DEVELOPMENT OF CHILDRENAssessmentOutcome 1 The areas for development of a child are broken down into four different categories, these are listed

Child psychologist Jean Piaget was a believer in the theory that children are not mini adults as they have not yet developed sufficiently in a physical sense, there bodies are still growing and don't have the same strength as an adult, for example bones have not fully formed and these bones don't contain enough glycogen in the muscles for lifting heavy weights.

The intellectual development of children is broken down in the same way as the physical development stages, so from the age of birth to 2 children gain intellectual knowledge through sensory impressions and motor activity, these are things like a child sucking its thumb and thinking it feels good so it sucks it some more, or playing with a noisy toy like a rubber duck and thinking it sounds great so keeps squeezing it again and again, so they are learning how to make interesting things last longer in doing this. They also learn lessons from pain. For example, if they touch something hot and it hurts then they won't intentionally touch it again.

Between the ages of 2 to 6 the child is quite egocentric, so they see things from pretty much one point of view, there own! Holding a picture so that only they can see and expect you to see it too might be an example of this behaviour.

From 6 to 11 the child starts to lose the egocentricity and should begin to understand the viewpoints of others. They should also be starting to add subtract and measure things. During adolescence they will develop the ability to think logically about abstract actions, also develop ability to speculate about the future.

Emotional development is slightly different in that it does not break down into four distinct stages the same way as the previous areas of development do.

From birth to 5 the child needs constant reassurance from parents, family, friends, nursery etc.

Child psychologist Erik H Erikson also noted that this is a time when a child can develop self doubt if the parents overly shame the child if they haven't done or achieved something that the parent wanted.

From 5 to 9 children benefit massively from assurances from parents, also surrogate parents i.e. teachers, coaches, aunties etc. This may change from parents to peers as the child changes into adolescence. A low boredom threshold or a short concentration span can affect the development of a child right throughout childhood, so if you can improve these then the child will develop at a greater rate.

For social development parents can be the most important figures in a child's life, especially in there early years. During early childhood (0-5) children tend to play alongside each other rather than actually playing with other children, so this is the time when the parent has the biggest influence on the child. Middle childhood (6-9) is when the child will become more interested in what other children are doing and compare themselves to others to "see whose best." During later childhood (10-13) Friends become more important to the child and they have more social contacts through things like sports or youth clubs. They are now developing the skill of working together with others, i.e. teamwork. They are also becoming more aware of the different capabilities of both themselves and others. Adolescence is when youngsters will form strong ties with peer groups, this is the period that begins to mark the change from childhood to adulthood and often brings with it conflict between the adolescent and adults. Since part of growing up means becoming more independent the parents influence becomes shared with others.

It is possible for there to be a difference of four years in a child's developmental age even though they are actually the same chronological age, some children develop earlier than others and rates of maturation vary with body shape, therefore none of the things written in the above paragraphs is an exact science and it never will be so this must be taken into account when working with children. It must be remembered that they are all different and so have different needs Physically, Intellectually, Emotionally and Socially.

David MacIntyre HNC 1

Working with Children in a Sporting Environment