PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT in EARLY CHILDHOOD

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PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT in EARLY CHILDHOOD
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PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT in EARLY CHILDHOOD

• III. FACTORS AFFECTING GROWTH AND HEALTH
• Heredity and Hormones
• Emotional Well-Being
• Sleep Habits and Problems
• Nutrition
• Infectious Disease
• Childhood Injuries
• IV. MOTOR DEVELOPMENT
• Gross Motor Development
• Fine Motor Development
• Enhancing Early Childhood Motor Development

• I. BODY GROWTH
• Changes in Body Size and Proportions
• II. BRAIN DEVELOPMENT
• Synaptic Growth and Pruning
• Lateralization
• Handedness

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I. BODY GROWTH Changes in Body Size and
Proportions

• Body size increase more slowly
• The childs shape becomes more streamlined.
• Posture and balance improve
• Individual differences in body size are even more
  apparent.

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• II. BRAIN DEVELOPMENT
• Synaptic Growth and Pruning
• Brain continues to grow faster that other parts
  of the body
• The cortex shows gains in myelinization and
  formation of synapses, followed by synaptic
  pruning.

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• Lateralization
• The two hemispheres of the cortex develop at
  different rates.
• The left hemisphere shows dramatic activity
  between 3 and 6 years and then levels off.
• Activity in the right hemisphere increases slowly
  throughout early and middle childhood, showing a
  slight spurt between ages 8 and 10.
• Differences in rate of development of the two
  hemispheres suggest that they are continuing to
  lateralize (specialize in functions).

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• Handedness
• The dominant cerebral hemisphere is the
  hemisphere responsible for skilled motor action.
  The left hemisphere is dominant in right-handed
  individuals. In left-handed individuals, motor
  and language skills are often shared between the
  hemispheres.
• The brains of left-handers tend to be less
  strongly lateralized than those of right-handers.
  Many left-handers are ambidextrous.

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• Handedness cont.
• One genetic theory proposes that most children
  inherit a gene that biases them for
  right-handedness and left-hemispheric
  localization of language.
• The way most fetuses lie in the uterusturned
  toward the leftmay promote greater postural
  control by the right side of the body.
• Another possibility is that practice heavily
  affects hand preference.
• Left- and mixed-handed children are more likely
  than their right-handed agemates to develop
  outstanding verbal and mathematical talents.

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• III. FACTORS AFFECTING GROWTH AND HEALTH
• Heredity and Hormones
• Childrens physical size and rate of growth are
  related to that of their parents.
• The pituitary gland is a gland located near the
  base of the brain that releases hormones
  affecting physical growth.
• Growth hormone (GH)
• Thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) (p300)

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• Emotional Well-Being
• Preschoolers with very stressful home lives
  suffer more respiratory and intestinal illnesses,
  as well as unintentional injuries.
• Deprivation dwarfism

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• Sleep Habits and Problems
• Sleep contributes to body growth, since GH is
  released during sleeping hours.
• Total sleep declines from 12 to 13 hours at ages
  2 and 3 to 10 to 11 hours at ages 4 to 6.
• Bedtime rituals help Western preschoolers adjust
  to being left by themselves in a darkened room.
• About 20 to 25 percent of preschoolers experience
  difficulty falling and staying asleep. Persistent
  sleep problems may be a sign of illness.

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• Nutrition
• Preschoolers appetites decrease because growth
  has slowed.
• In addition, they become picky eaters. This is
  adaptive as young children are still learning
  which items are safe to eat and which are not.
• Because caloric intake is reduced, preschoolers
  need a high-quality diet.
• The social environment and emotional climate at
  mealtimes have a powerful impact on childrens
  eating habits.
• Repeated exposure to a new food also increases
  childrens acceptance.
• Insufficient amounts of iron, calcium, vitamin C,
  and vitamin A are the most common diet
  deficiencies of the preschool years.

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• Infectious Disease
• Infectious Disease and Malnutrition
• Disease is a major cause of malnutrition, and,
  through it, affects physical growth.
• Immunization
• Overall 24 percent of American preschoolers lack
  essential immunizations, a rate that rises to 40
  percent for poverty stricken children.
• In 1994, all medically uninsured American
  children were guaranteed free immunizations, a
  program that has led to steady improvement in
  early childhood immunization rates.
• Research in Europe and the United States
  indicates that childhood illness rises with
  child-care attendance.

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• Childhood Injuries
• Auto accidents, drownings, and burns are the most
  common injuries during early childhood.
• Motor vehicle collisions are the leading cause of
  death among children over 1 year of age.
• Factors Related to Childhood Injuries.

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• Childhood Injuries cont.
• Preventing Childhood Injuries cont.
• Childhood injuries can be reduced through
  legislation, improvement of the physical
  environment, and public education.
• The principles of applied behavior analysis
  (modeling and reinforcement) can be applied to
  many programs to improve the safety habits of
  children and adults.
• Attention must also be paid to family conditions
  that can prevent childhood injury.

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• IV. MOTOR DEVELOPMENT
• Gross Motor Development
• Center of gravity shifts downward toward the
  trunk and their balance improves.
• By age 2, the preschoolers gait becomes smooth
  and rhythmic, leading to running, jumping,
  hopping, galloping, and skipping.
• New skills throwing and catching balls, steering
  tricycles, and swinging on horizontal bars and
  rings.
• At ages 2 and 3, catching and throwing are
  awkward and stiff. Gradually, children use their
  shoulders, torso, trunk, and legs to support
  throwing and catching.

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• Fine Motor Development
• Self-Help Skills
• During early childhood, children gradually become
  self-sufficient at dressing and feeding.
• Preschoolers get great satisfaction from managing
  their own bodies.
• Shoe tying, mastered around age 6, requires a
  longer attention span, memory for an intricate
  series of hand movements, and the dexterity to
  perform them.

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• Fine Motor Development cont.
• Drawing and Writing
• Cognitive advances
• Exposure to pictorial images
• From Scribbles to Pictures
• Scribbles
• First Representational Forms
• More Realistic Drawings

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• Fine Motor Development cont.
• Cultural Variations in Development of Drawing
• Childrens drawings reflect the interest in art
  demonstrated by other members of their culture.
• Solutions to figure drawing vary somewhat from
  culture to culture but overall follow the same
  sequence.
• Early Printing
• As young children experiment with lines and
  shapes, notice print in picture books, and
  observe people writing, they try to print letters
  and, later on, words.
• In addition to gains in fine motor control,
  advances in perception contribute to the ability
  to form letters and words

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• Enhancing Early Childhood Motor Development
• Except for throwing, there is no evidence that
  preschoolers exposed to formal lessons are ahead
  in motor development.
• Preschools, child care centers, and playgrounds
  need to accommodate a wide range of physical
  abilities by offering a variety of pieces of
  equipment that differ in size or that can be
  adjusted to fit the needs of individual children.
• Criticism of a childs motor performance, pushing
  specific motor skills, and promoting a
  competitive attitude may undermine young
  childrens motor progress.

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Enhancing Early Childhood Motor Development

• Foster motor development in three ways.
• Understand childs temperament and the
  progression of motor development
• Arrange outdoor and indoor environment to
  encourage motor skills.
• Provide child with a variety of motor
  experiences.