Child development free essay sample

Physical development looks at the gross motor skills. e. g running, skipping, climbing and the ? ne motor skills e. g cutting, threading and writing. Also, it looks at the physical growth of the child. It is crucial not to assume that the physical growth of a child is just going to happen, but offer them opportunities in multiple ways, as well as, offering them constant support, so they can develop their physical aspect fully. 0-3 years This age group sees huge physical changes. When a child is new born, their physical control is very little. However, by their third month they are able to grasp and smile to faces that smile at them. During their development in this age range, children will follow the sequence of sitting, crawling, standing, and then to walking. It is important to consider that a developing child will follow the same sequence, but not necessarily at the same rate. The gross motor skills, which involves the use of large muscles including walking and running and fine motor skills which single limb movements like catching or the precision of hands and fingers. Intellectual development is the growth of the mind as a child gets to recognize, reason, know and understand and perceive what is going on around them by hearing, touching, smelling, and tasting. Language development is the development of the child’s ability to respond verbally as the child begins to understand and pronounce words. Emotional growth is the development of the child’s feelings and awareness of oneself and other people and the growth of self-esteem. Social development is concerned with the child’s ability to relate with others in a way that enables the child to live in harmony with those around him. Age 0-2 Physical Even at birth a child has the ability to use its senses. They have reflexes that are automatic responses to stimuli; for example that of touch. They have the rooting reflex, the sucking reflex, the graphing reflex, and the stepping reflex. Up to the age of 3 months the child will lie on its back, but it does have some gross motor skills. It can turn its head from side to side and begins to start lifting its head and kicking. They also will be able to watch movement and play with their fingers as well as putting their fist in their mouth and sucking rhythmically. At this stage they can respond to sound and lights and shiny objects and recognizes the face and his main carer. By the age of 6 months, little by little they will begin to roll and sit and grasp objects and control their head quite well. They also will try to put things in there mouths. By the age of 9 to 12 months they will be able to start to get themselves around maybe by holding onto things, rolling and crawling. They also may be able sit unaided for a length of time there ability to grasp, hold and throw toys quite well By the age of one the will be able to sit for a long period, get up form lying position and sit from standing position. They will be able stand for a few seconds, and ultimate from crawling, to bottom shuffling, to walking while holding onto furniture. They will be able to hold a cup or bottle and choose let go of a toy from their hand. They may also be able climb the stairs will some help. At 24 months children may be able to run, kick a ball, walk up and down stairs while holding onto someone’s hand, but they may not yet be able to catch a ball Intellectual From birth to 3 months children have the ability to focus on objects, can recognize familiar faces and can be startled by loud sounds. They can also gaze at patterns. By the age of 3 to 6 months they will start to develop coordination and enjoy bight colours and reach out to objects that take their interest. At the age of 6 to 9 months they are able to take part in simple games and their memory is beginning to develop, they can clap their hands and copy other actions and sounds. By the age of one their intellectual development will have grown greatly. They will be able to draw attention to things that interest them like toys, begin to enjoy role play, understand familiar objects and learn through trail and error. When they reach the age of two they will be able be involved in pretend play and talk to themselves. They even like music and begin understand humour and follow simple instructions. They will have become more confident and try new activities. Language From the age of birth to three months children recognize sound and turn their heads to carers voice, they will cry when they have needs to be met, and grunts and squeaks when they are content. Between 3 to 6 months children begin to coo and gurgle, smile and laugh, but still cries noisily for needs to be met. By the age of nine to twelve months the child can listen carefully to familiar carers voices, shouts and makes sounds like â€Å"brr† and â€Å"dd†. The respond to the word no and can understand instructions like â€Å"hug mummy†. At the age of one the child may be able to speak two or more words even â€Å"mama† or â€Å"dada† and understand everyday words like bath, or bottle or dog. They may even try to join in conversations. When the reach the age of two the child is able to ask simple questions and can have a vocabulary of over fifty words. They often speak quickly and may begin to use â€Å"I’ â€Å"me† and â€Å"you† correctly. They also may well understand a lot more words than they can actually speak. Emotional At birth the child clams down when picked up, and enjoys being cuddled, sucking its thumb and begins to be aware of its surroundings. By three to six weeks they may start to smile and recognize the voice and face of their carer. By three months and over the child begins to enjoy routines that are familiar, like bath time and receiving attention from others. When the child reaches six months they can become very upset if their main carer is not with them. They also begin to seek attention and become more aware of other people feelings for example another child laughing or crying. They can often offer their toys to others. At he age of nine to twelve months they show greater interest in social interaction but at the same tome can become more cautious of strangers. This can also the time when they really begin to assert themselves, one example of this could be the stiffening of body when they are annoyed. By the age of one the child can become attentive and start to be aware of the moods of others and often copy them. Things they don’t understand and begin to share can upset two-year-old children, and they begin to share experience with others, and can be friendly and affectionate to others. At this stage they can build friendships and can cope being without their main carer for longer periods of time. Also the child can express likes and dislikes and might often have tantrums. Social Babies from birth are sociable beings, they enjoy the closeness of feeding and bathing time, and become clam when they are near or can hear their main carer. Between three to six months they enjoy being part of what is going on and when they are over nine months they can feed themselves with finger foods and enjoy company and laughing with others. As they grow nearer to twelve months they become more independent and start to entertain themselves. At a year the child will begin to move about and discover new things for themselves and start to develop a sense of identity. By the age of two they will very independent and will be doing more things for themselves including dressing and feeding. Age 3-5 Physical By the age of three children can walk in different directions, backwards and forwards and sideways. They can jump from a low height and even balance on one foot. They also may be able to use pedal on a tricycle. As far as their fine motor skills are concerned they will be able to build a brick tower, can paint with large brushes and use a fork and spoon to eat. At the age of four the child has a good sense of balance and may be able to walk and run in a straight line and while running will be able to stop and turn controls with control. They can throw, catch and bounce a ball and climb the stairs with confidence. Their fine motor skills will enable them to write some letters for example their name and draw pictures that are quite recognizable. When they reach the age of five they will have begun to dance with rhythm to music and use swings and climbing frames. They can use a bike with stabilizers and will able dress themselves without too much help. They will able to write many letters and numbers and use pencils and crayons, and have the ability to draw a person with head, body, month, eyes etc. Emotional A three year old can explain their feelings with words and show affection for younger children. They become aware of gender roles and are better able to cope with their emotions. At the age of four one of the main changes is the development of their imagination, but also they will have a sense of humour and are beginning to understand right from wrong and can be strongly self- willed. By the age of five the child have grown in their knowledge of how others are feeling and can hide their own feelings and control their emotions. Language At the age of three a child can speak in sentences using past and present tenses, but may stutter when they get excited. By this stage they may well know several hundred words. By the age of four the child will ask questions, why, when, how, etc. They can talk about the future and might make up some words. But they might still find some sounds difficult to pronounce such as â€Å"r†, â€Å"th† and â€Å"str†. When the child reaches the age of five they are confident speakers enjoying conversations with others. They love to tell jokes and begin to show interest in reading and writing. Intellectual By the age of three and over the child will have developed their ability to do pretend play and their fine motor skills will enable them to write and draw and use scissors. They may start to understand time passing and the difference between past and present. Also they can enjoy learning new skills like computer games and can match three primary colours. At the age of four the child’s memory will have developed and they can match all primary colours, solve simple problems and repeat songs and nursery rhymes. By this stage they have a greater ability to focus their attention. Five year olds will be able to count and recognize simple words. They will take interest in things around them and ask lots of questions. They can retell stories and are able to give attention to more than one thing at a time. Social Children can be very socially developed by the age of three. They can make friends and begin to be involved in corporate play, but will start to have a tantrum if things go wrong. As the reach the age of four they will be much more cooperative with others and really begin to like the company of others. When the reach the age of five they will have a few friends and will understand the difference between boy and girl and because of their better knowledge of right and wrong they will be much better at taking turns as they become more aware of the opinions of others. Age 6-8 Physical Between six and eight years of age children’s balance and coordination have become well developed. They may be able to ride a two-wheeled bike without stabilizers, jump from heights and have of control of speed when running. They will enjoy using climbing frames. Their fine motor skills would have developed to the point were they can draw with detail due to the to well developed pencil skills. Emotional They will be better able to explain their feelings and as they become more self-aware they will have become more self critical of their own work. They will want to succeed and therefore will have become more competitive, but this can also lead to disagreement as the child wants to get their own way. Language Between six to eight years old the child loves to talk and can tell complex jokes. They use roughly four to seven words to make sentences, and will be able to say what things are the same and what things are different. By this stage they are asking questions less and they may be able to speak more than one language. Intellect Their mathematical and English skills will be well developed by this age and they will be able to read and write by themselves. They will also be able to understand more complex humour. By the age of eight they will have quite a depth of knowledge from their time at school. Their view of the world around them will have grow considerable and they will tried to develop their own ideas. Social They will be able to build strong friendships between the ages of six to eight but the may also have less friends but a few special ones. They will be more supportive and encouraging of others as they consider other peoples wishes. Question 2: Analyze key social, economic and environmental factors, which may influence development Children’s development can be affected by lots of social, economic and environmental factors in good and bad ways. Because they are so vulnerable they can be affected in ways their carers do not always consider. They range from personal factors like health personal choices and learning difficulties to external factors like child’s background, family environment, poverty and social factors. We will now look at some of these and analyze the affects they could have on a child. But in the first instance these factors are divided into three categories: 1) Antenatal factors from conception to birth 2) Perinatal factors surrounding the actual birth 3) Postnatal factors than occur after birth Although the factors 1 and 2 can have important affects on child development the main factors influencing childe development occur after birth and these are the ones we will be looking at. Health Children who suffer poor health and or physical disability may find this restricting their development. In some cases their illness may keep them off school for long periods of time and will therefore affect education and in the case of a child with a disability may not be able to certain sports and activities. This could not just affect his physical development but also his social development and emotional development as their self-esteem may well be affected. The child can become frustrated by their situation and withdraw from others, but also other children may stop them joining in as they believe the disabled child cannot be involved. It so important for good child development that the carer and later the teacher of this child can support a disabled child and make sure they are involved as far as possible. Another health problem that is very prevalent today is problems caused by food allergies, which in the worse cases can cause death. In some cases this means keeping a child separated from other children especially at meal times and this could cause feelings of rejection on the part of the child. One needs to protect the child while at the same time enable the child to be involved with other children at meals times and in other activities. This will mean that information is shared with everyone involved so that the child is not locked out of his or her social group. Learning difficulties Learning difficulties or disorders is a term for a wide variety of learning problems. Basically it refers to children who have brains that are wired differently from most people and this difference affects the way they receive and process information. They see, hear and understand things differently. The most common learning difficulties involve, reading, writing, and mathematics, reasoning, listening and speaking. In my own case I am now confident that I am dyslexic but this was not picked up at school and this affected my development because I had to have special reading lessons, which meant I spent no time at all learning other languages. And also feel this has affected my English overs many years. Learning disabilities can affect a child development in many ways and needs to be picked up early in life so that intervention may take place. Children should be encouraged to develop in all areas to the best of their ability and carers should make use of all the resources that are available to enable them to achieve this. It is important the carer or the teacher to have the right attitude and expectations for the child or the child could suffer and this can lead to lack of motivation in joining in a particular activity and achievement by the child. This will affect their mental development because they will not pay attention. They may have little sense of self worth and feel rejected as they feel they are being isolated from any group they are in turn this could cause delay in their social and emotional development, as they are not socializing with their peers. Children with a learning disability may be exposed to prejudice or discrimination for the reason that they could be treated differently than the rest of the children. They may be bullied or teased by other children, which will affect their self-confidence and in turn affect their learning capabilities and development. Again this should be spotted by the carer or teacher and procedures but in place to stop this happening. If the child with a learning difficulty is also in a environment that includes poverty they may not be able to get the physical and educational resources that need and this to can delay the development in certain areas. Background and Environment Children can come from a large number of different family environments, cultures and circumstances, all which can affect the development of a child. A loving, caring, sharing, honest and straightforward environment and help a child to socialize and be good at building relationships with others. But an environment that has none or little of those things can lead to the exact opposite. Poor housing, overcrowding, family break up, introduction of a new partner, bereavement, illness, moving house and even moving county can also have a bad affect on the development of a child. Many changes can happen within the environment of a child with the early years of a child life and all of these can affect the overall development of a child. Bereavement can affect a child in many different ways and can take a long period of time to be worked though. The child may try to hide their feelings or show them openingly but it may well affect their learning as they become aggressive or with draw within themselves. Feelings of guilt, denial, anger, and panic may also affect the child at this time and this to may well cause a lack of motivation as they become tired or lethargic much of the time and this to can cause delay development many areas in including that of building other relationships. The child might blame herself for the divorce, regardless of the actual cause, and react with aggression, anger or anxiety. A divorce also can affect how the children feel about themselves and cause them to become more emotionally dependent. It is in early childhood that a child learns about how to build relationships. If the parent due to the divorce becomes less open to their child needs this can cause problems with how the child learns to relate to and trust others. Physical developments such as growth and motor skills aren’t likely to be affected by divorce. However, Peter Haiman, Ph. D. indicates that the drastic change of a divorce can cause some children who were previously potty trained to lose bladder and bowel control and can cause verbal children to become quiet or start stuttering. These developmental setbacks will likely go back to normal after your child adjusts to the changes brought on by divorce. Poor housing can affect every aspect of child’s life, mental, physical, emotional, social and economic, there is much higher risk experiencing severe ill-health and disability before they reach middle age. But in particular, such children face a greater chance of developing meningitis, infections, asthma or other respiratory problems. It can also have a harmful impact on emotional wellbeing. Research shows that homeless children are three to four times more likely to have mental health problems than other children. Were the house is situated can be an important ingredient in the development of a child, a child living in a rural setting were many people living there are poorly paid or are unemployed can be disadvantage with a lack of public transport and opportunity to be involved in many social activities those living in cities can Many of these factors I have mention can impact the amount of time that parents and carers can spend with a child and this lack of one to one time again can affect the development of a child. Poverty Poverty and depravation are likely to play a big part the development of a child. Statistics show that a child who comes form poorer background will do less well at school. But also many children from poorer backgrounds will have fewer resources available to them to enable development for example computers, books, and toys. Children need to be active both physically and mentally in order to grow but progress will be slow if due to lack of money they are not able to be stimulated in the way they need to be to develop. Also if the child is in overcrowded house there will not be enough space to study or to play their development both physically and intellectually will be delayed. Poverty can also mean a lack of good healthy food and therefore a lack of nutrition, which they desperately need help develop in every way. Social factors Children who do not have solid relationships that bring love and affection into their lives can find it hard to build relationships with others. They may have trust issues and therefore will find it difficult to relax with others. On the outside they might seem fine but inside they are just not at peace with others. Even worse than a simple lack of affection is physical, sexual, and emotional abuse that a child may have had to endure. This can have many lasting effects on the growth of a child even into adulthood as the individual struggles to have trusting solid relationships. Personal choices A very simple yet very important factor in the development of a child is the child personal choices in life. The choices of which they decide to be friends with and their activities they are involved in are important, whether they are academic or non-academic pursuits, they can radially determine how they develop as human beings. Question 3: Describe children’s overall development needs To develop in the best way possible a child needs their basic needs to be net. Over the years many people have come up various ideas regarding the developmental needs of a child. A good framework to base any discussion of this topic on is Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs in which he states that all people have needs to be met, starting the basic needs that one needs for survival (food, clothing and shelter) and then moves onto protection, relationships, self-esteem and finishing with community and wholeness. This is good staring point for looking the basic needs of children. Other studies like â€Å"Every Child Matters† suggest a child needs are, to be safe, healthy enjoyment and achievement, making a positive contribution, and to achieve economic wellbeing. Other research has stated that child must have physical, social, economic, cultural, physiological, and spiritual needs. Overall they all seem to point to the same basic needs of which probably the most important is the need is the need for love and security. This is the basis of learning how to build strong and lasting relationships in the future. For a child to know they have love and security in their lives is the good soil in which productive growth can occur in all areas of life. Within this kind of environment a child can develop positive attitude to self worth but also a good understanding of the needs of others. A good reliable and loving family will help a child to develop a sense of identity, who they are and how to function with a community. Within this loving community their is a need for routine, which will help the child to know their limits and develop skill such as responsibility and reliability. Also within a loving family unit there is a need for praise and recognition for this is a way of encouraging the child to move on and learn through their experiences. I have some family friends who three years ago adopted a Chinese child who had spent the first 18 months of her life just sitting in her cot with no love or simulation at all. She had developed very little in most areas of her life. But three years she has experienced lots of love, security and I must say discipline and she has radically changed; no magic formula, its a loving and caring home with people spending lots of time interacting with the child. Another important need is the meeting of physical needs, the need for shelter, water, food, and protection from the environment, from violence and abuse whether that is mentally, physically or sadly within todays world sexually. A child needs to live in home that enables the child to maintain good health and be safe from the world outside. They need good nutritious food that will help body and mind to grow. A family that is constantly aware of what is happening a child life can monitor what is going on and make sure that a child is safe and not being lead astray into unhealthy pursuits. The resources, space and time to do physical activity is a very important need for a child, so they can develop strong bodies and strong muscles. This reduces the risk of heart decease and strengthens joints, improves balance, increases bone density as well as developing good shelf esteem as they succeed and learn how to do different things. Physical exercise is also a good for a child to express their feelings, develop skills, explore what their body can do and cooperate with others. Within this is a general need to experience to new things. As well as physical activity there is need for mental exercise by reading and writing and listening as well so that he child learn and stretch themselves and develop in these areas as well. Therefore there is great need within and without the home for good education, which should include an understanding of their language and religious and cultural background. Bibliography