Health and Social Care GCSE Unit A912
Part 1: The Stages and Pattern of Human Growth and Development
Infancy 0-3
Childhood 4-10
Adolescence 11-18You must know these stages and ages
Adulthood 19-65
Later Adulthood 65+
We all develop at approximately the same rate and do things at around the same time. These are called “norms” of development.
During all life stages, specific characteristics occur. These are intellectual, emotional, social and physical characteristics (PIES).
Growth and Development:
- Growth means the increase in size and mass.
- Development means the development of skills, intellectual ability and emotional responses.
- Centile charts show the normal range of weight or height for girls and boys. Each centile represents the % of children who weigh less or are shorter than centile e.g. a child whose height is on the 50th centile is the same height as 50% all children. A child on the 95th centile is taller than average; 95% of children are shorter. These are plotted by the Health Visitor and children generally stay on or around the same curve (centile).
- Physical development: growth or changes in the body e.g. physical skills, puberty, ageing e.g. loss of muscle mass.
- Emotional development: feelings and how we behave when we have them e.g. anger, disgust, guilt, happiness, pride. As we mature, we get better at understanding other people's emotions and how we can influence them. We develop a self-concept and self-esteem.
- Social: forming relationships, making friends, developing social skills to get on with other people, learning rules or norms for social situations.
- Intellectual:recognising and remembering things, logic and problem solving, thinking about issues and learning about concepts.
Infancy:
At birth, children have reflexes (sucking, rooting, grasping, stepping, startle / moro). These are automatic: not under voluntary control.
Development and growth are influenced by genetics, illness and environmental influences e.g. stimulation, social experiences etc.
Children achieve different milestones at around the same age.
Other physical development is toilet training and appearance of teeth.
Gross motor skills: large body movements e.g. lifting head, throwing a ball, running.
Fine motor skills: fingers e.g. grasping objects, threading a needle
Physical- birth: reflexes
- 3 months: can sit with head held steady for a few seconds.
- 6 months: more strength and muscle control, pull themselves up when hands are grasped (gross motor) and able to grip an object (fine motor).
- 12 months: crawl rapidly, get from sitting to lying position & vice versa, walk by holding furniture (gross) show preference for using one hand (fine motor).
- 18 months: run, walk upstairs and crawl downstairs.
- 3 years: climb on play equipment, ride a tricycle (gross) hold small crayons properly (fine).
- birth: egocentric; don't recognise that they are separate from anyone else. Learn by smell, taste and touch.
- 3 months: make noises when spoken to.
- 9 months: practice sounds and repeat them e.g. mumumum, understand a couple of words like no” and “bye”.
- 12 months: know their name and understand several words.
- 18 months: try to join in with nursery rhymes, put a few words together.
- 2 years: Use around 50 words and understand many more.
- 2½ years: ask lots of questions.
- 3 years: hold simple conversations with adults.
Emotional:
- birth: enjoy cuddles, gazes into carer's eyes, moves whole body to express enjoyment.
- 3 months: enjoys being talked to, recognises familiar people and smiles.
- 6 months: afraid of strangers, cries and laughs when others do.
- 9 months: likes comfort objects, dislikes going to bed, likes being noisy.
- 1 year: very affectionate towards family, enjoys playing games, shy with strangers.
- 2 years: able to express feelings, may show jealousy to new sibling, tantrums, can't control feelings, likes to try new activities, can be confident, clingy, independent and dependent.
- 3 years: interested in others, can share, enjoys pleasing adults, shows concern for others.
- 3 months:bonds with carers e.g. parents and siblings. Recognisescarers and other familiar people, makes social sounds.
- 6 months: shy with strangers. Enjoys play.
- Up until 2 years engage in solitary play
- 2 years:parallel play(alongside but not with other children).
- 2½ years: associative or onlooker play.
- 3 years:co-operative play – roles and rules. Develops a self-concept and self-esteem. Have friends. Need lots of praise and to be spoken to.
Childhood
Physical- Growth is slower than in infancy.
- Fine skills are developing.
- Sense of balance and co-ordination is improved.
- Second or permanent teeth grow through.
- Muscle tissue increase.
- Grows stronger and taller.
- Run, hop and skip between 4 and 6 years.
- Ride a bike and write their name at 5.
- Facial features become distinct.
- Understand concepts such as colours, time, large and small, numbers.
- Learns new vocabulary and rules of grammar.
- Learns to read and write.
- No longer egocentric; understand that others have a different point of view.
- Sensorimotor stage 0-2: learn by senses e.g. touch, hearing, taste and feel
- Pre-operational stage 2-7 years: They need to see things in order to learn, toys may have feelings
- Concrete operational stage: learning aboutconcepts but need the things to learn e.g. counting.
Emotional:
- Experience a wider range of emotions.
- Learn that emotions should be expressed differently in different situations e.g. differently with a child than with a teacher.
- Learn about right and wrong – moral development.
- 3-4 years: affectionate to friends and family, need assurance from carers, has quarrels and temper tantrums.
- 4-6 years: has close friends, confident.
- 6-9 years: critical of their efforts, compares self with others, friends are important and can cause sadness.
- Affected by others e.g., bullying, being popular, having people listen to them.
- Learn to share and take turns and understand fairness.
- Need other children to play with.
- By 5 are starting school and understanding social rules and making friends, separate from carers without distress.
- Approval of others is important.
- By 7, prefer to play with children of the same sex, usually quite independent.
- By 8, may feel self-conscious and need encouragement to join activities.
- By 10, enjoy talking to others and able to build relationships with broad range of people.
Adolescence
Physical- Sexual maturation
- Puberty
- Growth spurt
Girls:
- Develop breasts.
- Hips become wider.
- Onset of menstruation.
- Growth of pubic hair.
- Penis and testes grow larger.
- Larynx grows and voice becomes deeper (breaks).
- Pubic, body and facial hair growth.
- Muscles develop, chest and shoulders broaden.
- May have wet dreams.
- Synthesize information (bring information together from different sources).
- Abstract thinking – problem solving in their heads.
- Debate and argue with others e.g. peer group, parents, teachers.
- Develop vocabulary and mathematical skills.
- Can exercise power over others with intellectual skills.
- Exams in school can cause stress, can use different methods to learn and revise.
Emotional:
- My be moody and have mood swings.
- Looking for sense of identity and may react against parents' values.
- May be confident or insecure.
- Characteristics, habits and experiences come together to form personality.
- Move attachments from parents to peer group.
- Friends become more important.
- Need to fit in with peer group.
- Spend more time socialising in different situations with peers.
- Experimental behaviour e.g. drinking alcohol, drugs, sexual behaviour, protest groups, gangs etc.
- Able to negotiate and resolve arguments.
- Insecurely attached children may become clingy or aggressive and find it hard to make friendships and have a strained relationship with parents. May attach to a delinquent peer group.
Adulthood
Physical- Little growth.
- May gain weight if sedentary lifestyle.
- Physical decline begins so adults need to work at fitness.
- Menopause in women 45-55; periods stop.
- Lose skin elasticity.
- Knowledge and understanding develops e.g. managing a budget, learning job skills, raising children, booking and planning holidays.
- Based on decision-making and problem solving.
- Adults begin to find it hard to remember things under pressure but have life skills and experience to deal with it.
Emotional:
- Adults have different relationships and responsibilities and need to be able to deal with it.
- Raising children.
- Seeing things from another's perspective e.g. child, boss, partner.
- Controlling emotions.
- Responding to others in acceptable ways and understanding consequences of emotions.
- Sharing and listening to others.
- New relationships e.g. friends, neighbours, professional relationships, working relationships.
- These can be formal (boss, bank manager etc.) and informal (family and friends / acquaintances).
- Gain new relatives.
- Learn new rules for work.
- Take on new roles.
- Mix with different people e.g. new sets of friends / as a couple or individual.
- Role with parents and children may change e.g. you may become more of a carer or a friend.
Later Adulthood
Physical- Loss of height as spine becomes compressed and posture less upright.
- Deteriorating sight, hearing and sense of smell.
- Joints become damaged and may need replacing.
- Reading becomes more difficult due to loss of sight.
- Joints stiffen.
- Balance becomes poorer.
- Bones become less dense and may break easily.
- Skin wrinkles due to loss of tissue elasticity.
- Vulnerable to the cold and hypothermia.
- Tooth decay may cause problems with eating and lack of confidence.
- Organs become less efficient e.g. heart, lungs, liver and kidneys.
- Hair becomes thin and turns grey. Men may have baldness.
- May become forgetful.
- Reaction times are slower.
- Decision-making may take longer or be more difficult.
- Dementia (loss of brain cells) may cause confusion and forgetfulness.
- May still be learning new things e.g. knowledge.
Emotional:
- May feel unvalued.
- May be forgetful or confused which can cause distress.
- May be lonely and have low self-esteem.
- May experience disengagement as their roles may have reduced e.g. that of carer, breadwinner.
- May not have opportunity to share views and experiences and have fun and so may be inward-looking.
- May have low self-esteem.
- May have a high sense of achievement from their life.
- May have lost friends due to bereavement.
- May be isolated due to lack of mobility or money.
- May form new friendships at clubs or in residential care.
- May have time to take on new roles in voluntary organisations or clubs.
- May withdraw due to illnesses such as incontinence, stroke, diabetes, dementia.
- May have money to socialise and travel abroad with savings or pension.
For older adults it is important that family, carers and other professionals do the following:
Communicate effectively, allow choice, give support, be respectful, minimise risks, create trust, promote self-confidence and maintain confidentiality.
Factors Which Affect Development
Nature: things we are born with – genetics.
Nurture: experiences such as diet, housing, socialization.
Nature and nurture interact e.g. if we are pre-disposed to be tall, a good diet will mean we grow taller whereas a poor diet may stunt it.
Nature: we inherit skin, eye, hair colour, facial features, some diseases e.g. Down Syndrome, Huntingdon's, Cystic Fibrosis, pre-disposition to some cancers.
Diet
We need food for energy and cell growth.
Diet can affect uptake of minerals and help prevent some diseases e.g. rickets.
Poor diet – too much fat and calories leads to obesity, diabetes and heart disease, low self-esteem.
Diet needs to be balanced:
- Carbohydrate for energy.
- Protein for cell renewal.
- Minerals to regulate chemical processes. Help blood cells, bone development etc.
- Deficiencies in vitamins can cause illness and skin / gum problems.
- Water is essential for digestion and disposing of waste products.
- Fibre is needed for healthy digestion. Too little fibre causes constipation.
- Sugar and fats are needed for energy and fats for protecting internal organs. Too much sugar causes tooth decay.
Poor diet: obesity, lack of energy, tooth decay, wounds don't heal properly, heart disease.
Poor diet can interact with emotional health, lack of job opportunities etc.
Physical Activity
Bones are strengthened, joints / mobility is improved, healthier immune system, strengthens muscles including the heart, improves circulation and breathing, reduces stress, improves self-esteem, relieves depression, reduces risk of obesity.
Lack of physical activity causes the opposite of above!
Aerobic exercise is moving muscles over a set period of time e.g. jogging, running, swimming, walking.
Anaerobic is high intensity using muscle groups e.g. gymnastics, weight training.
Exercise improves endurance and muscle strength.
Children exercise naturally in play.
Being driven, computer games and TV/DVDs mean children don't get enough exercise.
Encourage sport and walking / limit indoor time.
Adolescents tend to exercise less / start driving or hang out with friends.
Adults spend lots of time in work – may be sedentary. Gardening, housework, DIY and walking improve fitness. Join a gym or running / walking club (if you have the money).
Older people need exercise but may be limited by arthritis or mobility – any exercise is good within own limits e.g. walking, swimming, keep fit / mobility sessions.
Vaccinations: prevent life changing and life threatening diseases.
Physical illness can affect our emotional, social and intellectual development.
Degenerative diseases are those that get worse over time e.g. neurological diseases (affect nervous system) Alzheimer’s, motor neurone, multiple sclerosis etc. .Health can be improved, disease slowed with exercise and balanced diet.
Life experiences, gender, education, ethnicity and religion, friendships and family affect our development, e.g. holidays – learn about different cultures, exposed to new languages, try new skills
Gender– toys you are given as a child, role models, praise for being “girly” or “boyish”, subjects you are encouraged in at school, may affect job choice, people respond to you in different ways, discrimination, stereotyping, self-esteem
Ethnicity and religion – social opportunities e.g. church or mosque, learning about your history and traditions, what you eat / don't eat, indirect and direct discrimination, who you marry or mix with, rules to live by, learning about your religion, access to health care e.g. you may not be allowed to be examined by a member of the opposite sex
Employment/unemployment – what you can afford, people you meet, skills and knowledge you learn, life opportunities, housing affordability, stigma and discrimination, how much time you have to socialise and spend time with family
Family and Friendships -family is main source of socialisation. You learn norms and values and develop relationships based on your experiences with your family. Family can be positive or negative e.g. they may be supportive or abusive. Parents encourage education, hobbies etc. Social class may affect you e.g. a working class family may not encourage you to aspire to anything higher or they may encourage you to do better than they did. Family teach us prejudice or to be tolerant, are our main educators, encourage choice of friends, provide food, medical care, clothes or not.
Position in the family can affect us e.g. youngest may be spoilt or babied, oldest may be given more responsibility or blamed for younger children's behaviour. Punishment may affect us e.g. too many strict rules can hinder development or too few boundaries can.
Friendscan influence our behaviour, positive and negative, increase our self-esteem, help us learn and develop emotionally, listen to our problems, have fun with, share new experiences, share activities and interests, encourage unsafe or anti-social behaviour.
Housing - good quality housing: warm, spacious, safe, not too noisy. Poor quality: contamination, cold, not enough room to play, do homework, too noisy is bad for learning, sleep etc.
Unsafe area means unable to play out safely, exposure to crime, lack of play space, risk of injury.
May be discriminated against for where you live, may be bullied or not want to bring friends home, damp can cause illness and musty clothes.
Living in rural areas: space to run and play, learn about nature and farming, less pollution, less crime but may be isolated, no friends of own age nearby, lack of transport and local services.
Life experiences -marriage, divorce, bereavement, moving house etc. are all transitions. These can be positive and negative experiences. Marriage for example: mutual support, company, feeling a sense of belonging, treated by family as a grown up, may become the “property” of someone, sharing decisions, having to negotiate and compromise.