Growth and Development
Domain focus
Growth and development questions test the difference between quantitative growth and qualitative development, the stages of life, and the factors that shape them. Adolescence is the most examined stage.
Core concepts
- Growth: increase in size, height, weight and organ mass - measurable and quantitative.
- Development: functional and behavioural change - qualitative, e.g., motor skill, reasoning, emotional control.
- Stages: infancy, early childhood, later childhood, adolescence, adulthood, old age.
- Adolescence: puberty, growth spurt, secondary sexual characteristics, identity formation; girls usually begin the growth spurt earlier than boys.
- Factors: heredity, nutrition, hormones, environment, exercise, sleep, disease and socio-economic conditions.
- Principles: development is sequential, cumulative and individual; rates differ between children of the same age.
Worked example
Two 14-year-old boys are 160 cm tall. One has already had his growth spurt; the other has not. The first may grow only 2 cm more, the second 12 cm. Reasoning: chronological age is not biological age. A coach should group by maturity status, not age alone, for strength and contact work.
Traps
- Using growth and development interchangeably.
- Assuming all 14-year-olds are at the same maturational stage.
- Ignoring nutrition and sleep as growth factors.
- Treating a late maturer as less talented.