St. Philomena College, BSW Dept.

PRINCIPLES OF DEVELOPMENT

02-09-2010
Fr. Vincent Crasta

Principles of development are also called usually the fundamental facts of development. Here, under this heading, the concepts will be discussed and an attempt will be made to show their implications. The principles of development are as follows:

I. Development involves Change:

Many use the terms growth and development interchangeably. In reality they are different. Growth always refers to quantitative changes e.g. Increase in size and structure. Development refers to qualitative and quantitative changes. It may be defined as a progressive series of orderly coherent changes. The goal of development changes is self realization or the achievement of genetic potentials. It is also called self-actualization (Maslow) which means striving (try hard) to be the best person possible.

Aids to self-realization in childhood: 1. Good health: Which helps children to attack problems more vigorously than they could if their
health was poor.

2. Freedom from serious physical defects: which handicap children in whatever they attempt to do. 3. Self-acceptance: Stemming from a favorable self-acceptance which gives children confidence that
they can cope with any problem that arises.

4. Development of individuality: An environment that encourages the development of individuality

rather than trying to fit all children into a pattern.

5. An environment: that encourages and helps children to meet problems too difficult for them to meet
alone.

6. Setting a realistic goal: to avoid failures with their damaging effects on a childs self-concept. 7. Self understanding: That includes knowledge and acceptance of weakness as well as of strength. 8. Attacks on causes of unsocial behavior: Before such behavior become habitual and hazardous, the
childs chances for social acceptance.

9. Learning to relate to others to be other-oriented: instead of self oriented. There are four major categories of changes in an individual they are a. Changes in size: This includes physical changes in height, weight, circumference and
internal organs and mental changes in memory, reasoning perception (rule of action) and creative imagination.

b.

Changes in proportions: Children are not miniature (small scale) adults in their physical proportions. Their imaginative capacity is better developed than their reasoning capacity while the reverse is true of adults.

c. Disappearance of old features: When certain physical features such as the thymus glad
after puberty and baby hair and teeth, lost their usefulness, psychological and behavioral traits, babyish locomotion (movements) and speech are fantastic extensions of the imagination.

d. Acquisition of new features: Some new physical and mental features develop from
maturation and some develop from learning experiences. New physical feature include second teeth and primary and secondary sex characteristic, new mental features includes interest in sex, moral standards and religious beliefs.

Childrens Attitudes toward Change:

Children tend to welcome each change because it brings them closer to the privileges and freedom they associate with being grown up.

a. Childrens awareness of the change. As babies become more autonomous, they begin to resent
being waited on. Pubescent children, aware of he awkwardness that normally accompanies rapid growth, feel self-conscious and embarrassed instead of self-confident as they were earlier when slow growth enabled them to have better control over bodily movements.

b. The Change affects their behavior. If the change enables children to be more independent of adult
help or if it gives them added strength and speed so that they can take part in the play activities they associate with older children, they will welcome the change.

c. Social attitudes toward the change affect children just as they do adults. Most parents, for
example, encourage their children to grow up as soon as possible.

d. Social attitudes are influenced, to some extent at least, by how the change affects the childs
appearance. As a baby becomes a spindly preadolescent and as teeth fall out, giving the face a comical, if not homely look, the child may be less appealing to adults.

e. Cultural attitudes affects the way people treat children as a result of changes in their
appearance and behavior. Attitudes are, for the most part, more favourable toward babies and young children than toward older children.

II. Early Development is more critical than later development:

Conditions affecting early foundations: 1. Favorable interpersonal relationships: Favorable relationships with people especially with family members will encourage the child to develop outgoing tendencies and to become other oriented- a characteristic that leads to good personal and social adjustments.

2. Emotional status: Emotional development resulting from rejection by family members or separation from parents often leads to personality disorders. Emotional satisfaction by contrast encourages healthy personality development. 3. Child training methods: Children brought up by permissive parents tend as they grow older, to lack a sense of responsibility to have poor emotional control and to become underachievers whatever they undertake. Those brought up by democratic or even slightly authoritarian parents make better personal and social adjustments. 4. Early role-playing: The first born child, who is for example, often expected to assume responsibilities in the home and to take care of younger children may have greater self-confidence than later born siblings but may also have a tendency to develop a lifelong habit of bossiness. 5. Childhood family structure: The child who comes from a large family tends to become authoritarian in attitude and behavior which coming from a divorced or separated family makes the child anxious, distrustful and somewhat rigid. 6. Environmental stimulation: a stimulating environment is one that encourages the development of the childs hereditary potentials. Talking to a baby or showing preschool pictures in story books encourages interest in learning words and desire to learn to read. A stimulating environment encourages good physical and mental development which an un-stimulating environment causes the childs development to fall below its potentials. Why early foundations are important? 1. Since learning and experience play increasingly dominant roles in development as children grow order they can be directed into channels that lead to good adjustment. Basically, this task must be handled by the family through the larger social group can provide a culture in which children can fulfill their potentials. 2. Early foundations quickly develop into habitual patterns they will have a lifelong influence on childrens personal and social adjustments. 3. Contrary to popular belief, children do not outgrow undesirable traits as they grow older. 4. It is sometime desirable to make changes in what has been learned the sooner the changes are made, the easier it is for children and consequently the more cooperative they are in making the changes.

Unit-I - Principles of Development.

Fr. Vincent Crasta St. Philomena College, BSW Dept.

III. Development is the product of maturation and learning

One of the oldest controversies in the work of science concerns the relative importance of heredity and environment in determining the physical and mental characteristics of the developing child. The evidence seems to indicate that the development of physical and mental traits comes partly form an intrinsic maturing of those traits and partly from exercise and effort on the part of the individual. Meaning of maturation: maturation is the unfolding of characteristic potentially present in the individual that come from the individuals genetic endowment. In genetic functions- functions common to the racesuch as creeping, crawling, sitting and walking. Development comes from maturation. Controlling the environment in such away to reduce opportunities to practice may, on the other hand, retard development. Meaning of learning: Learning is development that comes from exercise and effort. Through learning children acquire competence in using their hereditary resources. A child with superior neuromuscular organization, for example may have high aptitude for musical performance. But if deprived of opportunities for practice and systematic training, the child will not develop this hereditary potential. Some learning comes from practice or the mere repetition of an act. This in time brings about a change in the persons behavior. Learning may come from trainings-selected, directed and purposive activity. Interaction of maturation and learning: Development during the prenatal period comes mainly from maturation and is very little dependent upon activity. Infants who were highly active as fetuses, for example, acquire skills at an earlier age than those who were less active. Postnatal maturation and learning are closely inter-related, one influences the other. Development thus depends on the interaction of this hereditary endowment and the social and cultural forces of the environment. Effects of the maturation learning interrelationship: 1. Variations in pattern of development: The different environmental influences children experience affect the pattern of their development. Were human developments due to maturation alone, as in some animal species; individually would be reduced to a minimum. 2. Maturation sets limits to development: Because of limitations in the hereditary endowment of the child development cannot go beyond a certain point even when learning is encouraged. 3. Maturation limits are rarely reached. When children reach a temporary plateau in their development. They often conclude that they have reached their limits. As a result, they put forth little effort to learn and remain on the plateau instead of advancing to higher level. 4. Deprivation of learning opportunities limits development: When the environment limits opportunities for learning children will be unable to reach their hereditary potentials. 5. Stimulations essential for full development: For full development of hereditary potentials childrens innate capacities must be stimulated or encouraged to develop, especially at the time they normally develop.

6. Effectiveness of learning depends on proper timing: Regardless of how much effort children put into learning, they cannot learn until they are developmentally ready to learn. Important of readiness to learn: Regardless of how much stimulation children receive they cannot learn until they are developmentally ready to do so. This means that the necessary physical and mental foundations must be present before new abilities can be built on them. Criteria to determine readiness to Learn: 1. Interest in learning: Children show their interest in learning by their desire to be taught or to teach themselves. 2. Sustained interest: When children are ready to learn their interest will persist even when they must obstacles and encounter set backs. 3. Improvements with practice children who are ready to learn will show improvement even if only slight and gradual.

IV. The developmental pattern is predictable:

Importance of predicting development: Time consuming and difficult as it is to determine whether a predictable pattern of development exists and what factors may interfere with this pattern most child psychologists consider such information vital. This is true not only from a theoretical but also from a practical angle.

Practical significance of predicting development: 1. Mature size: It is possible to predict at a fairly early age what the childs adult physique will be. 2. Educational planning: Educational plans can be based on the childs early intellectual aptitudes. 3. Preparation for next stage: At every stage of development, the child can be prepared for the next
stage.

4. Vocational planning: Early physical intellectual and personality development give clues as to
what the child may be able to do vocationally in adulthood. These clues can be used by parents and teachers for planning the training for the childs future vocation.

5. Adoption: Since early patterns of physical and mental development and predictive of later
development, they can be used as an aid in selecting babies for adoption.

V. The Developmental pattern has predictable characteristics:

Not only is the developmental pattern predictable but also it has certain common and predictable characteristics. This holds true for the pattern of mental as well as physical development.

1. Similarity in developmental patterns: All children follow a similar developmental pattern with one
stage leading the next. Babies stand before they walk; for example and draw circles before squares. In no instance is this order normally reversed. Children who are born prematurely may lag behind in

development for about a year, but after that, they usually catch up to the norm for full-term babies and follow their developmental pattern at about the same rate.

2. Development proceeds from general to specific responses: In mental as well as in motor response,
general activity always precedes specific activity. The fetus moves its whole body but is incapable making specific responses. So it is in early postnatal life babies wave their arms in general, random movements before they are capable of such specific responses as reaching for an object held before them.

3. Development is continuous: Development is continuous from moment of conception to death but it

occurs at different rates, sometime slowly and sometimes rapidly.

4. Development does not always go in a straight line: While the development of different physical
and mental traits is continuous, it is never uniform for the entire organism. If the body is to attain its adult proportions, inequalities in rate must occur. The feet, hands and nose for example, reach maximum development early in adolescence, while the lower parts of the face and the shoulders develop more slowly.

5. There is correlation in development: There is a widely held traditional belief that nature
compensates for inadequacies in one area by greater development in other areas. The girl who is beautiful but dumb and the boy who is brainy but a physically weak are stereotypes of this beliefs. When physical development is rapid, so is mental development. Just as physical development is marked by changes in body proportions as well as by increase in size, so mental development is characterized by different rates of growth for memory, reasoning, association and other mental abilities.

VI There are Individual differences in development:

Although the pattern of development is similar for all children, all children follow the predictable pattern in their own way and at their own rate. Some children develop in a smooth, gradual, step-by-step fashion, which others move in spurts (chimmu). All children do not therefore reach the same point of development at the same age. Causes of differences: Dobyhansky has rightly said Every person is indeed biologically and genetically different from every other. In addition, no two people have identical environmental influence, even identical twins. This means that individual difference is caused by both internal and external conditions.

1. Physical development: It depends partly on hereditary potentials and partly on such environmental
factors as food, general health, sunlight, fresh air, climate, emotions, and physical exertion (efforts/attempt)

2. Intellectual development: It is affected by such factors as inherent capacity, the emotional climate,
whether one is encouraged to pursue intellectual activities. Whether one have a strong intellectual drive and whether one has opportunities for experiences and learning.

3. Personality development: It is influenced by genetic factors as well as by attitudes and social

relationships both in the home and outside. This is evidence that physical and mental differences exist between the sexes and in children of different racial backgrounds. These differences are due in part to hereditary factors and in part, to environmental factors. Of the two, there is evidence that the environment factors play a more dominant role in producing the differences that do the hereditary factors.

VII There are periods in the developmental pattern:

Even though development is continuous, there is evidence that at different ages certain traits stand out more conspicuously (prominent) than others because their development is taking place at a more rapid rate. The five major developmental periods in childhood begin with the moment of conception and end when the child becomes sexually mature. These periods are as follows: Major developmental periods:

1. Prenatal period (conception to birth): Before birth, development is extremely rapid. It is mainly
physiological and consists of the growth of all the bodily structure.

2. Infancy (birth to age of 10-14 days): This is the period of the new born. During this time, the infant
must adjust to a totally new environment outside the mothers body.

3. Babyhood (2 weeks to 2 years): At first babies are completely helpless. Gradually they learn to
control their muscles so that they can become increasingly self reliant. This stage is accompanied by a growing resentment (anger) against being babied and a growing desire to be independent.

4. Childhood (2 years to adolescence): This period is usually divided in two subdivisions: a. Early childhood (2 to 6 years): It is the preschool or pre-gang age. The child seeks to gain
control over the environment and starts to learn to make social adjustments.

b. Late childhood (6 years to approximately 13 yrs in girls and 14 yrs in boys): It is the
period in which sexual maturity occurs and adolescence begins. The major development is socialization. This is the elementary school age or the gang age.

5. Puberty (11 to 16 years): This is an overlapping period, approximately 2 years overlap the end of
childhood and 2 years overlap the beginning of adolescence. Puberty extends from 11 to 15 years in girls and from 12 to 16 in boys. The childs body is now transformed into an adult body. Period of Equilibrium and disequilibrium (mental balance and imbalance) In the developmental pattern some periods are characterized by equilibrium and others by disequilibrium. In the former, the child is making good adjustments and is easy to live with. In the latter, adjustments appear to be disrupted by conditions within or by environmental factors; there are tensions, indecisions, insecurities, and other behavior problems. As a result, the child is difficult to live with.

Between age 6 and the onset of puberty, equilibrium prevails. A new period of disequilibrium occurs, however, as a childhood draws to a close during the time of puberty changes. Boys and girls develop at different rates and their periods of equilibrium and disequilibrium occur at slightly different ages. Within each sex group there are also differences between early and late matures Practical significance of Developmental periods: All children normally pass through the different periods of development at approximately the same ages. Therefore, child training and provisions for learning are planned to fit into the pattern most characteristic of children of a given cultural group. Further the cultural group expects each child to master the developmental tasks it sets for these stages. When the developmental pattern is normal, one period prepares children for and leads them successfully into the next. In social development, for example, preschool children are expected to learn to make social adjustments to age-mates Retardation in an area that is dominant at a given age is likely to interfere with development in related areas. It has been found for example that children who are unpopular are deprived of opportunities to become socialized. Cut off from social contacts with age mates, such children are likewise deprived of opportunities to develop motor skills, communications skills and emotional control. As a result, the whole developmental pattern is affected.

VIII There are social expectations for Every Developmental period:

In every culture group the group expects each individual to perform according to the timetable of development. People of all ages are well aware of these social expectations. Even young children know, from what people say to them and ask them to do. Social expectations are known as developmental tasks, some developmental tasks arise mainly as a result of physical maturation (learning to walk) others are developed mainly from cultural pressure of society (learning to read or learning appropriate sex roles) still other grow out of the personal values and aspirations of the individual (choosing and preparing for vocation) Havighursts developmental tasks for childhood: a. Birth to 6 years: - Learning to walk - Learning to take solid foods - Learning to talk - Learning to control the limitation of body wastes. - Learning sex differences and sexual modesty(embracement) - Achieving physiological stability - Forming simple concepts of social and physical reality - Learning to relate oneself emotionally to parents, siblings and other people

- Learning to distinguish right and wrong developing conscience. b. 6 to 12 years - Learning physical skills necessary for ordinary games. - Building wholesome attitudes towards oneself as a growing organism - Learning to get along with age mates - Learning n appropriate masculine or feminine sex role - Development fundamental skills in reading, wring and calculating. - Development concepts necessary for everyday living - Developing conscience, morality and scale of values - Achieving personal independence - Developing attitudes towards social groups and institutions. Purposes of developmental tasks: Developmental tasks serve three very useful purposes 1. They are as guidelines to help parents and teachers to know what children should learn at a given age. If eg. Children are to make good adjustments to school, they must have mastered the tasks needed to be independent of teacher help; such as putting on or taking off outer garments, and they must know how to play the games other children in the neighborhood play. 2. Developmental tasks serves as motivating forces for children to learn what the social group expects them to learns at that age. Children quickly learn that social acceptance depends on their being able to do what their age mates do. The stronger their desire for social acceptance, the greater will be their motivation to learn to do what their age mates do. 3. Developmental tasks tell parents and teachers what will be expected of children in the immediate and remote future. As such, they alert them to the necessity of preparing children to meet these new expectations. Factors influencing mastery of developmental tasks A number of factors influence the mastery of developmental tasks, some act as obstacles to this mastery and some aid it. Some of these factors are controllable, as in the case of opportunities to learn. Others as is true of body build and intelligence, are either not controllable or are controllable only within narrow limits. Factors influencing mastery tasks of developmental tasks: Aids to mastery: Accelerated (increase the speed) physical development Strength and energy above average for age. Above average intelligence An environment that offers opportunities for learning Guidance from parents and teachers in learning A strong motivation to learn

Creativity accompanied by a willingness to be different. Retardation in developmental level, whether physical or mental Poor health resulting in low energy and strength levels. A handicapping physical defect Lack of opportunity to learn what the social group expects Lack of guidance in learning Lack of motivation to learn Fear of being different

Obstacles to mastery:

Importance of mastering developmental tasks: In spite of the importance of mastering the developmental tasks appropriate for the childs age and level of development, not all children do so. This failure has three serious consequences. 1. It makes the child feel inferior and this leads to unhappiness 2. It results in social disapproval which is often accompanied by social rejection. The child is considered immature and babyish 3. It makes the mastery of new-developmental tasks difficult. Each year the child will lag further and further behind because the necessary foundations on which to build will not be present.

IX Every area of development has potential hazards:

Even when the developmental pattern is progressing normally, there are likely to be, at every age, hazards in some areas of development that interfere with this normal pattern. Some of these hazards are environmental in origins while others originate from within. Regardless of their origin, hazards can and do affect the physical, psychological and social adjustments the child is attempting to make. Importance of forewarning of hazards Forewarning of potentials hazards associated with different areas of development is important because it enables those who are responsible for guiding the childs development may be parents and teachers to be ready to cope with the causes of these hazards and equally important to take step towards them off knowing for eg., the lack of supervision is likely to lead to childhood accidents. Parents who cannot assume responsibility for supervising their children can put them in nursery schools, kinder garden or day care centers where adequate supervisions will be provided. Similarly knowing that during the early stages of learning to talk almost all children begin to stutter (stammer) or slur (stain) when they become exited. Parents can ward off this speech hazard by keeping the environment from being too stimulating and by claiming their children when they become exited.

X Happiness varies at different periods in development:

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According to tradition, childhood is the happiest period of life. This tradition has been reinforced by another that childhood should be happy time to guarantee good adjustment to adult life. There is ample evidence today to show neither of these believes is totally true and that for many children, they are actually false. Studies of childhood happiness have revealed that for some children, childhood is a happy age while for other it is an unhappy age. Retrospective (action of looking back into the past) reports by adults of happiness at different ages has produced similar results. Some adults remember their childhood days as the happiest their lives. On the other hand, retrospective report of some adult have emphasized both that unhappy memories over shadow the happy and that they have no desire to return to childhood. Period of happiness and unhappiness: Babyhood is one of the happiest period s in the life span. This is because almost everyone-adult and children find the happiness of babies appealing and they try to make babies happy. Some babies however are unwanted, neglected and mistreated. For them, babyhood can be a very misery one. It is true that the second year of life is less happy than the first. During this year, babies are often fretful (angry) and irritable when teething and this makes them less appealing. They dislike being babied and in showing their independence become resistant and hard to handle. They resent being frustrated in what they want to do by disciplinary techniques that may include slaps and spanks (beating).Finally many babies are made unhappy during the second year of life by the arrival of a new sibling who becomes the centre of parental attention. The environment of young children is primarily limited to the home, their happiness depend on how their parents treat them. If parents show interest in other siblings then they feel unloved or unwanted. Many factors contribute to happiness in late childhood. As a result it is one of the happiest periods of life span. One of important conditions that contribute to happiness at this age is that older children have more choice in their environments than they had when they were preschools. If they find unhappy at home, they can spend their time in school, play ground, or peer age group where they find healthy atmosphere. Once they mastered the adjustments then they feel comfortable in their life. Puberty (sexual maturity) is such an unhappy period for many children that they try to escape from life either by spending their time in a daydream world or by talking about or threatening suicide. Many conditions are responsible for unhappiness at this period. Rapid growth and change during puberty lead to fatigue (tired) , which predisposes (make the person previously inclined) pubescent to grumpiness (anger). This in turn makes them less appealing to family members, teachers, and age mates. Even a happy home climate is likely to become frictional unless parents and siblings understand that the pubescent is not up to par physically and make allowance for unsocial behavior. Essentials of Happiness: From the analysis of happiness and unhappiness at different times during child hood years, it should obvious that three essential has identified. They are often called the thee A of happiness and are acceptance, affection and achievement. Acceptance means not only acceptance by others but also acceptance of self. However, they normally go hand in hand. Children who are accepted by others find it easy to like and accept themselves. They thus become well-adjusted people who are popular with both age-mates and adults. Children who are accepted can count on affection; the more accepted children are by others, the more affection they will receive from them. However to receive affection children must in turn show affection. Unless they do so, their acceptance by others will be reduced and, in turn the amount of affection they receive from them.

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For children to be happy, their achievement must be in an area regarded as important to the members of the social group with which they are identified, if for example, being a good ball player is important to the group, the child who is regarded as a good ball player will be happy. In addition, childrens happiness depends on their reaching the goals they set for themselves. One of the biggest obstacles to happiness in childhood is the setting of unrealistically high goals. If children are encouraged by parents, teachers or peer to do things they are not developmentally needy to do, they are bound to meet with failure. As a result, they become dissatisfied with themselves and feel that others regard them as failure. Only when goals are realistic in the sense that children have the capacity to reach them can they have the achievements that are essential to self-acceptance as well as acceptance by others. Significance of happiness: Unhappiness plays havoc(destruction) with childrens personal and social adjustments. This is because if affects their patterns of development and as a result they fall below their capacities in whatever they undertake. When this happens, self-dissatisfaction and unhappiness increase and the damage to personal and social adjustments, in turn, is increased. A vicious circle of unhappiness and maladjustment is then set in motion. Because of this effect, there is justification for saying that the traditional belief that childhood should be a happy age is correct, though a carefree childhood is open to serious doubt. By contrast, happiness does not have a pervading (spread through) influence on childrens development and on the type of adjustments they make it affects their attitudes behavior and personalities. Many studies have been made of happy and unhappy children at different age to determine how they adjust to life and how their behavior measures up to their potentials.

How happiness affects childhood adjustments: 1. Happy children are normally healthy and energetic. Unhappiness saps (decreases) their strength and energy and lowers their general physical well-being.

2. Happy children turn their energies into purposeful activities, while unhappy children dissipate
(dispel) their energies in brooding, daydreaming and self-pity. 3. Happiness improves childrens looks by giving them a cheerful expression. People react positively to cheerfulness and negatively to the whipped-dog expression characteristic of an unhappy child. 4. Unhappiness supplies a strong motivation to do things, while unhappiness stifles motivation. 5. Happy children accept frustration more calmly and try to understand the reasons for frustrations. Unhappy children react with temper out bursts and this militates against their learning why frustration exists. 6. Happiness encourages social contracts and participation in social activities. Unhappiness encourages children to be withdrawn and self-oriented. 7. With repetition, happiness becomes a habit. In the same way, unhappianess can develop into a habit. 8. A happy childhood does not guarantee adult success, but it lays the foundation for success, while unhappiness lays the foundation for failure.

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The effects of happiness are in most cases the opposite of the effects of unhappiness. Also it is noted that how happiness contribute to good personal and social adjustments while unhappiness tends to lead to maladjustments.

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