GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT

The process of growth and development is something that is taken for granted, since it happens to us all and seems to be a normal, natural series with little variation.

The two main influences which affect our development are inherited potential and environmental experience. Our inborn characteristics determine our constitution as members of human species: they determine skin colour, eye coiour, bone structure and internal make-up. These inborn traits govern in a real sense the rate of growth and the limits of biological and physical development.

Some extremists have contended that heredity is the more important determinant of behaviour, implying the mechanistic view of human nature. Others have taken the opposite viewpoint that 'all men are created equal' and the effects of environmental pressures and opportunities cause the main distinction between one man and another. Environment, through learning and experience, certainly nurtures inherited potential so that normal, healthy growth progresses to maturity. The kind of adults we become, however, is the result of the cumulative and combined effects of these two influences.

To discover the ages and stages of growth, many children have carefully been studied and their behaviour recorded. The early years are essentially concerned with movement and physical development. Mental development also occurs, and this will be discussed later.

From the moment of birth, the child appears as a feeding, crying, sleeping, body-waste producer, not very different from any other infant creatures. None of the human characteristics such as speech, thought, sociability and so on, are apparent. Within a few weeks the child's muscles mature enough for him to be able to focus his eyes on things and people around him, and show an awareness of his environment. The reflex patterns of behaviour that are inborn include sucking, breathing, and the other body functions. The infant is so helpless that he cannot even perform such basic survival responses as escape from pain-causing stimuli, or obtaining food and drink, without adult assistance. By six months he can sit up, and at the end of the first year he is usually able to stand and crawl around. Within two or three months more he is on his feet and walking without assistance. Speech development takes place in a somewhat similar manner. In the early months the only sounds are crying or babbling noises. After six months, distinct learned speech sounds can be made, such as 'mamma' and 'dadada'. By the first year these have become 'Mama' and 'Daddy', and are associated with particular people. Although the spoken vocabulary is quite limited at this age, quite a few commands and demands can be clearly understood by the child, such as 'sit still' or 'open wide' or 'don't touch that'. By about fifteen months the child is able to issue one-word demands 01* comments such as 'out' or 'doll'. Soon the words are connected in crude but meaningful combinations of two or three words: 'we want sweet' and 'we play toys'. The child is now becoming a human being, to be influenced by the experi- • ences which make people social.

The first years of human life are characterized by development of language, motor ability, and socialization. The child, however, is quite self-centred in his view of life and generally does not know how 10 cooperate with other children in play and other activities. Children at this age may play in the same location but there is no genuine understanding one for the other. School experiences, however, open up a whole new world for the child. He learns to become partly independent of his mother and home. He learns new facts of life. He learns how to behave in society.

As the child matures he develops more complex powers of reasoning. The child rapidly acquires many intellectual skills, including the ability to use symbols such as letters and numbers. The acquisition of knowledge is also integrated with the development of other skills, such as the ability to play certain games, the use of artistic materials, tools, etc., and the formation of attitudes. The schools are also charged with

the task of moulding the children into useful members of their community and society.

During adolescence the child undergoes changes in his psychological шаке-up as important and significant as those in the first years of life. During this period between the dependency of childhood and freedom of adulthood, the physical, social, and emotional changes that occur sometimes cause dramatic open conflict between the adolescent, his parents, and society. This, of course, is not true of all teenagers, and many youngsters ripen into adulthood with little or no difficulty.

As the adolescent becomes older and stronger and gains more freedom he may abuse his independence or he may become shy and withdrawn. Many adjustments have to be made, many skills learned, and new styles of behaviour have to become a part of the normal life of the individual. Height and weight increase very rapidly, the sex organs mature, and the child now is biologically able to be a parent. Generally, girls enter adolescence two yeais еатНет than boys, and between the ages of H and 15 many girls are taller than the boys. Age 11 is the typical beginning of the adolescent stage for girls and age 13 for boys. During adolescence the rate of growth is faster than at any other stage since early infancy.

Adolescence is often described as 'the awkward age', but in fact there is generally no loss in physical skill and coordination. Tests of physical skills, muscular coordination, and athletic ability show a steady increase in ability during the transitional years.

If a single word were needed to characterize adolescence it would be 'freedom'. They want to be treated like adults and also wish the parents to have tolerance for their efforts to be individualistic, regardless of the consequences. The transition is made most smoothly if the change is anticipated and provisions are made through which the chVid natu ratty assumes more and more independence.

To help themselves over the uncertainties and the feelings of insecurity that permeate this stage of life, teenagers have found that grouping together is an aid to self-protection and psychological self-preservation. There is strength and sympathy and comradeship among members with the same problems.

(L.S. Skurnik , F. George . «Psychology for Everyman». Penguin Books, 1972, pp. 50-56)

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