In
this study of child development, some concepts keep recurring. They appear more
frequently. These are basic concepts. The basic concepts in child development
are concepts that help explain changes in children’s behaviour that go with
ageing. we introduce you to some of the basic concepts used in child
development studies. They include: growth, maturation, learning, development,
perception and motivation.
At the end of this page, you should be able to:
· Explain the
following concepts: (a) Growth (b) Maturation (c) Learning
· Outline the
principles of development
· Explain how the
various sensory modalities aid perception
· Examine three
views on motivation offered by three schools of psychology.
The Basic Concepts in Child Development
a) Human Growth
Human
growth describes increases in magnitude of body parts, organs, and systems.
Growth involves changes in size, height, gait, or number. Cell division is
growth – it involves increase in number. The body skeleton increases in length,
and density.
This
is growth. The body muscles increase in gait and mass. This is also growth.
Growth is one major characteristic that differentiates living systems from
non-living things. It describes the metabolic changes by which a child
increases in size and changes in shape. Several factors influence growth
changes. Height, for example, is primarily a biological process influenced by
genes. Genes direct the neural and hormonal activities that propel growth.
Deficits in human growth hormone lead to stunted growth. Hyper-functioning of the human growth hormone may lead to abnormal height. Other environmental related factors include: malnutrition, teratogens, and severe psychological stress these factors will be discussed in more detail under physical development.
b) Maturation
Maturation
is the unfolding of the child’s biological potential. The timing and the
sequence of the unfolding of these biological potentials are pre-wired
genetically. For an illustration, practicing reading with a child will not make
the child read until the brain cells that control reading ability are mature
enough to respond to such training. The body will not hold the neck erect or
upright if the controlling muscles are not maturationally ready. The baby will
not stand and walk erect if the muscles of the limbs are not maturationally
ready. Maturation, therefore, refers to
readiness or the point at which a child is biologically prepared to undertake a
specific task.
It should be noted that it is the process of maturation that limits the time or age at which a child speaks, forms letters of the alphabet, understands relational concepts or propositional logic. In general, maturation prepares the child to undertake and benefit from any specific activity. Whether or not the child actually understands that specific activity will, to a large extent, depend on exposure or experience.
c) Learning
Learning means
changes in behaviour due to experience and practice. Changes in
behaviour that qualify as learning have to be relatively permanent
changes. This means that the change in behaviour should not be explained by
temporary states in the child, such as fatigue, illness, or drug effect; and
maturation or instinct.
Changes in behaviour
may be observable, in which case, they are said to be overt.
Examples of overt behaviour include changes in muscular dexterity. A child who
could not write with a pencil now holds the pencil properly and writes some
letters; or a child learns a new dancing step; or a child traps the football
without losing its control to an opponent.
Changes in behaviour
may also be unobservable, in which case they are said to be covert.
Covert behaviours are discernible from other activities. Examples include:
change in attitude to other ethnic nationalities, implied from accepting
relationships with such other ethnic nationalities; development or change of
insight that is, seeing meaning in a relationship that was not obvious before.
Learning manifests in modification of behaviour. Learning is the major reason human beings are not stupid all the time. Learning makes it possible for a child to transfer the benefit of one experience to other situations. In this way, human behaviour is said to be adaptive.
d) Development
Development
describes
progressive sequence of changes in structure and organization of body
systems. Development involves changes in the ability of the organism to function
at a higher level. The main attribute of development is that the changes
are qualitative and result in increased functionality.
Increases in motor skills which permit the child to achieve higher level of
proficiency in any particular games signal development.
In
more specific terms, a child who earlier cried when thirsty now says “mummy,
water”. This is development. A child, who earlier was crawling, suddenly stands
up and takes one or two hasty steps. This is development. When a child gains
voluntary control of the muscles of the bladder such that they can empty the
bladder contents at will, development has taken place.
Usually,
development involves a complex interaction between maturation and learning.
Maturation itself involves growth. Therefore, development is usually regarded
as the product of growth, maturation and learning. Development
occurs at all the facets of human functions and behaviour. That is, development
could be at the physical, cognitive, emotional, social, or language dimensions
of human functioning.
Principles of Human
Development
The principles that
explain human development include:
1.
Developmental
2.
Direction, Continuity and Sequence
3.
Individual Differences.
Developmental
Direction
The
principle of developmental direction states that development follows a predictable
direction. Development, for example, starts from head and proceeds
towards the toes. This is the cephalocaudal law. At birth, the
human head is the most mature part of the body. All the brain cells are there
at birth. The head weighs more than the rest of the body.
The
baby gains control of the muscles of the neck before that of the chest. The
baby also gains control of the chest before the waist, the arms and the limbs.
There is a direction.
Development also proceeds from the centre to the periphery. This is the proximodistal law. The internal organs at the centre of the body – the heart, the lungs, the liver reach their adult size before the arms and the legs. The extremities mature last.
Continuity and Sequence
Development
continues in a predicable order until maturity is attained. This is not
to say that there is a direct proportional increase in all aspects of
development with corresponding increases in age. Development is characterised
by spurts peaks, and plateaux. However, continuity implies that development
does not get arrested or reversed unless something is biogenetically wrong. A
characteristic sequence is followed by all children. The child sits before
crawling. The child crawls before standing, and walks before running.
Individual
Differences
The time of unset,
and the rate of appearance of different aspects of human development vary
enormously from one child to another. This is the principle of individual
differences. The genetic blueprint differs for every individual.
For example, one
child may get the first set of teeth at seven months while the other child gets
the first set of teeth at 12 months. One child may stand and take the first
steps at 10 months, while the next child stands at 24 months. Though the time
table may differ, all children will attain the goal of development ultimately
if the environment is attain the goal of development ultimately if the
environment is cooperative.
Perception
Human
beings identify things by sight, smell, and sound. They detect if they have
body contact with another object. They detect changes in temperature and
pressure. They experience pain and cold. People are able to learn and know
things because they have senses. They use their sensory modalities to pick
sensations from the environment, and thereby learn and know things.
The major sensory
modalities are vision, hearing, touch, smell, and taste.
We elaborate briefly on each of these sensory modalities.
· The Sense of
Vision
Vision
is the most important of all human senses. It is estimated that about 80 percent
of human sensory information is obtained through vision (Muzi, 2000). The main
organ of vision is the eye.
The
eye receives light energy reflected as light rays from objects. The light
energy is transformed to nervous impulses and transmitted to the brain. The
brain interprets these impulses as vision. So you are able to see objects and
events.
· The Sense of
Hearing
Hearing is a
significant source of sensory information. It connects the individual with
other people, and enables one to communicate. The main organ of hearing is the
ear.
The
ear collects sound energy in form of waves from various sources. It transforms
these different sound waves to corresponding nervous impulses. These impulses
are carried to the hearing centre of the brain.
The brain interprets
the nervous impulses as sound. So you are able to hear and differentiate
different sounds.
Hearing is very
important for children learning speech. Children who are congenitally deaf also
become mute or dumb. They are unable to benefit from hearing their own
vocalization. It is the reinforcement children obtain from hearing their own
voices that reinforces and engender speech development.
The
Sense of Smell
Smell
describes the emission of a gaseous chemical, which irritates or is obnoxious,
from a substance. The obnoxious chemical stimulates the olfactory nerves. The
nerves send impulses to the olfactory centre of the brain. The brain interprets
the tickling of this chemical as smell. So you are able to detect smell of
different kinds.
The
Sense of Touch
Touch
is a very important sense which people use to explore the world. It is through
touch that people learn about the texture of different substances. Touch also
informs the individual about changes in pressure and temperature. The main
organ of touch is the skin.
Nerve
endings on the skin surface are sensitive to changes in pressure and
temperature. The nerve endings transmit message about pressure and temperature
changes to the brain. The brain interprets the message as touch, pain, cold or
hot. So you are able to experience.
The
Sense of Taste
The
sense of taste is innate. However, there is some evidence (Crook, 1987), that
some aspects of taste may have been learned pre-natally. For example, most
people savour the sweet taste. The uterine fluid is sweet, so people may have
learned to prefer sweet because of their uterine experience.
The
main organ of taste is the tongue. Taste buds are contained in the tongue. The
taste buds contain nerve endings that are sensitive to the primary aspects of
taste, namely: salt, sour, sweet, and bitter. These primary tastes describe the
variations in alkalinity of different substances in solution.
Nerve
endings in the taste buds transmit message about the alkalinity of the substance
in contact with the tongue to the brain. The brain interprets the message as
salty, sour, sweet, or bitter. So you are able to detect the taste of different
substances.
Perception
describes brain interpretation of sensory experiences. It is the brain’s way of
organising and making sense of the world.
Perception
includes, therefore, all the ways an individual has of getting to know their
environment.
Without
the ability to perceive changes in the environment, human behaviour would be
stupid. Imagine plunging your hand into a pot of 25 boiling water, and not
being able to detect temperature change. Imagine yourself being hit by a moving
lorry, and you are unable to detect pain.
Perhaps you are
crossing a busy road, and you are unable to detect an oncoming vehicle. If your
senses for perception did not inform you about these changes in your
environment, you would be a dead person.
Indeed, without
perceptual abilities, your environment would definitely overwhelm you.
Motivation
Motivation describes
the internal processes that energise, direct and sustain behaviour. Motivated
behaviour has some characteristics. The person involved exhibits a high level of
ego-involvement. That is, the behaviour is energised. The person involved shows
a significant level of perseverance. In other words, the behaviour is sustained
for a reasonable length of time. The individual who is engaged in motivated behaviour
does not relent until the goal is attained. Motivated behavior is purposive or
goal-directed (Santrunte, 2004).
Motivation
is that condition in you that makes you to keep going, even under extreme
frustrations. It is that thing that makes you keep trying when you fail.
Motivation keeps your spirit high even when the task is obviously difficult and
hurting.
Children’s
behaviour in the classroom explains why they are behaving in a particular way.
It indicates the extent to which their behaviour is energised, directed and
sustained. If children do not complete an assignment because they are bored,
lack of motivation is involved. If children encounter challenges in performing
a task, but persist and achieve results, motivation is involved.
What
is it that motivates children? This question has been answered differently by
different schools of psychologists. We consider briefly three of these schools.
1.
The Behavioural Perspective
Behavioural
psychologists state that external rewards and punishment determine children’s
motivation. According to this school of thought, children’s behaviour is
motivated by incentives. Incentives add interest, excitement and direct
children’s attention to appropriate behavior (Emmer, Evertson, Clements, and
Wersham, 2000). This means that motivation is controlled by extrinsic factors –
factors outside the individual.
We
may cite examples of the kinds of incentives that teachers frequently use. They
include the following:
· Scores
and Grades – Teachers place a numerical score or a letter grade on a
child’s work. This provides a feedback to the child about the quality of
his/her work.
· Recognition
– Teachers display quality work, produced by a child in a corner of the
classroom. Classmates and visitors admire such work. Teachers give certificate
of achievement to a child who excelled. Teachers also place an exceptional
child on the honours roll. All these are tokens of recognition.
· Privileges
– Teachers give outstanding children special privileges such as extra time
during recess, exemption from sweeping the classroom or doing manual labour,
extra time in the computer room, a field trip to a resource centre, or even a
party ticket.
2.
The Humanistic Perspective
The
humanistic perspective holds that children have capacity for personal growth.
Psychologists in this school of thought stress that personal growth is
engendered when personal needs are satisfied.
Abraham
Maslow is the chief proponent of this school of thought. According to Maslow
(1954, 1971), the needs of children can be arranged in levels of energy, or
what he called hierarchy of needs. The
hierarchy
of needs is arranged in a sequence of the most basic need to the highest order
needs.
According
to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, children’s needs must be satisfied in the
following sequence:
(i) Physiological
Need – This includes the need for food, water, sleep or rest,
shelter.
(ii) Safety Need – This
includes the need for protection from physical or psychological harm, such as
protection from ritual killers, kidnappers, child trafficking, child abuse,
armed robbers, domestic violence, and road hazards.
(iii) Love and
Belongingness Need – This includes the need for affection,
contact comfort, company, affiliation and attention.
(iv) Esteem Need – This
includes the need for recognition, feeling good about oneself, feeling liked
and likeable.
(v) Self
Actualisation Need – This includes the need for achievement,
accomplishment, excellence, competence, and actualization of one’s potential.
In
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, the first four needs [(i) – (iv)] listed here are
basic needs. They are referred to as safety needs. The last listed, self-actualisation,
is a higher order or growth need. Children
must
satisfy their basic or safety needs before the higher need or growth needs
appear.
Most
school work have centre on academic achievement. Academic achievement is a
higher need – need for self-actualisation. When safety needs are deprived, they
hamper growth or higher needs or selfactualisation need.
The
hierarchy of needs has implication for children’s education. A hungry child or
a worn out child will not concentrate on the mathematics lesson. The child will
be preoccupied with how to satisfy the hunger or rest need.
A
child who is under constant threat at home, in school, or in the community
cannot effectively benefit from school work. A child who is rejected by parents
or peers, who is shown little affection will do badly in their school work. A
fearful child will show very little creativity in an assigned task. Such
children play it safe. Children who are preoccupied by safety needs show little
progress in school work. Teachers must ensure that basic needs of children are
reasonably satisfied to pave the way for growth needs.
3.
The Cognitive Perspective
According
to the cognitive perspective on motivation, children’s thoughts, goals and
purposes determine their motivation. To the psychologists in this perspective,
human behaviour is purposive. This means that the goal or the target you have
set for yourself determines the level of motivation that will propel you to
attain the given target. The implication is that children have internal
motivation to achieve.
Their
behaviour is not controlled by external pressures or external incentives.
Therefore, children should be given adequate opportunities and responsibilities
to control their own achievement outcomes. The main duty of the teacher is to
help children select important, realistic, and achievable goals. The teacher
should encourage children to plan out their work with specific time schedule.
The teacher is to help monitor progress toward goal attainment.
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