1. Physical Development in Early Childhood
Child Development
Physical Development in Early Childhood

2. Early Childhood (2-7-years)
Talk about Height & Weight
Learn about nutrition and make a menu for a child
The Brain
Gross Motor Skills
Fine Motor Skills
Art
Sleep
Health, Safety, and Illness

3. Height & Weight
Average children grow about 2.5 inches and gain between 5- 7 pounds a year during early childhood.
Body fat shows a decline.
Crawling and walking uses more calories
Unusual Shortness may be a lack of growth hormone.
This hormone is produced by the pituitary gland and stimulates the body to grow.

4. Nutrition
Developing a healthy diet from a young age is important because we learn eating habits.
Energy intake should not exceed caloric need.
Effects skeletal growth, body shape, susceptibility to disease.
Energy Needs:
AGE
WEIGHT
(Kg)
HEIGHT (Cm)
ENERGY NEEDS (Cal)
CALORIE RANGES
(Cal)
1 to 3 years 13 90
1,300
900-1,800
4 to 6 years 20
112
1,700
1,300-2,300
7 to 10 years 28
132
2,400
1,650-3,300

5. Eating Behavior
Young children’s eating behaviours are strongly influenced by caregivers.
1970’s-1990’s dietary shifts:
Eating out or away from home
Increase in energy from salty snacks, pizza, and soft drinks
Decrease in energy from milk
45% of children’s meals exceed recommendation for saturated and trans fat

6. Overweight Young Children
Childhood obesity has become a growing problem in the USA
Overweight children will continue to be overweight
Health risks include; Diabetes, heart issues, self-esteem ect.
Fats and Sugar intake:
Foods high in protein are also sometimes high in fats. This is especially true for fast foods
The average American child eats almost 2 pounds of sugar per week. This is one of the causes of obesity and can cause dental problems
Children from low-income families
consume more sugars than their
counterparts

7. Malnutrition
Malnutrition is seen often in young children from low income families
Malnutrition is linked to cognitive deficits
Failure to eat quality meats and dark green vegetables can lead to iron deficiency, chronic fatigue, and other health problems
A study found children who were malnourished at 3 years showed more hyperactive and aggressive behavior at age 8.
Michelle Obama’s health school thing

8. Caregivers and Eating Behavior
Caregivers can improve eating behavior and child health by:
Eating on a schedule
Modeling healthy eating habits
Making mealtimes pleasant occasions
Having expectations
letting the child focus on eating and not arguments or television

9. Make your own menu Get into groups and create a menu for a child
First choose the age group you will make your menu for…
Then think about what would be a balanced diet for that child. Look back at your chart if you are unsure.
You will present your menus to the class

10. The Brain This time is a period of rapid frontal lobe growth.
Working memory increases and the brain begins to specialise more and more as there is a time of rapid learning.
By age 6 the brain has reached 95% of the adult volume.
Neurons transmit faster and more effectively.
Myelination also increases the size of the brain as well as the increasing speed and efficiency of information traveling through the nervous system.
Remember-Myelination is when nerve cells are
insulated with a layer of fat cells.

11. Gross Motor Skills Progress in children's gross motor skills
3-years: Hopping, Jumping, Running skills.
4-years: More adventurous, Jungle gyms, climb stairs with one foot on each step.
5-years: Even more adventurous with stunts ect. Run hard, and enjoy races. May begin organised sport.
6-7 years: Increasing prowess and becoming more athletic if they are participating in sport.
Preschool and elementary children are very active!

12. Fine Motor Skills Progress in children’s fine motor skills
At 3-years: Children show maturing ability to place and handle objects. They can build block towers and use simple jigsaw puzzles.
At 4-years: They are increasingly precise. Efforts to build high towers may be impeded by want for precision. Use smaller puzzles and are not rough while placing pieces in the picture.
At 5-7-years: Hand-body move together in a more synchronised way. These children begin to use their imaginations and make block houses and roads ect.

13. Assessing Motor Skills
One Test you may come across is the Brigance.
This test assesses both fine and gross motor skills
This is a standardised way to assess child development, so there are positive factors as well as negative factors for this assessment.
Fine Motor: Child must draw +, ---, X, square, circle, rectangle, and parallel lines.
Gross Motor: Child must stand on one foot for 10 seconds, tip toe, jump on one foot, and build a block tower.
There are standards according to age group.

14. Sleep Sleep is integral to development
Children experience different types of problems:
Nightmares- Frightening dreams that awake the sleeper.
Night Terrors- Incidents characterised by sudden arousal from sleep, intense fear, and usually physiological reactions such as screams, heavy perspiration, and rapid heart beat.
Somnambulism- Sleep walking. This occurs in the deepest stage of sleep.
There are exercises that may help calm children before bed or relieve stress so that they are less likely to have these issues.
Do the sleep relaxation with the students

15. Health, Safety, and Illness
Safety at home and in childcare settings
Motor vehicle accidents is the leading cause of death in young children. This is followed by cancer and cardiovascular diseases.
Many accidents can be avoided:
Falls
Burns
Poisoning
Drowning
Fire arms
Freakanomics chapter about guns and pools