Human Development: Life Span Approach and Child Care
This domain is tested through the principles of development, the stages of the life span with their milestones, and the childcare facts - feeding, immunisation, play - that follow from them.
Principles of development
- Development is lifelong, multidimensional, multidirectional, plastic and contextual.
- It follows cephalocaudal (head to tail) and proximodistal (centre outward) direction, and moves from general to specific responses.
- Sequence is common to all children, but rate varies.
Stages and what changes
- Prenatal: germinal, embryonic, fetal. Teratogens include alcohol, smoking, drugs, infection and poor maternal nutrition; folic acid reduces neural tube defects.
- Infancy (0–2 years): fastest growth; exclusive breastfeeding to 6 months; motor milestones roughly head control 3 months, sitting 6–8 months, standing with support 9–10 months, walking 12–15 months; attachment forms.
- Early childhood (2–6): language expands, symbolic play, preoperational thought and egocentrism (Piaget).
- Middle childhood (6–11): concrete operational thought, school and peer group, industry versus inferiority (Erikson).
- Adolescence (11–19): puberty and growth spurt, secondary sexual characters, formal operational thought, identity versus role confusion, peer pressure, higher iron and calcium needs.
- Adulthood and old age: work, parenthood, menopause, retirement, empty nest.
Child care essentials
Exclusive breastfeeding for six months, complementary feeding from six months, full immunisation (BCG, OPV and hepatitis B at birth; pentavalent, rotavirus and PCV from six weeks; MR and JE at 9–12 months; boosters in the second year), play as learning, and positive discipline rather than physical punishment.
Worked example
A mother says her 8-month-old refuses dal water and still breastfeeds only. Answer: after six months breast milk alone cannot meet energy, iron and zinc needs. Start thick, mashed home foods three times a day, continue breastfeeding to two years, add a little oil for energy, introduce one new food every three days, and plot weight on the growth chart.
Traps
- Quoting a milestone age as fixed for every child.
- Recommending honey or plain water below six months.
- Mixing the ages of Piaget's preoperational and concrete operational stages.