Growth and Development
Growth and development is a short unit with heavy mark value. The board tests the growth/development distinction, the principles governing them, the stages, and the factors affecting growth - typically as a 2-mark definition, a 4-mark difference table, or a 6-mark factors question.
Growth versus development
- Growth - quantitative, measurable increase in body size and mass: height, weight, bone length, muscle girth. It stops at maturity.
- Development - qualitative change in function and capacity: motor skill, cognitive ability, emotional control, social behaviour. It continues through life. Growth is one part of development; development is the wider term.
Principles
- Cephalocaudal - head to tail: head and brain mature before trunk and legs.
- Proximodistal - centre to periphery: shoulder and upper arm are controlled before the fingers.
- Continuity - growth proceeds without a break, though not at uniform speed.
- Order and sequence - predictable stages: infancy, childhood, adolescence, adulthood.
- Individual variation - same-age children differ in rate; heredity plus environment decide.
- General to specific - gross movements appear before fine coordinated ones.
Factors affecting growth
Heredity; nutrition (protein, calcium, iron, vitamins); hormones (growth hormone, thyroid, sex hormones at puberty); exercise and sleep; disease and infection; socio-economic conditions; climate and environment.
Worked example
Q: Why can a 14-year-old boy catch a ball with his hands before he can dribble it cleanly with his feet? The examiner wants proximodistal and cephalocaudal reasoning: the trunk and upper limbs mature earlier, so hand control precedes refined foot control, and gross movement precedes fine coordination. Naming both principles and applying them earns full marks; an answer about “practice” alone does not.
Traps
- Calling growth qualitative.
- Listing principles without an illustrative example.
- Forgetting that the pubertal growth spurt raises height and weight sharply without producing mature skill.