Chapter 8: Biosocial Development
- Factors that Influence Growth:
- Genetic Background
- Health Care
- Nutrition
- Brain and Growth Development:
- Age 2: Brain is 75% of adult weight
- Age 5: Brain is 95% of adult weight
- Age 7: Full growth
- Myelination: the insulating process that speeds up the transmission of neural impulses
- At age 5 there is a growth in the corpus callosum: a band of nerve fibers connecting the right and left hemispheres of the brain (Result: communication b/t 2 sidescoordination).
- Accidents and the Brain:
- About 2/3 of childhood deaths among preschool children involve nonvehicular causes (falling, drowning, choking, and poisoning).
- Boys suffer more injuries
- Strongest risk factor of all is socioeconomic status (brain immaturity)
- Injury control
- Eyes, Brain, and Reading:
- 4 yr. Olds are much better at looking atand recognizingletters and other small shapes than younger children
- At age 5 eye-hand coordination becomes fairly well tuned to left-right directions: children can copy a diamond & write letter "b" and "d" (showing proper direction)
- Growth Spurts in the Brain:
- Left hemisphere (language): around 2 yrs.
- Right hemisphere (recognition of visual shapes): 4-5 yrs.
- Corpus callosum and frontal lobe: age 5
- Mastering Motor Skills (ages 2-6)
- Gross motor skills (running, jumping, & throwing)
--Age 5 most children are skilled and graceful
--Learn basic motor skills by teaching themselves & learning from other children
- Fine motor skills (small hand movementscutting food with a knife and fork)
--children experience difficulty b/c not yet developed the necessary muscle control,
patience and judgement
--parents and teachers can help children master fine motor skills through
encouragement
- Child Maltreatment:
- Definition: any intentional harm or avoidable endangerment to anyone under age 18
- Child Maltreatment includes:
- Abuse: deliberate action that is harmful to a childs well being
- Neglect: failure to appropriately meet a childs basic needs
- Reported and Substantial Maltreatment Cases:
--Reported: those about which the authorities have been informed
--Substantiated: those which have been investigated and verified as maltreatment
- (1993) U.S. à
number of reported cases was 3 million/yr and the number of substantiated cases was 1 million/yr.
- Reasons for gap:
--one case may be reported many times but tallied as 1 case
--proof (especially visible) is hard to obtain
--the report may be mistaken or deliberately misleading
- The Cultural and Community Context:
- Cultural diversity makes the problem of substantiating reports more complex (examples: piercings, castor oil, tightly braided hair)
- Universally conducive to maltreatment : POVERTY AND ISOLATION
- Consequences of Maltreatment:
- Decrease in social skills (more isolated, more aggressive, and less friendly)
- Find comfort in drugs and alcohol
- Engage in self-destructive behavior
- Also expensive money costs (treatment and investigation)
- Intervention Policies:
- Laws require any teacher, health professional, police officer, or social worker to report all cases
- Institute a differential response: deciding to respond either one way or another, depending on the particular situation
- Foster Care: a legally sanctioned, publicly supported arrangement in which children are officially removed from their parents and entrusted to another adult or family whi is paid to nurture them
- Permanency Planning: devising a plan for a childs long-term care that does not remove the child from the parents unless doing so is necessary
- Kinship Care: a form of foster care in which a relative of a maltreated child takes over from the abusive or neglectful parents
- 40% of foster children in U.S. are kinship care
- Adoption
- Prevention of Maltreatment:
- Primary prevention: an approach that is designed to prevent maltreatment from ever occuring
-
Secondary prevention: preventing serious problems by spotting and treating the early warning signs that indicate maltreatment might develop
- Tertiary prevention: aimed at halting the harm after it occurs and treating the victim