Early Childhood: Physical Development

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Chapter 8Early ChildhoodPhysical Development
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Early Childhood Physical Development Truth or
Fiction?

• Some children are left-brained, and others are
  right-brained.
• Childrens levels of motor activity increase
  during the preschool years.

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Early Childhood Physical Development Truth or
Fiction?

• Sedentary parents are more likely to have couch
  potatoes for children.
• Julius Caesar, Michelangelo, Tom Cruise, and
  Oprah have something in common? (Hint They
  dont all have book clubs.)

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Early Childhood Physical Development Truth or
Fiction?

• A disproportionately high percentage of math
  whizzes are left-handed.
• Infections are the most common cause of death
  among children in the United States.

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Early Childhood Physical Development Truth or
Fiction?

• It is dangerous to awaken a sleepwalker.
• More competent parents toilet-train their
  children by their second birthday.

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Growth Patterns

• Height and Weight

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What Changes Occur in Height and Weight During
Early Childhood?

• Growth rate slows
• 2 to 3 inches per year
• 4 to 6 pounds per year
• Individual variation
• As a group, boys are slightly taller and heavier

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Figure 8.1 Growth Curves for Height and Weight,
Ages 2 to 6 Years
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Growth Patterns

• Development of the Brain

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How Does the Brain Develop During Early Childhood?

• Rapid growth in weight due to myelination
• By age 5 brain is 90 of adult weight
• Visual Skills
• Improved attention and visual processing skills
• Specialization of hemispheres

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What Does It Mean to Be Left-brained or
Right-brained?

• Left-brained
• Logical, problem solving, language and
  mathematical computations
• Right-brained
• Visual-spatial functions, recognition of faces,
  discrimination of color, aesthetic and emotional
  responses, understanding metaphors, creative
  mathematical reasoning
• Functions overlap
• Myelination of corpus callosum

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What Is Meant by Plasticity of the Brain?

• Ability to compensate for injury
• Greatest plasticity at 1 to 2 years
• Other areas may assume functions lost to injury
• Sprouting
• Growth of new dendrites
• Redundancy of neural connections

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Motor Development
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How Do Motor Skills Develop in Early Childhood?

• Gross motor skills
• Involve large muscles used in locomotion
• Differences in gross motor development
• Little sex differentiation
• More individual differences
• Physical Activity
• Rough and tumble play
• Activity levels

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Developing in a World of Diversity

• Sex Differences in Motor Activity

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How Do Motor Skills Develop in Early Childhood?

• Fine motor skills
• Involve small muscles used in manipulation and
  coordination
• Proximodistal trend accounts for lag in fine
  motor skills
• Childrens Drawing

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Figure 8.2 The Twenty Basic Scribbles (Really)
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Figure 8.3 Four Stages in Childrens Drawings
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Lessons in Observation Gross and Fine Motor
Skills

• Describe the way the 2- and 3-year old children
  maneuver the stairs in the video.
• How will stair-climbing skills change over time?

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Lessons in Observation Gross and Fine Motor
Skills

• Describe Olivias hopping and jumping skills and
  her performance with the ball.
• How will Olivias hopping and jumping skills
  change over time?
• How will her throwing and catching skills
  change?
• How does Olivias attempt to catch a ball
  illustrate the proximodistal trend in
  development?

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Lessons in Observation Gross and Fine Motor
Skills

• Outline the developmental changes in the drawing
  and writing skills of children between the ages
  of 2 and 5.
• How do the children in the video illustrate these
  changes?What activities are the children in the
  video participating in that facilitate fine motor
  development?
• What are the relative roles of maturation and
  learning in the development of fine motor skills,
  and how do these interact?

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When Does Handedness Emerge?

• Emerges and shows preference during infancy
• Becomes strongly established during early
  childhood
• Majority of people are right-handed

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Are There Problems Connected With Being
Left-handed?

• Connections have been made with
• Language problems
• Dyslexia and stuttering
• Health problems
• Migraine headaches and allergies
• Psychological problems
• Schizophrenia and depression
• Higher frequencies of left-handers have been made
  with
• Mathematical abilities
• Athletic abilities
• Artistic, musical and architectural

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What Are the Origins of Handedness?

• Genetic component
• Seems to run in families
• Identical twins
• Frequently differ in handedness
• Mirror opposites

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Nutrition
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What Are Childrens Nutritional Needs and Their
Eating Habits Like in Early Childhood?

• Nutritional Needs
• Need more overall calories than toddlers
• Slower growth rate - less calories per pound
• Patterns of Eating
• Appetite decreases and becomes erratic
• Preference for sugar and salt with exposure

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Health and Illness
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What Are Some of the Illnesses and Environmental
Hazards Encountered During Early Childhood?

• Minor illnesses
• Respiratory infections
• Colds, sore throat
• Gastrointestinal upsets
• Nausea, vomiting, diarrhea
• In developing countries, diarrheal illness is
  leading killer of children
• Major illnesses
• Immunizations, antibiotics reduced major illness
  in US
• One-third of children in US under 18 years suffer
  from some type of chronic illness
• Globally 13 million children die each year
• Two-thirds die of pneumonia, diarrhea, measles,
  tetanus, whooping cough and tb

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A Closer Look

• Ten Things You Need To Know About Immunizations

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Figure 8.4 Recommended Childhood Immunization
Schedule, United States, July-December, 2004
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A Closer Look

• Lead Poisoning
• Assessing the Risk

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Developing in a World of Diversity

• Ethnicity, Level of Income, and Immunization ? USA

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Accidents and Prevention of Accidental Injury

• Most common cause of death in young children in
  US
• Motor vehicle accidents
• Low-income children most likely to die from
  accidents
• Legislation to prevent accidents
• Child safety seats in cars
• Window guards in apartment buildings
• Toy and clothing safety standards

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Sleep
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How Much Sleep is Needed During Early Childhood?

• Preschoolers average 10 to 11 hours per 24 hour
  period
• 9 to 10 hours at night
• 1 to 2 hour nap

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Developing in a World of Diversity

• Cross-Cultural Differences in Sleeping
  Arrangements

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Sleep Disorders
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What Kinds of Problems or Disorders Disrupt Sleep
During Early Childhood?

• Sleep terrors
• Occur early in night during deep sleep
• May be associated with stress
• Nightmares
• Occur later in night during REM sleep
• Insomnia
• Somnambulism (sleepwalking)
• Onset between ages 3 and 8
• Occurs early in night during deep sleep

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Elimination Disorders
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When Are Children Considered To Be Gaining
Control Over Elimination Too Slowly?

• Maturation plays a critical role in toilet
  training
• Most US children are trained between 3 and 4
• Enuresis
• Based on age of child and frequency of accident
• Bed-wetting
• More frequent in boys than girls
• Numerous causes
• Organic, psychological, stress, sleep disorder

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A Closer Look

• What To Do About Bed-Wetting

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When Are Children Considered To Be Gaining
Control Over Elimination Too Slowly?

• Encopresis
• More common in boys than girls
• Less common than enuresis, more common in daytime
• Causes may be physical or psychological