Growth and Development Introduction

GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE LEARNER

INTRODUCTION

Human beings keep changing. During their lives, they change in size, appearance and psychological composition. The way they change differs from individual to individual. However, the essential core patterns of growth and development remain more or less the same and take place in an orderly way. Each individual, with his unique heredity and the way he is nurtured, determines the way he traverses the broad highway of his life at his rate of progress. He will attain the size, shape, capacities and developmental status in a way, which is peculiar to him at each stages of life.

In this chapter, we shall discuss the concept, principles and various stages of growth and development. Children differ in physical, cognitive, social, and emotional growth patterns. They also differ in the ways they interact with and respond to their environment as well as play, affection. Having an understanding of the sequence of growth and development prepares teachers to help and give attention to all the children.

HUMAN DEVELOPMENT

Can you recall events from your early childhood say the second or third year? You might have a few vague and blurred memories about your childhood. The experiences of that period form the basis of the type of person you are today. How human beings grow, change and adjust themselves to their environment is the focus of development and behavior as also the concepts, principles and theories of growth of development. The human being is never static. From conception to death, he undergoes changes. There are progressive changes in response to environmental conditions. His body organs and psychological functions show the curves of capacity and achievement as well as slow erosion and decay. Cognitive abilities develop and then degenerate; basic metabolism reaches a peak, then declines, the endocrine function flourishes, and then fades. There is a rise and fall of physical energy in terms of both the force and speed of action with age. In fact, no organ or function of human beings has yet been found which is independent of age determinants. At the time of conception, a child has genetic potentialities that are partly predictable and partly unpredictable. These genetic potentialities are determined by the nature of his biological inheritance. Still there is room for a tremendous range in the ways he uses the genetic potentialities, depending upon the environment that may help or hinder the development of those potentialities.

THE CONCEPT OF GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT

The terms growth and development are often used interchangeably. Actually, they are conceptually different. Neither growth nor development takes place all by itself.

Growth refers to quantitative changes in size, which include physical changes in height, weight, size, internal organs, etc. As an individual develops, old features like baby fat, hair and teeth, etc., disappear and new features like facial hair are acquired. When maturity comes, the second set of teeth, primary and secondary sex characteristics, etc., appear. Similar changes occur in all aspects of the personality. During infancy and childhood, the body steadily becomes larger, taller and heavier. To designate this change the term growth is used. Growth involves changes in body proportions as well as in overall stature and weight. The term growth thus indicates an increase in bodily dimensions. However, the rate of growth differs from one part of the body to the other.

Development, by contrast, refers to qualitative changes taking place simultaneously with quantitative changes of growth. It may be defined as a progressive series of orderly, coherent changes. The term progressive signifies that changes are directional, that they lead forward rather than backward. Orderly and coherent suggest that a definite relationship between the changes taking place and those that precede or will follow them. Development represents changes in an organism from its origin to its death, but more particularly the progressive changes that take place from origin to maturity. Thus, development may be explained as the series of overall changes in an individual due to the emergence of modified structures and functions that are the outcome of the interactions and exchanges between the organism and its environment.

THE PRINCIPLES OF GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT

Following are the fundamental principles of growth and development.

(i) Development follows a pattern or a sequence:

Development tends to proceed from the head to downward. This is called the cephalocaudal principle. According to this principle, the child first gains control of the head, then the arms, then the legs. Infants gain control of head and face movements within the first two months after birth. In the next few months, they are able to lift themselves up using their arms. By 6 to 12 months of age, infants start to gain leg control and may be able to crawl, stand, or walk. Development also proceeds from the center of the body to outward according to the proximodistal principle. Accordingly, the spinal cord develops before other parts of the body. The child’s arms develop before the hands, and the hands and feet develop before the fingers and toes. Fingers and toes are the last to develop.

(ii) Development proceeds from general to specific responses:

It moves from a generalized to localized behavior. The newborn infant moves its whole body at one time instead of moving only one part of it. It makes random kicking with its legs before it can coordinate the leg muscles well enough to crawl or to walk.

(iii) Development is a continuous process:

Development does not occur in spurts. Growth continues from the moments of conception until the individual reaches maturity. It takes place at slow regular pace rather than by ‘leaps and bounds’. Although development is a continuous process, yet the tempo of growth is not even, during infancy and early years growth moves swiftly and later it slacken.

(iv) Different aspects of growth develop at different rates

Neither all parts of the body grow at the same rate nor do all aspects of mental growth proceed equally. They reach maturity at different times. Development also depends on maturation. Maturation refers to the sequence of biological changes in children. These orderly changes give children new abilities. Much of the maturation depends on changes in the brain and the nervous system. These changes assist children to improve their thinking abilities and motor skills. A rich learning environment helps children develop to their potential. Children must mature to a certain point before they can gain some skills. For instance, the brain of a four-month-old has not matured enough to allow the child to use words. A four-month-old will babble and coo. However, by two years of age, with the help of others, the child will be able to say and understand many words. This is an example of how cognitive development occurs from simple tasks to more tasks that are complex. Likewise, physical skills develop from general to specific movements. For example, think about the way an infant waves its arms and legs. In a young infant, these movements are random. In several months, the infant will likely be able to grab a block with his or her whole hand. In a little more time, the same infant will grasp a block with the thumb and forefinger.

(v) Most traits are correlated in development:

Generally, it is seen that the child whose intellectual development is above average is so in health size, sociability and special aptitudes.

(vi) Growth is complex:

All of its aspects are closely interrelated. The child’s mental development is intimately related to his physical growth and its needs.

(vii) Growth is a product of the interaction of the organism and environment:

Among the environmental factors one can mention nutrition, climate the conditions in the home, the type of social organization in which individual moves and lives.

(viii) There are wide individual differences in growth:

Individual differences in growth are caused by differences in heredity and environment.

(ix) Growth is both quantitative and qualitative:

These two aspects are inseparable. The child not only grows in ‘size’; he grows up or matures in structure and function too.

(x) Development is predictable:

It is possible for us to predict at an early age the range within which the mature development of the child is likely to fall. However, mental development cannot be predicted with the same degree of accuracy.

PRINCIPLES OF HUMAN GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT

There is a set of principles that characterizes the pattern and process of growth and development. These principles or characteristics describe typical development as a predictable and orderly process; that is, we can predict how most children will develop and that they will develop at the same rate and at about the same time as other children. Although there are individual differences in children’s personalities, activity levels, and timing of developmental milestones, such as ages and stages, the principles and characteristics of development are universal patterns. Principles of Development are follows;

1.     Development proceeds from the head downward:

This is called the cephalocaudal principle. This principle describes the direction of growth and development. According to this principle, the child gains control of the head first, then the arms, and then the legs. Infants develop control of the head and face movements within the first two months after birth. In the next few months, they are able to lift themselves up by using their arms. By 6 to 12 months of age, infants start to gain leg control and may be able to crawl, stand, or walk. Coordination of arms always precedes coordination of legs.

2.     Development proceeds from the center of the body outward:

This is the principle of proximodistal development that also describes the direction of development. This means that the spinal cord develops before outer parts of the body. The child’s arms develop before the hands and the hands and feet develop before the fingers and toes. Finger and toe muscles (used in fine motor dexterity) are the last to develop in physical development.

3.     Development depends on maturation and learning:

Maturation refers to the sequential characteristic of biological growth and development. The biological changes occur in sequential order and give children new abilities. Changes in the brain and nervous system account largely for maturation. These changes in the brain and nervous system help children to improve in thinking (cognitive) and motor (physical) skills. Also, children must mature to a certain point before they can progress to new skills (Readiness).

For example, a four-month-old cannot use language because the infant’s brain has not matured enough to allow the child to talk. By two years old, the brain has developed further and with help from others, the child will have the capacity to say and understand words. Also, a child can’t write or draw until he has developed the motor control to hold a pencil or crayon. Maturational patterns are innate, that is, genetically programmed. The child’s environment and the learning that occurs as a result of the child’s experiences largely determine whether the child will reach optimal development. A stimulating environment and varied experiences allow a child to develop to his or her potential.

4.     Development proceeds from the simple (concrete) to the more complex:

Children use their cognitive and language skills to reason and solve problems. For example, learning relationships between things (how things are similar), or classification, is an important ability in cognitive development. The cognitive process of learning how an apple and orange are alike begins with the most simplistic or concrete thought of describing the two.

Seeing no relationship, a preschool child will describe the objects according to some property of the object, such as color. Such a response would be, “An apple is red (or green) and an orange is orange.” The first level of thinking about how objects are alike is to give a description or functional relationship (both concrete thoughts) between the two objects. “An apple and orange are round” and “An apple and orange are alike because you eat them” are typical responses of three, four and five year olds.

As children develop further in cognitive skills, they are able to understand a higher and more complex relationship between objects and things; that is, that an apple and orange exist in a class called fruit. The child cognitively is then capable of classification.

5.     Growth and development is a continuous process:

As a child develops, he or she adds to the skills already acquired and the new skills become the basis for further achievement and mastery of skills. Most children follow a similar pattern. Also, one stage of development lays the foundation for the next stage of development.

For example, in motor development, there is a predictable sequence of developments that occur before walking. The infant lifts and turns the head before he or she can turn over. Infants can move their limbs (arms and legs) before grasping an object. Mastery of climbing stairs involves increasing skills from holding on to walking alone. By the age of four, most children can walk up and down stairs with alternating feet. As in maturation, in order for children to write or draw, they must have developed the manual (hand) control to hold a pencil and crayon.

6.     Growth and development proceed from the general to specific:

In motor development, the infant will be able to grasp an object with the whole hand before using only the thumb and forefinger. The infant’s first motor movements are very generalized, undirected, and reflexive, waving arms or kicking before being able to reach or creep toward an object. Growth occurs from large muscle movements to more refined (smaller) muscle movements.

7. There are individual rates of growth and development:  

Each child is different and the rates at which individual children grow is different. Although the patterns and sequences for growth and development are usually the same for all children, the rates at which individual children reach developmental stages will be different. Understanding this fact of individual differences in rates of development should cause us to be careful about using and relying on age and stage characteristics to describe or label children.

There is a range of ages for any developmental task to take place. This dismisses the notion of the “average child”. Some children will walk at ten months while others walk a few months older at eighteen months of age. Some children are more active while others are more passive. This does not mean that the passive child will be less intelligent as an adult. There is no validity to comparing one child’s progress with or against another child.

Rates of development also are not uniform within an individual child. For example, a child’s intellectual development may progress faster than his emotional or social development. An understanding of the principles of development helps us to plan appropriate activities and stimulating and enriching experiences for children, and provides a basis for understanding how to encourage and support young children’s learning.