Question

Growth and Development Assessment Project Guidelines: Choose a person you know well and complete a developmental summary across the life span for this person. You can choose a person from any of the developmental stages. Determine the individual’s current stage of development: physically, cognitively, and socially and compare your findings to the developmental norms from textbooks and databases. This critique needs to be a minimum of 4 pages and a maximum of 5 pages. Be sure that you utilize various theories and apply these to the growth and development of your chosen person. Objectives: Determine an individual's current stage of development according to textbook information and a selected theorists. Compare the individual's behavior, growth, and development to the textbook description and selected theorists. Identify unmet or uncompleted tasks of the individual's current stage of development. Design a plan to assist the individual to achieve the tasks of his/her stage of development and future remaining stages. Learning Activities: Select an individual to be observed/interviewed. Arrange an appropriate time and place for the observation/interview. Review lecture and readings on relevant stages of development. Observe individual's physical, cognitive, and psychosocial growth and development. Discuss with the individual or the parent of the individual specific issues relevant to his/her stage of development. Prepare report (4-5 pages of content) to include the following: Include a brief overview of biographical data: ex. age, sex, family structure, living arrangements, occupation. Theoretical description of individual's stage of development. Observations of individual's physical and psychosocial growth and development. Compare findings to textbook and data base developmental norms. State which developmental tasks are met/unmet; providing evidence based on comparison of observations to theoretical description. Identify measures to assist or maintain the individual's effort to accomplish age-appropriate tasks.

Answer 1

Let’s analyse in detail growth and development of a child who has completed 2 years of age. He is my nephew whom I know very well. Let’s take a deep look into complete developmental summary of him till date. What he has achieved and what he has missed out based on milestone theory and psychology.

Development from birth to 6 months

When he was born he was 3.5kg in weight and his length was seen as 48 cm as recorded by hospital officials.Firstly we must understand that the sensory abilities inbuilt in a new born is very much significant although they are not fully developed. During first six months I observed many reflexes which are infact automatic responses to certain stimuli. However in 6 months these reflexes will vanish from them. I shall site a few instances of my nephew. Whenever I touch his cheek, he would turn his head to direction of my finger touching cheek and will start sucking it. This is one of those reflexes or automatic response seen in all infants with normal brain growth. Secondly whenever I put my finger on his hand, he will strongly grasp them. This is called as grasping reflex.

One of the developmental theories is appearance of tears. However in my nephew case, no tear was observed up to 4 months. After this period tears start appearing. Researchers’ claim that appearance of tear can vary and is can be considered as a part of normal child development.

Development from 6 months to 1 year

Theoretically it is mentioned that the head and chest circumference are equal for infants between 4 to 8 months. In my nephew case, this was seen to be true. During his regular check up by paediatrician it was confirmed. Appearance of teeth was the one which I observed in him during these months. Theoretically it is said that upper and lower incisors come first. At this stage whenever I place my little finger or index finger next to his mouth, he will give a small bite. I must admit that some of these bites were really painful.

Theoretically it is said that child will be very much active at this stage and so was my nephew. On initial days, he was struggling to go in supine position to prone which finally was successful. Then I observed that he wants to reach certain destinations to achieve his objectives as taking his toys and so on. His reflexive behaviour is changing completely when compared to the first six month. As per his mother I understand that his sucking reflex has become voluntary. His eye blinking reflex too was well established as explained in milestone achievement.

Baby fat which is called as fat rolls were found appearing on thigh. Theoretically it is said that they appear on thigh, upper arm and neck. However I could not observe any fat rolls on upper arm and a little on neck.During this stage his eye colour was found to be well established which was perfect black.

I use to play with him by lifting him up and gently moving him down. While moving him down, I found him spread his arms outwards as a protective measure. During this stage we started giving him semi solid food as well. I have also observed him picking up items with his finger and thumb. This too is theoretically mentioned on child milestones.

He is growing up in a huge family with me, my sis and family, his grandpa and grandma. He is slowly learning how to speak. Although he attempt, but fails. I have observed him point towards distant objects which are 4 to meter away. Theoretically it is evident that his eye visual field is increasing.

Development between 1 year and 2 year

During this stage, I observed that growth rate very slow compared to past one year. More teeth are formed in him and so is the intensity of his bite on my fingers. Now I have observed him do bear walk. Bear walk is seen more common in children during this stage when their attempt to walk with 2 legs fail. Soon his bear walking has become faster. I felt it is time for me to train him on walking with 2 legs only and not use his hands. With our support he starts walking. Although he falls down quite often, he never gave up. Nearly all toddlers with normal development go through this phase.

He has started speaking small words although he can’t construct a sentence. I have observed that he is clearly able to understand what housemates are talking about(not completely though). Once I was looking for my spectacle, he immediately understood what I am searching for and got it for me which was a great surprise. This feature is not theoretically mentioned as a part of normal milestone development.

With his paediatrician regular check up I understood that his weight is 4 times that of his birth weight. Theoretically it is said that a toddler on an average can gain 3 times the birth weight. Shape of his body too has changed and is appearing like a normal adult although his top portion is heavy with protruded abdomen and his back is swayed. This point is theoretically well established. I have also observed him lose his baby fat.

He is such a lucky boy gifted with tons of boys. I have frequently observed him push and pull toys in his way while walking. This toddler feature too is theretically said as their brain enjoys doing it. Pediatrician suggested us to get him some crayons, markers and building blocks which can help improve his brain development. I observed him playing with these with whole arm movement. Theoretically it is said that a toddler enjoys object hiding activities. I have observed him enjoy the same.