Growth and development:

♥ Infant
Less then 2yrs

♥ Toddler
2-3yrs

♥ Preschool
3-5 yrs

♥ School age
5-8 yrs

Growth:
♥ cells divide which allows the bones to lengthen

Development:
♥ skills the child masters

Why physical growth is important?

♥ Children hand movements are linked to growth of the bones in their wrists

♥ The size and shape of a child affects the way adults treat them.
E.g. adults may give more responsibility to taller children.
Taller children tend to have higher self esteem
The shape of a child can affect their self esteem as well for example a child who is obese may suffer from low self esteem.

Allometric growth: the rate at which the child’s body parts grow unevenly.
For example the head as a baby is the same size as the feet.

Motor development:

Milestones: the skills the children master at certain ages

Gross motor skills:
♥ Large movements
♥ Whole body/ whole limb
♥ Develop before fine motor skills
♥ Walking, crawling, throwing

Fine motor skills:
♥ Smaller movements
♥ Involve fingers/hands
♥ Smaller muscles
♥ Requires coordination between the hands and eye
♥ Threading beads, putting lid on the bottle