UNIT 1 INTRODUCTION TO CHILD

DEVELOPMENT
Structure

1.1 Introduction
1.2 Objectives
1.3 Child Development
1.4 Meaning of Growth
I .5 Meaning of Development
1.6 Differences between Growth and Development
1.7 Principles of Development '
1.8 Stages and types of Development
'1.8.1 Stages of Human Development
1.8.2Types of Development
1.8.3 Role of Teachers
1.9 Let Us Sum Up
1.10 Check Your Progress: Possible Answers

1.1 INTRODUCTION
This Unit is the aimed at acquainting you to the different stages of physical growth
and development in human beings of around 11 to 18 years of age. In this Unit, you
will become familiar with the four key periods of growth and human development:
infancy (birth to 2 years old), early childhood (3 to 8 years old), middle childhood (9
to 11 years old), and adolescence (12 to 18 years old). We will however, give much
emphasis to middle childhood. This Unit will therefore provide you an overview of
the various dimensions of a child's development i.e. the principles of development,
stages of development, and different types of development.

1.2 OBJECTIVES
After going through this Unit, you should be able to:

Define the concepts of 'Growth' and 'Development'

Differentiate 'Growth' from 'Development'
Identify the changes in a child resulting from growth as well as development
Describe the principles of development
Enumerate the stages of development
Enumerate different types of child development

1.3 CHILD DEVELOPMENT

Children are dynamic beings that grow physically and intellectually as they learn
social behaviours, express emotions, learn values, and show affection towards others.
Major developmental events take place in children's lives during their elementary
school years and from around grade five on, children are increasingly adolescent like
in their attitudes and behaviour. Children must pass through several stages, or take
specific steps, on their road to becoming adults. For most people, there are four or five
such stages of growth where they learn certain things: infancy (birth to age two), early
childhood (ages 2 to 11 years), later childhood (ages 11 to 12) and adolescence (ages
12 to 18). Persons 18 and over are considered adults in the Indian society. Of course,
there are some who will try to act older than their years, but mostly people grow in
this same pattern
The Elementary &hoot Child: A child is always changing till s h e becomes an adult irrespective of the fact that the
Introduction
teacher or the parent is mostly not aware of these changes that are taking place; rather
the tendency is for our concepts of children to lag behind their actual growth and
development. The reason for this is that the changes that constitute growth and
development usually come gradually; hence we are seldom conscious that they are
occurring.

The primary purpose of studying the development of a child is to understand her

better. You as an elementary school teacher can deal more efficiently, effectively, and
satisfactorily with the children if you are to understand the process of how .they grow
and develop.

1.4 MEANING OF GROWTH

The term 'growth' refers to the structural and physiological changes in an individual.
Growth is the quantitative change in bodily characteristics, and its sequence is
generally consistent among children although growth rates may vary considerably.
Regardless of its rate, growth is measurable.

Growth is a function of the organism rather than that of the environment as such. We
can measure the height and weight of a developing child, for example at six-month
intervals. These figures would give us the child's growth rate.

1.5 MEANING OF DEVELOPMENT

The term 'development' refers to a progressive series of changes that occur in an
orderly, predictable pattern as a result of maturation and experience.

Thus, development is a series of orderly changes leading towards maturity. There is a

natural arrangement of changes in the individuals, and each change is dependent upon
the preceding ones, and also affects the following ones. The changes within
development are called 'progressive' because they enable an individual to adapt to
and adjust with hislher environment - physical, social, emotional, etc.

Though growth and development are closely related yet they are not the same. The
differences between them are as follows:

1.6 DIFFERENCES BETWEEN GROWTH AND

DEVELOPMENT

S.No. Growth Development

1. Growth is one of the dimensions Development is a wider and

of the developmental process. comprehensive term. It refers to the
Development in its quantitative overall changes in an individual but
aspect is growth. growth is one of its parts.

2. Growth can largely be measured, Development will be difficult to

so it is quantitative. measure on a scale so it is qualitative.

3. The changes within growth are The changes within development are
measurable. observable.
 Maturity (physical) is the
4.
culmination of growth. Thus,
growth does not continue
throughout life.
5. Growth may or may not bring
development. A child may grow
(in terms of weight) by becoming
fat but this growth may not bring
any functional improvement
(qualitative change) or
development.
Development is a life-long process. It Introduction to Child
Development
starts from the birth to death. It does
not end with maturity.
Development is also possible without
growth as we see in some children
that they do not grow in terms of
height, weight or size but they do
experience functional improvement or
development in physical, social,
emotional or intellectual aspects.

6. The term growth is used in purely Development implies overall changes

physical sense. It generally refers
to an increase in size, length,
height, and weight.
in shape, form or structure resulting in
improved working or functioning. It
indicates the changes in the quality or
character rather than in quantitative
aspects.

Now, having studied the meaning of growth and development and having also known
the differences between them, let us try to understand the principles of development.
These principles can also be labeled as the characteristics of development.

Why should a teacher know the principles of development? The most important
arguments are:

(i) Knowledge of the process of development at different age groups helps a teacher to
know what to expect of a child and when to expect it. A teacher unaware of this
process may often expect too much or too little of a child at any point. Expecting a
child of standard 111 to learn algebra will be too much of an expectation.

(ii) If we know the process of development then the standards or the levels of
expectations from the child can also be set. These standards or levels can be in the
form of heighuweight scales - scales for the mental age, sociaYemotional
development, etc. The pattern of development for all normal children is almost the
same and can prove very helpful for us in judging each child in terms of the
normslstandards for that child's age. However, there is no hard and fast rule in this
context because normal children also reflect variations in their development patterns.
Yet deviations in development pattern from normal children tell something about
them which can be of great consequence for us.
- .

Check Your Progress 1

Note: Write your answers in the space given below.
Compare your answers with those given at the end of the unit.

Choose the correct answer and fill in the blanks in each sentence:

(i) The changes under growth and development of a child are

(rapidlslow)
(ii) Physiological and structural changes be measured. (cannoucan)
(iii)The rate of growth in all individuals is . (sameldifferent)
(iv) Maturation and experience lead to . (growth/development)
I he Elementary School Child:
I ntroduction 1.7 PRINCIPLES OF DEVELOPMENT
Development is always in a sequence:

Every living being followed a pattern of development. A child also develops in an

orderly sequence that is almost similar in all children. Each stage of development
leads to the next; for instance, all children first learn to sit without support before they
learn to stand up. Drawing a circle is learnt first before learning to draw a square.

The rate and speed of development may vary in individual cases but the sequence of
development pattern is almost the same in all children. One of the sequential patterns
of development relates to the two directions in which development takes place.
Normally, development of the upper portions of the body precedes development of the
lower portions. This is known is 'cephalocaudal' or "head to toe" sequence. This
means that improvements in the structure and function in a child's body comes first in
the head region, then in the trunk and last in the leg region. This growth pattern helps
to explain why children sit before they can stand and crawl before they can walk.

Secondly, the development moves from the centre line of the body outward towards
the distant or peripheral parts referred to as 'proximodistal' or 'near to far'. The word
'proximodistal' is made up of two words: Proximity and Distance. This is the reason
that in a fetus, the head and the trunk are fairly well developed before the rudimentary
limb buds appear; gradually the arm buds lengthen and then develop into hands and
fingers. This growth pattern explains why children in the early years are more adept at
controlling larger muscles than the whole limbs. This also explains their inability to
control finer muscles that are required for the manipulation of tiny objects with
fingers.

Source: (hnp://ww.psy.pdx.edu/PsiCafe/Overheads/Cepha&ProxiDev.htm)

You can see that in this photo, of a one-month-old infant's head and trunk are larger as
compared to the legs and arms.

Cephalocaudal Principle of Development: The upper portion of the body develops

before the lower part of the body.

Proximodistal Principle of Development: The middle part-of the body develops

quicker than the outer part of the body.

Development is affected by the Individual Differences

If you enter a classroom full of children, you can find a beautiful panorama of
individual differences as well as similarities. The children of almost similar age are so
vastly different from one another that each child stands out as a distinct child. These
individual differences are the result of the differences in the heredity and the
environment each child receives. Every child follows a developmental schedule which
is characteristically her own. All children therefore do not reach the same point of
development at the same time or at the same age.
 Introduction to Child
Each child is a unique entity and no two individuals are alike. As teachers we must Development
always be conscious to this fact and our entire behavior with the children should be
directed by this reality. Of course, we cannot treat every child similarly so far as
teaching is concerned.

Development proceeds from general to specific responses

From babbling to the production of clear speech is a classic example of a child's

movement from the general to specific responses. Many such other examples can be
cited which all indicate that the child develops from general to specific response. The
earliest emotional response of the newborn is generally diffused excitement and this
slowly gives way to specific emotional patterns of anger, joy, fear, etc. Babies wave
their arms in general random movements before they are capable of such specific
responses as reaching for an object held before them. Similarly, in early stages of
language development the child may use a particular word for any type of animal or
any other thing. Gradually, as her vocabulary increases, she learns to use correct
specific words. Thus, specific ones gradually replace uncoordinated
movements/responses.

Different stages of development have their characteristic features

Every child passes through various stages of development but on these different stages
of development the characteristic features of development of every normal child are
more or less the same. For example, by the age of one and a half years, a child is
normally able to walk independently. Similarly, we expect certain physical
development and maturation in an adolescent e.g. changes in body proportion,
appearance of body hair, etc. If any difference is observed in any type of development
the reasons for such differences are social, cultural, racial, economic, etc.

We routinely use chronological age to give us some idea of a child we do not know of.
h the same way, a particular stage of development can indicate what to expect of a
child. Knowing the developmental patterns for different age groups helps us to know
what to expect of children of that age group and the listed behaviours a child is
expected to learn at each stage. These are known as developmental tasks. Some of
these arise as a result of physical maturatioh' e.g. learning to walk. Other tasks are
developed from cultural/social expectations e.g. a child from a rural area is expected
to learn various skills required for farming.

The developmental tasks as suggested by the psychologist Havighurst for children for
6-12 years are given in the box. These include various physical and mental
development areas that children in this age group must accomplish. The
developmental tasks serve a very useful purpose by acting as guidelines to parents and
teachers to know what children should learn at a given stage. You as a teacher have an
important role to play to help children master these tasks. Elementary class children
are most pliable and their experiences at this age have significant impact on them.
Both parents and teachers have the responsibility of helping children master the
developmental tasks successfully so that they can progress into the next stage. It is
worth mentioning that these tasks are meant to be mastered over a span of six years
and children in, say class 111, cannot be expected to have mastered all of them.
The Elementary School Child:
Introduction Havighurst's Developmental Tasks for 6-12 years.

Learning physical skills necessary for ordinary games

Building wholesome attitudes towards oneself as a growing organism
Learning to get along with age mates
Learning appropriate masculine or feminine roles
Developing fundamental skills in reading, writing, and calculating
Developing concepts necessary for doing everyday activities
Developing conscience, morality, and a scale of values
Achieving personal independence
Developing appropriate attitudes towards social groups and institutions

Though the process of development is continuous for both mental and physical
spheres the rate of development varies in respect of each individual and at each stage
of development. As children grow, each area of development proceeds at its own rate
and reaches its maturity in its own time period. For example, the heart, 1iver;and
digestive organs grow slowly in childhood but rapidly during the early years of
adolescence. Memory for concrete facts and objects develops more quickly than
memory for abstract and theoretical material.

Sometimes one aspect of development may slow down the growth and development
of another area. It may, therefore, appear as though only one area is developing. For
instance, in a young child, growth in language slows down when children learn to
walk. The children seem to spend all their energy in acquiring the new activity.

The child develops as a unified whole

To understand children and their behaviour and activities better, we must view
development as something that happens to the whole child. Whether the child is
learning a task in school or playing in the park it must never be forgotten that it is the
total child who is involved. Though we have physical, moral, emotional, social, and
cognitive developments as the types or kinds of development yet there is no watertight
compartmentalization of each. Growth of various internal and external organs as well
as mental development takes place simultaneously and not sequentially. Each aspect
of development is dependent on the others and is also influenced at the same timeby
others. All the aspects are interrelated and integrated. Problems in one area of
development can affect the development in other areas too. A mentally challenged
child differs from normal children not only in mental efficiency but also in physical,
social, and cognitive efficiencies.

Check Your Progress 2

I I . What is pmximodistal development?

I
2. What is cephalocaudal development?

3. Give two examples that suggest that a child develops from general to specific
response?
..
 -
Introduction to Child
1.8 STAGES AND TYPES OF DEVELOPMENT Development

1.8.1 Stages of Human Development

From the discussion so far you must have understood that every child grows through
various stages of development. This process of development begins from the moment
a child is conceived in her mother's womb. In order that the process of development is
well understood every individual's total life span has been divided into various stages
of development which are as follows:

rStages of Human Development

Infancy

(2 years to 1I years)

q7agr-] (1 9 years onwards) "

Adolescent's stage (i.e. stage of most elementary school children)

During the adolescent stage, learners become better aware of the natural stages of
growth as they focus on the kinds of physical changes in their lives. This stage has a
special relationship to the other stages of human development. It will be observed that
at this stage, adolescents have a greater infusion of emerging sexual energy in their
lives. It breaks up stability making possible more mature personality characteristics,
which includes mature sexual intimacy and relationships with the opposite sex. This is
the stage when adolescents question old values without a sense of dread or loss of
identity. They explore many roles within a social context even as they develop a sense
of sexuality and personal identity as a leaderlfollower, introvert or extrovert.

During the adolescent stage of human development, there is a strong need among
those in the group to advance to more mature relationships and a personal sense of
purpose, establishing of a set of beliefs and personal philosophy. It has been called
the stage of "formal operations", that is the stage when adolescents become less
dependant on the immediate environment for his I her thinking. The adolescent
develops advanced logical and mathematical thinking skills. She or he has the ability
to form multiple hypotheses to predict possible outcomes of non-realized possibilities.
Moreover, the adolescent acquires the ability to deal with analogies and multiple
variables as they think abstractly, philosophically and about "thought" itself. During
psychosocial crisis fot example, adolescence learns how to answer satisfactorily and
happily the question of "Who am I?'. Most boys and girls ties to experiment with
minor delincluency; rebellion flourishes even when self-doubt floods the youngster.

This period of human development has also been referred to as "school age". School
age period is characterized by crisis handling, for better or worse, presumably up to
and possibly including some of junior high school. Here the child learns to master the
more formal skills of life:
The Elementary School Child: relating with peers according to rules,
Introduction
progressing from free play to play that may be elaborately structured by rules and
may demand formal teamwork, such as cricket,
mastering social studies, reading, arithmetic.

Homework is a necessity for adolescent learners and the need for self-discipline
increases yearly. The adolescent learner's successful resolution with earlier
psychosocial crisis become trusting, autonomous, and full of initiative and learns
easily enough to be industrious. However, the mistrusting child will doubt the future.
The shame - and guilt-filled child will experience defeat and inferiority while the
successful adolescent will experience true intimacy - the sort of intimacy that makes
possit'e good marriage or a genuine and enduring friendship.

1.8.2 Types of Development

Physical or Motor Development

Physical or motor development may be defined as the changes in children's ability to
control their body's movement, from infant's first spontaneous waving and kicking to
the adoptative control of riaching, locomotion, and complex sports skills. Motor
development among children is influenced by peripheral factors, perfection
information, and learning for adoptive control of movements, each having its own
developmental process. Independent walking, for example, emerges when infants
 Introduction to Child
have sufficient muscle strength, slimmed down body portions; desire to go Dcvclopmcnt
somewhere, balance control as well as brain maturation.

Posture plays a crucial role in motor development. Manual skills, locomotor skills,
and lifting or turning the head requires stable postural base. Each aspect of motor
development requires learning about new action systems i.e. running, sitting, crawling
or walking. The first step towards a new posture will require contraction of large
rnuscle groups to free up energy and allow attention to be focused on the expected
goal i.e. standing.

Xlarrual skills begin before thc birth of children. While inside the womb, fetuses wave
their arms; produce isolated finger movements such as bringing their +hu:nb to their
mouth. After birth, infants have to cope with new environments when their arm flaps
reach objects. Children initially solve the problem of getting their hands to a target in
their own way. At the stage of about four months, some infants must overcome
gravitational force to move their arms from their sides while more active infants do
dampen inertial forces to control ongoing, spontaneous arms-flaps. When babies are
about eight months, their motor developments enable them to use visual information
about size, shape, and orientation to adjust the shape of their hands before contacting
any object. Older infants can intercept moving targets by moving their hands on the
opposite direction before the object arrives. Some older infants can use their skills to
bring the objects to their mouths, and to coordinate visual, tactile, and oral exploration
by alternating between looking at the object, turning and fingering it, and sucking..

The moment infants are able to manipulate their posture, use visual information and to
wave their hands; they can then use these skills to extend their abilities and to bring
about rewarding outcomes. They are able to make a noise by banging hard objects on
hard surfaces. A nine-month-old child can bang a spoon on the floor but cannot use
the same spoon to take food to the mouth until after some months.

Motor development also leads to balance and locomotion. Before a child is born, the
spontaneous arms and leg movements contribute to building and strengthening muscle
necessary for locon~otion.Newborn children are not able to balance their muscle
strengths with their posture but they can attempt to do so at a later period through
crawling movements when placed in a pool of water, and stepping movements when
placed on top of a flat surface. Crawling represents the first step towards locomotion.
Some children develop crawling habits by first scrapping along on their tummies
while others skip this phase to crawl on hands and knees.

Independent walking typically appears after several upright transitional stages of

pulling to a stand, balancing and cruising sideways using furniture for support. Before
the age of seven, children's small steps characterize walking, with a wide space
between the feet. Their toes point outwards and their legs are almost straight, with
elbows bent upwards.

Movements among children require balanced control to keep the center of mass over
the base of support. Children also exhibit compensatory movements when trying to
recover from a fall. Keeping a balanced control is difficult for children because their
body proportions are top heavy and they fall faster due to their short height. Children
rely on the following for a balanced control:

Somatosensory information from their muscle, joints, and skin.

Vestibular information from accelerations of the head.
Visual flow information created by the body's movement.

It should be noted that motor development does not stop after infancy. After infancy
stage, children acquire a host of more complex activities such as writing, playing,
jumping and skipping.
The Elementary School Child: 1.8.3 Role of Teachers
introduction

Teachers often work with students from varied ethnic, racial, and religious
backgrounds. It is important for teachers to work effectively with a diverse student
population. Teachers may also include multicultural programming in their lesson
plans, to address the needs of all students, regardless of their cultural background.

Family and community partners can help students overcome social isolation and
develop social competence for learning. Social competence for learning has become
particularly important recently as teachers move away from direct instruction models
to collaborative and cooperative models of learning. Students need the skills that
allow the] 1 to engage in group activities and that simultaneously promote academic
success. Skills such as consensus building, listening, perspective taking, and sharing
all need to be developed so that children will be prepared to participate in
sophisticated group tasks. The socially less competent child often experiences
isolation and rejection in his neighborhood, in the school bus and in group social
activities. The teacher can provide such students with a classroom setting wherein s h e
can feel comfortable, accepted and welcome. The teacher must constantly search for
. opportunities to promote and encourage appropriate social interactions for the socially
inept child (e.g.. "Anita, would you please go over to Suman's desk and tell her that I
would like her to bring me her maths folder?"). Have students work in pairs to
complete experiments, bulletin boards and peer tutoring.

Just as neural and synaptic integration is occurring in the brain, developmental

domains are also being integrated and influenced by both nature and nurture-
allowing a child to accomplish particular milestones of development. Children,
therefore, need to be presented with integrated and thematic curricula that prepares
them for and capitalizes on those developmental milestones, curricula that also enable
them to perceive relationships among content areas. Local, state and national
standards now encourage teachers to develop lessons that provide students with many
opportunities to learn across the curriculum. To support these efforts, we teachers
need to be aware of the curriculum and the thematic units and to connect their work to
the curriculum goals. The integrated approach is also applicable to partnerships
providing social and health services. Students need to see relationships between their
social and behavioral functioning and academic learning. This is at the heart of social
and emotional learning. The more positive experience students have with cooperation
and conflict resolution, the better they will be able to focus their attention on learning.
These are skills that must be taught and nurtured by committed and caring adults.
Establishing continuity in a child's experiences at home, school, and community is
another key to sound development to which all teachers must address.

Socio-emotional development and academic achievement are not separate goals but
represent the continuum of development that is needed for children to grow up healthy
and succeed in school. For promoting socio-emotional development of the students
the objective of teacher should be to:

have the basic information and sense of responsibility to be a good citizen,

have begun to choose values that will lead to a satisfying lifestyle harmonious
with members of the community,
be tolerant and accept the freedom of others to be different from hirnlher,
recognize the family as the basic unit of society and begin to understand the
relationships and responsibilities in it,
understand the need and the techniques to continue developing hisher identity,
personality, and emotional well-being,
are developing interests that will lead to a wise and satisfying use of leisure time,
and
learning how to establish and develop mature relationships.
 Introduction to Child
The socio-emotional development has to do with attitudes and feelings with children.
Development
Problems in the emotional and social development cause disturbances in the total
development. Performing well in a class or group has to be learnt and each teacher
will have to promote this by taking care of a good pedagogical climate and class
management. The educational concept of each school will have to be directed towards
that goal. Each teacher need to have an idea of the final objectives of socio-emotional
development and make himherself familiar with various methodologies to achieve
these final objectives with the pupils in hisher classlgroup.

Check Your Progress 3

State whether each of the following is true or false:

(i) Children well being depended to a large degree upon the quality of their
relationship in the family.

True / False

(ii) Teachers at the elementary school level must not be aware of the student
who is being ignored or rejected by peers.

True / False

(iii) Children tend to select friends like themselves in sex, race, and ethnicity.

True / False

(iv) The criterion for calling a group of children a peer group is shared values or
standards of behavior.

True / False

(v) During middle childhood, children do not display a need to belong to

groups.

True / False

1.9 LET US SUM UP

This Unit was an attempt to acquaint you with the concepts of growth and
development, their interrelationships, and also to understand the differences between
them. You also have read and must have understood well the principles of
development. These principles are very essential for a teacher to know because their
knowledge and understanding will facilitate your interaction with the children in your
classrooms. The various stages of development and the types of development will also
help in planning your instruction and other school activities accordingly.

1.10 CHECK YOUR PROGRESS: POSSIBLE ANSWERS

Check Your Progress 1

(i) Slow
(ii) Can
(iK) ~iffeient
T ~ Elementary
C School Child: (iv) Development
Introduction

Check Your Progress 2

(i) Proximodistal development refers to the infant's growth in

which the middle part of the body develops faster compared to
the outer parts.
(ii) Cephalocaudal principle of development refers to the infants
growth in which the upper portions of the body develops before
the lower parts
(iii) Any two examples below:
Bubbling to the production of clear speech
Diffused excitement to expression of anger, joy, fear, or
surprise.
Random waving of arms to being able to hold objects or
greet others.
A single word is used to refer to before being able
differentiate those things.

Check Your Progress 3

(i) True
(ii) False
(iii) False
(iv) True
(v) False