Chapter Eight

1
Chapter Eight

• The Play Years
• Biosocial Development

2
Body Shape and Growth Rates

• Lower body lengthens
• child becomes slimmer
• Steady increase in height and weight
• 3 inches in height per year
• 4 1/2 pounds in weight per year

3
Growth Rate and Birth Order?

• From the epigentic forces, the young childs
  body develop from a biologically driven and
  socially guided perspective. Many factors
  influence growth. The three most influential
  factors, accounting for several inches of height
  at the end of childhood
• Genes
• Nutrition (largely responsible for the dramatic
  height difference between children in developed
  and non-developed nations)
• Health
• In addition, other factors make a difference
• Birth order
• Geography
• sex

4
Eating Habits

• Food should be nutritious
• isnt alwaysoften far from ideal
• enough caloriesnot enough vitamins and
  mineralsmajor nutritional problems are
• iron-deficiency anemia
• too much sugar
• too much fat
• not enough fruits and vegetables

5
Finish Your Dinner or No Dessert!

• Compared to infants, modern children, who play
  outside, need fewer calories.
• Appetite decreases between the ages of 2 to 6.
• Children in developed nations consumed enough, or
  more than enough calories for energy yet they do
  not always obtain the adequate minerals or
  vitamins.
• Major nutritional problem is insufficient intake
  of iron, calcium and zinc.
• Ex calcium consumption has decrease because milk
  has been replaced with soda or juice at snack
  time.

6
Speed of Thought

• 2-year-old, 75 of brain weight achieved
• 5-year-old, 90 of brain weight achieved
• What else is left to develop if the brain has
  already developed ?
• Myelination
• Process where the brains networks become coated
  with myelin, a fatty substance that speeds
  transmission of nerve impulses between neurons.
• Enables children to think and react much more
  quickly than toddlers can.
• Experience affects the rate of myelination
  practice makes thoughts come more quickly
  (Merzenich, 2001.)
• Pruning of dendrites has occurred

7
Connecting the Brains Hemispheres

• Corpus callosum
• nerve fibers that connect the two halves of the
  brain
• Makes communication between the two brain
  hemisphere more efficient, allowing children to
  coordinate the two sides of their body.
• Lateralization, specialization in certain
  function by each side of the brain, with one side
  dominant for each activity.
• left brain
• logical analysis, language, speech
• right brain
• visual and artistic skills

8
Connecting the Brains Hemispheres, cont.
9
Planning and Analyzing

• Prefrontal cortex (or frontal lobe) is the final
  part of the human brain to reach maturity
• the area in the very front of the brain that is
  least developed in nonhumans
• mid-adolescence
• maturation occurs gradually and incomplete until
  advances at about age 3 or 4 make possible
  impulse control and formal education
• Perseverationthe tendency to persevere, to stick
  to a thought or action long after it is time to
  move on
• occurs normally in young childrenanother aspect
  of immature self- control

10
Educational Implications of Brain Development

• By age 6, children are ready for formal
  instruction
• before, brain not sufficiently developed in ways
  it needs to be, but now child can
• sit still for more than an hour
• scan a page of print
• balance sides of body
• draw and write with one hand
• listen and think before talking
• remember important facts
• control emotions

11
Motor Skills and Avoidable Injuries

• Brain development allows for greater coordination
  and impulse control
• Physical maturation can make a child more
  vulnerable to injury
• Large body movements improve
• running, jumping, climbing, throwing
• Gross motor skills are practiced and mastered
• Motor skills develop as rapidly as brain
  maturation, motivation, guided practice, and
  innate ability allow
• Children learn basic motor skills by teaching
  themselves and learning from other children
• Small body movements are harder to master
• pouring, cutting, holding crayon, tying
• lacking the muscular control, patience, and
  judgment needed
• fingers short and fat
• confusion over which is dominant hand