Child Growth and Development: Overview

Child Growth Development:

Human development is the lifelong process of physical, behavioral, cognitive, and emotional growth and change. The assessment of child growth and development is very helpful in finding out the state of health and nutrition of a child. Continuous normal child growth and development indicate a good state of health and nutrition of a child. Some factors affecting the normal child growth and development process of the child.

Child growth and development
Child growth and development

A child’s growth and development can be divided into four periods such as-

  1. Infancy,
  2. Preschool years,
  3. Middle childhood years,
  4. Adolescents.

Child Growth:

Child-growth refers to progressive structural and physiological changes in the size of a child’s body. Physical growth includes gaining full height and appropriate weight and an increase in the size of all organs.

Various measurements are used to measure normal and standard physical growth. Those are-

  • Weight,
  • Height,
  • Head circumference,
  • Mid upper arm circumference ( MUAC),
  • The eruption of teeth.

Child Development:

Child development is the progressive growth of various functions and capabilities of children such as head support, speaking, learning, expressing their feelings.

Types of Child Development:

There are three types of child development, which are-

  1. Intellectual child development,
  2. Emotional and Behavioral child development,
  3. Sensory and Motor child development.
All three child development types are discussed below:

1. Intellectual child Development:

Intellectual child development is a child’s capacity for understanding, thinking, and reasoning his world. It is about how individuals organize their minds, ideas, and thoughts to make sense of the world where they live

2. Emotional and Behavioral child development:

Emotional and behavioral child development is a child’s capacity for controlling their mood or temperament. Every child has an individual temperament or mood. Children gradually learn how to manage their feelings and adapt to the new situation.

3. Sensory and Motor child development:

Sensory and motor child development skills involve the ability to use large muscles for movements such as lifting the head, crawling, or walking and distinguishing taste, touch, vision, hearing through movement and exploration.

Factors affecting Child Growth and Development:

The rate of children’s growth and development varies considerably from child to child. Children growth and development rate depends in part on:

  1. Heredity,
  2. Constitutional makeup like father and mother,
  3. Nationality,
  4. Sex,
  5. Fetal hormones and fetal growth factors,
  6. Environment and climate,
  7. Nutritional status,
  8. Socio-economical status of the family,
  9. Physical problems in the child,
  10. Illness and injury during birth,
  11. Infections and infestations.

The above points are the most important factors for child growths and development.

More questions related to this topic:

  1. Normal Growth and Development.
  2. Your Child’s Growth and Development.
  3. Children Growth and Development Stages.
  4. Childhood Development – Pediatrics.
  5. Growth and Development, Ages 2 to 5 Years-Topic Overview.
  6. What is the Age of a Kid?
  7. What is the Age of a Toddler and Infant?
  8. What is the Ages and Stages Questionnaire?
  9. What is the Development of a Child?

3 thoughts on “Child Growth and Development: Overview”

  1. Hi Mona, Good writing. Your writing is really helpful for health care providers as well as nursing students. keep it up.

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