Prenatal Foundations and Birth

Genetic Foundations of Child Development

All children have a set of genetic instructions that influence their characteristics at birth as well as their many characteristics that emerge as they grow. Most of the genes that children inherit are ones that they share with other children, giving them a common human heritage. Other genes contribute to children's individuality by disposing them to look and act in certain unique ways. Genes exert their effects on children through complex and interactive processes in cells and bodily systems; the effects of genes are mediated by children's health, other physiological processes, and children's experience in particular environments. Acknowledging the powerful effects of nature, teachers and other professionals can show that they value children's genetically based traits, such as having a certain temperament, physical appearance, or unusual talent. Practitioners can also express their confidence that, whatever children's natural abilities, children have the potential to achieve high personal and academic standards.

Prenatal Development

At conception, the new being inherits a unique genetic makeup and begins the lifelong process of growing, changing, and interacting in and with the environment. Development begins at conception, when the zygote, a one-celled being, divides multiple times and becomes a ball of cells that burrows into the uterus. Two to nine weeks after conception, the embryo grows rapidly, forming structures needed to sustain future growth and developing rudimentary organs and body parts. Between week nine and birth, the fetus continues to grow rapidly, now putting the finishing touches on the body and brain and becoming sufficiently heavy and strong to live in the world. Professionals can support healthy prenatal growth of children by informing prospective parents (and all sexually active women) about the damaging effects of teratogens to unborn children; the need to evaluate their health and medical regimens prior to a pregnancy; and the value of stress reduction, a healthful diet, appropriate exercise, and ongoing medical care during pregnancy.

Birth of the Baby

The birth of the baby is an exciting event for parents and other family members, who can ease their anxiety and the mother's pain by preparing for childbirth. Birth is a multistage process that is often helped along by family members and professionals in the medical community, such as doctors, nurses, and midwives. The health and medical needs of newborn infants depend on their birth weight, size, prenatal exposure to teratogens, the mother's health, and the newborn infants' genetic vulnerabilities. Family educators and other professionals can help parents develop realistic expectations about their newborn infants and respond sensitively to their physical and psychological needs.

Child Development and Education Textbook. PEARSONS. Chapter 3.

Observation Guidelines: Assessing Health Behaviors of Children and Adolescents

Characteristic	Look For….
Eating Habits	* Frequent consumption of junk food (candy, chips, carbonated beverages, etc.) *Unusual heaviness or thinness, especially if these characteristics become more pronounced over time * Lack of energy * Reluctant or inability to eat anything at lunchtime
Physical Activity	* Improvements in speed, complexity, and agility of gross motor skills (eg., running, skipping, jumping) * Restlessness, lethargy, or inattention during lengthy seatwork (possibly reflecting a need to have a physical break or to release pent-up energy) * Overexertion (increasing the risk of injury)
Rest and Sleep	* Listlessness and lack of energy * Inability to concentrate * Irritability and overreaction to frustration * Sleeping in class
Health-Compromising Behaviors	* The smell of cigarettes in clothing *Physiological symtoms of drug use (eg. red eyes, dilated pupils, tremors, convulsions, respiratory problems). * Distortion in speech (eg. slurred pronunciation, fast talking, incoherence) * Poor coordination * Impaired decision making * Mood changes (eg. anxiety, depression) *Dramatic changes in behavior (eg. unusual energy, loss of interest in friends) * Signs of sensory distortions or hallucinations * Rapid weight gain and a tendency to wear increasingly baggy clothes (in girls who may be pregnant)

Sources: Wechsler (2002, 2003).

Posted by: Elizabeth Gonzalez

Developmental Trends: Physical Development at Different Age Levels

Age of Child	What You Might Observe
Infancy (Birth - 2 Years)	* Emergence of reflexes * Rapid growth and change in proportions of body parts * Increasing ability to move around, first squirming; then rolling, crawling, creeping, or scooting; finally by walking. * Increasing ability to coordinate small muscles of hands and eyes  * Increasing self-help skills in such areas as feeding, dressing, washing, toileting, and grooming.
Early Childhood (2 - 6 Years)	* Loss of rounded, babyish appearance, with arms and legs lengthening and taking on more mature proportions.  * Boundless physical energy for new gross motor skills, such as running, hopping, tumbling, climbing, and swinging.  *Acquisition of fine motor skills, such as functional pencil grip and use of scissors. * Transition away from afternoon nap, which may initially be marked by periods of fussiness in the afternoon.
Middle Childhood (6 - 10 Years)	* Steady gain in height and weight * Loss and replacement of primary teeth * Refinement and consolidation of gross motor skills and integration of such skills into structured play activities.  * Participation in organized sports * Increasing fluency in fine motor skills, such as handwriting and drawing
Early Adolescence (10 - 14 Years)	* Periods of rapid growth * Beginnings of puberty * Self-consciosness about physical changes * Some risk-taking behavior
Late Adolescence  (14 - 18 Years)	* In girls, completion o growth spurts and attainment of mature height * In boys, ongoing increases in stature * Ravenous appetites * Increasing sexual activity * Some serious risky behavior

Sources: Bredekamp & Copple (1997); Gallahue & Ozmun (1998); V.F. Reyna & Farley (2006); Steinberg (2007); J.M. Tanner (1990); and Wechsler (2002, 2003).

Posted by: Elizabeth Gonzalez

Adolescent Physical Development Video (1955)

Adolescent Physical Education Video (1955)

Watch the video below and learn about adolescent's physical development.

Environmental Effects on a Child's Development

Recent studies conducted at Cornell University suggest negative environmental effects can and do have a marked influence on your child's cognitive and developmental growth.

On the flip-side, however, exposure to pleasant, natural settings, like the Garden Route of the Cape or the pristine South African bush have quite the opposite, and a rather therapeutic, effect on the overall well being of any child.

A leading environmental and developmental psychologist, Dr Gary Evans, has earmarked a handful of elements that have a significant effect on children's overall development and they include noise levels, overcrowding and housing and neighbourhood quality - most of which do not pertain to either golf course living or the coveted seaside lifestyle of our coastal regions.

Noise

Ongoing exposure to unacceptably high levels of noise, be they traffic noises or simply music, has been proven to affect a child's reading ability, concentration levels and even physiological indicators. Apart from long term memory problems, a child may also show signs of high blood pressure and even a rise in stress hormones.

Overcrowding

Overcrowding, whether in your dwelling place or the neighbourhood, is a no-no if you wish your child to reach his or her full potential. Interpersonal relationships will obviously be put under added pressure and the insecure child may well withdraw totally as a means of coping with the spatial constraints.

Quality of the neighbourhood

But it is the housing and quality of the neighbourhood that probably has the most profound effect on the growth of your child. Families who live in high rise buildings as opposed to a family resort or a single family home on a golf resort, for instance, will have fewer relationships with neighbours and consequently far less social support.

Even the quality of municipal services, recreational opportunities and the access to transport will affect your child either favourably or adversely. Can you imagine the heights any child will attain if they are brought up in a safe, secure environment like a golf property near George or Cape Town where there are literally dozens of exciting outdoor activities on tap?

Increase in the incidence of childhood diseases

What is more frightening, however, is that children are far more vulnerable to exposure to pesticides, heavy metals and other forms of chemical pollution as indicated by the increased incidence of diseases directly linked to environmental effects. These include asthma, autism, attention deficit activity disorder and even childhood cancer.

In fact, it has been suggested that over 80% of all developmental disorders in childhood are a direct result of exposure to negative environmental elements. Need any more persuading to pack the bags and family and move lock, stock and barrel to the safe and nurturing environment of the golf estates, small holdings or balmy beach towns?

http://www.kingswood.co.za

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Amelia_Stenson



Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/2007012

The Influence of Culture On Child Development

The influences of culture play heavily into the making of the person of a child, creating oftentimes beautiful and sometimes bitter trends in development. But culture itself poses so much possibility it becomes difficult to establish what of culture affects child development.

Where Culture and Child Development Find Meaning:
How does one child react to this culture as compared to the other child within this same culture? One child may find the daily routine of the American cultural tradition of daycare to be invigorating, affecting the life beyond childhood and into an adulthood of active involvement in community. Another child, in the same daily routine, may find it overwhelming and grow up to avoid exposure to large groups, preferring a life path more secluded.

Culture and child development takes on meaning where it intersects with the degrees of sensitivity within each child. Within culture, we find the significance of the child's unique reaction to the culture of daily life and from that reaction is the influence on development.

Landmark Influences Common to All Cultures:
What is commonly experienced and can be identified as consistently influential in every life? While we cannot determine how each child will react to cultural influences, it is critical that the most important influences be identified in order to give children the best opportunities to thrive.

Studies and, plain observation itself, suggest three landmark influences prominent in the dynamics of culture and child development:

1. Security
2. Education
3. Socialization

There's no denying the fact that the physical and social surroundings of a child's daily world create or destroy the atmosphere of security. Cultural styles will directly influence just how much a child feels secure, molding the development of that internal security needful to venture out into life. To say a domino effect flows from the one level of either security or insecurity is to understate. Essentially, of all the possible cultural influences on child development, it is important to identify what will foster security.

From the influence of security a child moves forward into the world of education. Educational resources within any given culture will mold the development of a child powerfully by either broadening or narrowing the fields of possibility for that one life, weaving together with either a secure or insecure worldview. Obviously, where the culture upholds the value of education, the child develops more broadly and with more possibilities to prosper on every level.

From these influences and within them are the workings of socialization. Socialization is simply the integration into society as either a positive experience perpetuating healthy, balanced living or some variety of struggling to integrate, to sustain a thriving life.

Caretakers can hold to the consistent work of safeguarding security, of education and of socialization in order to help children develop appropriately. In the final analysis, culture and child development narrows itself down to the intimacy in relationships between caretakers and children, an intimacy that nurtures the best of security, education and socialization no matter the cultural tide.

Wendy Pan is an accomplished niche website developer and author. To learn more about children within your culture [http://parentingadvicesite.info/your-child-within-your-culture], please visit Parenting Advice Site [http://parentingadvicesite.info] for current articles and discussions.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Wendy_Pan

How Children Acquire and Produce Language (BBC, 2001)

Interesting video helps adults understand how a child's language develops

Read this article on language development and please share your thoughts =)

focus on the bolded section. How do you think teachers can facilitate language development in the classroom as they may have students at diverse levels of language development?


Language Development in Children
By Celia Genishi
Educational Resource Information Center (U.S. Department of Education)

The development of oral language is one of the child's most natural--and impressive--accomplishments. This digest presents an overview of the process and mechanics of language development, along with implications for practice.

When and How Language is Learned
Almost all children learn the rules of their language at an early age through use, and over time, without formal instruction. Thus one source for learning must be genetic. Humans beings are born to speak; they have an innate gift for figuring out the rules of the language used in their environment. The environment itself is also a significant factor. Children learn the specific variety of language (dialect) that the important people around them speak.

Children do not, however, learn only by imitating those around them. We know that children work through linguistic rules on their own because they use forms that adults never use, such as "I goed there before" or "I see your feets." Children eventually learn the conventional forms, "went" and "feet", as they sort out for themselves the exceptions to the rules of English syntax. As with learning to walk, learning to talk requires time for development and practice in everyday situations. Constant correction of a child's speech is usually unproductive.

Children seem born not just to speak, but also to interact socially. Even before they use words, they use cries and gestures to convey meaning; they often understand the meanings that others convey. The point of learning language and interacting socially, then, is not to master rules, but to make connections with other people and to make sense of experiences (Wells, 1986). In summary, language occurs through an interaction among genes (which hold innate tendencies to communicate and be sociable), environment, and the child's own thinking abilities.

When children develop abilities is always a difficult question to answer. In general, children say their first words between 12 and 18 months of age. They begin to use complex sentences by the age of 4 to 4 1/2 years. By the time they start kindergarten, children know most of the fundamentals of their language, so that they are able to converse easily with someone who speaks as they do (that is, in their dialect). As with other aspects of development, language acquisition is not predictable. One child may say her first word at 10 months, another at 20 months. One child may use complex sentences at 5 1/2 years, another at 3 years

http://www.education.com/reference/article/Ref_Young_Childrens_Oral/

Read this article and share your thoughts? Reflect on how environmental factors influence language development..

Language Delays Seen in Kids in Institutions Beyond Age 2
FRIDAY, June 17 (HealthDay News) -- Foster care boosts language development in young children who lived in institutions, new study findings show.

Researchers looked at more than 100 children who had lived in institutions in Romania. About half of the children were placed in foster homes when they were about 22 months old, while the other half continued living in institutions. These two groups were compared to about 60 young children who lived in the same community with their biological parents.


Children from institutions who were placed in foster care before they were 2 had greater language skills by the time they were 3½ years old than those who remained in institutions, according to the study in the current issue of the journal Child Development.

The researchers also found that the language skills of children who were placed in foster care before they were 15 months old were similar to those of children raised by their biological parents. But children who were placed in foster care after they were 2 years old had the same major language delays as those who remained in institutions.

"This shows that not only is the change to high-quality foster care beneficial for these children, but the timing of the change appears to be important," lead author Jennifer Windsor, a professor of speech-language-hearing sciences at the University of Minnesota, said in a news release from the Society of Research in Child Development.

The findings underline the importance of early efforts to help young children develop language, and also offer insight for American parents who adopt babies from other nations.

"Many infants and toddlers who are adopted from other countries and come to the United States develop language quickly," Windsor said. "However, older children who have been living in poor care environments may be at high risk for language delays."

More information

The U.S. National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders has more about speech and language development.

Copyright © 2011 HealthDay. All rights reserved.


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Cognitive Development of Children

Biological Beginnings - Gender

Our gender defines who we are and how we go through life. But how does it happen? How do we become a girl or a boy?...

When one sperm and one ovum unite at conception, the 23 chromosomes from each parent come together and form a new being (the zygote) with 46 chromosomes. The 23^rd chromosome pair determines the gender of the individual: Two X chromosomes (one each from the mother and father) produce a female, and a combination of an X chromosome and a Y chromosome (from the mother and father, respectively) produces a male.

If you look at the photograph of human chromosomes below, you can see the XY pair near the bottom right corner, which makes this individual a male.

Posted by: Maraldy Gutierrez

Intelligence: Who has greater "Brain Power" Boys or Girls???!!!???

Good Evening to All!!! =)

I would like to know if many of you agree with the following (What are your personal thoughts and feelings):

According to Halperm, 2004, 2006; Hedges & Nowell, 1995; Maccoby & Jacklin, 1974,
      "Girls are often slightly better at verbal tasks as reading and writing."


According to Benbow, Lubinski, Shea and Eftekhari-Sanjani, 2000,
      "Especially after puberty, boys perform somewhat better on some tasks involving visual-
       spatial , and adolescents with extremely high mathematical ability are more likely to be male 
       than females!"


I personally agree with the statement above because with personal experience, I am WAAAYYYY better with tasks such as reading and writing, yet my best friend (a boy) is a "math geek"!

Posted by: Elizabeth Gonzalez

Intelligence at Different Age Levels

Age of Child	What You Might Observe
Infancy (Birth - 2 Years)	* Success on test items that involve early development accomplishments (e.g. recognition of previously seen objects, visual performance, eye-hand coordination. * Distractibility and short attention span * Variability in performance from one assessment to the next * Performance dependent on examiner's ability to establish a positive relationship with the infant.
Early Childhood (2 - 6 Years)	* Success on test items that involve naming objects, stacking blocks, drawing circles, remembering short lists, and following simple directions.  * Short attention span, influencing test performance * Variability in test scores from one occasion to the next
Middle Childhood (6 - 10 Years)	* Success on test items that involve defining concrete words, remembering sentences and short sequences of digits, understanding concrete analogies, recognizing similarities among objects, and identifying absurdities in illogical statements * Some consistency in test scores from one occasion to the next * Noticeable differences among children in mastery of classroom subject matters
Early Adolescence (10 - 14 Years)	* Success on test items that involve defining commonly used abstract words, drawing logical inferences from verbal descriptions, and identifying similarities between opposite concepts. * Considerable individual differences in the ability to understand abstract material
Late Adolescence  (14 - 18 Years)	* Success on test items that involve defining infrequently encountered words, identifying differences between similar abstract words, interpreting proverbs, and breaking down complex geometric figures into their component parts * Relative stability in most adolescents' IQ scores * Increasing independence to seek out opportunities consistent with existing ability levels (niche-picking)

Sources: Mcdevitt, Teresa and Ormrod, Jeanne (2010); Bayley (2005); Brooks-Gunn (2003); Brooks-Gunn, Klebanov, & Duncan (1996); Colombo (1993); G.A. Davis & Rimm (1998); S.I. Greenspan & Meisels (1996); Luckasson et al. (2002); Mayes & Bornstein (1997); Mcloyd (1994); Steele (1997); Terman & Merrill (1972); A. Thomas & Chess (1977); Thorndike at al. (1986); Wechsler (2002, 2003).


Posted by: Elizabeth Gonzalez

Language Development Milestones

When you viewed the language development chart did anything appear familiar to you? In your experience, do the language development milestones agree with your experiences with children and watching their language development?

Personally, I have observed the language development of my 2 and 3 year old niece and nephew. The milestones from the chart have definitely appeared in their language development. Both my niece and nephew are able to name animals, objects in their surroundings, say the alphabet, as well as say numbers and colors.

What Were Your First Words?

Hey All! Let's share what our first words were and when we said them. Also, if you have children please share what your child's first words were.

According to my mother my first words were da da and I was about 8months old.  =)

Language Development in Children

Age of Child	Typical Language Development
12 month	Uses one or more words with meaning (this may be a fragment of a word)        Understands simple instructions, especially if vocal or physical cues are given        Practices inflection        Is aware of the social value of speech
1 year	Can name a number of objects common to his surroundings        Is able to use at least two prepositions, usually chosen from the following: in, on, under        Combines words into a short sentence-largely noun-verb combinations (mean) length of sentences is given as 1.2 words        Approximately 2/3 of what child says should be intelligible Vocabulary of approximately 150-300 words
3years	Knows names of familiar animals        Can use at least four prepositions or can demonstrate his understanding of their meaning when given commands        Names common objects in picture books or magazines        Knows one or more colors        Can repeat 4 digits when they are given slowly
4years	Can use many descriptive words spontaneously-both adjectives and adverbs        Knows common opposites: big-little, hard-soft, heave-light, etc        Has number concepts of 4 or more        Can count to ten        Speech should be completely intelligible, in spite of articulation problems        Should have all vowels and the consonants, m,p,b,h,w,k,g,t,d,n,ng,y
6years	In addition to the above consonants these should be mastered: f, v, sh, zh, th,1        He should have concepts of 7        Speech should be completely intelligible and socially useful        Should be able to tell one a rather connected story about a picture, seeing relationships        Between objects and happenings
8years	Can relate rather involved accounts of events, many of which occurred at some time in the past        Complex and compound sentences should be used easily        Should be few lapses in grammatical constrictions-tense, pronouns, plurals        All speech sounds, including consonant blends should be established