Development & Its Principles Study Notes: CDP Study Notes & Material

About Development:

Development refers to the biological and psychological changes that occur in human beings between conception and the end of adolescence, as the individual progresses from dependency to increasing autonomy. It may also be defined as a process of internal features of a human being in collaboration with external or environmental features. The growth that is the focus of the study is the development of Children in four areas- physical, mental or cognitive, emotional and social. In this paper, the main development of the Child that is being focused on is physical development and cognitive development.

Age Ranges and Individual Differences in Child Development:

Age-related development terms are: newborn (ages 0–1 month); infant (ages 1 month – 1 year); toddler (ages 1–3 years); preschooler (ages 4–6 years); school-aged child (ages 6–11 years); adolescence (ages 11–18)(Kail,2006).

Although, the age ranges themselves are in many ways arbitrary. Just in the same way, cognitive, social, behavioural and intellectual development occurs in each individual in a similar way at different paces and rates. It is important to keep in mind that some children reach the milestones earlier, some later and many infect most reaches just around the time of the average. Such variation becomes noteworthy only when children show substantial deviation from the average.

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Principles of Development

Human development involves change. This change occurs at various stages of development and the development pattern at each stage has predictable characteristics. Although there are individual differences in children’s personalities, activity levels and timing of developmental milestones, such as ages and stages, the principles and characteristics of development are universal patterns. Development is based on the following basic principles-:

• Development is a continuous process-It does not occur in spurts. Growth continues from conception until an individual reaches maturity. Although development is a continuous process, the tempo of growth is not even, especially during the early years it is swift and later on, it slows down.
• It follows a pattern or sequence-every species, whether animal or human follows a pattern of growth. Development tends to proceed from the head downwards. It also proceeds from the centre outward.
• General to Specific-It moves from generalized to localized behaviour. Growth occurs from large muscle movements to more refined (smaller) muscle movements. For eg., an infant moves the whole of his body at one time rather than moving only one part of it.
• Different rates of individual growth and development-Neither all the parts of the body grow at the same time nor do the mental abilities of a child develop fully. They attain maturity levels at a different paces. Hence, each child is different and so the rates at which individual children grow are also different. Physical and mental abilities both develop at different ages.
• Development is a complex phenomenon-All the aspects of growth are closely interrelated to each other. A child’s mental development is intimately related to his physical growth and needs.

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Factors influencing Development and Personality – Heredity

Honestly speaking, a human being’s personality is an outcome of both his genetic as well as cultural environment. Certain things are inborn or that they simply occur naturally regardless of environmental influences. Basically, it is the impact of heredity on human beings that ‘we inherit a tendency towards certain things and to function in certain ways. For eg, a tendency toward a certain body weight, a tendency toward general body type and appearance. Hence, Heredity plays a vital role in causing individual differences and is equally responsible for bringing changes in an individual’s personality.