Heather Benjamin

Uliassi- Education 340

10/11/17

Child development is one amazingly complicated process. A great way to define

childhood development is as Study.com puts it,

Child development refers to the process through which human beings typically

grow and mature from infancy through adulthood. The different aspects of growth and

development that are measured include physical growth, cognitive growth, and social

growth. Child development focuses on the changes that take place in humans as they

mature from birth to about age 17.

This is a complex transformation. When a child is born, they know nothing and as they grow

they learn and absorb knowledge as a sponge absorbs water. There are so many different and

unique factors that influence child development and how fast a child absorbs what is being

taught we will go over a few.

There is a plethora of factors that influence child development; as educators, we know

children share common growth patterns, but do not grow in the same way. There are a lot of

influences on how and how fast a child develops, such as environmental influences, and familial

influences. An environmental factor that influences child development is the food available to

the child, and the nutritional value of that food. In A Childs World Infancy through Adolescence

the authors write, School children need an average of 2,400 calories every-day. This means

children will be hungry in the classroom. In Yardsticks Wood mentions, Making sure that

children have enough food and water when they need it contributes to healthy physical growth

and effective learning. This means that for children to develop they need food and water in the

classroom, even if they do not bring a snack from home, there needs to be food and water
Heather Benjamin

Uliassi- Education 340

10/11/17

accessible for the children. A familial factor that may influence child development is the

parenting styles of the adults in the home. In A Childs World Infancy through Adolescence the

authors write, Parenting styles may affect childrens motivation and their school success. The

way a parent guides and teaches their child may influence the way that child develops.

Theres a great number of developmental characteristics for children of all ages, but to

simplify going through all ages we are talking about mainly nine -year-olds here in the fourth

grade. A few of the physical growth patterns are children who are nine-years-old are better

coordinated, and they like to push their physical limits and tire easy. A couple social-emotional

growth patterns are nine-year-old children tend to be more individualistic, impatient, often

complain about fairness issues, and can be sullen, moody, and negative, saying I hate it, its

boring. A couple growth patterns for language are these children love descriptive language,

word play, and new vocabulary, the kids sometimes revert to baby talk, and enjoy exaggeration.

Some cognitive growth patterns are as follows: children are beginning to see the bigger world

including issues of fairness and justice, the children can manage more than one concept at a time,

and they have trouble understanding abstractions, such as large numbers, long periods of time, or

vast areas of space.

As an educator, we know that we will see all types of developmental abilities and

behaviors in our classroom, since, as I stated before, no two children are on the exact same pace

of learning. You will see all kinds of developmental abilities in the fourth grade because children

may come into the classroom as an eight-year-old, a nine-year-old, or ten-year-old. The

developmental abilities you will see range from the children can write in cursive, they can copy
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Uliassi- Education 340

10/11/17

from the board, the children can be restless and should not be sitting for a long time, all the way

to being able to pull meaning from text in books, newspapers, and websites, the children like to

work with a partner and of their choosing, and they tend to give up on tasks.

I saw a lot of the developmental abilities mentioned above in my fourth-grade practicum

classroom. I saw plenty of children writing in cursive, which I was not even sure was still taught.

I am in library with the children each Thursday and the librarian normally gives the children a

website to type into their computers and they do a good job at that which Wood notes children

can copy from the board. As Wood mentions, the children in my classroom are restless, and have

a hard time staying seated in class. An example of this is the children in my practicum classroom

are always getting up and moving, looking out the window and sometimes getting distracted and

off task. The children can pull meaning from texts in book and on the internet. The children in

the fourth-grade classroom have been looking up items about the Haudenosaunee through books,

and internet sources in the schools database. The children like to pick the partner they work

with. I taught a small group on Thursday the twelfth and the when I told a boy he was working

with a girl he asked me if he could go and work with a boy and I told him he was working with

the girl. The students had needed a chrome book and would need to have a partner as well so I

put seats where they needed to go and the students just sat down wherever they wanted.

The Teacher has a spot for children to have water in the classroom, and if the children do

not have a bottle there is a jug of water outside of the classroom with cups that they can get some

water. The school has healthy snack on Thursdays for the fourth grade, and as we know there

needs to be food and water in the classroom for children to be able to develop correctly. I think
Heather Benjamin

Uliassi- Education 340

10/11/17

that the children could really benefit from having a brain break, or some type of movement in the

classroom. So instead of working for an hour or two straight on different subjects they can all get

up and do something interesting you can even have them just get up shake their bodies out for a

minute or so and ask the person next to them how they are doing or what they are struggling

with. You can search a just dance video such as the one linked into the paper:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyIpbts5Ke0&list=PLPtR_HfV_ycn1hcpnIr-

LGzSHknm9ro4p&index=4 It is a fun song to dance to and the children do not have to dance

like that but children are going to want to get up and move. You can only demand so much of the

students, this could also have to do with them being tired and restless, get the brain active and the

students will waken up.

Child development is the most important concept to think of when knowing about the

students and their needs in the classroom while developing lesson plans and lessons. If more

teachers and even parents looked at the book written by Chip Wood, Yardsticks, they would

understand what was going on with their child or student and how they are developing. Because

children develop unequally. The various aspects of development do not proceed at the same rate

and children will learn what they are taught with time not in synchrony with each other.
Heather Benjamin

Uliassi- Education 340

10/11/17

Reference List

Dance-Schissel, D. (n.d.). What Is Child Development? - Definition, Theories & Stages.

Retrieved October 14, 2017, from http://study.com/academy/lesson/what-is-child-

development-definition-theories-stages.html

E., P. D. (1990). A Childs World: Infancy through Adolescence. New York: McGraw - Hill

Publishing.

Himer, M. (2014, March 09). Retrieved October 15, 2017, from

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyIpbts5Ke0&list=PLPtR_HfV_ycn1hcpnIr-

LGzSHknm9ro4p&index=4