1 Introduction to child development – meaning of growth and development, methods of studying child development

1. INTRODUCTION

Have you any time tried to reflect your early experiences that had helped you of what and who you are today? It is for sure that everyone would have gone through these kinds of nostalgic flashbacks, during which some common questions strike all of our minds. As you all start to understand the paper on child development, it is important to realise those common questions. Few of them are as follows

• What are the characteristics that are common and that are unique among all human beings and what determines it?
• Is the concept of the world is same among children and adults? If it is not, why?
• Certain characteristics that I had during my childhood still exist and other do not. Why?
• How does the environment influence my development over my gene?

These questions could be answered by the field of child development, a part of a larger discipline called as human development. Human development is a branch of study that focuses on the understanding of the age related developmental changes and developmental constancy throughout the life span.

Child development, a part of human development, focuses on the developmental change and constancy of human beings from conception through adolescence.

2. OBJECTIVES

At the end of this module you will be able to

• Describe the meaning, goals, domains and the interdisciplinary nature of child development
• Familiarize the meaning and relationship between the concept of growth and development
• Identify the principles guiding growth and development
• Describe the various methods involved in studying the developmental changes of children

3. THE FIELD OF CHILD DEVELOPMENT

The study of child development identifies five major goals for an indepth focus. Theyare

1. To analyse the common as well unique age related development changes. The changes may be physical, behavioural, interests and goals related.
2. To identify the time of change.
3. To find out what causes these changes
4. To realise how these changes influences their behaviour in turn
5. To analyse whether the changes can or cannot be predicted and whether the changes or universal or individual.

 3.1 Scientific, Applied and Interdisciplinary Nature of Child Development

The questions posed to you while introducing this module are not only of scientific interest. It also talks about the practical or applied implications of life. The field of child development is an interdisciplinary approach with inputs from the fields of Psychology, Anthropology, Sociology, Biology, Education, Home Science, Medicine and Social Service. Hence the study of Child Development is rightly marked as the melting pot of contribution from the above mentioned fields. The following illustration vividly explains the various areas of research being carried out in the field of Child Development..

3.2 Domains of Child Development

In order to address the five major goals of the field of child development and to make the vast interdisciplinary field into smaller bytes for convenience and comprehensive understanding, the field of child development is categorized into three major domains namely Physical, Psycho-social, and Cognitive domains. The major domains and its related sub domains are illustrated below.

3.3 Periods of Child Development

Though the development is categorized into three major domains for grouping the developmental changes in an orderly and convenient manner, discussing the developmental changes was found to be still not manageable. Hence the study of child development was segmented into the following five periods based on the time period of life span that characterizes certain new capacities and expectations. The illustration below portrays the periods of child development with the time period and their unique capacities and functions.

Check your progress

Fill in the blanks

• Memory and language improvement fits in …………… domain of development
• Interpersonal relationships comes under …………….. domain of development
• The changes in size and structure of the body comes under ……………. domain of development.
• ………………. is marked by rapid physical and psychological changes.

4. GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT

  The two terms growth and development in general sounds as synonymous terms, but in the field of education the terms are totally different. But it has to be realized that the two terms are related to one another. Let us have a look into the definition of these terms

4.1 Growth

Growth is defined as the progressive increase in size of the body or body parts of a child. It is the process by which the body reaches its point of complete physical growth – growth from the fertilized egg at time of conception to the fully grown body of the adult.

4.2 Development

The term development refers to the progressive series of orderly and coherent acquisition of various abilities. It is the gradual process of change and differentiation from a simple to a more advanced level of complexity. Thereby development leads to maturity.

The term progressive signifies that the changes are directional that lead forward rather than backward. The term orderly and coherent suggest that there is a clear relationship between the changes taking place and that precede or follow

These definitions clearly indicate that the concept of growth and development is separate, but they are simultaneous and interdependent processes. For example stunning of growth may often result in deficits in development and vice-versa.

4.3 Difference between growth and development

The definitions on growth and development seem to be complex to understand. But the following points on difference between the two terms would give you a clarity of understanding

                                 DIFFERENCE BETWEEN GROWTH AND DEVELOPEMENT

Check your progress

State whether the following statements are true or false

1. Growth is different from development
2. Development cannot be measured
3. Growth involves qualitative change

4.4 Factors affecting growth and development

The growth and development of a child depends on two major factors namely genetic and environmental influences. The potential and limitations of a child’s growth and development though determined by genetic factors, the environment aids in the achievement of the so called genetic potential. Hence it should be realized that the genetic factors though beyond alterations, the environmental factors could be minimized or maximised in tune with the genetic potential.

Some of the favourable environmental factors are adequate nutrition, emotional support by means of adequate love, security, recognition, independence and overall acceptance of an individual, adequate play and effective language training.

Needless to mention, few of the unfavourable environmental factors are malnutrition, infections, hormonal imbalances, disability, lack of love, care, affection, improper play behaviour etc.

4.5 Measuring growth and development

The following subsection just lists the ways of measuring growth and development

4.5.1.Measuring growth

As growth is a quantitative measure, it is measured by means of

• Height
• Weight
• Head circumference
• Mid-upper arm circumference
• Teeth eruption

4.5.2 Measuring Development

Development is measured only by two ways as it is a qualitative measure. They are

• Developmental milestones – They are the skills that a child should acquire within a period of are called developmental milestones
• Developmental Tasks – this word is coined by Havighurst, who defines that certain tasks should be accomplished by every individual within a span of time in their life and the success in accomplishing those tasks would lead to success and happiness, whereas failure leads to difficulty in accomplishing further tasks and ultimately unhappiness.

5. PRINCIPLES GUIDING GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT

  In order to understand how growth and development occurs n a child and to know the dimension of it, it is important to be on familiar terms with the principles guiding the same. The 10 principles that underlie the process of growth and development is explained below.

5.1 The process of development is both continuous and discontinuous

The process of development starts at the time of conception and proceeds either at a slower or at a rapid rate till the organism matures. Development is a non-stop process. Certain acquisition of features or skills could be seen as a sudden process and certain others develops gradually. For example, the appearance of first tooth occurs rapidly and overtly visible whereas the speech of a child starts with the birth cry and gradually develops into cooing, babbling, one word and then two word utterance and later complete sentences. This principle also emphasises that the development at a certain stage serves as a facilitator for development in the other stage.

5.2 Developmental changes are predictable as it follows certain sequence and specific

pattern

In general the development proceeds in two directions as explained below

1. ‘Head to toe’ – The development proceeding from head to toe is called cephalocaudal pattern of growth, wherein the development starts form the upper portions of the body and proceed towards the lower ends. For example the structure and function of head is complete before the trunk region and the last one to develop is the leg area. This is the reason why a child learns to sit before he/she walks
2. ‘Near to far’ – The development proceeding from centre of the body towards the extremities on both sides is called proximodistal pattern of growth, wherein the trunk region is fairly well developed and proceeds towards the arm and then hands and fingers. For example, babies can use their arms before their hands

An orderly, systematic and progressive pattern of development occurs at every stage. The developmental change progresses from simple to complex levels of functioning and at the same time proceeds from general to specific areas. For example all children first learn to sit before starting to crawl or stand and could draw a circle before a square

5. 3 Development proceeds from general to specific responses

While closely observing a child’s activity, one could realize that general activity precedes specific activity. In other words, during the early days the response of a baby is general in nature and slowly gets replaced with specific response. This pattern could be observed both in all domains of development

For example, the emotion of a newborn is observed to be only a diffused form of excitement that gets differentiated into various specific emotional expressions day by day.

It is this principle that explains the fact that every child’s uncoordinated and random movements or responses get replaced by well coordinated and specific movement or response.

5.4 Development involves change

As the definition of development states that it is a process of progressive series of orderly coherent changes, development is not a static process, it involves progressive series of change from the time of conception to the entire life span. Growth refers to quantitative and indicative changes, whereas development involves qualitative and non-indicative changes. In total these changes happen in body size, proportion, disappearance of old features and acquisition of new features.

5.5 Development is a product of interaction of the heredity and environment

Development occurs as an interactive effect of both the genetic and the environmental factors. The question of which factor influences the most is still unanswered and researches had proved that both the factors influences the process of growth and development equally and work hand in hand.

5.6 Development involves considerable individual differences

Every child is said to be unique in the rate of developmental changes, though the pattern of development is the same for all children. The individual differences are owed to the unique combination of environmental and genetic factors of that particular child. Hence it is not ideal to expect any two children of same age to develop or behave in a similar way. For example though the developmental milestones states that on an average, children could speak three word sentences by 3 years of age, some children could master it even before while some other with great difficulty could accomplish this milestone only during the 4th birthday.

5.7 Development occurs as an interactive product of maturation and learning

Maturation is defined as the ability to unfold skills that are potentially present in the individual and that come from the individual’s genetic endowment. Maturation is seen in both phylogenetic and ontogenetic functions.

Phylogenetic functions – They are skills common to race. For example crawling, sitting walking etc.

Ontogenetic functions – They are skills that are specific to individual. For example swimming, riding bicycle, writing etc.

Havighurst has referred to this maturational readiness as the ‘teachable moment’, as the child cannot learn until they are developmentally ready.

Learning is development that comes from exercise and effort but competence may be acquired by hereditary resources. Learning takes place due to imitation, training or experiences and later gets manifested itself in behaviour. Hence it should be understood that maturation is only a raw potential which has to be fed with the learning experience to develop to its fullest form

For example, every child has got an inert potential to write which gets unfolded at a point of time, but identifying his readiness for the skill and providing learning opportunities is very important to develop the skill of writing in him

5.8 Early development is more critical than later development

The famous saying ‘the childhood shows the man, as morning shows the day’ explains this principle of development. Any maladjustment in a person could be traced to unfavourable child experiences. Appropriate childhood family structure, enhanced environmental stimulation, well balanced emotional state, ideal child rearing practices are some of the conditions that affect early development positively and thereby better adulthood.

5.9. Developmental changes are multi-dimensional

In other words, the process of development is said to be interrelated within the three major domains namely physical, emotional and social and cognitive. All domains may develop at a same pace or at different rates but influence each other. For example the physical development is found to be rapid at one stage of life than in the other, wherein the other domain’s pattern of changes is just the opposite but do influence the overall development.

5.10 Development is highly plastic or flexible

Development is said to be flexible because of the verity that a particular child who underwent a slow pace of development in a particular area might show tremendous improvement in that area when provided the right exposure and enriched environment.

6. METHODS OF STUDYING CHILDREN

To answer the question of how do children change in due course of time in a scientific manner, the researchers in the field of child development starts with a research question or hypothesis as any other research. Hypothesis is a research statement or question that would be tested by reflecting on what the researcher wants to find out. Consider the following example in understanding this part of the module.

“How do sibling relationships change among children in their 6th, 12th and 18th years”?

The first step in doing this research will be to determine the type of study that tells us the most about the changes that happen in their sibling relationships. While trying to identify the methods, a researcher comes out with two possible approaches as specified below

1. Do I want to observe the changes over an extended period within a single population of children in their 6th year and then in their 12th year and later in their 18th year?
2. Do I want to compare the sibling relationship among different population of children in their 6th, 12th and 18th year at the same point of time?

The first approach is referred to as the Longitudinal method of studying children, and the second one is called the Cross – sectional method.

Hence the two approaches are defined as follows

Longitudinal study – It refers to a research design, wherein one single population is studied over and over again at different ages or periods of their life span.

Cross-sectional study – It refers to a research design, wherein various group of subject at different ages or periods of their lifespan are studied at the same point of time No let us know about the benefits and the purpose of each of these approaches.

6.1 Longitudinal Design

It is an observational study, where the researchers are in continuous process of observing the same subject over a relatively longer duration. To return to the example specified above, the study would observe the needed subject/subjects in their 6th year, and then again when they attain their 12 year and consequently during their 18th year. So the study would take 12 years to get completed. Though it is a time consuming approach, there are certain benefits as given below

• The possibility of detecting development or its related changes at the individual level over the span of research
•  As the subject is studied repeatedly at different age, the sequence of events could be easily traced
• This approach is more likely to suggest cause and effect relationships, as it accountsfor the development of sibling relationship from 6th year to 18th year and changes that occur over time.
• These type of studies could be conducted with only a small group of subjects, so generalization to larger population becomes difficult
• The subject’s drop out rate is high and hence the data prediction becomes complex
•  By continuously studying a particular subject for a long time might influence the subject to react wisely to the testing situations and results in contamination of results.
• Cohort effect is another major pitfall. Cohort effect occurs due to the cultural and historical changes on the consistency of findings. That is, while studying a group of children born at a particular period may not have the pattern of development when compared with children born in another period.

6.2 Cross- sectional Design

In order to alleviate the pitfalls of longitudinal desgn, researches developed the cross– sectional design. As longitudinal approach, the cross-sectional design of studyng children is also carried out by observing the subject. To make it more simple, the researcher records the information without manipulating the environment. The major success of this type of study is because of its scope of comparing different population groups at a single point of time. Hence the time spanned for this type of study is relatively short. Moreover the factors that influence changes over time (both historical and sociological) gets minimized.

However the cause and effect relationship could not be traced by this approach, because the subjects sharing the same cultural and historical experiences but at different periods of lifespan would have caused the changes inspite of their age induced changes. Also this type of study that covers a wide range of age span, also faces the potential difficulty of cohort effect as in the longitudinal approach.

6.3 Longitudinal Sequential Design

In order to overcome the potential difficulties of both the designs explained above, child development researchers tried to improve the developmental designs and arrived at a  new design called Longitudinal Sequential design. This design is a combination of both longitudinal and cross- sectional approach.

Longitudinal Sequential design is a research design, wherein a group of subjects born at different times are followed over a short span of time. Hence the disadvantage of longer duration of longitudinal study could be conquered and moreover the cohort effect of both the designs is also minimized as careful comparative analysis of historical and cultural changes could be observed.

Turning to the same example of sibling relationships provided, the answer to both the questions could be answered by one design called longitudinal sequential design.

DATA COLLECTION

After looking into the benefits and pitfalls of the research designs in child development and after identifying a particular relevant approach to conduct the study, what is next?

The next step is to identify how to gather data or information from the subjects of interest. Some major methods of data collection are through

• Observation
• Case studies
• Questionnaires
• Experimentation

7.1 Observation

As the term indicates, the information is gathered by mere observation of the subject. This method is again divided into two namely naturalistic and structured observation.

Naturalistic observation refers to observation of subjects in real world setting. In other words observation happens in natural setting.

Structure observation is the method, wherein the researcher observed the subject in a laboratory setting by controlling the environmental factors.

7.2 Case studies

It is a method of collecting data, wherein a particular subject of interest is studied comprehensively to obtain a great deal of information. Case studies are often in clinical researches as their approach cannot be generalised to larger population.

7.3 Questionnaires

Questionnaires are often considered to be an easy quick way to get more information. However the individuality of responses is minimized. Also structured interview could be posed for subjects who cannot fill up the questionnaires by themselves.

7.4 Experimentation

It is referred to as the scientific method as it involves the manipulation and measurement of various variables.

8. ETHICAL ISSUES IN RESEARCHES INVOLVING CHILDREN

Researchers first and foremost responsibility is to foresee the potential risks that the children would encounter as an effect of he study conducted on them. Then follows the efforts to minimize those risks. The major responsibility is to make sure that the benefits of research outweigh the potential hazards.

9. SUMMARY

Towards the end of this module, each one of you would have learnt the concept of growth and development, its domains, the periods of life span, and the principle guiding the same. By learning these principles, it could be easily realized thet the development is a systematic, orderly, progressive, multi-dimensional, multi-dimensional, plastic and contextual. Also the explanation on the methods of studying children would have given a deeper insight of how to analyse the development of children under various domains and thereby analyse the pros and cons by finally selected an appropriate method of study and suitable method of data collection.

Web links

• http://psychology.about.com/od/early-child-development/a/introduction-to-child-development.htm
• http://nimhindia.gov.in/HINDHI/CHILD%20DEVELOPMENT%20AN%20INTRODUCTION.pdf
• https://www.azdes.gov/uploadedFiles/Employment_and_Rehabilitation_Services/Child_Care/CCPT_ Complete_Participant_English_377_pages.pdf