I.

MODULE 3: PHYSICAL AND MOTOR STAGES OF DEVELOPMENT

“I believe that we learn by practice. Whether it means to learn to dance by practicing

dancing or to learn to live by practicing living, the principles are the same. Practice
means to perform, over and over again in the face of all obstacles, some act of vision, of
faith, of desire. Practice is a means of inviting the perfection desired.” – Martha Graham

II. OVERVIEW

Children grow and develop rapidly in their first five years across the four main areas of
development. These areas are motor (physical), communication and language,
cognitive, and social and emotional. Early intervention services are delivered during this
critical time of development.

Motor development means the physical growth and strengthening of a child’s bones,
muscles and ability to move and touch his/her surroundings. A child’s motor
development falls into two categories: fine motor and gross motor.

Fine motor skills refer to small movements in the hands, wrists, fingers, feet, toes, lips
and tongue. Gross motor skills involve motor development of muscles that enable
babies to hold up their heads, sit and crawl, and eventually walk, run, jump and skip.

Typical motor skill development follows a predictable sequence. It starts from the inner
body, including the head, neck, arms and legs, and then moves to the outer body such
as hands, feet, fingers and toes. Motor development is important throughout a child’s
early life, because physical development is tied to other development areas. For
example, if a child is able to crawl or walk (gross motor skills), he/she can more easily
explore their physical environment, which affects cognitive development. Social and
emotional development progresses when a child can speak, eat and drink (fine motor
skills).

III. LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of the unit the pre-service teacher can:

a. Discuss the concepts and theories related to the physical growth and motor
development of children and adolescents;
b. Examine the factors which influence physical and physiological development;
c. Demonstrate understanding of the various theories on human development
 IV. LEARNING EXPERIENCES AND SELF ASSESSMENT ACTIVITIES

A. Stages of Life

Think about the life span and make a list of what you would consider the periods of
development. How many stages are on your list? Perhaps you have three: childhood,
adulthood, and old age. Or maybe four: infancy, childhood, adolescence, and
adulthood. Developmentalists break the life span into nine stages as follows:

 Prenatal Development
 Infancy and Toddlerhood
 Early Childhood
 Middle Childhood
 Adolescence
 Early Adulthood
 Middle Adulthood
 Late Adulthood
 Death and Dying

This list reflects unique aspects of the various stages of childhood and adulthood that
will be explored in this book. So while both an 8 month old and an 8 year old are
considered children, they have very different motor abilities, social relationships, and
cognitive skills. Their nutritional needs are different and their primary psychological
concerns are also distinctive. The same is true of an 18-year-old and an 80-year-old,
both considered adults. We will discover the distinctions between being 28 or 48 as
well. But first, here is a brief overview of the stages.

Prenatal Development

Conception occurs and development begins. All of the major structures of the body are
forming and the health of the mother is of primary concern. Understanding nutrition,
teratogens (or environmental factors that can lead to birth defects), and labor and
delivery are primary concerns.
Infancy and Toddlerhood

The first year and a half to two years of life are ones of dramatic growth and change. A
newborn, with a keen sense of hearing but very poor vision is transformed into a
walking, talking toddler within a relatively short period of time. Caregivers are also
transformed from someone who manages feeding and sleep schedules to a constantly
moving guide and safety inspector for a mobile, energetic child.

Early Childhood

Early childhood is also referred to as the preschool years consisting of the years which
follow toddlerhood and precede formal schooling. As a three to five-year-old, the child
is busy learning language, is gaining a sense of self and greater independence, and is
beginning to learn the workings of the physical world. This knowledge does not come
quickly, however, and preschoolers may have initially have interesting conceptions of
size, time, space and distance such as fearing that they may go down the drain if they sit
at the front of the bathtub or by demonstrating how long something will take by
holding out their two index fingers several inches apart. A toddler’s fierce
determination to do something may give way to a four-year-old’s sense of guilt for
doing something that brings the disapproval of others.
Middle Childhood

The ages of six through eleven comprise middle childhood and much of what children
experience at this age is connected to their involvement in the early grades of
school. Now the world becomes one of learning and testing new academic skills and by
assessing one’s abilities and accomplishments by making comparisons between self and
others. Schools compare students and make these comparisons public through team
sports, test scores, and other forms of recognition. Growth rates slow down and
children are able to refine their motor skills at this point in life. And children begin to
learn about social relationships beyond the family through interaction with friends and
fellow students.

Adolescence

Adolescence is a period of dramatic physical change marked by an overall physical

growth spurt and sexual maturation, known as puberty. It is also a time of cognitive
change as the adolescent begins to think of new possibilities and to consider abstract
concepts such as love, fear, and freedom. Ironically, adolescents have a sense of
invincibility that puts them at greater risk of dying from accidents or contracting
sexually transmitted infections that can have lifelong consequences.
Early Adulthood

The twenties and thirties are often thought of as early adulthood. (Students who are in
their mid-30s tend to love to hear that they are a young adult!). It is a time when we are
at our physiological peak but are most at risk for involvement in violent crimes and
substance abuse. It is a time of focusing on the future and putting a lot of energy into
making choices that will help one earn the status of a full adult in the eyes of
others. Love and work are primary concerns at this stage of life.

Middle Adulthood

The late thirties through the mid-sixties is referred to as middle adulthood. This is a
period in which aging, that began earlier, becomes more noticeable and a period at
which many people are at their peak of productivity in love and work. It may be a
period of gaining expertise in certain fields and being able to understand problems and
find solutions with greater efficiency than before. It can also be a time of becoming
more realistic about possibilities in life previously considered; of recognizing the
difference between what is possible and what is likely. This is also the age group
hardest hit by the AIDS epidemic in Africa resulting in a substantial decrease in the
number of workers in those economies (Weitz, 2007).
Late Adulthood

This period of the life span has increased in the last 100 years, particularly in
industrialized countries. Late adulthood is sometimes subdivided into two or three
categories such as the “young old” and “old old” or the “young old”, “old old”, and
“oldest old”. We will follow the former categorization and make the distinction
between the “young old” who are people between 65 and 79 and the “old old” or those
who are 80 and older. One of the primary differences between these groups is that the
young old are very similar to midlife adults; still working, still relatively healthy, and still
interested in being productive and active. The “old old” remain productive and active
and the majority continues to live independently, but risks of the diseases of old age
such as arteriosclerosis, cancer, and cerebral vascular disease increases substantially for
this age group. Issues of housing, healthcare, and extending active life expectancy are
only a few of the topics of concern for this age group. A better way to appreciate the
diversity of people in late adulthood is to go beyond chronological age and examine
whether a person is experiencing optimal aging (like the gentleman pictured above who
is in very good health for his age and continues to have an active, stimulating
life), normal aging (in which the changes are similar to most of those of the same age),
or impaired aging (referring to someone who has more physical challenge and disease
than others of the same age).
Death and Dying

This topic is seldom given the amount of coverage it deserves. Of course, there is a
certain discomfort in thinking about death but there is also a certain confidence and
acceptance that can come from studying death and dying. We will be examining the
physical, psychological and social aspects of death, exploring grief or bereavement, and
addressing ways in which helping professionals work in death and dying. And we will
discuss cultural variations in mourning, burial, and grief.

B. Theoretical Perspective

1. Humanistic Perspective (Maslow)

Abraham Maslow’s Humanism

As a leader of humanistic psychology, Abraham Maslow approached the study of

personality psychology by focusing on subjective experiences and free will. He was
mainly concerned with an individual’s innate drive toward self-actualization—a state of
fulfillment in which a person is achieving at his or her highest level of capability. Maslow
positioned his work as a vital complement to that of Freud, saying: “It is as if Freud
supplied us the sick half of psychology and we must now fill it out with the healthy
half.”

In his research, Maslow studied the personalities of people who he considered to be

healthy, creative, and productive, including Albert Einstein, Eleanor Roosevelt, Thomas
Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and others. He found that such people share similar
characteristics, such as being open, creative, loving, spontaneous, compassionate,
concerned for others, and accepting of themselves.

Personality and the Hierarchy of Needs

Maslow is perhaps most well-known for his hierarchy of needs theory, in which he
proposes that human beings have certain needs in common and that these needs must
be met in a certain order. These needs range from the most basic physiological needs
for survival to higher-level self-actualization and transcendence needs. Maslow’s
hierarchy is most often presented visually as a pyramid, with the largest, most
fundamental physiological needs at the bottom and the smallest, most advanced self-
actualization needs at the top. Each layer of the pyramid must be fulfilled before
moving up the pyramid to higher needs, and this process is continued throughout the
lifespan.

Maslow believed that successful fulfillment of each layer of needs was vital in the
development of personality. The highest need for self-actualization represents the
achievement of our fullest potential, and those individuals who finally achieved self-
actualization were said to represent optimal psychological health and functioning.
Maslow stretched the field of psychological study to include fully-functional individuals
instead of only those with psychoses, and he shed a more positive light on personality
psychology.

Characteristics of Self-Actualizers

Maslow viewed self-actualizers as the supreme achievers in the human race. He studied
stand-out individuals in order to better understand what characteristics they possessed
that allowed them to achieve self-actualization. In his research, he found that many of
these people shared certain personality traits.

Most self-actualizers had a great sense of awareness, maintaining a near-constant

enjoyment and awe of life. They often described peak experiences during which they
felt such an intense degree of satisfaction that they seemed to transcend themselves.
They actively engaged in activities that would bring about this feeling of unity and
meaningfulness. Despite this fact, most of these individuals seemed deeply rooted in
reality and were active problem-seekers and solvers. They developed a level of
acceptance for what could not be changed and a level of spontaneity and resilience to
tackle what could be changed. Most of these people had healthy relationships with a
small group with which they interacted frequently. According to Maslow, self-actualized
people indicate a coherent personality syndrome and represent optimal psychological
health and functioning.

Criticism of Maslow’s Theories

Maslow’s ideas have been criticized for their lack of scientific rigor. As with all early
psychological studies, questions have been raised about the lack of empirical evidence
used in his research. Because of the subjective nature of the study, the holistic
approach allows for a great deal of variation but does not identify enough constant
variables in order to be researched with true accuracy. Psychologists also worry that
such an extreme focus on the subjective experience of the individual does little to
explain or appreciate the impact of society on personality development. Furthermore,
the hierarchy of needs has been accused of cultural bias—mainly reflecting Western
values and ideologies. Critics argue that this concept is considered relative to each
culture and society and cannot be universally applied.
 2. Learning Perspective

Learning theory describes how students receive, process, and retain knowledge
during learning. Cognitive, emotional, and environmental influences, as well as prior
experience, all play a part in how understanding, or a world view, is acquired or
changed and knowledge and skills retained.[1][2]
Behaviorists look at learning as an aspect of conditioning and advocate a system of
rewards and targets in education. Educators who embrace cognitive theory believe that
the definition of learning as a change in behavior is too narrow, and study the learner
rather than their environment—and in particular the complexities of human memory.
Those who advocate constructivism believe that a learner's ability to learn relies largely
on what they already know and understand, and the acquisition of knowledge should
be an individually tailored process of construction. Transformative learning theory
focuses on the often-necessary change required in a learner's preconceptions and world
view. Geographical learning theory focuses on the ways that contexts and environments
shape the learning process.
Outside the realm of educational psychology, techniques to directly observe the
functioning of the brain during the learning process, such as event-related
potential and functional magnetic resonance imaging, are used in educational
neuroscience. The theory of multiple intelligences, where learning is seen as the
interaction between dozens of different functional areas in the brain each with their
own individual strengths and weaknesses in any particular human learner, has also
been proposed, but empirical research has found the theory to be unsupported by
evidence.
3. Behaviorism (Pavlov)

The rise in popularity of functionalism and structuralism in the early 1900s spurred a
revolution in psychology. It created many of the original subsets of psychology, such as
Gestalt psychology, behaviorism, and psychoanalysis. Behaviorism is still widely used
today, albeit it is very different from early behaviorism. Unlike functionalism and
structuralism, behaviorism did not look at the mind. Behaviorism only studies
observable, measurable behavior. One of the first experiments that studied the
behavior of animals was performed by Russian physiologist, Ivan Pavlov, in the early
1900s.

Pavlov studied the effect of outside stimuli on body processes. His most famous
experiment involved the salivation reflex in dogs. The salivation reflex is an involuntary,
natural body process that occurs when food is in someone or something’s mouth. In his
experiment, he tried to create the salivation reflex in the dogs when they did not have
food in their mouth. To accomplish this, he would turn on a metronome, and then give
the dogs he was studying food. Naturally, because food was in their mouth, they would
salivate. However, after doing this for a while, when he would turn on the metronome,
the dogs would salivate, even though they were not eating and there was no food in
front of them. This is an example conditioning.

I have a very similar experience with dogs and conditioning. My girlfriend has a dog who
is somewhat unruly. She loves to bark and does not listen well. In order to attempt to
calm her down, I began to teach her different tricks using different hand motions. These
ranged from staying quiet, to sitting, to laying down. For example, to get her to sit I hold
my hand out like I am telling someone to stop, and I fold it down. Then to get her to lay
down, I close my hand into a fist. To reinforce the idea that she would have to stay in
these positions, I would give her a dog treat. After a few weeks, she would do what I
would signal her to do without treats, however she would still expect them. After a few
months, on command she could do whatever signal I showed her. Pavlov and I did not
use the same method and did not control the same reflexes, however we both
conditioned the dogs to do something involuntarily. Pavlov used classical conditioning,
using the sound of the metronome in the background to stimulate a response. I used
operant conditioning to elicit a response. Good behavior was rewarded and bad
behavior was punished.

Behaviorism (Skinner)

In Skinner's operant conditioning process, an operant referred to any behavior that acts
on the environment and leads to consequences. He contrasted operant behaviors (the
actions under our control) with respondent behaviors, which he described as anything
that occurs reflexively or automatically such as jerking your finger back when you
accidentally touch a hot pan.
Skinner identified reinforcement as any event that strengthens the behavior it follows.
The two types of reinforcement he identified were positive reinforcement (favorable
outcomes such as reward or praise) and negative reinforcement (the removal of
unfavorable outcomes).
Punishment can also play a role in the operant conditioning process.
According to Skinner, punishment is the application of an adverse outcome that
decreases or weakens the behavior it follows.
A punishment involves presenting a negative reinforcer (prison, spanking, scolding)—
which some refer to as positive punishment—or removing a positive reinforcer (taking
away a favorite toy), which is also known as a negative punishment.
4. Social-Cognitive Theory (Bandura)
Bandura's social cognitive theory of human functioning emphasizes the critical role of
self-beliefs in human cognition, motivation, and behavior. Social cognitive theory gives
prominence to a self-system that enables individuals to exercise a measure of control
over their thoughts, feelings, and actions. In putting forth this view, Bandura
reinvigorated the nearly abandoned focus on the self in the study of human processes
that William James initiated nearly a century earlier. Social cognitive theory is an
agentic and empowering psychological perspective in which individuals are proactive
and self-regulating rather than reactive and controlled either by environmental or
biological forces. Instead, the beliefs that people have about themselves are key
elements in their exercise of control and of personal, cultural, and social achievement.
It is because of their beliefs about their own capabilities – their self-efficacy beliefs –
that people are able to exercise the self-influence required to contribute to the types of
persons they become and their achievements.

Social cognitive theory (SCT) is one of the most frequently applied theories of health
behavior (Baranowski et al., 2002). SCT posits a reciprocal deterministic relationship
between the individual, his or her environment, and behavior; all three elements
dynamically and reciprocally interact with and upon one another to form the basis for
behavior, as well as potential interventions to change behaviors (Bandura, 1977a, 1986,
2001). Social cognitive theory has often been called a bridge between behavioral and
cognitive learning theories, because it focuses on the interaction between internal
factors such as thinking and symbolic processing (e.g., attention, memory, motivation)
and external determinants (e.g., rewards and punishments) in determining behavior.
A central tenet of social cognitive theory is the concept of self-efficacy – individuals’
belief in their capability to perform a behavior (Bandura, 1977b). Behaviors are
determined by the interaction of outcome expectations (the extent to which people
believe their behavior will lead to certain outcomes) and efficacy expectations (the
extent to which they believe they can bring about the particular outcome) (Bandura,
1977b, 1997). For example, individuals may hold the outcome expectation that if they
consistently use condoms, they will significantly reduce risk of becoming HIV-infected;
however, they must also hold the efficacy expectation that they are incapable of such
consistent behavioral practice. Behavior change would necessitate bringing outcome
and efficacy expectations in alignment with one another. SCT emphasizes predictors of
health behaviors, such as motivation and self-efficacy, perception of barriers to and
benefits of behavior, perception of control over outcome, and personal sources of
behavioral control (self-regulation) (Bandura, 1977a, 1977b). Another important tenet
with respect to behavioral and learning is SCT's emphasis that individuals learn from
one another via observation, imitation and modeling; effective models evoke trust,
admiration and respect from the observer, and they do not appear to represent a level
of behavior that observers are unable to visualize attaining for themselves. Thus, a
change in efficacy expectations through vicarious experience may be effected by
encouraging an individual to believe something akin to the following: “if she can do it,
so can I”. SCT has been critiqued for being too comprehensive in its formulation, making
for difficulty in operationalizing and evaluating the theory in its entirety (Munro et al.,
2007). Moreover, some researchers using SCT as a theoretical basis have been criticized
for using only one or two concepts from the theory to explain behavioral outcomes
(Baranowski et al., 2002).
V. SUMMARY
Growth and development are the result of both nature and nurture. They are
influenced by a combination of genetic, biological, environmental, and experiential
factors. An individual child’s progression through the developmental stages is the result
of a unique mix of physical and mental predispositions and attributes, as well as
environmental conditions, such as poverty, prenatal drug exposure, or empathic
parenting. Development occurs across a number of interconnected domains.
Development in each domain is closely interwoven with development in the others,
though it may not proceed evenly across domains in a parallel fashion (e.g., language
development may at times outstrip physical development or vice versa.) In this book,
we consider three major domains: physical, cognitive/linguistic, and socioemotional.
Different writers may divide domains somewhat differently—for instance, treating
moral development or language development as separate domains rather than a part of
socioemotional or cognitive development. But, however it is presented, the information
is essentially the same. Development is progressive over time. It unfolds in a series of
stages in a consistent sequence. Though each individual develops in a unique way, the
sequence of development is consistent for all individuals. For example, in general,
children gain control over their bodies from head to toe and from the center out. An
infant will be able to focus his or her eyes and follow an object before being able to lift
his or her head. For each stage of development, there are milestones that tell whether
or not the individual has achieved typical, or “normal,” development in the three
domains. More broadly, there are developmental tasks that each individual needs to
complete for each major developmental stage in each domain before he or she can
proceed with optimum hope for success to the next stage. If tasks at a particular stage
are not adequately completed, problems are likely to appear at future stages of
development. Individuals’ development does not always proceed evenly or at the same
rate. Some degree of variation around what is considered the normal time for an
individual to complete a developmental task should still be considered within the
normal range. These normal variations would be smaller in the case of an infant in a
period of rapid growth and development, but might be as much as six months for an
adolescent. Development proceeds most rapidly in the earliest months and years of life,
especially before age five. Deficiencies in care at that stage can have especially serious
effects on physical, cognitive, and social development. For example, rapid brain and
body growth before age two makes infants highly susceptible to malnutrition, which, if
not corrected, can lead to brain damage, mental retardation, and/or growth
retardation. For most individuals, growth and development occur within a family or
family-like context.

VI. LEARNING ASSESSMENT ACTIVITIES

A. List down the physical characteristics of individuals at different stages of

physical development.
B. Outline the developmental stages from childhood to adolescent.
C. Write a reflection paper about the topic.