Introduction
The term child growth and development refers to the occurrence of both the biological and psychological changes in human beings right from conception to the end of adolescence as the individual moves from independency to the increasing autonomy. These developmental changes may occur due to the processes that are genetically-controlled. These changes are known as maturation, or learning and environmental factors, but this involves interaction between the two. Patterson, C. (2008)
According to Kail (2006), he says that the age related term are; the newborn that are the age of zero to one month, the infant who are the age of one month to one year, the toddler who are at the age of one year to three years, the preschooler- the age of four to six years, school aged children that are at the age of six to eleven years and the adolescent that occurs at the age of eleven to eighteen years.
The optimal child development is vital to society hence most important to understand the child’s development in the line of social, emotional educational and cognitive.
Body
The changes in specific abilities both in Physical and mental for instance walking and language understanding that mark the ending of one period of development and the beginning of the other are called the milestones. For the theories of stage, they indicate transitional stage. However, milestone achievements have got considerable variations even to the children who have developmental trajectories just within the normal range. Some are more variable than the other; for instance, not much variation amongst children who have got normal hearing are shown by receptive indicators, but the milestone of expressive speech can be quite variable. Patterson, C (2008)
Developmental delay in the child development is the common concern. This involves the delaying in an age-specific ability for the milestone that is very important in development. This developmental delay is supposed to be diagnosed by comparing with variable characteristics of a milestone and with age at achievement. Eye-hand consideration is an example of the milestone that involves the Childs increasing ability to be able to manipulate objects in a more coordinated manner. This age specific milestone allows parents to keep track of development that is appropriate to the child.
Moreover, there are changes that are continuous and there are no noticeable milestones. These are called the continuous developmental changes. They involve the gradual and predictable move towards the adult characteristics. When the development changes are continuous, the researcher does not only identify the developmental milestone but also looks at age period – often called stages. The stage therefore is a period of time. It is associated with the chronological range, of which the behavior or rather the physical characteristic is quantitatively different from the other ages. The term ‘age period ‘when being referred to as stage, not only implies the qualitative difference but also predictable sequence involved in the events of development. This is done so that every stage is preceded and followed by other specific periods associated with physical qualities or behavioral characteristics.
There might be an overlap of stages of development associated with some other specific aspects of development for instance speech or movement. Transitional into a stage may not mean that one completely finished the previous stage even if he/she is within a developmental area that is particular.
Erickson in his article stage of personality suggests that people spent their life reworking on issues characterized by childhood stage. Piaget on the other hand made his description on which children could solve a problem by the use of mature thinking skill, but this could not be accomplished for less familiar problems a phenomenon he decal age. Mercer, J. (1998)
By the fact that Developmental changes can run parallel with chronological age, development can’t be caused by age. Environmental and genetic factors are the major cause of developmental factors or the basic mechanism. Genetic factors deal with cellular changes such as overall growth, proportional change of body and brain parts. It also involves the maturation of aspects of function such as dietary needs. Since genes can be turned off and on, the initial genotype of the individuals may overtime change in function. This further give rise to developmental change. Some of the environmental factors that can affect development include the diet and disease exposure, social, emotional and cognitive. However, close examination of environmental factors shows that human beings can survive in a wide range of environmental experiences. Genetics and environmental factors interact to cause changes in development rather than them acting independently as mechanisms. Plasticity is also noticeable as an aspect of child development. This aspect may also be noticeable to the extent to which environmental factors guide the direction of. Mercer, J. (1998)
Conclusion
To conclude, child development is a wide area of study. It therefore calls for specialization of the area under study and keenly looking at the co-relations between the variables that are involved in child growth and development. This is because development is gradual and chronological. Each and every stage is necessary and important. It is however wise for the parents to understand these changes so that they can be in a position to assist their children grow in all directions: physical growth, emotional, social, and mental by looking at different factors.
Reference
Patterson, C. (2008). Child Development. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Erikson, E. (1968). Identity, Youth, and Crisis. New York: Norton.
Mercer, J. (1998). Infant Development: A Multidisciplinary Introduction. Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole.
Buchwald, J. (1987). A comparison of plasticity development as well as initiating genetic factor.