Download Physical Development in Early Childhood Brain Development Part

Physical Development in Early Childhood
Brain Development
Part of Brain
Development Taking Place
Synapses of neurons Synaptic Pruning taking place. As neurons are not being stimulated they die off,
Left Hemisphere
Right hemisphere
Cerebellum
The left hemisphere goes through rapid development during early childhood
Language Development
Behaviour control
Handedness in RIGHT handed individuals
Right hemisphere develops slowly throughout early childhood, reaches its peak in
middle childhood
Handedness occasionally occurs in the right hemisphere. For LEFT handed
individuals, this is often shared by both the right and left hemisphere.
Balance and control of movement – can now throw a ball, play hopscotch, print
letters
Memory, language, and planning
Reticular formation Alertness and consciousness – increase in attention for tasks
Hippocampus
Memory – end of infant amnesia
Images of space – spacial understanding
Amygdala
Emotional expression – safety and fear
Pituitary Gland
Growth hormone (GH)
 Stimulates liver and epiphyses of the skeleton to release insulin-like growth
factor (IGF-1) – growth in skeleton, muscles, bone marrow (blood), liver,
kidney, skin, lungs
Thyroid stimulating hormone – sends message to the thyroid to produce thyroxin
 Increases brain development and helps GH to have its full effect
Corpus Callosum
Essential for smooth coordination between the two hemispheres. The more complex
the task, the heavier reliance on the corpus callosum to aid in the communication
between hemispheres. This includes attention, memory, language, problem solving,
and perception.
Body Growth (Slower growth pattern than infancy and toddlerhood).
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Gain about 2-3 inches in height and 5 pounds each year (boys still taller)
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Lose the ‘baby’ fat, begin to lean out, become more muscular and spine straightens (allowing
internal organs to ‘tuck’ in)
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Individual differences in height/weight become apparent and are based on hereditary differences,
cultural genetic factors gender and other environmental factors.
Skeletal Growth
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Between 2-6years, 45 new epiphyses (growth centers where cartilage hardens into bone) emerge.
X-rays of these growth centers help determine a child’s skeletal age (having this information
helps diagnose growth disorders).
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Children begin to lose their primary teeth around this same age. The age of which they lose these
teeth is determined by:
o
Genetic factors (heredity, cultural ancestry, gender)
o
Nutritional factors (malnutrition, obesity, exposure to harmful agents such as
second hand smoke)
o
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Care of teeth (brushing, dental check ups, limiting sugary foods)
Growth follows a ‘general growth curve’: rapid growth in infancy, slower growth in early/middle
childhood and rapid growth again in adolescents
Gross Motor Development
As children begin to lean and straighten out, their center of gravity shifts downward, allowing greater
balance.
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Gait becomes smoother and rhythmic. This promotes confidence and encourages further security
to try running, jumping and hopping
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With better balance, children are able to use their arms and feet more freely. Begin to
throw/catch, kick and pedal. Rudimentary at first but then becomes more refined as child ages.
Fine Motor Development
Fine motor skills improve drastically in early childhood and children begin to build with blocks, draw, put
puzzles together and self-help skills.
Self-help
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Children gradually become more self-sufficient in dressing, feeding and toileting. Consider their
developmental age when helping a child dress or eat as they might be able to do some things on
their own and don’t want/need your help. Always ask before you help!
Drawing

Toddlers can scribble on the page. During early childhood, children’s drawings will become more
meaningful and will become more refined with their increasing fine motor skills.

Scribbles --> Pictures --> More realistic drawings

Cultural variations- cultures with artistic rich traditions will produce children able to create more
elaborate drawings

Milestones:
o
3 years, scribbles become pictures
o
3-4 first picture of a person (drawing boundaries), children begin to grip pencils/pens
o
5-6 more realistic drawings, ability to use ‘adult’ grip on pens/pencils/crayons
Age
Fine Motor Skills
2 -3
• puts on shoes, socks, and shorts; takes off shoes and socks
• can use a spoon by own self keeping it upright
• strings large beads
• rolls clay/playdoh into "snake"
• can draw and copy a horizontal line can draw and copy a vertical line
3-4
• able to complete simple puzzles
• can build a tower of nine small blocks or more
• can get own self dressed/undressed independently; only needs help with buttons; still confuses
front/back for clothes, and right/left for shoes
• can feed own self with little or no spilling, drinks from a cup/glass with one hand
• can pour own drink from a pitcher if not too heavy
• can place small pegs into small holes
• able to string small beads
• can hold a pencil with a "tripod grasp" (3 fingers), but moves forearm and wrist to write/draw/color
• can use scissors to follow and cut both straight and curved lines
4-6
• can manage buttons, zippers, and snaps completely
• can draw and copy a cross (one vertical and one horizontal intersecting lines)
• can hold fork using his fingers
• can feed own self soup with little or no spilling
• can get dressed completely by own self, and usually tie shoelaces
• cuts square, triangle, circle, and simple pictures with scissors
• uses a knife to spread food items (jelly, peanut butter, mayo etc.), uses a dull knife to cut soft foods
• uses a "tripod grasp" on writing utensils (thumb & tips of 1st two fingers) and uses fingers only
(because small muscles of hand have developed) to write/draw/color
• sufficient bilateral hand coordination to cut out complex pictures, accurately following the outline
• able to copy a sequence of letters or numbers correctly
• able to complete complex puzzles
(Retrieved from http://www.sensory-processing-disorder.com/fine-motor-development-chart.html and
modified September 20th, 2012)
Enhancing Early Childhood Motor Development
 Formal lessons (i.e. gymnastic class) have little effect on children of this age’s motor
development (its better that it come naturally from everyday play)
 Social climate created by adults can enhance or dampen preschoolers motor development. When
parents and teachers criticize a child’s performance, push specific motor skills or promote a
competitive attitude they could hurt self confidence which could hinder development
Physical Activity
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Preschoolers should engage in at least 60 minutes, and up to several hours, of unstructured
physical activity per day
Equipment should be age appropriate and appropriate sizes
Should give a variety of options to meet needs, challenges, and motivation
Sleep Habits and Problems
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2-3 year olds should sleep 11-12 hours per night
4-6 year olds should sleep 10-11 hours per night
There are individual differences but children do need significant sleep
Sleep problems have been associated with a decrease in cognitive performance in thinking,
attention, and memory.
Children who have trouble sleeping often wake their parents which also disturbs their sleep. This
can lead to a stressful environment for the child and parent
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May be a result of environmental stressors – address conflict – and create additional stressors for
the parents
Nightmares/Terrors
o Children have vivid imaginations and also have trouble separating fantasy from reality.
This makes nightmares common and very real. Half of 3-6 year olds experience them
o 4% of children are sleepwalkers. If this occurs you can suggest to parents to gently wake
them and/or direct them back to bed
o 3% are affected by night terrors. Much more vivid, may scream, speak incoherently and
cause great stress. Most times they will be able to pass without treatment
Sleep Routines
There are cultural differences in sleep routines and how/if children are accompanied while
sleeping
o Most Caucasian children sleep alone in their own room. There is a high value on a
bedtime schedule and falling asleep at a specific time is a sign of maturity
o Most African-American children sleep with a sibling
o Most Hispanic children sleep with a parent
Nutrition
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In early childhood, children’s appetites decline in relation to infancy because growth slows
Children at this age are typically picky eaters and stick to foods they are familiar with
Children need the same quality of foods but in smaller quantities
The social environment
o Plays a significant role in determining children’s eating habits
o Children imitate adults’ food
o Children become accustom to the foods within their culture – those who grow up around
spicy food will have an increased affinity for it.
o Emotional environment around meal times will condition children to like/dislike food
o Offering bribes to encourage children to eat healthy foods only increases children’s like
for the dessert afterwards, not for the healthy foods.
Adding sugar or salt to foods in order to encourage children to eat will actually encourage
children to like sugary or salty foods
Restricting foods keep limits on what foods kids eat, but does not encourage self-control over
food choices. Kids will like, and eat more of foods they cannot have.
Vitamin
Purpose
Iron
Calcium
Prevent anemia – deficiency of red blood cells
Support development of bones and teeth
Zinc
Viramin A
Support immune system , neural communication,
and cell duplication
Maintain eyes, skin, and a variety of internal organs
Vitamin C
Facilitate iron absorption and wound healing
Infectious disease
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Poor diet and malnutrition depresses the body’s immune system
Disease hinders physical growth and cognitive development
98% of the annual death’s of children under 5 are from developing countries
Think about what your priorities would be if you worked as a CLS in one of these developing
countries...
Childhood injuries
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Unintentional injuries are the leading cause of childhood mortality in industrialized nations
Factors that lead to higher incident rates:
o higher activity children
o risk taking
o level of supervision
o temperamental characteristics (i.e. irritability & inattentiveness- greater risk of injury)
o poverty
o More children in the home
o low parental education
o factors in developing countries such as availability/cost of safety equipment,
overcrowding and heavy road traffic

Preventing childhood injuries:
o car safety laws
o child resistant caps on medicine bottles
o protective surfacing on playgrounds
o proper/age appropriate supervision
o parenting skills
 effective discipline
 positive parenting
 need time and appropriate resources
Immunizations
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Due to immunizations, childhood diseases in industrialized nations have declined dramatically
Those who don’t keep up with or initially get all of their childhood vaccinations are at a greater
risk than those children who did
Those children from low SES are more likely to NOT have received these immunizations
Lack of parental education about immunizations also decreases the percentage of children who
are vaccinated
Attending child care facilities increases the child’s chance of catching a communicable disease