Notes on the Growth and Development of Children

The human being is never static. From moment he is conceived to the time of his death, he undergoes constant changes. Growth is otherwise known as maturation. It is a natural phenomenon.

Development, by contrast, refers to those changes which are qualitative in nature. These changes lead towards the goal of maturity. In this process also we must know what happens to a child before he is born.

Consequently, the study of child development now encompasses that span of time which begins with conception and extends to the period of adulthood.

Maturation as a natural process and development as an effect of environmental conditions upon the child as he grows are the two factors basic to teaching-learning processes.

Knowledge of these processes is fundamental to the setting up educational objectives, to the planning of curriculum and to the devising of teaching techniques for all learners at their various stages of development. The bases upon which educational theory and practice are built include a pattern of physical, social, emotional and intellectual growth and development as well as the general psychological principles fundamental in these four areas.

Thus for teachers of today and tomorrow, knowledge of the growth and development of children is essential to understand their behavior.

Meaning of Growth

Growth usually indicates physical changes in height, weight and other limbs of the body. It means the increase and enlargement of the body or different parts of the body making it heavier and larger. To make it more clear, growth is change in the body which can be observed and measured in quantitative terms.

In short, the biological growth in height, weight, increasing of the muscle- size and the deepening of voice which are easily observable is called maturation or growth. Then alone, as a grown-up person, the child is called a man or woman.

Growth is a gradual and continuous process from the beginning of a new life onwards. So common is the phenomenon that teachers as well as parents may take the growth of a child for granted. A human child does not start standing, walking and climbing stairs all at once. He has to do it in quite a period of time.

Each individual has his own rate of growth and this he maintains throughout his or her life. Too often parents and teachers feel that one child does not learn as quickly as others of his age or class are doing. There are large differences among individuals in their rates of growth, development and learning and these differences continue throughout their lives.

Thus bright children continue to be bright and the slow children continue to be slow. So generally growth is not random, but orderly. All human children sit before they crawl, crawl before they walk and walk before they run. In the growth process, the person moves from the dependence of infancy to the maturity and responsibility of adult life.

Meaning of Development

All living creatures develop, many people use the terms “growth” and “development” interchangeably, one for the other. In reality, they are different. They are inseparable and neither can take place alone. Growth, as you know, refers to quantitative changes, increase in size and structure.

Not only, does the child become larger physically, but there is also increase in the size and structure of internal organs and of the brain. The child has a greater capacity for learning, for remembering and for reasoning. He grows physically as well as mentally. The sense organs are ready to function at the time of birth, but the sex organs do not reach maturity until adolescence. This aspect of growth in a particular period of time is known as development.

Development also means the whole sequence of life from conception to death. It is not merely what happens, but how it happens, the order of its unfolding. The more complex the creature, the more of development it has to go through to achieve its evolutionary potential.

For example, mammals develop more slowly than other animals. Again, human beings develop more slowly than other mammals. Human infants among all animals have the longest period of development before they are capable of adult behavior.