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Growth and Development in Children and Teens
/ Prenatal-Birth
Birth bonding . Evidence suggest that
birth-bonding is likely to evoke a lifelong improvement in parent-children
relationship (Joy, 108-148)
Major principles of growth:
) Each
child has his own pattern or growth.
)
Growth within an individual may be "uneven."
)
Growth is sequential; it proceed through predictable stages
)
Growth is wholistic.
)
All development is based upon the interaction between heredity and
environment
/ Infancy (birth - 2 years): A Time For Love
and Trust
Physical Development
) A period of
rapid growth
)
Progressive development of motor skills
)
Nutritional needs
) A
time to establish routines
Intellectual Development
)
Takes hold of the world with his eyes and mouth long before the she can
experience it with her hands
) A
wealth of sensory-motor experiences without over-stimulation.
) By
9 months, the discovery of a world apart from themselves.
)
The dawn of thinking
)
Language Development
Emotional Development
) A
need for love. Parents, give your children love: love in babyhood, love in
childhood, love in youth.
)
Developing security and early ability to postpone gratification.
Social Development
)
Importance of mother.
)
Beginning of faith and self-worth rooted in early social achievement of
letting mother out of sight without undue panic.
/ Early Childhood (2-6 Years): A time for
Habit Formation
Children become more integrated during this period. How they behave and feel
is now affected by the combined sum of what’s happening within them
intellectually, socially, physically, spiritually and emotionally at any given
time.
Physical development
) Importance
of good health and professional care
)
Male/female differences
)
Early par of this period marked by advancing coordination and greatly expanding
mobility.
)
Safety a very important consideration
)
Preference for right-handedness or left-handedness becomes apparent
Intellectual development
)
Importance of early home influence in future intellectual development
)
Growing ability to interpret raw data picked up by senses
)
Learns letters, colors, shapes and simple number concept
)
Maturing spatial relations shills
)
Ability to distinguish between complex shapes and familiar sounds.
) A
time for habit formation
) A
time to teach children about privileges and responsibilities
) A
period for encouraging self-confidence
Emotional development
)
Importance of limits
)
Dealing with tempter tantrums
)
Ability to appropriately express positive and negative emotions essential to
healthy growth.
)
Learning self-control and ability to delay gratification continues
Social Development
)
Increasingly more independent and sociable.
) Setting a child up for relational success.
) Importance of play and contact with other
children
/ Middle-Later Childhood (6-12): A Time for
Achievement
Physical development
) More
concern for growth and motor abilities than body image
) Slow
and steady growth
)
Healthy sense of personal worth enable children to be generally accepting of
their bodies.
) The
best years for correcting physical defects.
)
Increased awareness of family dynamics as well as broadening circles if
involvement in church and school require opportunities to talk and release
emotional tension.
) To
be able to do what other children of this age are doing is highly prized.
Intellectual development
)
School years broaden horizons of experience and authority
)
Importance of school readiness
)
Bring their school work home with pride
)
Development of powerful new mental operations and logic
)
Development of language skills
)
Learning to think in reverse
)
Classification skills increasingly more complex
)
Vocabularies more than double
)
Developing thinkers
Emotional development
)
Growth in ability to deal with emotions
)
Developing inner controls
)
Coping with grief and loss
Social development
)
Identify closely with significant adults in their lives
)
Strongest influence is still with the family
)
Importance of same sex role modeling an opposite sex approval.
) A
group-oriented, gang age
)
Struggle between desires for independence and dependence.
)
Sex cleavage
)
Making memories
/ Adolescence: A Time for Independence and
Identify
This is a difficult period to define. It is bounded by puberty on one end and
adult competencies on the other. There are marked differences in the rate of
development both between children and within the same child.
Physical development
) Fixation
with body and physical development
)
Onset of puberty
)
Physical heigh and weight growth spurts
) Sex
hormones foster sexual development.
)
Importance of education regarding sexuality and changes to be expected.
)
Importance of nutrition and awareness of eating disorders
Intellectual development
)
Growth in thinking process brings new questions
)
Capacity to thing in terms of symbols are possibilities
)
New ability to consider multiple variables
)
Ability to reason both inductively and deductively.
Emotional development
)
Threatened equilibrium
)
Pull between safety of childhood and desire for independence
)
New understanding of emotions
)
Need for safe place to release emotions in presence of assured acceptance an
love
Social development
)
Working through separation and individuation.
)
New opportunities for parents
)
Talents and gifts emerge
)
Importance of peers
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