UNIT I.

GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF HUMAN DEVELOPMENT

Lesson 1 - Basic concepts, principles & factors of development

Development - the progressive series of changes of an orderly and coherent type toward the
goal of maturity.
- implies qualitative change or a change in the kind of functioning.

There are two essentially antagonistic processes taking place simultaneously throughout life
–growth (evolution) and atrophy (involution).

Development - refers to the systematic changes and continuities in the individual that occurs
between conception and death or “from womb to tomb”. It is systematic because the changes
are orderly patterned and relatively enduring while continuities are ways in which we remain the
same or continue to reflect our pasts

Growth - pertains to an increase in the size of bodily or structural parts of the organism as a
whole. It usually comes in the form of physical changes that occur from conception to maturity.
Growth is easily measurable because it is quantitative in nature.

One factor influencing development is maturation.

Maturation - is the biological unfolding of a genetically influenced, often age related, sequence
of physical changes and behavior patterns including the readiness to master new abilities.
These include functions which are common to the human race, such as creeping, crawling,
sitting, standing, and walking. Such changes emerge over time and are relatively unaffected by
the environment, except in cases of malnutrition or severe illness. Much of a person’s physical
development falls into this category.

Another factor which influences development is learning.

Learning - is the acquisition of knowledge and skills through experience which can result in a
relatively permanent change of behavior.

There are four characteristics of learning:

1. Purposeful - for learning to take place there has to be intentionality. A student brings his or
her goals into the classroom and this is of major importance in the act of learning. If you are a
college student, it is by now clear what your goals are and why you enrolled in your degree
program.
2. A result of experience - learning is derived from the experiences a learner encounters inside
and outside of the classroom. The experiences are of different nature and their impact may vary
according to the nature of the person. Learning is a very personal experience. Knowledge is
derived from experience and no two persons react to the same experience. It is often said that
every experience is a potential source of learning.
3. Multifaceted - learning is a complex process and would be of different kinds and different
mechanisms of the learner are involved. Learning is not simply cognitive in nature but would
also involve the affective and behavioral domains of the person. The learner does not only bring
one’s mind to the classroom but one’s entire self including one’s past. A lesson in Math will not
only involve numbers but along the way may also require discipline and correct practice.
Working with fellow students can promote socio-cultural learning which can be part of their
“incidental” learning.
4. An active process - the learner is a dynamic being and in order for learning to take place the
person has to take an active part being a thinking and feeling person. Learning does not occur
in a vacuum but in a setting that allows for an active and reciprocal interaction between the
learner and the context. New nerve cells may grow and new neural networks will then be
formed.

Development covers several domains which include the following:

1. Physical development: the growth of the body and its organs during childhood; the functioning
of physiological systems; the appearance of physical signs of aging during adulthood; gains,
losses, and continuities in motor abilities; and so on.
2. Cognitive development: changes in perception, language, learning, memory, problem-solving,
and other mental processes.
3. Psychological development (Socio-emotional) : change and carryover in personal and
interpersonal aspects of development, such as motives, emotions, personality traits,
interpersonal skills and relationships, and roles played in the family and in the larger society.

Experts have varying views about development.

● There are those who view development as continuous, which means a process of
gradually adding more of the same types of skills that were there to begin with .
● According to a second view, development is discontinuous. This means that new ways of
understanding and responding to the world emerge at specific times . Theories that
accept the discontinuous view regard development as happening in stages - qualitative
changes in thinking, feeling and behaving that characterize certain periods of
development

PRINCIPLES OF DEVELOPMENT FROM A LIFESPAN PERSPECTIVE /SIGNIFICANT

FACTS ABOUT DEVELOPMENT

1. Early foundations are critical.

- According to (WHO), the early years are critical, because this is the period in life when
the brain develops most rapidly and has a high capacity for change, and the foundation
is laid for health and wellbeing throughout life.
- Nurturing care – defined as care that is provided in a stable environment, that is
sensitive to children’s health and nutritional needs, with protection from threats,
 opportunities for early learning, and interactions that are responsive, emotionally
supportive and developmentally stimulating – is at the heart of children’s potential to
develop.
- Attitudes, habits, and patterns of behavior laid down during the early years may
determine to a large extent the quality of adjustment to later life.
- Early childhood is a crucial time in a child’s development because this period lays the
foundations for the child’s learning and well-being throughout their life. It is therefore
considered to be the most important phase of development in life, that which shapes the
adults and consequently the society of tomorrow. Protecting and safeguarding children’s
development over this period is therefore of the utmost importance for parents, states
and all individuals who want to contribute to building a better world.

2. Maturation and learning play important roles in development.

- Maturation is genetically programmed when the ripe time comes. They are the changes
that occur according to one’s genetically determined, biological time table of
development.
- While learning takes place when the person is ready to do so. It is the process through
which experience brings about relatively permanent changes in thoughts, feelings, or
behavior. It is development that comes from exercise and effort, and is specific to the
individual such as writing, driving a car, or swimming. Both maturation and learning are
the factors influencing development.

3. Development follows a definite and predictable pattern.

- There are orderly patterns of physical, motor, language and intellectual development.
These developmental directions are the cephalocaudal direction which shows
development beginning at the top region going down to the feet. During the prenatal
period, the first organ to develop is the brain which illustrates that development begins at
the head region. The other direction is the proximodistal sequence which maintains that
development starts at the central part of the body such as the trunk before it reaches the
extremities or periphery. The fingertips are the last to develop thus children may easily
get tired after an hour or less of writing exercises.

4. All individuals are different.

- All people, even identical twins, are biologically and genetically different from one
another. Learners cannot be expected to behave and respond to the same situation in a
similar way. The variation or diversity can be seen in different forms.
- Some students will be larger, better coordinated, or more mature in their thinking and
social relationships. Others will be much slower to mature in these areas. Except in rare
cases of very rapid or very slow development, such differences are normal and should
be expected in any large group of students. And these differences should be accepted,
respected and developed.

5. Each phase of development has a characteristic pattern of behavior.

 - The patterns are marked by periods of equilibrium, when individuals adapt easily to
environmental demands and as a result, make good personal and social adjustments,
and by periods of disequilibrium, when they experience difficulty in adaptation, and as a
result make poor adjustments.

6. Each phase of development has hazards.

- Each period in the life span has associated risks. In childhood, accidents are rampant
and illnesses such as asthma or dengue fever are likely. With the advancing age, certain
illnesses can be triggered by lifestyle and predisposing factors.

7. Development is aided by stimulation.

- Although development occurs as a product of maturation and environmental
experiences, providing a stimulating environment can encourage the learner to be able
to maximize the use of an ability.

9. There are social expectations for every stage of development.

- There are developmental tasks or guidelines that enable individuals to know what
society expects of them at given ages. Robert Havighurst theorized that development is
continuous throughout the entire lifespan where the individual moves from one stage to
the next by means of successful resolution of problems or performance of developmental
tasks.

10. There are traditional beliefs about people of all ages.

- People have the tendency to hold beliefs about how people behave at different ages.
These beliefs can be affected by culture, too. These beliefs about the physical and
psychological characteristics may affect people’s judgments as well as the person’s
self-evaluation.

SUMMARY OF THE PRINCIPLES OF HUMAN DEVELOPMENT

1. Development is lifelong. Development covers the entire life span of the person.
2. Development is plastic. Plasticity refers to the potential for change, which implies that every
person, young or old, can learn.
3. Development is multidimensional. Development covers various aspects of life; biological,
cognitive, and socio-emotional. By itself, development is a complex process.
4. Development is contextual. Development unfolds in a particular setting or context where the
person is situated. This explains why there are differences in the kind and rate of development.
5. Development involves growth, maintenance and regulation. Growth, maintenance and
regulation are the three main goals of development. The goals of the individual may vary
according to the life stages.

Lesson 2. Stages of Development, Issues and Learner-Centered Psychological Principles

1. Prenatal Period: Conception to birth (0-9 months).

 - A single-celled organism becomes a complete human being within nine months with
remarkable capacities for adjustment outside the prenatal environment.
2. Infancy & Toddlerhood: From birth to the end of second year.
- This period brings dramatic changes in the body and brain that support the emergence
of a wide array of motor, perceptual, and intellectual capacities; the beginnings of
language; and first intimate ties to others. Infancy spans the first year; toddlerhood spans
the second, during which children take their first independent steps, marking a shift to
greater autonomy.
3. Early Childhood: From two to six years old.
- The body becomes longer and leaner, motor skills are refined, and children become
more self-controlled and self-sufficient. Make-believe play blossoms, supporting every
aspect of psychological development. Thought and language expand at an astounding
pace, a sense of morality becomes evident, and children establish ties with peers.
4. Late Childhood: From six to ten or twelve years old.
- Children learn about the wider world and master new responsibilities that increasingly
resemble those they will perform as adults. Hallmarks of this period are improved athletic
abilities; participation in organized games with rules; more logical thought processes;
mastery of fundamental reading, writing, math, and other academic knowledge and
skills; and advances in understanding the self, morality, and friendship.
5. Preadolescence or Puberty and Adolescence: From ten to twelve to eighteen
years old.
- This period initiates the transition to adulthood. Puberty leads to an adult-sized body and
sexual maturity. Thought becomes abstract and idealistic, and schooling is increasingly
directed toward preparation for higher education and the world of work. Young people
begin to establish autonomy from the family and to define personal values and goals.
6. Early Adulthood: From eighteen to thirty-five years old.
- The focus of early adulthood is set on the future. The goals of this stage include
choosing and establishing careers, fulfilling sexual needs, establishing homes and
families, expanding social circles, and developing naturally. Muscle strength and
coordination peak in the 20’s-30’s and decline between ages 30-60.
7. Middle Adulthood : From thirty-five to sixty-five years old.
- Middle adulthood is marked by narrowing life options, a shrinking future as children leave
home, and career paths become more determined. There are wide variations in attitudes
and behaviors at this age, as everyone has had their own life experiences.
8. Late Adulthood or Senescence (Old Age) : From sixty-five years to death.
- There is negativity associated with this stage of life that tends to focus on deterioration,
dependency, and end to learning. These myths fail to capture the quality of these
decades. There is a balance of gains and declines as death approaches and there are
many ways to surmount physical and cognitive challenges in late adulthood.

Issues on Human Development

1. Nature (Heredity) versus Nurture (Environment).

 - Which has a stronger influence, nature or nurture? Philosophers such as Plato and
Descartes supported the idea that some ideas are inborn.
- On the other hand, thinkers such as John Locke argued for the concept of tabula
rasa—a belief that the mind is a blank slate at birth, with experience determining our
knowledge.
- Today, most psychologists believe that it is an interaction between these two forces that
causes development. For instance, puberty is biological but the onset of puberty can be
influenced by environmental factors such as diet and nutrition.
2. Continuity (gradual, cumulative) versus Discontinuity (distinct changes).
- Does change occur smoothly over time, or through a series of predetermined steps?
- Some theories of development argue that changes are simply a matter of quantity;
children display more of certain skills as they grow older.
- Other theories outline a series of sequential stages in which skills emerge at certain
points of development.
3. Early Experience vs. Later Experience.
- Are we more affected by events that occur in early childhood, or do later events play an
equally important role?
- Psychoanalytic theorists tend to focus on events that occur in early childhood. According
to Freud, much of a child's personality is completely established by the age of five. If this
is indeed the case, those who have experienced deprived or abusive childhoods might
never adjust or develop normally.
- In contrast to this view, researchers have found that the influence of childhood events
does not necessarily have a dominating effect over behavior throughout life, however
there is evidence that childhood adversity may correlate to greater levels of stress in
adulthood.
4. Abnormal Behavior vs. Individual Differences
- One of the biggest concerns of many parents is whether or not their child is developing
normally. Developmental milestones offer guidelines for the ages at which certain skills
and abilities typically emerge, but can create concern when a child falls slightly behind
the norm. While developmental theories have historically focused upon deficits in
behavior, focus on individual differences in development is becoming more common.
- Psychoanalytic theories are traditionally focused upon abnormal behavior, so
developmental theories in this area tend to describe deficits in behavior. Learning
theories rely more on the environment's unique impact on an individual, so individual
differences are an important component of these theories. Today, psychologists look at
both norms and individual differences when describing child development.

LEARNER-CENTERED PSYCHOLOGICAL PRINCIPLES

Cognitive and Metacognitive Factors

1. Nature of the learning process

- The learning of complex subject matter is most effective when it is an intentional process
of constructing meaning from information and experience.
 There are different types of learning processes, for example, habit formation in motor
learning; and learning that involves the generation of knowledge, or cognitive skills and
learning strategies.
Learning in schools emphasizes the use of intentional processes that students can use
to construct meaning from information, experiences, and their own thoughts and beliefs.
Successful learners are active, goal-directed, self-regulating, and assume personal
responsibility for contributing to their own learning.

2. Goals of the learning process

- The successful learner, over time and with support and instructional guidance, can
create meaningful, coherent representations of knowledge.
The strategic nature of learning requires students to be goal directed.
To construct useful representations of knowledge and to acquire the thinking and
learning strategies necessary for continued learning success across the life span,
students must generate and pursue personally relevant goals. Initially, students'
short-term goals and learning may be sketchy in an area, but over time their
understanding can be refined by filling gaps, resolving inconsistencies, and deepening
their understanding of the subject matter so that they can reach longer-term goals.
Educators can assist learners in creating meaningful learning goals that are consistent
with both personal and educational aspirations and interests.

3. Construction of knowledge
- The successful learner can link new information with existing knowledge in meaningful
ways.
Knowledge widens and deepens as students continue to build links between new
information and experiences and their existing knowledge base. The nature of these
links can take a variety of forms, such as adding to, modifying, or reorganizing existing
knowledge or skills. How these links are made or developed may vary in different subject
areas, and among students with varying talents, interests, and abilities. However, unless
newknowledge becomes integrated with the learner's prior knowledge and
understanding, this new knowledge remains isolated, cannot be used most effectively in
new tasks, and does not transfer readily to new situations
Educators can assist learners in acquiring and integrating knowledge by a number of
strategies that have been shown to be effective with learners of varying abilities, such as
concept mapping and thematic organization or categorizing.

4. Strategic thinking
- The successful learner can create and use a repertoire of thinking and reasoning
strategies to achieve complex learning goals.
Successful learners use strategic thinking in their approach to learning, reasoning,
problem solving, and concept learning.
They understand and can use a variety of strategies to help them reach learning and
performance goals, and to apply their knowledge in novel situations.
 They also continue to expand their repertoire of strategies by reflecting on the methods
they use to see which work well for them, by receiving guided instruction and feedback,
and by observing or interacting with appropriate models.
Learning outcomes can be enhanced if educators assist learners in developing,
applying, and assessing their strategic learning skills.

5. Thinking about thinking

- Higher order strategies for selecting and monitoring mental operations facilitate creative
and critical thinking.
Successful learners can reflect on how they think and learn, set reasonable learning or
performance goals, select potentially appropriate learning strategies or methods, and
monitor their progress toward these goals.
In addition, successful learners know what to do if a problem occurs or if they are not
making sufficient or timely progress toward a goal. They can generate alternative
methods to reach their goal (or reassess the appropriateness and utility of the goal).
Instructional methods that focus on helping learners develop these higher order
(metacognitive) strategies can enhance student learning and personal responsibility for
learning.

6. Context of learning
- Learning is influenced by environmental factors, including culture, technology, and
instructional practices.
Learning does not occur in a vacuum. Teachers play a major interactive role with both
the learner and the learning environment.
Cultural or group influences on students can impact many educationally relevant
variables, such as motivation, orientation toward learning, and ways of thinking.
Technologies and instructional practices must be appropriate for learners' level of prior
knowledge, cognitive abilities, and their learning and thinking strategies.
The classroom environment, particularly the degree to which it is nurturing or not, can
also have significant impacts on student learning.

Motivational and Affective Factors

7. Motivational and emotional influences on learning

- What and how much is learned is influenced by the motivation. Motivation to learn, in
turn, is influenced by the individual's emotional states, beliefs, interests and goals, and
habits of thinking.
The rich internal world of thoughts, beliefs, goals, and expectations for success or failure
can enhance or interfere the learner's quality of thinking and information processing.
Students' beliefs about themselves as learners and the nature of learning have a marked
influence on motivation. Motivational and emotional factors also influence both the
quality of thinking and information processing as well as an individual's motivation to
learn.
 Positive emotions, such as curiosity, generally enhance motivation and facilitate learning
and performance. Mild anxiety can also enhance learning and performance by focusing
the learner's attention on a particular task. However, intense negative emotions (e.g.,
anxiety, panic, rage, insecurity) and related thoughts (e.g., worrying about competence,
ruminating about failure, fearing punishment, ridicule, or stigmatizing labels) generally
detract from motivation, interfere with learning, and contribute to low performance.

8. Intrinsic motivation to learn

- The learner's creativity, higher order thinking, and natural curiosity all contribute to
motivation to learn. Intrinsic motivation is stimulated by tasks of optimal novelty and
difficulty, relevant to personal interests, and providing for personal choice and control.
Curiosity, flexible and insightful thinking, and creativity are major indicators of the
learners' intrinsic motivation to learn, which is in large part a function of meeting basic
needs to be competent and to exercise personal control.
Intrinsic motivation is facilitated on tasks that learners perceive as interesting and
personally relevant and meaningful, appropriate in complexity and difficulty to the
learners' abilities, and on which they believe they can succeed.
Intrinsic motivation is also facilitated on tasks that are comparable to real-world
situations and meet needs for choice and control.
Educators can encourage and support learners' natural curiosity and motivation to learn
by attending to individual differences in learners' perceptions of optimal novelty and
difficulty, relevance, and personal choice and control.

9. Effects of motivation on effort

- Acquisition of complex knowledge and skills requires extended learner effort and guided
practice. Without learners' motivation to learn, the willingness to exert this effort is
unlikely without coercion.
Effort is another major indicator of motivation to learn. The acquisition of complex
knowledge and skills demands the investment of considerable learner energy and
strategic effort, along with persistence over time.
Educators need to be concerned with facilitating motivation by strategies that enhance
learner effort and commitment to learning and to achieving high standards of
comprehension and understanding.
Effective strategies include purposeful learning activities, guided by practices that
enhance positive emotions and intrinsic motivation to learn, and methods that increase
learners' perceptions that a task is interesting and personally relevant.

Developmental and Social Factors

10. Developmental influences on learning

 - As individuals develop, there are different opportunities and constraints for learning.
Learning is most effective when differential development within and across physical,
intellectual, emotional, and social domains is taken into account.
Individuals learn best when material is appropriate to their developmental level and is
presented in an enjoyable and interesting way. Because individual development varies
across intellectual, social, emotional, and physical domains, achievement in different
instructional domains may also vary.
Overemphasis on one type of developmental readiness--such as reading readiness, for
example--may preclude learners from demonstrating that they are more capable in other
areas of performance.
The cognitive, emotional, and social development of individual learners and how they
interpret life experiences are affected by prior schooling, home, culture, and community
factors.
Early and continuing parental involvement in schooling, and the quality of language
interactions and two-way communications between adults and children can influence
these developmental areas.
Awareness and understanding of developmental differences among children with and
without emotional, physical, or intellectual disabilities, can facilitate the creation of
optimal learning contexts.

11. Social influences on learning

- Learning is influenced by social interactions, interpersonal relations, and communication
with others.
Learning can be enhanced when the learner has an opportunity to interact and to
collaborate with others on instructional tasks.
Learning settings that allow for social interactions, and that respect diversity, encourage
flexible thinking and social competence.
In interactive and collaborative instructional contexts, individuals have an opportunity for
perspective taking and reflective thinking that may lead to higher levels of cognitive,
social, and moral development, as well as self-esteem.
Quality personal relationships that provide stability, trust, and caring can increase
learners' sense of belonging, self-respect and self-acceptance, and provide a positive
climate for learning.
Family influences, positive interpersonal support and instruction in self-motivation
strategies can offset factors that interfere with optimal learning such as negative beliefs
about competence in a particular subject, high levels of test anxiety, negative sex role
expectations, and undue pressure to perform well.
Positive learning climates can also help to establish the context for healthier levels of
thinking, feeling, and behaving. Such contexts help learners feel safe to share ideas,
actively participate in the learning process, and create a learning community.

12. Individual differences in learning.

 - Learners have different strategies, approaches, and capabilities for learning that are a
function of prior experience and heredity.
Individuals are born with and develop their own capabilities and talents.
In addition, through learning and social acculturation, they have acquired their own
preferences for how they like to learn and the pace at which they learn. However, these
preferences are not always useful in helping learners reach their learning goals.
Educators need to help students examine their learning preferences and expand or
modify them, if necessary.
The interaction between learner differences and curricular and environmental conditions
is another key factor affecting learning outcomes.
Educators need to be sensitive to individual differences, in general. They also need to
attend to learner perceptions of the degree to which these differences are accepted and
adapted to by varying instructional methods and materials.

13. Learning and diversity

- Learning is most effective when differences in learners' linguistic, cultural, and social
backgrounds are taken into account.
The same basic principles of learning, motivation, and effective instruction apply to all
learners. However, language, ethnicity, race, beliefs, and socioeconomic status all can
influence learning. Careful attention to these factors in the instructional setting enhances
the possibilities for designing and implementing appropriate learning environments.
When learners perceive that their individual differences in abilities, backgrounds,
cultures, and experiences are valued, respected, and accommodated in learning tasks
and contexts, levels of motivation and achievement are enhanced.

14. Standards and assessment

- Setting appropriately high and challenging standards and assessing the learner as well
as learning progress -- including diagnostic, process, and outcome assessment -- are
integral parts of the learning process.
Assessment provides important information to both the learner and teacher at all stages
of the learning process.
Effective learning takes place when learners feel challenged to work towards
appropriately high goals; therefore, appraisal of the learner's cognitive strengths and
weaknesses, as well as current knowledge and skills, is important for the selection of
instructional materials of an optimal degree of difficulty.
Ongoing assessment of the learner's understanding of the curricular material can
provide valuable feedback to both learners and teachers about progress toward the
learning goals.
Standardized assessment of learner progress and outcomes assessment provides one
type of information about achievement levels both within and across individuals that can
inform various types of programmatic decisions.
Performance assessments can provide other sources of information about the
attainment of learning outcomes.
 Self-assessments of learning progress can also improve students self appraisal skills
and enhance motivation and self-directed learning.

Alexander and Murphy gave a summary of the 14 principles and distilled

them into five areas:

1. The knowledge base

One’s knowledge serves as the foundation of all future learning.
2. Strategic processing and control
Learners can develop skills to reflect and regulate their thoughts and behaviors in order to learn
more effectively.
3. Motivation and affect
Factors such as intrinsic motivation, reasons for wanting to learn, personal goals and enjoyment
of learning tasks all have a crucial role in the learning process.
4. Development and Individual Differences
Learning is a unique journey for each person because each learner has his own unique
combination of genetic and environmental factors that influence him.
5. Situation or context
Learning happens in the context of a society as well as within an individual.

UNIT II. PRENATAL PERIOD, INFANCY, AND TODDLERHOOD

Lesson 1 -Prenatal Development

Stages of Prenatal Development

The Germinal Stage

- The germinal stage begins at conception and ends when the zygote is implanted in the
wall of the uterus. After conception, the zygote spends roughly a week floating down the
Fallopian tube to the uterus.
- Cell division begins 24 to 36 hours after conception; within 2 to 3 days, there are several
dozen cells and the whole mass is about the size of the head of a pin.
- Approximately 4 days after conception, the mass of cells, now called a blastocyst, begins
to subdivide, forming a sphere with two layers of cells around a hollow center.
- The outermost layer will form the various structures that will support the developing
organism, while the inner layer will form the embryo itself. When it touches the wall of the
uterus, the outer cell layer of the blastocyst breaks down at the point of contact. Small
tendrils develop and attach the cell mass to the uterine wall, a process called
implantation.
- When implantation is complete (normally 10 days to 2 weeks after conception), the
blastocyst has perhaps 150 cells (Tanner, 1990).

The Embryonic Stage

 - The embryonic stage begins when implantation is complete. The blastocyst’s outer layer
of cells specialized into two membranes, each of which forms critical support structures.
The inner membrane becomes a sac or bag called the amnion, filled with liquid (amniotic
fluid) in which the embryo floats.
- The outer membrane, called the chorion, develops into two organs, the placenta and the
umbilical cord. The placenta, which is fully developed by about 4 weeks of gestation, is a
platelike mass of cells that lies against the wall of the uterus. It serves as the liver and
kidneys for the embryo until the embryo’s own organs begin to function. It also provides
the embryo with oxygen and removes carbon dioxide from its blood.
- Connected to the embryo’s circulatory system via the umbilical cord, the placenta also
serves as a critical filter between the mother’s circulatory system and the embryo’s.
Nutrients such as oxygen, proteins, sugars, and vitamins from the maternal blood can
pass through to the embryo or fetus; digestive wastes and carbon dioxide from the
infant’s blood pass back through to the mother, whose own body can eliminate them.
- While the support structures are developing, the mass of cells that will form the embryo
itself is differentiating further into several types of cells that form the rudiments of skin,
sense receptors, nerve cells, muscles, circulatory system, and internal organs—a
process called organogenesis.
- A heartbeat can be detected roughly 4 weeks after conception; the beginnings of lungs
and limbs are also apparent at this time. By the end of the embryonic period,
rudimentary fingers and toes, eyes, eyelids, nose, mouth, and external ears are all
present, as are the basic parts of the nervous system.
- The embryonic stage ends when organogenesis is complete and bone cells begin to
form, typically about 8 weeks after conception.

The Fetal Stage

- Once organogenesis is complete, the developing organism is known as a fetus and the
final phase of prenatal development, the fetal stage, begins (lasting from approximately
8 weeks until birth). From a weight of about 1⁄4 ounce and a length of 1 inch, the fetus
grows to a baby weighing about 7 pounds and having a length of about 20 inches, who
is ready to be born.
- In addition, this stage involves refinements of the organ systems that are essential to life
outside the womb.
- By the end of week 23, a small number of babies have attained viability, the ability to live
outside the womb (Moore & Persaud, 1993).
- However, most babies born this early die, and those who do survive struggle for many
months. Remaining in the womb just 1 week longer, until the end of week 24, greatly
increases a baby’s chances of survival.
- The extra week probably allows time for lung function to become more efficient.
- In addition, most brain structures are completely developed by the end of the 24th week.
For these reasons, most experts accept 24 weeks as the average age of viability.

Teratology and Hazards to Prenatal Development

 - Teratology is the field that investigates the causes of congenital defects. A teratogen is
that which causes birth defects. It is from the Greek word “tera” which means “monster”.

Below are clusters of Problems in Prenatal Development

1. Genetic Disorders
- Many disorders appear to be transmitted through the operation of dominant and
recessive genes. Autosomal disorders are caused by genes located on the autosomes.
The genes that cause sex-linked disorders are found on the X chromosome.

Autosomal Disorders
- Phenylketonuria (PKU). Most recessive autosomal disorders are diagnosed in infancy or
early childhood. For example, one recessive gene causes a baby to have problems
digesting the amino acid phenylalanine. Toxins build up in the baby’s brain and cause
mental retardation. This condition is called phenylketonuria (PKU).
- If a baby consumes no foods containing phenylalanine, however, she will not become
mentally retarded. Milk is one of the foods PKU babies cannot have, so early diagnosis
is critical. For this reason, most doctors require all babies to be tested for PKU soon after
birth.

Sickle-Cell Disease.
- It is a recessive disorder that causes red blood cell deformities (Raj & Bertolone, 2010).
- In sickle-cell disease, the blood cannot carry enough oxygen to keep the body’s tissues
healthy. However, with early diagnosis and antibiotic treatment, more than 80% of
children diagnosed with the disease survive to adulthood (Raj & Bertolone, 2010).
- Persons with sickle-cell trait carry a single recessive gene for sickle-cell disease, which
causes a few of their red blood cells to be abnormal. Doctors can identify carriers of the
sickle-cell gene by testing their blood for sickle-cell trait. Once potential parents know
that they carry the gene, they can make informed decisions about future childbearing.

Huntington’s Disease. Disorders caused by dominant genes, such as Huntington’s disease, are
usually not diagnosed until adulthood (Amato, 1998). This disorder causes the brain to
deteriorate and affects both psychological and motor functions. Until recently, children of people
with Huntington’s disease had to wait until they became ill themselves to know for sure that they
carried the gene. Now, doctors can use a blood test to identify Huntington's gene. Thus, people
who have a parent with this disease can make better decisions about their own childbearing and
can prepare for living with a serious disorder when they get older.

Sex-Linked Disorders

- Color Blindness. Most sex-linked disorders are caused by recessive genes. One fairly
common sex-linked recessive disorder is red-green color blindness. People with this
disorder have difficulty distinguishing between the colors red and green when they are
 next to each other. Most people learn ways of compensating for the disorder and thus
live perfectly normal lives.

Hemophilia - The blood of people with hemophilia lacks the chemical components that cause
blood to clot. Thus, when a person with hemophilia bleeds, the bleeding does not stop naturally.

Fragile-X Syndrome - A person with this disorder has an X chromosome with a “fragile,” or
damaged, spot. Fragile-X syndrome can cause mental retardation that becomes progressively
worse as children get older (Jewell, 2009). Fragile-X syndrome is also strongly associated with
autism, a disorder that interferes with children’s capacity to form emotional bonds with others
- Fortunately, fragile-X syndrome is one of several disorders that can be diagnosed before
birth

2. Chromosomal Errors
- There are different chromosomal anomalies that have been identified, and most result in
miscarriage. When babies do survive, the effects of chromosomal errors tend to be
dramatic.

Trisomies. A trisomy is a condition in which an individual has three copies of a particular

autosome. The most common is Down syndrome (also called trisomy 21), in which the child has
three copies of chromosome 21.
- These children have distinctive facial features, most notably a flattened face and
somewhat slanted eyes with an epicanthic fold on the upper eyelid (an extension of the
normal eyelid fold), reduced total brain size, and often other physical abnormalities such
as heart defects.
- Typically, they have mental retardation.
- Paternal age is a factor

Sex-Chromosome Anomalies. A second class of anomalies, associated with an

incomplete or incorrect division of either sex chromosome
- The most common is an XXY pattern, called Klinefelter’s syndrome, which occurs in
approximately 1 out of every 1,000 males.
- Affected boys most often look quite normal, although they have characteristically long
arms and legs and underdeveloped testes. Most do not have mental retardation, but
language and learning disabilities are common.
- Somewhat rarer is an XYY pattern. These children also develop as boys; typically they
are unusually tall, with mild retardation.

A single-X pattern (XO), called Turner’s syndrome, and a triple-X pattern (BX) may also occur,
and in both cases the child develops as a girl.
- Girls with Turner’s syndrome— perhaps 1 in every 3,000 live female births (Tanner,
1990)—show stunted growth and are usually sterile. Without hormone therapy, they do
not menstruate or develop breasts at puberty. Neuroimaging studies show that Turner
 syndrome is associated with abnormal development in both the cerebellum and the
cerebrum
- These girls also show an interesting imbalance in their cognitive skills: They often
perform particularly poorly on tests that measure spatial ability but usually perform at or
above normal levels on tests of verbal skill
- Girls with an XXX pattern are of normal size but are slow in physical development. In
contrast to girls with Turner’s syndrome, they have markedly poor verbal abilities and
overall low IQ, and they do particularly poorly in school compared with other children
with sex-chromosome anomalies

3. Teratogens: Maternal Diseases

- Deviant prenatal development can also result from variations in the environment in which
the embryo and fetus is nurtured. A particular teratogen, such as a drug or a disease in
the mother, will result in a defect in the embryo or fetus only if it occurs during a
particular period of days or weeks of prenatal life. The general rule is that each organ
system is most vulnerable to disruption at the time when it is developing most rapidly

Rubella. The first few weeks of gestation comprise a critical period for a negative effect from
rubella (also called German measles). Most infants exposed to rubella in the first trimester show
some degree of hearing impairment, visual impairment, and/or heart deformity (Ezike & Ang,
2009). Fortunately, rubella is preventable. A vaccine
- Adult women who were not vaccinated as children can be vaccinated later, but the
vaccination must be done at least 3 months before a pregnancy to provide complete
immunity. Moreover, the vaccine itself can be teratogenic, another good reason to wait
several weeks before attempting to conceive.

Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) & Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS).
- Mother-to-child transmission of HIV is the spread of HIV from a woman with HIV to her
child during pregnancy, childbirth (also called labor and delivery), or breastfeeding
(through breast milk).
- Pregnant women with HIV must receive HIV medicines during pregnancy and childbirth
to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV. In some situations, a woman with HIV
may have a scheduled cesarean delivery (sometimes called a C-section) to prevent
mother-to-child transmission of HIV during delivery.
- Babies born to women with HIV should receive HIV medicines for 4 to 6 weeks after
birth. The HIV medicines reduce the risk of infection from any HIV that may have entered
a baby’s body during childbirth.
- Because HIV can be transmitted in breast milk, women with HIV should not breastfeed
their babies. Baby formula is a safer alternative.

Chronic Illnesses. Conditions such as heart disease, diabetes, and lupus, can also negatively
affect prenatal development
 - And recent research indicates that prenatal exposure to some maternal health
conditions, such as the fluctuations in metabolism rate characteristic of diabetes, may
predispose infants to developmental delays
- One of the most important goals of the new specialty of fetal-maternal medicine is to
manage the pregnancies of women who have such conditions so that the health of both
mother and fetus will be supported.

Environmental Hazards. There are a number of substances found in the environment that may
have detrimental effects on prenatal development.
- For example, women who work with mercury (e.g., dentists, dental technicians,
semiconductor manufacturing workers) are advised to limit their exposure to this
potentially teratogenic substance (March of Dimes, 2011).
- Consuming large amounts of fish may also expose pregnant women to high levels of
mercury (because of industrial pollution of the oceans and waterways). Fish may also
contain elevated levels of another problematic industrial pollutant known as
polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs.
- For these reasons, researchers recommend that pregnant women limit their
consumption of fish, especially fresh tuna, shark, swordfish, and mackerel (March of
Dimes, 2011).

There are several other environmental hazards that pregnant women are advised to avoid
(March of Dimes, 2011):
• Lead, found in painted surfaces in older homes, pipes carrying drinking water, lead crystal
glassware, and some ceramic dishes
•Arsenic, found in dust from pressure-treated lumber
•Cadmium, found in semiconductor manufacturing facilities
• Anesthetic gases, found in dental offices, outpatient surgical facilities, and hospital operating
rooms
•Solvents, such as alcohol and paint thinners
• Parasite-bearing substances, such as animal feces and undercooked meat, poultry, or eggs

4. Teratogens: Drugs
- There is now a huge literature on the effects of prenatal drugs, especially controlled
substances such as heroin and marijuana (Barth, 2001). Sorting out the effects of drugs
has proved to be an immensely challenging task because many women use multiple
substances: Women who drink alcohol are also more likely than nondrinkers to smoke;
those who use cocaine are also likely to take other illegal drugs or to smoke or drink to
excess, and so on.
- In addition, many women who use drugs have other problems, such as depression, that
may be responsible for the apparent effects of the drugs they use
- Furthermore, the effects of drugs may be subtle, visible only many years after birth in the
form of minor learning disabilities or increased risk of behavior problems.

Smoking.
 - Research suggests that smoking during pregnancy may cause genetic damage in the
developing fetus
- In addition, the link between smoking and low birth weight is well established. Infants of
mothers who smoke are on average about half a pound lighter at birth than infants of
nonsmoking mothers and are nearly twice as likely to be born with a weight below 2,500
grams (5 pounds 8 ounces), the common definition of low birth weight. The primary
problem-causing agent in cigarettes is nicotine, which constricts the blood vessels,
reducing blood flow and nutrition to the placenta.

Drinking. The effects of alcohol on the developing fetus range from mild to severe. At the
extreme end of the continuum are children who exhibit a syndrome called fetal alcohol
syndrome (FAS). These children, whose mothers were usually heavy drinkers or alcoholics, are
generally smaller than normal, with smaller brains and often with distinct physical anomalies or
deformities.
- They frequently have heart defects, and their faces have certain distinctive features
including a somewhat flattened nose and nose bridge and often an unusually long space
between nose and mouth. However, the disorder is often difficult to diagnose.

Cocaine. Early studies found a number of associations between prenatal cocaine exposure and
developmental problems such as low birth weight and brain damage (Ornoy, 2002).
- However, most such studies ignored the fact that most cocaine-using pregnant women
are poor and abuse multiple substances, making it difficult to separate the effects of
cocaine from those of poverty and other drugs.
- Cocaine can lead to pregnancy complications, such as disruption of placental function
and premature labor that may adversely affect the developing fetus.

Marijuana and Heroin. Prenatal exposure to marijuana appears to interfere with a child’s growth
(Marrou, 2009). Even at age 6, children whose mothers used the drug during pregnancy are
smaller on average than their non-drug-exposed peers (Cornelius et al., 2002).
- Researchers also have evidence suggesting that prenatal exposure to marijuana
adversely affects the developing brain

5. Other Teratogens and Maternal Factors

- A variety of additional factors, from vitamins to environmental pollutants to maternal
emotions, can affect prenatal development.

Prescription and Over-the-Counter Drugs. In general, doctors advise against taking any
unnecessary medicines during pregnancy. But some pregnant women must take drugs in order
to treat health conditions that may be threatening to their own and their unborn child’s life.
- For instance, pregnant women with epilepsy must take antiseizure medication because
the seizures themselves are potentially harmful to the unborn child. Other drugs that
pregnant women may have to risk taking, even though they can be harmful, include
medications that treat heart conditions and diabetes, those that control asthma
symptoms, and some kinds of psychiatric drugs. In all such cases, physicians weigh the
 benefits of medication against potential teratogenic effects and look for a combination of
drug and dosage that will effectively treat the mother’s health condition while placing her
unborn child at minimal risk

Diet. Both the general adequacy of a pregnant woman’s diet, measured in terms of calories, and
the presence of certain key nutrients are critical to prenatal development
- Dietitians recommend that expectant mothers take in about 300 calories more per day
than before they were pregnant
- When a woman experiences severe malnutrition during pregnancy, particularly during
the final 3 months, she faces a greatly increased risk of stillbirth, low infant birth weight,
or infant death during the first year of life
- Autopsies show that infants born to malnourished mothers have smaller brains, with
fewer and smaller brain cells than normal (Georgieff, 1994).
- There are also risks associated with gaining too much weight during pregnancy. In
particular, women who gain too much weight are more likely to have a cesarean section
delivery (Takimoto, 2006); they are also prone to postpartum obesity, which carries a
whole set of health risks, including heart disease and diabetes

Age. In most cases, older mothers have uncomplicated pregnancies and deliver healthy babies,
but the risks associated with pregnancy do increase somewhat as women get older
- Their babies are also at greater risk of weighing less than 5.5 pounds at birth, a finding
that is partly explained by the greater incidence of multiple births among older mothers.
Still, infants born to women over the age of 35, whether single or multiple births, are at
higher risk of having problems such as heart malformations and chromosomal disorders.
- At the other end of the age continuum, when comparing the rates of problems seen in
teenage mothers with those seen in mothers in their 20s, almost all researchers find
higher rates of problems among the teens.
- However, teenage mothers are also more likely to be poor, less likely to receive
adequate prenatal care, less likely to be married, and more poorly educated about
pregnancy and birth than older mothers are

Stress and Emotional State. The idea that emotional or physical stresses are linked to poor
pregnancy outcomes is firmly established in folklore (DiPietro, 2004).
- Results from studies in animals suggest that these beliefs are justified: Exposure of the
pregnant female to stressors such as heat, light, noise, shock, or crowding significantly
increases the risk of low birth-weight offspring as well as later problems in the offspring
(Schneider, 1992).
- Likewise, studies in humans show that stressful life events, emotional distress, and
physical stress are all linked to slight increases in problems of pregnancy, such as low
birth weight (DiPietro, 2004). Moreover, studies involving experimentally induced
stressors (e.g., requiring a pregnant woman to take some kind of cognitive test) show
that they seem to cause short-term changes in fetal activity, heart rate, and other
responses
Poverty. The basic sequence of fetal development is clearly no different for children born to poor
mothers than for children born to middle-class mothers, but many of the problems that can
negatively affect prenatal development are more common among the poor. Poor women are
also likely to have their first pregnancy earlier and to have more pregnancies overall, and they
are less likely to be immunized against such diseases as rubella. They are also less likely to
seek prenatal care, and if they do, they seek it much later in their pregnancies.

Lesson 2. Physical, Cognitive, and Socio-Emotional Development of Infants and Toddlers

Physical and Motor Development

Newborns and toddlers progress from using reflexes to gross motor skills to fine motor skills.
Motor skills can be divided into three rough groups: locomotor patterns such as walking and
running, non locomotor patterns such as pushing and pulling, and manipulations like grasping
and throwing.

Table 1 presents the summary of the different reflexes which have survival value to the newborn
and Table 2 gives the milestones of motor development in the first two years.
The Sensory Capacities

Sight
- The newborn’s vision is about 10-30 times lower than normal adult vision. By 6 months
of age, vision improves and by the first birthday, the baby’s vision approximates that of
an adult.
- It was found out that babies prefer to look at patterns such as faces and concentric
circles rather than at color or brightness.

Audition
- The newborn hears sounds. Do babies hear organized sound patterns as in speech or
music? Research shows that babies show preferential orientation to speech and music
and as early as the prenatal development and infancy there are evidences pointing
 toward the newborn’s preference for the mother’s voice , and her native language . So
the newborn arrives with a bias to speech and music and this reflects coherent
perception.

Smell
- Newborn babies can discriminate various smells.
- It was found out that when newborns were presented with a new smell, activity level,
heart rate and breathing pattern changed. If the smell continued, the newborn becomes
habituated to it and learned to take no notice.
- The newborn also showed a favorable bias to the mother’s smell as evidenced by taking
notice of the breast pad which absorbed some milk

Taste
- There is evidence that the sense of smell has been present even during the prenatal
period. When given different solutions, the reactions of the newborn would vary
depending on the strength of the solution. Sensitivity to taste is certainly present in the
newborn but not nearly as precise as in the adult.

Touch (including pain)

- Touch is the most highly developed sense, particularly in the forehead, lips, tongue and
ears. Generally speaking it is an accepted idea that newborns are not as sensitive to
pain as they will be later in life.

Cognitive Development

● Cognitive development includes age-related changes that occ

● Piaget defined intelligence as a basic life process that helps an organism to adapt to his
environment. As children mature, they acquire more complex cognitive structures that
help them in adapting to their environment.
● A cognitive structure, as called by Piaget as a scheme or schema, is an organized
pattern of thought or action that is used to cope with or explain some aspect of
experience.
● The earliest schemes are simple motor habits such as reaching and grasping.
● Piaget claimed that babies have no inborn knowledge or ideas about reality. Instead, he
viewed children as constructivists who actively create new understandings of the world
based on their experiences.
● Children by nature are curious and active explorers. Their mind is not simply a passive
receiver of information but an active processor of experience.
● Children are able to construct new schemes because they have two intellectual
functions, which are organization and adaptation. Organization is the process by which
children combine existing schemes into new and more complex intellectual structures. It
is considered by Piaget as innate and automatic and the goal of organization is to further
the process of adaptation.
● Adaptation is the process of adjusting to the demands of the environment.
● In addition, adaptation involves two complementary functions: assimilation and
accommodation.
● Assimilation is the process of by which children interpret new experiences by
incorporating them to existing schemes while accommodation is the process by which
children modify their existing schemes in order to incorporate or adapt to new
experiences.
● There are times that a disequilibrium occurs. This is an imbalance between one’s though
processes and environmental events. By contrast, there is equilibrium if there is a
harmonious relationship between one’s cognitive structures and the environment
Piaget’s Sensorimotor Development

Stage 1 (Birth to 1 month)

- Throughout most of the first stage, behavior is largely reflexive. They respond to the
world mostly in terms of the reflexes that they are born with.
Stage 2 (1-4 months)
- The second stage begins with the alterations in reflexive behaviors. New behaviors such
as hand-mouth coordination (e.g. repeated thumb sucking); eye coordination (ability of
the eyes to follow moving objects), and eye-ear coordination (ability to move head
toward the head in the direction of sounds) appear.

Stage 3 (4 to 8 months)
- It can be observed that prior to Stage 3 most of the baby’s behavior is directed toward
the self.
- In addition, the baby cannot distinguish itself from the objects in the environment. The
baby cannot also coordinate eye-hand coordination, but during Stage 3, all these things
change. The baby’s behaviors are increasingly directed to events or objects beyond its
body. The baby can likewise recognize the difference between self and other objects and
the baby grasps or manipulates objects it can reach. This now illustrates eye-hand
coordination.
- Another important milestone of Stage 3 is that the baby seems to repeat events that are
interesting. This paves the way for intentional action on the part of the baby.

Stage 4 (8-12 months)

- During Stage 3, three very interesting and related things begin to happen.
- First, the baby uses means to attain ends that may not be attainable in a direct way. The
baby intentionally selects appropriate or available means to achieve a goal.
- Second, the baby begins to anticipate events. Certain signals or signs seem to be
associated with actions that follow.
- And third, the baby recognizes that objects (besides itself) can cause things to happen.
The baby now realizes that external objects can be the cause of actions.

Stage 5 (12 – 18 months)

- The baby is now able to develop new means (through experimentation) to attain goals.
New strategies are developed through trial and error. The baby while playing in the bath
tub may experiment pushing objects underwater and splashing as if in a minor squall.

Stage 6 (18-24 months)

- The baby toward the end of the sensorimotor stage moves to the representational level
of thinking. Representation is the ability to symbolize objects or events mentally. The
ability to represent objects and events internally enhances the concept of causality.
- One of the major developments at the close of the sensorimotor stage is the attainment
of object permanence. Object permanence is the ability to realize that objects continue to
exist even if not in view. The construction of the permanent object is of major value
because it signals the beginning of the ability to “think”about what is not present or in
immediate view.

Language Development
 - Language is used diversely throughout one’s life span. It serves as a mechanism of
self-stimulation and control of individual activity.
- It also functions as a self-guidance mechanism for predicting and thinking about future
behavior as well as a mechanism that organizes social behavior and interactions of
people with each other.
- Language ,which is of verbal-symbolic form, is only one of the many forms of
communication. There are many ways of communicating one’s feelings, emotions, and
thoughts.
- Infants begin to make vocal sounds at birth. It is initially undifferentiated, however,
infants may be able to develop a variety of cries.
- Shortly after birth, the newborn is capable of making gestures and sounds. Crying is the
first form of communication and has a great adaptive value. By the time the baby is
about 3 -6 months old, cooing is heard especially when the baby is happy. These sounds
can match the sounds heard from people around them.
- Babbling occurs between 6- 10 months old and gets to be mistaken as the first words.
Babbling is not real language because it does not hold meaning for the baby. The first
words appear between 10-14 months and these single word utterances are called
holophrases.
- As the months progress, babies can express in telegraphic speech usually consisting of
a few essential words. The words to be spoken are usually nouns, followed by action
words, then modifiers, personal-social words and function words.

Language Milestones
*smallest units of sound in speech
**fundamental rules for putting sentences together in one’s language

Theories of Language Development.

1. Learning Theory.
- The learning theory explains speech and language development as products of
reinforcement of infant/baby responses.
- B.F. Skinner, the foremost proponent of learning theory, maintained that language, like
other learning, is based on experience and thus children learn language through operant
conditioning.

2. Social–learning theory.
- The theory maintains that babies learn language by listening, observing and imitating the
sounds they hear adults make and, again, reinforced for doing so. It describes the
presence of interactions between parent or caregiver and child. Mutual imitation occurs
and is a factor in language development.

3. Psycholinguistic Theory.
- Psycholinguistics is the study of the development of language from the cooing and
babbling of the baby to the organized words and sentences of older children.
- This theory emphasized the role of pre-programmed or built-in structures as the major
determinants of language development. As such, human beings have an inborn capacity
for language acquisition emphasizing the active role of the learner.
- Noam Chomsky (linguist), the major proponent, proposed that the human brain has an
innate capacity for acquiring language; babies learn to talk as naturally as they learn to
walk. He suggested that an inborn language acquisition device (LAD) programs
children’s brains to analyze the language they hear and figure out its rules.
- Nativists point out that almost all children master their native language in the same
age-related sequence without formal teaching.

4. Adults may also have the tendency to talk to babies in a special kind of way , originally called
motherese by linguists but now called infant-directed speech. This simple language is spoken in
a higher pitched voice and at a slower pace than is spoken between adults.

Socio-Emotional Development

- How does the baby’s sense of self develop? It develops in the context of relationships
with family members, peers, and other people in the social environment. During the first
years of life, the sense of self emerges from the affectional relationship between parents
and baby, known as attachment. The emotional bond is characterized by a tendency to
seek and maintain closeness to a specific figure, particularly during stressful situation.
- According to John Bowlby, the beginnings of attachment occur within the first six months
with a variety of built-in signals that the baby uses to keep the caregiver engaged.
 - According to Ainsworth, these include looking & following, rooting & sucking, adjustment
of posture, listening, smiling at each other, baby vocalizing or crying, and grasping &
clinging. It is imperative that there is a lot of responsive interaction between caregiver
and the baby. The timing of the caregiver’s response to the baby is important.

Mary Ainsworth categorized attachment of babies to caregivers in four ways:

1. Secure attachment.
- The baby often greets the mother warmly when she returns and, if highly distressed, will
often seek physical contact with her, which helps alleviate the distress. The child may be
outgoing with strangers while the mother is present.
2. Resistant attachment.
- The baby tries to stay close to the mother but explore very little while she is present.
They become very distressed as the mother departs. When the mother returns, the baby
is ambivalent; the baby remains near her but at the same time seems angry at her for
having left and is likely to resist physical contact initiated by the mother. Resistant babies
are wary of strangers when the mother is present. This shows insecure attachment.
3. Avoidant attachment.
- The baby also displays insecure attachment. The baby shows little distress when
separated from the mother and will generally turn away from and may continue to ignore
the mother even when she tries to gain the baby's attention. Avoidant babies are often
sociable with strangers but may occasionally avoid or ignore them in much the same
way that they avoid or ignore their mothers.
4. Disorganized/disoriented attachment.
- This seems to be a curious combination of the resistant and avoidant patterns that reflect
confusion about whether to approach or avoid the caregiver. When reunited with their
mothers, these babies may act dazed and freeze; or they may move closer but then
abruptly move away as the mother draws near; or they may show both patterns in
different reunion episodes.
- Quality of caregiving, the character or emotional climate of their homes, and their own
health conditions and temperaments can contribute to the kinds of attachments the
babies establish.

Temperament is the person’s characteristic modes of emotional and behavioral responding to

environmental events. Alexander Thomas and Stella Chess came up with three temperamental
profiles as a result of their longitudinal study. These are:
1. Easy temperament.
- Easygoing children are even-tempered, are typically in a positive mood, and are quite
open and adaptable to new experiences. Their habits are regular and predictable.
2. Difficult temperament.
- Difficult children are active, irritable, and irregular in their habits. They often react
vigorously to changes in routine and are very slow to adapt to new persons or situations.
3. Slow-to-warm up temperament.
 - These children are quite inactive, somewhat moody, can be slow to adapt to new
persons and situations. But unlike the difficult child, they typically respond to novelty in
mildly rather than intensely negative ways. The broader temperamental profiles may
persist over time and influence a child’s adjustment to a variety of settings someday.

● Thomas and Chess identified nine dimensions or qualities that help indicate
temperament, including: activity level, rhythmicity, distractibility, approach or withdrawal,
adaptability, attention span and persistence, intensity of reaction, threshold of
responsiveness, and quality of mood.
● By looking at these dimensions, caregivers can not only determine what their babies'
temperaments are like, but they can also identify ways of interacting and dealing with
certain aspects of their temperament in order to foster a nurturing environment for that
child and even prevent many complications before they arise.

Nine different temperament categories

A. Activity level.
- Some babies are placid or inactive. Other babies thrash about a lot and, as toddlers,
they are always on the move. At this stage, they must be watched carefully.
B. Mood.
- Some babies are very smiley and cheerful. Although securely attached to their teachers,
others have a low-key mood and look more solemn or unhappy.
C. Threshold for distress.
- Some babies are very sensitive and they become easily upset when stressed. Other
babies can comfortably wait when they need to be fed or get attention.
D. Rhythmicity.
- Some babies get hungry or sleepy on a fairly regular and predictable basis. Other babies
sleep at varying times and follow an unpredictable pattern. They are the ones who are
hard to put on schedule.
E. Intensity of response.
- When a baby’s threshold for distress has been reached, some babies are restless.
Others act cranky or fret just a little. Some cry with terrific intensity or howl with despair if
they are stressed.
F. Approach to a new situation.
- Some babies are more cautious while some others approach new persons, new
activities, or new play possibilities with zest and enjoyment.
G. Distractibility.
- There are babies who can concentrate on a toy regardless of noise in a room and there
are babies who easily get distracted.
H. Adaptability of each child.
- Some children react to strange or difficult situations with distress, but recover fairly
quickly. Others adjust to new situations with difficulty or after a very long period.
I. Child’s attention span.
 - Some have a long attention span. They continue on a task for a fairly long time. Others
flit from one activity to the other.

Erik Erikson’s Psychosocial Theory

● Erikson stressed that children are active explorers who adapt to their environments,
rather than passive slaves to biological urges who are molded by their parents.
● He believed that at every stage of life people must cope with social realities in order to
adapt successfully and show a normal pattern of development.
● It is considered psychosocial in nature because development is a result of the interaction
between inner instincts and outer cultural and social demands.
● According to him, human beings face eight major crises or conflicts during the course of
their lives. Each conflict has its own time for emerging as dictated by both biological
maturation and social demands that developing people experience at particular points in
life. And each must be resolved successfully to prepare the individual for a successful
resolution of the next life crisis.

The focus of this discussion will be Stages 1 & 2 for they concern infancy and toddlerhood.

Stage 1. Trust vs Mistrust (0-1 year)

Erikson believed that the behavior of the major caregiver (usually the mother) is critical
to the child’s establishing a sense of basic trust.
For the successful resolution of this task, the parent must be consistently loving and
respond predictably and reliably to the child. Those babies whose early care has been
erratic or harsh may develop mistrust. In either case, the child carries this aspect of
basic identity through development affecting the resolution of later tasks.

Stage 2. Autonomy vs Shame or Doubt ( 1-3 years)

During this stage of development the baby learns to control their actions. It is typical for
children at this age to use the word ‘no’ more than the word ‘yes’, for instance. Erikson
argued that the child is developing the notion of control over objects and events in their
world and by saying ‘no’ the child is developing a sense of autonomy.
Autonomy can be seen in other behaviors of a child. The child may grab a toy from a
sibling and not give it back under pressure from their brother or their parent. They may
demand to be held by a parent or to be let down, seemingly at random. As the child’s
expression of need for control increases, however, so the parent starts to set parameters
of what they consider acceptable behaviour. Toilet training is an important step toward
autonomy as well as the acquisition and use of language.
Freud’s Psychosexual Stages

● Sigmund Freud believed that people are born with biological drives that must be
redirected to make it possible to live in society.
● He proposed that personality is made up of the id, the ego, and the superego. Newborns
are governed by the id, which operates under the pleasure principle. The ego, which
represents reason, gradually develops during the first year of life or so operates under
the reality principle.
● The ego’s aim is to find realistic ways to gratify the id in ways that are acceptable to the
superego. The superego develops at about 5 or 6 years old. It includes the conscience
and incorporates socially approved standards of shoulds and should nots. The superego
operates under the moral principle.
● Freud proposed that personality forms through unconscious childhood conflicts between
the urges of the id and the requirements of civilized life. These appear in the sequential
stages of psychosexual development in which sensual pleasure shifts from one part of
the body to another. At each stage, the behavior that is the chief source of gratification
(or frustration) likewise changes.
● Freud considered the first three years of life as crucial for personality development. For
this particular discussion, focus will be on the first two stages of psychosexual
development that corresponds to the early years of life.

The first stage is the oral stage. This stage encompasses the first year of life. During this stage
the main source of erotic stimulation is the mouth (in biting, sucking, chewing). Freud contended
that too little or too much gratification in any of these stages can result in fixation and may show
up in adult personality. For example, a baby whose oral needs were not met, when feeding was
a main source of sensual pleasure, may grow up to become nail biters or smokers or develop
“bitingly”critical personalities.
The second stage is the anal stage.
- In their second year, children supposedly get their erotic pleasure from their bowel
movements, through either the expulsion or retention of the feces. Generally, toilet
training occurs during this period. A person who, as a toddler, experienced very strict
toilet training may become obsessively clean, rigidly tied to schedules and routines, or
defiantly messy.

Milestones of the Development of Emotions

Early Infancy (birth – six months)
- Between six and ten weeks a social smile emerges, usually accompanied by other
pleasure-indicative actions and sounds. The social smile occurs in response to adult
smiles and interactions.
- As the baby becomes more aware of their environment, smiling occurs in response to a
wider variety of contexts. Laughter begins at around three to four months and requires a
level of cognitive development. Laughter promotes social development since it allows for
reciprocal interactions.
Later infancy months (7-12 months)
- During the second half of the first year the baby begins to express others emotions such
as fear, disgust, and anger because of the maturing cognitive abilities. Anger, often
expressed by crying, is a frequent emotional response. It is commonly observed among
babies when compared to sadness.
- Fear is aroused when the baby finds the self in an unfamiliar setting or situation as well
as encountering unfamiliar persons. When a baby meets a totally new person, s/he may
show fear that begins to be observed at seven months of age.
- Separation anxiety is another fear that surfaces when 12-month old babies cry in fear
when the mother or caregiver leaves them in an unfamiliar place.
- Socialization of emotion begins in infancy. This enables the baby to learn cultural and
social codes for emotional display, teaching them how to express their emotions, and the
degree of acceptability associated with different types of emotional behaviors.
- Another important process that unfolds is social referencing. Babies begin to recognize
the emotions of others and use this information when reacting to novel situations and
people.
Toddlerhood (1-2 years)
- During the second year, babies can express emotions such as shame, embarrassment,
and pride. The learning and use of language to express emotions are essentially helpful
in developing emotional self-regulation skills. Emotional self-regulation includes
strategies for managing emotions or adjusting emotional arousal to a comfortable level of
intensity.
- Effective emotional regulation involves an ability to suppress, maintain, or even intensify
emotional arousal in order to remain productively engaged with the challenges faced or
people encountered.
- Empathy also appears in toddlerhood usually by age two. The development of empathy
requires that children read others' emotional cues, understand that other people are
entities distinct from themselves and take the perspective of another person.
 UNIT III. EARLY CHILDHOOD: THE PRESCHOOL YEARS

Lesson 1. Characteristics, developmental tasks of early childhood, and physical & motor
development

Characteristics of Early Childhood

● Parents call these years the troublesome or problem age as well as the toy age. There is
the tendency for the child to try out a lot of things and may show negativistic behavior
when told not to pursue what is being done.
● If the child is not properly guided his/her explorations sometimes create trouble for the
self and family.
● It is also called the toy age because children spend a good amount of their time playing
with their toys. The child engages in different kinds of play activities.
● Educators call this stage as the preschool age and activity age. This is the time when
children are exposed to a new social context, which is the classroom. They enroll in
kindergarten classes, a prelude to formal education. They learn basic skills which will be
of major help when they move up to the elementary years.
● Psychologists have various names to call early childhood. One is the pregang age.
Children learn social skills when playing with one another. The child begins to meet
people in one’s neighborhood and community and starts building friendships.
 ● It is also the questioning age. The preschool always asks about the varied things in
his/her environment. They are curious and would like to understand their environment.
● It is likewise considered as an exploratory age. The child manipulates his body and his
environment because s/he attempts to construct meaning of the world.
● Preschoolers are also famous for their imitation, thus the imitative age. There is the
tendency for the child to copy just any model who gets his/her attention. Its is important
that children are exposed to correct models for they are great imitators.
● The preschool age is called the creative age as expressed in their play.

The Major Developmental Tasks of Early Childhood

● Developmental tasks are guidelines that enable individuals to know what society expects
of them at given ages.
● Robert Havighurst theorized that development is continuous throughout the entire
lifespan where the individual moves from one stage to the next by means of successful
resolution of problems or performance of developmental tasks.

The following are the developmental tasks which ought to be mastered from babyhood until
early childhood.
a. Learning to walk.
b. Learning to take solid foods.
c. Learning to talk.
d. Learning to control the elimination of body wastes.
e. Learning sex differences and sexual modesty.
f. Achieving physiological stability.
g. Acquiring concepts and language to describe
social and physical reality.
h. Readiness for reading.
i. Learning to relate oneself emotionally to parents, siblings,
and other people.
j. Learning to distinguish right and wrong and developing a conscience.

Physical and Motor Development

Big ideas about the Physical Development of Preschoolers

1. There are significant changes in physical growth of preschoolers.
2. The preschoolers' physical development is marked by the acquisition of gross and fine motor
skills.
3. Preschoolers can express themselves artistically at a very early age.
4. Proper nutrition and the right amount of sleep are very important for the preschoolers.
5. Caregivers and teachers can do a lot in maximizing the growth and development of
preschoolers.
6. Preschoolers with special needs in inclusive classrooms can thrive well with the appropriate
adaptations made in the classroom, materials, and activities.
Significant Changes in Physical Growth
● Physical growth increases in the preschool years, although it is much slower in pace
than in infancy and toddlerhood. At around 3 years of age, preschoolers move, from the
remaining baby-like features of the toddler, toward a more slender appearance of a child.
The trunk, arms, and legs become longer.
● Increases in weight and height go with chronological age with males having larger
measurements than girls. All parts of the body grow at different rates. Bones are soft and
pliable, thus making this age as the best time to introduce the child to learning of skills.

Factors Affecting Growth

● There are a number of factors which may account for the child’s growth. These include
heredity, body build, sex, nutrition, health, emotional state, teething, and physical and
play activities.
● The kind of nutrition a preschooler gets has a far-reaching effect on his physical growth
and development . The preschooler’s nutritional status is the result of what nutrients he
or she actually takes in, checked against the nutritional status is the result of what
nutrients he or she takes in checked against the nutritional requirement of his /her age.

Motor Development in Early Childhood

● Gross motor development refers to acquiring skills that involve the large muscles. These
gross motor skills are categorized into three: locomotor, non-locomotor and manipulative
skills.
● Locomotor skills are those that involve going from one place to another, like walking,
running, climbing, skipping, hopping, creeping, galloping, and dodging.
● Non-locomotor ones are those where the child stays in place, like bending, stretching,
turning and swaying.
● Manipulative skills are those that involve projecting and receiving objects, like throwing,
striking, bouncing, catching, and dribbling.
● Preschoolers are generally physically active. Level of activity is highest around three and
becomes a little less as the preschooler gets older.
● Preschoolers should be provided with a variety of appropriate activities which will allow
them to use their large muscles. Regular physical activity helps preschoolers build and
maintain healthy bones, muscles, and joints, control weight and build lean muscles,
prevent or delay hypertension, reduce feelings of depression and anxiety and increase
capacity for learning.
● Fine motor development refers to acquiring the ability to use the smaller muscles in the
arm, hands and fingers purposefully. Some of the skills included here are picking,
squeezing. pounding. and opening things, holding and using a writing implement. It also
involves self-help skills like using the spoon and fork when eating, buttoning, zipping,
combing, and brushing.
 ● Different environments provide different experiences with fine motor skills. For example
the availability of information and communications technology in largely urban areas
makes younger and younger children proficient in keyboarding and manipulation of the
mouse and the use of smart phones and tablets. While other children use their fine
motor skills in digging soil, making toys out of sticks, cans and bottle caps. Still others
enjoy clay, play dough, and finger paint.

Handedness, or the preference of the use of one hand over the other is usually
established by age 4. Earlier than this, preschoolers can be observed to do tasks using
their hands interchangeably. We can observe a preschooler shifting the crayon from left
to right and back again while working on a coloring activity. This tendency is known as
ambidexterity.

Some Common Skills in the Early Childhood Stage

Early childhood is one of the ideal stages to learn new skills for a
number of reasons:
1. Their bodies are soft and pliable.
2. They are adventuresome.
3. They enjoy repetition.

Generally, children possess common skills classified as hand skills and leg skills. Below is a
description of skills which the different body parts can perform during the early childhood stage.

Hand Skills
● Children are able to perform hand skills which are of self-help nature. These include
self-feeding, bathing, brushing the teeth, buttoning the shirt, and combing the hair. They
can also exhibit skills such as throwing and catching balls, coloring, using the scissors,
scribbling, molding clay, and drawing, among others.

Leg Skills
● Children learn to jump from an elevated position usually by movements resembling
walking. They learn to climb stairs first by crawling and creeping. After they can walk
alone, they go up and down steps in an upright position, placing one foot on a step and
then drawing the other foot up after it. The child can demonstrate hopping, skipping,
running, galloping, and jumping. As the child’s age advances, s/he can learn riding the
bicycle, balancing on a rail, jumping rope, skating, and dancing.

Both the hand and leg skills can be used by the child for play and school activities.

Preschoolers' Artistic Development

● At the heart of the preschooler years is their interest to draw and make other forms of
artistic expressions. This form of fine motor activity is relevant to preschoolers. Viktor
Lowenfeld studied this and came up with the stages of drawing in early childhood:
Stage 1. Scribbling stage.
- This stage begins with large zig-zag lines which later become circular markings. Soon,
discrete shapes are drawn. The child may start to name his/her drawing towards the end
or this stage.
Stage 2. Preschematic stage.
- May already include early representations. At this point adults may be able to recognize
the drawings. Children at this stage tend to give the same names to their drawings
several times. Drawings usually comprise of a prominent head with basic elements.
Later, arms, legs, hands and even facial features are included.
Stage 3. Schematic stage.
- More elaborate scenes are depicted. Children usually draw from experience and
exposure. Drawings may include houses, trees, the sun and sky and people. Initially,
they may appear floating in air but eventually drawings appear to follow a ground line.

Summary of What Preschoolers Can Do

This bulleted list of preschoolers' physical skills is lifted from the Physical Domain component of
the Philippine Early Learning and Development Standards (ELDS). This set of standards was
based on a study commissioned by UNICEF and the Child Welfare Council (CWC). This is
now adopted for use by the Early Childhood Care and Development Council.

Physical Skills

Gross Motor: 36-48 months (3-4 years)

● Hops 1 to 3 steps on preferred foot
● Skips (with alternating feet)
● Jumps and turns
● Stands on one leg without falling for at least 5 seconds
● Throws a ball overhead with control of direction
● Throws a ball overhead with control of speed
● Kicks a ball with control of speed

Fine-motor Skills:
36-48 Months (3-4 years)
● Consistently turns pages of a picture or story book one page at a time looking at pictures
with interest
● Purposefully copies diagonal lines
● Purposefully bisects a cross
● Purposefully copies a square
● Purposefully copies a triangle
● Cuts with scissors following a line

49-60 months (4-6 years old)

● Copies a simple pattern of different basic shapes
 ● Draws a human figure (head, eyes, mouth, trunk, arms, legs, etc.) without prompts
● Draws a house without prompts using geometric forms
● Colors with strokes staying within the lines

Personal Care and Hygiene (Self-Help Skills)

36-48 months (3 - 4 years old)
● Pours from pitcher without spillage
● Feeds self using spoon without spillage
● Dresses without assistance except for buttons and tying laces
● Puts on socks independently

49-60 months (4 - 6 years old)

● Feeds self using fingers without spillage
● Prepares own food
● Dresses without assistance, including buttoning and tying
● Wipes/cleans him/herself after a bowel movement
● Brushes teeth after meals without having to be told
● Washes and dries face independently without having to be told
● Takes a bath independently without having to be told

Lesson 2: Cognitive development in early childhood

● Piaget believed that we are continuously trying to maintain balance in how we

understand the world.
● With rapid increases in motor skill and language development, young children are
constantly encountering new experiences, objects, and words.
● When faced with something new, a child may either assimilate it into an existing schema
by matching it with something they already know or expand their knowledge structure to
accommodate the new situation.
● During the preoperational stage, many of the child’s existing schemas will be challenged,
expanded, and rearranged. Their whole view of the world may shift.

● Piaget’s second stage of cognitive development is called the preoperational stage and
coincides with ages 2-7 (following the sensorimotor stage).
● The word operation refers to the use of logical rules, so sometimes this stage is
misinterpreted as implying that children are illogical. While it is true that children at the
beginning of the preoperational stage tend to answer questions intuitively as opposed to
logically, children in this stage are learning to use language and how to think about the
world symbolically.
● These skills help children develop the foundations they will need to consistently use
operations in the next stage.
● There are two substages of Piaget’s preoperational thought, namely, symbolic substage
and intuitive substage.
 ● In the symbolic substage, preschool children show progress in their cognitive abilities by
being able to draw objects that are not present, by their dramatic increase in their
language and make-believe play.
● Symbolic function or use of symbols. This is the ability to represent objects and events
using mental representations to which a child has attached meaning. A symbol is a thing
that represents something else. (A drawing, a written word, or a spoken word, numbers,
or images) A key part of this stage is the child’s developing capacity to employ symbols,
particularly language. Words become symbols for objects, labels are learned for objects;
hence, thinking becomes more symbolic in nature.
● Ex. Kerstin, age 4, remembers ice cream, its coldness and taste, even she has not seen
anything that triggered this like open freezer door, or television commercial.

● In the intuitive substage, preschool children begin to use primitive reasoning and ask a
litany of questions. The development in their language ability facilitates their endless
asking of questions. While preschool children exhibit considerable cognitive
development, their improved cognitive processes still show some aspects of immaturity
or limitations.
● Animism. The belief that inanimate objects are capable of actions and have lifelike
qualities. Preoperational children tends to attribute life to objects that are not alive.
● The remarks indicate that preschool children believe that inanimate objects have 'lifelike'
qualities and are capable of action.
● Preschool children who use animism fail to distinguish the appropriate occasions for
using human and nonhuman perspectives.

More examples:
● It could be a child believing that the sidewalk was mad and made them fall down, or that
the stars twinkle in the sky because they are happy.
● To an imaginative child, the cup may be alive, the chair that falls down and hits the
child’s ankle is mean, and the toys need to stay home because they are tired.

Egocentrism. This is the tendency of the child to only see his point of view and to assume that
everyone also has his same point of view. (The term egocentric does not mean the child is
selfish but he meant that he sees the world as centered around himself or herself. They only
consider their
own point of view and they are not capable of putting
themselves in another's place. They have difficulty
understanding another person’s point of view or they are
unaware that the other person has a point of view.)
Item # 2, "Child silently nods on the telephone as to answer
his father who is on the other side of phone inquiring if Mom is around," is another
limitation in preschool children's symbolic thought. Piaget calls this egocentrism,
the inability to distinguish between one's own perspective and someone else's