Human growth and development through the life stages (learning aim A)

Question 1

What is growth?

Answer 1

An increase in some measured quantity, such as height or weight

Question 2

What is development?

Answer 2

Complex changes including an increase in skills, abilities and capabilities

Question 3

What are centile lines (percentiles)?

Answer 3

lines on a graph used to show average measurements of height, weight and head circumference. The lines represent the values of the measurements taking into account age and sex.

Question 4

What are development norms?

Answer 4

a description of an average set of expectations with respect to a young child’s development.
- For example, by the age of 12 months a child has the ability to stand alone.

Question 5

What is a milestone?

Answer 5

an ability achieved by most children by a certain age. It can involve physical, social, emotional, cognitive and communication skills, for example walking, sharing with others, expressing emotions, recognising familiar sounds and talking.

Question 6

What are gross motor skills?

Answer 6

large movements that involve using the large muscle of the body which are required for mobility.
- For example, rolling over.

Question 7

What are fine motor skills?

Answer 7

involve smaller movements that require more precise direction (dexterity) and use smaller muscles.
- For example, picking up a pencil.

Question 8

Adolescence

Answer 8

an important status change following the onset of puberty during which a young person develops from a child into an adult.

Question 9

puberty

Answer 9

a period of rapid growth during which young people reach sexual maturity, and become biologically able to reproduce and secondary sexual characteristics develop

Question 10

Hormones

Answer 10

chemical substances produced in the body and transported in the blood stream that control or regulate body cells or body organs
- For example, sex hormones produced by the ovaries and testes are responsible for the development of secondary sexual characteristics in puberty.

Question 11

menopause

Answer 11

the ending of female fertility, including the cessation of menstruation and reduction in production of female sex hormones

Question 12

life expectancy

Answer 12

an estimate of the number of years, on average, that a person can expect to live. sometimes called longevity.

Question 13

abstract logical thinking

Answer 13

the ability to solve problems using imagination without having to be involved practically.
An advanced form of thinking that does not always need a practical context in order to take place.

Question 14

Egocentric thinking

Answer 14

not being able to see a situation from another person’s point of view.
Piaget thought that a young child assumed that other people see, hear and feel exactly the same way the child does.

Question 15

concrete logical thinking

Answer 15

the ability to solve problems providing an individual can see or physically handle the issues involved

Question 16

equilibrium

Answer 16

a state of cognitive balance when a child’s experience is in the line with what they understand

Question 17

disequilibrium

Answer 17

a state of cognitive imbalance between experience and what is understood.

Question 18

Accommodation

Answer 18

modifying schemas (concepts) in relation to new information and experiences

Question 19

self- concept (sense of identity)

Answer 19

an awareness formed in early childhood of being an individual, a unique person and different from everyone else.

Question 20

stranger anxiety

Answer 20

when an infant becomes anxious and fearful around strangers.