2/28/2011

Chapter Five

The Child’s Growth:

Brain, Body, Motor Skills,
and Sexual Maturation

Brain Development in Infancy

• At birth:
– Brain weight is about 25% of adult brain; 75%
at 2 years of age
– Largest portion of brain is cerebrum, covered
by the cerebral cortex – the control for
complicated human traits and specific functions

• Neurons and synapses

– Most of brain’s neurons are present, the result
of neuron proliferation during gestation by
growth of glial cells

Brain Development in Infancy

• Neurons and synapses

– Most myelination of brain occurs in first
2 years of life
– Neural migration ensures all parts of
the brain are served by neurons
– Synaptogenesis: forming of synapses
causes neural death
– Synaptic pruning frees up space

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Brain Development in Infancy

• Sequential development of the brain
– Orderly sequence during infancy
– Voluntary movements begin replacing reflexes

• Hemispheric Specialization
– Hemispheres connected by corpus callosum
– Lateralization describes brain specialization
– Right hemisphere: visual-spatial information
including “sign language”
– Left hemisphere: emotions and speech

Brain Development in Infancy

• Hemispheric Specialization
– Theories of lateralization underlie explanations for
dyslexia in children; similar disorders have multiple
origins
– Handedness is genetic

• Brain Plasticity
– Experiences influence brain development
• Experience-expectant processes are universal
• Experience-dependent processes are unique

Brain Development in Infancy

• Experience and brain development

– The brain’s plasticity is remarkable
– An impoverished or enriched environment
greatly influences infant development
– Infants’ brains develop “auditory maps”
– Harmonies of music may help the brain
develop a wiring diagram that later
enhances math and chess-playing skills

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Motor Development
• Hand skills
– Infant ability to reach, grasp, and pick up
objects enables exploration and learning;
prereaching turns into directed reaching
– New experiences and maturation accelerate
child development
• Grab spoon, feed self by age 18 months
• Skillful in play by age 2, scribbles at age 3
– Infants show sensitivity to size and shape of
objects relative to their hand size

Motor Development
• Locomotion
– Development in three phases
• Stepping reflex lost at about 2 months
• Reappearance of stepping movements
• Walking alone without support
– Locomotion development may be more
advanced in middle of first year than
originally thought
– A child usually acquires more complex
motor skills by age 7

Motor Development

• Locomotion affects other aspects of

development
– Increased independence, more contact
with others
– Affects how infants react to the world
– Affects perceptual feedback, how infants
are likely to solve spatial problems
• Culture affects experiences
– Experiences can hasten or delay motor
milestones

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Physical Growth
• Physical growth has two growth principles
• Cephalocaudal development
• Proximal distal pattern
– Babies grow faster in first 6 months of life
– Growth is episodic, not continuous
• Affected by genetics and environment
– Genetics and gender have strong effect on
height and weight

Physical Growth

• Nutrition and physical growth

– Environmental factors like nutrition, climate,
physical and psychological disorders affect
growth
– Growth rate variations are attributed to
nationality, ethnicity, and SES differences
– Good nutrition is critical for proper growth;
breast-feeding clearly preferred for its special
properties and promoting closeness

Physical Growth

• Nutrition and physical growth

– Affected by world events like war and
peace; impacts on people’s growth
– Poor nutrition can affect onset of puberty
– Food supplements, safer methods of food
preparation and waste disposal lessens
food contamination that affects growth

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Physical Growth

• Nutrition and physical growth

– Supplemental feeding can improve both
motor and mental development in children
with iron-deficiency anemia
– Catch-up growth operates after birth to help
correct prenatal deficiencies in growth;
timing is critical here
– A secular trend shows humans growing
taller and heavier; results vary by social
class and culture over time

Physical Growth
• Nutrition and physical growth
– Marasmus and kwashiorkor are growth
retarding illnesses
– Historical trends toward greater height
and weight is due to improved
• Health and nutrition
• Socioeconomic conditions
• Genetic factors (i.e.: intermarriage)
• Environmental change
• Obesity is a problem in the US

Physical Growth
• Obesity
– Desires to be physically fit and thinner
leads to diet fads and near obsessions
– Obesity in the U.S. varies among racial and
ethnic groups – African Americans being
the heaviest and Asian Americans being
least likely to be overweight
– Lifestyle patterns begin early in life; affects
children’s eating behaviors
– Parental actions affect eating habits

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Physical Growth
• Treating Obesity
– Obese children and adults suffer from a
variety of physical and psychological
problems (i.e., hypertension, diabetes, and
discrimination)
– Involve family in plans or program
– Prevention programs in school
– Change lifestyles, more exercise and fitness
– Genetic predispositions pose difficulties

Physical Growth
• Eating disorders in adolescence
– Anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa are
• Eating disorders and life threatening
• Quite different from each other
• Most common in females
• More prevalent in industrialized nations
• Treatment approaches and results vary
– Anorexia
• Tendency toward obsessive-compulsiveness
– Bulimia
• Often poor image and self-esteem

Sexual Maturation
• Puberty
– Attainment of sexual maturity; menarche in
females (ovulation), spermarche in males
– A time of stress, intensity of new drives, and
social pressures for adolescents
– Marked by sudden body growth and changes
stimulated by the pituitary gland
• Adrenal cortex and gonads
– Hormones trigger physical body changes;
primary and secondary sex characteristics

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Sexual Maturation
• Hormones:
– Estrogens are crucial to maturation of the
female reproductive system
– Progesterone helps regulate the female
menstrual cycle and readies the uterus for
conception
– Testosterone is essential to maturation of the
male reproductive system and production of
sperm

Sexual Maturation
• Timing of Puberty
– Onset occurs earlier in industrialized
countries; timing can be
• Delayed by diet, intense/vigorous activity
• Affected by parent-child relationships
– Early maturing males engage in more risk
taking behaviors, externalizes problems
– Early maturing females – more negative
impact, long lasting and dramatic