Development during child growth
Introduction
Children undergo various changes from the time they are born to reaching their maturity age. These changes help adapt the children to the surrounding environment and help boost their interactions with members of the society. These changes can be characterized into the following four categories which are; physical changes, cognitive development, emotional development, and social development. These developments don’t happen all at once, but they happen at different phases as the child grows. The presentation explains these changes as they happen within the life of a child.
Among the physical development which takes place during a child growth are; increase in body weight, body size, increase in length which keeps on changing as the child grows. Cognitive developments which take place as during the early stages of a child’s live include; portraying event remembering, decision-making abilities and also problem-solving skills. The social and emotional development aspect in the children growth and development are generally based on the way the child interacts with other members of society.
There are various changes which take place from the time the baby is born up to the time they reach maturity. These changes take place differently and at different paces, and all this depend on the environment into which the child is exposed. Some physical development aspects are hereditary and highly dependent on the genetic set up of the child. Alvarez was born within the recommended weight of 3600 grams which the doctors said was an indicator of the child’s health. The weight, however, has increased gradually over time but at a declining rate. The weight increased from 3600 grams from birth to about 8000g during the clinic checkup during the fourth month. The weight increase was averaged to be 275 grams per week for the four months. The high rate of weight increase was attributed to numerous growth processes taking place in the child’s body. Within the next few months energy increased at a reduced rate with a weight increase of 500 grams per month being recorded between 5-8 months and the same rate of weight increase was maintained for the period between 8 months to one year. The weight increase has continued to be part of the many physical changes throughout Jo’s live. During his young age Alvarez weight increase was highly notable, but as he grew older, the weight increase rate reduced drastically and thus making it hard to monitor growth with weight increase. Alvarez currently weighs 65 kilograms at the age of 18.
Another physical development aspect which showed growth was increased body height of my kid. Alvarez was born at a body length of 30 centimeters. The height increased from 30-45 centimeters within the first quarter of the year. Alvarez height by the first birthday had almost the birth height, his height then was 60 centimeters. All the family members are tall, and thus there were high expectations that Alverez won’t be exceptional since body height is hereditary. At his current age, Alvarez height is at 6.4 inches which have made him improve interest in playing basketball.
The body size is another notable physical change witnessed as Alvarez was growing. Various parts of Alverez’s body were very tiny when he was born. The head, for instance, was very small, when Alverez went for the first-month clinic checkup it was noted that the size of the head had increased with 2 centimeters thus increasing the heads circumference. The increase rate remained constant for the first two months; the rate then declined to 1 centimeter per month between 5-7 months. The doctors explained the steady increase in the head size to be an indicator of healthy brain development. Other parts of the body which increased in size were the hand and the legs which boosted the locomotion of the kid especially in the early stages of development. The development of the hands enabled the child to pick and hold things which helped develop the hands further. The legs on their part developed to be able to withstand the body weight and facilitate the movement from one place to another. Generally, Alvarez body size increased from its tiny state to a fully-grown body weighing at about 65 kilograms at his current age of 18 years. His weight can be attributed to his body height. The muscles sizes have also increased drastically from a tender age to the current age; this can be demonstrated with the weight Alverez can lift currently.
During the adolescent stage, a few other notable developments happened in Alverez body with the most notable change was chest broadening. At this stage, the chest size broadened more than when compared to early stages of development. The voice also broke which signified the transition from childhood to adulthood.
Cognitive behavior
Cognitive development is witnessed in the child’s capacity to reason and make decisions. Cognitive developments which take place as during the early stages of a child’s live include; portraying event remembering, decision-making abilities and also problem-solving skills. During the tender age, some of the indicators of cognitive developments include; demonstrating an understanding of functional relationship as per previous exposure. During the tender age of 1- 2 years the kid enjoys a game involving tracing of hidden objects, this shows the capacity of the brain to remember. The child also learns to name a few regular items used in the household. With the guidance of the parent or the guardian can easily learn most of the basic items. At this point, Alvarez could change the items from one hand to the other especially when added over a new item which showed an aspect of brain development. Before this stage, Alverez was fond of putting almost everything handed over to him to the mouth. However, as this stage set in it was noted that he rarely put the things to the mouth. During this stage Jo could enjoy so much watching pictures from the book and these books could be used to draw his attention when the guardian was busy with another task.
At this stage, Jo could also his toys to other people to play with or look at, has seen in the earlier demonstration of people sharing. Jo also developed basic speech skills at this point where he could use a single word or phrase to summarize an entire thought. At this point, Jo could also follow some simple instructions like hand over the cup to daddy which indicated the capacity to listen and comprehend. Jo learned to associate himself with close family members epically when asked about his well about. Alvarez was also able to ascertain meaning to some complex words used in day to day operations.
The development and understanding of basic live issues advanced as Jo grew old. At the age of 3 years, he could communicate with ease. The aspect of decision making however at this point was ill-developed, and thus the kid cannot make major decisions. As the age advances cognitive development continues to take form; this is as the child logical reasoning continues to develop. Between the age of 2-5 years, Alvarez understanding progressed from a simple to a complex. Jo could understand more about matters time, colors, letters, and even counting. Language development was also very rapid which facilitated communication. The imitation of the adult behavior was also high with Jo trying to imitate almost everything the people around him were doing. Jo also became a game addict where he engaged in various games from games using toys to also playing video games. Jo also learned to adjusts his pitches and speed of communication to match the listener’s capability. Previously it was hard to comprehend what Jo wanted to communicate due to the unadjusted vocal pitches. The adjustment promotes communication between the child and the people around. The child at this level develops egocentrism aspects; under this, the children understand that their point of view may be different from other people point of view in matters desires and also their feelings. The egocentrism is a progressive development during the children as it demonstrated in different stages of the child’s life. The preschoolers use magical reasoning and therefore can be easily be misled.
Cognitive development continues to advance when the child becomes of school going age; this is mainly the age of 7-11 years. At this age, Jo, for instance, had so much to think about and ascertain meaning more than when he was a preschooler. Mostly cognitive development at this level is highly influenced by the education the child receives from their teachers. Jo also developed the ability to classify according to characteristics and even undertake grouping of thing based on various aspects. Jo started identifying cause-effect relationship to explain why things appear. Jo ability to remember had also improved gradually; studies attribute this to the fact that at the school going age Jo was more exposed to the world as he was during the pre-schooling age. Due to this, therefore, Jo had more information to relate to when encoding the stored information. The children at the school going age start to analyses how the mind operates. Through this, they come up with approaches which will help them when memorizing.
The school going children tend to learn a lot from each other as they interact with other age mates as opposed to preschoolers. The egocentrism is also highly developed at this stage as the children continue to explore and understand more about other people around them.
Cognitive development continues to impact on the children life even during adolescent. During this stage, the children find ways of manipulating information for their own benefit. During their previous stage their thinking was unidirectional with the teachers and supervisors having a high influence on the child’s behavior. During this stage, the children are becoming resilient and secretive. The child at this stage thinks deductively and abstractly. The child objective is to ascertain meaning to the occurrence in the environment.
Another facet of cognitive development is moral development and judgment. During this age, the moral aspect of the child is shaped especially by the environment to which he/she is exposed. During this stage, the children experience a physical change which tends to change their behavior while isolating them from their parents. Scholars have identified various levels of morality aspect which shape the behavioral aspect of the child. These molarity aspects are; conventional morality, conventional morality, and post-conventional morality. From conventional molarity, the child develops good behavior with the objective of avoiding punishment brought about by wrong behavior. Conventional morality depends on helping others and the need to observe law and order. Postconventional is concerned with accepting the unpredictable nature of law and order. Jo was raised in a morally upright way and thus made to fear punishment. Alvarez morals were based on the way he was nurtured since childhood, and therefore up to date, he has remained morally upright.
Social and emotional development.
Interaction with people in society
Expression of feelings
This is the gradual and integrative process whereby children acquire the capacity to understand, experience, express, and control emotions and even to create purposeful attachments with others.
Social development in a child life starts at the tender age of child development. During the early stages of child development, the child socializes with the immediate family members. Before adapting to be social children tend towards liking to be socially independent. During the development phase children become less wary of the strangers; at this point, it becomes easy for the child to interact and create a relationship with the strangers. The child also starts sharing his/her stuff with other kids around him/her. The children who have been exposed to a hostile relationship from tender age may end up becoming anti-social, or they may fail to appreciate relationships when they become of age.
On matters of emotional development, the child becomes emotionally attached to the people around. Under this, the child shows signs of empathy and caring for others. The child also tends to express his/her disappointment through physical aggregation when angry. The emotional development enables the child to interact with other people in society
Parenting choice.
Company
Training
Family set up
Provision
Role model
Parenting helps shape the future of the child being brought up and has both a negative and positive impact on society as a whole. When the parent makes wrong parenting choices, for instance, his/her impact of wrong parenting will be felt by the entire society which will suffer from the ill behavior brought up.
On the other hand, when the parenting is done in the, rightly the society benefits from morally upright and responsible children. Parenting, therefore, can be seen as a way of giving back to society. Based on this, therefore, there were various decisions which I undertook not only for the sake of Jo but also for the sake of the society as a whole. Firstly, I sought to improve Jo social live, for this to be possible it was necessary to ensure that he was brought up in the family setup. The family set up was necessary to help the kid grow around his relatives and improve his social as well as emotional development. The family setup helps the kid to learn about basic value and virtues which he/she should employ in live. Teaching about right and wrong happens in the family, and thus the kids brought up within the family set up will tend to learn and adopt family values. Human beings are a social being, and the family gives the kid a sense of belonging. Through the family, the kid enjoys social representation as a member of the family which would not be possible especially for street children. Through the family, the child receives the resources that they require for various purposes. When a child has the basic necessity as provided for by the family, he/she will tend to respect and follow the values adopted by the family. Children who lack the basic needs such as food end up engaging in immoral practices such as crime to get the necessities. The approach to ensure Jo was brought within the family setup was aimed in ensuring that the best virtue and values were instilled.
Secondly, there was the choice of Jo’s training; this was aimed at improving his cognitive development. Through training, brain development was enhanced enabling his brain to develop at a tender age. The training was aimed to expose Jo to different aspects of life and enable him to understand matters of life with a lot of ease. The training also was directed towards eliminating any immoral behavior which may have been instilled in him during interactions with various facets of life. Alvarez had a passion for basketball, to boost his talent; therefore I enrolled him with a local club to offer him basic training. Through the practice Jo has arisen to become one of the best players for the club, this will set him at a better place in the future when he seeks to pursue his future career in the game. Through his high school training, Jo developed a passion for mechanical engineering and worked hard to acquire the college entry requirement. He is currently undertaking his college training to become a mechanical engineer. After his college training, he will be able to undertake the career of his dream a thus I will be a happy parent knowing that my efforts have paid off.
Thirdly I decided to be the role model for Jo. Jo required a role model whom he could emulate. It was hard to find a role model who I could trust for my son, to ensure that I wouldn’t end up getting disappointed by the person I choose I opted to choose myself as his role model. I decided to ensure that I would offer my expertise and training to mentor Jo as he grows. Mentorship has become a challenge in the current world, due to this there is a need to offer the mentorship skills to equip the future generations on ways through which they will live responsible lives. The approach to become a role model was guided by the authoritative parenting style. There are high expectations which I have for the child and which can be only achieved if as a parent am responsible enough.
There is also the choice of being the provider for all my child’s needs. Jo has many basic needs which require to be met to ensure that an enabling environment is created for him to fulfill his plans. Lack of these basic items on his part will lead him to engage in other practices thus diverting his attention from achieving live goals. Providing for his needs will ensure that he focuses on achieving the set plans and there will be reduced stress as he seeks to provide for himself or the family.
Another approach I have undertaken is ensuring that Jo doesn’t get entangled in the wrong companies. Peer pressure leads many youths to engage in immoral acts since their peers are engaging. Due to this, monitoring the company which Jo get entangled with has been a norm to ensure that the company doesn’t hurt him.
Potential interventions to resolve behavioral issues
Enrolling to guidance and counseling sessions.
Improve behavior monitoring.
Inducing punishment
Various approaches can be undertaken to tackle deviation from the intended behavior. The main approaches which have proofed effective in the past include; enrolling the child to guidance and counseling sessions, punishment for ill behavior and improved monitoring of the behavior. Through the counseling sessions, the psychologist will become aware of the driver of the behavior change thus coming up with a possible solution. Through the counseling sessions, the individuals will be guided on the behavior or the company which he/she should keep away from to avoid father moral deterioration. Another approach is to increase monitoring of the behavior to ensure that any deviation is noted and controlled. Negligence on the part of the parent is a major determinant of the children behavior, this is because the children are left on their own to decide without the necessary guidance. The children tend to make the decisions based on the experience they have which in most cases is limited and might be ill-advised by their peers. Improving the monitoring there will ensure any deviation from the intended behavior pattern is identified and rectified. Punishment has also been an approach through which behavior rectification can be undertaken. Jo has advanced in age to become an adult. However, he is still my responsibility and thus is required to offer him guidance during his early adult life. Failure to follow my advice should attract punishment to remind him his position in the family.