CHILD AND ADOLESCENT DEVELOPMENT

• Growth - Refers to the progressive increase and continuous advancement of the child from birth to maturity  Refers primarily to the increment in the bodily tissues, organ and structures  Refers not only in an increase in quantity or in size but also in enlarged capacity and changing proportion
• Development - Refers to the gradual and orderly unfolding of the characteristics of the individual as they go through the successive stages of growth  Involves changes from simplicity to complexity and implies an increasingly progressive maturity of behaviour as well as organization of personality and character
• Physical development provides children with the abilities they need to explore and interact with the world around them, encompassing tasks and abilities like running, jumping, holding a pencil and drawing.
• Cognitive development involves how children think, reason, use language and process information.
• Socio-emotional development is about the development of the child’s personality, self-concept identity, and social skills.
• Moral development refers to the physical growth or growth in the ability of children to use their bodies and their physical skills.
• Cephalocaudal - the development proceeds from head to foot where control develops at the upper before the lowe
• Proximodistal - growth and development start from the middle portion of the body, going outward (e.g. the arms develop first, then the hands and finally, the fingers
• Maturation  Refers to the part of development that is controls from within the “internal ripening” aspect, indicating that growth has reached its optimal level
• Heredity  The process of transmitting biological traits from parents to offspring through genes, the basic unit of heredity; accounts for why off springs look like their parents.
• Environment  Refers to the totality of surrounding conditions that influence the growth, development and survival of organisms  Is one of the risk factors for development problem
• Family – the basic institution for the child’s development that provides the child with affection, sense of belongingness, and validation; may be nuclear (couple and children) or extended (nuclear and close relative
• Schools – An institution for the continuation of the child’s learning, and development of his mental, social and affective skills
• Peer group – composed of members who share the certain social characteristics, such as age class, occupation or education with a particular child, and is very important in the socialization process as the individual attempts to conform to the expectation of the peer group
• Neighbourhood – the community within a town or city where the individual resides
• Stages of Development  Referred to as the number of periods in the life cycle, in which the functions and relative emphasis of a given type of behaviour differ from those at other periods or life
•  Development Tasks – refer to behaviours that are expected to be manifested at or about a certain period in the life of an individual; the successful achievement of these tasks lead to success in later tasks; success or failure in performing these may be due to physical maturation, cultural pressure, and family background/rearing practices