EDU303 Official Handouts

Table of Content

Lesson 1 Overview of Growth and Development Lesson 2 Lesson 3 Lesson 4 Continuity of Development Lesson 5 National Surveys & Epidemiological Studies Lesson 6 Self-Reports and Observation Lesson 7 Correlation and Experimentation Lesson 8 Case Studies and Studies Using Combined Methodologies Lesson 9 Structural-Organismic perspectives & Psychodynamic Theory Lesson 10 Piagetian Theory & Vygotsky’s Sociocultural View Lesson 11 Behaviorism and Cognitive, Social Learning Theories Lesson 12 Socio-cultural Theory and Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Theory Lesson 13 Ethological and Evolutionary Approach Lesson 14 Prenatal Development and Birth : Stages of Prenatal Development Lesson 15 Prenatal Development and Birth: Birth and the Beginnings of Life Lesson 16 Newborn: Socio-Cultural Perspective Lesson 17 Physical Development of the Newborn Lesson 18 Infancy: Sensation, Perception and Learning Lesson 19 Brain, Body, Motor Skills and Sexual Maturation: Nervous System and Brain Development in Infancy Lesson 20 Brain, Body, Motor Skills and Sexual Maturation: Nutrition, Physical Growth, Sexual Maturation & Sleep Patterns Lesson 21 Brain, Body, Motor Skills and Sexual Maturation: Being Over or Underweight and Obesity Lesson 22 Brain, Body, Motor Skills and Sexual Maturation: Need for exercise Play for growth and Security Lesson 23 Emotional Development and Attachment: Emotions and Emotional Regulation Lesson 24 Emotional Development and Attachment: Development, Nature and Quality of Attachment Lesson 25 Emotional Development and Attachment: Theories of Adolescent Emotional Maturation Lesson 26 Emotional Development and Attachment: Resilience and Coping with Traumatic Experiences Lesson 27 Language and Communication: Theories of Language Development Lesson 28 Language and Communication: Social and Creative Uses of Language Lesson 29 Language and Communication: Nature of Language and Thought in Infancy Lesson 30 Language and Communication: Multilingualism, Education and Mother Tongue Lesson 31 Intelligence and Achievement: Individual Differences in General Abilities and Intelligence Lesson 32 Intelligence and Achievement: Achievement Motivation and Intellectual Performance Lesson 33 Intelligence and Achievement: Learning Theories and Classroom Teaching Lesson 34 Socialization: The Family, Peers and Friends: The Family System Lesson 35 Socialization: The Family, Peers and Friends: Determinants of Parenting, Childrearing Practices and Styles Lesson 36 Socialization: The Family, Peers and Friends: Sibling and Peer Relations Lesson 37 Gender Roles and Gender Differences: Sex and Gender Roles Lesson 38 Gender Roles and Gender Differences: Theories of Gender Identity Lesson 39 Morality, Altruism and Pro-social Development: Theories of Moral Development Lesson 40 Morality, Altruism and Pro-social Development: Altruism and Pro-social Development Lesson 41 Developmental Psychopathology: Risk and Protective Factors Lesson 42 Developmental Psychopathology: Genetic Abnormalities and Genetic Counseling Lesson 43 Developmental Psychopathology: ADHD and Autism Lesson 44 Developmental Psychopathology: Aggression, Behavioral Problems and Conduct Disorders Lesson 45 Developmental Psychopathology: Special Children and Children with Learning Disabilities

Lesson 01

Overview of Growth and Maturation

What do we understand about the field of child development?

What is developing and growing?

What are individual differences within a normative range of development?

Child Development

Child development is a field that studies the growth and development of the child. It is studied by many different kinds of experts, which include educationists, teachers, philosophers, psychologists, sociologists, neuroscientists, and social workers, etc. These experts work independently or together and try to understand the nature of child development. The goal is to understand, and provide insights to problems during development the child is going through.

Why Study Child Development?

Perhaps the most important reason to study child development is to understand how growth and development takes place in the child. This is a basic science question that satisfies the human curiosity; however there are practical benefits of doing so. Who benefits from this understanding? We understand that parents, teachers, educational experts, policy makers, and community in general benefits from this understanding. Experts that study child development address both basic and applied science questions, which are important for the study of development.

Critical Question

Question: In what ways is a child different to an adult, and in what ways the two are still the same?

Continuous or Staged Development

Experts in the field of child development ask if this change in development is continuous or discontinuous, i.e., broken down into stages? The answer lies in the fact how experts view this developmental process.

Naming Developmental Periods

For most of the experts in the field of Child Development, an individual growth may be continuous, but when studied it is broken down into stages. The concept of stages of development is not new and has been proposed by ancient thinkers, philosophers, theologians etc. Experts in the field of child development talk about growth and development both in general qualitative and quantitative terms. Many suggest that the individual changes qualitatively over time, backed by measurable quantitative changes. For example, children express lower levels of cognitive functioning when young compared to when they are older. Piaget and Inhelder (1969) not only observed this change in cognitive development but also were able to quantitatively document it with empirical experiments.

Developmental Periods

Experts divide periods of development into broad and smaller stages and classify them for easy use. When stages, where developmental change is minimal, are close development seems to be more continuous.

What is Developing?

1. Physical Development. Physical development involves the physical growth and development of the individual starting in the womb, through prenatal period all the way to late adolescence. Some of the changes that we see are: Allometric Development. Body proportions change over development. An infant 15 months old has a bigger head size compared to the body than an adult.

The bodily proportions change over the developmental period (see figure below).

Brain Size: In the same fashion the brain also increases in size over development. By six years, its size is very close to what the adult brain is (see figure below).

B. Cognitive Development: Biological maturation (like age) and, experience (like schooling) are needed together to develop the child intellectually or cognitively. Piaget and many of his colleagues worked on studying cognitive development in the growing child. Piaget went on to say that all cognitive structures are affected by an intertwined relationship between biological maturation and experience, and changed through many stages of cognitive development, like the sensorimotor stage, preoperational stage etc., (Piaget & Inhelder, 1969/2000).

C. Intellectual Development: Does intelligence change with age? Or experience like going to school improves intelligence? Cahan and Cohen (1989) proposed both; however age had lower effect on intelligence than schooling. D. Language Development: Children’s vocabulary enriches rapidly. From about 11,000 words in 1st grade to about 80,000 words in 12th grade. In the same fashion grammar in children improves over time.

E. Emotional Development: Emotions like anger, fear, and happiness can be seen in the infant in a few months, however sadness develops after infancy. From day 1, infants are aware of emotions of others. They respond to other’s distress with their own distress. By about 1 year infants can