HUMAN GROWTH & DEVELOPMENT
By:Cheyenne Nance
INFANCY & EARLY CHILDHOD
•triple their weight between birth and age three
•Develop teeth and the ability to eat solid foods
•Develop 75 percent of their brain capacity
•Learn to crawl and walk
Develop large motor skills such as running, jumping, and climbing up stairs
•Begin to take off and put on clothes
• Begin to control body functions through toilet training
COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
•Learn language and communication skills and advance from using single words to phrases to complete sentences
•Understand the world primarily through their family
•Think concretely, retain some information, and process information primarily through their five senses - by seeing, touching, hearing, tasting and smelling.
EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT
PRESCHOOLERS
Physical Development
Most children aged four to five will:
- Continue to grow, but at a slower rate than during infancy and the toddler years [Some parts grow faster or sooner than others. For example, organs grow faster than the body, giving preschoolers a rounded tummy.]
- Reach at least 50 percent of their adult height and about 20 percent of their adult weight by age five
- Develop more coordinated large motor skills, enabling them to skip, run, and climb up and down stairs
- Develop fine motor skills, enabling them to tie shoelaces, button shirts, use scissors, and draw recognizable figures
- Continue significant brain development, completing 90 percent of such development by age five
- Develop increased lung capacity and the ability to breathe more deeply
- Lose their "baby look" as their limbs grow longer
- Appear about the same size, regardless of gender
- Increase in overall health and gain resistance to germs
Cognitive Development
Most children aged four to five will:
- Interact with and learn about the world through play activities
- Begin to experience the world through exploration and feel inquisitive about self and surroundings
- Begin separation from family as they experience less proximity to caregivers and more independence
- Understand what is good and bad (though they may not understand why) and be able to follow the rules
- Be able to understand and accomplish simple activities to be healthy, such as brushing teeth or washing hands
- Understand the concept of privacy
Emotional Development
Most children aged four to five will:
- Still rely on caregivers, while no longer needing or wanting as much physical contact with caregivers as they received in infancy and as toddlers
- Continue to express emotions physically and to seek hugs and kisses
- Socialize with peers, begin to develop relationships, and learn to recognize some peers as friends and others as people they don't like
- Have more opportunities to interact with peers, either through school or recreational activities, and will play with other children
GRADE SCHOOLERS 6-8
Physical Development
Most children aged six to eight will:
- Experience slower growth of about 2 ½ inches and eight pounds per year
- Grow longer legs relative to their total height and begin resembling adults in the proportion of legs to body
- Develop less fat and grow more muscle than in earlier years
- Increase in strength
- Lose their baby teeth and begin to grow adult teeth which may appear too big for their face
- Use small and large motor skills in sports and other activities
Cognitive Development
Most children aged six to eight will:
- Develop the skills to process more abstract concepts and complex ideas (e.g., pregnancy, addition/subtraction, etc.)
- Begin elementary school
- Spend more time with the peer group and turn to peers for information [They need information sources outside of family, and other adults become important in their lives.]
- Be able to focus on the past and future as well as the present
- Develop an increased attention span
- Improve in self-control, being able to conform to adult ideas of what is "proper" behavior and to recognize appropriateness in behavior
- Understand the concepts of normality/abnormality, feel concern with being normal and curiosity about differences
- Begin to develop as an individual
- Think for themselves and develop individual opinions, especially as they begin to read and to acquire information through the media
Emotional Development
Most children aged six to eight will:
- Become more modest and want privacy
- Develop relationships with and love people outside the family as their emotional needs are met by peers as well as family
- Develop less physically demonstrative relationships and express love through sharing and talking [They may be embarrassed by physical affection.]
- Need love and support, but feel less willing to ask for it
- Understand more complex emotions, such as confusion and excitement
- Want more emotional freedom and space from parents
- Become better at controlling and concealing feelings
- Begin to form a broader self-concept and recognize their own strengths and weaknesses, especially with regard to social, academic, and athletic skills
- Have friends and sustained peer group interaction
PRETEENS 9-12
Physical Development
Most young people aged nine to 12 will:
- Experience a growth spurt with significant weight gain, muscle growth, and genital maturation [Growth spurt begins earlier for girls; lasts longer for boys, who end up taller].
- Enter puberty, a time when hormones produced in the pituitary gland trigger production of testosterone in males, estrogen/progesterone in females [This usually begins earlier in girls (nine to 12) than in boys (11 to 14).] During puberty—
- Skin becomes more oily and may develop pimples.
- Sweating increases and youth may have body odor.
- Hair grows under arms and on pubis and, in males, on face and chest.
- Body proportions change [hips widen in females, shoulders broaden in males].
- Joints may ache due to rapid growth.
- In males, genitals mature, scrotum darkens, voice deepens, sperm is produced, and erections, ejaculation, and wet dreams are more frequent.
- In females, genitals mature, breasts develop, vaginal lubrication increases, and ovulation and menstrual cycle begin.
- Masturbate [both males and females] and may have fantasies about others and about sexual intimacy
Cognitive Development
Most young people aged nine to 12 will:
- Move toward independence as they progress to middle/junior high school
- Continue developing skills in making decisions as they become more independent
- Begin to consider future careers and occupations
- Shift their school focus from play-centered activities to academics
- Begin to look to peers and media for information and advice [Friends greatly influence them.]
- Develop increasing capability for social conscience and for abstract thought, including understanding complex issues such as poverty and war
- Take on increased responsibility, such as family jobs and babysitting
Emotional Development
Most young people aged nine to 12 will:
- Want to blend in and not stand out from their peers in any way, particularly as to gender roles and sexuality
- Feel concern about outward appearance [They want to look like "everyone else."]
- Become self-conscious and self-centered
- Have ambivalent, conflicting feelings about puberty and about sexual desire and want to be independent and to conform
- Care greatly about relationships with peers, friendships, dating, and crushes and give peers more importance than family
- Relate to both same-gender and opposite-gender peers and may develop sexual feelings for others as a new dimension within relationships
- Develop the capacity to understand the components of a caring, loving relationship
- Experience feelings of insecurity and begin to doubt self-concept and previous self-confidence [Girls, especially, often experience a significant drop in self-esteem.]
- Struggle with family relationships and desire privacy and separation from family [They test limits and push for independence.]
- Experience mood swings, especially evident in family relationships
- Develop infatuations or "crushes" and may begin dating
TEENS 13-17
Physical Development
Most teens ages 13 to 17 will:
- Complete puberty and the physical transition from childhood to adulthood
- Reach nearly their adult height, especially females [Males continue to grow taller into their early twenties.]
Cognitive Development
Most teens ages 13 to 17 will:
- Attain cognitive maturity—the ability to make decisions based on knowledge of options and their consequences
- Continue to be influenced by peers [The power of peer pressure lessens after early adolescence.]
- Build skills to become self-sufficient
- Respond to media messages but develop increasing ability to analyze those messages
- Develop increasingly mature relationships with friends and family
- Seek increased power over their own lives
- Learn to drive, increasing their independence
Emotional Development
Most teens ages 13 to 17 will:
- Have the capacity to develop long-lasting, mutual, and healthy relationships, if they have the foundations for this development—trust, positive past experiences, and an understanding of love
- Understand their own feelings and have the ability to analyze why they feel a certain way
- Begin to place less value on appearance and more on personalit
ADULTS 18-OVER
Physical Development
Most young adults aged 18 and over will:
- Complete the process of physical maturation, usually attaining full adult height [Secondary sexual characteristics, such as size of penis and breasts, are completed.]
Cognitive Development
Most young adults aged 18 and over will:
- Move into adult roles and responsibilities and may learn a trade, work, and/or pursue higher education
- Fully understand abstract concepts and be aware of consequences and personal limitations
- Identify career goals and prepare to achieve them
- Secure their autonomy and build and test their decision making skills
- Develop new skills, hobbies, and adult interests
Emotional Development
Most young adults aged 18 and over will:
- Move into adult relationships with their parents
- See the peer group as less important as a determinant of behavior
- Feel empathetic
- Have greater intimacy skills
- Complete their values framework
- Carry some feelings of invincibility
- Establish their body image