CHCFC301A: Support the development of children
Support the physical development of children
Contents
Physical development 3
The physical domain 3
How to support the physical development of the infant 3
Physical development of toddlers 8
Physical development during the preschool years 15
Physical development of school-aged children 17
Use daily routines as opportunities to acquire and practise skills 24
Changing sleep routines 25
Changing feeding routines 25
Provide access to equipment, games and toys that will develop fine and gross skills and fundamental movement skills 26
How to support the development of infants’ physical skills 26
How to support the development of toddlers’ physical skills 29
How to support physical growth in toddlerhood 33
How to support preschoolers’ physical growth 34
Handedness 38
How to support physical skills development in middle childhood 39
Provide adequate nutrition that allows for normal growth and development, and foods of increasing texture over time to stimulate speech and jaw development 42
Texture transition guide 42
Physical development
In the course of your study of child development you will come across the theories of a number of different researchers. Here we are going to examine the theories of an early maturational theorist. This theorist identified the role of nature or hereditary in children’s development. There is a long—running debate on whether our biological heritage (nature) is more important than the environment we are brought up in (nurture). In this context environment is seen to be everything external that contributes to our development. This would include things such as caregiving strategies, parenting styles and other influences, which we will discuss later in the topic. Nature is considered to be our biological inheritance. The genes in our bodies determine what colour eyes we have, for instance, and also at what age you will start walking.
Arnold Gesell (1880–1961) was an early American child development theorist who gathered normative data on a range of children and made this information accessible to the general public. Gesell firmly believed that each child’s development unfolded according to a genetic timetable. He developed a timetable of developmental events which we still use today.
The physical domain
Infancy is a period of rapid physical growth. An infant’s birth weight is usually doubled by six months and may be tripled by 12 months. Growth in length (called height once the child is standing independently) is equally rapid.
Many physical changes occur during the first 18 months. Muscles, bones and nerve tissues mature to prepare the infant for walking. By 18 months, most infants have 16 of their 20 baby teeth. The digestive system matures so that not just milk but a wide variety of solid foods are acceptable.
How to support the physical development of the infant
Infants need food, sleep and exercise, as well as fresh air and sunlight. They need warmth and clothing, protection from disease and injury and sensitive loving care. Infants also need to be kept clean and comfortable.
When infants are breast—fed, they receive all of their nutritional needs for the first few months but as they grow older they need to be introduced to solid foods. Initially these foods are pureed but as their first teeth emerge at around six months, they can be introduced to coarser-textured food. When babies are not breast-fed, they need to be bottle-fed with special milk formulas which contain essential nutrients. It is important that formulas are prepared according to the instructions on the pack and that correct hygiene practices are followed.
Gross motor development
During the first 18 months, infants learn to roll, sit, crawl, stand and walk. This requires them to develop strength, control, balance and coordination.
We use the term motor skills to refer to the individual’s ability to control their own body movements. ‘Gross motor skills’ refers to the individual’s use and control of their large muscles. Gross motor skills fall into two categories:
Locomotor skills: Skills that involve moving from one place to another. Crawling, walking and climbing are locomotor skills. These skills require strength, control and coordination.
Non—locomotor skills: Gross motor skills that do not involve moving from place to place. Swiping, reaching and bending are all non-locomotor skills and involve primarily the development of balance.
Crawling is a locomotor skill
Activity 1
Developing in a predictable sequence
Gross motor skills develop in a predictable sequence. The time at which these skills develop varies. For example, one child may walk at nine months while another may walk at 15 months. However, all children will walk before they run. The timing of these skills will relate to the child’s genetic timetable or maturation and their experience or learning.
The infant first gains control of the head by using neck muscles, and then the shoulders and the trunk of the body. When development reaches the thighs, calves and toes, creeping and crawling can be mastered. The head—to—toe direction of development is described as the cephalocaudal pattern of growth, meaning that development proceeds from the head downwards. Control of the shoulders and arms comes before hands, and then fingers; from the centre of the body outward is described as proximodistal pattern of growth.
The steps that lead to independent walking are described in Table 1. You will see when looking at the table that the developmental process to independent walking follows the cephalocaudal (head—to—tail) pattern of growth and development. The ages given for the achievement of each step are average ages. There is a wide variation in the age individual infants achieve each step. The age range for the achievement of each skill is also given.
Steps to independent walking
Steps to independent walking
Description of skill / Average age for skill achievement / Age range for achievementRaises chin from ground when lying on tummy / 4 weeks / 2 to 6weeks
Raises head and chest from ground when on tummy / 8 weeks / 6 weeks to 3months
Sits with support / 4 months / 3 to 5months
When held in a standing position, takes weight on feet / 6 months / 3½ months to7½ months
Sits alone / 7 months / 5 to 8 months
Crawls / 10 months / 6 to 14 months
Walks when both hands held by an adult or older child / 11 months / 7 to 14 months
Pulls self to standing position using furniture / 12 months / 7 to 15 months
Cruising around furniture(walking using furniture as support) / 12 months / 7 to 15 months
Climbs stairs in crawling position / 13 months / 10 to 15 months
Stands alone from sitting position / 14 months / 10 to 16 months
Walks alone / 15 months / 11 to 18 months
Influences on gross motor development
Variations in gross motor development are related to the influences of heredity, culture, nutrition, gender and experience. Heredity sets the child’s growth potential. This means that heredity determines such factors as how tall a child can grow and at what rate growth will occur. Heredity will also largely determine body shape.
Environmental conditions will determine if the child’s growth potential is reached. Environmental factors may have a negative influence or positive influence on an infant’s physical growth. Take a look at the following table:
Negative and positive environmental influences on the physical growth of an infant
Negative influences / Positive influencesLong—term or chronic illness / Freedom from chronic illness
Physical disability (eg cerebral palsy which affects muscle control) / No physical disabilities
Malnutrition (not enough food or not enough of the right types of food) / Good nutrition
Lack of opportunities to exercise / Opportunities for exercise
Lack of love and attention / Loving, responsive, sensitive care
The practices of different cultural and ethnic groups may influence when children develop particular skills. Caregiving practices too will cause variations in the sequence of development. For example, babies in Asian communities may be carried for much of the time and so walk later than Anglo-Australian babies who spend more time on the floor. Children of nomadic Aboriginal tribes were constantly carried and given little head support. Research has found that these babies as young as six months could sit unsupported on their mother’s shoulders over long walks. Anglo-Australian babies receive neck support and so are unlikely to be able to sit unsupported in this way at the same age.
Fine motor development
Fine motor development refers to the coordination of the smaller muscles of the hands or feet with the eyes. You may have heard of the term eye–hand coordination. When a baby grasps an object and puts it into the mouth, this involves fine motor skills and eye–hand coordination. Poking the pointer finger into objects is also a fine motor skill that develops later in this period.
The main fine motor task of the first 12 months is to develop control over picking up objects and voluntarily releasing them. The baby also develops coordination skills by 12 months, the infant is able to direct his or her grasping and releasing skills to specific objects they see and want in the environment.
When a baby grasps an object and puts it into the mouth, this involves fine motor skills and eye-hand coordination
Fine motor skills begin to emerge during the first year of life. When infants are born, their hands are often curled into tight balls. Over the first couple of weeks, the hands gradually uncurl. At first, the infant’s hand control is limited to reflexive behaviour known as the grasp reflex. As the grasp reflex starts to disappear, hands become more important in learning about the world. The whole-fist grasp is known as the palmar grasp, where the palm of the hand covers the object and the fingers then curl around it in a more intentional way. Slowly fingers gain more importance in grasping, until the infant can use the index finger and thumb together to pick up smaller objects with what we call the pincer grasp. This grasp emerges at about 12 months of age or a little later.
As babies are developing control over their fingers, they are also developing visual skills of focusing and visual tracking skills which are important in reaching and grasping desired objects. (Visual tracking skills involve following an object with the eyes as it moves around.)
As well as developing grasping skills, infants also learn to let objects go. In the first six months or so, objects fall from the infant’s grasp rather than the infant letting go of something intentionally. Voluntary release (letting something go and putting it down intentionally) develops at around 12 months.
An outline of an infant’s fine motor development
2–4 weeks: Grasp reflex is present but lessening; hand held in a loose fist. Infant can follow a moving object with eyes—visual tracking
4–8 weeks: Grasp reflex is less apparent. Hand is often open and relaxed
8 weeks to 3 months: Loose, full palmar grasp when contact is made with object; bats or swings at objects.
4–5 months: Controlled palmar grasp. Transfers objects from one hand to the other. Objects fall from grasp rather than released deliberately
6–9 months: Beginning to use pincer grasp Releases objects clumsily. Coordinates grasping with what is seen—reaches for and grasps specific objects intentionally. Will bang together two objects
9–12 months: Well-developed pincer grasp—able to pick up small objects. Releases objects with control and precision; voluntary release. Points and pokes with first finger. Likes throwing objects one by one. Can twist and turn simple wheels. Picks up objects and places them in a container and then takes them out again. Clumsily throws a large ball towards another person
15 months : Holds a crayon in whole hand and scribbles moving whole arm. Some infants begin to show a preference for one hand—but still use either hand. Makes a two-block tower. Threads rings over sticks. Places objects in a container through a hole.
18 months: Turns pages of a book, often several pages at a time. Uses cup and spoon with greater accuracy. Builds a three-block tower. Hammers pegs. Scribbles lines and dots. Removes shoes and socks. Unzips zippers.
Physical development of toddlers
What does the toddler look like?
Children aged 18 months to three years are known as toddlers. Toddlers get their name from the way they walk. Because their body shape is still out of proportion, they walk with their legs apart and have a stiff-legged gait and their arms are raised and outstretched from their bodies which helps them gain balance.
Toddler
Notice the typical toddler posture in these pictures? They show a bow-egged, flat-footed toddler with arms outstretched from the body and feet spread apart. Toddlers also are easily unbalanced and often fall onto their bottoms.
It takes very little to unbalance a toddler and they fall frequently. They trip on the edge of a mat, slip on the grass or topple over as they gather up speed and their bodies get out of control. Toddlers often fall backwards with a bump on their bottoms or fall forwards on to their hands. Falling doesn’t stop them—they are up and off again almost immediately. In the early stages of independent walking, toddlers have very limited control over starting, stopping and steering their bodies to avoid obstacles. Once toddlers have gotten up speed, they cannot stop quickly enough to avoid falling or steer accurately to go around an obstacle in their path.