UNIT 11: INTRODUCTION TO HUMAN DEVELOPMENT
Key Unit competence: Justify why teachers should consider developmental stages of human being in relation with holistic development.
Based on knowledge related to branches of psychology, which of the following terms are linked to human development? Teaching and learning processes, progressive changes, maturation, evaluation, growth, developmental processes.
• Growth: It is the quantitative increase in size, height and weight and expansion of vocabulary to the point of maturity. It involves the multiplication and growth of body cells.
• Maturation: Biological growth process that enables orderly changes in behavior, relatively uninfluenced by experience. It refers to sequential characteristics of biological growth and development.
• Note: Maturation is growth which takes place regularly in an individual without special condition of stimulation. On the other hand, growth refers to increase in size and mass. Many changes during development are due to the growth and maturation.
• Development: This implies overall quantitative as well as qualitative changes. It basically involves changes in thought and behaviour of a person as a result of biological and environmental influences.
For example, development of thinking proceeds from recognition of concrete objects in infancy to the forming of higher
concepts and abstract thought in adolescence. Development is also the process of growing, maturing, and changing.
Developmental domains: growth areas, each with specific skills and abilities that develop over time
• Brain architecture: The physical connections of neurons and synapses or “wiring” of the brain.
• Sensitive period of development: According to Montessori, sensitive period refers to a period of time when a child’s interests are focused on developing a particular skill or knowledge area. During sensitive period, a child easily absorbs information in a specific way. The most important sensitive periods occur between birth and age six.
• Critical period: A specific time span during which stable, long-lasting pathways for a particular skill are made in the brain.
• Intuitive thinking: Is basically the kind of thinking that helps you understand reality in the moment, without logic or analysis.
• Developmental psychology: This is also called child psychology or human growth and development. It is a branch of psychology that studies the developmental processes involved in human physical, emotional, social and intellectual changes from conception through adolescence including numerous factors that influence these processes. It is also the study of progressive changes in behavior and abilities of an individual from conception to death
It is very important for a future teacher to study developmental psychology for a number of reasons. Many psychologists and educationists have appreciated the value of developmental psychology to education; some of the most important contributions are the following:
– It helps in understanding how children change as they grow up and the forces that contribute to this change.
– It helps in training early childhood educators.
– It helps in training pre-school teachers who are to take care of pre-kindergarten children.
– It helps in understanding the roots of social difficulties encountered by many of today’s adolescents.
– It helps teachers, prospective teachers and parents to be in a position to understand the individual differences in learning and how to adapt their teaching according to the learner’s mental requirements by using different teaching methods.
– Teachers and parents get to know the needs and motives of children at different levels so that they can motivate the children accordingly.
– It enables teachers, psychologists and parents to understand emotional reactions of individual child.
– It helps psychologists, teachers, and development psychologists to understand the nature of classroom learning and the learning process of children in general.
11.2. Developmental domains/dimensions
When MUNANARI was 3 years old he was unable to hold the pencil properly but was able to kick the ball with his foot. Two years later when he was 5 years old, he could hold the pencil and write in his notebook.
a. What aspect of development helped Munanari to hold the pencil and write in his notebook?
b. How do we call the motor development that Munanari did not attain when he was three?
Human development can be classified into a number of different aspects or domains:
• Physical development/growth: It deals with the changes in the body.
• Social development: This refers to changes in which an individual interacts with others in society.
• Intellectual /cognitive development: This refers to higher mental processes such as thinking, remembering, perception, reasoning…
Social development: This refers to the development of children’s behavior and their interaction with others. It can include moral and spiritual development too.
• Moral development: This refers to changes of an individual in relation to what society expects of him or her.
• Language development: Expressing thoughts in the form of words and sentences
• Motor development: This deals with two kinds of development namely Gross motor and Fine motor development.
– Gross motor: using large muscle groups in legs, arms, and chest (walking, running, throwing, kicking).
– Fine motor development – using small muscles in the hands and feet in coordination with the eyes (reaching, grasping).
Note on interrelationship between developmental domains
Developmental domains are separated for study purposes but in reality they are interrelated. In fact, as shown by the following examples, what affects one domain impacts other domains:
The motor development has an impact on cognitive development: motor skills allow the exploration of the near and further environment which develop problem solving, creativity, critical thinking. Vice versa, the cognitive development has a great impact on physical development: a child with intellectual challenges will have motor problems.
11.3. Developmental stages
Children go through distinct stages or periods of development as they move from infants to young adults. During each of these stages, multiple changes in the development of the brain take place. What occurs and approximately when these developments take place are biologically determined. However, environmental circumstances and exchanges with key individuals within that environment have significant influence on how each child benefits from each developmental event. Ages and stages is a term used to broadly outline key periods in the human development timeline. During each stage growth and development occur in the primary developmental domains including physical, intellectual, language and social – emotional.
An individual goes through the following periods in his/her development:
a. Prenatal period: This is a period prior to birth. i.e. conception to birth. It is a period of tremendous growth usually from a single cell to an organism. This occurs approximately between 8-9 months thought some exceptional cases may occur (Odera, Nizeyimana, and Kareba, 2004).
b. Infancy period (0-2 years): Within this period, the individual is called a baby. It is a time of extreme dependence on adults. This is a period when many psychological activities such as language, symbolic thought, sensorimotor coordination and social learning start manifesting themselves.
c. Early childhood (2-6 years): An individual within it is toddler, then a child. This is a period from birth to eight years old, is a time of remarkable growth with development at its peak. During this stage, children are highly influenced by the environment and the people that surround them. They learn to become more self-reliant and care for themselves. They develop school readiness skills (such as identifying letters, symbols and colours) and spend most of their time playing with their peers (Odera, Nizeyimana, and Kareba li, 2004).
d. Middle and Late childhood (6-12 years): The individual is called a child. This is a period when children try to master fundamental skills for writing, reading, arithmetic and increase self-control.
e. Adolescence (12-20 years): the individual is an adolescent. This period starts with rapid bodily changes associated with gain in height, weight and development of sexual characteristics.
f. Adulthood: (20→): Adulthood, the period in the human lifespan in which full physical and intellectual maturity have been attained. This period includes:
– Young adulthood (20-40 years): The individual is a young adult.
– Middle adulthood (40- 60years): The individual is the adult
– Old age/late adulthood (60/ 65→): The individual is old
11.4. Principles of development
A primary one teacher was teaching mathematics (addition). He wrote exercises on chalkboard and students failed to make correct addition. He took his students out and by using stones students managed to solve the same addition of number correctly.
1. Why do you think students solved the same questions that they failed when they were in classroom?
There is a set of principles that characterize the pattern and process of growth and development, but we can have individual differences. The following are principles of human growth and development:
a. Development proceeds from the head down-wards. This is called the “cephalo-caudal principle”. Down-ward distribution of physical growth, starting in the head and proceeding, by stage, down body to the feet. According to this principle, the child gains control of the head first, then the arms and then the legs.
b. Development proceeds from the centre of the body out- wards. This principle of “proximo-distal development”. This means that the spinal cord develops before outer parts of the body. Out-ward distribution of physical growth, starting in the centre of the body and proceeding out to the extremities. The child’s arms develop before the hand; the hands and feet develop before the fingers and toes, etc.
c. Growth and development are a continuous process. As a child develops, he/she adds to the skills already acquired and the new skills become the basis for further achievement and mastery of skills. Also, one stage of development lays the foundation for the next stage of development.
d. Development depends on maturation and learning. Maturation refers to the sequential characteristic of biological growth and development. The biological changes occur in sequential order and give children the new abilities. On the other hand, a stimulating environment and varied experiences allow a child to develop to his/ her potential.
e. Growth is continuous and gradual: Growth always brings about certain change in the organism. But these changes do not take place suddenly. It is a continuous process. All the parts of body continue to grow gradually until they reach their maximum through infancy early childhood, late childhood.
f. Growth proceeds more rapidly during early years: The rate of growth is not uniform. The child grows more rapidly during early years and slowly during the later years. Growth during early years is so rapid that it is easily noticeable and growth becomes slow at the later stages.
g. Development proceeds from general to specific: The child first shows general responses as a whole. Then gradually he gives specific response to specific stimuli. The child moves his whole hand to indicate certain thing instead of one finger. In the emotional aspect, he responds through only general response like crying & smile to denote, hunger, pain & Joy and the baby produces general babbling sounds, before he can speak words.
h. Development is a product of heredity and environment: Heredity and environment have considerable impact on the growth and development of the child. The child is born with some genetically endowments and develops by interacting with his environment. Neither heredity nor environment is the sole factor responsible for the development of a child.
i. Most of the traits are correlated: The physical and the mental development of the child are mostly correlated to each other. A child who has a good physical health is also above average in intelligence. A child whose intelligence is above average is also so in health size, sociability, attitudes and aptitudes. But this may not be always true.
j. Growth is not uniform: Different parts of body grow at different rates. All parts of body can never grow at the same rate. At birth, head is one fourth of the body in length. Later other parts of body grow very fast till it reaches maturation
k. Development is predictable: In many cases it is possible to predict the type of probable development a child will follow, because the rate of development follows a Pattern.
11.5. Brain development
11.5.1. Brain Basics
We get information through our senses but where the information goes for further interpretation?
Every thought and action is controlled by the brain, the body’s most complex organ.The brain is an amazing three-pound organ that controls all functions of the body, interprets information from the outside world, and embodies the essence of the mind and soul. Intelligence, creativity, emotion, and memory are a few of the many things governed by the brain. The brain receives information through our five senses: sight, smell, touch, taste, and hearing - often many at one time. It assembles the messages in a way that has meaning for us, and can store that information in our memory. The brain controls our thoughts, memory and speech, movement of the arms and legs, and the function of many organs within our body.
One of the main part of the brain “cerebrum” is composed of the right and left hemispheres. Even if these two sides are equal in size, they are not the same and do not have the same functions.
The Left hemisphere controls: Analytic thought, logic, spoken and written language, reasoning, Science and Mathematics, Numbers, letters, Abstract, right hand control. It is responsible of control of the right side of the body. The left hemisphere is dominant in hand use and language in about 92% of people. They are called righties or right-handed people.
The right hemisphere controls: Artistic and musical awareness, creativity, intuition, imagination, spatial relationship, left hand control, concrete, construction. Left-handed people or lefties have their right brain dominant.
Lefties face challenges of being different and minority (about 10% of the population) in a world where nearly everything is designed for right-handed. From their early age they are exposed to everyday situations that require them to make small adaptions to for example open doors, use tools, or scissors. This trains them to use both hands in some activities. However, parents, caregivers and teachers should not force left-handed children to hold a pencil or a pen using their opposite hand (right hand). Teachers should accommodate left-handed students so that they can have the same opportunities as the rest of their peers who are right-handed.
. Frontal lobe
– Personality, behavior, emotions
– Judgment, planning, problem solving
– Speech: speaking and writing (Broca’s area)
– Body movement (motor strip) – Intelligence, concentration, self awareness
• Parietal lobe
– Interprets language, words
– Sense of touch, pain, temperature (sensory strip)
– Interprets signals from vision, hearing, motor, sensory and memory
– Spatial and visual perception
• Occipital lobe
– Interprets vision (color, light, movement)
– Temporal lobe
– Understanding language (Wernicke’s area)
– Memory
– Hearing
– Sequencing and organization
11.5.2. Factors of brain development
a. What is the impact of early experiences on the brain?
Brain development is a process that begins shortly after conception and continues into our mid-twenties. Because brains are built in stages, with more complex structures built on simpler structures, it’s crucial to get the early years right. Think of building a house: before framing the walls, a foundation has to be poured. Before wiring the house, walls and floors need to be built. Our brains are built in sequence too, and early childhood is about laying a solid foundation to serve as a base for later development. Once architecture is built, foundation repairs are costly, so supporting early childhood is a worthwhile investment.
Kids can’t build strong brains by themselves—they need positive, nurturing interactions with trusted caregivers to support their development. These positive interactions are the bricks that build sturdy brain architecture, leading to improved learning and behavior as well as better physical and mental health throughout life.
b. Key messages to parents, caregivers and Pre-school teachers about their role in child’s brain development
• Nutrition during pregnancy and after birth
Pregnant mother should eat well and avoid unnecessary drugs so as to boost the child’s brain development.
After birth a child also needs to take good nutrients because, nutrition plays great role in child’s brain development.
Breast feed the baby during 1000 days: during the first 1,000 days, the brain grows more quickly than at any other time in a person›s life and a child needs the right nutrients at the right time to feed her brain’s rapid development. There are three crucial stages in the first 1,000 days: pregnancy, infancy and toddlerhood.
In the first 1000 days, breastfeeding reduces your child›s chances of being obese. Breastfeeding is a core part of “getting it right” in terms of nutrition in the first 1,000 Days. ... There are many benefits for Mums too, including a reduced risk of breast and ovarian cancer and lower rates of obesity later on in life.
• Early stimulation
Parents and caregivers should stimulate cognitive development of a child by talking to them, telling them stories, showing them attractive things.
• Positive care
Soothe, nurture, cuddle, and reassure her so that you build positive brain circuitry in the limbic area of the brain, which is involved in emotions. Your calm holding and cuddling, and your day-to-day engagement with your baby, signal emotional security to the brain.
Set up a safe environment for your crawling baby or toddler.
Your mobile child will begin to understand spatial parameters and vocabulary such as under, over, big, little, near, and far, plus the relationship between objects of different shapes and sizes (those that are big versus little, for instance). He will start to establish mental maps of his environment and a comfortable relationship with the world in which he lives.
• Provide clear responses to your baby’s actions.
A young, developing brain learns to make sense of the world if you respond to your child’s behavior in predictable, reassuring, and appropriate ways. Be as consistent as possible.
Ingabire has a child aged 2 years, she wants to be advised about how she can contribute to the brain development of her daughter. If she comes to you for advice explain him how he can contribute.