Psychology Physical Development of Children

Question: Discuss about thePsychologyfor Physical Development of Children. Answer: Introduction The surroundings and the environment plays an important role in the growth and development of the child. It is necessary for the parents and educators to provide required resources for the development of the children at early stage. There is a development of fundamental motor skills in the children as they grow which is considered important for the growth and development of the children (Benson Haith,2010). This report emphasizes on the analysis of the physical development of the children. It focuses on the impact of culture on the development of the child and different motor skills which are developed in child throughout different years. Impact of Culture on the Physical Development of Children There is a significant impact of the culture on physical development of children. In some cultures, more importance is given to self esteem and independence while in other culture, interdependence and strong connections are considered important. In the classroom, the differences exists between their different cultures is bridged by their educators. It is essential that the intervention programs are flexible and adjusted as per the cultures so that the families can incorporate different attributes in children in a smooth manner in their life. There is an existence of diverse culture in Australia as majority of the Australians were born in other countries due to which approximately 400 types of languages are spoken in Australia. This is the reason that the educational and care services of children have a regular contact with the parents of children in Australia (Bornstein, 2014). Children learn different aspects of the world by the way of behaviors, values, beliefs, traditions, languages and behaviors. The development of the children through the experience of different cultures exists in the country. Children learn different abilities and skills exist in the culture to which they belong. The different perspectives of culture help parents to understand the needs of their children and provide them the information to develop new skills (Palisano, Campbell Orlin, 2014). People identify their groups on the basis of ethnicity, values, beliefs, birthplace, country of origin and languages. The presence of cultural diversity helps in building and maintaining strong relationships with other people (Harrison Huntington, 2000). The existence of positive relationships among the lives of people results in the prevention of the feeling of depression and anxiety. Children feel connected with their culture when there is an existence of warm and secure emotional connections with the adults who are in a regular contact to children. Children who have a strong sense of their own culture and traditions build a positive cultural identity for themselves. This results in building a strong well being of the children in terms of physical and mental health (Hewlett Lamb, n.d.). Young children develop and learn through early experiences and relationships as they grow older, they have a sense of identify them to which culture they belong. In the early childhood stage, children learn to make differences among people and start to make their own opinion related to the existing differences. For example children learn to make a difference between a family member and a stranger. Young children are also very sensitive to the experiences of prejudice and racism in the society. This has a significant impact on the emotional and social wellbeing and social relationships. Young children have a curiosity to make a differences and categorise different things in different ccategories and focus on one thing at one time. For example, children make a difference between the color of skin with the other children (Willoughby Wood, 2008). Such type of differences helps children to organize their experiences in a systematic manner. Children talk about their differences with other children which results in developing a good feeling in the children and feel appreciated to consider the diversity in themselves and others. People migrate from one place to another for varied reasons and find challenges and difficulties due to presence of diverse backgrounds in terms of language, migration and resettlement, discrimination and racism. There is an implementation of inclusive practices for the purpose of building strong connections in the society. It is essential for the educators to familiar with the families of children in order to meet the need for learning, wellbeing and society of the children (Rogoff, 2003). The knowledge of these needs helps in building relationships with a true foundation and understanding with parents and carers. It helps in building a positive difference in the mental health and wellbeing of the children. It also helps in addressing the discrimination and difficulties that occur in early childhood stage. The educators promote mutual respect for diversity among the dierse backgrounds of children and families. The educators feel connected and take full participation in the environment created by the educators. A sense of belongingness help children to understand and appreciate differences existed in themselves and others. Educators also help families to make contacts with other families for the purpose of building strong mental health of their children (Greenfield, 2014). In addition to this, there is an existence of difference in the parenting styles and development stages in children belonging to different cultures. In the American culture, authoritative parenting style is adopted for the successful physical and mental development of the children. The development of children is hindered by the presence of race and racial stereotypes. Such stereotypes have a strong influence on the development of the children. the social milestones such as the determination of the age at which the child begin formal schooling differs from one culture to another. In the authoritative parenting style, emphasis is given on maintenance of high self esteem and social skills while in authoritarian style emphasis is given on conformity and obedience (NabuzokaEmpson, 2009). Difference Between Locomotor, Non-Locomotor and Manipulative Movement in Children The occurrence of fundamental body movements considered as a building block for complex physical movements such as exercising, dancing and playing sports. This is the reason that at the stage of early childhood, it is necessary for the children to excel in the fundamental body movements. The children become active when they excel in the fundamental body movements at the early age. If the fundamental movements are not learnt by the students at early age with excellence, they find difficulty in participating in different physical activities (Gershoff, et al., 2013). There are broadly three types of fundamental body movements such as locomotor, nonlocomotor and manipulative movements. Locomotor body movements refer to the movement of the body from one place to another. There are eight locomotor movements such as walking, running, leaping, hopping, jumping , galloping, sliding and skipping. These movements are divided into even and uneven rhythm movements. Uneven rhythm movements consist of unequal actions. Skipping, galloping and sliding are considered as uneven rhythm movements and the remaining above metioned movements are considered as even rhythm movements (Pica, 2008). These movements help children to move their body in a forward, backward and upward direction. These skills help in building gross motor skills in an efficient manner. It is necessary for the children to practice different locomotor skills in order to excel in the movement of each skill. For example, the child who has excelled in the hop movement can play the hopscotch in a better manner. In addition to this, the child who has practiced running and achieve excellence in this locomotor skill can easily participate in the relay race. On the other hand in the non-locomotor skills, there is an occurrence of the body movements in a stationary position. In such type of body movements, there is no occurrence of movement of the body from one place to another (Jackman, 2011). The different body movements that are regarded as non- locomotor movements include stretching, lifting, extending, bending, flexing, swinging, rotating, turning, twisting, dodging, wiggling, shaking and so on. In addition to this, human beings carry out non locomotor skills and locomotor skills in a simultaneous manner such as arms are swing during jogging and knees are bend while jumping. These body movements are sometimes referred to as axial movements. People should perform these body movements in order to remain healthy (Pica, 2012). Children should perform these movements as it helps in building strong bones that provide strength to children to perform different tasks in an easy and quick manner. These skills help children to maintain stability and control in different positions while performing different physical activities. Children develop these skills at different ages as they perform the task at different rates. For example 4 to 6 months baby starts rolling, moving forward and pushing their legsand learn to sit with support. Babires of 8 to 12 months start crawling, climbing on the furniture and rolling. Such activities helps in the development of non-locomotor skills in children (Karen, 2010). For the purpose of the development of these skills there is a requirement of providing space to children where they can safely develop these skills. In contrast to this, manipulative movement skills are the skills that make a use odf hands, feet and other body parts for the purpose of moving the other object. These are regarded as gross motor skills such as coloring by the use of crayon, kicking a ball or picking a small object. Manipulative skills help in strengthening the coordination between hand and eye of the children. It also improves the dexterity. Such skills have a significant impact on different abilities of the children such as artistic, athletic and writing ability (Thomas, Lee Thomas, 2008). The occurrence of these movements begins with infants when they grip on small things such as finger. Besides this, there is an occurrence of progression in such skills as they grow. At the stage of toddlers, they learn to play with blocks and toys. As there is a progression in the childs age, improvement in manipulative skills have occurred that results in improving the self care of a children. This helps children to perform their day to day activities such as brush their teeth, dressing up and so on (Arce, 2012). In addition to this, there is a requirement of assistance to children for the purpose of development of the manipulative skills which can be accomplished by providing children with small toys that helps in bringing control and manipulation of the hand movements. Besides this, the other resources which are required to develop manipulative skills include puzzles and play-Doh which helps in fining of the motor skills of the children. The manipulative body movements helps in enhancing the fine and gross motor skills in children. the fine motor skills include grasping of objects, holding small objects clasping hands together, putting on socks, shoes and clothingdrawing lines and circles. Besides this, the gross motor skills include waving arms and legs, jumping, crawling, walking and climbing (Pica,2009). Effect of Physical Motor Skills on Other Developmental Areas in 6 Year Old Child At the age of 6 years, the fine and gross motor skills have been improved in children. At this age, children get a proficient control over their small muscle movements and become proficient in different tasks such as closing of buttons and using scissors. Their different abilities such as drawing and writing skills are also improved (Gordon Browne, 2015). At the age of 6 years, there is a rapid development of physical motor skills in boys and girls that have a significant impact on other developmental areas such as physical appearance and mental ability. It is considered that boys are physically strong in comparison to girls as they perform different fundamental body movements in an excessive manner as compared to girls. Children at this stageare engaged in games which are full with fantasy and drama (Gordon Browne, 2016). At this stage girl tend to pretend play as mothers and boys as fathers. This results in development of the gender difference in both the children. The children prefer to play with their friends rather than their own. At this stage, children play games that have rules which they have to abide by to play in an honest manner. If a child loses the game then they accuse other children of wining by cheating. Besides this, the thinking and attention span of the children has increased during this age. In addition to this, they can understand simple concepts such as time, seasons and recognize some words (Meggitt, 2006). This indicates that there is an occurrence of the mental development of the child. In addition to this, the child also talks a lot irrespective of the presence of someone nearby or not. The children at this age prefer to remain independent but require love and attention from the family members. At this age, the children try to understand different things of the world which leads to the occurrence of fear in them related to supernatural things like ghosts, tests, failure, physical harm or threat (Keenan, Evans, Crowley, 2016). Involvement of 6 Year Children in Motor Movements The different types of motor movements in which the 6 year old children get involved includes running, walking, jumping and so on. All the fundamental body movements such as locomotor, non locomotor and manipulative skills are performed by the girls and boys at this age. It is found out that the different motor skills such as fine motor skills, self help skills and general motor skills are performed by girls in a better way as compared to boys. Besides this, there is no occurrence of difference in the abilities of girls and boys in gross motor skills at this age (Holt, 2009). There is an occurrence of improvement in the development of different motor skills in boys and girls at the age of 6 such as run, jump, catch, throw. Boys are considered strong in comparison to girls in the skills that require force and power. Boys can run, jump and throw a ball in a fast manner to long heights. There is a development of these skills in girls at a slower rate as compared to boys. In addition to this, the interaction of boys and girls with their peers help in finding an insight related to aggressive behaviors of boys and girls. In addition to this, teachers encourage children to play physically which helps in the development of the gross motor skills in children which are considered helpful in the development of the children (Swim Watson, 2010). The motor skills in which the children are engaged at the age of 6 include locomotor, non locomotor and manipulative skills in order to establish a better coordination between their different organs. At this age, children are encouraged to play different games which involve coordination of the hands and legs with eyes. The different games which are played by the children of age six involves catching and throwing of ball, kicking of ball, jumping, running, walking and so on (SarachoSpodek, 2013). Conclusion It can be concluded that children learn different skills as they grow. There is a development of three fundamental body movements in the children namely locomotor, non locomotor, and manipulative skills in the children which helps in enhancing the coordination between different parts of the body. In addition to this, there is an existence of the difference between the growth and development of the motor skills in girls and boys. Girls learn activities that require force and power at slower rate as compared to boys. References Arce, E.M. (2012). Curriculum for Young Children: An Introduction.Cengage Learning. Benson, J.B. Haith, M.M. (2010).Social and emotional development in infancy and early childhood.Academic Press. Bornstein, M.H. (2014). Handbook of Cultural Developmental Science.Psychology Press. Gershoff, E.T. et al. (2013). Societal Contexts of Child Development: Pathways of Influence and Implications for Practice and Policy.OUP USA. Gordon, A. Browne, K.W. (2015).Beginning Essentials in Early Childhood Education.Cengage Learning. Gordon, A.M. Browne, K.W. (2016).Beginnings Beyond: Foundations in Early Childhood Education.Cengage Learning. Greenfield, P.M. (2014). Cross-Cultural Roots of Minority Child Development.Psychology Press. Harrison, L.E. Huntington, S.P. (2000).Culture Matters: How Values Shape Human Progress.Basic Books. Hewlett, B.S. Lamb, M.E. (n.d.). Hunter-gatherer Childhoods: Evolutionary, Developmental, and Cultural Perspectives.Transaction Publishers. Holt, J. (2009). How Children Learn. Da Capo Press. Jackman, M. (2011).Early Education Curriculum: A Childs Connection to the World.Cengage Learning. Karen, W.A. (2010). Teaching Movement Education.Human Kinetics. Keenan, T., Evans, S., Crowley, K. (2016). An Introduction to Child Development.SAGE. Meggitt, C. (2006). Child Development: An Illustrated Guide.Heinemann. Nabuzoka, D. Empson, J. (2009).Culture and Psychological Development. Palgrave Macmillan. Palisano, R.J., Campbell, S.K. Orlin, M. (2014).Physical Therapy for Children.Elsevier Health Sciences. Pica, R. (2008).Physical Education for Young Children: Movement ABCs for the Little Ones.Human Kinetics. Pica, R. (2009).Experiences in Music Movement: Birth to Age 8.Cengage Learning. Pica, R. (2012).Experiences in Movement and Music.Cengage Learning. Rogoff, B. (2003). The Cultural Nature of Human Development.Oxford University Press. Saracho, O.N. Spodek, B. (2013).Handbook of Research on the Education of Young Children.Routledge. Swim, T.J. Watson, L.D. (2010). Infants and Toddlers: Curriculum and Teaching.Cengage Learning. Thomas, K.T., Lee, A.M. Thomas, J.R. (2008).Physical Education Methods for Elementary Teachers.Human Kinetics. Willoughby, T. Wood, E. (2008).Children's Learning in a Digital World. John Wiley Sons.