EARLY CHILDHOOD PRESENTATION: PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT AND HEALTH

INTRODUCTION
1. Difference between development and growth
o Growth and development are sometimes used synonymously. Formerly,
development referred to qualitative changes while growth referred to quantitative
changes.
2. Early childhood?
o Early childhood (2 to 6 years old)
▪ Early childhood is the most rapid period of development in a human life.
▪ Early childhood spans from birth to age 8 years.
▪ This is a time of critical change and development as a child attains the physical
and mental skills she will use for the rest of her life.
▪ Early childhood is a time of remarkable physical, cognitive, social, and
emotional development.
▪ Early childhood is a time of tremendous growth across all areas of
development.
o Although individual children develop at their own pace, all children progress through
an identifiable sequence of physical, cognitive, and emotional growth and change.
PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT
BODY GROWTH
Introduction
- As the preschool child grows older, the percentage of increase in height and weight decreases
with each additional year (Copper & others, 2008).
- When children learn to walk, they become more interested in the environment.
- Between the ages of two and four, they have insatiable curiosity they are highly motivated to
explore their home or, if given the opportunity, their neighborhood.
o These explorations give children experiences, such as falling or being hit by objects or
people, which provide them opportunities for emotional as well as physical
development Growth patterns vary individually (Burns & others, 2009).
Changes in Body Proportions
- Overall size increase, parts of the body grow at different rates, two growth patterns describe
these changes:
1. Cephalocaudal trend
- an organized pattern of physical growth and motor control that proceeds from head to tail
- during prenatal period: head, chest and trunk grows fast then the arms and legs.
2. Proximodistal trend
- An organized pattern of physical growth and motor control that proceeds from the center of
the body outward.
- “near to far”- from center of the body outward.
- During infancy and childhood: arms and legs continue to grow somewhat ahead of the hands
and feet.
Slim down of bodies and body fat
- Girls are only slightly smaller and lighter than boys during these years.
- Both boys and girls slim down as the trunks of their bodies lengthens.
o Although their heads are still somewhat large for their bodies
o By the end of the preschool years most children have lost their top-heavy look. Body
fat declines slowly but steadily during the preschool yeas.
o Girls have more fatty tissues than boys; boys have more muscle tissue.
 - Baby fat starts to decline, and children gradually become thinner, although girls retain
somewhat more body fat the boys, who are slightly more muscular.
- As the torso lengthens and widens, internal organs tuck neatly inside, and the spine
straightens.
(insert compassion of bodies from 2 to 5 year old babies)
Average growth
- Early childhood, the rapid increase in body size of first two years tapers off into a slower
growth pattern
- On average, children add 2 to 3 inches in height and about 5 pounds in weight each year
- Individual differences in body size are even more apparent during early childhood than in
infancy and toddlerhood.
- The existence of these variations in the body size remind sus that growth norms for one
population are not good standards for children elsewhere in the world.

SKELETAL GROWTH
- Children of the same age differ in rate of physical growth; some make faster progress towards
a mature body size than others.
o But current body size is not enough to tell us how quickly a child’s physical growth is
moving along.
Skeletal age
- The best way of estimating a child’s physical maturity is to use skeletal age, a measure of
development of the bones of the body.
o The use of X-rays to estimate children’s skeletal age, or progress toward physical
maturity – information is helpful in diagnosis growth disorders.
45 new epiphyses
- Skeletal age of infancy continues throughout early childhood.
- Between ages 2 and 6, approximately 45 new epiphyses – or growth centers, in which cartilage
hardens into bones – emerge in various parts of the skeleton.
Baby teeth
- By the age of 2, the average child has 20 teeth (Carruth et al., 2004).
- Dental development provides a rough clue to rate of skeletal development: A child who gets
teeth early is likely to be advance in physical maturity.
(insert baby teeth picture)
- End of preschool years, children start to lose their primary or “baby teeth”. The age at which
they do is heavily influenced by genetic factor.
o Nutritional factors also influence dental development.
▪ Prolong malnutrition delays the appearance of permanent teeth, whereas
overweight and obesity accelerate it (Hilgers et al., 2006). –
o Primary teeth care is essential because disease baby teeth can affect the health of
permanent teeth
▪ Brushing consistently, avoiding sugary food, drinking fluoridated water, and
getting topical fluoride treatments and sealants (plastic coatings that protect
tooth surfaces) prevent cavities
o Protection from exposure to tobacco smoke, which suppresses children’s immune
system, including the ability to fight bacteria responsible for tooth decay.
▪ The risk associated with this suppression is greatest in infancy and early
childhood, when the immune system is not yet fully mature (Aligne et al.,
2003).
 ▪ Young children in homes with regular smokers are three times more likely
than their agemates to have decayed teeth. (Shenkin et al., 2004)
Asynchronies in Physical Growth
- Physical growth is asynchronous: Body systems differ in their patterns of growth.
- Body size (as measured by height and weight) and a variety of internal organs follow the
general growth curve
o Curve representing overall changes in body size – rapid growth during infancy, slower
gains in early and middle childhood, and rapid growth again during adolescence.
(insert graph) p. 296

BRAIN DEVELOPMENT
- During early childhood, the brain and head grow more rapidly than any other part of the body.
- The head and brain advance more rapidly than the growth for height and weight. Some of the
brain’s increase in size is due to:
o Myelination
o some is due to an increase in the number and size of dendrites
- From 3 to 6 years of age, the most rapid growth occurs in the frontal lobe areas involved in
planning and organizing new actions and in maintaining attention to tasks.
- From age 6 through puberty, the most dramatic growth takes place in the temporal and
parietal lobe, especially in the areas that play major roles in language and spatial relations.
Improvements
- Between ages 2 and 6, the brain increases from 70% of its adult weight to 90%.
Preschoolers also improve in a wide variety of skills:
o Physical coordination o Language
o Perception o Logical thinking
o Attention o Imagination
o Memory
Refining and Reshaping of the brain
- By age of 4, many parts of the cortex have overproduced synapses (observed mostly in the
frontal lobe)
o Synaptic growth and myelination of neural fibers shows the need of high energy
▪ Through fMRI evidence reveals that energy metabolism in the cerebral cortex
peaks around this age.
o Synaptic growth – more new synapses (increase system of communication of neurons
that support more complex abilities)
• Increase of synapses is due to stimulations, if neurons are stimulated
by input from surrounding environment continues to establish new
synapse.
▪ With the overabundance of synaptic connections supports plasticity of the
young brain
• Helping to ensure that the child will acquire certain abilities even if
some areas are damaged (brain)
o Synaptic pruning follows neurons that are seldom stimulated lose their connective
fibers, and the number of synapses reduced.
• If this happens, there will be decrease of support for the child’s future
development.
• About 40% of the synapse are pruned during childhood and
adolescence
 o To avoid this, there must be appropriate stimulation of the
child’s brain is vital during peaks in formation of synapses.
▪ Myelination – insulating the neural fibers with fatty sheaths (myelin) that
improves efficiency of message transfer.
• Myelination in the areas of the brain related to focusing attention is
not complete until the end of the middle or late childhood.
• Increase in neural fibers and myelination are responsible for the
extraordinary gain in overall size of the brain
o Near 30% of its adult weight at birth increased to 70% at the
age of 2.
o Neural activity in various cortical regions reveal especially rapid growth from 3 to 6
years in frontal-lobe areas which are devoted to attention and planning and
organizing behavior.
(Insert brain parts)
2 Brain Hemispheres
- Early childhood is a time of marked gains on tasks that depend on the frontal cortex – ones
that require inhibiting impulses and substituting thoughtful responses.
a. Left hemisphere is said to be more active between 3 and 6 years then level off
b. Right hemisphere activity increases steadily throughout early and middle childhood with
a slight spurt between age 8 and 10.
Handedness
- By the end of the first year, children typically display a hand preference that, over the next
few years, gradually extend to a wider range of skills.
- Handedness reflects the greater capacity of one side of the brain – the individual’s dominant
cerebral hemisphere – to care out skilled motor actions
o Other important abilities are generally located on the dominate side
▪ For right-handed people: language is housed in the left hemisphere with hand
control
▪ For left-handed: language is in the right hemisphere or, more often, shared
between the hemispheres (Szaflarski et al., 2002).
▪ For the case of ambidextrous children, they are alike with left-handed
children although they prefer their left hand, they sometimes use their right
hand skillfully as well.
• Left-handed parents show only a weak tendency to have left-handed
children.
- Handedness also involved practice.
- Handedness is strongest for complex skills requiring extensive training, such as eating with
utensils, writing, and engaging in athletic activities
o Left-handedness occurs more frequently among severely retarded and mentally ill
people than in the general population, a typical brain is probably not responsible for
these individual’s problem
o Most left-handers, however, have no developmental problems
▪ Left and mixed- handed young people are more likely than the right-handed
agemates to develop outstanding verbal and mathematical talents and more
even distribution of cognitive functions across both hemispheres.
(Insert left and right hands of preschoolers)
Other advances in the Brain development
- Fibers linking the cerebellum to the cerebral cortex grow and myelinate from birth through
the preschool years.
o This change contributes to dramatic gains in motor coordination
▪ By the end of the preschool years, children can play hopscotch, throw a ball
with a well-organized set of movements, and print letters of the alphabet.
▪ Connections between cerebellum and the cerebral cortex also support
thinking (Diamon, 2000): children with damage to the cerebellum usually
display both motor and cognitive deficits, including problems with memory,
planning and language (Noterdaeme et al., 2002; Riva & Giorgi, 2000)
▪ Cerebellum, a structure that aids in balance and control of body movement
- Reticular formation, a structure in the brain stem that maintains alertness and consciousness,
generates synapses, and myelinates throughout early childhood and into adolescence.
o Neurons in the reticular formation send out fibers to other areas of the brain.
- Hippocampus (inner-brain structure) plays a vital role in memory and in image of space that
help find way – undergoes rapid formation of synapses and myelination in the second half of
the first year, when recall memory and independent movement emerge.
- The corpus collosum is a large bundle of fibers that connects the two cerebral hemispheres
o The production of synapses and myelination of the corpus collosum increase at 1
year, peak between 3 and 6 years, then continue at a slower pace through middle
childhood and adolescence
o It supports smooth coordination of movements on both side of the body and
integration of many aspects of thinking, including perception, attention, memory,
language, and problem solving
▪ The more complex the task, the more critical is communication between the
hemispheres.
- Over the preschool and elementary school years, the hippocampus, along with surrounding
areas of the cerebral cortex, continues its swift development, establishing connections with
one another and with the frontal lobes (Nelson, Thomas & de Haan, 2006).
- These changes make possible the dramatic gains in memory and spatial understanding of
early and middle childhood.

INFLUENCES ON PHYSICAL GROWTH & HEALTH

- Heredity remains important, but environmental factors continue to play a crucial role.
Emotional well-being, restful sleep, good nutrition, relative freedom from disease and
physical safety are essential
Heredity and Hormones
- The impact of heredity on physical growth is evident throughout childhood
- Children’s physical size and rate of growth are related to those of their parents (Bogin, 2001)
- Gene influence growth by controlling the body’d production of hormones
- The pituitary gland, located at the base of the brain, plays critical role by releasing two
hormones that induce growth
1. Growth hormone (GH)
o Necessary from birth on for development of all body tissues except the central
nervous system and genitals.
▪ Children who lack GH reach an average mature height of only 4 feet and 4
inches
 • When treated early with injections of GH, such children show catch-
up growth and then grow at normal rate.
2. Thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH)
o Prompts the thyroid gland in the neck to release thyroxine, which is necessary for
brain development and for GH to have its full impact on body size.
Emotional Well-being
- Preschoolers with very stressful home lives (due to divorce, financial difficulties, or parental
job loss) suffer more respiratory and intestinal illnesses and more unintentional injuries than
others.
- Extreme emotional deprivation can interfere with production of GH and lead to psychosocial
dwarfism
o A growth disorder that appears between ages 2 and 15
o Typical characteristics:
▪ Very short stature
▪ Decrease GH secretion
▪ Immature skeletal age
▪ Serious adjustment problems
o Could be treated when child is removed from their emotionally inadequate
environments, their GH levels quickly return to normal, and they grow rapidly. But if
treatment is delayed, the dwarfism can be permanent.
(Insert Psychosocial dwarfism example)
Sleep
- Sleep contributes to body growth, since GH is released during the child’s sleeping hours.
- A national survey indicated that children who do not get adequate sleep are more likely to
show depressive symptoms, have problems at school, have a father in poor health, live in
family characterized by frequent disagreements and heated arguments, and live in an unsafe
neighborhood than children who get adequate sleep (Smaldone, Honig, & Byrne, 2007).
- Well rested children:
o Better able to play, learn and contribute positively to family functioning
- Poorly rested:
o Children who sleep poorly disrupt their parents’ sleep, which can contribute to
significant family stress – a major reason that sleep difficulties are among the most
common concerns parents raise with their preschooler’s doctor.
- Not only is the amount of sleep children get is important, but so is uninterrupted sleep.
o Disruption in 4-5 years old children’s sleep (variability in amount of sleep, variability
in bedtime, and lateness in going to bed) was linked to less optional adjustment in
preschool (Bates & others, 2002).
o Bedtime resistance was associated with conduct problems and hyperactivity in
children (Carvalho Bos & others, 2008).
- On average, total sleep declines in early childhood; 2-3 year old sleep 11 to 12 hours, 4 to 6
year old 10 to 11 hours (National Sleep foundation, 2004).
- Younger preschoolers typically take a 1-2 hours nap in the early afternoon, although their
daytime sleep needs vary widely
- Most children stop napping between ages 3 and 4
- Western culture on sleeping often become rigid about bedtime rituals, such as using the toilet,
listening to a story, getting a drink of water, taking a security object to bed and hugging, and
kissing before turning off the lights
 o This helps the young children adjust to feelings of uneasiness at being left by
themselves in a darkened room
▪ Difficulty falling asleep – calling the parent or asking for another drink of
water – is common in early childhood.
- Non-western culture, parent-child co-sleeping remains the usual practice.
o Co-sleeping is not associated with problems during the preschool years
- Sleep problems
o Most children waken during the night from time to time and those who cannot return
to sleep on their won may suffer from a sleep disorder.
▪ Nightmares – because young children have vivid imaginations and difficulty
separating fantasy from reality, nightmares are common
• Nightmares are frightening dreams that awaken the sleeper more
often toward the morning than just after the child has gone to bed at
night.
• Almost every child has occasional nightmares, but persistent
nightmares might indicate that the child is feeling too much stress
during waking hours.
• Half of 3 to 6-year-old experience them from time to time
▪ 4% of the children are frequent sleepwalkers
• They are unaware of their wanderings during the night
• Gentle awakening and returning the child to bed helps avoid self-
injury
▪ 3% experience sleep terrors.
o In these panic-stricken arousals from deep sleep, the child may scream, thrash, speak
incoherently, show a sharp rise in heart rate and breathing, and initially be
unresponsive to parent’s attempts to comfort.
o Sleepwalking and sleep terrors tend to run in families, suggesting a genetic influence
▪ But they can also be triggered by stress or extreme fatigue.
o Helping the child slow down before bedtime often contributes to less resistance in
going to bed.
▪ Reading the child, a story, playing quietly with the child in the bath, or letting
the child sit on the caregiver’s lap while listening to music are quieting
activities.
o Sleep disorders of early childhood usually subside without treatment but in few cases,
if persistent, medical, and psychological evaluation is needed.
▪ Disturbance to sleep may be sign of neurological or emotional difficulties
resulting to daytime sleepiness often contributes to attention, learning and
behavior problems.
(Insert table of tips for sleeping)
Nutrition
- Early childhood appetite tends to become unpredictable, they become picky eaters
o Appetite decline because their growth has slowed.
o Their wariness of new food is also adaptive: stick to familiar foods, they are less likely
to swallow dangerous substances when adults are not around to protect them
- Preschoolers need a high-quality diet, including the same food adults need, but in smaller
portions/amount.
- Milk and milk products, meat or meat alternatives (eggs, beans, peanut butter), vegetables
and fruits, bread and cereals should be included into their diet.
- Minimum amounts are allowed for fats, oils, and salts because of their link to high blood
pressure and heart disease in adulthood.
- Foods with high sugar should also be avoided, causing to tooth decay and lessen young
children’s appetite for healthy food and increase risk for overweight and obesity.
- Social environment powerfully influences food preferences
o Children imitate food choices and eating practices of people they admire
- Repeated, unpressured exposure to a new food also increases acceptance.
- Offering children sweet fruit or soft drinks promotes “milk-avoidance”
o Compared to their milk-drinking agemates, milk-avoiders are shorter in stature and
have lower bone density – a condition that leads to a lifelong reduction in strength
and to increased risk of bone fractures
- Emotional climate at mealtimes has a powerful impact on children’s eating habits
o Too much parental control over children’s eating limits their opportunities to develop
self-control, thereby promoting overeating
o Unhealthy eating habits and being overweight threaten their present and future
health (Bolling & Daniel, 2008; Reilly, 2009).
o Children’s eating behavior improves when caregivers eat with children on a
predictable schedule, model eating healthy food, make mealtimes pleasant
occasions, and engage in certain feeding styles.
o Distractions from television, family arguments, and competing activities should be
minimized so children can focus on eating.
o Forceful and restrictive caregiver behaviors are not recommended. For example, a
restrictive feeding style is linked to children being overweight (Black & Lozoff, 2008).
- Countries that lack sufficient high-quality food to support healthy growth.
o Poor nutrition in childhood can lead to several problems and occurs more in low-
income than in higher-income families (Larson & others, 2008; Ruel & others, 2008).
o Young children from low-income families are most likely to develop iron deficiency
anemia (Shamah& Villalpando, 2006).
o Most common dietary deficiencies of the preschool years/essential vitamins and
minerals:
▪ Iron – to prevent anemia
▪ Calcium – to support development of bone and teeth
▪ Zinc – to support immune system functioning, neural communication, and cell
duplication
▪ Vitamin A – to help maintain eyes, skin, and a variety of internal organs
▪ Vitamin C – to facilitate iron absorption and wound healing
- Nutritionally deficient diet is associated with attention difficulties, poorer mental scores and
behavior problems – especially hyperactivity and aggression – even after family that might
account for these relationships (such as stressors, parental psychological health, education,
warmth and stimulation of child) are controlled.
- Many experts recommend a program that involves a combination of diet, exercise and
behavior modification to help children lose weight (Wittmeier, Mollar & Keiellaars, 2008).
- Healthy eating and an active rather than a sedentary lifestyle plays important roles in
children’s development (Robbines, Power & Burgess, 2008; Wabitsch. 2009).
- Pediatric nurses play an important role in the health of children, including providing advice to
parents about ways to improve their children’s eating habits and active levels.
Exercise
The following three studies address aspects of families and schools that influence young children’s
physical activity levels:
• Preschool children’s physical activity was enhanced by family members engaging in sports
together and by parents’ perception that it was safe for their children to play outside (Beets &
Foley, 2008).
• Preschool children’s physical activity varied greatly across different child-care centers (Bowers &
others, 2008).
o Active opportunities, presence of fixed portable play equipment, and physical activity
were linked to preschool children’s higher physical activity in the centers.
• Incorporation of a “move and learn” physical activity curriculum increased the activity level of 3 -
to – 5-year-old children in half-day preschool program (Trost, Fees, & Dzewaltowski, 2008).
(insert preschool exercise)
Infectious disease
- Poor diet depresses the body’s immune system, making children fear more susceptible to
disease.
o 10 million annual deaths of children under the age of 5 worldwide, 98% are in
developing countries and 70% are due to infectious diseases.
- Disease, in turn, is a major contributor to malnutrition, hindering both physical growth and
cognitive development.
- Illness reduces appetite and limits the body’s ability to absorb foods, especially children with
intestinal infections
o Ex: In developing countries, widespread diarrhea, resulting from unsafe water and
contaminated foods, lead to several million children deaths each year.
- Immunization
o Childhood diseases have declined dramatically over the past half-century, largely
because of wild spread immunization of infants and young children.
▪ But in large proportion of the population in developing counties, where
children do not receive routine immunizations
▪ 80% who receive a complete schedule of vaccinations int eh first two years,
some do not receive the immunizations they need later, in early childhood
o Causes why inadequate immunizations happens:
▪ No access to health care needs
▪ Inability to pay for vaccines
▪ Fails to schedule vaccination appointments due to stress (work of parents)
▪ Misconceptions about vaccine safety
• Notion that vaccines do not work and weaken the immune system
o Public education programs directed at increasing knowledge about the importance of
timely immunizations are badly needed.
(insert immunization pictures)
Childhood Injuries
- Most of young children’s cuts, bumps, and bruises are minor, but some accidental injuries can
produce serious impairment or even death (Andres, Brouilette, & Brouilette, 2008).
- In addition to motor vehicle accidents, other accidental deaths in children involve drowning,
falls, burns, and poisoning (Lee & others, 2008).
- Unintentional injuries: Leading causes of childhood mortality in industrialized countries.
o Auto collisions, pedestrian accidents, drowning, poisoning, firearm wounds, bruns,
falls, and swallowing of foreign objects.
 o Among injured children and youths who survive, thousands suffer pain, brain damage
and permanent physical disabilities.
o Motor vehicle collisions are by far the most frequent source of injury at all ages,
ranking as the leading cause of death among children more than 1 year old.
- Factors related to childhood injuries
o Accidentals injuries
▪ Due to chance and cannot be prevented
▪ Injuries that occur within a complex ecological system of individual, family,
community, and societal influences
• Example: less supervision to young boys because they are perceived
to be less in danger due to their structure.
o Children with other temperamental characteristics
▪ Irritability, inattentiveness and negative mood
• Greater risk for injury
▪ Children with these trait present child-rearing challenges
▪ They likely to protest when placed in sits, to refuse to take a companion’s
hand when crossing the street and to obey after repeated instruction and
discipline.
o Poverty, low parental education
▪ Parents who must cope with many daily stresses often have little time and
energy to monitor the safety of their youngsters
▪ Broad societal conditions also affect childhood injury
▪ Widespread poverty, rapid population growth, overcrowding in cities, and
heavy road traffic combined with weak safety measures are major causes
▪ Safety devices are neither readily available nor affordable
▪ High rate of births to teenagers, who are neither psychologically nor
financially ready for parenthood
o Besides reducing poverty and teenage pregnancy and upgrading the status of
childcare, additional steps are needed to ensure children’s safety.
- Preventing childhood injuries
o Laws preventing many injuries
o Playground, a common site for injury, can be covered with protective surfaces
o Care safety seats
▪ But implementation of these strategies, parents must have ample time and
emotional resources as well as relevant skills to do so.
• Same for the government and financial aids and programs that may
help improve protection of children from preventable injuries.
- “Positive parenting – an affectionate, supporting relationship with the child; consistent,
reasonable expectations for maturity; and oversight – substantially reduces injury rates,
especially in overactive and temperamentally difficult children.”
(Insert Preschool injuries)
MOTOR DEVELOPMENT
Introduction
- Preschool years, children continue to integrate previously acquired skills into more complex
dynamic systems
- New skills as their bodies grow larger and stronger, their central nervous systems develop,
their environments present new challenges, and they set new goals, aided by gains in
perceptual and cognitive capacities
Gross Motor Development
- At 3 years of age, children enjoy simple movements, they take considerable pride in showing
how they can run across a room and jump all of 5 inches.
- Their bodies become more streamlined and less top-heavy that their center of gravity shifts
downward, toward the trunk
o This results to improvement of their balance and paves way for new motor skills
involving large muscles of the body.
- By age 2, their gaits become smooth and rhythmic
o Secure enough that soon they leave the ground, at first by running and later by
jumping, hopping, galloping, and skilling
- Age 4 years old, they are more adventurous and display their athletic prowess
o Able to climb stairs with one foot on each step for some time and they are just
beginning to be able to come down the same way
- Children become steadier on their feet, arms and torsos are freed to experiment with new
skills
o Throwing and catching balls, steering tricycles, and swinging on horizontal bars and
rings
▪ The upper and lower body skills combine into more refined actions
- 5 and 6-year-olds simultaneously steer and pedal a tricycle and flexibly move their whole body
when jumping.
o They run hard and enjoy races with each other and their parents.
- By the end of the preschool years, all skills are performed with greater speed and endurance.

(Enter Table: Changes in gross and fine motor skills during early childhood)

Fine motor development

- Fine motor skills involve finely tuned movements
o Grasping a toy, suing a spoon, buttoning a shirt, or doing anything that requires finger
dexterity demonstrates fine motor skills
- Because control of the heads and fingers improves, young children put puzzle together, build
with small blocks, cut, and paste, and string beads.
- Fine motor progress is most apparent in two areas:
1. Children’s care of their own bodies
2. Drawings and paintings that fill the walls at home, childcare and preschool.

- At 3 years of age, children have had the ability to pick up the tiniest object between their
thumb and forefinger for some time, but they are still somewhat clumsy at it.
o can build surprisingly high block towers, each block placed with intense concentration
but often not in a completely straight line.
- By 4 years of age, children’s fine motor coordination is much more precise.
 o Have trouble building high towers with blocks because, in their desire to place each
of the block perfectly, they upset those already stacked.
- By age 5, children’s fine motor coordination has improved further.
o Hand, arm, and fingers all move together under better command of the eye.
o Mere towers no longer interest the 5-year-old, who now wants to build a house or a
church, complete with steeple. (Adults may still need to be told what each finished
project is meant to be.)
Self- help skills
- Young children gradually become self-sufficient at dressing and feeding
- 2-year-olds put on and take off simple items of clothing
- Age 3: children can do so well enough to take care of toileting needs by themselves
- Between ages 4 and 5: children can dress and undress without supervision
o At mealtimes, they can use spoon well and can serve themselves
o Age 4, they are adept with a fork
o Age 5 to 6 they can use a knife to cut soft foods
- Roomy clothing with large buttons and zippers and child-sized utensils help children master
these skills.
- They are proud of their independence, and their new skills also make life easier for adults
o But parents must be patient about these abilities
▪ When tired and in hurry, young children often revert to eating with their
fingers
▪ 3-year-olds who dresses himself in the morning sometimes ends up with his
shirt on inside out, his pants on backward, and his left snow boot on his right
foot
o Most complex self-help skill of early childhood is show tying, mastered enough
around age 6
▪ Shoe tying illustrates the close connection between cognitive and motor
development
- Success requires a longer attention span, memory for an intricate series of hand movements,
and the dexterity to perform them
Drawing
- Children scribble in imitation of others
- A variety of factors combine with fine motor control in the development of children’s artful
representation (Golomb, 2004)
- Realization that pictures can serve as symbols, improved planning and spatial understanding,
and the emphasis that the child’s culture places on artistic expression.
Typical drawing progresses through the following sequence:
1. Scribble
- Intended representation is contained in gestures rather than in the resulting marks on the
page
2. First representational forms
- Age 3: children’s scribbles start to become pictures
o Have drawn a recognizable shape, and then decide to label it
Ex: 2-year-old made some random marks son page and then realizing the
resemblance between his scribbles and noodles, named the creation “chicken pie and
noodles” (Winner, 1986)
 - When adults draw with children and point out the resemblance between drawings and
objects, preschooler’s pictures become more comprehensible and detailed (Braswell &
Callanan, 2003)
- A major milestone in drawing occurs when children use lines to represent the boundaries of
objects
o 3-and-4-years-old to draw their first picture of a person
- Fine motor and cognitive limitations lead the preschoolers to create this universal image,
which reduces the figures to the simplest form that still looks human
- 4-year-olds add features, such as eyes, nose, mouth, fair, fingers, and feet.
3. More realistic drawings
- They learn to desire greater realism
- Head and body are differentiated, and arms and legs appear
- Greater realism in drawing occurs gradually, as perception, language (ability to describe visual
details), memory, and dine motor capacities improve (Toomela, 2002)
- Preschooler’s free depiction of reality makes their artwork look fanciful and inventive
o When accomplished artists try to represent people and objects freely, they often
must work hard to achieve what they did effortlessly as 5-and-6-year-olds.
(Insert drawing progress examples of preschoolers)

Cultural variations in development of drawings

- Cultures with rich artistic traditions, children create elaborate drawings that reflect the
conventions of their culture.
- In cultures with little interest in art, even older children and adolescents produce simple
forms.
- Many children who do not go to school and little opportunity to develop drawing skills
- Once children realize that lines must evoke human features, they find solutions to figure
drawing that vary somewhat from culture to culture but, overall, follows a sequence.

Early printing
- They try to write, they scribble, just as they do when they draw
- As they experiment with lines and shapes, notice print in storybooks, and observe people
writing, they attempt to print letter, and later, words
- Around the age of 4, children’s writing shows some distinctive features of print, such as
separate forms arranged a line on the page.
o But children often include picture like devices in their writing – for examples, using
circular shape to write sun.
- Appling their understanding of the symbolic function of drawings, 4-year-olds who are asked
to write typically make a “drawing of print”
- Gradually, between ages of 4 and 6- do children realize that writing stands for language.
o Preschooler’s first attempts to print often involve their name, generally using a single
letter.
o They try to copy pictures
- Between ages 3 and 5, children acquire skill in gripping a pencil
- 3-year-olds display grip patterns and pencil angles varying their grip depending on the
direction and location of the marks they want to make
o By trying out different forms of pencil-holding, they discover the grip and angle they
maximize stability and writing efficiency
 - By age of 5, most children use an adult grip pattern and a fairly constant pencil angle across
a range of drawing and writing conditions (Greer & Lockman,1998)
o Gains in fine motor control, advances in perception contribute to the ability to print.
- Around age 4, they make progress in identifying individual letters
o Mirror-image letter paris (b and d, p and q) are especially hard to discriminate
- The ability to tune in the mirror images and to scan a printed line from left to right improves
as children gain experience with written materials
- More parents and teachers assist preschoolers in their efforts to print, the more advanced
children are in writing and in other aspects of literacy development.
(Insert hand grip progress of children)

Individual differences in motor skills

- Sex differences
o Boys are ahead of girls in skills that emphasize force and power
o By age 5, they can jump slightly further, run slightly faster, and throw a ball about 5
feet farther
o Girls have an edge in fine motor skills and in certain gross motor skills that require a
combination of good balance and foot movements, such as hopping and skipping
(Fishman, Moore & Steele, 1992)
o Boy’s greater muscle mass and in the case of throwing, slightly longer forearms,
contribute to their skill adcantages
▪ Girl’s greater overall physical maturity may be partly responsible for their
better balance and precision of movement
- Sex differences in motor skills increase as children get older
- Social pressure
o Social pressure for boys to be active and physically skilled and for girls to play quietly
at fine motor activities exaggerate small genetically based sex differences.
▪ In support of this view, boys can throw a ball much farther than girls only
when using their dominant hand, when they us their nondominant hand, the
sex difference is minimal.

Enhancing Early childhood Motor development

- Early training in gymnastics, tumbling and other physical activities
o Offer excellent opportunities for exercise and social interaction
- It is recommended that preschoolers engage in at least 60 minutes, and up to several hours,
of unstructured physical activity everyday
- Fine motor development is supported by daily routines, such as pouring juice and dressing,
and play that involves puzzles, construction sets, drawing, painting, sculpting, cutting, and
pasting.
o Exposure to artwork of their own culture and other enhances children’s awareness of
the creative possibilities of artistic media
- Social climate created by adults can enhance or dampen preschooler’s motor development
o When parents and teachers criticize a child’s performance, push a specific motor skill,
or promote a competitive attitude, they risk undermining children’s self-confidence
and, in turn, their motor progress (Berk, 2006a)

Adult involvement in young children’s motor activities should focus on “fun” rather than on winning
or perfecting the “correct” technique.