Why study children?

 To Understand Children
 Better understand why they do what they do
 Better appreciate all characteristics of human
development
 Understand the importance of caregivers
 To Gain Skills
 Sharpen your powers of observation
 To Understand Yourself
 To Build for the Future
Understanding Child
Development
 Development is…..
A process that includes growth-
becoming taller, for example- as
well as progress in skills and
abilities.
Child Development
is…
The study of how children master
new skills.
Developmental Tasks
 Challenges met at a particular stage of life.

1. Childhood
2. Adolescence YOU ARE HERE!

3. Adulthood
Adolescence
 You must:

 Find your identity

 Become independent

 Plan for your life’s work

 Influences on Development
 Heredity (Nature)
 Passing on certain characteristics from parent to child
 Eye color, blood type, etc.
 Genes- small section of a chromosome
 Chromosomes- threadlike structures found within the nucleus,
or center, of body cells.
 Environment (Nurture)
 People – especially family
 Society and Culture can transmit values and customs
 Economic Conditions
 Technology
How Did I Get This
 List some traits that children would develop
or inherit from their environment and then
list some traits that children would develop
from their heredity. Finally list 5 personal
traits that you have and tell whether they
came from environment or heredity.
Evaluating Your Personal
Development
 Examine your present personality – what you like and do
not like, how you react to things or people, what your habits
are, etc.  
 Identify three or four factors in your childhood that have
influenced your personal development and have aided in
forming your present personality. These factors may be
individuals, events, places, etc.
 Write about these influences and how you feel about them.
Include ideas that you as a parent or caregiver may do
differently and what you would do the same with your own
children or children for which you may care.
Areas of Child Development
P.I.E.S
 Physical  Intellectual
 Gross (large) Motor  Learning
 Fine (small) Motor  Language
 Social  Moral
 Interactions w/ others  Personal beliefs
 Expressing self  Right and wrong
 Emotional
 Express feelings
 Establish identity
 Physical Development
 Development including physical growth
(weight, height) and muscle development.
 Hand-eye coordination
 How the hands work in relation to what is
being seen.
 Small & Large Motor Skills
Small: the use of the Large: the use of the
small muscles of the large muscles of the
body body
 Physical Dev. Examples
Fine Motor Gross Motor
 Coloring  Running
 Drawing  Jumping
 Pointing  Playing sports
 Working puzzles  Walking
 Manipulating small  Throwing
objects
Cognitive/Intellectual
Development
 The development of the mind including
thought processes and learning
 Cognitive Dev. Examples

 Vocabulary
 Counting
 Cause and effect
 Trial and error
 Incidental learning
 Social Development
 How children interact and get along with
each other.
 Social Dev. Examples
 Parallel Play—two children playing next to each
other, but not together
 Solitary Play—a child playing by him/herself
 Cooperative Play—two or more children playing
and interacting together
 Sharing
 Emotional Development
 How a child feels about him/herself and
others and how he/she expresses those
feelings.

 Self-esteem: how a child values

him/herself
Emotional Dev. Examples
 Crying
 Smiling
 Separation Anxiety
 Stranger Anxiety
 Moral Development

 What is right and  They learn to

wrong share and to
 Through play encourage the
children learn to efforts of others.
follow the rules
and act fairly
toward others
 Moral Examples

 Sharing  Respecting others

 Having Manners  Not lying
 Following rules  Not stealing
 Using appropriate
language
 Developmental
Showcases!
Your work will be displayed in the
classroom and hallway!!! 
Developmental Showcase
 Create a mini-poster showcasing the four
areas of development
 Physical
 Social
 Emotional
 Intellectual
 Have at least four examples of each area.
Cut pictures out of the magazines provided.
Be sure to identify the specific area of
development.
Characteristics of Development
 Development is….
 similar for everyone
 builds on earlier learning
 proceeds at an individual rate
 interrelated
 continuous throughout life
Development is similar for everyone.
 Children go through the same stages in about
the same order.
 Examples—
 all babies lift their head before they lift their bodies
 all babies stand up before they walk
Development builds on earlier learning
 Development follows a step by step pattern or
a sequence
 The skills a child learns at one stage build
directly on those mastered earlier.
 Examples—
 Before a child learns to run, he/she has to learn to
walk.
Development proceeds at an individual
rate.
 Children follow a similar pattern of
development, each child is an individual.
 The rate of growth differs from child to child
 Examples
 When did you first say dada?
 When did you first crawl/walk?
Development is continuous throughout
life.
 The rate of development changes, sometimes
it is fast and sometimes it is slow.
 Development never stops!
The different areas of development are
interrelated
 PIES
 Physical—the increasing ability to control and
coordinate body movements
 Intellectual—the process of learning to think,
remember, understand, reason, and use language
 Emotional—the process of learning to recognize and
express feelings
 Social—learning to relate to other people
 Checking Your Understanding
 Growth picture frame—draw a mirror or picture frame
on a poster. Divide it into four sections (PIES). Write
four words or draw four pictures that describe you in
each area of development. You can only use
something one time.
 Area of Development Project
 Choose one of the following or create your own…
display of your development
 Prepare a scrapbook illustrating your development in all
four areas
 Prepare a power point showing pictures of yourself as you
developed in all four areas
 Prepare a poster showing pictures of yourself as you
developed in all four areas
 Create your own display—just be sure to label PIES
 Due on Friday at the beginning of class….be sure to bring
pictures tomorrow to work on this!
 Class Discussion
 What are a list of ways a family can provide
enrichment for children without elaborate or
expensive toys?

 Name some inexpensive toys or activities

that can help children develop

THE END