EDUC 100 -

Child and Adolescent

Learners and Learning
Principles
UNIT 1. PHYSICAL
DEVELOPMENT
Lesson 1.
What is “development?”
Scientistsagree on one thing: that
development implies a “systematic and
successive change”.
Can be defined as “progressive, orderly
and continuing changes over time in a
person’s physical and neurological
structure.”
A series of age-related changes that
happen across the life span.
Stages of Child Development
Stages in child development refer
to development of children from
birth to the age of 18 years.
Children develop physically,
intellectually, socially,
emotionally, and linguistically
through the years with different
rates of growth for each category.
Stages of Child Development:
Infancy
Childhood
Adolescence
adulthood
Infancy – (birth to 2 years
old) (“newborn” , “infant” ,
“toddler”) during infancy, the
child is totally dependent on the
caregiver for the fulfillment of
his/her needs.
Childhood – (“early childhood” 2
to 6 years old) (“late childhood” 6 to 12
years old) – at this stage the child
refines his/her skills he/she learned in
earlier years, from basic to more
complex skills. He she also learn new
skills. The most rapid period of growth
and development is seen in early
childhood.
Characteristics of Early Childhood:

Problem age or troublesome age

Toy age
Pre-school age
Pre-gang age
Exploratory stage
Questioning stage
Creativity stage
Characteristics of Late Childhood:

Troublesome age
Sloppy age
Quarrelsome age
Elementary school age
Critical period
Gang age
Adolescence
comes from Latin word “adolescere”
meaning “to grow” or “to grow maturity”
(12 to 18 years old) this stage is marked by
puberty. (11 – 14 years old) when a child
undergoes a series of changes in the body.
Puberty is the starting point of adolescence
Adolescence is a period of change –
changes in their bodies and their interests
Adolescence is a problem age
Adolescence is a time to search for
identity- as individuals is by the use
of status symbols in the form of
clothes, hairdos, music, and any other
material possessions.
Adolescence is a time of unrealism-
they see themselves and others as
they would like them to be rather that
as they are.
Adulthood – this is the period
when an individual has reached
his/her maturity. This is usually
above 18 years of age.
Little history of child-
rearing
Middle ages (800s – 1300s)
the church did not approved of “family
planning” so birth rates were very high.
Women usually gave birth to 12 to 14
children.
During these times, the average life span
was around 35-40 years.
3 out of 5 children died before reaching
adulthood.
Little or no affection because many of them
would probably die at a young age.
In other countries, they even have grand
celebration when a child survives and
reaches 5 years of age. (no health care
benefits back then, vaccines and
antibiotics have not been invented yet.)
Children who reached the age 7 or 8
years old were already sent to work like
adults.
Boys and girls worked in the farm, and
girls who started to menstruate were
already sent off to be married.
Renaissance (1300s – 1600s)

There was a rebirth of learning and

culture in society
People began to think about their
place in the world. They saw
themselves as individuals and began to
see their children as individuals with
rights.
In 1963, John Locke had his theory of
“tabula rasa” (blank slate) arguing that
our brains are empty at birth and are
waiting to be filled with experiences, and
that we are products of our social
environment.
When parents and teachers realized that
they could write on that “blank slate” they
started to control children’s experiences.
Parents started showing affection to their
children.
Industrial Age (late 1700s to late 1800s)

The rise of industrialization and machinery

Many people moved from rural to urban
areas because many jobs could be found in
the cities.
The economy around the world was
changing and children were seen as an
economic asset.
Children aged 7 were already sent off to
work to help support the family
 Modern Age of the beginning of 20th century (early
1900s)

 The wives of factory owners, with the crusaders

of social rights, were able to enact child labor
laws, which came to effect in the late 19th century.
 The laws dictated that children under the age 16
should not be made to work in factories, although
they were still allowed to work in their family
farm.
 That was the first time the term “CHILDHOOD”
became a legal definition (early 20th century) not
just a developmental phase.
Since children were out of the factories,
many schools were built to contain these
children in urban areas.
This led Compulsory Education. It
started out as Sunday schools to be moral
citizens, the subjects for academics were
introduced.
Early 20th Century the term “childhood”
was divided into stages.
ADOLESCENCE, in terms of biology,
begins with puberty and ends in a cultural
recognition of adulthood by the age of 18,
a legal age. Relationship within the family
shift and peers become more influential at
this stage.
DEVELOPMENT means how we
“change” is not defined by age alone;
although a person’s age can give an
average or a rough estimate of the various
stages. Remember that there are
exceptions to the rule. For example,
people reach puberty earlier or later that
the average age.
 Domains of Child Development

Three Domains of Child Development

PhysicalDomain
Cognitive Domain
Psychosocial Domain
PHYSICAL DOMAIN – includes growth
of the body size and proportions,
appearance, brain development, sensory
capacities (taste, touch, sight, smell,
hearing, and proprioception, which bodily
awareness of your orientation in space),
motor skills, and overall physical health.
The physical domain is about the
measurable, visible changes in the body of a
child from birth to old age.
Motor development refers to the increasing
amount of control that a child has over his/her
body. Gross motor skills (major movements of
the body involving large muscles) fine motor
skills (movement of fingers and hands)

Adaptive development refers to the ability of a

child to do age-appropriate life skills. It may
refer to how a child adapts to the environment
and is able to perform things independently.
These might include drinking from bottle or
cup, feeding, toileting, dressing, or avoiding
common dangers.
COGNITIVE DOMAIN – is about the
changes and progression in the thought
processes –thinking abilities of a person
from infancy up to old age. The mental
processes include learning, attention,
memory, language, thinking, reasoning,
problem-solving, creativity, imagination,
academic knowledge, everyday knowledge,
and understanding what is happening
around you.
Four Aspects of Language Development
Phonology – forming sounds into words
Syntax – creating sentences from these
words using language rules and
conventions
Semantics – understanding meaning and
shades of meaning
Pragmatics - how to apply language to
communicate in practical or few simple
personal use
PSYCHOSOCIAL DOMAIN – includes
emotions, personality, and social
relationships.
Social development is all about the child’s
relationships with different kinds of people
and his/her unique way of interacting with
them. It also includes self-knowledge (self-
esteem, metacognition, sexual identity, and
ethnic identity) and moral reasoning.
Emotional development refers to how a
child’s emotions develop, how he/she
understands and expresses his/her emotions
(anger, fear, anxiety, sorrow, joy, happiness,
and others) in socially acceptable ways, or
regulating one’s emotions, having
confrontations without violence.
Many times, the social development and
emotional development are mentioned together
as one, known as socio-emotional domain. This
is all about living peace with oneself in the
context of living with others. A child learns how
to read social cues of other people to control
his/her emotions and express them properly. It
also includes understanding others, learning how
to sympathize and empathize with other people.
It includes temperament, interpersonal skills, and
friendships.
Activity.
1. Explain what child and adolescent
development is?
2. Group Activity. Create a concept map
with descriptions of the stages and
domains of child development. Do this
on a separate paper.