Features of Physical, Mental and Social development

Child Growth and Development

The role of a 4-H leader comes with great responsibility—helping young people develop into responsible, productive citizens and contributing members of society. You don’t have to be an expert in child development to be able to do this, but there are some basic concepts you can learn that will help you communicate and work effectively with youth of all

ages. Understanding the common physical, social/emotional and cognitive development stages of young people will help you know what to expect of children and what to do to help a child develop all of his or her abilities.

Basic Principles of Child Development

Children’s development is multidimensional. Children develop in three broad areas, which child development experts (Berk, 2008) refer to as “domains” of development:

• Physical development—Changes in body size, shape, appearance, functioning of body systems, perceptual and motor capacities, and physical health.

• Social development—Changes in a child’s unique way of dealing with the world (e.g., understanding and expression of emotions, knowledge about others, interpersonal skills, self-awareness, friendships, moral reasoning and behavior).

• Cognitive development—Changes in intellectual abilities, including learning, memory, reasoning, thinking, problem-solving, creativity and language development.

These domains of development overlap and often interact with each other. What happens in one domain can have a major influence on another domain. For example, the toddler’s newly acquired ability to walk (physical development) can influence his or her potential to learn about new aspects of the environment (cognitive development). On the other hand, if a child has a physical impairment, such as the inability to hear, it can affect his or her social/emotional and cognitive development (e.g., language acquisition). In addition, development can occur unevenly across the various domains. In some children, physical development outpaces social/emotional development, or vice-versa.

Features of Physical development

A Study of this aspect of child’s development is important for the following reasons:

1. This study helps us to plan for the healthy development and happy adjustment of the child.
2. Psychologists are of the view that physical development leads to mental development. It has also been observed that malfunctioning of physical organs during adolescence disturbs the mental balance and normal behaviour of the adolescent.
3. Looking after the physical development of child is mainly the duty of the parents but the teacher with his knowledge about this aspect of development can supplement the role of the parents.

Some Important Principles of Physical Development:

1. The physical development of the child is rhythmic and not regular. Rapid growth is followed by a period of slow growth and again rapid growth is resumed.
2. Each organ and each part of the body follows its own laws of development.
3. The child develops his/her body specially during winter months, whereas during summer months this growth is not so fast.
   4. Development is very rapid from birth to 2’/2 years. Ii declines from 21/2 years o the stage of puberty. It again increases at the stage of adolescence and again declines after this stage.

Important Aspects of Physical Development

Height. The following are the important features in the development of height of the child:

1. Generally the human baby is 19 to 20 inches in length at
   birth.
2. The height increases rapidly for the first 2 years.
3. From 3 to 6 years growth in height is at a slower rate, 1 again increases between 7 to 10 years. It again slow down between the 10 to 12 years.
4. The growth spurt in girls is between 10 to 14 years and for boys it is between 12 to 16 years.
5. There are differences in the height of the boys and girls. Boys are taller than girls up to 11 years. Girls are taller than boys between 12 to 15 years. At the age of 15 years boys and girls have practically the same height. Later on boys are taller than girls upto 20 years.
6. It has also been found that those children who took a nourishing diet in their childhood attained better height in later life. Thus there is a favourable Condition between socio-economic factors and height.

Weight. The average weight of human body varies between 5/2 to 8 pounds. Girls are lighter than boys.

Generally new born babies lose weight for seven days since their birth. It is mainly due to a new environment and nourishment in which the child is placed. The weight of the same child increases by the end of the first month. It increases and doubles itself at the age of 4 months. There is an increase of 5 pounds every year up to 3rd year.

Features of Mental development

The individual at the childhood stage cannot solve complex mental problems but as he grows up he successfully solves them.

Meaning. Explaining mental or cognitive development James Drever remarks, it implies, “Progressive appearance and organization of mental abilities and functions in the course of the individual’s passage from birth to maturity.

Another possible explanation of this aspect of this development is, “that it implies the growth and development of mental abilities and capacities, which enable the individual to adjust his behaviour with changing environment. It also enables him to tackle the complex problems of life which require higher type of mental activities. It implies that the child is in the process of his mental (cognitive) development, develops two sides of his mental makeup: mental qualities and mental abilities.

The important mental qualities are: sensation, perception, imagination, memory, understanding, intelligence, reasoning, generalization, interpretation.

The important mental abilities are: language ability, conceptual ability, problem solving and decision making.

Main Features of Mental Development

1. It has been observed by Psychologist that most of the qualities and abilities develop side by side
2. Individuals differ in the rate of development of these qualities and abilities at their various stage of physical development.
3. All these qualities and abilities do not develop fully at a particular stage. They have a faint development at a particular stage and a fuller development at some other stage.
4. It has also been found that these develop as the child progresses in years.
5. The child for 3 or 4 months, after his birth is at the stage of emotional development. His emotions predominate and there is very little of mental development.
6. After this stage the child comes to the perception stage. He starts having knowledge, recognition and understanding of various objects. This stage continues up to one year and a half or 2 years.
7. After this stage the child comes to the stage of imagery of memory. It is with the help of his memory he is able to form the memory image of various objects. It is from this stage that the real life of the child as an individual starts. He is able to speak and reason out. It is at this stage that the development of language takes place.
8. The mind of the child also reacts to a stimulus as soon as it is presented to him. This enables him to face a situation and act accordingly.
9. Whenever the child faces a situation he/she becomes mentally alert and tries to examine the present in the light of the past experiences and tries to solve firstly mentally and later on in the actual world.
10. The mental development of the child enables him to plan for the future and bring about adjustment in his present situation.
11. This mental development also enables him to have a particular order or sequence in his activities.
12. Environment plays an important role in the mental development of the child. It is only in the environment that the individual gets experiences about various aspects of human life and it is these experiences which constitute mental development.

Features of Social Development

An individual cannot live all alone. He needs the willing cooperation of the other members of his social group to enable him to live well and progress. This is known as the process of socialization. This process has been aptly explained by the Greek thinker Aristotle, when he remarked, ‘Man is a social animal meaning thereby that the individual has his being and progress through social living.

Social tendencies are present from the very birth of the child and gradually manifest themselves as the child progresses in years and develop throughout life. “Socialization is a process of development of such qualities which bring desirable changes in the social behaviour of the individual.” 

1. The process of social development state from early infancy. When the child grows in years he comes in contact with other members of society and the process of socialization develops all the more. It may be pointed out that it continues throughout life.
2. It refers to a healthy social interaction leading to a balanced personality.
3. The individual acquires many Social qualities and leaves his selfish outlook. He comes to have a social-self in place of individual-self.
4. He develops proper social relationships with other members of the society.
5. The social development is in the conformity with social heritage.

Finally, we may say that a socially mature individual has the following qualities:

He is able to make his own judgments

He is able to take proper action towards the problems facing him

He is cooperative and seldom comes in conflict with others

He is friendly towards all

He is well balanced and assumes different roles in meeting with the demands of different situations.

He subordinates his selfish interests for the benefits of his society.

·         Psychologist Feldman has suggested four stages of social development.

Domestication: The child is under the influence of his parents.

Parting of Generations: The child now leaves his dependence on his parents, the home environment and forms groups of children of his own age.

Quasi-Adulthood: During this period the child learns to behave as a responsible adult. He tests his capacities and powers with others in a social setting. He sometimes behaves as a child and at others like a mature person.

Social Maturity: The child acquires the adult form and comes to know about the patterns of social culture.

Factors Influencing Development

Children and adolescents grow and develop at very different rates. Each individual is unique, with a distinct personality and life experience. For this reason, age is not the only sign of where a particular child or adolescent is in terms of development. A young person’s movement through the stages of childhood and adolescence are influenced by a number of factors, including:

• Physical development – genetic make-up, ethnicity, race, gender, nutrition and diet, exercise, sleep patterns, use of tobacco, alcohol or other drugs, stress and stressful life events, environmental toxins and socioeconomic status

• Cognitive development – academic setting, family environment, parent or caregiver involvement, access to early education opportunities, teacher support, personal motivation, gender and cultural or ethnic context

• Social development – peer influence, popularity, community and societal context

Not all children and adolescents have the same characteristics as they develop, but there are some qualities that are common to most youth in a particular age group. These are mostly behaviors that have a clear biological or psychological basis. Youth in certain age groups may also exhibit other behaviors – such as obsession with body weight and resulting behaviors such as anorexia or bulimia – but these trends are the result of cultural or environmental influences and are not a part of healthy development.

 Reference:

• Bhatia and Bhatia (1065). A Textbook of Educational Psychology. Asia Publishing House, 
  

• https://www.lawrence.edu/mfhe/www_dept_student_dean_sub_volunteer/Everyone/developmental%20characteristics.pdf

• http://child.unl.edu/173c1237-6641-4f1c-8b7d-3f5d9a1d3253.pdf

• http://www.bgcgrandrapids.org/uploads/files/Youth_Development_Characteristics.pdf