Physical and Motor Development

• Growth Indicators- it is a transitional period from newborn stage in the 4 weeks or first month of life.
• Central Nervous System- include receiving, processing, and responding to sensory information.
• Thalamus- direct sensory messages and information to higher centers in the brain. The thalamus plays a role in regulating consciousness, sleep, and alertness.
• Hypothalamus- controls body temperature, hunger, thirst, fatigue, emotions, and other vital functions
• Cerebellum- is the second largest part of the brain. Maintains normal muscle tone and posture. The cerebellum coordinates balance.
• Cerebrum- Higher forms of thinking take place in it. The cerebrum governs intelligence and reasoning, learning , and memory.
• Occipital Lobes- located at the back of the head. Visual cortex (color determination, object, face recognition and memory formation).
• Parietal Lobe- located at the top of the brain. ( Pressure, touch, pain).
• Temporal Lobe- Located at the sides of the brain. (Memory, perception, emotion, language)
• Frontal lobe- located at the front of the brain. (Motor control, planning, problem solving, decision making, personality expression, speech production)
• Left Hemisphere

  • Verbal Competence
  • Speaking, reading, thinking and reasoning
  • Processes info in sequence
  • Logical
• Right Hemisphere

  • Nonverbal areas
  • Comprehension, spatial relationships, drawing, music, emotion
  • Intuitive
• Peripheral Nervous System- it handles the central Nervous system's input and output. It contains sensory nerves and motor nerves.
• Somatic Nervous System- consists of nerves connected to sensory receptors and skeletal muscles. Permits voluntary action.
• Autonomic Nervous System- permits involuntary functioning of blood vessels, glands, and internal organs such as the bladder, stomach and heart.
• Parasympathetic Nervous System- is responsible fo the "body's rest and digestion" response.
• Sympathetic Nervous System- is network of nerves that helps your body activate it's "fight-or-flight" response.
• Reciprocal Interweaving- refers to the developmental process by which two tendencies gradually reach an effective organization.
• Functional Asymmetry- the infants symmetry tendency is seen in the tonic neck reflex, a reflex Gesell discovered in humans.
• Self Regulation- Gesell's actual position, as mentioned, was that all normal children go through the same sequences, but they vary in their rates of growth.
• Ecological Systems Theory- was introduced by Urie Bronfenbrenner.
• Micro System- the innermost level of the environment. Consist of the people and objects in the child's immediate environment such as parents,
• Mesosytem- this represents connections between microsystem such as the home, school and neighborhood
• Exosystem- this refers to the social settings that a person may not experience firsthand but which still influence development
• Macrosystem- the outermost level of an ecological model, includes the subcultures and cultures.
• Chronosystem- time is a factor in a child's development