There are three over lapping points at which develop can be measured:-
between 2 and a half to 6 years of age
between 4 and 6 years old
between 6 and 9 years old
Examples of Gesell’s assessments that can be used to assess a child’s development at a particular time:
- Age 4 - Comprehension question- English tests
- Between the ages 2 to 6 - The cube test- handwriting, spelling tests, maths tests, cutting and colouring in.
Genes can affect behaviour in a multiple number of ways. There are numerous disorders which occur regardless of the environmental influence.
Examples of disorders which are genetically pre-determined are:
Down Syndrome, individuals that have down syndrome their emotions are usually cheerful and affectation towards other people but they have many affects inside and outside their bodies such as very define facial differences compared to individuals that do not have down syndrome, dental normality and forty percent of them have heart defects. However, unfortunately only eighty percent of individuals that have Down Syndrome only live until the age of fifty years old.
Fragile X syndrome, for both male and female they have different symptoms. The Male Syndrome will have the effects of their hand/s flapping, hand biting and also developing poor eye contact to others and objects. The Female Syndrome will have the effects of Learning difficulties, they will not be able to notice physical features and not good at socialising with others.
Hunting’s Disease, this Disease runs in the family and is found in both male and female. They symptoms for this disease will be very visible but they will not show until around the age of thirty and fifty years old, the symptoms will be things such as speech disfigurement and depression.
Psychologists studied the likeness of having a disorder through a genetically determined by using the ‘twins study’.
There are two different types of twins, these are:
Monozygotic twins (MZ) - 100% of the same genetic material since they were formed from fertilised egg then divided into two. This is the identical twins.
Dizygotic twins (DZ) - Only 50% of the same genetic material since they occur when two eggs are fertilised by different sperm. This is the fraternal twins.
If one of the monozygotic twins has an illness and the cause is only genetic then the other twin must have the disorder as well. There has been twin research into many different illnesses.
Schizophrenia: Gottesman et al 1991 Found the studying schizophrenic twins, if one of the Monozygotic twins (MZ) has the disorder, the other has a 48% chance of developing the disorder. Where as compared to MZ in the DZ twins concordance rates for the illness were only 17%. The study shows that Schizophrenia shows genetics do play a role partly but other factors contribute to development of Schizophrenia.
Depression: McGuffin et al 1996 Found that forty six percent of concordance rates for MZ twins with depression, compared to 20% concordance rates for DZ twins. This study suggested that genetics do play a role however other factors contribute to depression.
Autism: Bailey et al 1995 Found concordance rates for autism to be between 60-80% for MZ twins, compared to 0-10% for DZ twins. This study indicated that Autism is very genetic
Asthma: Sarafino & Goldfedder 1995 found that fifty nine percent concordance rates for MZ twins compared to twenty four percent concordance rates for DZ twins. This study suggests that there is a very high chance you will have asthma if it runs in your family.
Other factors which could encounter the development of asthma are smoking, overweight and also living or working in a polluted area.
Looking at the results overall the diseases are a result of a combination of factors, including a mixture of genetics and the environment.
The Nervous system is responsible for our stress response throughout our bodies. It is separated into two parts. The first part is our central nervous system (CNS) which is located in our brain and spinal cord, the second part is our Periphenal nervous system (PNS) which is in our other veins.
The Periphenal Nervous System (PNS) is also split into two parts, the first part is the Somatic Nervous System, which controls our movements and the second part is the Automatic Nervous System (ANS) this is the part in which it automatically moves our movements.
When our bodies are under going stress, our bodies respond in two ways these are the fight or flight response and the counter shock response.
The symptoms of the fight or flight response are that the heart speeds up, lungs expand, the sweat glands speed up, mouth becomes dry and our pupils dilate.
The fight or flight response gives you energy to respond in a stressful situation, it is dangerous if our bodies to stay like this in stress for a period of time, Therefore counter shock develops. This is then the second stage after the fight or flight response.
The symptoms of the counter shock response are the pupils are constantly dilated, salvation starts producing in the mouth, heart slows down, lungs consists, our digestion speeds up and the sweat glands start slowing down.