WEEK 1

Welcome to this lesson on the Meaning, Concepts and Approaches in Human

Development. In this week, you are to accomplish the learning outcomes below:

1. Compare and contrast the concepts growth, development, and maturation.

2. Identify principles of human development

See the next pages of this module for the activities that you are to do this week.
Please undertake sequentially and be able to complete the task according to the
expectations. You can start now!
Human Development: Meaning, Concepts and Approaches

A. INTRODUCTION
Welcome to this course on Child and Adolescent Learners and Learning Principles.
Here, we will journey together in immersing ourselves of the real tasks of a teacher
focusing on the concepts and approaches related to human development.

B. LESSON CONTENT
LEARNING POINT 1: "COMPARING & CONTRASTING GROWTH, DEVELOPMENT, &
MATURATION"
GROWTH
 The term growth and development or both refer to dynamic process. They often used
changeably, these terms have different denotations.
 Growth is physical change and increase in size and it can be measure.
 Indicators of growth include height, weight, bone size and dentition.
DEVELOPMENT
 Is an increase in the complexity of function and skill progression.
 It is a capacity and skill of person to function.
 DEVELOPMENT is a behavior e.g.: the person develop their ability to walk, talk, to run,
etc.
GROWTH & DEVELOPMENT
 Growth and development interrelated processes e.g. an infant muscles, bones and
nervous system must grow to a certain point before, the infant sit up or walk.
 Growth generally takes place during the first 20 years of life, development continue after
that.
MATURATION
 Is the overall process of growth and development from infancy to adulthood.
 Every child has an inborn timetable and blueprint for maturation. This timetable and
blueprint are unique to that child. As the child matures, the blueprint unfolds.
  The rate of person’s growth and development is highly individualized, however the
sequence is predictable.
 Growth and development do not occur because of learning, instead they result from
maturation, which cannot be stopped or altered under normal circumstances.
 E.g. A child’s learning to walk may be attributed to maturation because the child learns
to walk when reaching a particular stage in development. Not every child begins to walk
at the same age, though.

LEARNING POINT 2: “IDENTIFYING PRINCIPLES OF HUMAN DEVELOPMENT"

Human development is the pattern of movement or change that begins at conception and
continues through the life-span. Development includes growth and decline. This means that
development can be positive or negative.

Major Principles of Human Development

1. Development is relatively orderly. A child will learn to sit, crawl then walk before they
can run. The muscular control of the trunk and the arms comes earlier as compared to
the hands and fingers. This is the proximodistal pattern. During infancy, the greatest
growth always occur at the top – the head, with physical growth in size, weight and
future differentiation gradually working its way down from top to bottom (for example,
neck, shoulders, middle trunk, and so on). This is the cephalocaudal pattern.
2. While the pattern of development is likely to be similar, the outcomes of
developmental processes and the rate of development are likely to vary among
individuals. Each child’s different and the rates at which individual children grow is
different/ although the patterns and sequence for growth and development are usually
the same for all children, the rate at which individual children reach developmental
stages will be different.
Development takes place gradually. A child won’t develop simply into teenager
overnight. It takes years before they become one. In fact, that’s the way of nature. The
bud does not blossom suddenly. While some changes occur in a flash of a sight, more
often it takes weeks, months, or years for a person to undergo changes that result in the
display of developmental characteristics.
3. Development as a process is complex. It is the product of biological, cognitive and
socioemotional processes.
Biological processes involve changes in individual's physical nature.
Cognitive processes involve changes in in the individual's thought, intelligence, and
language.
Socio-emotional processes involve changes in the individual's relationship with other
people, changes in emotions, and changes in personality.
Two Approaches to Human Development
1. Traditional Approach - when one believe that a child will show extensive change from
birth to adolescence, little or no change in adulthood and decline in late old age
2. Life- Span Approach- when one believe that even in adulthood, developmental change
still take place as it does during childhood. It is a holistic approach to understanding all of
the physiological, cognitive, emotional, and social changes that people go through.
 C. TEACHING- LEARNING ACTIVITIES
Put a check before the number if the statement is correct and an for the wrong one. If
you put an , explain why.

______ 1. Development is a pattern of change.

______ 2. From both traditional and life-span approach, development is lifelong.
______ 3. Individuals develop uniformly.
______ 4. Development is unidimensional.
______ 5. Development is either growth or decline

D. ASSESSMENT
1. In the Venn diagram, write the similarities and difference between growth, development,
and maturation.

Submit your answer in my messenger account (Emalyn Navarez) or in my email add

(emalynnavarez@gmail.com)
Deadline of submission: August 27, 2020 until 5 pm only.
NOTE: Please make sure to write your name, course and class schedule at the top
of your answer.