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Chapter 8: Physical Development The development of motor skills such as
walking, stair climbing and running are typically referred to as gross motor
skills
occur early on during the preschool years. Children extend their arms outward
and separate their legs to keep their balance when walking. In the second or third year
improvements allowed them to lower their arms to their sides without loss of
balance. They begin to swing their arms ultimately forward and backward and
synchronize it with their leg movements to achieve an adult walking pattern.
Children attempt to stair climb in their first year in a sitting or crawling
position. The center of gravity is lower prevent falling Infants may crawl up a few steps
and become frightened and begin to cry because they don't have a reverse gear.
The first true stair climb involves marking time by using one foot to raise
the body to a higher step followed by bringing up the next foot to the same step. This
happens probably the second half of the third year. Children can alternate feet
to ascend by the end of the third year and alternate feet to descend by the end of
the fourth year. Running in the beginning
looks typically like a quick walk with momentary airborne periods. This begins to
occur between four and six years
Jumping and hopping skills are generally facilitated by playing games and these games usually
involve balls or ropes.
Jumping develops in a fixed sequence. Toddlers make elementary attempts to jump
off the ground during their second year but they have little control over the
landing. At the end of the second year they manage a simple two-footed landing
however as they progress they develop a forward long jump. Gradually they learnt
to crouch their legs hold their arms back and lean into the jump for an extra
distance. This jump should measure about 20 inches by the fourth year. Generally 27
inches by the fifth year and 38 inches by the sixth year.
Hopping is more challenging to the preschooler because it requires so much coordination
and balance. It really doesn't begin to emerge competently until the end of
the fourth year. Some children fully embrace the activities accomplished by
their gross motor skills yet others shy away from them.
Self-help skills are something that the preschooler involves him or herself in too. and these
self-help skills usually involve both gross motor and fine motor skills.
Self-help we usually define as grooming and feeding. Grooming refers to
washing, brushing teeth, dressing oneself and so forth. Some of these skills do
reflect a child's cognitive level. For example, oftentimes caregivers will
lament that young child will only wash his or her nose. This relates directly to the
Piagetian notion of centration or focusing only on one dimension. One of
the most frequently asked questions when we talk about potty training is when should
training occur. In Western society, children are usually viewed as ready
around the end of the second year. Generally, we wait until the children signal
that they're ready. For example, when the child recognizes that a bowel movement is
about to occur. Bowel training generally precedes daytime bladder training.
The entire process can take from several weeks to several months and generally this
occurs during the third year. If the child has not learned to control the
bladder by the end of the third year then we refer to it as enuresis. Although
night time enuretic
children show no psychological maladjustment, generally
daytime accidents are reported to lower the child's self-esteem. The preschool period
is often referred to as the play years. Children's play is actually their work.
Joe Frost and Sue Worthington have proposed how to build developmentally appropriate
playgrounds for young children and five key elements to follow:
1) Plan the playground with children. What a novel idea huh? Include
the children in the planning phase to ensure that their emotional and physical
needs are incorporated into the design. 2) Establish guidelines for
safety.
Follow the guidelines of the Consumer Product Safety Commission and consider
the unique perspective of each child at each stage of development.
3) Enhance natural features of the environment.
Make use of the natural landscape add plants, trees and grass. 4) Survey
the permanent features of the planned site and incorporate these features into
the design. Be aware of the location of utilities and plan for proper drainage
and certainly plan for future expansion and number 5) Consider the play and
developmental needs of children. Play equipment should facilitate every facet
of development motor, cognitive, social and emotional and it should stimulate
creativity, problem-solving and just plain fun.
Play has a profound effect on child development and I'd like to take a few
minutes and review play at different ages. We talk specifically about preschool play
because there are certain characteristics associated with
preschool play that we don't see in middle childhood play and further on. The
general characteristics of three year olds are that they're highly imaginative.
They show an expansion in their fantasy lives. They have greater abilities
now to do imaginative play and we see the appearance of unrealistic fears.
For example, 3 year olds may be afraid of the dark. They may think there are
monsters under their bed. They may fear loud noises in particular. However, the three-year-old
does begin to identify with adults and they are very interested what adults do.
They imagine themselves doing the same things. We see an interest in dramatic play
with three-year-olds. This is when the three-year-old can act out adult roles.
For example, playing house where the roles of the mother and father and children are
assigned to different play members. Dramatic play also indicates a social
maturity because, in dramatic play, we see appreciation of the roles of others and it
certainly does depend on cooperation of all the players. It's interesting to note
that 70% of all such play of three year olds occurs in a group setting . The
three-year-old, and this is such a big difference from a two-year, or a 24
months old,
we see a willingness to conform to others' expectation. These children are
able to share now. They will wait their turn although they may be impatient. They do
cooperate with adults and they begin to cooperate with their peers because they
recognize the value of membership in a group. They're interested in how their
behavior affects the world and they move from process to product or they move from
actions to end results as a focus. Three year olds draw a great deal of satisfaction
from making things they can show to others and these others include their
caregivers and their peers. Many of the products are happy accidents.
Three-year-olds are not planful in deciding on goals and following through on them yet
Play materials could be props for imaginative play such as adult clothing, dress
ups, eyeglasses doctors kits and miniature toys that represent
adult models. For example, toy trucks and dolls. With 3 year olds, they play with things that are
familiar to them but in different ways. They may they incorporate blocks into
fantasy play now or they may create houses with tunnels and streets which reflect
the adult world because they're becoming more and more interested in what the adult is
doing. We do see the signs of product orientation and toys should be selected
with the possibility of a child's accomplishment. For example, a
two-year-old enjoys finger painting for the sensory appeal. A three-year-old is
interested in the results, too. However there's a joyin the accomplishment
and an interest in displaying the creation. Art materials, for example, might
include paint brushes, easels, markers, pens and crayon.
The four-year-old has a slightly different set of characteristics. The four-year-old
tends to be more secure and self-confident. Physically, the four-year-old can stand
on one foot . The four-year-old might begin to show signs of roller skating, an
increased sense of balance. A four year old can ride a small bicycle with training
wheels and this really increases the physical space that the 4 year old can cover
especially when there are wheels to help motivate and help the child travel.
Their small muscle control is much more sophisticated as well. They can button large buttons. They can
tie their shoelaces now. They can draw and cut things out of paper and they also paint
and color too. 4 year olds are product oriented but the products are often
unintentional too. 4 year olds may make plans but these plans may shift along the way or
become distorted through distraction. Four-year-old are very involved in the
process of identification with adults. They're becoming extremely aware of
their own masculinity or femininity and they may go to great lengths to
demonstrate their similarities as a same-sex parent. The focus on adult play
may cause a four-year-old to engage in immature behaviour designed to elicit adult
attention and approval. For example the four-year-old may crowd around. They may brag or show off
Children may often remark, "Hey, look at me!" or "See what I can do?" Eventually
this behavior can lead to risky and dangerous situations. Their play
materials reflect their increasing social ability and the fact that they can cover more
ground in their daily wanderings. Consequently, we see the emergence of
Big Wheels, tricycles, wagons.
Toys that help develop their small muscle skills include materials for "sewing"
and I say sewing in
quotations because obviously we would not allow preschoolers to use needles.
Woodworking, stringing beads, coloring, painting, drawing, pick up sticks, Jack
computer keyboards and also books, books at any type that are appropriate for a 4 year
old. 5 year olds show logical thought, much more so than the four-year-old and certainly completely
different in the way that logical thought is expressed by a three-year-old. They are
more stable. Children tend to be predictable and reliable, certainly less
self-centered. They're willing to share and willing to take turns and cooperate.
The five-year-old likes to please their parents. Remember I'm talking on average.
If you have individual differences with children that you know who are five-years-old
or your own five-year-old and certainly that's an individual difference. I'm
talking on average so - I can see some of the class saying, "Oh my goodness this doesn't describe my
five-year-old or three-year-old or four-year-old." That's not unusual. Their
fears are really based on reality. For example, physical dangers such as accidents, war and
illnesses. And now they want an entire costume and the store bought props. Even
though they may be imaginative, they want to look realistic. We no longer can
give a child a bowl to wear on his or her head to pretend it's a hat or helmet.
They need to have the authentic realistic looking prop.
The playing materials with five year olds tend to be more precise and realistic.
The child seeks direction from the adult now and tends to compare and judge
work based on comparing the work with others. And when the child compares that work
with others the child may not necessarily be comparing his or her work with their
peers. They may be using a prototypical model that is adult designed so it's very
important to understand some of the physical and developmental restrictions when
the child is participating in some sort of product oriented event. 5 year olds tend to want to increase
their skills to master the skills and certainly for any type of event or
project the child is doing there should be appropriate directions involved. Children
now use toys that may resemble work benches. They certainly like to play
cards and there's a new type of immersion into the area of games and these
games to be board games or table games that the child likes to participate in.
We do see the emergence of a more complicated understanding of rules and
certainly, even though you're playing with children with board game and you
think the child knows the rules there still is a tendency to make the rules up
as they go along on the child's part. However, the child can probably see the
other person's perspective now and rules play a very important part of a game. It's
interesting to note that before the 1900's in United States playgrounds were
nonexistent. However, in the early nineteen hundred's playgrounds began to flourish
and by 1916 there were more than 3,000 playgrounds in over 500 American cities.
The earliest playgrounds were paved areas. They were enclosed by high fences with
slides,
swings, jungle gyms and see-saws and certainly this has been the prescription
for playgrounds for the past 50 years. These types of playgrounds are very easy to
maintain and the metal equipment is nearly indestructible and I think nearly
indestructible because we probably all know of incidences that occurred that
proved otherwise.
The children focus on physical play in these areas, not fantasy or social play but
physical play. The question that often comes to the forefront is should
traditional equipment be removed from children's playgrounds in order to
stimulate creative thinking and I think this is the question probably almost
every caregiver
person interested in child development has since probably confronted along
the way. It certainly depends on the
objectives. If the goal is to stimulate physical exercise then certainly the
traditional equipment is adequate. Children certainly physically get a lot of
exercise by using the typical swing, jungle gym (although I personally think the jungle
gyms can be very dangerous that's my opinion I certainly welcome yours)
But how is this affecting the creativity of the child? Certainly an excellent
question. We're beginning to see more and more of creative playgrounds coming to the
forefront that are addressing a different objective. If we look at the
classroom and the arrangement of space, we usually see that classroom's divided
into specific play areas of varying sizes and degrees seclusion. There's usually
a block area, an art area, an area for large muscle exercise, for play, housekeeping
areas and so forth. The major reason is to maximize flexibility, enhance the
overall quality of play. Children play differently in different areas. For
example, in smaller spaces there is less running around and less rough-and-tumble play
and rough and tumble play,research indicates, can be very important in terms
of leadership skills.
Children's attention should be focused on the activity the space was designed
for. However, if the space becomes overcrowded then the child's play can be
interfered with rather than facilitated. large spaces encourage large muscle
activity and by large muscle activity I'm referring to running and jumping and so
forth and large spaces may discourage quiter forms of play. So if you're
looking for a child to sit down and read a book quietly, you may have not wanted
to design a huge spacious, open space for this. This may be something that would lend
itself
typically to the environment of a smaller, quieter area. We'll continue to talk about play
throughout the next two lectures because, as I said before, children's work is
their play and play is extremely important for children to learn about adult
roles to develop leadership abilities. In the next lesson on cognitive development
in preschool, we'll talk about how some of the cognitive advances invite
imaginative play and what that may lead to. So this is the end of chapter 8. If you
have any questions regarding the material that I have presented to you
please feel free to email me or give me a call. My telephone number at work is
581 3146
