child's increasing ability to manipulate objects in a coordinated manner. Increased knowledge of age-specific milestones allows parents and others to keep track of appropriate development.[citation needed]

[edit] Aspects of child development

Child development is not a matter of a single topic, but progresses somewhat differently for different aspects of the individual. Here are descriptions of the development of a number of physical and mental characteristics.[citation needed]

[edit] Physical growth

Physical growth in stature and weight occurs over the 1520 years following birth, as the individual changes from the average weight of 3.5 kg and length of 50 cm at full term birth to full adult size. As stature and weight increase, the individual's proportions also change, from the relatively large head and small torso and limbs of the neonate, to the adult's relatively small head and long torso and limbs.[24] [edit] Speed and pattern of development The speed of physical growth is rapid in the months after birth, then slows, so birth weight is doubled in the first four months, tripled by age 12 months, but not quadrupled until 24 months.[citation needed] Growth then proceeds at a slow rate until shortly before puberty (between about 9 and 15 years of age), when a period of rapid growth occurs.[citation needed] Growth is not uniform in rate and timing across all body parts. At birth, head size is already relatively near to that of an adult, but the lower parts of the body are much smaller than adult size. In the course of development, then, the head grows relatively little, and torso and limbs undergo a great deal of growth.[24] [edit] Mechanisms of developmental change Genetic factors play a major role in determining the growth rate, and particularly the changes in proportion characteristic of early human development. However, genetic factors can produce the maximum growth only if environmental conditions are adequate. Poor nutrition and frequent injury and disease can reduce the individual's adult stature, but the best environment cannot cause growth to a greater stature than is determined by heredity.[24] [edit] Individual variation versus disease Individual differences in height and weight during childhood are considerable. Some of these differences are due to family genetic factors, others to environmental factors, but at some

points in development they may be strongly influenced by individual differences in reproductive maturation.[24] The American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists defines short stature as height more than 2 standard deviations below the mean for age and gender, which corresponds to the shortest 2.3% of individuals.[25] In contrast, failure to thrive is usually defined in terms of weight, and can be evaluated either by a low weight for the child's age, or by a low rate of increase in the weight.[26] A similar term, stunted growth, generally refers to reduced growth rate as a manifestation of malnutrition in early childhood.

[edit] Motor development

A child while learning to walk Abilities for physical movement change through childhood from the largely reflexive (unlearned, involuntary) movement patterns of the young infant to the highly skilled voluntary movements characteristic of later childhood and adolescence. [edit] Speed and pattern of development The speed of motor development is rapid in early life, as many of the reflexes of the newborn alter or disappear within the first year, and slows later. Like physical growth, motor development shows predictable patterns of cephalocaudal (head to foot) and proximodistal (torso to extremities) development, with movements at the head and in the more central areas coming under control before those of the lower part of the body or the hands and feet. Types of movement develop in stage-like sequences;[citation needed] for example, locomotion at 68 months involves creeping on all fours, then proceeds to pulling to stand, "cruising" while holding on to an object, walking while holding an adult's hand, and finally walking independently.[citation needed] Older children continue the sequence by walking sideways or backward, galloping, hopping, skipping with one foot and walking with the other, and finally skipping.[citation needed] By middle childhood and adolescence, new motor skills are acquired by instruction or observation rather than in a predictable sequence.[17] [edit] Mechanisms of motor development The mechanisms involved in motor development involve some genetic components that determine the physical size of body parts at a given age, as well as aspects of muscle and bone strength.[citation needed] Nutrition and exercise also determine strength and therefore the ease and accuracy with which a body part can be moved.[17] Flexibility is also impacted by nutrition and exercise as well. <1)[27] It has also been shown that the frontal lobe develops

posterio-anteriorally (from back to front). This is significant in motor development because the hind portion of the frontal lobe is known to control motor functions. This form of development is known as "Portional Development" and explains why motor functions develop relatively quickly during normal childhood development, while logic, which is controlled by the middle and front portions of the frontal lobe, usually will not develop until late childhood and early adolescence.[28] Opportunities to carry out movements help establish the abilities to flex (move toward the trunk) and extend body parts, both capacities are necessary for good motor ability. Skilled voluntary movements such as passing objects from hand to hand <2) [29] develop as a result of practice and learning.[17] [edit] Individual differences Normal individual differences in motor ability are common and depend in part on the child's weight and build. However, after the infant period, normal individual differences are strongly affected by opportunities to practice, observe, and be instructed on specific movements. Atypical motor development such as persistent primitive reflexes beyond 4-6 months [30] or delayed walking may be an indication of developmental delays or problems such as autism, cerebral palsy, or down syndrome .[17] [31] [edit] Population differences There are some population differences in motor development, with girls showing some advantages in small muscle usage, including articulation of sounds with lips and tongue.[citation needed] Ethnic differences in reflex movements of newborn infants have been reported, suggesting that some biological factor is at work.[citation needed] Cultural differences may encourage learning of motor skills like using the left hand only for sanitary purposes and the right hand for all other uses, producing a population difference.[citation needed] Cultural factors are also seen at work in practiced voluntary movements such as the use of the foot to dribble a soccer ball or the hand to dribble a basketball.[17]

[edit] Cognitive/intellectual development

This section requires expansion. (June 2008) [edit] What develops? The capacity to learn,[citation needed] remember,[citation needed] and symbolise information,[citation needed] and to solve problems,[citation needed] exists at a simple level in young infants, who can perform cognitive tasks such as discriminating animate and inanimate beings or recognizing small numbers of objects. During childhood, learning and information-processing increase in speed, memory becomes increasingly longer, and symbol use and the capacity for abstraction develop until a near-adult level is reached by adolescence.[17] [edit] Mechanisms of cognitive development Cognitive development has genetic and other biological mechanisms, as is seen in the many genetic causes of mental retardation.[citation needed] Environmental factors including food and nutrition, responsiveness of parents, daily experiences, physical activity and love can influence early brain development of children.[32] However, although it is assumed that brain

functions cause cognitive events, it has not been possible to measure specific brain changes and show that they cause cognitive change.[citation needed] Developmental advances in cognition are also related to experience and learning, and this is particularly the case for higher-level abilities like abstraction, which depend to a considerable extent on formal education.[17] [edit] Individual differences There are normal individual differences in the ages at which specific cognitive abilities are achieved,[citation needed] but schooling for children in industrialized countries is based on the assumption that these differences are not large.[citation needed] Atypical delays in cognitive development are problematic for children in cultures that demand advanced cognitive skills for work and for independent living.[17] [edit] Population differences There are few population differences in cognitive development.[citation needed] Boys and girls show some differences in their skills and preferences, but there is a great deal of overlap between the groups.[citation needed] Differences in cognitive achievement of different ethnic groups appears to result from cultural or other environmental factors.[17]

[edit] Social-emotional development

[edit] What develops? Newborn infants do not seem to experience fear or have preferences for contact with any specific people. In the first few months they only experience happiness, sadness, and anger[citation needed]. A babys first smile usually occurs between 6 and 10 weeks. It is called a social smile because it usually occurs during social interactions.[citation needed] By about 812 months, they go through a fairly rapid change and become fearful of perceived threats; they also begin to prefer familiar people and show anxiety and distress when separated from them or approached by strangers.[citation needed] Separation anxiety is a normal stage of development to an extent. Kicking, screaming, and throwing temper tantrums are perfectly normal symptoms for separation anxiety. Depending on the level of intensity, one may determine whether or not a child has separation anxiety disorder. This is when a child constantly refuses to separate from the parent, but in an intense manner. This can be given special treatment but the parent usually cannot do anything about the situation. [33] The capacity for empathy and the understanding of social rules begin in the preschool period and continue to develop into adulthood.[citation needed] Middle childhood is characterized by friendships with age-mates, and adolescence by emotions connected with sexuality and the beginnings of romantic love.[citation needed] Anger seems most intense during the toddler and early preschool period and during adolescence.[17] [edit] Speed and pattern of development Some aspects of social-emotional development,[citation needed] like empathy,[citation needed] develop gradually, but others, like fearfulness,[citation needed] seem to involve a rather sudden

reorganization of the child's experience of emotion.[citation needed] Sexual and romantic emotions develop in connection with physical maturation.[17] The ability to learn temporal patterns in sequenced actions was investigated in elementaryschool age children. Temporal learning depends upon a process of integrating timing patterns with action sequences. Children ages 613 and young adults performed a serial response time task in which a response and a timing sequence were presented repeatedly in a phase-matched manner, allowing for integrative learning. The degree of integrative learning was measured as the slowing in performance that resulted when phase-shifting the sequences. Learning was similar for the children and adults on average but increased with age for the children. Executive function measured by Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) performance as well as a measure of response speed also improved with age. Finally, WCST performance and response speed predicted temporal learning. Taken together, the results indicate that temporal learning continues to develop in pre-adolescents and that maturing executive function or processing speed may play an important role in acquiring temporal patterns in sequenced actions and the development of this ability.[34] [edit] Mechanisms of social and emotional development Genetic factors appear to regulate some social-emotional developments that occur at predictable ages, such as fearfulness, and attachment to familiar people. Experience plays a role in determining which people are familiar, which social rules are obeyed,and how anger is expressed.[17] Parenting practices have been shown to predict children's emotional intelligence. The objective is to study the time mothers and children spent together in joint activity, the types of activities that they develop when they are together, and the relation that those activities have with the children's trait emotional intelligence. Data was collected for both mothers and children ( N = 159) using self-report questionnaires. Correlations between time variables and trait emotional intelligence dimensions were computed using Pearson's Product-Moment Correlation Coefficient. Partial correlations between the same variables controlling for responsive parenting were also computed. The amount of time mothers spent with their children and the quality of their interactions are important in terms of children's trait emotional intelligence, not only because those times of joint activity reflect a more positive parenting, but because they are likely to promote modeling, reinforcement, shared attention, and social cooperation.[35] [edit] Individual differences Normal individual differences in motor ability are common and depend in part on the child's weight and build. However, after the infant period, normal individual differences are strongly affected by opportunities to practice, observe, and be instructed on specific movements. Atypical motor development may be an indication of developmental delays or problems such as autism or cerebral palsy.[17] [edit] Population differences Population differences may occur in older children, if, for example they have learned that it is appropriate for boys to express emotion or behave differently than girls,[citation needed] or if customs learned by children of one ethnic group are different from those learned in

another.[citation needed] Social and emotional differences between boys and girls of a given age may also be associated with differences in the timing of puberty characteristic of the two sexes.[17]

[edit] Language
[edit] What develops? In addition to acquiring a large spoken vocabulary,[citation needed] there are four main areas in which the child must attain competence, regardless of the language or dialect spoken.[citation needed] These are referred to as phonology or sounds,[citation needed] semantics or the encoded meanings,[citation needed] syntax or the way in which words are combined[citation needed] and pragmatics or knowledge of how language is used in different contexts.[4] [edit] Speed and pattern of development Receptive language, the understanding of others' speech, has a gradual development beginning at about 6 months.[citation needed] However, expressive language, the production of words, moves rapidly after its beginning at about a year of age[citation needed], with a "vocabulary explosion"[citation needed] of rapid word acquisition occurring in the middle of the second year.[citation needed] This vocabulary expansion is closely linked to the ability to repeat spoken words and enables the rapid acquisition of skill in their pronunciation.[36][37] Grammatical rules and word combinations appear at about age two.[citation needed] Mastery of vocabulary and grammar continue gradually through the preschool and school years. Adolescents still have smaller vocabularies than adults and experience more difficulty with constructions like the passive voice.[citation needed] Babies from one month old can produce "ooh" sounds which appear to grow out of pleasurable interactions with caregivers in a mutual "dialogue". According to Stern, this process is communication of affect between adult and infant in a mutual, rhythmic interaction. The attunement and "gaze-coupling" in which infant and adult take different roles is thought to anticipate the give-and-take of later dialogue.[38] From about 6 to 9 months babies produce more vowels, some consonants and echolalia, or the frequent repetition of sounds like "dadadada" which appear to have some phonetic characteristics of later speech. It is thought that a crucial part of the development of speech is the time caregivers spend "guessing" what their infants are trying to communicate thus integrating the child into their social world.[citation needed] When infants are trying to learn words from others they tend to create protowords, which is a "unique string of phonemes that serve word-like functions."[39] The attribution of intentionality to the infant's utterances has been called "shared memory" and forms a complex series of actions, intentions and actions in response in an improvised way.[4] It has been argued that children's phonological systems develop in ways that are parallel to adult languages, even if they are using unrecognizable "words".[40] First words have the function of naming or labelling but also condense meaning as in "milk" meaning "I want milk".[citation needed] Vocabulary typically grows from about 20 words at 18 months to around 200 words at 21 months.[citation needed]From around 18 months the child starts to combine words into two word sentences.[citation needed] Typically the adult expands it to clarify meaning. By 2427 months the child is producing three or four word sentences using a logical, if not

strictly correct, syntax.[citation needed] The theory is that children apply a basic set of rules such as adding 's' for plurals or inventing simpler words out of words too complicated to repeat like "choskit" for chocolate biscuit.[citation needed] Following this there is a rapid appearance of grammatical rules and ordering of sentences.[citation needed] There is often an interest in rhyme, and imaginative play frequently includes conversations.[4] Children's recorded monologues give insight into the development of the process of organising information into meaningful units.[41] By three years the child is beginning to use complex sentences, including relative clauses, although still perfecting various linguistic systems.[citation needed] By five years of age the child's use of language is very similar to that of an adult.[4] From the age of about three children can indicate fantasy or make-believe linguistically, produce coherent personal stories and fictional narrative with beginnings and endings.[4] It is argued that children devise narrative as a way of understanding their own experience and as a medium for communicating their meaning to others.[42] The ability to engage in extended discourse emerges over time from regular conversation with adults and peers. For this the child needs to learn to combine his perspective with that of others and with outside events and learn to use linguistic indicators to show he is doing this.[citation needed] They also learn to adjust their language depending on to whom they are speaking.[citation needed] Typically by the age of about 9 a child can recount other narratives in addition to their own experiences, from the perspectives of the author, the characters in the story and their own views.[43] [edit] Mechanisms of language development Although the role of adult discourse is important in facilitating the child's learning, there is considerable disagreement amongst theorists about the extent to which children's early meanings and expressive words arises directly from adult input as opposed to intrinsic factors relating to the child's cognitive functions. Findings about the initial mapping of new words, the ability to decontextualise words and refine meaning are diverse.[4] One hypothesis is known as the syntactic bootstrapping hypothesis, referring to the child's ability to infer meaning from cues, using grammatical information from the structure of sentences.[44] Another is the multi-route model in which it is argued that context-bound words and referential words follow different routes; the first being mapped onto event representations and the latter onto mental representations. In this model, although parental input has a critical role, children rely on cognitive processing to establish subsequent use of words.[45] However, naturalistic research on language development has indicated that preschoolers' vocabularies are strongly associated with the number of words addressed to them by adults.[46] There is as yet no single accepted theory of language acquisition. Current explanations vary in emphasis from learning theory, with its emphasis on reinforcement and imitation (Skinner), to biological, nativist theories, with innate underlying mechanisms (Chomsky and Pinker), to a more interactive approach within a social context (Piaget and Tomasello).[4] Behaviorists argue that given the universal presence of a physical environment and, usually, a social environment, any theory of language must account for the effects of the contingent relations of these on an individuals development of language behaviour.[47][48][49] Pinker argues that complex language is universal and has an innate basis. Pinker's argument is partly based on the development of creole languages from pidgins. The children of parents who communicate, without grammatical structures, in pidgin, develop a creole language of their own accord, complete with standardised word orders, markers for present, future and past tenses and subordinate clauses.[50] There is some support for this from the development of

sign language amongst deaf children thrown together at a young age in special schools in Nicaragua who spontaneously developed a pidgin which was then developed into a creole by a younger generation of children coming into the schools, (ISN).[51][52] [edit] Individual differences Slow expressive language development (SELD), a delay in the use of words coupled with normal understanding, is characteristic of a small proportion of children who later display normal language use.[citation needed] Dyslexia is a significant topic in child development as it affects approximately 5% of the population (in the western world).[citation needed] Essentially it is a disorder whereby children fail to attain the language skills of reading, writing and spelling commensurate with their intellectual abilities.[citation needed] Dyslexic children show a range of differences in their language development,[citation needed] from subtle speech impairments[citation needed] to mispronunciations[citation needed]to word-finding difficulties.[citation needed] The most common phonological difficulties are limitations of verbal short-term memory[citation needed] and phonological awareness.[citation needed] Such children often have difficulties with long-term verbal learning such as months of the year or learning tables.[citation needed] In the late 1980s the phonological deficit hypothesis has become the dominant explanation.[citation needed] The difficulties in early articulation,[citation needed] basic phonological skills and acquiring basic building blocks means that dyslexics have to invest too many resources in just coping with the basics rather than acquiring new information or skills.[citation needed] Early identification enables children to receive help before they fail.[4] Atypically delayed language development may be diagnostic of autism,[citation needed] and regression of language[citation needed] may indicate serious disabilities like Rett syndrome.[citation needed] Poor language development also accompanies general developmental delays such as those found in Down syndrome.[citation needed]

[edit] Risk factors for poor child development

Research has found several risk factors that may affect child development negatively.[citation needed] Many of these are especially prevalent in developing nations.[citation needed] Stunting due to malnutrition may reduce IQ[citation needed] by 6-13 points and affects 25-30% of children.[citation needed] Iodine deficiency may reduce IQ by 9-13 points and affects 35% of children.[citation needed] Iron deficiency anemia may reduce IQ by 1.73 IQ points/10 g/L hemoglobin.[citation needed] Anemia affects 20-30% of children.[citation needed] Lack of stimulation/learning opportunities may reduce IQ by 0.5-1 SD.[citation needed] 60-90% of children are not stimulated by parents.[citation needed] A number of other factors have also been associated with poor child development with varying degree of evidence: Maternal depression,[citation needed] exposure to violence,[citation needed] intrauterine growth retardation,[citation needed] malaria,[citation needed] lead,[citation needed] lack of breast feeding,[citation needed] parental loss,[citation needed] zinc deficiency, intestinal helminths,[citation needed] HIV, diarrhea, arsenic, and manganese and pesticides.[53][54]

[edit] Socioeconomic disadvantage and child development

Current investigations into the role of socioeconomic factors on child development repeatedly show that continual poverty is more harmful on IQ,[citation needed] school achievement and emotional stability than short-lived poverty. That being said, children coming from continual or temporary poverty households still perform lower than children in middle class families.[citation needed] There are a number of factors that contribute to the reduction of cognitive functioning in developing children who live in poverty.[citation needed] These factors include but are not limited to: prenatal and postnatal complications, a lack of access to positive resources that help combat negative surroundings, ample exposure to lead and a lack of household cognitive stimulation.[citation needed] Along with these factors, one must also include childrens learning environments at school and what leads to inadequate school achievement.[citation needed] Factors that can cause this negativity in school environment include: lower teacher expectancies and poor academic-readiness skills.[citation needed] Thus, the connection that exists between socioeconomics disadvantages and emotional functioning for children in poverty, seems to be between unreliable and unhealthy parenting infused with continued exposure to chronic stress in the home, school and environment.[55]

[edit] See also

Overpopulation Autism Behavioral cusp Attachment theory Birth order Child development stages, for development specifications by each month and year Child life specialist Child prodigy Critical period Clinical social work Developmental psychology Developmental psychobiology Peter Pan syndrome

Developmental psychopathology Thematic coherence Early childhood education Evolutionary developmental psychology Healthy narcissism Jointness (psychodynamics) Neurodevelopmental disorder Pedagogy Play (activity)

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30. ^ <McCall, M. D., & Greeley, J. C. (2005). Early gross motor skills intervention ideas. Retrieved from http://www.usdb.org/deafblind/db/CIT Web Lessons/Motor Development and Movement/motordevelopmentGP_print.html> 31. ^ 2) McCall, M. D., & Greeley, J. C. (2005). Early gross motor skills intervention ideas. Retrieved from http://www.usdb.org/deafblind/db/CIT Web Lessons/Motor Development and Movement/motordevelopmentGP_print.html 32. ^ Brotherson.S,"Understanding Brain Development in Young Children", April 2005 33. ^ Lawrence Robinson (2012). Separation Anxiety in Children. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.helpguide.org/mental/separation_anxiety_causes_prevention_treatment.htm. [Last Accessed 19 November 12]. 34. ^ Shin, J. C. (2011). The development of temporal coordination in children. Brain & Cognition, 76(1), 106-114. doi:10.1016/j.bandc.2011.02.011 35. ^ Alegre, A. (2012). The Relation Between the Time Mothers and Children Spent Together and the Children's Trait Emotional Intelligence. Child & Youth Care Forum, 41(5), 493-508. doi:10.1007/s10566-012-9180-z 36. ^ Masur EF. (1995). Infants' early verbal imitation and their later lexical development. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 41, 286-306.OCLC 89395784 37. ^ Gathercole SE. (2006). Non word repetition and word learning: The nature of the relationship. Applied Psycholinguistics 27: 513-543.doi:10.1017.S0142716406060383 38. ^ Stern DN (1990), Diary of a Baby, Harmondsworth: Penguin 39. ^ Carlson, Neil R.; C. Donald Heth; Harold Miller; John W. Donahoe; William Buskist; G. Neil Martin; Rodney M. Schmaltz (2010). Psychology the Science of Behaviour (4 ed.). Toronto, Ontario: Pearson Canada. pp. 317. 40. ^ Ingram D (1999), "Phonological acquisition", in Barrett M, The Development of Language, London: Psychology Press, pp. 7397 41. ^ Bruner JS and Lucariello J, "Monologue as narrative recreation of the world", in Nelson K, Narratives from the Crib, Cambridge MA: Harvard University press 42. ^ Bruner JS (1990), Acts of Meaning, Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press 43. ^ Pan B and Snow C (1999), "The development of conversational and discourse skills", in Barrett M, The Development of Language, London: Psychology Press, pp. 22950 44. ^ Gleitman LR (1990), "The structural sources of verb meaning", Language Acquisition 1 (1): 355, doi:10.1207/s15327817la0101_2. 45. ^ Barrett MD, Harris M and Chasan J (1991), "Early lexical development and maternal speech: a comparison of children's initial and subsequent uses of words", Journal of Child Language 18 (1): 21 40, doi:10.1017/S0305000900013271, PMID 2010501. 46. ^ Hart B and Risley T (1995), Meaningful differences in the everyday experience of young American children, Baltimore: P.H. Brookes 47. ^ Moerk E (1996), "Input and learning processes in first language acquisition", Advances in Child Development and Behavior 26: 181229, doi:10.1016/S0065-2407(08)60509-1. 48. ^ Moerk EL (1986), "Environmental factors in early language acquisition", in Whitehurst GJ, Annals of child development, 3, Greenwich: CTJAI press 49. ^ Moerk EL (1989), "The LAD was a lady and the tasks were ill defined", Developmental Review 9 (1): 2157, doi:10.1016/0273-2297(89)90022-1. 50. ^ Pinker S (1994), The Language Instinct, London: Allen Lane 51. ^ Kegl J, Senghas A and Coppola M (1999), "Creation through construct: Sign language emergence and sign language change in Nicaragua", in DeGrafs M, Language Creation and Language Change: Creolization, Diachrony and Development, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press 52. ^ Morford JP and Kegl J (2000), "Gestural precursors to linguistic constructs: how input shapes the form of language", in McNeill D, Language and Gesture, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 53. ^ Walker, S. P.; Wachs, T. D.; Meeks Gardner, J.; Lozoff, B.; Wasserman, G. A.; Pollitt, E.; Carter, J. A. (2007). "Child development: Risk factors for adverse outcomes in developing countries". The Lancet 369 (9556): 145. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(07)60076-2. edit 54. ^ ENGLE, P.L., S. GRANTHAM-MCGREGOR, M.M. BLACK, et al. 2007. How to avoid the loss of potential in over 200 million young children in the developing world. Child Health Educ. 1: 68 87 55. ^ http://search.proquest.com.myaccess.library.utoronto.ca/docview/614357135/fulltextPDF?accountid=1 4771

[edit] Further reading

Berl MM, Duke ES, Mayo J, et al. (August 2010). "Functional anatomy of listening and reading comprehension during development". Brain Lang 114 (2): 11525. doi:10.1016/j.bandl.2010.06.002. PMC 2962416. PMID 20656105. //www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/P MC2962416/. Bishop DV, Anderson M, Reid C, Fox AM (2011). "Auditory development between 7 and 11 years: an eventrelated potential (ERP) study". PLoS ONE 6 (5): e18993. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0018993. PMC 3090390. PMID 21573058. //www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/P MC3090390/. Friederici AD, Brauer J, Lohmann G (2011). "Maturation of the language network: from inter- to intrahemispheric connectivities". PLoS ONE 6 (6): e20726. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0020726. PMC 3113799. PMID 21695183. //www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/P MC3113799/. Giedd JN, Rapoport JL (September 2010). "Structural MRI of pediatric brain development: what have we learned and where are we going?". Neuron 67 (5): 72834. doi:10.1016/j.neuron.2010.08.040. PMC 3285464. PMID 20826305. //www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/P MC3285464/. Hu Z, Chan RC, McAlonan GM (2010). "Maturation of social attribution skills in typically developing children: an investigation using the social attribution task". Behav Brain Funct 6: 10. doi:10.1186/1744-9081-6-10. PMC 2830993. PMID 20181076. //www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/P MC2830993/.

Jolles DD, Crone EA (2012). "Training the developing brain: a neurocognitive perspective". Front Hum Neurosci 6: 76. doi:10.3389/fnhum.2012.00076. PMC 3321411. PMID 22509161. //www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/P MC3321411/. Mooney, Carol Garhart (2000). Theories of Childhood: an Introduction to Dewey, Montessori, Erikson, Piaget & Vygotsky. Redleaf Press. ISBN 1-884834-85-X. Poulin-Dubois D, Brooker I, Chow V (2009). "The developmental origins of nave psychology in infancy". Adv Child Dev Behav 37: 55104. doi:10.1016/S0065-2407(09)03702-1. PMID 19673160. Stiles J, Jernigan TL (December 2010). "The basics of brain development". Neuropsychol Rev 20 (4): 32748. doi:10.1007/s11065-010-9148-4. PMC 2989000. PMID 21042938. //www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/P MC2989000/. Tau GZ, Peterson BS (January 2010). "Normal development of brain circuits". Neuropsychopharmacology 35 (1): 14768. doi:10.1038/npp.2009.115. PMC 3055433. PMID 19794405. //www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/P MC3055433/. Vannest J, Karunanayaka PR, Schmithorst VJ, Szaflarski JP, Holland SK (May 2009). "Language networks in children: evidence from functional MRI studies". AJR Am J Roentgenol 192 (5): 11906. doi:10.2214/AJR.08.2246. PMC 2791163. PMID 19380541. //www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/P MC2791163/.

[edit] External links

The Society for Research in Child Development (SRCD) Child development, including developmental delays Child and Family WebGuide: typical development Developmental Psychology: teaching about child development Child Development - Parenting - Child Psychology Info Zero to Three. A national nonprofit multidisciplinary organization on child development World Association for Infant Mental Health Early Childhood Development Offers a Fresh Start for Children in Poverty Child Development Guide | Developmental Stages From Birth To Teens