EDU 530: THE CHILD AND ADOLESCENT always occurs at the top – the head –with

LEARNERS AND LEARNING PRINCIPLES physical growth in size, weight, and future
differentiation gradually working its way
CHARACTERISTICS OF HUMAN down from top to bottom (cephalo-caudal
DEVELOPMENT FROM LIFE-SPAN APPROACH pattern).
Paul Baltes (Santrock, 2002)
1. Development is lifelong. B. Development takes place gradually
It does not end in adulthood. b. Cognitive Processes – involves changes in
2. Development is plastic. the individual’s thought, intelligence, and
Plasticity refers to the potential for language.
change. c. Socioemotional Processes – include
Development is possible throughout the changes in the individual’s relationships with
lifespan. other people, changes in emotions, and
“No one is too old to learn.” changes in personality.
3. Developmental is multi-dimensional.
Development consists of biological, 4. Developmental is contextual.
cognitive, and socio-emotional dimensions. Individuals are changing beings in a
A. Developmental is relatively orderly changing world.
Nash and Ken will learn to sit, crawl then Individuals respond to and act on
walk before they can run. The muscular contexts.
control of the trunk and the arms comes These contexts include the individual’s
earlier as compared to the hands and biological makeup, physical environment,
fingers (proximodistal pattern). cognitive processes, historical, social, and
During infancy, the greatest growth cultural context

• Development - is the pattern of movement or PRINCIPLES OF GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT:

change that begins at conception and continues 1. Development is a product of the interaction of the
through the life span. The scientific study of organism and its environment.
human development seeks to understand and • “What is innate should be nurtured, for
explain how or why people change throughout development to take place.” Example: The
life. This includes all aspects of human growth, family of Rosita is known as painters and
including physical, emotional, intellectual, social, artists. Rosita inherited that talent, but in
and personality development. order to fully develop that skill, that talent
should be nurtured. She should be given
• Growth - refers to quantitative changes in an opportunities to develop that skill, materials,
individual as he progresses in chronological time, and support from family and
age. It may refer to increases in size, weight, or environment where she lives.
height. 2. Developmental patterns show wide individual
differences.
Terms associated with: • The development of one person is not the
• DEVELOPMENT – encompasses overall same with other persons. No two persons are
changes, qualitative, improvement in exactly alike.
circumstances, lifelong process 3. Development proceeds from the simple to the more
complex.
• GROWTH - increase in size and number, • Example: The child will learn first letters of the
quantitative, physical aspect, limited to a alphabet before learning to read words and
definite age phrases.
4. Growth and development proceed from general to
Main factors that govern all growth and development: specific.
• Hereditary factors – are innate characteristics • Example: The infant will pick the object with the
with which the child is equipped at birth. whole hand (palmar grasp) before learning to
• Environmental factors – include the pick it up with fingers.
environment where the child lives, family 5. Growth and development are continuous process.
atmosphere, methods of child training, the • As long as a person lives, development
family constellation, the total social continues to take place, may not physically
community, maternal nutrition, and but emotionally, socially and even
socioeconomic factors. intellectually.
6. Development depends on maturation and learning. next generation in becoming competent and
• Aside from growth, maturation and learning mature individuals; and of reaching and
also play at one’s development. maintaining satisfaction in a career.
7. Development is sequential and orderly. 8. Late adulthood/old age (60s and above) –
All children follow the same sequence or It is the time for adjustment to decreasing
order of development. All normal children learn strength and health, life review, retirement, and
how to crawl first before learning how to walk, adjustment to new social roles.
then learning how to run (in sequence or order),
but they differ only in speed or pace due to PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT OF INFANTS and TODDLERS
individual differences. Some learn how to walk The CEPHALOCAUDAL trend is the postnatal
in just few weeks, others learn it for months. growth from conception to 5 months when
the head grows more than the body. This
DEVELOPMENTAL STAGES cephalocaudal trend of growth that
1. Prenatal Period (conception to birth) – it applies to the development of the fetus also
involves tremendous growth -- from a applies in the first months after birth.
single cell to an organism complete with Infants learn to use their upper limbs before
brain and behavioral capabilities. their lower limbs. The same pattern occurs
2. Infancy (birth to 18-24 months) – A in the head area because top parts of the
time of extreme dependence on adults. head - the eyes and the brain - grow
Many psychological activities are just faster than the lower parts such as the
beginning --- language, symbolic jaw.
thought, sensorimotor coordination, The PROXIMODISTAL trend is the pre-natal
and social learning. growth from 5 months to birth when the fetus
3. Early childhood (end of infancy to 5-6 grows from the inside of the body outwards.
years) – These are the preschool years. This also applies in the first months after birth
Young children learn to become more self- as shown in the earlier maturation of
sufficient and to care for themselves, muscular control of the trunk and arms,
develop school readiness and spent many followed by that of the hands and
hours in play with peers. fingers.
4. Middle and late childhood (6-11 years of Height and Weight:
age/elementary school years) * In general, an infant’s length increases by
- The fundamental skills of reading, writing, and about 30% in the first five months.
arithmetic are mastered. The child is formally * A baby’s weight usually triples during the first
exposed to the larger world and its culture. year but slows down in the second year of life.
Achievement becomes a more central theme Brain development:
of the child’s world and self-control increases. At birth, the newborn’s brain is about 25% of its
5. Adolescence (10-12 of age ending up to 18-22 adult weight. By the second birthday, the brain
years of age) is about 75% of its adult weight.
- Begins with rapid physical changes – Depressed brain activity can be found in
dramatic gains in height and weight, changes in children who grew up in depressed
body contour, and the development of sexual environment.
characteristics such as enlargement of the Motor development:
breasts, development of pubic and facial hair, *Infants and toddlers begin from reflexes, to
deepening of the voice. Pursuit of independence gross motor, then fine motor skills.
and identity are prominent. Thought is more *the newborn has some basic reflexes which are
logical, abstract, and idealistic. More time is spent automatic and serve as survival mechanism
outside of the family. before they have the opportunity to learn.
6. Early adulthood (from late teens or early 20’s Reflex – an immediate, innate, and involuntary
lasting through the 30’s) response to something. (example: automatic removal
- It is a time of establishing personal of hands from a hot surface)
and economic independence, career
development, selecting a mate, learning Most common reflexes that babies have:
to live with someone in an intimate 1. Sucking Reflex - is initiated when something
way, starting a family and rearing touches the roof of the infant’s mouth
child. 2. Rooting Reflex - is most evident when an
7. Middle adulthood (40-60 years of age) – It is infant cheek is stroked, the baby responds
the time of expanding personal and social by turning his/her head in the direction of
involvement and responsibility; of assisting the the touch and opening their mouths
 for feeding. heard. Before the infant’s acquisition of sense of
3. Gripping Reflex - babies will grasp anything object permanence, the principle that applies is “out
that is placed in their hands. of sight, out of mind”.
4. Startle/Moro Reflex - infants will respond to
sudden sounds and movements by throwing Stages of Language Acquisition (L1):
their arms and legs out. 1. Cooing
5. Curling Reflex – when the inner sole of the 2. Babbling
baby's foot is stroked, the infant responds 3. Holophrastic (one-word utterance)
by curling his toes. When the outer sole of 4. Telegraphic (two-word utterance)
the baby's foot is stroked, the infant will 5. Basic Adult sentence
respond by spreading out their toes. Cooing
6. Galant Reflex – is shown when an infant's • Express satisfaction and pleasure; 2-4
middle or lower back is stroked next to the months ; Vowel sounds; Ex. “aaaaaa”,
spinal cord. The baby will respond by “oooooooh”
curving his/her body toward the side Babbling;
which is being stroked. • Repetitive CV patterns ; Starts at
7. Tonic neck Reflex – is demonstrated in around 3-4 and continues around age
infants who are placed on their one year; Ex. “bee-bee-bee” ma-ma-
abdomens. Whichever side the child's ma”
head is facing, the limbs on that side One-word utterances (Holophrastic Stage)
will straighten while the opposite • Generally spoken at around 10-14
limbs will curl. months but may occur as early as 9
months; first words (holophrases): one
COGNITIVE AND LANGUAGE word speech that stand for the whole
DEVELOPMENTS OF INFANTS and idea/sentence; Ex. “mama” = I want
TODDLERS my mother; Dede “I want to drink milk
• The Sensorimotor Stage is the first stage in Jean Two-word utterances (Telegraphic Stage)
Piaget’s Cognitive Development theory. This • comes around 18 months; children use
stage is applicable for infants and toddlers. In two-word combinations to express
this stage: themselves (telegraphic speech);
• infants construct an understanding of called telegraphic because many
the world by coordinating sensory words are omitted and only the
experiences (such as seeing and important parts of the sentence are
hearing) to physical and motoric usually present; Ex. “eat bread”,
actions. “Princess play”
• infants gain knowledge of the world from Basic adult sentence structure
physical actions they perform on it. • Grammatical or functional structures
• infants progresses from reflexive, emerge with continuing vocabulary
instinctual action at birth to the acquisition; Present at about age 4
beginning of symbolic thought toward SOCIO-EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENTS OF INFANTS and
the end of the sensorimotor stage. TODDLERS
• Cognitive development of infants evolves in
the orientation from becoming focused on Socio-emotional development has something to do
themselves to becoming object or world- with the development of a person’s ability to master
oriented; from the one that is action-based one’s emotions and the ability to relate to others. It
to the one that is mentally-based; from one necessarily includes temperaments, attachments, and
that does not involve much of coordination social skills.
of schemas to the one involving The elements that have something to do with the
intentionality, novelty, and curiosity; and wholesome socio-emotional development of children:
from a thinking that is purely sensorimotor to • Attachment. It is an emotional bond
a symbolic one. characterized by a tendency to seek and
• Acquiring the sense of object permanence is maintain closeness to a specific figure.The
one of the infant’s important beginnings of attachment occurs within the
accomplishments. first 6 months of a baby’s life with a variety of
built-in signals that baby uses to keep her
OBJECT PERMANENCE is the understanding that the caregiver engaged.
object still continue to exist even when they cannot • Infants 7 to 12 months experience
be seen, touched, or separation anxiety. They may cry in fear if
 the mother or caregiver leaves them in an
unfamiliar place/people.
• In infancy, children rely largely on adults to
help them regulate their emotional states, if
they are uncomfortable, they communicate
by crying. In toddlerhood, children begin to
develop skills in regulating their emotions with
the emergence of language providing an
important tool to assist in this process.
• Temperament. Temperament is a word that
“captures the ways that people differ, even
at birth, in such things as their emotional
reactions, activity level, attention span,
persistence and ability to regulate their
emotions”. Every baby expresses personality
traits we call temperament. How a child
responds emotionally to objects, events, and
people is a reflection of his individual
temperament.
• Social Skills. Socialization of emotion
begins in infancy. It is thought that this
process is significant in the infant's
acquisition of cultural and social codes
for emotional display, teaching them
how to express their emotions, and the
degree of acceptability associated
with different types of emotional
behaviors.
• Another process that emerges during this
stage is social referencing. Infants begin to
recognize the emotions of others, and use
this information when reacting to new
situations and people. As infants explore
their world, they generally rely on the
emotional expressions of their mothers or
caregivers to determine the safety and
appropriateness of a particular endeavor.