Child Growth And Development...
Understanding Your Child Better
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Child growth and development is the study of how your child grows and changes over time. As your child grows he changes in three main areas, there are physical changes, intellectual changes and social-emotional changes.
Developmental psychologists study the growth and development of children to identify, to predict and describe a child’s behaviour.
There are certain characteristics of growth and development that happen in a predictable sequence …babies often sit up by 6 months old… so developmental psychologists have devised developmental scales that can be used to predict and asses a child’s growth and development.
If you are aware of developmental scales of your child, you can better asses his physical, intellectual and social-emotional growth to ensure that he is developing at a healthy rate.
Describing how a child is most likely to grow is one goal of child growth and development. The other goal is to explain why a child develops in particular ways.
There are basically three explanations for your child’s behavioural changes. Biological explanations involve changes which happen to him as a result of his genetic make-up.
Psychological explanations involve changes in regards to his personality and feelings.
Social explanations focus on the impact your child’s environment has on his growth and development.
So if your child is not reaching his developmental milestones , it would be worth examining these factors to try and find the source of the problem.
A child who is not speaking any words by the age of two is falling behind in his language development . This may be because there is lack of muscle control in his tongue --biological-- and if you notice this should take him to see his physician.
Or the problem may be that your child needs more opportunity to speak --social-emotional-- and that you can encourage more social interaction with him, reading more books, encouraging more conversation and perhaps joining a play group.
Or the problem could be that he is fearful of something -- psychological-- and is too afraid to speak. In this case, you would need to find the root of the fear, and protect and reassure him that he is safe.
General knowledge of the growth and development of your child allows you to understand him better. We are better able to guide, direct and encourage our child’s growth when we understand their growth and development.
See Also...
- Early Child Development
- Developmental Milestones -- Stages Of Your Child’s Development
- Child Development Milestone -- From Birth To Six Years
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