Different relationship experiences can lead to different developmental outcomes. Mary Ainsworth developed a theory of a number of attachment styles in infants in which distinct characteristics have been identified known as secure attachment, avoidant attachment,  anxious attachment and, later Main and Solomon (1986) added a fourth attachment style known as disorganized-insecure attachment.

Styles of Attachment

Secure Attachment:- The attachment figure responds appropriately, promptly and consistently to the emotional as well as the physical needs of the child. She helps her child to transit and regulate stress, and as a result, the child uses her as a secure base in the home environment. 

The child protests the mother's departure and quiets promptly on the mother's return, accepting comfort from her and returning to exploration.

   

           Looking at the concept of adolescence from the historical perspective we would say that civilization and industrialization brought about the concept of adolescence. During the eras of Socrates, Plato and the likes the concept of what is now referred to as adolescence does not exist as Socrates and his colleague go to school with their swords which implies that they were already going about their life’s as an adult yet in the age bracket where the concept adolescence falls within. Alexandra the great also started his conquest at 18years of age when he help turn the tide of battle in the decisive Macedonian victory which defeated the Greek allied city- states during the battle of Charonea in 338 BCE.

Tips for Parenting the Adolescent

Privacy: because of the high measure of changes the adolescent is encountering, the adolescent needs some space to ruminate on numerous things. Adolescent ought to be given his/her own particular room yet for the situation where it is impractical for an adolescent to have an entire room, some space inside the house should put aside for the individual utilization of the adolescent. 

Try not to prod/tease the adolescent: don't prod/tease the adolescent in light of the fact that the adolescent is grossly preoccupied with the different changes they are encountering they are extremely powerless against prodding. Most particularly when it needs to do with their physical changes. 

Decentralize(share) power: one of the real motivation behind why there is by all accounts struggle amongst guardians/parents and their adolescents is because of the adolescent's strive autonomy/independence. Adolescents regularly defy their folks' predominance, esteem framework, and interruption into their private life.parent ought to manage this by figuring out how to share power I.e, designating specific roles to the adolescent and parents/guardians ought to likewise permit the adolescent to be part of the basic leadership procedure of the family, as this make them feel recognize and respected. Doing this will help the parents to prevent power struggle. 

Correct the adolescent with love: parents/guardian ought to do whatever it takes not to be judgemental about the adolescent, rather, parent ought to approach them with respect and fairness at all times, and maintain a strategic distance from the utilization of continuous discipline rather, parents/guardians ought to engage their adolescents in regular discussion. Additionally, while correcting the adolescents, parents/guardians ought to precisely choose the words they utilize and do whatever it takes not to raise their voice in the event that they can help it, rather, stay quiet and utilize steady tone so as not to convey trashing state of mind towards the adolescent. 

Parents/guardians should avoid the use of the following; Trivializing words, for example, "when you're more seasoned" or "back in the days". This may seem pompous of the adolescent and their experience. Alarm strategies or risk, for example, "in the event that you continue thinking this way, you'll wind up in a bad position" Stereotyping words, for example, "why are individuals of your age constantly troublesome pugnacious. 

Guardians ought to be cautious of their own nonverbal communication and pay consideration on that of the adolescent. Guardian ought to stay away from the utilization of negative non-verbal communication, for example, intersection of your arms, hands on hips, or looking uninterested and so forth, the adolescent may decipher it as absence of interest.

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Before You Call That Child A Dullard

It amuses me the way people just used the word “dull” when it comes to learning. So many times I find myself asking if these people really know the true meaning of dull, and if they do, on what criteria do they base their judgment?

Dull in the oxford dictionary as regard to learning means, “slow to learn or understand; lacking intellectual acuity.” From this definition, it becomes glaring that rather than the pervasiveness of “dull” in the academic (learning) context, the word should be reserved for those who truly fit the category {those with inability to learn as they should}. With the pervasiveness of this word, one may say that the word “dull” fit the class of psychological abuse. For example, because a child failed a test on several occasion does not make the child a dullard but rather, this should call your attention to other things like;

 Does the child have a good sight?

Is the child given the adequate amount of guidance?

Does the system of teaching the teacher use suit the child?

Is the environment suitable for learning?

Is he/she experiencing difficulty in all spheres of learning and not just on few areas?

Is he/she not a victim of bully in the school?

Does the child experience a healthy parent-child relationship?

Is the child not a victim of a trauma?

Is the home environment conducive for the child?

After you’ve satisfied all this, you still need to go a step further to determine his/her cognitive ability i.e, go for psychological/neurological checkup.

If eventually you found out that your child is “dull”/mentally retarded, you don’t need to panic or freak out because that does not imply that your child can not learn, it only means that, the pace at which he/she learns is slow and might require the help of special teachers.
photocredits: child-development-guide.com, psychogossip.blogspot.com 

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                One of the major developmental tasks that characterize the period of adolescence is the search for identity; which is presented as a question of WHO AM I? HOW DO I SEE MYSELF AND WHAT DO PEOPLE THINK ABOUT ME? AND WHO AM I TO BECOME? These three presenting question can be liken to the three component of the self-concept.

                ‘Who am i?’ – Self-image: during the early adolescence, the adolescent encounter sudden and vast physiological changes which creates a dissonance between his/her childhood self-image and his/her unstable self-image of early adolescence. This dissonance causes the adolescent to perceive a loss of identity and this feeling of loss of identity propels the adolescent to actively search for a new identity. Allport 1955 put that whenever our body changes in some way so our body images changes as well. 451b768fefff18b80d122e0fe9126daff6f3069af68cea5661

      Attachment primarily in infants is a process of “proximity seeking” to an identified attachment figure in situations of perceived distress or alarm. 

Infants become attached to adults who pay close attention to them and  are sensitive and responsive in social interactions with the infant, and who happened to be their persistent caregivers for some months during the period from about 6 months to two years of age.

Jean Piaget’s (1952) Theory of Cognitive Development
Key Concepts
Schemas – A schema describes both the mental and physical actions involved in understanding and knowing. Schemas are categories of knowledge that help us to interpret and understand the world. In Piaget’s view, a schema includes both a category of knowledge and the process of obtaining that knowledge. As experiences happen, this new information is used to modify, add to, or change previously existing schemas. For example, a child may have a schema about a type of animal, such as a dog. If the child’s sole experience has been with small dogs, a child might believe that all dogs are small, furry, and have four legs. Suppose then that the child encounters a very large dog. The child will take in this new information, modifying the previously existing schema to include this new information.

Assimilation – The process of taking in new information into our previously existing schema’s is known as assimilation. The process is somewhat subjective, because we tend to modify experience or information somewhat to fit in with our preexisting beliefs. In the example above, seeing a dog and labeling it “dog” is an example of assimilating the animal into the child’s dog schema.

Accommodation – Another part of adaptation involves changing or altering our existing schemas in light of new information, a process known as accommodation. Accommodation involves altering existing schemas, or ideas, as a result of new information or new experiences. New schemas may also be developed during this process.

Equilibration – Piaget believed that all children try to strike a balance between assimilation and accommodation, which is achieved through a mechanism Piaget called equilibration. As children progress through the stages of cognitive development, it is important to maintain a balance between applying previous knowledge (assimilation) and changing behavior to account for new knowledge (accommodation). Equilibration helps explain how children are able to move from one stage of thought into the next.

Stages of Development
Sensorimotor Stage: birth – 2 years
The first stage of Piaget’s theory lasts from birth to approximately age two and is centered on the infant trying to make sense of the world. During the sensorimotor stage, an infant’s knowledge of the world is limited to their sensory perceptions and motor activities. Behaviors are limited to simple motor responses caused by sensory stimuli. Children utilize skills and abilities they were born with, such as looking, sucking, grasping, and listening, to learn more about the environment.

Substages of the Sensorimotor Stage: The sensorimotor stage can be divided into six separate substages that are characterized by the development of a new skill.

Reflexes (0-1 month): During this substage, the child understands the environment purely through inborn reflexes such as sucking and looking.

Primary Circular Reactions (1-4 months): This substage involves coordinating sensation and new schemas. For example, a child may such his or her thumb by accident and then later intentionally repeat the action. These actions are repeated because the infant finds them pleasurable.

Secondary Circular Reactions (4-8 months): During this substage, the child becomes more focused on the world and begins to intentionally repeat an action in order to trigger a response in the environment. For example, a child will purposefully pick up a toy in order to put it in his or her mouth.
Coordination of Reactions (8-12 months): During this substage, the child starts to show clearly intentional actions. The child may also combine schemas in order to achieve a desired effect. Children begin exploring the environment around them and will often imitate the observed behavior of others. The understanding of objects also begins during this time and children begin to recognize certain objects as having specific qualities. For example, a child might realize that a rattle will make a sound when shaken.

Tertiary Circular Reactions (12-18 months): Children begin a period of trial-and-error experimentation during the fifth substage. For example, a child may try out different sounds or actions as a way of getting attention from a caregiver.

Early Representational Thought (18-24 months): Children begin to develop symbols to represent events or objects in the world in the final sensorimotor substage. During this time, children begin to move towards understanding the world through mental operations rather than purely through actions.

Preoperational Stage: 2 – 6years
The preoperational stage occurs between ages two and six. Language development is one of the hallmarks of this period. Piaget noted that children in this stage do not yet understand concrete logic, cannot mentally manipulate information, and are unable to take the point of view of other people, which he termed egocentrism.
During the preoperational stage, children also become increasingly adept at using symbols, as evidenced by the increase in playing and pretending. For example, a child is able to use an object to represent something else, such as pretending a broom is a horse. Role playing also becomes important during the preoperational stage. Children often play the roles of "mommy," "daddy," "doctor," and many others.

Egocentrism: According to Piaget, children experience this difficulty because they are unable to take on another person's perspective. Piaget used a number of creative and clever techniques to study the mental abilities of children. One of the famous egocentrism techniques involved using a three-dimensional display of a mountain scene. Children are asked to choose a picture that showed the scene they had observed. Most children are able to do this with little difficulty. Next, children are asked to select a picture showing what someone else would have observed when looking at the mountain from a different viewpoint. Invariably, children almost always choose the scene showing their own view of the mountain scene. This is because children are not able to view things from other people’s point of view.

Conservation: This involves a child's understanding of conservation. In one conservation experiment, equal amounts of liquid are poured into two identical containers. The liquid in one container is then poured into a different shaped cup, such as a tall and thin cup, or a short and wide cup. Children are then asked which cup holds the most liquid. Despite seeing that the liquid amounts were equal, children almost always choose the cup that appears fuller. Piaget conducted a number of similar experiments on conservation of number, length, mass, weight, volume, and quantity. Piaget found that few children showed any understanding of conservation prior to the age of five.

Concrete Operations Stage: 7 – 11 years
The concrete operational stage begins around age seven and continues until approximately age eleven. During this time, children gain a better understanding of mental operations. Children begin thinking logically about concrete events, but have difficulty understanding abstract or hypothetical concepts.

Logic: Piaget determined that children in the concrete operational stage were fairly good at the use of inductive logic. Inductive logic involves going from a specific experience to a general principle. On the other hand, children at this age have difficulty using deductive logic, which involves using a general principle to determine the outcome of a specific event.

Reversibility:  One of the most important developments at this stage is an understanding of reversibility, or awareness that actions can be reversed. An example of this is being able to reverse the order of relationships between mental categories. For example, a child might be able to recognize that his or her dog is a Labrador, that a Labrador is a dog, and that a dog is an animal.

Formal Operational Stage: 12 years -adulthood
The formal operational stage begins at approximately age twelve and lasts into adulthood. During this time, people develop the ability to think about abstract concepts. Skills such as logical thought, deductive reasoning, and systematic planning also emerge during this stage.

Logic: Piaget believed that deductive logic becomes important during the formal operational stage. Deductive logic requires the ability to use a general principle to determine a specific outcome. This type of thinking involves hypothetical situations and is often required in science and mathematics.

Abstract Thought: While children tend to think very concretely and specifically at earlier stages, the ability to think about abstract concepts emerges during the formal operational stage. Instead of relying solely on previous experiences, children begin to consider possible outcomes and consequences of actions. This type of thinking is important in long-term planning.

Problem-Solving: During the formal operational stage, the ability to systematically solve a problem in a logical and methodical way emerges. In earlier stages, children used trial-and-error to solve problems. Children at the formal operational stage of cognitive development are often able to quickly plan an organized approach to solving a problem.

Criticisms of Piaget:
Much of the criticism of Piaget's work is in regards to his research methods. A major source of inspiration for the theory was Piaget's observations of his own three children. In addition to this, the other children in Piaget's small research sample were all from well-educated professionals of high socio-economic status. Because of this unrepresentative sample, it is difficult to generalize his findings to a larger population. Research has disputed Piaget's argument that all children will automatically move to the next stage of development as they mature. Some data suggests that environmental factors may play a role in the development of formal operations. Most researchers agree that children posses many of the abilities at an earlier age than Piaget suspected. Recent research on theory of mind has found that children of 4- or 5-years old have a rather sophisticated understanding of their own mental processes as well as those of other people. For example, children of this age have some ability to take the perspective of another person, meaning they are far less egocentric than Piaget believed. While there are few strict Piagetians, most can appreciate Piaget's influence and legacy. His work generated interest in child development and had an enormous impact on the future of education and developmental psychology.

Sigmund Freud developed a psychosexual theory of human development from infancy onward, in accordance with his view of a basic human motivation being the sexual drive.  He divided into five stages. Each stage centered on the gratification of the libido within a particular area, or erogenous zone of the body. He also argued that as humans develop, they become fixated on different and specific objects through their stages of development.

Oral Stage: Birth – 18 months
The first stage of psychosexual development is the oral stage, which lasts from the beginning of one’s life up to (about) the 15th month. During this stage, the focus of gratification is on the mouth and pleasure is the result of nursing, but also of exploration of the surroundings (as infants tend to put in their mouths new objects). In this stage the id is dominant, since neither the ego nor the superego is yet fully formed. Thus, the baby does not have a sense of self and all actions are based on the pleasure principle.
The ego, however, is under formation during this first stage. There are two factors that contribute to the formation of the ego. Firstly, body image is developed, which implies that the infant recognizes that the body is distinct from the outer world. For instance, one will start understanding that one feels pain only when force is applied on one’s own body. By the identification of the body boundaries, one starts developing the sense of ego. A second factor to which ego formation is attributed is experiences involving delay of gratification and leads to the understanding that specific behaviours can satisfy some needs. The infant gradually realizes that gratification is not immediate and that it has to produce certain behaviours to initiate actions that lead to gratification. An example of such behaviour is crying, which seems to be purposeless during the first 2 months of the baby’s life, but later seems to be used productively and is connected to certain needs (Leach 1997). The key experience in this stage is weaning, during which the child loses much of the intimate contact with the mother and leads to the first feeling of loss ever experienced by the baby. Weaning also adds to the baby’s awareness of self, since it learns that not everything is under its control, but also that gratification is not always immediate.
In this stage, the gratification of needs will lead to the formation of an independent, since the baby forms a clear idea about the limits of the self and has formed its ego) and trusting, since the baby learned that specific behaviours will lead to gratification and thus to trust its own abilities but also its parent’s (and generally social environment) willingness to meet its requirements, personality. On the other hand, a fixation can lead to passivity, immaturity and unrealistic optimism, but also to the formation of a generally manipulative personality, due to improper formation of the ego. This can be the result of either too much or too little gratification. In the case of too much gratification, the child does not learn that not everything is under its control and that gratification is not always immediate (which are the results of weaning), forming an immature personality. On the other hand, the child’s needs may be insufficiently met, and thus the child becomes passive since it has learned that either it produces behaviour or not, no gratification will come.
In some societies, it is common for a child to be nursed by its mother for several years, whereas in others the stage is much shorter. Sucking and eating, however, compose the earliest memories for infants in every society. This stage holds special importance because some tribal societies commonly found in the Southwest Pacific and Africa; consider the stomach to be the seat of emotions.

Anal stage: 18 months - 3 years
In the anal stage of the psychosexual development, the focus of drive energy (erogenous zone) moves from the upper digestive tract to the lower end and the anus. This stage lasts from about the 15th month to the third year of age. In this stage, the formation of ego continues. The major experience during this stage is toilet training. This occurs by the age of two (there may be fluctuations among different societies as to the age in which toilet training occurs), and results to conflict between the id, which asks for immediate gratification of its drives that involves elimination and activities related to it (such as handling faeces) and the demands of their parents. The resolution of this conflict can be gradual and non-traumatic, or intense and stormy, depending on the methods the parents will use to handle the situation. The ideal resolution will come if the child tries to adjust, but also the parents are moderate, so that the child will learn the importance of cleanliness and order gradually, which will lead to a self-controlled adult. If the parents emphasize on toilet training too much while the child decides to accommodate, this may lead to the development of compulsive personality, extensively concerned about order and neatness. On the other hand, if the child decides to heed the demands of the id and the parents give in, the child may develop a messy and self-indulgent personality. If the parents react, the child will have to comply, but it will develop a weakened sense of self, since the parents were the ones who controlled the situation, not the ego.

Phallic stage: 3-6 years
The phallic stage extends from about three to five years of age, and the erogenous zone associated with it as the area of the genitals. Even though the gratification is focused on the genitals, this is not in the form of adult sexuality, since the children are yet physically immature. However, stimulation of genitals is welcomed as pleasurable and boys, like adult males, may have erection during their sleep. Children become increasingly aware of their body and are curious about the body of other children, but also their parents’, so that very often children of this age can be observed taking off their clothes and playing “the doctor” with each other, but also asking their mother whether she has penis or not. These observations persuaded Freud that the gratification is focused on the genitals this period of time.
The major conflict of this stage is called Oedipal conflict, the name deriving from Oedipus, who killed his father and unintentionally slept with his mother. Freud used the term Oedipal for both sexes, but other analysts proposed that we refer to the female variant as Electra conflict. In the beginning, for both sexes the primary care giver (at least at most societies) and main source of gratification is the mother. As the child develops, however, it starts forming a sexual identity and the dynamics for boys and girls alter. For both sexes, the parents become the focus of drive energy. For the boy, the mother becomes more desired, while the father is the focus of jealousy and rivalry, since he is the one who sleeps with the mother, but still he is one of the main caregivers. The id wants to unite with the mother and kill the father (like Oedipus did), but the ego, based on the reality principle knows that the father is stronger. The child also feels affectionate towards the father, one of the caregivers, and his feelings are ambivalent. The fear that the father will object to the boy’s feelings is expressed by the id as fear that the father will castrate him. The castration fear is not rational, and occurs in a subconscious (irrational) level.
For the girl, it is the father who becomes desired, but the mother promotes greater ambivalence, since she is the primary caregiver and the first object of drive focus for the infant. In this way, the girls feels hostility for the mother due to the demands of the id that she should eliminate her mother and unite with the father, but their ego recognizes that the expression of such feelings would lead to an emotional split with the mother. One major discovery a girl makes at this stage is that she has no penis, just like her mother. While the boy is afraid of losing it, the girl feels devastated for having already lost hers, which leads to feelings of loss and guilt. Freud described that as penis envy. Generally, Freud considered the Oedipal conflict experienced by girls more intense than that experienced by boys, potentially resulting to a submissive and unconfident personality.
In both cases, the conflict between the id drives and the ego is resolved through two basic defense mechanisms of the ego. One of them is repression, which involves the blocking of memories, impulses and ideas from the conscious mind, but does not lead to resolution of the conflict. The second is identification, which involves incorporation of characteristics of the same-sex parent into the child’s own ego. The boy by adopting this mechanism seeks for the reduction of castration fears, since his similarity with the father is thought to protect the boy from him. The identification of girls with the mother is easier, since the girl realizes that neither she, nor her mother have a penis. Freud's theory regarding the psychosexual dynamic present in female children in this point of their psychosexual development is termed, though not by Freud himself, the Electra complex. Freud's theory of feminine sexuality, particularly penis envy, has been sharply criticized in both gender and feminist theory.
If the conflict is not resolved, a fixation in this stage may lead to adult women striving for superiority over men, if she had overwhelming feelings of devastation due to lack of penis, being seductive and flirtatious, or very submissive and with low self-esteem. On the other hand, men can exhibit excessive ambition and vanity. Overall, the Oedipal conflict is very important for the super ego development, since by identifying with one of the parents, morality becomes internalized, and compliance with rules is not any more the result of punishment fear. A poor identification with the opposite sex parent may lead to recklessness or even immorality.

Latency Stage: 6 years to puberty
The latency period is typified by a solidifying of the habits that the child developed in the earlier stages. Whether the Oedipal conflict is successfully resolved or not, the drives of the id are not accessible to the ego during this stage of development, since they have been repressed during the phallic stage. Hence, the drives are seen as dormant and hidden (latent), and the gratification the child receives is not as immediate as it was during the three previous stages. Now pleasure is mostly related to secondary process thinking. Drive energy is redirected to new activities, mainly related to schooling, hobbies and friends. Problems however might occur during this stage, and this is attributed to inadequate repression of the Oedipal conflict, or to the inability of the ego to redirect the drive energy to activities accepted by the social environment.
Genital Phase: from 12 years onwards
The fifth and last stage of psychosexual development, the genital stage, starts from puberty, about the twelfth year of age, and onwards. It actually continues until development stops, which is ideally in the eighteenth year of age, when adulthood starts. This stage represents the major portion of life, and the basic task for the individual is the detachment from the parents. It is also the time when the individual tries to come in terms with unresolved residues of the early childhood. At this stage, the focus is again on the genitals, like in the phallic stage, but this time the energy is expressed with adult sexuality. Another crucial difference between these two stages is that, while in the phallic gratification is linked with satisfaction of the primary drives, while the ego in the genital stage is well-developed, and so uses secondary process thinking, which allows symbolic gratification. The symbolic gratification may include the formation of love relationships and families, or acceptance of responsibilities associated with adulthood.

Fixation: Strong conflict can fixate people at early stages. This could be inform of:

Oral Fixation: This has two possible outcomes. The Oral receptive personality is preoccupied with eating/drinking and reduces tension through oral activity such as eating, drinking, smoking, biting nails. They are generally passive, needy and sensitive to rejection. They will easily 'swallow' other people's ideas. Secondly, the Oral aggressive personality is hostile and verbally abusive to others, using mouth-based aggression.

Anal fixation: This may be caused by too much punishment during toilet training, has two possible outcomes. The Anal retentive personality is stingy, with a compulsive seeking of order and tidiness. The person is generally stubborn and perfectionist. The Anal expulsive personality is an opposite of the Anal retentive personality, and has a lack of self control, being generally messy and careless.

Phallic fixation: At the age of 5 or 6, near the end of the phallic stage, boys experience the Oedipus complex whilst girls experience the Electra conflict, which is a process through which they learn to identify with the same gender parent by acting as much like that parent as possible. Boys suffer a castration anxiety, where the son believes his father knows about his desire for his mother and hence fears his father will castrate him. He thus represses his desire and defensively identifies with his father. Girls suffer a penis envy, where the daughter is initially attached to her mother, but then a shift of attachment occurs when she realizes she lacks a penis. She desires her father whom she sees as a means to obtain a penis substitute (a child). She then represses her desire for her father and incorporates the values of her mother and accepts her inherent 'inferiority' in society.

Fine Motor Skills: Skill at manipulating a range of malleable materials and small items of equipment depends on the development of small muscles. Fine motor control is needed, for example, to build a tower of blocks, complete a jigsaw puzzle, or tie shoe laces. Physical skills are also linked with perceptual development, visual skills, cognitive skills and understanding of specific vocabulary related to spatial relationships. These are enhanced through a visually stimulating environment and opportunities to explore and talk about a wide range of resources and materials. As children’s small muscles mature, including eye muscles, hand/eye co-ordination will develop. Hand /eye coordination is a pre-requisite of being able to hold a pencil properly to make marks on paper and later produce precise writing patterns, letters and numbers. Children will develop fine manipulative skills and hand/ eye co-ordination by handling a wide range of resources, including: dough, plasticine, clay, painting- first with large brushes and then finer ones,  sand and water play equipment, jigsaw puzzles, peg patterns, a range of equipment for threading and weaving,  small world figures, animals and vehicles. Constructing equipment of different sizes for table top activities, use of clothes for role and imaginative play, use of scissors, cooking equipment, sewing equipment computers and other programmable devices. As children progress, they should be able to: handle increasingly small equipment skillfully, for example  sewing, construction toys, use crayons, pencils, pens and paintbrushes, of varying sizes to support their individual development when  making, writing and making pictures, use hammers, saws and nails to create their own models, make intricate models from clay, plasticine , pour and measure liquids, cut accurately with a knife or scissors, handle items such as sequins, large needle and thread and paper fasteners when decorating or joining items they design and make, handle the computer mouse with increasing control, use ICT to support their work and development across all areas of learning.

Growth of the body, brain, sensory capacities, health, and motor skills are all part of physical development. Physical development involves the increasing skill and functioning of the body whereas growth relates to a child’s increasing height, weight and general size. Both growth and development depend on suitable nourishment, including a balance of the right foods and sufficient water to drink. Increasing control and co-ordination is enabled by the maturing brain and nervous system, growing bones and muscles, exercise and physical activity. They exert a major influence on both intellect and personality.
Genetic factors play a major role in determining the growth rate, and particularly the changes in proportion characteristic of early human development. However, genetic factors can produce the maximum growth only if environmental conditions are adequate. Poor nutrition and frequent injury and disease can reduce the individual's adult stature, but the best environment cannot cause growth to a greater stature than is determined by heredity.  Population differences in growth are largely related to adult stature. Ethnic groups that are quite tall in adulthood are also longer at birth and throughout childhood, as compared to groups that have short adult stature. Males are also somewhat taller, although this is more apparent in ethnic groups with strong sexual dimorphism in adulthood. Populations that are characteristically malnourished are also shorter throughout life. However, there are few population differences in growth rates or patterns, except that poor environmental conditions may delay puberty and the associated growth spurt. Individual differences in height and weight during childhood are considerable. Some of these differences are due to family genetic factors, others to environmental factors, but at some points in development they may be strongly influenced by individual differences in reproductive maturation.  For example, much of an infant’s knowledge of the world comes from the senses and from motor activity. Also, a child who has a hearing loss is at risk of delayed language development.
Physical growth in stature and weight occurs over the 15-20 years following birth, as the individual changes from the average weight of 7 1/2 pounds and length of 20" at full-term birth to full adult size. As stature and weight increase, the individual's proportions also change, from the relatively large head and small torso and limbs of the neonate, to the adult's relatively small head and long torso and limbs. The speed of physical growth is rapid in the months after birth, and then slows, so birth weight is doubled in the first four months, tripled by age 12 months, but not quadrupled until 24 months. Growth then proceeds at a slow rate until shortly before puberty (between about 9 and 15 years of age), when a period of rapid growth occurs. Growth is not uniform in rate and timing across all body parts. At birth, head size is already relatively near to that of an adult, but the lower parts of the body are much smaller than adult size. In the course of development, then, the head grows relatively little, and torso and limbs undergo a great deal of growth.

The Development of Physical Skills
The sequence of physical development involves firstly gross motor skills that involve control of large muscles in the body, arms and legs. This is followed by development of fine manipulative skills, which depend on small muscle coordination.
As children progress and become more confident, improvement in co-ordination of gross and fine movements will continue to develop and new skills will be learnt. Children cannot learn a new skill until the muscles are sufficiently developed and the activities and resources provided should be suitable for their developmental needs. The ages at which children accomplish particular physical skills can vary considerably. Most children will progress through the same stages of development at their own rate. The timing of this development can depend on different influencing factors such as, eating habits, emotional development and confidence in tackling new activities. Physical skills, body and spatial awareness contribute to a child’s personal and social development by enhancing confidence and self esteem. Young children are active learners who enjoy learning through play and physical activities. During play, children engage in learning experiences that require them to use a range of physical skills whether playing indoors or outdoors.

Gross Motor Skills: Children’s control and co-ordination of their gross motor skills develop through movement that involves the use of muscles in the body, legs and arms. As they develop, most children will acquire the following skills: walking, running, stopping, jumping, climbing, pushing and pulling wheeled toys, pedaling a bike, rolling a ball, throwing / catching a beanbag or ball and balancing. As they progress, children will continue to refine their movements and apply their skills in new situations, for example: hopping and skipping, following games marked on the ground or the wall, gaining awareness of space, height and distance as they move around, use climbing equipment or ride wheeled toys.
Children should also be able to engage in rolling, striking, skittles, throwing / catching balls, balls of different sizes, quoits, hoops and other developmentally appropriate resources. As they become more skilful, children should develop skills in order to use the floor and apparatus for climbing and swinging, learn to lift, carry, place and use apparatus safely, respond with gesture and stillness as appropriate, improve their control, use different shapes, levels and create their own patterns of movements that combine some of the above actions collaborate in pairs and small groups to produce a sequence of movements following instructions and applying new skills, use mime and gesture to respond creatively to a stimulus, use their body movements expressively to reflect and to have opportunities to participate in gymnastics and dance from various cultures.