1. Understanding Growth and Development – to help us explain behavior
Chapter 3

2. Growth vs. Development Growth = Increase in size of the individual.
Development =? Growth is included in development.
Can you grow and not develop? (Somewhat Dependent upon growth)
How do we measure growth? (head, height/length weight) Development?

3. Needs of the infant and toddler
Needs must be met for children to grow and develop.
Categories: physical, psychological, cognitive, and “irreducible”-The child’s basic and essential needs that must be met for a healthy development.
Categories of irreducible needs- provide examples, see handout (pg and handout) In class: List ways you could support these needs.

4. Developmental Domains
Note: Each domain is an aspect of the whole child, and each domain interacts with the others.
Physical development
Perception and sensory development-
Communication and language development(baby sign)
Cognitive development: Theorists: Piaget and Vygotsky
Emotional and Social and others continued

5. Piaget
(p. 61) Schema- A unit of knowledge. As a child learns, she creates a mental category and organizes information. Similar to a filing system.
Assimilation- with similar information, a child groups similar concepts
Accommodation and Disequalibrium- When a child encounters new information, and there is no existing schema, she reaches a state of disequilibrium. The child’s thinking is “out of balance” while trying to accommodate the new information, and creating a new schema.( a new “file”)
Equilibrium - The child reaches balance again when a new schema is formed.
See handout of Piaget

6. Vygotsky Sociocultural learning
Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)(pg 61 handout)

7. Developmental Domains continued…
Emotional Development
Bonding and attachment : How important is this and why?
See p.63 in text
Social Development
Personality Development
Temperament- (emotional traits & 9 categories of components of it) What are the types and how do they affect child-rearing (raising)? (pg 66) Life Experiences Values, Attitudes and Personalities of the Primary Caregivers help shape it.

8. Ecological Systems theory
Bronfenbrenner (pg 67) (picture)
Who and what would be included in your spheres?
Developmentally Appropriate Practice (71 handout)
■ Based on knowledge about how children develop and learn.

9. Principles and components of development
The interaction of the domains of development
Maturation: determined genetically, before birth; patterns of development reflect survivial , adaption (i.e.- reflexes). Infants follow a (similar or different?) pattern of development; the rate at which they follow this pattern is (similar or different?)
It is best to provide optimal conditions for growth and development
Stages (a set of behaviors often determined by age)
individual patterns

10. Aspects of development
Norms; developmental profiles- an overview of an individual’s development . WHO is responsible for documenting this profile? HOW do they help? HOW can they harm?
ex.- CDC growth charts What are they documenting?
nature and nurture (and the interaction of these)- see twin studies
continuity v. discontinuity
directions of development (cephalocaudal and proximodistal)

11. Critical , Sensitive Periods
Critical Periods - a more narrow time period, susceptible to teratogens; Examples?
Critical periods occur before and after birth- examples?
Sensitive Periods- “windows of opportunity”- (p. 75)

12. Developmental factors continued…
catching up- ECI
The role of motivation