JOS ECWA THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY

Course Syllabus

Course Number and Title: CED 623 HUMAN GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT

Section/Cohort: M.A. 600 Level

Academic Credits: 3 Credits Hours

Academic Program(s): M. A. Education

School or department: JETS Graduate School

Semester or Term: Second Semester 2024/2025 (January–May, 2025)

Instructor(s): Rev, Joshua Yisa Usman

Instructor’s contact: [email protected] 08036326884

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Course Description: (From JETS Catalogue): The course focuses on the progression of physical,
cognitive, emotional, social, and moral development from conception through adolescence. Classical and
contemporary theories of development, current research, and practical applications for practitioners are
integrated throughout the course. Contextual influences of cultural background, ethnicity, and
socioeconomic status are also examined.

Course Objectives:

By the end of the course, student will be able to:

1. Recognize the factors that influence the development and understand how they affect individual
children, including special children.
2. Observe, plan for, and interact with children in ways that encourage development in all domains:
physical, social, emotional, cognitive, and aesthetic.
3. Discuss the theories, research, and issues related to human development with colleagues, professionals,
and parents;

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4. Develop and utilize observation practices in partnership with parents as one of the several strategies for
monitoring children’s progress

The Role of This Course:

This course aims to prepare students with knowledge on human growth and development. Its contents
provide useful information on the human development and growth from conception through
adolescence. The course aims at equipping the students to acquire knowledge and skills to address the
physical, cognitive, emotional, social, and moral development into human maturation are to be
examined. The course is designed to deal with various concepts of human growth and development,
principles of human growth, aspects of growth, and stages of human growth and development from
children throughout the adolescence. It also enables the students understand how to interact with children
in ways that encourage development, the theories of human development, influences of cultural
background, ethnicity and socioeconomic on child development, and the several strategies for monitoring
children’s progress.

Course Learning Indictors:

Learning will be considered to have taken place when the students are able to:

1. Recognize the factors that influence the development and understand how cultural background,
ethnicity and socioeconomic influences child development, including special children

2. Explain the major human developmental theories (Freud, Erikson, and Piaget) by identifying
various psychosexual, psychosocial, and cognitive theories;

3. Analyse the progression of physical, cognitive, emotional, social, and moral development from
conception through adolescence.

3. The students should be able to explain how to interact with children in ways that encourage their
development.
4. The students should guide the parents, colleagues, professionals on issues that relate to human
development and on how to monitoring their children progression

Course Delivery Format: The CED 623 is a required core course in the M. A. in Biblical and
psychology Counselling, along with other courses. Therefore, the lecturer in charge of this course has
prepared a class note on all the subtopics to be studied and cover by the students. A topic is to be studied
by the students each day as stated on JETS time table. You can assess this course class note through your
JETS student portal as soon as you pay your tuition. Students are expected to be in class 2 hours 45
minutes daily throughout this second semester. The classroom activities include direct use of lecture,
instructions and discussions methods. Students will seat for end of semester final examination. Class
attendance is compulsory and the attendance signing will be taken regularly to avoid any absentees from
the class. The penalty for missing the class up to two times will result into forfeiting the course and must
be repeated.

Calculation of Final Grades and the Course Requirements:

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Students will be graded as follows:

Students will be graded as follows:

1. Regular class attendance and class participation 10%

2. Individual 1st term paper 30%
3. Individual 2nd term paper 30%
4. End of Semester Final 30%
TOTAL 100%

Course Schedule

Class Session 1

Date: January, 20th 2025

Session Topic(s): Introduction to human growth and development.

Class Session 2

Date: January, 27 2025

Session Topic(s): Aims, objectives and principles of human growth and development

Class Session 3

Date: February, 3rd 2025

Session Topic(s): Prenatal development

Class Session 4

Date: February, 10th 2025

Session Topic(s): Factors that can influence and modify normal patterns of human growth
and development

Class Session 5

Date: February, 17th 2025

Session Topic(s): Contemporary theories of human growth and development

Class Session 6

Date: February, 24th 2025

Session Topic(s): Child growth and development (The neonate and infancy)

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Class Session 7

Date: March, 3rd 2025

Session Topic(s): Childhood growth and development ( Physical, cognitive,

emotional, social, moral and aesthetic development)

Class Session 8

Date: March, 10th 2025

Session Topic(s): MID-SEMESTER BREAK

Class Session 9

Date: March, 17th 2025

Session Topic(s): Adolescence growth and development ( Physical, cognitive,
emotional, social, moral and aesthetic development)
Class Session 10

Date: March, 24th 2025

Session Topic(s): Adulthood growth and development ( Physical, cognitive,

emotional, social, moral and aesthetic development)

Class Session 11

Date: March, 31st 2025

Session Topic(s): Human growth and development with colleagues, professionals, and
parents

Class Session 12

Date: April, 7th 2025

Session Topic(s): Parental strategies for monitoring children growth and progress

Class Session 13

Date: April, 14th 2025

Session Topic(s): Influence of cultural background, ethnicity and socioeconomic status in child
development

witness-bearing

Class Session 14

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Date: April, 21st 2025

Session Topic(s): Biblical ways to observe, plan for and interact with a
child/children
Class Session 15

Date: April, 28th 2025

Session Topic(s): Current research methodology on child growth and

development

Class Session 16

Date: May, 5th 2025

Session Topic(s): WEEK OF TERM PAPERS SUBMISSION AND EXAMINATION

Required or Important Text and Materials for the Course:

The Holy Bible (NIV, NKJV and others)

Nnachi, Richard Onwukwe (2003). Introduction to psychology in education. 2 nd edition.

Warri;Barloz publishers Inc.

Nnachi, R. O. (2007). Advanced psychology of learning and scientific enquiries. Owerri; Totan
Publishers

Myers, D. G. (1986). Psychology. New York: Worth Publishers, Inc.

Swartz, L; De la Rey, C; Duncan, N & Townsend, L (2008). Psychology. An introduction; 2 nd

edition. Cape Town: Oxford University Press.

Recommended or Optional Texts and Materials (if applicable):

Myers, D. G (2005). Exploring psychology. 6th edition in modeles.New York: Worth Publishers.

Dacey, J. S.; and Travers, J. F (1996). Human development across the lifespan; 3 rd edition.
Chicago: McGraw-Hill.

Mwamwenda, T. S. (2004). Educational psychology. An African perspective. Sandton:

Heinemann Publishers

Louw, D. & Louw, A. (2015). Child and Adolescent. 2nd edition. Bloemfontain: ABC Press.

Akinade, E. A. (2022). Developmental psychology. A life-span approach. Ibadan: Brightways Publishers

Policy on Course Assignments:

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As stated above under the calculation of final grades and the course requirements, each student will write
two term papers and write one (1) end of semester final examination. The first and second individual term
paper questions are attached to this class note which will be assign to each student by the second
week of the class commencement. The course assignments are to be written in English language
and typed in Times New Roman on 1.5 spacing. Student should hold a copy of the
assignments/term paper submitted for grading, should in case the submitted copy got misplaced
or lost in the transition. The paper cover page should be design to include each student personal
details. Student’s individual 1st and 2nd term papers should be typed between 12-15 pages. The
student 1st individual term paper should be submitted on 10th March, 2025, the 2nd term paper is
to be submitted the last day of this class 5th May, 2025S. All assignments should be submitted on
soft copy via my email address above, so as to easily check the level of plagiarism on every
student paper(s) and the hard copy on the deadlines unfailingly. Therefore, students should use
JETS turning-inn system before submission of their term papers. On every assignment submitted,
the students will have to sign the following statement, “I understand and have not violated the
seminary’s policy on plagiarism.”

Academic Dishonesty:

All students are expected to become familiar with JETS standards of research and documentation as
defined and articulated in the catalogue. Assignments should be submitted on the stipulated dates
unfailingly. On every assignment submitted, students will have to sign the following statement, “I
understand and have not violated the seminary’s policy on plagiarism.”

FIRST INDIVIDUAL TERM PAPER

1. Discuss the concepts of human growth, development and maturation

2. Discuss the functions and roles of the pastor in human growth and development
3. Discuss principles of cumulative, interrelated and discontinuity growth

4. Discuss principles of asynchronous, differentiation and modifiability of human growth

5. Discuss aspects of human growth and development

6. Discuss the stages of human growth and development

7. Discuss the adolescent and adult development

8. Discuss the Sigmund Freud theory of psycho-sexual in human growth and development
9. Discuss the behaviourist and the cognitivist theories of human growth and development

10. Discuss the factors that can affect the pre-Natal, infancy, childhood, early childhood, late
childhood and adolescent growth and development

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SECOND INDIVIDUAL TERM PAPER

1. Write a term paper on Erik Eriksons psychosocial theories stages of preschool

development in early childhood.
2. Write a term paper on Jean Piagets theories stages of cognitive development in early
childhood
3. Write a term paper on Jean Piagets theories stages of cognitive development in middle
childhood.
4. Write a term paper on Erik Erikson’s theory stages of development in adolescence

5. Write a term paper on the adolescent’s relationships with their community, family, peer
group, risk-taking behaviour and substance abuse.
6. Write a term paper on early adulthood physical, cognitive and psychosocial development.
7. Write a term paper on the physical, cognitive and psychosocial development of late
adulthood.
8. Write a term paper on the different transformational development theories, assumptions and
their application to adult development.
9. Write a term paper on gender difference, changes experience by boys and changes
experience by girls in adolescent age

10. Write a term paper on the challenges of infancy, early and middle childhood development
and the Biblical principles in parent child upbringing.

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CLASS NOTE ON HUMAN GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT

(A) INTRODUCTION TO HUMAN GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT

During the first year of life, a baby goes through a series of crucial stages to develop physical
coordination. This development usually proceeds from head to toe. For example, the visual
system reaches maturity earlier than do the legs. First, the infant develops control of the head,
then of the trunk (sitting up), then of the body (standing), and, finally, of the legs (walking).
Development also proceeds from the centre of the body outward. For example, the head and
trunk of the body develop before the arms and legs, and infants learn to control their neck
muscles before they learn to direct their limbs. This development of physical coordination is also
referred to as motor development and it occurs together with cognitive development, meaning
the development of processes such as knowing, learning, thinking, and judging.

Human growth is the progressive development of a living thing, especially the process by which
the body reaches its point of complete physical development. Human development is a lifelong
process of physical, behavioural, cognitive, and emotional growth and change. In the early stages
of life from babyhood to childhood, childhood to adolescence, and adolescence to adulthood
enormous changes take place. Human growth from infancy to maturity involves great changes in
body size and appearance, including the development of the sexual characteristics. The growth
process is not a steady one, because at sometimes growth occurs rapidly, at others slowly.
Individual patterns of growth vary widely because of differences in heredity and environment.
Children tend to have physiques similar to those of their parents or of earlier forebears; however,
environment may modify this tendency. Living conditions, including nutrition and hygiene, have
considerable influence on growth.

In the context of the physical development of a child, growth refers to the increase in the size of
a child, and development refers to the process by which the child develops his or her
psychomotor skills. Human growth curves are used to measure growth. The distance curve is a
measure of size over time; it records height as a function of age and gets higher with age. The
velocity curve measures the rate of growth at a given time for a particular body feature (such as

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height or weight). The height velocity curve is highest in infancy, up to two years of age, with
more consistent annual growth afterwards and increases again at puberty. The height of a five-
year-old usually doubles relative to that at birth. The limbs and arms grow faster than the trunk,
so that body proportions undergo marked variation as an infant grows into an adolescent.
Different body systems grow and develop at different rates. Thus, weight increases faster than
height, an average infant doubles his birth weight by the age of five months and triples it by the
age of one year. At two years of age, the weight is usually four times the weight at birth.

(1) HUMAN GROWTH

There are seven stages a human move through during his or her life span. These stages include
infancy, early childhood, middle childhood, adolescence, early adulthood, middle adulthood and
old age. Infancy is recognized as the stage of life from a human’s birth up until he or she learns
how to speak: generally, until the age of one or two. During this stage, the child transitions from
a dependent toddler to a relatively active child; he or she is typically able to crawl, roll over and
walk. In terms of physical development, the stage of infancy witnesses the most growth. Also,
during infancy, the child gains a sense of trust when its caregivers provide affection and
reliability, a lack of such.

Early adulthood is the point in a human’s life where he or she is able to establish intimate
relationships as well as friendships. Studies suggest that one is not fully developmentally
complete without the formation of intimate relationships, for without them a person would
become isolated and develop a fear of commitment, and likely, mistrust in other people. To be
able to form such intimate relationships one must have appropriately progressed through the
earlier stages of life successfully. The stage that follows early adulthood is known as middle
adulthood where people are generally caught between being productive and being stagnant. This
stage reflects the need to create a living legacy. they would either need to feel they have become
an important figure for the next generation to follow or they would develop a sense of
purposelessness which is generally known as a “mid-life crisis”. This crisis can be solved by
having the adults care and nurture children or help the fore-coming generation in other ways or
means, however if the crisis remains the person would persist in random non-age-appropriate
behaviour as well as a continued feeling in stagnation. During this stage adults lose some of their

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physical aspects as their muscular strength, ability and agility weakens. Women will go through
a menopausal.

There are four areas of human development which include the physical, intellectual, emotional
and social, these areas of development will overlap with each other. The fastest period of growth
and development is during the infancy and early childhood life stages. There are recognised
expected patterns of physical growth and change, as well as intellectual, emotional and social
developments, ‘norm’ of development. Each child is an individual and will develop at their own
pace. These four areas of human development emphases on the following:

1. Physical development: During the growth period, all major body systems also mature. The
major changes occur in the following systems:

 Skeletal system. At birth, there is very little bone mass in the infant body, the bones are
softer and much more flexible than in the adult. The adult skeleton consists of 206 bones
joined to ligaments and tendons. It provides support for the attached muscles and the soft
tissues of the body. Babies are born with 270 soft bones that eventually fuse together by
the age of 20 into the 206 hard, adult bones.
 Lymphatic system. The lymphatic system has several functions. It acts as the body's
defence mechanism by producing white blood cells and specialized cells (antibodies) that
destroy foreign organisms that cause disease. It grows at a constant and rapid rate
throughout childhood, reaching maturity just before puberty. The amount of lymphatic
tissue then decreases so that an adult has approximately 50% less than a child.
 Central nervous system. The CNS consists of the brain, the cranial nerves, and the
spinal cord. It develops mostly during the first years of life. Although brain cell formation
is almost complete before birth, brain maturation continues after birth. The brain of the
new-born is not yet fully developed. It contains about 100 billion brain cells that have yet
to be connected into functioning networks. But brain development up to age one is more
rapid and extensive than was previously realized. At birth, the brain of the infant is 25%
of the adult size. At the age of one year, the brain has grown to 75% of its adult size and
to 80% by age three, reaching 90% by age seven. The influence of the early environment

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 on brain development is crucial. Infants exposed to good nutrition, toys, and playmates
have better brain function at age 12 than those raised in a less stimulating environment.

2. Psychomotor development: The stages of motor development in children are as follows:

 First year. The baby develops good head balance and can see objects directly in his line
of vision He learns how to reach for objects and how to transfer them from one hand to
the other. Sitting occurs at six months of age. Between nine and 10 months, the infant is
able to pull himself to standing and takes his first steps. By the age of eight to 24 months,
the baby can perform a variety of tasks such as opening a small box, making marks with a
pencil, and correctly inserting squares and circles in a form board. He is able to seat
himself in small chair; he can point at objects of interest, and can feed himself with a
spoon.
 Second year. At 24-36 months, the child can turn the pages of a book, scribble with a
pencil, build towers with blocks up to a height of about seven layers, and complete a form
board with pieces that are more complex than circles or squares. He can kick a ball, and
walks and runs fairly well, with a good sense of balance. Toilet training can be started.
 Third year. The child can now draw circles, squares, and crosses. He can build 10-block
towers and imitate the building of trains and bridges. He is also achieving toilet
independence. Hand movements are well coordinated and he can stand on one foot.
 Four years. At that age, a child can stand heel to toe for a good 15 seconds with his eyes
closed. He can perform the finger-to-nose test very well, also with eyes closed. He can
jump in place on both feet.
 Five years. The child can balances on tiptoe for a 10-second period, he can hops on one
foot, and can part his lips and clench his teeth.
 Six years. The child can balance on one foot for a 10-second period; he can hit a target
with a ball from 5 ft (1.5 m), and jumps over a rope 8 in (20 cm) high.
 Seven years. He can now balance on tiptoes for a 10-second period, bend at the hips
sideways, and walk a straight line, heel-to-toe for a distance of 6 ft (1.8 m).
 Eight years. The child can maintain a crouched position on tiptoes for a 10-second
period, with arms extended and eyes closed. He is able to touch the fingertips of one hand
with his thumb, starting with the little finger and repeating in reverse order.

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3. Cognitive development: The development of motor skills in the child goes hand in hand with
the development of cognitive skills, a process called cognitive development. Cognitive
development can be divided into four stages:

 Sensorimotor stage. At this stage, infants discover their environment using a

combination of sensory impressions (sight, smell, hearing, taste, and touch) and motor
activities.
 Preoperational stage. At this stage, children are not able to use information in rational
and logical ways; rather they use images and symbols. They learn how to associate cause
and effect and to represent something with something else. Speech development begins.
 Concrete operational stage. At this stage, children understand elementary logical
principles that apply to concrete external objects. They learn to sort things into
categories, reverse the direction of their thinking, and think about two concepts (such as
length and width) simultaneously.
 Formal operational stage. This stage is reached at adolescence. The individual can think
in the abstract and speculate about probabilities and possibilities as well as reflect on their
own thinking activities.

(2) HUMAN DEVELOPMENT

Human development is defined as the process of enlarging people's freedoms and opportunities
and improving their well-being. Human development is about the real freedom ordinary people
have to decide who to be, what to do, and how to live. In 1990 the Human Development Report
introduced a new approach for advancing human wellbeing. Human development or the human
development approach is about expanding the richness of human life, rather than simply the
richness of the economy in which human beings live. It is an approach that is focused on people
and their opportunities and choices.

Mainly, human development means having more alternatives and more opportunities and this
must be the key reference in human development. Nobody can guarantee the happiness of the
human being and the choices which people would make in their lives concern only themselves.
However, human development at least aims to provide the necessary conditions to all the people

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individually or collectively for improving their potentials and spending a productive and creative
live.

Beyond the richness of the economies in which the people are living, human development is a
concept about thriving of the human life. Human development is an approach focusing on the
people themselves and the opportunities they have. With the finding that the economic growth
does not bring automatic growth in wealth for everyone, human development focuses on the role
of the people themselves in bringing human life to a better condition. Growth in income is only a
tool rather than a final goal. Human development is about providing more freedom and
opportunity to the people for living their lives as they wish. For this, people should be able to
improve and use their capabilities. Focus of human development on the following:

People: human development focuses on improving the lives people lead rather than assuming
that economic growth will lead, automatically, to greater wellbeing for all. Income growth is
seen as a means to development, rather than an end in itself.

Opportunities: human development is about giving people more freedom to live lives they
value. In effect this means developing people’s abilities and giving them a chance to use them.
For example, educating a girl would build her skills, but it is of little use if she is denied access
to jobs, or does not have the right skills for the local labour market. Three foundations for human
development are to live a long, healthy and creative life, to be knowledgeable, and to have access
to resources needed for a decent standard of living. Many other things are important too,
especially in helping to create the right conditions for human development, and some of these are
in the table below. Once the basics of human development are achieved, they open up
opportunities for progress in other aspects of life.

Choice: human development is, fundamentally, about more choice. It is about providing people
with opportunities, not insisting that they make use of them. No one can guarantee human
happiness, and the choices people make are their own concern. The process of development
human development should at least create an environment for people, individually and
collectively, to develop to their full potential and to have a reasonable chance of leading
productive and creative lives that they value.

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Meaning of Human Development:

The term ‘human development’ may be defined as an expansion of human capabilities, a

widening of choices, ‘an enhancement of freedom, and a fulfilment of human rights. At the
beginning, the notion of human development incorporates the need for income expansion.
However, income growth should consider expansion of human capabilities. Hence development
cannot be equated solely to income expansion. Income is not the sum-total of human life. As
income growth is essential, so are health, education, physical environment, and freedom. Human
development should embrace human rights, socio-eco-politico freedoms. It serves as a more
humane measure of development than a strictly income-based benchmark of per capita.

The UNDP Human Development Report in 1990 stated that “The basic objective of human
development is to create an enabling environment for people to enjoy long, healthy and creative
lives. It also defined human development as “a process of enlarging people’s choices”, “and
strengthen human capabilities” in a way which enables them to lead longer, healthier and fuller
lives.

From this broad definition of human development, one gets an idea of three critical issues
involved in human development interpretation. These are: to lead a long and healthy life, to be
educated, and to enjoy a decent standard of living. Barring these three crucial parameters of
human development as a process enlarging people’s choices, there are additional choices that
include political freedoms; other guaranteed human rights, and various ingredients of self-
respect. One may conclude that the absence of these essential choices debars or blocks many
other opportunities that people should have in widening their choices. Human development is
thus a process of widening people’s choices as well as raising the level of well-being achieved.
Most importantly, human choices go far beyond income expansion. There are so many choices
that are not dependent on income. Thus, human development covers all aspects of development.
Hence it is a holistic concept.

Objectives of Human Development:

In the traditional development economics, development meant growth of per capita real income.
Later on, a wider definition of development came to be assigned that focused on distributional

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objectives. Economic development, in other words, came to be redefined in terms of reduction or
elimination of poverty and inequality. These are, after all, ‘a goods-oriented’ view of
development. True development has to be ‘people-centred’. When development is defined in
terms of human welfare it means that people are put first. This ‘people-oriented’ view of
development is to be called human development.

Economic development now refers to expanding capabilities. The basic objective of development
is ‘the expansion of human capabilities. The capability of a person reflects the various
combinations of ‘doings and beings’ that one can achieve. It then reflects that the people are
capable of doing or being. Capability thus describes a person’s freedom to choose between
different ways of living.

(B) AIMS, OBJECTIVE, PRINCIPLES OF HUMAN GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT

Human growth and development is planned to acquaint you with developmental concepts and to
give you an understanding of the basic dynamics, which underlie human behaviour at various
stages in the lifespan. It is an opportunity to study human development from conception through
childhood and adulthood. Human developmental stages often focus on how and why changes
occur in individuals as they grow from conception to old age.

Human growth and development is an in-depth study of the meaning, objectives and components
of human development. The term may be defined as an expansion of human capabilities, a
widening of choices, ‘an enhancement of freedom, and a fulfilment of human rights.

At the beginning, the notion of human development incorporates the need for income expansion.
However, income growth should consider expansion of human capabilities. Hence development
cannot be equated solely to income expansion.

Aims/objectives

1. To understand the process of conception and the first hours of development of the gygote.

3. Understand the different between genotype and phenotype.

4. Understand the interaction between genes and the environment (nature vs. nurture).

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4. The aim is to describe the physical and emotional changes they undergo as they grow up.

5. The aim is to describe the various beliefs and values of their society with regard to human
growth and development.

6. The aim is to obtain factual information about the human reproductive process.

7. The aim is to understand and describe the risks of teenage pregnancy.

8. Understand the birth process and test used to assess the baby's condition at birth. 1.
Understand how rapidly infant's change during the first 2 years.

9. Understand infant's sensory and perceptual abilities in terms of hearing, vision, taste, smell,
and touch.

10. Understand newborn's basic reflexes as well as basic pattern of motor-skill development.

11. Understand worldwide decline in childhood mortality over past century.

12. Understand basic emotions expressed by infants during first months.

13. Understand the main developments in the emotional life of the child between 6 months and 2
years.

14. Understand the biological events of puberty.

15. Understand the emotional impact of pubertal hormones.

16. Understand the growth spurt in both male and female teens.

17. Understand the development of the brain during adolescence.

18. Understand adolescent risk taking.

19. Understand the development of identity during adolescence.

20. Understand problems encountered in various identities.

21. Understand parental influence on identity formation.

22. Understand constructive functions of peer relationships.

23. Understand the development of male-female relationships during adolescence.

24. Understand changes in growth, strength and overall health during early adulthood.

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25. Understand physical changes of middle adulthood.

26. Understand how resilience relates to the body's response to challenging life events.

27. Understand the importance of social support, a strong parental alliance and parent/infant
bonding.

Components of Human Development:

The below can be noted and considered as the four essential pillars of human development.
These are:

i. Equality: If development is viewed in terms of enhancing people’s basic capabilities, people

must enjoy equitable access to opportunities. Such may be called equality-related capabilities. To
ensure equality-related capabilities or access to opportunities what is essential is that the societal
institutional structure needs to be more favourable or progressive. In other words, the
unfavourable initial asset distribution, like land, can be made more farmer-friendly through land
reform and other redistributive measures. In addition, uneven income distribution may be
addressed through various tax-expenditure policies. Further, to ensure basic equality, political
opportunities need to be more equal. In the absence of effective political organisation,
disadvantaged groups are exploited by the ‘rich’ to further their own interests rather than social
goals.

However, participatory politics gets a beating by the inequality in opportunities in having basic
education. It is to be added here that basic education serves as a catalyst of social change. Once
the access to such opportunity is opened up in an equitable way, women or religious minorities
or ethnic minorities would be able to remove socioeconomic obstacles of development. This then
surely brings about a change in power relations and makes society more equitable.

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ii Sustainability: Another important facet of human development is that development should
‘keep going’, should ‘last long’. The concept of sustainable development focuses on the need to
maintain the long-term protective capacity of the biosphere. This then suggests that growth
cannot go on indefinitely; there are, of course, ‘limits to growth.’

Here we assume that environment is an essential factor of production. Sustainable development

is defined as that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future
generations to meet their basic needs.’ This means that the term sustainability focuses on the
desired balance between future economic growth and environ-mental quality. To attain the goal
of sustainable development, what is of great importance is the attainment of the goal of both
intra- generation and inter-generation equality. This kind of inequality includes the term ‘social
well-being’ not only for the present generation but also for the people who will be on the earth in
the future. Any kind of environmental decline is tantamount to violation of distributive justice of
the disadvantaged peoples. Social well-being thus, then, depends on environ-mental equality.

Productivity: Another component of human development is productivity which requires

investment in people. This is commonly called investment in human capital. Investment in
human capital—in addition to physical capital can add more productivity. The improvement in
the quality of human resources raises the productivity of existing resources. It is said that “The
decisive factors of production in improving the welfare of poor people are not space,
energy, and crop land; the decisive factor is the improvement in population quality.”

Empowerment: The empowerment of people particularly women is another component of human

development. In other words, genuine human development requires empowerment in all aspects
of life. Empowerment implies a political democracy in which people themselves make the
decisions about their lives. Under it, people enjoy greater political and civil liberties and remain
free from excessive controls and regulations. Empowerment refers to decentralization of power
so that the benefits of governance and reaped by all peoples.

It focuses on grassroots participation which promotes democracy by enfranchising the

disadvantaged groups. Unfortunately, benefits are concerned by the elites because of lack of
empowerment of people. Participation as a goal is a feature f bottom-up development strategy

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rather than top-down, Furthermore, human development policies and strategies male-dominated.
But the benefits of development are to be made gender-sensitive.

Discrimination against women health and education is very costly from the viewpoint of
achieving development goals. Education of women can lead to a virtuous circle of lower fertility,
better care of children, more educational opportunity, and higher productivity. Above all, as
women’s education rises, women’s independence in making their own choices increases.

(C) PRENATAL DEVELOPMENT

1. The Prenatal Development: When considering child development, one has to take into
account prenatal development. Prenatal development (development of the foetus prior to birth) is
typically divided into three phases: first trimester (first three months of pregnancy), second
trimester (second three months of pregnancy), and third trimester (third three and a half months
of pregnancy). During the first trimester, conception to the third month, individuals are made up
of trillions of cells which contain a chemical molecule called DNA. Genes, which are segments
of DNA, determine unique characteristics. Sex cells or gametes are formed during special cell
division, or meiosis, where the usual number of chromosomes in human cells is split in half. At
conception, when sperm and ovum unite, each new being has the correct number of
chromosomes. A girl child or a boy child will be established depending on the combination of
sex chromosomes.

Prenatal period refers to time of conception to birth of the organism. How did you come to be
who you are? From beginning as a one-cell structure to your birth, your prenatal development
occurred in an orderly and delicate sequence. Prenatal period in human organism is about two
hundred and eighty days or forty weeks or approximately nine months. Each of us began our life
as a zygote, a single cell not much larger than the full stop at the end of this sentence, weighing
approximately fifteen-millionths of a gram. Prenatal development, also called antenatal
development, in humans, the process encompassing the period from the formation of an embryo,
through the development of a foetus, to birth (or parturition).

The human body, like that of most animals, develops from a single cell produced by the union of
a male and a female gamete (or sex cell). This union marks the beginning of the prenatal period,

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which in humans encompasses three distinct stages: (1) the pre-embryonic stage, the first two
weeks of development, which is a period of cell division and initial differentiation (cell
maturation), (2) the embryonic period, or period of organogenesis, which lasts from the third to
the eighth week of development, and (3) the foetal period, which is characterized by the
maturation of tissues and organs and rapid growth of the body. The prenatal period ends with
parturition and is followed by a long postnatal period.

The process of prenatal development occurs in three main stages according to the activities of the
organism, such as germinal, embryo and fetal periods. The first two weeks after conception are
known as the germinal stage, the third through the eighth week is known as the embryonic
period, and the time from the ninth week until birth is known as the foetal period. Prenatal period
is also divided into three trimesters, each of three months duration. These are months 1-3 (first
trimester), 4-6 (second trimester) and 7-9 months (third trimester), the baby develops
progressively as the trimesters increase.

Approximately 14 days before a woman’s menstrual period begins, she ovulates and a mature
egg cell (0vum) is released from one of her ovaries into the fringed ends (called fimbria) of one
of the two fallopian tubes. More than one egg cell can be released from the ovaries. With
dizygotic twins (non -identical twins/fraternal twins), two egg cells are release and fertilised.
However, in the case of monozygotic twins (identical twins), the single-cell zygote splits into
two identical but separate zygotes. With triplets, quadruplets, etc. three, four or more egg cells
are released and fertilised respectively. Hence, let us take a look at some of the changes that take
place during each of the three periods of prenatal development: the germinal period, the
embryonic period, and the fetal period.

1. The germinal or zygote (Ovum) period or stage (The first two weeks of conception)

The first two weeks after conception is the shortest prenatal stage and is referred to as the
germinal stage of prenatal development. Two events occur at this period such as fertisation and
implantation. Conception occurs when a sperm fertilizes an egg and forms a zygote, which
begins as a one-cell structure. The mother and fathers passed on to the child at the moment of
conception. The genetic makeup and sex of the baby are set at this point. The germinal period

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(about 14 days in length) lasts from conception to implantation of the zygote (fertilized egg) in
the lining of the uterus.

During the first week after conception, the zygote divides and multiplies, going from a one-cell
structure to two cells, then four cells, then eight cells, and so on. The process of cell division is
called mitosis. After the fourth division, differentiation of the cells begins to occur as well.
Differentiated cells become more specialized, forming different organs and body parts. After 5
days of mitosis, there are 100 cells, and after 9 months there are billions of cells. Mitosis is a
fragile process, and fewer than one-half of all zygotes survive beyond the first two weeks.

After the zygote divides for about 7–10 days and has 150 cells, it travels down the fallopian
tubes and implants itself in the lining of the uterus. It’s estimated that about 60 percent of natural
conceptions fail to implant in the uterus. The rate is higher for in vitro conceptions. Once the
zygote attaches to the uterus, the next stage begins.

2. The Embryonic Period (Weeks 3-8)

The embryonic period begins once the zygote is implanted in the uterine wall. It lasts from the
third through the eighth week after conception. Upon implantation, this multi-cellular organism
is called an embryo. Now blood vessels grow, forming the placenta. The placenta is a structure
connected to the uterus that provides nourishment and oxygen from the mother to the developing
embryo via the umbilical cord.

During this period, cells continue to differentiate. Basic structures of the embryo start to develop
into areas that will become the head, chest, and abdomen. During the embryonic stage, the heart
begins to beat and organs form and begin to function. At 22 days after conception, the neural
tube forms along the back of the embryo, developing into the spinal cord and brain.

Growth during prenatal development occurs in two major directions: from head to tail and from
the midline outward (proximodistal development). This means that those structures nearest the
head develop before those nearest the feet and those structures nearest the torso develop before
those away from the center of the body (such as hands and fingers).

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The head develops in the fourth week and the precursor to the heart begins to pulse. In the early
stages of the embryonic period, gills and a tail are apparent. But by the end of this stage, they
disappear and the organism takes on a more human appearance. The embryo is approximately 1
inch in length and weighs about 4 grams at the end of this period. The embryo can move and
respond to touch at this time.

About 20 percent of organisms fail during the embryonic period, usually due to gross
chromosomal abnormalities. As in the case of the germinal period, often the mother does not yet
know that she is pregnant. It is during this stage that the major structures of the body are taking
form making the embryonic period the time when the organism is most vulnerable to the greatest
amount of damage if exposed to harmful substances. Potential mothers are not often aware of the
risks they introduce to the developing child during this time.

3. The Fetal Period (Weeks 9-40)

When the organism is about nine weeks old, the embryo is called a fetus. At this stage, the fetus
is about the size of a kidney bean and begins to take on the recognizable form of a human being
as the “tail” begins to disappear.

From 9–12 weeks, the sex organs begin to differentiate. By the 12th week, the fetus has all its
body parts including external genitalia. In the following weeks, the fetus will develop hair, nails,
teeth and the excretory and digestive systems will continue to develop. At the end of the
12th week, the fetus is about 3 inches long and weighs about 28 grams.

At about 16 weeks, the fetus is approximately 4.5 inches long. Fingers and toes are fully
developed, and fingerprints are visible. During the 4-6th months, the eyes become more sensitive
to light and hearing develops. The respiratory system continues to develop. Reflexes such as
sucking, swallowing, and hiccupping develop during the 5th month. Cycles of sleep and
wakefulness are present at that time as well. Throughout the fetal stage, the brain continues to
grow and develop, nearly doubling in size from weeks 16 to 28. The majority of the neurons in
the brain have developed by 24 weeks although they are still rudimentary and the glial or nurse
cells that support neurons continue to grow. At 24 weeks the fetus can feel pain.

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The first chance of survival outside the womb, known as the age of viability is reached at about
22 to 26 weeks. By the time the fetus reaches the sixth month of development (24 weeks), it
weighs up to 1.4 pounds. The hearing has developed, so the fetus can respond to sounds. The
internal organs, such as the lungs, heart, stomach, and intestines, have formed enough that a fetus
born prematurely at this point has a chance to survive outside of the mother’s womb.

Between the 7th and 9th months, the fetus is primarily preparing for birth. It is exercising its
muscles; its lungs begin to expand and contract. It is developing fat layers under the skin. The
fetus gains about 5 pounds and 7 inches during this last trimester of pregnancy which includes a
layer of fat gained during the 8th month. This layer of fat serves as insulation and helps the baby
regulate body temperature after birth.

Around 36 weeks, the fetus is almost ready for birth. It weighs about 6 pounds and is about 18.5
inches long, and by week 37 all of the fetus’s organ systems are developed enough that it could
survive outside the uterus without many of the risks associated with premature birth. The fetus
continues to gain weight and grow in length until approximately 40 weeks. By then, the fetus has
very little room to move around and birth becomes imminent.

(2) Environmental risks during prenatal development

1. Teratology

Good prenatal care is essential. The developing embryo is most at risk for some of the most
severe problems during the first three months of development. Unfortunately, this is a time at
which most women are unaware that they are pregnant. It is estimated that 10% of all birth
defects are caused by a prenatal exposure or teratogen. Teratogens are factors that can contribute
to birth defects which include some maternal diseases, drugs, alcohol, and stress. These
exposures can also include environmental and occupational exposures. Today, we know many of
the factors that can jeopardize the health of the developing embryo and fetus. Some teratogen-
caused birth defects are potentially preventable. Some of the teratogens are:

a. Alcohol use:

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One of the most commonly used teratogens is alcohol. Because half of all pregnancies in the
United States are unplanned, it is recommended that women of child-bearing age take great
caution against drinking alcohol when not using birth control and when pregnant. [4] Alcohol
consumption, particularly during the second month of prenatal development, but at any point
during pregnancy, may lead to neurocognitive and behavioral difficulties that can last a lifetime.

There is no acceptable safe limit for alcohol use during pregnancy, but binge drinking or having
7 or more drinks during a single week places an embryo and fetus at particularly high risk. In
extreme cases, alcohol consumption can lead to fetal death, but more frequently it can result in
fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD).

b. Tobacco use

Smoking is also considered a teratogen because nicotine travels through the placenta to the fetus.
When the pregnant woman smokes, the developing fetus experiences a reduction in blood
oxygen levels. Tobacco uses during pregnancy has been associated with low birth weight,
placenta previa, birth defects, preterm delivery, fetal growth restriction, and sudden infant death
syndrome. Smoking in the month before getting pregnant and throughout pregnancy increases
the chances of these risks. Quitting smoking before getting pregnant is best. However, for
women who are already pregnant, quitting as early as possible can still help protect against some
health problems for the mother and baby.

c. Drug use

Prescription, over-the-counter, or recreational drugs can have serious teratogenic effects. In

general, if medication is required, the lowest dose possible should be used. Combination drug
therapies and first trimester exposures should be avoided. Almost three percent of pregnant
women use illicit drugs such as marijuana, cocaine, Ecstasy and other amphetamines, and heroin.
These drugs can cause low birth-weight, withdrawal symptoms, birth defects, or learning or
behavioral problems. Babies born with a heroin addiction need heroin just like an adult addict.
The child will need to be gradually weaned from the heroin under medical supervision;
otherwise, the child could have seizures and die.

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2. Environmental chemicals

Environmental chemicals can include exposure to a wide array of agents including pollution,
organic mercury compounds, herbicides, and industrial solvents. Some environmental pollutants
of major concern include lead poisoning, which is connected with low birth weight and slowed
neurological development. Children who live in older housing in which lead-based paints have
been used have been known to eat peeling paint chips thus being exposed to lead. The chemicals
in certain herbicides are also potentially damaging. Radiation is another environmental hazard
that a pregnant woman must be aware of. If a woman is exposed to radiation, particularly during
the first three months of pregnancy, the child may suffer some congenital deformities. There is
also an increased risk of miscarriage and stillbirth. A pregnant woman’s exposure to mercury can
also lead to physical deformities and intellectual disabilities.

3. Sexual Transmitted Infections (STD)

Sexually transmitted infections (STIs) can complicate pregnancy and may have serious effects on
both the pregnant woman and the developing fetus. Most prenatal care today includes testing for
STIs, and early detection is important. STIs, such as chlamydia, gonorrhea, syphilis,
trichomoniasis, and bacterial vaginosis can all be treated and cured with antibiotics that are safe
to take during pregnancy. STIs that are caused by viruses, like genital herpes, hepatitis B, or HIV
cannot be cured. However, in some cases these infections can be treated with antiviral
medications or other preventive measures that can be taken to reduce the risk of passing the
infection to the baby.

4. Maternal Diseases

Maternal illnesses increase the chance that a baby will be born with a birth defect or have a
chronic health problem. Some of the diseases that are known to potentially have an adverse
effect on the fetus include diabetes, cytomegalovirus, toxoplasmosis, rubella, varicella,
hypothyroidism, and Strep B. If the pregnant woman contracts Rubella during the first three
months of pregnancy, damage can occur in the eyes, ears, heart, or brain of the developing fetus.
On a positive note, Rubella has been nearly eliminated in the industrial world due to the vaccine
created in 1969. Diagnosing these diseases early and receiving appropriate medical care can help

25
improve the outcomes. Routine prenatal care now includes screening for gestational diabetes and
Strep B.

5. Maternal Stress

Stress represents the effects of any factor able to threaten the homeostasis of an organism; these
either real or perceived threats are referred to as the “stressors” and comprise a long list of
potentially adverse factors, which can be emotional or physical. Because of a link in blood
supply between a pregnant woman and her fetus, it has been found that stress can leave lasting
effects on a developing fetus, even before birth. The best-studied outcomes of fetal exposure to
maternal prenatal stress are preterm birth and low birth weight.

Maternal prenatal stress is also considered responsible for a variety of changes in the child’s
brain, and a risk factor for conditions such as behavioral problems, learning disorders, high
levels of anxiety, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, autism, and schizophrenia.
Furthermore, maternal prenatal stress has been associated with a higher risk for a variety of
immune and metabolic changes in the child such as asthma, allergic disorders, cardiovascular
diseases, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, diabetes, and obesity.

(3) Factors influencing prenatal risks

There are several considerations in determining the type and amount of damage that might result
from exposure to a particular teratogen. These include:

 The timing of the exposure: Structures in the body are vulnerable to the most severe
damage when they are forming. If a substance is introduced during a particular structure’s
critical period (time of development), the damage to that structure may be greater. For
example, the ears and arms reach their critical periods at about 6 weeks after conception.
If a pregnant woman exposes the embryo to certain substances during this period, the
arms and ears may be malformed.
 The amount of exposure: Some substances are not harmful unless the amounts reach a
certain level. The critical level depends in part on the size and metabolism of the mother.

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  Genetics: Genetic make-up also plays a role in the impact a particular teratogen might
have after the child is born. This is suggested by fraternal twin studies who are exposed
to the same prenatal environment, yet do not experience the same teratogenic effects. The
genetic make-up of the mother can also have an effect; some mothers may be more
resistant to teratogenic effects than others.
 Biological sex: Males are more likely to experience damage due to teratogens than are
females. It is believed that the Y chromosome, which contains fewer genes than the X,
may have an impact.

(D) FACTORS THAT CAN INFLUENCE AND MODIFY NORMAL PATTERNS OF

HUMAN GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT

Scholars reveals that there are various factors that can modify normal human growth and
development. Such of the factors can either be internal or external. They can have serious and
lasting consequences on individuals from birth to old age. Some of the specific factors that can
cause damage in the development of the ovum, embryo and foetus include factor the pregnant
mother experiences. Examples are maternal poor diet, age of mother, number of pregnancies,
maternal diseases and disorders, infections disease, RH blood factors, emotional stages of the
mother (whether sad, confused or depressed) as well as birth complications such as position of
foetus during delivery. Others are excessive noise, abnormal pressure, anoxia and asphyxia
(Akinade, 2022).

In the context of childhood development, growth is defined as an irreversible constant increase in

size, and development is defined as growth in psychomotor capacity. Both processes are highly
dependent on genetic, nutritional, and environmental factors. Evaluation of growth and
development is a crucial element in the physical examination of a patient. A piece of good
working knowledge and the skills to evaluate growth and development are necessary for any
patient's diagnostic workup. The early recognition of growth or developmental failure helps for
effective intervention in managing a patient's problem.

Growth rates change at different stages of development, with the most rapid growth
happening during the first three years of your child's life. The rate becomes steady after that

27
and continues in a less dramatic fashion until adolescence. As your child reaches
adolescence, the growth rate becomes quite rapid once again. Short after that, the skeletal
growth plates begin to fuse and this slows down the growth rate. Growth rate for girls is
usually quicker and most girls reach their final adult height by the time they turn 16, whereas
it continues until the age of 18 for boys.

As a parent or a parent to be, your child’s growth and development is of prime importance to
you. There are several factors that affect the growth and development of your child and it is
essential to have an understanding of each of the factors, both internal and external.

While growth and development are used interchangeably, they are distinctly different. Growth
refers to the changes in physical characteristics such as height, weight, size, etc., while
development refers to qualitative changes to growth, that result in maturity. Development can be
both physical as well as mental.

While trying to figure more about factors that affect growth, it makes sense to check if your
child's height and weight is within normal range. It is quite natural for parents to take their
children to the park and then unconsciously comparing them with others in terms of their
growth. While doing it, have you ever wondered why your child seems shorter as compared
to the other kids of his/her age? It is true that weight and height are important measures of
your child's health, but should not mean you are worry if your child is shorter than the kids in
his/her class. To answer this, we need to learn a number of factors that can affect growth of a
child thus:
1. Genetic or heredity factors: Genetics or heredity play a big role in the transmission of
social and physical characteristics from parents to children. Genetics or heredity has a huge
impact on different characteristics of development and growth, like aptitudes, intelligence,
body structure, weight, height, and colour of eyes and hair. Scientists have found that there
are between 7 and 20 genes that could affect human growth and change the growth patterns
of kids within the same family.

2. Socioeconomic factors: Children from different socioeconomic levels have different

growth rates, with the upper-level families being more advanced. This happens mainly due to

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better facilities, better nutrition, exercise, and regular meals. Similarly, the growth rate may
be different for large families with limited income as compared to smaller families.

Children of higher socio-economical classes are taller than the children of the same age and sex
in the lower socioeconomic groups. Urbanization has positively influenced growth. The secular
trend is observed in growth where the kids grow taller and mature more rapidly than the previous
generation. This secular trend is observed significantly in developed countries like America.

3. The family characteristics factors: Higher family education levels have a positive impact on
growth. The inadequate emotional support and inadequate developmental stimulus, including
language training, might cause growth and development deterioration.

The human-made environment influences human growth and development significantly. Certain
ongoing studies have proven the relationship of pollutants in sexual maturation, obesity, and
thyroid function. The excess lead exposure antenatally significantly associates with low birth
weight. Noise pollution due to transportation sources also has an association with reduced
prenatal growth.

4. Nutritional factors: Malnutrition plays a detrimental role in the process of growth and
development. Deficiencies of trace minerals can affect growth and development; Iron,
deficiency, phosphorus, calcium, and vitamins may also lead to stunted growth, which
usually affects psychomotor development and does not affect growth. deficiency might cause
growth retardation and developmental delay. Selenium, iodine, manganese, and copper also
play a significant role.

Without an adequate supply of calories and nutrients, the human body cannot grow at a
normal rate. What you require at different stages varies but has an impact on the overall
development and growth. Many developing countries are still trying to overcome
malnutrition, which has turned into a large-scale problem for them. People in these regions
are more likely to be underweight and of shorter height than average. The growth process
becomes deeply affected if your child is malnourished, it is mainly because children need
nine different amino acids but they are not getting all of them. Any deficiency of iodine,
zinc,

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Growth faltering or rapid weight gain in early childhood influences health in the later part of life.
The diet in early childhood has a strong association with the likelihood of obesity later in life.
'Early Protein Hypothesis' shows that lowering the protein supply during infancy helps achieve
normal growth and reduce obesity in early childhood. This concept of the early protein
hypothesis helps in improving the food products for children.

5. Environmental factors: You probably only think about environment as being the things that
are surrounding since birth. Well, her environment also includes her internal body environment
and the environment inside of the uterus before her birth. Hormones affect both. They are
chemical messengers that make the body start or stop doing something. The presence of certain
hormones in her mom, like cortisol and insulin, played a key role in Ashley's birthweight and
growth. The number of hormones, like growth hormone, help to determine how big and fast
Ashley will grow.

Other environmental factors are at play, such as pollution and chemicals. Pollution in the air and
water around Ashley may cause her to develop slower than normal. You did your due diligence
and made sure there was no lead or other harmful chemicals in your home. This is great because
lead is especially known to interfere with early developmental processes.

You recall hearing about the age-old debate over nature vs. nurture. In other words, is growth
and development determined by our genes only, or by our environment only, or by both. Over
time, we have learned that the answer is, in fact, both. Everything that you put in Ashley's genes
will manifest themselves depending on the environmental factors present in her life.

6. Role of experience during early childhood factors: Exposure to adverse experiences in early
childhood might hinder development. Profound neglect during early childhood can impair
development. Children adopted before six months of age have similar development when
compared to their non-adoptive siblings. If children adopted after six months have a high risk of
cognition deficits, behavioural issues, autism, and hyperactivity. Early intervention for children
with adverse experiences is the pillar in healthy development.

7. Sex (gender) factors: The sex of your child is another major factor affecting the physical
growth and development of your child. Boys tend to be taller and physically stronger than girls.

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On the contrary, most girls mature faster during adolescence, while boys take a longer period of
time to mature. An adolescent is anyone who is between the age of 10 to 19 years and
adolescence is the transition phase of your child from childhood to adulthood.

The physical structure of your child’s body also depends on their gender. While boys are more
athletic, girls might not be a fan of sports or rigorous physical activities.

8. Hormones factors: The endocrine glands or system is composed of many glands which
include the hypothalamus, pituitary, pineal, thyroid, parathyroid, thymus, adrenal, and pancreas.
Hormones are produced and secreted by these glands, that regulate the growth and development,
metabolism, tissue function, sexual function, reproduction, sleep, mood, etc., of your child's
body. The timely functioning of most hormones is required for the normal physical growth and
development of your child. In the absence of certain hormones, the body cannot regulate the
process of development and growth. Therefore, hormones are certainly among the factors that
affect growth.

The main growth hormones in your child are:

 Growth hormone (GH) produced by the pituitary gland (a small oval-shaped gland at the
base of the brain) that helps children with overall growth and development.

 Thyroid hormone, critical for the growth and development of your child’s brain. It also
regulates your child’s heart rate, blood pressure, and energy levels.

 Sex hormones control the development of sex organs. Testosterone is the primary male
sex hormone and oestrogen is the primary female sex hormone.

9. Exercises factors: Exercises or physical activities are very important for the growth and
development of your child. Exercise primarily refers to normal playtime and sports activities that
help the body gain muscular strength and bone mass.

Proper exercise will help your child grow well, keep him/her healthy and fight off diseases by
strengthening the immune system. Encourage your child to play for about 1 hour every day, if

31
possible, play outdoors. Exposure to sunlight is also essential during the early growth and
development stages of your child.

10. Pollution factors: Air pollution can leave negative effects on the respiratory organs, which
in turn can lead to stunted growth. Even the indoor pollution can make people become very ill,
and this illness has a negative effect on the rate of growth. Lead exposure, for instance, can be
extremely harmful for children because it enters the body and hampers the normal development
of brain and other body organs. Illness is among many factors that affect growth because
children who develop a serious illness in infancy are more likely to grow at a slower rate as
compared to children who have been healthier in early childhood.

Pollutants like lead, manganese, mercury, and pesticides through water or food, can hamper
growth, cause physical abnormalities, and weaken your child’s immune system.

11. Racial factors: Racial factors can also have an impact on weight, height, features, colour,
and body constitution of a person. That is the reason why a child of black race is black with the
hair, height, facial structure, and eye colour all governed by the same race.

12. Pituitary tumours factors: Some individuals have pituitary tumours by birth, while others
develop it later in their lives. These tumours can significantly slow down the growth and
development rate for that person. However, the effect on the rate of growth usually depends on
how the tumour affects the gland. A person will suffer from "gigantism" if a tumour on the
pituitary gland triggers the production of human growth hormone.

13. Medication factors: Certain medications can affect the human growth patterns. Studies
show that children who are on Nigeria, a drug taken for the attention deficit hyperactivity
disorder, experience slow growth. Kids who take these medications and some others are more
likely to be lighter and shorter than children in the same age group.

(2) Guiding tips on factors that can influence and modify normal patterns of human
growth and development

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1. To summarize, some of the above-mentioned factors are controllable and you can decide how
to manage those for your child’s growth and development. But some factors are beyond your
control and will play their part. Besides nutrition and exercise, pay close attention to your child’s
behaviour, attitude, rest, and sleep patterns too.

2. A physically, mentally, and emotionally healthy child is a joy to every parent. Consult your
doctor to know more.

3. It is natural to feel concerned when you suspect your child is not growing like others in the
same age group, but things are not that serious most of the times. If you feel concerned, just
talk to your doctor who will check where your child stands on a paediatric growth chart. You
may only have to worry when a normal growth curve beings to enter the lower height
percentiles.

4. Working with your doctor is important because sometimes simple fixes can resolve the
issue. A child seems taller than others in the same age group may be indulged in overeating.
Similarly, malabsorption, kidney disease, or any other serious illness can also lead to slow
growth. Any problem with thyroid hormone can also have an impact on normal growth and
development. Your doctor will identify these issues and suggest a treatment plan to promote
proper growth.

(E) CONTEMPORARY THEORIES OF HUMAN GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT

Contemporary developmental theory stresses that the multiple levels of organization involved in
human life (ranging from biology through culture, the natural and designed ecology, and history)
are systemically integrated across ontogeny. To discuss developmental systems models of human
development and explain how they offer a productive frame for research, policies, and programs
aimed at understanding adolescents' development and enhancing their health and positive
development. Contemporary developmental theory stresses that the multiple levels of
organization involved in human life (ranging from biology through culture, the natural and
designed ecology, and history) are systemically integrated across ontogeny. Relations within this
developmental system are the focus of developmental analysis and application.

Theory refers to a systematic declaration of principles associated with observed phenomena and
their relationships to each other. A theory is a structure for consolidating and interpreting data. A
33
child development theory examines and records children's development and behaviour and
interprets the recorded information. The interpretation indicates those essentials in the children's
genetic composition and the environmental situations that have an impact on their development
and behaviour, as well as the relationships among these variables.

Developmental theorists use their research to generate philosophies on children’s development.

They organize and interpret data based on a scheme to develop their theory. A theory refers to a
systematic statement of principles related to observed phenomena and their relationship to each
other. A theory of child development looks at the children's growth and behaviour and interprets
it. It suggests elements in the child's genetic makeup and the environmental conditions that
influence development and behaviour and how these elements are related. Many developmental
theories offer insights about how the performance of individuals is stimulated, sustained,
directed, and encouraged. Psychologists have established several developmental theories. Many
different competing theories exist, some dealing with only limited domains of development, and
are continuously revised.

All human beings experience the same cycle of aging, growing from a young infant into an
elderly adult. The patterns that happen through this and different methods of thinking about
human development is how one can define developmental theory.

The developmental theory definition describes the different theories associated with how one
grows from childhood into late adulthood, looking at both psychological and physiological
aspects. Developmental theorists consider all parts of human experience, mainly focusing on
recognizing patterns that lead to mental or physical illness and developing preventative methods.

Theories of development mainly focus on understanding how the child comes to understand and
deal with the rising complexity of living in the world and dealing with themselves. As a result,
theories of human development take many different stances on how one might go about doing
this effectively. The main purpose for all of these theories, however, is to better understand the
areas where issues within human development may arise and treat or prevent them effectively.

In the early 20th century, human development theories began to rise with the treatment of
troubled children. The use of human development theories became quickly popularized because

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of the apparent usefulness it has for future humanity and the positive outlook that one's
childhood might not need to affect the rest of their life. Theories of human development allow
problems of childhood to be viewed in a positive way, as something that can be fixed according
to the corresponding theory.

This topic describes the developmental theories and their founders who have had the greatest
influence on the fields of child development, early childhood education, and care. The following
sections discuss some influences on the individuals’ development, such as theories, theorists and
specific principles. It focuses on theories that have had the most impact on the maturationist,
constructivist, behavioural, psychoanalytic, and ecological. Each theory offers interpretations on
the meaning of children's development and behaviour.

This topic will briefly describe the theories on human development such as maturationist theory,
Psychoanalytic theory, Behaviourism theory, Cognitive development theory, and Ecological
system theory.

1. Maturation theory of human growth and development

Maturation theory indicates that an individual's hereditary has the most impact on the children’s
development. As they develop, their genetic aptitude progresses. Harsh environmental situations
can only delay but not generate or improve their aptitude. Based on this theory, children need to
be provided with developmentally appropriate learning experiences. Difficult experiences will
only discourage the children and optimal learning and progress will not occur.

The maturationist’s’ philosophy provides a fundamental understanding that has a foremost

impact on early childhood education theory and practice. It affects the way that educational
researchers, policymakers, and practitioners recognize young children’s development and its
implications for researching and educating them. They think that development is a biological
progression that gradually emerges instinctively in inevitable, successive stages. This viewpoint
indicates that numerous practitioners believe that young children gain knowledge naturally and
spontaneously throughout their development. The belief that genetic predetermination controlled
the child study domain and early childhood education throughout the first half of the twentieth
century

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Most researchers and educators of that period thought that the children’s biological heritage
basically dominated the sequence of their development. Environmental influences were assumed
to be minor. According to Gesell (1933), “No environment as such has the capacity to generate
the progressions of development”. He discusses the function of maturation in the initial patterns
of child behaviour and the effects of heredity, environment, learning, growth and development.
He proposes that the maturation theory assists, at best for some time, researchers with both their
experimental studies and theoretical interpretations.

2. Constructivist theories of human growth and development

A different type of developmental theory that has affected early childhood education is cognitive
psychology, specifically the constructivist theories of Jean Piaget, Lev Semenovich Vygotsky,
and Jerome Bruner. The constructivists consider persons as vigorously constructing their
personal knowledge about their experience. Approximately from birth, children have certain
knowledge about the world. Such knowledge facilitates their interpretation about their view of
the outside world. New knowledge similarly assists them to adjust their understanding.
Acquiring knowledge and developing innovative approaches of understanding where knowledge
is a procedure lasts throughout the lives of individuals.

According to Piaget (1967), children use physical and social knowledge as the basic sources and
approaches for information. Physical knowledge refers to the observable properties and physical
actions of objects. For example, children conclude whether a table’s (1) surface is hard or soft or
smooth or rough and (2) the top is round or rectangular. These are components of physical
knowledge that are immediately available through the children’s senses. Social knowledge refers
to the social customs that society has defined. For example, children learn that they can lay
objects on the table and eat on the table.

a. Piaget's theories

Jean Piaget (1896–1980) was a forerunner of constructivist theories of cognitive development.

He observed children of different ages in order to collect evidence as to how they resolved
thinking problems, conveyed their dreams, made moral judgments, and managed additional
intellectual activities. Piaget noted that the children were very egocentric and construed

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circumstances exclusively from their individual perspective. In contrast, adults typically know
that individuals differ in their points of view and may vary in their interpretations of situations.

Piaget found that children in all cultures have a thinking structure that progresses through a
sequence of stages. Children use a sequence of schema, which integrates their styles of reasoning
about components of the world. A schema is an integrated method of reasoning about these
components. For the new born, it is a pattern of repeated behaviours in similar situations. For
example, when new born’s see a bottle, a rattle, or the edge of the cradle, they may grab it. This
grabbing, which is based on their understanding, indicates a schema. When children age and
acquire language, schema becomes more abstract. A young child’s schema is characterized by a
set of behaviours. When they grow and learn language, children have abstract schemata (plural
for schema) that might be symbolized in language. A schema denotes a stage of equilibrium in a
pattern of knowledge that might be recurrently shifting.

Piaget hypothesized a sequence of stages of intellectual development which characterize the

normal order of levels of understanding through which children progress during their
development. Every stage signifies how children perform intellectually. These stages have been
categorized as (1) the sensorimotor stage (birth to 2 years); (2) the preoperational stage (2 to 7
years); (3) concrete operational stage (7 to 11 years); and (4) the stage of formal operations (from
11 or 12 years through adulthood). The ages for each stage are only an estimate because children
progress through these stages at their own developmental rate.

b. Vygotsky's theories

Lev Semenovich Vygotsky (1896–1934) was also a constructivist theorist in cognitive

psychology. He was Piaget's contemporary. Initially, he was a literature teacher. Between 1915
until 1922, he concentrated on artistic creation, while later shifting to developmental psychology,
education, and psychopathology. Vygotsky was born in Russia before the Soviet revolution but
died at a young age. His initial work was published during the 1930s, but the Soviet regime
censored a great deal of his later work. Nevertheless, most scholars are aware of his influential
work. One of his foremost contributions to the field was Thought and Language (Vygotsky,

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1962), which was translated and published in English in the 1960s. The majority of his other
publications emerged in the 1970s and 1980s.

c. Impact of Constructivism

The constructivist theorists had an impact on the understanding of children’s developmental

learning. While their contributions differ, each provided a comparable framework showing that
during instruction, learning and development are cultivated through young children’s interactions
with their environment and others, such as peers or adults. The educational importance of the
social context has attracted an awareness of children’s previous beliefs, knowledge, and skills.
Prior knowledge has been found to have an important effect on how children create meaning
during instruction.

The constructivists’ emphasis on the social context and greater community has helped educators
to shift from individually-based instruction to cooperative instruction. Lastly, the constructivists’
utmost educational impact could be the transitional change from gaining knowledge through a
process rather than a product, which may be a long-lasting and meaningful modification in the
educational structure.

This constructivist approach has influenced early childhood educators’ focus on the physical
environment and the curriculum, which has led them to implement a variety of learning centres
with developmentally appropriate materials. This allows children to actively engage and shift
from one centre to another, where they play and manipulate the materials. Thus, social
constructivist theories have affected the design and organization of early childhood classrooms.
Educators cannot ignore the strength of peer interactions and the classroom community in
learning. The majority of classrooms in the United States have identified spaces for children to
work in small groups, as well as room arrangements for whole class discussions. The
constructivists have helped both researchers and educators to understand child development and
the learning process.

3. Behaviourist theory of human growth and development

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The behaviourist theory of learning and development began in the early 1900s and prevailed in
the early twentieth century. It originated with the work of Ivan Pavlov in Russia, while in the
United States it has been influenced by the studies of John Watson, Edward Thorndike, and B. F.
Skinner. According to Watson, Psychology as the behaviourist views it is a purely objective
experimental branch of natural science. Its theoretical goal is the prediction and control of
behaviour.

Behavioural theory characterizes a focal drive in helping to describe the children’s learning and
development. Its major concept is that learning involves a modification in behaviour as a result
of obtaining reinforcement and treatment of associations between stimuli from the situation and
the individuals’ apparent reactions. Psychologists believe that results are based on behavioural
responses that occurred after a satisfying effect which were most likely to become patterns that
will continue to occur again in response to a similar stimulus.

Behaviourists measure behavioural modifications. Edward Lee Thorndike is a foremost

behavioural theorist who found that a response to a stimulus is strengthened after (1) positive
rewarding results and (2) continuous exercise and repetition. This concept of learning is
comparable to the “drill-and-practice” programs.

B. F. Skinner, another important behaviourist, developed a variation of behaviourism that he

referred to as “operant conditioning”. He thought that rewarding the appropriate elements of the
more intricate behaviour would reinforce it and promote its repetition. Thus, reinforcers managed
the appearance of the preferred partial behaviours. Learning is assumed to be a step-by-step or
consecutive estimate of the targeted behaviours through the use of reward and punishment. The
most recognized use of Skinner’s theory is “programmed instruction” by which the correct order
of some behaviours that need to be learned is stated by detailed task analysis.

Behavioural theory had a leading theoretical impact in psychology for approximately a century.
Though it was basically a theory of learning, it is also considered a theory of development. In
contrast to the maturationists, behaviourists thought that, other than physical maturation, the
biggest impacts on human development are found in the environment. Behavioural theorists
believe that the individuals’ learning is integrated into their collection of experiences, is

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expanded through the years, and finally integrates development. Ivan Pavlov, John B. Watson,
Edward L. Thorndike, and B. F. Skinner are eminent pioneers of behavioural theory.

a. Pavlov’s theories

Ivan Pavlov (1849–1936) found the principle of conditioning in his research with animals in
Russia. In determining the physiological dogs’ reactions to food, he observed that the dogs
salivated in response to food and simultaneously ringing a bell. Eventually, the dogs salivated
when they heard the bell sound even if food was not present. Relating a novel stimulus with a
stimulus that led to a natural response turned out to be the foundation for the behaviour termed
“respondent or classical conditioning.” The principle is that an animal or human being relates a
novel stimulus to the initial one and reacts the same way.

b. Watson’s theories

John B. Watson (1878–1959) applied the principles of respondent conditioning to child

development and learning in the United States. Watson was interested in establishing a scientific
system to investigate the way individuals behave under different environmental conditions. He
invented the term behaviourism to create a method of investigating learning through observing
behaviour instead of hypothesizing about the internal structure of the mind. Watson thought that
the environment could be manipulated and controlled to have an impact on the individual’s
learning and development. He established a technology using theories of respondent
conditioning.

c. Thorndike’s theories

Edward L. Thorndike (1874–1949) was also interested in the scientific research of learning. He
tried to describe the procedure about how stimuli are connected to reactions. He established a
group of "laws" to clarify the procedure. Primarily essential to the procedure was the law of
effect. His law of effect principle suggested that: responses that produce a satisfying effect in a
particular situation become more likely to occur again in that situation, and responses that
produce a discomforting effect become less likely to occur again in that situation.

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This law specified that a response is reinforced if it is preceded by an enjoyable effect and is
weakened if it is succeeded by a disliking effect. The law of exercise specified that the more
recurrently a stimulus–response connection is offered, the more it will be preserved. The law of
readiness recommended that learning is more successful when the nervous classification is
prompted by an activity.

Thorndike's law of effect was a forerunner to the concept of reinforcement that was the source
for Skinner's method to behaviourism. Thorndike's studies also influenced kindergarten teachers
because he thought that children had the normal inclination to create habits. He believed that
appropriate habits should be reinforced at an early age, whereas bad ones should be repressed
during the children’s early years in order that they do not have to unlearn them. Habit training
became an important component in the kindergarten classrooms during the first quarter of the
twentieth century.

d. Impact of Behaviourism

During the 1920s and 1930s, behaviourism had an effect on early childhood education in habit
training, which is E. L. Thorhndike’s concept to be used with young children. Its impact on the
field has decreased ever since. The emphasis on observing children’s behaviour has continued to
be vital. Behaviourism has affected special education including early childhood special
education, particularly when working with children who have severe mental disabilities. Special
educators have used the behaviourism theory to create training programs for children who have
disabilities. More and more early childhood special educators are using constructivist methods in
their early childhood special education programs.

4. Psychoanalytic Theory of human growth and development

Psychoanalytic theory provides an awareness as to how the unconscious affects an individual’s

thoughts, feelings, and behaviour. It is used to explain human behaviour. For instance, the
individual’s anxiety may have been the result of stressful experiences in their childhood that
were concealed from consciousness, but they may trigger difficulties throughout their adulthood.
The individual’s childhood experiences influence their adult lives and develop their personality.
Psychoanalytic theory considers both normal and abnormal human abilities and identifies the

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permanent effect of early childhood experiences on adult personality and psychological
development.

Psychoanalytic theories of development focus on aspects of the unconscious and how they affect
behaviour. This school of thought was invented by Sigmund Freud, the father of psychoanalysis.
The main characteristics of Freud's theories on human development revolve around repressed
memories associated with improper development. In other words, if the individual were to miss a
stage of development, it will be represented by an issue with that stage's corresponding
developmental error whenever the individual acts in the world.

Psychoanalytic theory has had a continuing effect on the (1) development of the field of child
development, (2) beginning of therapeutic programs for children, and (3) foundation of early
childhood education programs. It focuses on the social-emotional domain. Sigmund Freud and
Erik Erikson were two predominant figures in the field. The psychoanalytic theory originated
from Freud and concentrated on childhood.

1. Freud’s theories

Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis,
which promoted the theory that unconscious motives deal with most of the individuals’
behaviour. First, he was interested in hypnotism and its use with the mentally ill. Then he
switched to free association and dream analysis to create "the talking cure," which became the
central components of psychoanalysis. He focused on hysteria, which is presently referred to as
conversion syndrome. In the nineteenth century and now, Freud’s theories and treatment of his
patients were questionable as scientific and medical papers.

Sigmund Freud created psychoanalysis and established the essential mechanisms of social
emotional development that results from human instincts. Such instincts include both a positive
loving force—Eros—and a negative destructive force. He believed that each individual’s act can
be found in two contradictory basic instincts.

Freud’s psychoanalytic theory was based on adult patients. In treating the adults’ difficulties, he
searched their early development and detected the origins of problems in childhood that

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continued through adulthood. Freud proposed a series of psychosexual stages that people
experience as they mature and effectively progress through these stages to obtain a healthy
personality. If difficulties or struggles ascend at any stage, the persons can become fixated at that
stage and spend their strength in managing conflicts of previous stages in adulthood. Knowing
the significance of the early years of life help individuals structure their personality and become
mature adults. Freud's concept affected psychologists and educators, motivated an interest for
mental health in early childhood education, and encouraged the existence of child psychotherapy.

Freud's concepts reinforced personality development in psychology. The first concept focuses on
the significance of the initial years in the children’s life in forming their fundamental personality.
The next one establishes the children’s personality as they cope with a series of continuous
struggles, which are associated to a specific developmental stage.

2. Erikson’s theories

Erik Erikson (1902–1994), a German-born American psychoanalyst, contributed to professional

methods on psychosocial problems. He wrote about social psychology, individual identity, and
the interactions of psychology with history, politics, and culture, which attracted much popular
interest. Since Erikson went to art school, in 1927 Anna Freud, the psychoanalyst, invited him to
teach art, history, and geography at a small private school in Vienna. Anna observed Erikson's
kindness to children at the school and persuaded him to study psychoanalysis at the Vienna
Psychoanalytic Institute. Well-known analysts (e.g., August Aichhorn, Heinz Hartmann, Paul
Federn) supervised his theoretical studies. He specialized in child analysis and underwent a
training analysis with Anna Freud. He became interested in psychoanalysis, received training,
and became a psychoanalyst.

In 1936 Erikson ceased his studies without completing his degree. During the following 20 years,
he shifted his interests to human development and carried out research at Yale and Berkeley and
also maintained his private psychoanalytic practice. After 2 years, Erikson started his initial
research on cultural effects on psychological development. He studied Sioux Indian children in
South Dakota and later collaborated with the anthropologist Alfred Kroeber who was studying
the Yurok Indians of northern California. Erikson used the results from these studies to develop

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his theory that all societies develop cultures to adapt their personality development but that the
standard resolutions to parallel difficulties differ with each society.

3. Impact of psychoanalytic theory

The expression of feelings as well as ideas is also important for mental health. The expressive
arts are important tools that allow young children to express their ideas and feelings. Young
children may not have the competence to use language to express all their thoughts and feelings.
Various forms of expression of art, music, and movement do allow children to express those
ideas and feelings that they cannot express in words. Children also use play (particularly
dramatic play) to communicate their feelings and thoughts. They assume roles to dramatize
difficult circumstances, which help them to deal with negative feelings and to settle emotional
struggles that they cannot handle in their actual life. Thus, play offers a type of therapy for
children.

Both Freud and Erikson have made important contributions to early childhood education. Both
theorists considered early childhood education to be vital to young children. Both discovered
struggles that young children need to resolve to develop into mentally healthy adults. Both Freud
and Erikson recommended that early childhood educators assume an active role. Based on
Freudian theory, teachers need to provide a mentally healthy environment where children are
free to communicate their personal feelings without being afraid to be criticized. Based on
Erikson's theory, teachers need to help children to acquire competencies to reinforce the
children’s ego. Although the teachers’ responsibilities differ for each of these theories, they are
essential in the children’s lives.

5. Cognitive human development theories

Cognitive theories of development focus on studying the mind and thought patterns and how
these cognitive factors affect human development. This type of thinking studies how one's
thoughts impact the way they view and behave in the world, and how these thoughts can be
changed in order to better influence human development.

1. Piaget stages of cognitive development

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Jean Piaget's theory focused on the way that a child thinks instead of an adult. These days, this
thought seems to be common sense, but understanding the world from a child's perspective is
harder than it seems. Piaget argued that the thought processes that a child has mature just as
much as their physical state. As a result, he split cognitive development into four different
stages: sensorimotor, pre-operational, concrete operational, and formal operational. A good way
to view these is through child toys, designed according to human development and many ideas
that Piaget had. Sensorimotor toys focus on motor activities, and pre-operational toys focus on
developing language. Lastly, concrete and formal operational stages involve understanding
mental and abstract operations.

The downsides and critiques of this theory revolve around its lack of acknowledgment for the
physical processes associated with development. Piaget's view differs from that of Freud's in that
it is not focused on factors that motivate behaviour, but rather, intellectual development.

2. Kohhibergs theory of moral development

Similar to Piaget's theory, Lawrence Kohlberg developed theories of development focusing on

the moral aspects of human nature. He claimed that humans develop in six stages associated
directly with their moral influence and the ability for moral reasoning. The main idea behind
Kohlberg's theory is that as one learns right behaviour from wrong, their development
progresses. This may look like individual learning not to lie to others.

Critiques of this theory explain that it does not account for physical development either, as well
as relying heavily on cultural characteristics, which are not the same across all societies.
Therefore, markers of moral development would be skewed if measured.

3. Bowlby attachment theory

Other theories of development focus on the role of caregivers in a child's developmental stages,
and how this affects their development for the rest of life. John Bowlby pointed out the fact that
humans not only need differing types of social interaction in life, but they also form deep
attachments, which affects their style of attachment throughout the rest of life. Bowlby explained

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this through the fact that some individuals strive to maintain a reliant connection in their adult
relationships while others are more avoidant.

6. Ecological theory of human growth and development

Ecological theory concentrates on the importance of the environment in children's lives and
development. Based on this theory, environment influences in every respect impact the children's
development. Their environments differ in all situations. The effects are interlaced with the
children's regular developing configuration, which may become difficult for children to
understand. Ecological theory uses the knowledge of the children's environments to explain,
systematize, and clarify their effects. This scheme acknowledges the events in the realm of
ecological psychology.

In child development ecological theory considers how environmental components take into
account the complete child as an integrated organism. Development proceeds when minor,
additional extensions sporadically accumulate to build the children’s personality through the
involvement in their collected experiences. The holistic theories suggest that a different stimulus
or experience complements a fresh element to the children's knowledge. Consequently, each
important new experience can change the association of several or all of the current components
that influence the personality, shaping the development of the children's independence.

a. Bronfenbrenner’s theories

Urie Bronfenbrenner (1917–2005) designed the ecology of human development as a method to

know the way the dynamic, developing individuals interacted with the environment. He
attempted to know the bond between the direct surroundings wherein children grow and the
greater circumstances where the environments are rooted. Bronfenbrenner concentrated on the
children's understandings of their environments. It is imperative to recognize those disruptive
variations in the children's views of their surroundings. For instance, in an environment (e.g.,
school, home, peer group sites) considering its physical and material features, children
experience an array of activities, roles, and interpersonal associations, which affect their
development. The activities refer to the individuals' actions; roles refer to the actions that society
requires of the individual's position (e.g., parent, infant, sibling, teacher, friend, coach).

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Interpersonal relationships relate to the individuals’ verbal and nonverbal reactions to each other.
Bronfenbrenner believed that:

1. The phenomenological (internally interpreted or experienced) environment dominates the

real environment in guiding behaviour.
2. It is folly to try to understand a child's action solely from the objective qualities of an
environment without learning what those qualities mean for the child in that setting.
3. It is important to discover how the objects, people and events in the situation affect the
child's motivations, and
4. it is essential to recognize the influence on behaviour of "unreal" elements that arise from
the child's imagination, fantasy, and idiosyncratic interpretations (pp. 24–25).

In understanding the children's behaviour, it is important to know their view of the activities,
roles, and interpersonal relations that are apparent in that environment. Hence, a fragment of the
environment may affect the complete structure as the children build a fresh meaning. Children
need to be provided with educational segments that help them understand their environments.

b. Impact of Ecological theory

Bronfenbrenner's theory has impacted the social policy in child development and early childhood
education. This impact includes both the classroom and family environments. The family,
school, community, and culture are all connected to one another. Frequently, the one method to
definitely impact the children's development is to pursue enhancements in the community and
society as well as the provisions that several social agencies offer for children’s development.

(F) CHILD GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT (THE NEONATE AND INFANCY)

Knowing the child growth and development means, taking cognisance of the different aspect and
stages of identifying developmental needs, characteristics, tasks of the child and being able to
handle the individuality of each child. Though, there is individual differ in their rate of growth
and development, the development process follows an orderly sequence in all individuals and
shows high degree of similarity in the order in which various developments appear. In essence,
people of the same age and cultural background may not be expected to grow, develop or mature

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at the same rate. The rate of each individual’s growth and development or level of functioning
depends on his unique potentials and experiences.

Children’s experiences in their first five years have been shown to have a significant impact on
their developmental outcomes later on. As a result, it is important for parents and those who
work with children to understand exactly what happens during these early stages of development.
This allows them to meet a child’s needs effectively, and ensure that they have the best start in
life.

However, research has shown that only few parents recognize the importance of the first five
years; additionally, teacher training does not adequately cover the early years, despite the fact
that children are still within this period when they begin school. This lack of awareness on both
parts could cause failures to provide the best environments for children, and their progress could
be limited.

The reason that early child development is so critical is that it lays down the foundations for the
rest of children’s lives. The brain is at its most receptive during the first five years, which leads
to early experiences having a huge impact on the development of neurological connections. This
influences children’s brain functioning throughout their lives.

More specifically, early child development has a direct impact on children’s behaviour, social
skills, emotional boundaries, ability to form close relationships, school readiness and level of
achievement, even into adulthood. Growth and development include not only the physical
changes that occur from infancy to adolescence, but also some of the changes in emotions,
personality, behaviour, thinking and speech that children develop as they begin to understand
and interact with the world around them.

As a result, it is important for parents and those who work with children to support and
encourage development in all domains. All children learn more if the adults around them make a
purposeful effort to help them. Think of cognitive development, for example; children can only
learn the names of different colours or animals if they have been told them. In terms of
communication, they can only learn new words if they are talked to frequently, there is a direct
link between the rate a child’s vocabulary develops at and the amount the mother talked to the

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child in the first year. Positive behaviour also needs to be promoted in the early years to ensure
that they understand what is expected of them in the society.

In order to help you understand the early years, this topic will provide guidance on the stages of
child development, milestones that children reach within each stage, and how to encourage
development. We will also provide further research to show you why this period of life is
arguably the most important.

(1) Areas of Child Development Stages

In this course, the five areas of child development which are: physical, social and emotional,
approaches to learning, thinking, and communication and language will be considered.

All of these areas of development interlink at every stage child can’t progress in one area without
progressing in another. At each stage of development, children gain skills in four main
domains. These domains are:

 The communication, Language, speech and Literacy development/domain: Children

have to learn to communicate with everyone around them. As well as learning the
language, they learn about taking turns in conversation, and how to categorise the world
around them. This can be extremely difficult, and leads to interesting errors; for example,
when a child learns that a round object is a ‘ball’, they have to work out if that means
everything round is also called a ball. Is the moon a ball, and why not? It takes time to
understand what separates one word from another.

These activities will help our children learn to express him/herself and to understand
what others say. Early reading and writing skills are also targeted.

 The physical development/domain: The body increases in skill and performance over
time, going through gross motor development (learning to use large muscles, such as the
arms and legs), and fine motor development (learning to use muscles to make precise
movements, such as the hands and fingers).

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  The social and emotional development/domain: Children’s identities, self-images and
perceptions of feelings evolve as they grow. They also develop relationships with others,
and learn how to socialise and follow social etiquette.

Activities in this area target on our children’s ability to make and keep social
relationships, both with adults and with other children. He/she will learn to recognize and
express his/her own feelings more effectively. He/she will gain experience of
understanding and responding to the emotions of others.

 The thinking Abilities (Cognitive) development/domain: ‘Cognitive processes’ are

higher-level functions of the brain, including thinking, knowing, remembering, judging,
and problem-solving. As they develop, children increase their understanding of the world,
improve their memory, gain better concentration, and refine their problem-solving skills.

The suggestions in this area will help our children figure out how the world works and
how things are organized. Your child will experience “learning how to learn,” improving
problem-solving ability and develop abstract thinking.

 Physical health, well-being, and movement skills development/domain: These

activities are designed to help develop our children’s large and small muscle control,
his/her coordination, and his/her overall physical fitness.
 Approaches to learning development/domain: Children differ in how they approach
new tasks, difficult problems, or challenges. These activities will spark our children’s
curiosity, interest, attention and the ability to stay on task. Research suggests strong links
between positive approaches to learning and success in school.

(2) Stages of Child Growth and Development

As children get older, they develop in various different ways which cover physical, intellectual,
social and emotional changes. It's the process that every child goes through and includes
everything from physical skills such as sitting and standing, to social and emotional skills such as
smiling or forming relationships with others.

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How your child behaves, thinks, moves, and speaks are big clues about his development. Every
child progresses at their own pace but there are certain skills they should have each by a certain
age, and these are known as developmental milestones.

At each of these stages, children reach different milestones (also known as ‘characteristics of a
stage’. In the next section, we will describe what these milestones are, giving you a general idea
of the rate at which children progress.

The early years are the most important time to start building a strong foundation for your
children as they strive to reach their developmental milestones. Once your baby is born, every
day will bring on wonderful changes as she grows physically and mentally Children grow and
develop so quickly in the first five years of their lives that it’s important to track where they're at
developmentally.

Development describes the way a child grows, changes, and develops skills not only physically,
but also socially, emotionally, cognitively and communicatively.

Child development can be broken down into five stages:

1. New-born or neonatal period (0-4 months)

2. Infant (3-12 months)
3. Toddler (1-3 years)
4. Preschool age (3-4 years)
5. School age (4-5 years).

1. The child neonatal period/stage development

The neonatal period is the first four weeks of an infant's life, whether the baby was carried to
term or born prematurely. It's a time of rapid change and development where patterns for
infancy, like feeding and bonding, are developed. It's also the period when there are the most risk
for post-birth complications or when birth defects or congenital conditions may first be detected.
The neonatal period includes the perinatal period, which is the initial period after the birth.

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New-borns, also called neonates, are observed closely in the first few hours of life. This is
particularly true for premature births, which occur before the 37 th week of pregnancy, or if there
were any complications during the delivery. A developing baby goes through important growth
throughout pregnancy, including in the final months and weeks. Premature babies can have
immature lungs, difficulty regulating body temperature, poor feeding, and slow weight gain.

Immediately after birth, a medical team quickly checks the baby's vital signs, alertness, and
overall health. Supplemental oxygen and other emergency care may be provided if the baby has
breathing difficulties.

The neonatal period is the riskiest period after birth. Worldwide, 2.4 million infants died in the
first month of life. Though, death rates in this period have decreased over the past few decades,
but complications during pregnancy and delivery remain significant, occurring in the first week
of life. Even for infants who aren't labelled as high-risk before birth, healthcare providers will
watch the baby closely after birth, ideally noting any illness or complications within the first two
hours of life. Possible complications or problems during the delivery process and neonatal period
include:5

 Birth defects
 Birth injuries
 Breathing problems
 Infection
 Jaundice
 Low birth weight
 Low blood sugar
 Feeding difficulties
 Pneumonia from breathing in fluids during birth
 Temperature control problems
 Developmental delay
 Vision problems
 Hearing problems

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Infants who require extensive care from premature birth or other neonatal complications may
need to receive treatment in a neonatal intensive care unit after birth. If no complications occur,
the delivery team begins to make plans to transition babies to postnatal care hours after delivery.
Hospitals are required to offer at least a 48-hour hospital stay after birth for a vaginal delivery
and 96 hours for a caesarean delivery.

A lot happens during the neonatal period especially immediately after delivery. While each baby
moves at a different pace, here are some general milestones to expect during this time. Your
baby will undergo a number of tests and screenings for common diseases, hearing problems, and
more. They will also receive a number of vaccinations. Before you leave the hospital, you should
have a follow-up care plan for your baby established.

A neonate is also called a new-born. It is a time when changes are very rapid. Many critical
events can occur in this period such as:

 Feeding patterns are established.

 Bonding between parents and infant begin.
 The risk for infections that may become more serious are higher.
 Many birth or congenital defects are first noted.

Week 1

In the first week after birth, you and your baby will be getting to know each other. Bonding and
feeding are the primary tasks in this first week. Whether you are breastfeeding or using a
formula, urination and stooling patterns will signal to you whether your baby is receiving enough
nutrition.

It's common for infants to lose weight after birth. Don't be alarmed if your baby sleeps a lot this
first week also. It's not unusual for new-borns to sleep for 14 to 17 hours a day in the first weeks
of life. But they will also wake up every two to four hours for feeding. Expect to have your first
follow-up visit with a paediatrician outside of the hospital three to five days after birth.

Week 2

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Sleep and feeding are erratic at this stage. Your baby may be having their first growth spurt,
having returned to their birth weight and then some. Most babies will consume 16 to 24 ounces
of breastmilk or formula each day during this time. Talk to your healthcare provider immediately
if you are having trouble feeding or if you notice a decrease in wet or soiled diapers.

Week 3

Feeding and sleeping schedules are still inconsistent, but your baby will begin to refine its
muscle control at this point. Most babies begin to lift their head and should have regular "tummy
time" to help develop strength. Your paediatrician will closely monitor your infant's weight and
growth in the first few weeks of life to identify any early feeding problems.

Week 4

You have officially reached the end of the neonatal period. For many parents, feeding and
sleeping become more routine at this stage. Your baby may be responding to you more as their
senses like hearing and vision develop. You may even begin to recognize patterns in the sounds
and cries your baby makes. Expect another visit with your paediatrician at this point to review
the baby's growth, discuss care for the next stages, and receive additional vaccinations.

(a) Guiding tips at neonatal period

a. Coping with the challenges of the neonatal period can be difficult. If you gave birth to your
new-born, you will experience hormonal and physical challenges from the birth and any
complications you may have had. Even parents who didn't give birth to their infants may struggle
with sleep and feeding schedules or even bonding.

b. Talk to your healthcare provider if you are struggling to care for your baby. Be sure to
establish a good support system before the birth, and don't be afraid to ask for help. Be aware of
the signs of postpartum depression. Your paediatrician and the hospital should review basic new-
born care with you and help you and your baby stay on track with growth and development.

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c. At each different stage of development, there are things that you can do to help. Overall,
strong parent-child bonds, good nutrition, adequate sleep, routines, and a safe, nurturing
environment will help to ensure that children develop as they should.

d. The first five years of a child’s life are critical for their futures. It is important to ensure that
you understand and pro-actively encourage their development during this time, in order to meet
their needs. You can use the child development checklist and the tips for supporting development
to help you to do this, as well as adding to them with your own ideas.

2. Child development during infancy: This period of infancy begins at birth and ends at two
years of age. It's the most rapid period of growth throughout the lifespan. During this period of
child development, human beings go from being helpless, reflexive babies to toddlers who can
communicate and reason. Specific physical milestones during this period include rolling over,
sitting up, crawling, and walking. Fine motor development takes longer to develop, which is why
babies generally cannot write or create refined drawings. Cognitive milestones include early
problem solving and increased sensory awareness and perception. Social milestones that usually
occur during this period include the development of a sense of self-awareness, or that prior to the
age of 12 months, the child really does not understand that we exist apart from our mothers or
other caregivers.

3. Child development during early childhood (Toddler): This period of early childhood
development lasts from two years of age through six years of age. Physically, their centre of
gravity shifts from the breastbone, where it was when they were infants, to the belly button.
Their physical growth occurs much more slowly during this period as compared to the rapid
growth that took place during infancy. The child also increases dramatically in their fine and
gross motor skills and are now able to run, jump, climb, and balance. They can also write letters
and create very detailed drawings due to fine motor development. Cognitive processing speed
increases, which allows them to advance in thinking, reasoning, and problem solving, as well as
master their native language. Social development advances as we learn to understand their own
emotions and those of others; their earliest playmates tend to be chosen based on availability.

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4. Child development during late/middle childhood (Preschool age): Late/Middle childhood
typically takes place from ages 6 through 12 years. Physical growth continues and spurts of rapid
growth in height and weight may occur. Fine and gross motor skills continue to develop, and
they become stronger and faster than ever before. This time is known as the school years, as
children are usually focused on traditional education at this point in development. Cognitive
development allows for advanced and refined communication between both hemispheres of the
brain, which enables us to use advanced logic and problem-solving skills more efficiently. As a
result, children in late/middle childhood begin learning advanced math techniques. Increased
participation in competitive team sports is common during late/middle childhood.

The ages of six through eleven comprise middle childhood and much of what children
experience at this age is connected to their involvement in the early grades of school. Now the
world becomes one of learning and testing new academic skills and by assessing one’s abilities
and accomplishments by making comparisons between self and others. Schools compare students
and make these comparisons public through team sports, test scores, and other forms of
recognition. Growth rates slow down and children are able to refine their motor skills at this
point in life. And children begin to learn about social relationships beyond the family through
interaction with friends and fellow students.

5. Child development during school age

School age children are six to 12 years old. They are capable, confident, independent and
responsible. Peer relationships, particularly relationships with friends of the same gender, are
important to school age children. The older school age child begins to develop sexual
characteristics. Signs of ADHD, such as trouble staying focused and being easily distracted, may
appear in school age children. If you worry that your child is falling behind, contact rise,
innovative human services network originally established in 1987. RISE offers a variety of
helpful services for people with disabilities, including day programs, employment assistance,
managed care, residential settings, and home and community-based services. The developmental
specialists at RISE provide early intervention services, such as occupational therapy, speech
therapy, physical therapy for children with developmental disabilities.

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3. Some Developmental Guiding Tips for Parents on Infancy age

Following are some things the parent can do to help infant baby:

 Talk to your baby. She will find your voice calming.

 Answer when your baby makes sounds by repeating the sounds and adding words. This
will help him learn to use language.
 Read to your baby. This will help her develop and understand language and sounds.
 Sing to your baby and play music. This will help your baby develop a love for music and
will help his brain development.
 Praise your baby and give her lots of loving attention.
 Spend time cuddling and holding your baby. This will help him feel cared for and secure.
 Play with your baby when she’s alert and relaxed. Watch your baby closely for signs of
being tired or fussy so that she can take a break from playing.
 Distract your baby with toys and move him to safe areas when he starts moving and
touching things that he shouldn’t touch.
 Take care of yourself physically, mentally, and emotionally. Parenting can be hard
working! It is easier to enjoy your new baby and be a positive, loving parent when you
are feeling good yourself.

4. Some Positive Parents Developmental Guides

Following are some things you, as a parent, can do to help your child during this time:

 Show affection for your child. Recognize her accomplishments.

 Help your child develop a sense of responsibility; ask him to help with household tasks,
such as setting the table.
 Talk with your child about school, friends, and things she looks forward to in the future.
 Talk with your child about respecting others. Encourage him to help people in need.
 Help your child set her own achievable goals she’ll learn to take pride in herself and rely
less on approval or reward from others.
 Help your child learn patience by letting others go first or by finishing a task before going
out to play. Encourage him to think about possible consequences before acting.

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  Make clear rules and stick to them, such as how long your child can watch TV or when
she has to go to bed. Be clear about what behaviour is okay and what is not okay.
 Do fun things together as a family, such as playing games, reading, and going to events in
your community.
 Get involved with your child’s school. Meet the teachers and staff and get to understand
their learning goals and how you and the school can work together to help your child do
well.
 Continue reading to your child. As your child learns to read, take turns reading to each
other.
 Use discipline to guide and protect your child, rather than punishment to make him feel
bad about himself. Follow up any discussion about what not to do with a discussion of
what to do instead.
 Praise your child for good behaviour. It’s best to focus praise more on what your child
does (“you worked hard to figure this out”) than on traits she can’t change (“you are
smart”).
 Support your child in taking on new challenges. Encourage her to solve problems, such as
a disagreement with another child, on her own.
 Encourage your child to join school and community groups, such as a team sports, or to
take advantage of volunteer opportunities.
 Parents can help make schools healthier. Work with your child’s school to limit access to
foods and drinks with added sugar, solid fat, and salt that can be purchased outside the
school lunch program.
 Make sure your child has 1 hour or more of physical activity each day.
 Limit screen time for your child to no more than 1 to 2 hours per day of quality
programming, at home, school, or afterschool care.

5. Developmental Responsibilities of the Parent at the Middle Childhood

Implementing the programmes through parent-based child development centres is one of several
distinct features of how the church should work. The parent-based child development centres
represent a long-term, holistic development commitment to fighting extreme poverty. The parent
approaches to child development are dynamic, individualized, personal and relational. And the

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decision to partner with main local church is a strategic one. It is believed that parents are
catalysts for community change and optimize the mutual respect, resources and common purpose
critical in caring for children. The parent's role in developing the children at middle age serve
includes responsibility for the day-to-day application and administration of activities and
programmes. The parents essentially own the local child development centres.

The character education programme offers by the church is further enhanced, as it is orchestrated
with the skills, values and powers of the classroom managements system, and offers conscious
discipline. The church/parent education programme is comprehensive in nature.

1. Sunday school is a place where children love to go every Sunday. For some it is a routine
imposed on them by their parents, for others it is to sing melodious songs, others is to pray while
others are just escorting their older siblings to pray.

2. Much as there is a strong desire by many parents to spiritually nurture their children, many
drops out of their spiritual path and by the time they are teenagers or adults, the lives they are
leading are wanting. In this country, statistics on drug abuse is on the rise among children,
teenage pregnancies are rampant, children are running away from homes and we are left to ask,
what is the role of the church in nurturing children?

3. During a symposium organised by Christian Education Department includes partnerships

programme. It should emerge the church/parent needs to reach out to people and especially
children in a holistic way, spiritually, physically, socially, emotionally as well as economically.

4. It is the role of the parent in shaping the future of children with them, because the parent has
the responsibility to stress and invest in children and that the time is now.

5. The parent has a big aspect of nurturing development of children. It is important that children
grow up with values and the parent is very strategically positioned to do that. Today we are
reminding the parent of its divine role especially now when there are many conflicting aspects
affecting children. It is further arguing that many parents today are spending a lot of money
building while others are spending more time looking for a big adult following instead of
focusing a big part of their time nurturing their children.

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6. To many parents, children as seen as an unimportant aspect of the society/home, parents
should pay attention to children and provide for their needs spiritually, education wise, health
and socially.

7. Parent should build a strong relationship between children, their community and with God.
Our Christian commitments should focus on a number of mandates namely reinforcing our
Christian identity, supporting staff to live and work as Christians, partnerships with churches,
staff spiritual nurture of children, prayer and inter faith cooperation.”

8. Parents should practice healthy eating habits and physical activity early. Encourage active
play, and be a role model by eating healthy at family mealtimes and having an active lifestyle.

9. Because we understand that children grow in the context of their families, we also give weight
to caring for parental needs. The parents' well-being directly relates to the welfare of their
children.

10. To ensure that the programme's local application is effective and funds are used appropriately
and wisely, we audit each centre a minimum of once every 30 months, and our country staff visit
each child development centre a minimum of three times per year.

11. The church should provide curriculum support to the development centres, but the churches
contextualize the interventions they provide to the children they serve.

(G) CHILDHOOD GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT (PHYSICAL, COGNITIVE,

EMOTIONAL, SOSCIAL, MORAL AND AESTHETIC DEVELOPMENT)

Early childhood is a time of tremendous growth across all areas of development. The dependent
new-born grows into a young person who can take care of his or her own body and interact
effectively with others. For these reasons, the primary developmental task of this stage is skill
development.

Physically, between birth and age three a child typically doubles in height and quadruples in
weight. Bodily proportions also shift, so that the infant, whose head accounts for almost one-
fourth of total body length, becomes a toddler with a more balanced, adult-like appearance.

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Despite these rapid physical changes, the typical three-year-old has mastered many skills,
including sitting, walking, toilet training, using a spoon, scribbling, and sufficient hand-eye
coordination to catch and throw a ball.

Between three and five years of age, children continue to grow rapidly and begin to develop fine-
motor skills. By age five most children demonstrate fairly good control of pencils, crayons, and
scissors. Gross motor accomplishments may include the ability to skip and balance on one foot.
Physical growth slows down between five and eight years of age, while body proportions and
motor skills become more refined.

Physical changes in early childhood are accompanied by rapid changes in the child's cognitive
and language development. From the moment they are born, children use all their senses to
attend to their environment, and they begin to develop a sense of cause and effect from their
actions and the responses of caregivers.

Over the first three years of life, children develop a spoken vocabulary of between 300 and 1,000
words, and they are able to use language to learn about and describe the world around them. By
age five, a child's vocabulary will grow to approximately 1,500 words. Five-year-olds are also
able to produce five-to seven-word sentences, learn to use the past tense, and tell familiar stories
using pictures as cues.

Language is a powerful tool to enhance cognitive development. Using language allows the child
to communicate with others and solve problems. By age eight, children are able to demonstrate
some basic understanding of less concrete concepts, including time and money. However, the
eight-year-old still reasons in concrete ways and has difficulty understanding abstract ideas.

A key moment in early childhood socioemotional development occurs around one year of age.
This is the time when attachment formation becomes critical. Attachment theory suggests that
individual differences in later life functioning and personality are shaped by a child's early
experiences with their caregivers. The quality of emotional attachment, or lack of attachment,
formed early in life may serve as a model for later relationships.

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From ages three to five, growth in socioemotional skills includes the formation of peer
relationships, gender identification, and the development of a sense of right and wrong. Taking
the perspective of another individual is difficult for young children, and events are often
interpreted in all-or-nothing terms, with the impact on the child being the fore-most concern. For
example, at age five a child may expect others to share their possessions freely but still be
extremely possessive of a favourite toy. This creates no conflict of conscience, because fairness
is determined relative to the child's own interests. Between ages five and eight, children enter
into a broader peer context and develop enduring friendships. Social comparison is heightened at
this time, and taking other people's perspective begins to play a role in how children relate to
people, including peers.

(1) The five stages of early childhood development are:

Childhood development varies from child to child, and there may be quick advances and even
regression from time to time. If the child needs some kind of intervention, such as speech
therapy, the sooner it starts, the better the long-term outcomes will be. The stages of early
childhood are:

1. New-born, 0 to 3 months

A new baby reacts to stimuli, such as noise, light, and temperature variations in the environment.
He or she also can turn head and upper body, cry, and see close objects clearly.

During the first month of life, new-borns exhibit automatic responses to external stimuli. In other
words, a new-born will turn her head toward your hand when you stroke her cheek or grab your
finger when you place it in her hand. A new-born is able to see close-up objects, recognize
certain smells, smile or cry to indicate a need, and move her head from side to side. New-borns
may show signs developmental disabilities, such as spina bifida, genetic disorders and fatal
alcohol syndrome.

2. Infant, 3 to 6 months

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A young baby gradually learns to sit unsupported, recognizes faces (especially mom’s), babbles,
and has good neck strength. He or she will reach for and grasp small toys, such as rattles.

Infants develop new abilities quickly in the first year of life. At three to six months, an infant can
control his head movements and bring his hands together. By six to nine months old, an infant
can sit without support, babble and respond to his name. Between nine and twelve months old, a
baby can pick up objects, crawl and even stand with support. Slow development in infants may
be signs of Down’s syndrome and other developmental disabilities.

3. Toddler, 1 to 3 years

Toddlers stand unsupported and eventually, climb and walk independently. They wave, follow
simple instructions, and say single words, simple sentences, and short paragraphs. They wave,
clap, and develop fine motor skills, such as drawing with a crayon or marker.

As children reach the ages between one and three years, toddlers learn to walk without help,
climb stairs and jump in place. They can hold a crayon, draw a circle, stack one block on top of
another, use short sentences and even follow simple instructions.

4. Pre-schooler, 3 to 5 years

Between the ages of three and five years, children refine their motor skills. They can throw a ball
overhand, skip and hop, stand on one foot for ten seconds or longer, dress themselves, and draw
a person with features. Signs of developmental disabilities, such as cerebral palsy, may appear
during this stage of development.

This young child basically stops looking or acting as a baby does. In fact, movement, speech,
language, emotions, and thinking become much more refined as a toddler skips, runs, hops,
draws, and puts thoughts together in three or more sentences.

Potty training finishes during this stage. However, using the toilet independently and having
night-time accidents can differ from pre-schooler to pre-schooler, even within families.

5. School-Age, 6 to 17 years

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These children readily express independent ways of thinking and acting. They acquire school
skills quickly, are expressive verbally, and pursue friendships, and shared hobbies and
experiences. Puberty is a challenging part of this developmental stage.

2. The childhood physical, cognitive, emotional and social growth

Human development is a lifelong process of physical, behavioural, cognitive, emotional and

social growth and change. In the early stages of life, from babyhood to childhood, childhood to
adolescence, and adolescence to adulthood, enormous changes take place. Throughout the
process, each person develops attitudes and values that guide choices, relationships, and
understanding.

Each stage of development encompasses specific markers. The following developmental

guidelines apply to most children in this age group. However, each child is an individual and
may reach these stages of development earlier or later than other children the same age. The
childhood physical, cognitive, emotional and social growth are:

a. The childhood physical development

Most children aged four to five will:

 Continue to grow, but at a slower rate than during infancy and the toddler years [Some
parts grow faster or sooner than others. For example, organs grow faster than the body,
giving pre-schoolers a rounded tummy.]
 Reach at least 50 percent of their adult height and about 20 percent of their adult weight
by age five
 Develop more coordinated large motor skills, enabling them to skip, run, and climb up
and down stairs
 Develop fine motor skills, enabling them to tie shoelaces, button shirts, use scissors, and
draw recognizable figures
 Continue significant brain development, completing 90 percent of such development by
age five
 Develop increased lung capacity and the ability to breathe more deeply

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  Lose their “baby look” as their limbs grow longer
 Appear about the same size, regardless of gender
 Increase in overall health and gain resistance to germs

b. The childhood cognitive development

Most children aged four to five will:

 Interact with and learn about the world through play activities
 Begin to experience the world through exploration and feel inquisitive about self and
surroundings
 Begin separation from family as they experience less proximity to caregivers and more
independence
 Understand what is good and bad (though they may not understand why) and be able to
follow the rules
 Be able to understand and accomplish simple activities to be healthy, such as brushing
teeth or washing hands
 Understand the concept of privacy

c. The childhood emotional development

Most children aged four to five will:

 Still rely on caregivers, while no longer needing or wanting as much physical contact
with caregivers as they received in infancy and as toddlers
 Continue to express emotions physically and to seek hugs and kisses
 Socialize with peers, begin to develop relationships, and learn to recognize some peers as
friends and others as people they don’t like
 Have more opportunities to interact with peers, either through school or recreational
activities, and will play with other children

d. The childhood social development

Most children aged four to five will:

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  Experience vaginal lubrication or erection
 Touch their genitals for pleasure
 Feel curiosity about everything, and ask about where babies come from and how they
were born
 Feel curiosity about bodies and may play games like doctor
 Feel sure of their own gender and have the ability to recognize males and females
 Begin to recognize traditional male and female gender roles and to distinguish these roles
by gender
 Become conscious of their own body, how it appears to others, and how it functions

e. The childhood aesthetic development

Aesthetics is a set of values involving beauty and nature. Explore how aesthetics develops in
early childhood and discover strategies to help enhance aesthetic development, including
fostering a connection between visual arts and learning motivation.

Helping children understand the world around them plays a key role in early childhood
development. Children not only need to be taught the core subjects, but they need to learn an
appreciation for the arts.

Aesthetics, or a set of values relating to nature and the appreciation of beauty, should be
incorporated into early childhood development. In doing this, young children will see the
connection and importance of music, visual arts, and pretend play in their education. It will help
increase motivation and develop appropriate interpersonal skills. Through carefully planned
activities, exploration, and use of manipulatives, you will foster aesthetic development in your
students.

a. Strategies for fostering creative development and aesthetic awareness in children may
be:

1. Provide an aesthetically pleasing environment.

2. Display of quality adult visual art.
3. Create aesthetically pleasing displays of children's work.

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 4. Model aesthetic awareness and creativity.

f. The childhood intelligent development and die

Poor nutrition can cause problems with a child's intellectual development. A child with a poor
diet may be tired and unable to learn at school. Also, poor nutrition can make the child more
likely to get sick and miss school. Breakfast is very important. Children may feel tired and
unmotivated if they do not eat a good breakfast.

The relationship between breakfast and improved learning has been clearly shown. There are
government programs in place to make sure each child has at least one healthy, balanced meal a
day. This meal is usually breakfast.

g. The childhood healthy development

The early years of a child’s life are very important for his or her health and development.
Healthy development means that children of all abilities, including those with special health care
needs, are able to grow up where their social, emotional and educational needs are met. Having a
safe and loving home and spending time with family playing, singing, reading, and talking are
very important. Proper nutrition, exercise, and sleep also can make a big difference.

3. Here are some things you can do to ensure that your child continues to be healthy:

 Make sure they get enough sleep.

 Provide opportunities for regular exercise and individual or team sports.
 Create quiet, positive spaces for reading and studying at home.
 Build and maintain positive family traditions.
 Talk to your children about consent and setting boundaries with their bodies.

 Child development can be defined as the process by which a child changes over time. It
covers the whole period from conception to an individual becoming a fully functioning
adult. It’s a journey from total dependence to full independence.
 Child development incorporates, physical growth as well as intellectual, language,
emotional and social development. Whilst these aspects are often considered separately,

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 in reality each influence all of the others. For example, as the brain develops physically,
so intellectual abilities increase. This in turn allows a child to explore their social world
more fully, develop their emotional responses to it and the language needed to describe it,
but in turn, this exploration directly impacts on further physical brain development.
 A number of factors affect the course and progression of child development within a
given individual. These include the innate or the biological makeup of the child themself
and external influences such as family, society, economics, health and culture. Thus,
growth and development are directly related to the child’s nutrition, affluence, parenting
styles, education and interaction with peers.

(H) ADOLESCENT GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT (PHYSICAL, COGNITIVE,

EMOTIONAL, SOCIAL, MORAL AND AESTHETIC DEVELOPMENT)

Adolescence is a period of dramatic physical change marked by an overall physical growth spurt
and sexual maturation, known as puberty. It is also a time of cognitive change as the adolescent
begins to think of new possibilities and to consider abstract concepts such as love, fear, and
freedom. Ironically, adolescents have a sense of invincibility that puts them at greater risk of
dying from accidents or contracting sexually transmitted infections that can have lifelong
consequences.

Adolescence can be defined in a variety of ways: physiologically, culturally, cognitively; each

way suggests a slightly different definition. For the purpose of this discussion adolescence is
defined as a culturally constructed period that generally begins as individuals reach sexual
maturity and ends when the individual has established an identity as an adult within his or her
social context. In many cultures adolescence may not exist, or may be very short, because the
attainment of sexual maturity coincides with entry into the adult world. The primary
developmental task of adolescence is identity formation.

The adolescent years are another period of accelerated growth. Individuals can grow up to four
inches and gain eight to ten pounds per year. This growth spurt is most often characterized by
two years of fast growth, followed by three or more years of slow, steady growth. By the end of
adolescence, individuals may gain a total of seven to nine inches in height and as much as forty

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or fifty pounds in weight. The timing of this growth spurt is not highly predictable; it varies
across both individuals and gender. In general, females begin to develop earlier than do males.

Sexual maturation is one of the most significant developments during this time. Like physical
development, there is significant variability in the age at which individuals attain sexual
maturity. Females tend to mature at about age thirteen, and males at about fifteen. Development
during this period is governed by the pituitary gland through the release of the hormones
testosterone (males) and estrogen (females). There has been increasing evidence of a trend
toward earlier sexual development in developed countries–the average age at which females
reach menarche dropped three to four months every ten years between 1900 and 2000.

Adolescence is an important period for cognitive development as well, as it marks a transition in

the way in which individuals think and reason about problems and ideas. In early adolescence,
individuals can classify and order objects, reverse processes, think logically about concrete
objects, and consider more than one perspective at a time. However, at this level of development,
adolescents benefit more from direct experiences than from abstract ideas and principles. As
adolescents develop more complex cognitive skills, they gain the ability to solve more abstract
and hypothetical problems. Elements of this type of thinking may include an increased ability to
think in hypothetical ways about abstract ideas, the ability to generate and test hypotheses
systematically, the ability to think and plan about the future, and meta-cognition (the ability to
reflect on one's thoughts).

As individuals enter adolescence, they are confronted by a diverse number of changes all at one
time. Not only are they undergoing significant physical and cognitive growth, but they are also
encountering new situations, responsibilities, and people.

1. Middle Childhood/Teenage development (Eight to Twelve Years)

Historically, middle childhood has not been considered an important stage in human
development. During middle childhood children learn the values of their societies. Thus, the
primary developmental task of middle childhood could be called integration, both in terms of
development within the individual and of the individual within the social context.

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Perhaps supporting the image of middle childhood as a latency stage, physical development
during middle childhood is less dramatic than in early childhood or adolescence. Growth is slow
and steady until the onset of puberty, when individuals begin to develop at a much quicker pace.
The age at which individuals enter puberty varies, but there is evidence of a secular trend–the
age at which puberty begins has been decreasing over time. In some individuals, puberty may
start as early as age eight or nine. Onset of puberty differs across gender and begins earlier in
females.

As with physical development, the cognitive development of middle childhood is slow and
steady. Children in this stage are building upon skills gained in early childhood and preparing for
the next phase of their cognitive development. Children's reasoning is very rule based. Children
are learning skills such as classification and forming hypotheses. While they are cognitively
more mature now than a few years ago, children in this stage still require concrete, hands-on
learning activities. Middle childhood is a time when children can gain enthusiasm for learning
and work, for achievement can become a motivating factor as children work toward building
competence and self-esteem.

Middle childhood is also a time when children develop competence in interpersonal and social
relationships. Children have a growing peer orientation, yet they are strongly influenced by their
family. The social skills learned through peer and family relationships, and children's increasing
ability to participate in meaningful interpersonal communication, provide a necessary foundation
for the challenges of adolescence. Best friends are important at this age, and the skills gained in
these relationships may provide the building blocks for healthy adult relationships.

Entry into middle school and high school thrusts students into environments with many new
people, responsibilities, and expectations. While this transition can be frightening, it also
represents an exciting step toward independence. Adolescents are trying on new roles, new ways
of thinking and behaving, and they are exploring different ideas and values. Erikson addresses
the search for identity and independence in his framework of life-span development.
Adolescence is characterized by a conflict between identity and role confusion. During this
period, individuals evolve their own self-concepts within the peer context. In their attempts to
become more independent adolescents often rely on their peer group for direction regarding what

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is normal and accepted. They begin to pull away from reliance on their family as a source of
identity and may encounter conflicts between their family and their growing peer-group
affiliation.

Teens must make moral judgments on a daily basis.

When children are younger, their family, culture, and religion greatly influence their
moral decision-making.

During the early adolescent period, peers have a much greater influence. Peer pressure
can exert a powerful influence because friends play a more significant role in teens' lives.

Furthermore, the new ability to think abstractly enables youth to recognize that rules are
simply created by other people. As a result, teens begin to question the absolute authority
of parents, schools, government, and other traditional institutions.

2. Adolescent growth and development (12-18 years)

Adolescence is a developmental period during which dependent children grow into independent
adults. During adolescence, children undergo striking physical, intellectual, and emotional
growth. Guiding adolescents through this period is a challenge for parents as well as clinicians.
Adolescence (12-18 years) is a phase of life which has recently gained recognition as a distinct
phase of life with its own special needs. This phase is characterized by acceleration of physical
growth and, psychological and behavioural changes thus bringing about transformation from
childhood to adulthood.

Adolescence has been described as the transition period in life when an individual is no longer a
child, but not yet an adult. It is a period the adolescent experiences change in social expectations
and perceptions. Physical growth and development are accompanied by sexual maturation, often
leading to intimate relationships. The individual’s capacity for abstract and critical thought also
develops, along with a sense of self-awareness when social expectations require emotional
maturity. It is important to note that adolescents are not a homogenous group. Their needs vary
with their sex, stage of development, life circumstances and the socio-economic conditions of

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their environment. Adolescence, the transition between childhood and adulthood, is a stressful
period of life characterised by discernible physical, mental, emotional, social and behavioural
changes.

a. Physical development

Rapid and dramatic physical development and growth mark adolescence, including development
of sexual characteristics. Marked morphological changes in almost all organs and systems of the
body are responsible for the accelerated growth and the changes in contours and sexual organs.
In case of boys, active acceleration in growth of coarse pubic hair and facial hair usually
precedes other signs of puberty such as voice changes. In girls, development of breasts,
broadening of hips and rapid growth in height usually begins about two and a half years before
menarche.

b. Emotional development

Adolescents have to cope, not only with changes in their physical appearance, but also with
associated emotional changes and emerging and compelling sex urges. Bodily changes cause
emotional stress and strain as well as abrupt and rapid mood swings. Getting emotionally
disturbed by seemingly small and inconsequential matters is a common characteristic of this age
group.

Hormonal changes are likely to result in thoughts pertaining to sex, irritability, restlessness,
anger and tension. Attraction to the opposite sex leads to a desire to mix freely and interact with
each other. However, in reality, this may not always be possible, partly due to societal restrains
on pre-marital sexual expressions and also because of other priority needs in this period, viz.
education, employment, etc. Hence, it becomes almost necessary for adolescents to learn how to
face and deal patiently with the turbulence they face. It requires development of a sense of
balance and self-imposition of limits on expression of one’s needs and desires. An inability to
express their needs often leads adolescents to fantasize and daydream that help them to at least
partially fulfil their desires.

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Adolescence is also marked by development of the faculty of abstract thinking that enables them
to think and evaluate systematically and detect and question inconsistencies between rules and
behaviour. Parents as well as service providers often overlook this development, one of the basic
reasons for the popularly known ‘generation gap’.

Socially, adolescence consists in shifts from dependency to autonomy, social responses to

physical maturity, the management of sexuality, the acquisition of skills and changes in peer
groupings. The need to be a part of a gang or a large group is replaced by a preference for
maintaining fewer, more steady and binding relationships.

c. Social/Behavioural

 Searching for identity, influenced by gender, peer group, cultural background and family
expectations
 Seeking more independence.

Seeking more responsibility, both at home and at school

 Looking for new experiences. May engage in more risk-taking behaviour.

 Thinking more about 'right' and 'wrong'.
 Influenced more by friends' behaviour- sense of self and self-esteem
 Starting to develop and explore a sexual identity
 Communicating in different ways. Communication with peers through internet, mobile
phones and social media

d. Adolescence moral development

As youths' cognitive, emotional, social development continue to mature, their understanding of

morality expands and their behaviour becomes more closely aligned with their values and
beliefs. Therefore, moral development describes the evolution of these guiding principles and is
demonstrated by the ability to apply these guidelines in daily life.

e. Adolescence aesthetic development

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f. Moral reasoning in adolescence

Everyone needs to be able to think about and figure out what is morally right, even little kids.
Ever heard a 3 or 4-year-old claim, “It’s not fair!”? That is moral reasoning, just as much as a
physician struggling with life and death issues.

As adolescents become increasingly independent, they also develop more nuanced thinking
about morality, or what is right or wrong. We all make moral judgments on a daily basis. As
adolescents’ cognitive, emotional, and social development continue to mature, their
understanding of morality expands and their behaviour becomes more closely aligned with their
values and beliefs. Therefore, moral development describes the evolution of these guiding
principles and is demonstrated by the ability to apply these guidelines in daily
life. Understanding moral development is important in this stage where individuals make so
many important decisions and gain more and more legal responsibility.

3. Problems during adolescence

 Adolescents today are more vulnerable to health implications due to their nature of
experimenting and exposure to limited information regarding issues affecting their health
and development. Problems in this age are related to their physical and emotional
development and search for identity and risky behaviour.
 Adolescence can be broken into three stages: early adolescence, middle adolescence, and
late adolescence as stated on the below table.

4. Adolescent development programme

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Adolescent Development Programme is a multi-faceted programme that targets the adolescents
building their soft skills and employability through life skills-based education and livelihood
training activities. The programme runs adolescent clubs which are safe centres in which
adolescent girls have an opportunity to socialize and interact, engage in cultural activities, and
have open discussions with each other regarding social and personal issues among their peers.
Adolescent Development Program offers peer-led education on various social and health-related
issues, including reproductive health, children's rights, HIV/AIDS, sexually transmitted diseases,
violence, family planning, child marriage, dowry, gender, and others. The goal of these sessions
is to increase awareness and generate discussion around important, but socially taboo issues, as
well as to build students' interpersonal and communication skills and general confidence levels.

The programme also should provide livelihood training courses that are offered to adolescent
female students with the goal of providing them with skills for financial empowerment. Training
courses are provided in several sectors, including tailoring, poultry and livestock raising,
photography, ICT, and bakery, among others. These are offered in collaboration with the
Ministry of Youth and Sport and other local organizations. Activities of the adolescent
development programme should include:

1. Establish Adolescent clubs: These are safe centres where adolescents’ girls can read,
socialise, play games, take part in cultural activities and have open discussions on personal and
social issues with their peers. Each club comprises of small adolescent members in the age
group. One adolescent leader is responsible for the operation of a club.

2. Organise adolescent peer network: These offers adolescents education on life skills
facilitated by their peers on different social and health-related issues, such as reproductive health,
sexual abuse, gender, HIV/AIDS, sexually transmitted infections (STIs), sexual harassment,
child trafficking, substance abuse, violence, family planning, child marriage, dowry, and acid
attacks. The purpose is to develop adolescent life skills and raise awareness on important but
taboo issues.
3. Organise livelihood training courses: These should be offer to girls to empower them
financially. It should provide girls with training on managing beauty salons, photography and
bakery. The participants also have the opportunity to be trained on various trades such like

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mobile, television or refrigerator servicing, plastic processing, light machineries, and carpentry.
4. Provide communication, awareness and advocacy: This encourages interaction and
dialogue among adolescents, their parents and community leaders. Different types of forums
with mothers, parents and community heads create the foundation for a supportive
communication network. This formalised communication network not only helps ensure the
voices of adolescents to be heard but also provides transparency in community’s attitudes
supporting adolescent development.

5. Organise adolescent fair: This fair creates an important space solely for adolescents. This
occasion helps bring their potential in the front. Handicrafts made by adolescent club members
are sold at the fair. Cultural programmes, essay writing and painting competitions, sporting
events, theatre and rallies are organised as part of this event. Through these fairs, ADP tries to
involve people from every sphere of the community to generate interest and awareness on the
lives of adolescents.

6. Organise cultural competitions: Cultural competitions are an initiative to educate

communities about the importance of cultural activities for the cognitive development of
adolescents. This activity brings out their talent through cultural competitions and provides the
required training to increase their capacity in cultural performances. This competition was started
by the adolescent clubs followed by cluster adolescent clubs, and then subsequently on the sub-
district and district levels. The final competition with top contestants takes place on the national
level.

7. Sports for development: The outdoor sports initiative involves adolescent girls and aims to
increase participation in outdoor sports. It provides formal training by national coaches to form
football, basket and volleyball teams and organises regular practice sessions for girls. This
initiative received a positive response from the community and the national sports federation.

8. Organise goal project: This is another innovative project under sports for development
activities. It is a partnership project between adolescent development projects that promotes life
skills through sports). It is an initiative project where adolescent girls are developed as coaches,
who then train other girls in various sports. The life skills lessons to girls following four main

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ideas: be yourself, be healthy, be empowered, be money savvy. In these lessons, girls learn life
skills such as financial education, self-confidence, and many more. The objective of the project
is to empower girls so that they can take decisions on important choices such as education,
employment and marriage.

5. Guiding tips for parents on the adolescent development

 Starting early is the best way for parents to prepare for their child's adolescence. The
following are ways that parents can prepare themselves and their child for a smoother
transition and greater success in achieving the tasks of adolescent development. Provide a
stable, safe and loving home environment. When you consider that the teen years are a
period of intense growth, not only physically but emotionally and intellectually, it's
understandable that it's a time of confusion and upheaval for many families.
 Despite some adults' negative perceptions about teens, they are often energetic,
thoughtful, and idealistic, with a deep interest in what's fair and right. So, although it can
be a period of conflict between parent and child, the teen years are also a time to help
kids grow into the distinct individuals they will become.

 Educate yourself: Read books about teenagers. Think back on your own teen years.
Remember your struggles with acne or your embarrassment at developing early or late.
Expect some mood changes in your typically sunny child, and be prepared for more
conflict as he or she matures as an individual. Parents who know what's coming can cope
with it better. And the more you know, the better you can prepare.
 Talk to kids early and often: Starting to talk about menstruation or wet dreams after
they've already begun is starting too late. Answer the early questions kids have about
bodies, such as the differences between boys and girls and where babies come from. But
don't overload them with information just answer their questions. If you don't know the
answers, get them from someone who does, like a trusted friend or yours.
 Put yourself in your child's place: Practice empathy by helping your child understand
that it's normal to be a bit concerned or self-conscious, and that it's OK to feel grown-up
one minute and like a kid the next.

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 Pick your battles: If teenagers want to dye their hair, paint their fingernails black, or
wear funky clothes, think twice before you object. Teens want to shock their parents and
it's a lot better to let them do something temporary and harmless. Ask why your teen
wants to dress or look a certain way and try to understand how your teens is feeling. You
also might want to discuss how others might perceive them if they look different help
your teen understands how he or she might be viewed.
 Set expectations: Teens might act unhappy about the expectations their parents place on
them. Still, they usually understand and need to know that their parents care enough
about them to expect certain things such as good grades, acceptable behaviour, and
sticking to the house rules. If parents have appropriate expectations, teens will likely try
to meet them. Without reasonable expectations, your teen may feel you don't care about
him or her.
 Know the warning signs: A certain amount of change is normal during the teen years.
But too drastic or long-lasting a switch in personality or behaviour may signal real
trouble the kind that needs professional help. Any other inappropriate behaviour that
lasts for more than 6 weeks can be a sign of underlying trouble, too. You may expect a
two in your teen's behaviour or grades during this time, but your A/B student shouldn't
suddenly be failing, and your normally outgoing kid shouldn't suddenly become
constantly withdrawn.
 Respect kids’ privacy: Some parents understandably have a very hard time with this
one. They may feel that anything their kids do is their business. But to help your teen
become a young adult, you'll need to grant some privacy. If you notice warning signs of
trouble, then you can invade your child's privacy until you get to the heart of the problem.
But otherwise, it's a good idea to back off. In other words, your teenager's room, texts, e-
mails, and phone calls should be private.

You also shouldn't expect your teens to share all thoughts or activities with you at all
times. Of course, for safety reasons, you should always know where teens are going,
when they will be returning, what they are doing, and with whom, but you don't need to
know every detail. And you definitely shouldn't expect to be invited along. Start with

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 trust. Tell your teen that you trust him or her, but if the trust gets broken, he or she
will enjoy fewer freedoms until it's rebuilt.

 Monitor what kids see and read: TV shows, magazines and books, the Internet kids
have access to tons of information. Be aware of what yours watch and read. Don't be
afraid to set limits on the amount of time spent in front of the computer or the TV. Know
what they're learning from the media and who they may be communicating with online.
Teens shouldn't have unlimited access to TV or the Internet in private these should be
public activities. Access to technology also should be limited after certain hours (for
example, 10 p.m. or so) to encourage adequate sleep. It's not unreasonable to have cell
phones and computers off limits after a certain time.
 Make appropriate rules: Bedtime for a teenager should be age appropriate, just as it
was when your child was a baby. Teens still need about 8-9 hours of sleep. Encourage
your teen to stick to a sleep schedule that will meet those needs. Encourage a reasonable
amount of family time together, but be flexible. Don't be insulted when your growing
child doesn't always want to be with you.

 Empower young people to live as disciples of Jesus Christ: Ministry with adolescents
helps young people learn what it means to follow Jesus Christ and to live as his disciples
today, empowering them to serve others and to work toward a world built on the vision
and values of the reign of God.
 Foster the total personal and spiritual growth of young person: Ministry with
adolescents promotes the growth of healthy, competent, caring, and faith-filled
evangelical young people. The Church is concerned for the whole person, addressing the
young people's spiritual needs in the context of his or her whole life. Ministry with
adolescents fosters positive adolescent development and growth in both Christian
discipleship and evangelical identity. Promoting the growth of young and older
adolescents means addressing their unique developmental, social, and religious needs and
nurturing the qualities or assets necessary for positive development.

6. Late adolescence

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By late adolescence, most teens are less rebellious as they have begun to establish their own
identity, their own belief system, and their own place in the world.

 Some youth who have reached the highest levels of moral development may feel
passionate about their moral code; as such, they may choose to participate in activities
that demonstrate their moral convictions.
 For example, some college students may organize and participate in demonstrations and
protests while other students may volunteer their time for projects that advance the
ethical principles, they hold important.

(I) ADULTHOOD GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT (PHYSICAL, COGNITIVE,

EMOTIONAL, SOCIAL, MORAL AND AESTHETIC DEVELOPMENT)

Adult development encompasses the changes that occur in biological and psychological domains
of human life from the end of adolescence until the end of one's life. These changes may be
gradual or rapid and can reflect positive, negative, or no change from previous levels of
functioning. Changes occur at the cellular level and are partially explained by biological theories
of adult development and aging. Biological changes influence psychological and
interpersonal/social developmental changes, which are often described by stage theories of
human development.

The concept of adulthood has legal and socio-cultural definitions. The legal definition of an adult
is a person who is fully grown or developed. The socio-cultural definition of being an adult is
based on what a culture normatively views as being the required criteria for adulthood, which in
turn, influences the lives of individuals within that culture. This may or may not coincide with
the legal definition. Current views on adult development in late life focus on the concept of
successful aging, defined as "low probability of disease and disease-related disability, high
cognitive and physical functional capacity, and active engagement with life."

1. Early Adulthood

The twenties and thirties are often thought of as early adulthood. (Students who are in their mid-
30s tend to love to hear that they are a young adult!). It is a time when we are at our

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physiological peak but are most at risk for involvement in violent crimes and substance abuse. It
is a time of focusing on the future and putting a lot of energy into making choices that will help
one earn the status of a full adult in the eyes of others. Love and work are primary concerns at
this stage of life.

2. Middle Adulthood

The late thirties through the mid-sixties are referred to as middle adulthood. This is a period in
which aging, that began earlier, becomes more noticeable and a period at which many people are
at their peak of productivity in love and work. It may be a period of gaining expertise in certain
fields and being able to understand problems and find solutions with greater efficiency than
before. It can also be a time of becoming more realistic about possibilities in life previously
considered; of recognizing the difference between what is possible and what is likely. This is
also the age group hardest hit by the AIDS epidemic in Africa resulting in a substantial decrease
in the number of workers in those economies.

3. Late Adulthood

This period of the life span has increased in the last 100 years, particularly in industrialized
countries. Late adulthood is sometimes subdivided into two or three categories such as the
“young old” and “old old” or the “young old”, “old old”, and “oldest old”. We will follow the
former categorization and make the distinction between the “young old” who are people between
65 and 79 and the “old old” or those who are 80 and older. One of the primary differences
between these groups is that the young old are very similar to midlife adults; still working, still
relatively healthy, and still interested in being productive and active. The “old old” remain
productive and active and the majority continues to live independently, but risks of the diseases
of old age such as arteriosclerosis, cancer, and cerebral vascular disease increases substantially
for this age group. Issues of housing, healthcare, and extending active life expectancy are only a
few of the topics of concern for this age group.

A better way to appreciate the diversity of people in late adulthood is to go beyond chronological
age and examine whether a person is experiencing optimal aging (like the gentleman pictured
above who is in very good health for his age and continues to have an active, stimulating

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life), normal aging (in which the changes are similar to most of those of the same age),
or impaired aging (referring to someone who has more physical challenge and disease than
others of the same age).

4. Normative physical changes in adulthood

Physical development in midlife and beyond include changes at the biological level (senescence)
and larger organ and musculoskeletal levels. Sensory changes and degeneration begin to be
common in midlife. Degeneration can include the breakdown of muscle, bones, and joints.
Which leads to physical ailments such as sarcopenia or arthritis.

At the sensory level, changes occur to vision, hearing, taste, touch, and smell. Two common
sensory changes that begin in midlife include our ability to see close objects and our ability to
hear high pitches. Other developmental changes to vision might include cataracts, glaucoma, and
the loss of central visual field with macular degeneration. Hearing also becomes impaired in
midlife and aging adults, particularly in men. In the past 30 years, hearing impairment has
doubled. Hearing aids as an aid for hearing loss still leave many individuals dissatisfied with
their quality of hearing.

Changes in olfaction and sense of taste can co-occur. "Olfactory dysfunction can impair quality
of life and may be a marker for other deficits and illnesses" and can also lead to decreased
satisfaction in taste when eating. Losses to the sense of touch are usually noticed when there is a
decline in the ability to detect a vibratory stimulus. The loss of sense of touch can harm a
person's fine motor skills such as writing and using utensils. The ability to feel painful stimuli is
usually preserved in aging, but the process of decline for touch is accelerated in those with
diabetes.

Physical deterioration to the body begins to increase in midlife and late life, and includes
degeneration of muscle, bones, and joints. Sarcopenia, a normal developmental change, is the
degeneration of muscle mass, which includes both strength and quality. This change occurs even
in those who consider themselves athletes, and is accelerated by physical inactivity. Many of the
contributing factors that may cause sarcopenia to include neuronal and hormonal changes,
inadequate nutrition, and physical inactivity. The prevalence of sarcopenia increases as people

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age and is associated with the increased likelihood of disability and restricted independence
among elderly people. Approaches to preventing and treating sarcopenia are being explored by
researchers. A specific preventive approach includes progressive resistance training, which is
safe and effective for the elderly.

Developmental changes to various organs and organ systems occur throughout life. These
changes affect responses to stress and illness, and can compromise the body's ability to cope with
the demand for organs. The altered functioning of the heart, lungs, and even skin in old age can
be attributed to factors like cell death or endocrine hormones. There are changes to the
reproductive system in midlife adults, most notably menopause for women, the permanent end of
fertility. In men, hormonal changes also affect their reproductive and sexual physiology, but
these changes are not as extreme as those experienced by women.

5. Non-normative cognitive changes in adulthood

Dementia is characterized by persistent, multiple cognitive deficits in the domains including, but
not limited to, memory, language, and visuospatial skills and can result from central nervous
system dysfunction. Two forms of dementia exist: degenerative and nondegenerative. The
progression of nondegenerative dementias, like head trauma and brain infections, can be slowed
or halted but degenerative forms of dementia, like Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, and
Huntington's are irreversible and incurable.

6. Mental health in adulthood and old age

Older adults represent a significant proportion of the population, and this proportion is expected
to increase with time. Mental health concerns of older adults are important at treatment and
support levels, as well as policy issues. The prevalence of suicide among older adults is higher
than in any other age group.

a. Depression

Older adults are often at higher risk for disorders such as depression. Depression is one of the
most common disorders that is present in old age and is usually comorbid with other physical

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and psychiatric conditions, perhaps due to the stress induced by these conditions. In older adults,
depression presents as impairments already associated with age such as memory and
psychomotor speed. Research indicates that higher levels of exercise can decrease the likelihood
of depression in older adults even after taking into consideration factors such as chronic
conditions, body mass index, and social relationships. In addition to exercise, behavioural
rehabilitation and prescribed antidepressants, which is well tolerated in older adults, can be used
to treat depression. Some research has indicated that a diet rich in folic acid and Vitamin B12 has
been tied to preventing the development of depression among older adults.

b. Anxiety

Anxiety is a relatively uncommon diagnosis in older adults and it is difficult to determine its
prevalence. Anxiety disorders in late life are more likely to be under-diagnosed because of
medical comorbidity, cognitive decline, and changes in life circumstances that younger adults do
not face. However, in the Epidemiological Catchment Area Project, researchers found that 6-
month prevalence rates for anxiety disorders were lowest for the 65 years of age and older
cohort.

Loneliness in adulthood plays a major factor in depression and anxiety. According to Cacioppo,
loneliness is described as a time in one's life when you are emotionally sad and feel as if there is
a void in your life for social interactions. Older adults tend to be lonelier due to death of a spouse
or children moving away as a result of marriage or careers. Another factor is friends sometimes
lose their mobility and cannot socialize like they used to, as socialization plays an important role
in protecting people from becoming lonely. Loneliness is categorized in three parts, which are
intimate loneliness, relational loneliness and collective loneliness. All three types of loneliness
have to do with your personal environment. Older adults sometimes depend on a child, spouse,
or friend to be around for them socially for daily interactions and help with everyday chores.
Loneliness can be treated by mostly social involvement, such as social skills and social support.

7. Personality in adulthood

Personality change and stability occur in adulthood. For example, self-confidence, warmth, self-
control, and emotional stability increase with age, whereas neuroticism and openness to

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experience tend to decline with age. As people grow older, they experience not only physical
changes but psychological ones that can change throughout one's lifespan.

a. Personality changes in adulthood

Two types of statistics are used to classify personality change over the life span. Rank-order
change refers to a change in an individual's personality trait relative to other individuals. Mean-
level change refers to absolute change in the individual's level of a certain trait over time.
Typically, it appears that as individuals' age they show increased self-confidence, warmth, self-
control, and emotional stability. These changes seem to mostly take place between the ages of 20
and 40.

b. Controversy

The plaster hypothesis refers to personality traits tending to stabilize by age 30. Stability in
personality throughout adulthood has been observed in longitudinal and sequential research.
However, personality also changes. Research on the big five personality traits include a decrease
in openness and extraversion in adulthood; an increase of agreeableness with age; peak
conscientiousness in middle age; and a decrease of neuroticism late in life. The concepts of both
adjustment and growth as developmental processes help reconcile the large body of evidence for
personality stability and the growing body of evidence for personality change.

8. Intelligence in adulthood

According to the lifespan approach, intelligence is a multidimensional and multidirectional

construct characterized by plasticity and interindividual variability. Intellectual development
throughout the lifespan is characterized by decline as well as stability and improvement.
Mechanics of intelligence, the basic architecture of information processing, decreases with age.
Pragmatic intelligence, knowledge acquired through culture and experience, remains relatively
stable with age.

9. Developmental trends in intelligence

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Primary mental abilities are independent groups of factors that contribute to intelligent behaviour
and include word fluency, verbal comprehension, spatial visualization, number facility,
associative memory, reasoning, and perceptual speed. Primary mental abilities decline around the
age of 60 and may interfere with life functioning. Secondary mental abilities include crystallized
intelligence (knowledge acquired through experience) and fluid intelligence (abilities of flexible
and abstract thinking). Fluid intelligence declines steadily in adulthood while crystallized
intelligence increases and remains fairly stable with age until very late in life.

10. Relationships

A combination of friendships and family is the support system for many individuals and an
integral part of their lives from young adulthood to old age.

a. Family

Ties to family become increasingly important in old age. Family relationships tend to be some of
the most enduring bonds created within one's lifetime. As adults age, their children often feel a
sense of filial obligation, in which they feel obligated to care for their parents. This is particularly
prominent in Asian cultures. Marital satisfaction remains high in older couples, oftentimes
increasing shortly after retirement. This can be attributed to increased maturity and reduced
conflict within the relationship.

However, when health problems arise, the relationship can become strained. Studies of spousal
caregivers of individuals with Alzheimer's disease show marital satisfaction is significantly
lower than in couples who are not affected. Most people will experience the loss of a family
member by death within their lifetime. This life event is usually accompanied by some form of
bereavement, or grief. There is no set time frame for a mourning period after a loved one passes
away, rather every person experiences bereavement in a different form and manner.

Friendship, similar to family relationships, are often the support system for many individuals and
a fundamental aspect of life from young adulthood to old age. Social friendships are important to
emotional fulfilment, behavioural adjustment, and cognitive function. Research has shown that
emotional closeness in relationships greatly increases with age even though the number of social

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relationships and the development of new relationships begin to decline. In young adulthood,
friendships are grounded in similar aged peers with similar goals, though these relations might be
less permanent than other relationships. In older adulthood, friendships have been found to be
much deeper and longer lasting. While small in number, the quality of relationships is generally
thought to be much stronger for older adults.

b. Retirement

Retirement, or the point in which a person stops employment entirely, is often either a time of
psychological distress or a time of high quality and enhanced subjective well-being for
individuals. Most individuals choose to retire between the ages of 50 to 70, and researchers have
examined how this transition affects subjective well-being in old age. One study examined
subjective well-being in retirement as a function of marital quality, life course, and gender.
Results indicated a positive correlation between well-being for married couples who retire
around the same time compared to couples in which one spouse retires while the other continues
to work.

c. Retirement communities

Retirement communities provide for individuals who want to live independently but do not wish
to maintain a home. They can maintain their autonomy while living in a community with
individuals who are similar in age as well as within the same stage of life. Newer active adult
communities consist of added services to better accommodate those who might feel as if they're
missing something compared to their previous lifestyle. These improved retirement communities
are meant to help create a standard of living which strengthen engagement, socialization, and
most importantly, creating a purpose for its residents.

Compared to the previous generation, older adults seem to typically search for a lifestyle that
consist of the ability to continue their life and search for the "next" best thing in their lives. These
can be interpreted as a career change, volunteer opportunities, learning a new skill, new degree,
or even just a refocus on their health and wellness. An integration of technology into these
communities allows there to be applications for convenience, nonintrusive monitoring of vitals,
and the ability for members of the community to be in contact with other family members and

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friends. It is reported that residents have a greater awareness over their wellness factors and are
more efficiently able to set their goals.

d. Death and Dying

This topic is seldom given the amount of coverage it deserves. Of course, there is a certain
discomfort in thinking about death but there is also a certain confidence and acceptance that can
come from studying death and dying. We will be examining the physical, psychological and
social aspects of death, exploring grief or bereavement, and addressing ways in which helping
professionals work in death and dying. And we will discuss cultural variations in mourning,
burial, and grief.

(J) HUMAN PRINCIPLES OF SOCIAL CHANGES FROM A BIBLICAL VIEWPOINTS

AND MORAL DEVELOPMENT

1. Human social and moral development

Social development is defined as prioritizing human needs in the growth and progression of the
society. It is the social development of the individuals that governs the norms and conventions of
human interactions. Human development is defined as the process of enlarging people's
freedoms, the opportunities and improving their well-being in making the society a better place
for everyone. Human development is about the real freedom ordinary people to have decided
who to be, what to do and how to live.

The social development involves the individual interaction and relationship with other people. It
deals with the influence of the society significance from one person to other individual. Social
development includes the development of attachment between the parent and child, the
guardians, caregiver and the child, the expansion of the person’s interpersonal relationship, the
modelling of behaviour and the development of relationship between the sexes. It should be
noted that individual socialization is an aspect of social development where the individual
acquires socially acceptable behaviour through his/her social interaction with others in the
society.

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In other words, the programmes in human and social development integrate individual,
interpersonal, social and with the community approaches to the promotion of healthy
development and well-being of individuals. The importance aspect in the study of social
development is attached to the moral development of individual. This is because social
development always involves the individual’s views concerning what is right and wrong and as
well deals with the developments in the way moral judgments are made. Therefore, the study of
human social and moral development prepares us to work with people, deal with individuals in
multiple contexts and in setting a healthy human services, schools, universities and community
programmes, government and non-government agencies and to the grass-roots movements.

The components of individual human social and moral development is best studied at the human
developmental stages such as neonatal or infancy phase, early childhood, middle childhood,
adolescence and adulthood stages. The first stage of human social and moral development is
during infancy where the social relationship is usually built between the infant with the parents.
At early childhood, the social development in the preschool begins to change due to their
interaction, relationship and increasingly becoming influential with others; though the parents
plays a crucial roles. The horizons on social development of the middle childhood expand
dramatically because of their exposure to many social learning experiences that have a profound
effect on their development. While children spend much time away from home, the parents also
spend less time with their children at this stage. The adolescence stage social development is
more complex and challenging one, because their social context is majorly formed by their
parents and peers amongst others. The adulthood social development stage is characterized with
settlement, wealth making, enjoyment, development of structures etc.

2. Social development stage of the adolescent

The adolescents are face with the pressure of socialization, cultivating tolerance for personal and
cultural differences, finding their place in the society, developing interpersonal relationship and
developing a self-confidence is the major tasks that have is performed by the adolescent at this
stage. At this period, they move away from their parents and again acceptance by their peer
group. They become interested in chats, discussions, argument, recreational activities which
differ from that of their childhood. There problems of violence, criminal violence, relationship

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and sexual violence, child abuse, alcohol and drug abuse, sexual abuse, and emotional abuse
among the adolescent are of the deep social concern. The adolescents at this stage due to the
influence of the peer pressure, they want to be the same as others, they therefore exhibit socially
unacceptable behaviourat this stage. This pressure is much stronger in the adolescent stage than
any other time in their lives because their intense and desire is to belong.

Their social development is characterized to act like others in dressing and in habits. Their
interaction with the peer groups increased as well as with friends in terms of speech or in
whatever is in vogue. They develop their interpersonal contacts beyond the family relationships
which plays an important role in their psychosocial development. Their physical, psychological
and emotional changes are intrinsic at this stage in special and virtually unavoidable vulnerable
to any social vices.

Although, it does not mean that all adolescents are influenced by the peer group, but certain
characteristics make them more acceptable by their peers than the other. The generally
acceptable or more easily influenced by others are those who are tolerant, flexible, cheerful,
sympathetic, energetic and enthusiastic. Other characteristics that also contribute to greater
influence by the peer group are those who have the sense of humours, the intelligence, self-
confidence, attractiveness and those who have pro-social behaviour. The adolescents who plan
interesting and exciting activities, who can enhance group interaction and make others, feel
acceptable are also considered favourable.

But, the characteristics of those not accepted or easily influence by the peer group are those who
are aggressive, disruptive or have quarrelsome behaviour, unpopular adolescents and those who
ignore the wishes of others and selfish. These neglected adolescents are neither liked nor disliked
by the peer group and this make most of them shy; withdraw from another group which make
them generally un-noticed. To be different from others then can mean unpopularity or even make
them ashamed of themselves. This is the cause of teen-age conformity or compromise; hence,
they should learn to be themselves and stand firm in their uprightness. Perhaps, there are some
adolescents whose interests are usually different from those of the peer group. This is because
they are often certain of their identities and goals to the point that they do not need group support

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and interaction. Usually, such ones often have only one close friend who provides the necessary
companionship and support to them.

The social factor surrounding the adolescents emotional developmental is a tool of their
vulnerability to life issues. Emotionally, the adolescent’s linkage to other peers is high in a sense
that they rather prefer each other’s company instead of their parents. Their risk taking is seen as a
way of coping with normal developmental tasks. There peer group pressure could be of a
negative one to experiment the use of alcohol, illegal drugs, tobacco and sexual intercourse.
Their low self-esteem does expose them to negative risky sexual behaviours and to all sorts of
extrinsic relationships or violent.

3. Causes of social change

Changes to technology, social institutions, population, and the environment, alone or in some
combination, create change. Below, we will discuss how these acts as agents of social change
and will examine real-world examples. We will focus on four agents of change recognized by
social scientists: technology, social institutions, population, and the environment.

There are numerous and varied causes of social change. Five common causes, as recognized by
social scientists, are technology, social institutions, population, and the environment. All four of
these areas can impact when and how society changes. They are all interrelated: a change in one
area can lead to changes throughout. Modernization is a typical result of social change.
Modernization refers to the process of increased differentiation and specialization within a
society, particularly around its industry and infrastructure. While this assumes that more modern
societies are better, there has been significant pushback on this western-centric view that all
peripheral and semi-peripheral countries should develop.

a. Technology

Some would say that improving technology has made our lives easier. Imagine what your day
would be like without the internet, the automobile, or electricity. Technology is a driving force
behind globalization, while the other forces of social change play comparatively minor roles. The
countries best able to take advantage of these power sources expanded the most, exerting control

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over the politics of the globe. Consider that technology can create change in the other three
forces social scientists link to social change. Advances in medical technology allow otherwise
infertile women to bear children, indirectly leading to an increase in population. Advances in
agricultural technology have allowed us to genetically alter and patent food products, changing
our environment in innumerable ways. From the way we educate children in the classroom to the
way we grow the food we eat, technology has impacted all aspects of modern life.

b. Social Institutions

Each change in a single social institution leads to changes in all social institutions. For example,
the industrialization of society meant that there was no longer a need for large families to
produce enough manual labour to run a farm. Further, new job opportunities were in close
proximity to urban centres where living space was at a premium. The result is that the average
family size shrunk significantly.

This same shift toward industrial corporate entities also changed the way we view government
involvement in the private sector, created the global economy, provided new political platforms,
and even spurred new religions and new forms of religious worship like Scientology. It has also
informed the way we educate our children, originally schools were set up to accommodate an
agricultural calendar so children could be home to do other things, and even today, teaching
models are largely based on preparing students for industrial jobs, despite that being an outdated
need. As this example illustrates, a shift in one area, such as industrialization, means an
interconnected impact across social institutions.

c. Population

Population composition is changing at every level of society. Births increase in one nation and
decrease in another. Some families delay childbirth while others start bringing children into their
fold early. Population changes can be due to random external forces, like an epidemic, or shifts
in other social institutions, as described above. But regardless of why and how it happens,
population trends have a tremendous interrelated impact on all other aspects of society.

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Globally, often the countries with the highest fertility rates are least able to absorb and attend to
the needs of a growing population. Family planning is a large step in ensuring that families are
not burdened with more children than they can care for. On a macro level, the increased
population, particularly in the poorest parts of the globe, also leads to increased stress on the
planet’s resources.

d. The Environment

Turning to human ecology, we know that individuals and the environment affect each other. As
human populations move into more vulnerable areas, we see an increase in the number of people
affected by natural disasters, and we see that human interaction with the environment increases
the impact of those disasters. Part of this is simply the numbers: the more people there are on the
planet, the more likely it is that people will be impacted by a natural disaster. But it goes beyond
that. We face a combination of too many people and the increased demands these numbers make
on the Earth. As a population, we have brought water tables to dangerously low levels, built up
fragile shorelines to increase development, and irrigated massive crop fields with water brought
in from far away.

e. Modernization

Modernization describes the processes that increase the amount of specialization and
differentiation of structure in societies resulting in the move from an undeveloped society to
developed, technologically driven society. By this definition, the level of modernity within a
society is judged by the sophistication of its technology, particularly as it relates to infrastructure,
industry, and the like. One contradiction of all kinds of technology is that they often promise
time-saving benefits, but somehow fail to deliver. Further, the internet bought us information,
but at a cost. The morass of information means that there is as much poor information available
as trustworthy sources.

4. Applying Biblical principles on social issues

Never has our society found itself in greater need of a biblical perspective with which to evaluate
moral issues, and never have Christians been less equipped to address these topics. It was found

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that only nine percent of born‐again Christians base their life decisions on the biblical principles
of a Christian worldview. This section deal with how we can begin to evaluate the complex
social and moral issues of our day from a biblical perspective. It keeps us from being carried
away by the latest cultural trend that is blowing in the world. Here are some key biblical
principles to apply and faulty logic to avoid.

Daily we face social choices that are enshrouded in controversial moral complexity, including
abortion, euthanasia, cloning, genetic engineering, race relations, drug abuse, homosexuality,
gambling, pornography, and capital punishment. The rise of technology and the fall of ethical
consensus have plunged our twenty‐first century society into a cauldron of moral debates and
dilemmas.

The key biblical principle that applies to the area of bioethics is the sanctity of human life. Such
verses as Psalm 139:13–16 show that God’s care and concern extend to the womb. Other verses
such as Jeremiah 1:5, Judges 13:7–8, Psalm 51:5 and Exodus 21:22–25, give framework and
additional perspective to this principle. This can apply to issues ranging from abortion to stem
cell research to infanticide.

A related biblical principle involves the equality of human beings. The Bible teaches that God
has made “of one blood all nations of men” (Acts 17:26 KJV). The Bible also teaches that it is
wrong for a Christian to have feelings of superiority (Phil. 2). Believers are told not to make
class distinctions between various people (James 2). Paul teaches the spiritual equality of all
people in Christ (Gal. 3:28; Col. 3:11). These teachings can apply to our views of racial relations
and of government.

The third principle concerns the biblical perspective on marriage. Marriage is God’s plan and
provides intimate companionship for life (Gen. 2:18). Marriage provides a context for the
procreation and nurture of children (Eph. 6:1–2) and a godly outlet for sexual desire (1 Cor. 7:2).
This principle can apply to such diverse issues as artificial reproduction (which often introduces
a third party into the pregnancy) and cohabitation (unmarried couples living together).

The fourth biblical principle entails the boundaries of sexual behaviour. The Bible teaches that
sex is to be within the bounds of marriage, as a man and a woman become one flesh (Eph. 5:31).

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Paul admonishes us to “flee” (1 Cor. 6:18) and “avoid” (1 Thess. 4:3) sexual immorality and to
control our own bodies in a way that is “holy and honourable” (1 Thess. 4:5 NIV). These values
can apply to such issues as premarital sex, adultery, and homosexuality.

The fifth principle commands obedience to the authority of government and civic bodies.
Government is ordained by God (Rom.13:1–7). We are to render service and obedience to the
government (Matt. 22:21) and submit to civil authority (1 Pet. 2:13–17). There may be certain
issues, however, that force us to obey God rather than men (Acts 5:29). This can apply to war,
civil disobedience, politics, and government.

Biblical Discernment is the sixth Biblical principles to social issues. Often it is difficult to
determine what is true and what is false in a world that offers a puzzling array of solutions across
a broad spectrum of belief systems, most of which contradict each other and, as such, underscore
the crucial need for Christians to develop godly discernment. Discernment is a word that appears
fairly often in the Bible (1 Sam. 25:32–33; 1 Kings 3:10–11; 4:29; Psalm 119:66; Prov. 2:3; Dan.
2:14; Phil. 1:9). Colossians 2:8, similarly, reads, “See to it that no one takes you captive through
philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary
principles of the world, rather than according to Christ.” Because so many facts, claims, and
opinions are being tossed about, Christians need to develop discernment to avoid being taken
captive by false ideas. These often appear in the form of fallacies. A fallacy, by definition, is a
mistaken idea, an error, or a flaw in reasoning.

5. The church as transformation and change agency

The early missionaries, especially in the 19th century, are to be commended for sowing the seed
from which the black churches of the 20th century grew. They did extensive evangelistic work
and built churches, schools and hospitals. Not only were these important aspects of their
ministries at that time, but were also foundations for subsequent developments. The church
should be involved in the establishment of society, though its contributions were not at all times
positive.

The church should be always been involved in the transformation of society, especially as it took
sides with the poor and oppressed. At times it seemed to have lost this focus, but somehow,

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throughout the ages, it has managed to sustain this mission responsibility. Today, more than ever,
given the increasing poverty, violence and injustices in the world, the Christian church is called
upon to embrace, engage and continue with its task of being an agent for transformation and
change. It has to fulfil the gospel imperative of making the world a better place for all to live
with justice, peace and harmony.

(K) HUMAN INTELLIGENCE AND MENTAL HEALTH DEVELOPMENT

The definition of intelligence is controversial. Human intelligent deals with a very general
mental capability that, among other things, involves the ability to reason, plan, solve problems,
think abstractly, comprehend complex ideas, learn quickly and learn from experience. It is not
merely booking learning, a narrow academic skill, or test taking smarts. Rather, it reflects a
broader and deeper capability for comprehending our surroundings, making sense of things, or
figuring out what to do. We discuss the diversity of views about what intelligence is because
empirical studies often assume rather than explore the nature of the construct they are
investigating .in this case of intelligence.

Individuals differ from one another in their ability to understand complex ideas, to adapt
effectively to the environment, to learn from experience, to engage in various forms of
reasoning, to overcome obstacles by taking thought. Although these individual differences can be
substantial, they are never entirely consistent. A given person's intellectual performance will vary
on different occasions, in different domains, as judged by different criteria. Concepts of
intelligence are attempts to clarify and organize this complex set of phenomena.

Human intelligence is the intellectual power of humans, which is marked by high levels of
cognitive complexity, motivation, and self-awareness. Intelligence enables humans to remember
descriptions of things and use those descriptions in future behaviours. It gives humans the
cognitive abilities to learn, form concepts, understand, and reason, including the capacities to
recognize patterns, comprehends ideas, plan, problem solving, and use language to communicate.
Intelligence enables humans to experience and think.

Intelligence is most widely studied in humans, but has also been observed in non-human animals
and in plants. Within the discipline of psychology, various approaches to human intelligence

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have been adopted. The psychometric approach is especially familiar to the general public, as
well as being the most researched and by far the most widely used in practical settings
Intelligence and culture are very distinct terms. Intelligence can be defined as a person's
cognitive abilities to comprehend and learn. It is associated with logic, abstract thought, self-
awareness, memory, emotional knowledge, planning, creativity, and problem solving.

1. Types of Human Intelligence

There are multiple intelligences based on studies not only of normal children and adults, but also
by studies of gifted individuals of persons who have suffered brain damage, of experts and of
individuals from diverse cultures. This led to break down of different intelligence into at least a
number of components. There seven distinct types of intelligence which includes the following:

1. Linguistic intelligence: People high in linguistic intelligence have an affinity for words, both
spoken and written.

2. Logical-mathematics intelligence: Is logical and mathematical ability, as well as scientific

ability. Howard Gardner believed Jean Piaget may have thought he was studying all intelligence,
but in truth, Piaget was really only focusing on the logical-mathematical intelligence.

3. Spatial intelligence: The ability to form a mental model of a spatial world and to be able to
maneuver and operate using that model.

4. Musical intelligence: Those with musical Intelligence have excellent pitch, and may even be
absolute pitch.

5. Bodily-kinaesthetic intelligence: The ability to solve problems or to fashion products using

one's whole body, or parts of the body. For example, dancers, athletes, surgeons, craftspeople,
etc.

6. Interpersonal intelligence: The ability to see things from the perspective of others, or to
understand people in the sense of empathy. Strong interpersonal intelligence would be an asset in
those who are teachers, politicians, clinicians, religious leaders, etc.

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7. Intrapersonal intelligence: A correlative ability, turned inward. It is a capacity to form an
accurate, veridical model of one-self and to be able to use that model to operate effectively in
life.

2. Development of Human Intelligence and Developmental Programmes

There have been a number of approaches to the study of the development of intelligence.
Psychometric theorists, for instance, have sought to understand how intelligence develops in
terms of changes in intelligence factors and in various abilities in childhood. A given mental age
was held to represent an average child’s level of mental functioning for a given chronological
age.

The landmark work in intellectual development in the 20th century derived not from
psychometrics but from the tradition established by the Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget. His
theory was concerned with the mechanisms by which intellectual development takes place and
the periods through which children develop. Piaget believed that the child explores the world and
observes regularities and makes generalizations much as a scientist does. Intellectual
development, he argued, derives from two cognitive processes that work in somewhat reciprocal
fashion. The first is called assimilation, incorporates new information into an already existing
cognitive structure. The second is called accommodation, forms a new cognitive structure into
which new information can be incorporated.

1. Development of human intelligence through assimilation

The process of assimilation is illustrated in simple problem-solving tasks. Suppose that a child
knows how to solve problems that require calculating a percentage of a given number. The child
then learns how to solve problems that ask what percentage of a number another number is. The
child already has a cognitive structure, or what Piaget called a “schema,” for percentage
problems and can incorporate the new knowledge into the existing structure.

2. Development of human intelligence through accommodation

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Suppose that the child is then asked to learn how to solve time-rate-distance problems, having
never before dealt with this type of problem. This would involve accommodation the formation
of a new cognitive structure. Cognitive development represents a dynamic equilibrium between
the two processes of assimilation and accommodation.

However, some scholars had a major impact on the views of intellectual development, but it is
not as widely accepted today as it was in the mid-20th century. One shortcoming is that they
deals primarily with scientific and logical modes of thought, thereby neglecting aesthetic,
intuitive, and other modes. In addition, they erred in that children were for the most part capable
of performing mental operations earlier than the ages at which they assumed estimated they
could perform them.

a. Development of human intelligence through accommodation postulated four major periods in

individual. The first, the sensorimotor period which extends from birth through roughly age two.
During this period, a child learns how to modify reflexes to make them more adaptive, to
coordinate actions, to retrieve hidden objects, and eventually, to begin representing information
mentally.

b. The second period is known as preoperational which runs approximately from age two to age
seven. In this period a child develops language and mental imagery and learns to focus on single
perceptual dimensions, such as colour and size.

c. The third is the concrete-operational period which ranges from about age 7 to age 12. During
this time a child develops so-called conservation skills, which enable him to recognize that
things that may appear to be different are actually the same, that is, their fundamental properties
are “conserved.” For example, suppose that water is poured from a wide short beaker into a tall
narrow one. A preoperational child, asked which beaker has more water, will say that the second
beaker does (the tall thin one); a concrete-operational child, however, will recognize that the
amount of water in the beakers must be the same.

d. Finally, children emerge into the fourth, formal-operational period, which begins at about age
12 and continues throughout life. The formal-operational child develops thinking skills in all
logical combinations and learns to think with abstract concepts. For example, a child in the

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concrete-operational period will have great difficulty determining all the possible orderings of
four digits, such as 3-7-5-8. The child who has reached the formal-operational stage, however,
will adopt a strategy of systematically varying alternations of digits, starting perhaps with the last
digit and working toward the first. This systematic way of thinking is not normally possible for
those in the concrete-operational period.

3. Development of human intelligence through problem finding

One theory has expanded on the above work by suggesting a possible this period of intelligence
development such as “problem finding. Problem finding comes before problem solving; it is the
process of identifying problems that are worth solving in the first place. This has identified
periods of development that are quite different from those suggested by other psychologists. For
example, it has been shown that children’s difficulties in solving transitive inference problems
such as If A is greater than B, B is greater than C, and D is less than C, which is the greatest? In
this context, some investigators argue that much of what has been attributed to reasoning and
problem-solving ability in intellectual development is actually better attributed to the extent of
the child’s knowledge.

4. Development of human intelligence through environment

The views of intellectual development by some psychologist emphasize the importance of the
individual in intellectual development. But an alternative viewpoint emphasizes the importance
of the individual’s environment, particularly his social environment. The Russian psychologist
L.S. Vygotsky viewpoint suggests that intellectual development may be largely influenced by a
child’s interactions with others. A child sees others thinking and acting in certain ways and then
internalizes and models what is seen. An elaboration of this view is the suggestion by the Israeli
psychologist Reuven Feuerstein that the key to intellectual development is what he called
“mediated learning experience.” The parent mediates, or interprets, the environment for the
child, and it is largely through this mediation that the child learns to understand and interpret the
world.

The role of environment is particularly evident in studies across cultures. The research on the
cultural contexts of intelligence found that the conception of intelligence is much more collective

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than the conception of intelligence in European or North American cultures. This means that
much of being intelligent involves being able to work with others effectively. Children who grow
up in environments that do not stress western or city principles of education may not be able to
demonstrate their abilities on conventional western or city intelligence tests. It has being found
that rural children performed much better on skills tests when they were given extended
instruction beyond the normal test instructions. Without this additional instruction, however,
children from rural areas did not always understand what they were supposed to do, and, because
of this, they underperformed on the tests.

5. Development of human intelligence through heritability and malleability

Intelligence has historically been conceptualized as a more or less fixed trait. Minority of the
investigators believe that it is highly heritable or that it is minimally heritable, most take an
intermediate position. The psychologist have found that evidence of the heritability of
intelligence increases with age; this suggests that, as a person grows older, genetic factors
become a more important determinant of intelligence, while environmental factors become less
important. Also significant are findings that heritability can differ between ethnic and racial
groups, as well as across time within a single group; that is, the extent to which genes versus
environment matter in IQ depends on many factors, including socioeconomic class. Whatever the
heritability factor of IQ may be, it is a separate issue whether intelligence can be increased.

Among the most fruitful methods that have been used to assess the heritability of intelligence is
the study of identical twins who were separated at an early age and reared apart. If the twins
were raised in separate environments, and if it is assumed that when twins are separated they are
randomly distributed across environments then the twins would have in common all of their
genes but none of their environment, except for chance environmental overlap. As a result, the
correlation between their performances on intelligence tests could identify any possible link
between test scores and heredity. Another method compares the relationship between
intelligence-test scores of identical twins and those of fraternal twins. Because these results are
computed on the basis of intelligence-test scores, however, they represent only those aspects of
intelligence that are measured by the tests.

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Finally, no matter how heritable intelligence may be, some aspects of it are still malleable. With
intervention, even a highly heritable trait can be modified. A program of training in intellectual
skills can increase some aspects of a person’s intelligence; however, no training program, no
environmental condition of any sort can make a genius of a person with low measured
intelligence. But some gains are possible, and programmes have been developed for increasing
intellectual skills. Intelligence, in the view of many authorities, is not a foregone conclusion the
day a person is born. A main trend for psychologists in the intelligence field has been to combine
testing and training functions to help people make the most of their intelligence.

3. Human Mental Health Development and its Impact on Human Social Life

Human mental is refer to the health of individual aspect. It is a state characterized by adjustment,
positive self-esteem and self-actualization. It is inferred from the presence of normative
behaviours as well as absence of counter normative behaviours within the individual’s
environment. Mental health is the positive condition of the individual’s mental state generated by
the positive condition or event of the environment such as joy, happiness, freedom, love,
acceptance, appreciation, recognition, affection, peace and safety.

A mentally healthy person thinks normally, reason well, behaves well and does things in
realization of his or her potentials. Such an individual does not do contrary to norms and if he
goes contrary to norms, there must be justifiable reasons. He thinks positively and in many
instances correctly.

Mental health is necessary for Churches, schools, communities etc. It is when one is mentally
sound that the person can function very effectively in church, school and in the academic work.
The mentally health person can think soundly, reason very well and remember events as the case
may be. But if mental health is lacking, every other areas of human social, spiritual life, moral
life would be paralyzed.

The development of the individual is not personality significantly depends on his/her mental
health and adjustment. The individual mental health and adjustment are quite related to his
cognitive functioning. It should be noted that the greater the mental health and adjustment, the
more positive the individual would be to himself and the greater the possibility of actualizing the

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persons self. Hence, to acquire mental health for proper living, the individual must experience
good environment setting. There must be peace, harmony and love. However, in the case of
adjustment, the individual strives to survive whether the environmental setting is conducive or
not.

Developmental Plans on Human Mental Health

a. Provision of conducive environment
b. Provision of proper affection and love
c. Avoidance of harsh criticism, rather the individual could be gently corrected
d. Avoidance of over pampering or protection
e. Avoidance of open quarrels or firing of words
f. Exercise of democracy
g. Avoidance of unnecessary comparison between one individual and the other.
h. Avoidance of open rejection of the other
i. Provision of resources or materials to meet the needs of the individual or the other in the
society.

(L) HUMAN PERSONALITY GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT

Personality development has been a major topic of interest for some of the most prominent
thinkers in psychology. Personality development refers to how the organized patterns of
behaviour that make up each person's unique personality emerge over time. Our personalities
make us unique, but how does personality develop? How exactly do we become who we are
today? What factors play the most important role in the formation of personality? Can
personality ever change?

Personality development is the relatively enduring pattern of thoughts, feelings, and behaviours
that distinguish individuals from one another. The dominant view in the field of personality
psychology today holds that personality emerges early and continues to change in meaningful
ways throughout the lifespan. Adult personality traits are believed to have a basis in infant
temperament, meaning that individual differences in disposition and behaviour appear early in
life, possibly even before language or conscious self-representation develop.

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Personality development is the development of the organized pattern of behaviours and attitudes
that makes a person distinctive. Personality development occurs by the on-going interaction of
temperament, character, and environment. Personality is what makes a person a unique person,
and it is recognizable soon after birth. A child's personality has several components such as
temperament, environment, and character. Temperament is the set of genetically determined
traits that determine the child's approach to the world and how the child learns about the world.
There are no genes that specify personality traits, but some genes do control the development of
the nervous system, which in turn controls behaviour.

Personality development is gaining more and more importance because it enables people to
create a good impression about themselves on others; it helps them to build and develop
relationships, helps in our career growth and also helps to improve our financial needs. After all,
personality development is nothing but a tool that helps us realize our capabilities and our
strengths making us a stronger, a happier and a cheerful person. Personality development
quintessentially means enhancing and grooming one’s outer and inner self to bring about a
positive change to our life. Each individual has a distinct persona that can be developed, polished
and refined. This process includes boosting one’s confidence, improving communication and
language speaking abilities, widening ones scope of knowledge, developing certain hobbies or
skills, learning fine etiquettes and manners, adding style and grace to the way one looks, talks
and walks and overall imbibing oneself with positivity, liveliness and peace.

A second component of personality comes from adaptive patterns related to a child's specific
environment. Most psychologists agree that these two factors, temperament and environment
influence the development of a person's personality the most. Temperament, with its dependence
on genetic factors, is sometimes referred to as "nature," while the environmental factors are
called "nurture."

While there is still controversy as to which factor ranks higher in affecting personality
development, all experts agree that high-quality parenting plays a critical role in the development
of a child's personality. When parents understand how their child responds to certain situations,
they can anticipate issues that might be problematic for their child. They can prepare the child
for the situation or in some cases they may avoid a potentially difficult situation altogether.

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Parents who know how to adapt their parenting approach to the particular temperament of their
child can best provide guidance and ensure the successful development of their child's
personality.

Finally, the third component of personality is character, the set of emotional, cognitive, and
behavioural patterns learned from experience that determines how a person thinks, feels, and
behaves. A person's character continues to evolve throughout life, although much depends on
inborn traits and early experiences. Character is also dependent on a person's moral development.

(1) Processes of Human Personality Development

In this section, we take a closer look at how personalities develop. In doing so, we will look at
the age groups usually discussed within the psychology field. Within the field of
psychology, personality has been studied for many years. Psychologists have been conducting
research in the field by engaging in experiments, case studies, self-reported research, and clinical
research. It looks at the stages of development that help to create who we are. These stages of
development begin when we are children and play a key role in shaping our personalities. As
early as the mid-1700s, researchers began making evaluations and trying to learn more about
personality. Over the years, various people have conducted research into personality
development, and each has his or her own ideas regarding it.

a. Infancy age

During the first two years of life, an infant goes through the first stage of learning Basic Trust or
Mistrust. If well-nurtured and loved, the infant develops trust and security and a basic optimism.
But if badly handled, the infant becomes insecure and learns "basic mistrust."

b. Toddlerhood age

The second stage occurs during early childhood, between about 18 months to two years and three
to four years of age. It deals with learning autonomy or shame. If well-parented, the child
emerges from this stage with self-confidence, elated with his or her newly found control. The

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early part of this stage can also include stormy tantrums, stubbornness, and negativism,
depending on the child's temperament.

c. Preschool age

The third stage occurs during the "play age," or the later preschool years from about three to
entry into formal school. The developing child goes through learning Initiative or Guilt
(Purpose). The child learns to use imagination; to broaden skills through active play and fantasy;
to cooperate with others; and to lead as well as to follow. If unsuccessful, the child becomes
fearful, is unable to join groups, and harbours guilty feelings. The child depends excessively on
adults and is restricted both in the development of play skills and in imagination.

d. School age

The fourth stage occurs during school age, up to and possibly including junior high school. The
child learns to master more formal skills:

 relating with peers according to rules

 progressing from free play to play that is structured by rules and requires teamwork
 learning basic intellectual skills (reading, arithmetic)

At this stage, the need for self-discipline increases every year. The child who, because of his or
her successful passage through earlier stages, is trusting, autonomous, and full of initiative, will
quickly learn to be industrious. However, the mistrusting child will doubt the future and will feel
inferior.

e. Adolescence age

The fifth stage, Learning Identity or Identity Diffusion (Fidelity), occurs during adolescence
from age 13 or 14. Maturity starts developing during this time where the young person acquires
self-certainty as opposed to self-doubt and experiments with different constructive roles rather
than adopting a negative identity, such as delinquency. The well-adjusted adolescent actually
looks forward to achievement, and, in later adolescence, clear sexual identity is established. The

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adolescent seeks leadership (someone to inspire him or her), and gradually develops a set of
ideals to live by.

f. Parental concerns

Most children experience healthy personality development. However, some parents worry as to
whether their infant, child, or teenager has a personality disorder. Parents are usually the first to
recognize that their child has a problem with emotions or behaviours that may point to a
personality disorder. Children with personality disorders have great difficulty dealing with other
people. They tend to be inflexible, rigid, and unable to respond to the changes and normal
stresses of life and find it very difficult to participate in social activities. When these
characteristics are present in a child to an extreme, when they are persistent and when they
interfere with healthy development, a diagnostic evaluation with a licensed physician or mental
health professional is recommended.

(2) Factors Influencing Human Personality and the Developmental Programmes

The major determinants of personality of an individual can be studied under various broad heads
biological, family, cultural and situational. Psychologist believed that the foremost determinant
of personality is the biological factor, in which are included heredity, the brain and the physical
stature. Personality can be termed as the combination of qualities, mental, physical, and moral
that sets one part from others. Having a strong personality is the key to success. This is also a
key determinant of good leadership. A good personality enables one to establish self-control and
self-direction to discover the reality off freedom of choice. A person with a positive attitude can
direct his thoughts, control his emotions and regulate his attitude.

In order to have a good personality, self-development is needed. An executive’s self is the sum
total of all that he can call his own. Self is something of which he is aware of. The self-concept
which an executive brings to his job is the amalgamation of many things, his perception towards
his parents, the rules he has learnt, the impressions he carries about his peers, the record of
success and failure, and the idea of what rewards he deserves.

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The sick personality is also known as disturbed or peculiar personality. Sick personality can be
the consequence of physical and/or psychological factors. These factors may or may not be in the
control of the person. Some of these factors can be troubled childhood, repeated failures, lack of
motivation, rejections, distrust of the parents and peers etc. The person himself has to assume a
greater responsibility for following a prescribed pattern and pulling himself out of this situation.

Healthy personality is an image of a person who does not feel anxious or hostile, is not self-
defeated or destructive to others. People with healthy personalities are judged to be well
adjusted. Apart from a good physical health, some other characteristics and features are
necessary for an individual in order to have a positive, strong, and balanced personality. Such a
personality helps an executive to influence other people in his favour. The factors that influence
our personality are:

1. Biological factors:

The foremost determinant of personality is the biological factor, in which are included heredity,
the brain and the physical stature. Psychologists and geneticists argue strongly that heredity plays
an important role in one’s personality. The importance of heredity varies from one personality
trait to another. For example, heredity plays a more important role in determining a person’s
temperament than determining the values and ideals.

Another factor which influences the personality is the brain of the individual. Perhaps, physical
stature of an individual is the most outstanding influence on the personality of an individual. For
example, the fact that a person is short or tall, fat or skinny, good looking or not, will influence
others and in turn will affect the person himself.

2. Family factors or genetic:

Family and social factors are also important in giving the shape to an individual’s personality. It
initially starts with contact with the mother and later with other members of the family. Later
still, the contact with social group influences an individual’s personality. The personality of an
individual is also influenced by the home environment. There is evidence to indicate that the
overall environment at home created by parents is critical to personality development.

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This refers to the influences on your personality that you are born with. They are in your genes
and there is not much you can do to change these traits. They can include your temperament,
which helps to determine how you react to situations and how easy-going you are. In kids, it may
affect how well they get along with others. Genetics, of course, also determines how someone
looks. Apart from the family background, social class also leaves an imprint on the personality of
an individual.

3. Situational or Environment Factors:

Situational factors also influence the human personality. The effect of environment on
personality is quite strong. Knowledge skill and language are acquired by a person and can be
termed as learned modifications of behaviour. These learned modifications cannot be passed on
to the children. The children in turn must acquire them through their personal effort, experience
and the interaction with the environment.

It is the experiences that each individual person goes through. The various things that people
experience will leave imprints on and help to develop his or her personality. Everything from
divorce, death, trauma, and even happy times fit into the "situations" category of shaping one's
personality. Many a times the actions of the person are determined more by the situation, rather
than his behaviour. Therefore, the situation may potentially have a very big impact on the actions
and expressions.

Our environment is the nurturing aspect of our lives. It is the type of environment in which we
live and grow up. Environment would include home, school, work, or other places that you
spend a lot of time. Environmental factors also include such things as languages, religion,
etc. Our environment has most likely at some point in our life heard someone say that people are
a "product of their environment." This means their personality has been greatly influenced by the
three things we just looked at. They were born with particular traits, and their living situation and
any impacting situations they experienced all helped to create who they are.

(M) HUMAN SPIRITUAL GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT

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The developmental is about the patterns and norms of human growth and maturity and think
about how the spiritual transformation look like through the normal human development. Just as
there are discernible stages in human physical and psychological growth, so there are stages in
human spiritual development. The most widely read scholar has come to an awareness of the
stages of human development through their personal experience.

A central feature of both religious and psychological understandings of the human condition is
that people are not static entities. Life from birth to death involves many changes in our physical
and spiritual makeup. This topic expands our understanding on the spiritual development during
childhood, adolescence and adulthood. Everything we know, or think we know, about spirituality
can be traced back to spiritual experiences, either on our own or those of others we trust. Our
current stage of spiritual development usually correlates directly with our highest type of
spiritual experience.

This stages model may have something to offer as a general path guide. Some of these stages are
representative of ordinary human growth and social adaptation from birth to the threshold of
adulthood. They are the stages of physical, emotional and mental development that every
individual who lives to an adult age inevitably adapts. Human spiritual development has been
categorized into sequential stages such as the individual, socialization, integration,
spiritualization, high spiritual development, the self-awakening to transcendental and liberation
stages. All of us, regardless of our spiritual beliefs, pass through these same four stages. Our
current stage of spiritual development tells you where we are in the course of your spiritual
development. The stages of Spiritual development are discussed below.

(a) The Individual Stage: The first stage of life is the gradual process of adapting to life as a
separate individual no longer bound to the mother and dependent on her as the food source. This
whole stage of life could be described as an ordeal of weaning, or individuation. At the
individual stage, we have some awareness of our spiritual beliefs but have not yet internally
committed to follow or live them out. During this stage, we deepen and expand our spiritual
awareness and construct our spiritual beliefs.

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Substantial physical growth and learning occurs in the first sta ge of life, as one begins to
manage bodily energies to explore the physical world. Acquiring motor skills is a key aspect of
the first stage of life, learning to walk and talk and perform the necessary functions required for
the basic upkeep and maintenance of the host form. If the first stage of life unfolds as it should,
the separation from the mother completes itself in basic terms. Nevertheless, there remains a
lingering tendency to struggle with and even resist this simple individuation. Every human being
tends to associate individually with a feeling of separation, a sense of disconnection from love
and support. That reaction is the dramatization of the self-contraction in its earliest form and will
characterize most people for their entire life, manifesting in endless varieties of neurotic
maladaptation, unless they are able to awaken to their true nature, prior to identification with
their human host body and its personality.

(b) The Socialization Stage: Between the ages of five and eight years one begins to become
aware of the emotional dimension of human existence on how one feels and how others respond
emotionally assume great importance. This is the beginning of the second stage of life, the stage
of social adaptation and all conditioning programmes that go with it. During this time the themes
include a growing sense of sexual differentiation, an awareness of the effects of one’s actions on
others, and a testing of whether or not one is loved and personally validated as an independent
person.

With the arising of greater emotional sensitivity, there is also the tendency to become fixated in
chronic patterns of feeling rejected by others, and rejecting or punishing others for their
presumed un-love and failure to confirm our idealized self-image. The drama of rejecting and
feeling rejected is the primary sign of incomplete adaptation in this second stage of life, and it is
both here where the emotional and sexual contraction commonly take its root.

(c) The Integration Stage: During the teen years, the third stage of life becomes established.
The key development of this stage is the maturing of the ability to use mind to conceptualize and
discriminate, leading to the exercise of will. On the bodily level, puberty is continuing of having
begun during the later years of the second stage of life with all its attendant bodily and emotional
changes. The religious counterpart to this life stage may include a complete rejection of the
parental deity figure, along with a general questioning and suspicion of all parental religious

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values, perhaps resulting in an embrace of atheism or agnosticism, infused with various forms of
pseudo-scientific materialism or even hedonism as a reaction to perceived parental strictures.

The purpose of the third stage of life is the integration of the human character in body, emotion,
and mind, so that the emerging adult becomes a fully differentiated or an autonomous sexual and
social human character. If the process of growth in the first and the second stages of life have not
proceeded unobstructed by conflicted messages and neurotic resistance, then this integration can
take place naturally. If, however, there have been failures of adaptation in the earlier stages, such
as a chronic sense of being separate, rejected or unloved and consequent difficulties in relating
happily to others, then the process of integration is disturbed and fixations on dysfunctional
attitudes and behaviours assert themselves.

(d) The Spiritualization Stage: The leap to the fourth stage of life is a transition that very few
are prepared or disposed to undertake human spiritual development. It is nothing less than the
breakthrough into a spiritually-illumined life of Divine recognition and heartfelt compassion and
one generally oriented towards selfless service. Historically, such lives are elevated in the
consensus judgment to the level of sainthood.

How does such a life become possible? Typically, it is inspired by a heart-awakening so

profound that the common human goals of those concerned with satisfying craving for worldly
pleasures and avoiding hardship and pain loses their force and attraction. The motive for one
established in the fourth stage is that life is based on devotion to a deep and persistent intimacy
with what mystics call “the spiritual Heart”, an intimacy that is real and ecstatic and which
changes one’s vision of the world. At this stage, everything that appears, everything that occurs
is now seen as a process full of divine presence. Stabilizing in this stage of life is generally
considered the summit of realization achieved in the traditions of Christianity, Islam and
Hinduism etc. which is most uncommon in almost every parts of the world.

(e) The Higher Spiritual Development Stage: The fifth stage of life could be described as the
domain of accomplished individual’s involvement in the pursuit of enlightenment through
mystical experiences, exotic brain phenomena and the acquisition of psychic powers. Just as very

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few religious practitioners fully awaken to the Divine Communion enjoyed in the fourth stage of
life, even fewer would actually achieve the full fruits of fifth stage realization.

The important difference between the fifth stage of life and all the stages of life that precede it is
that awareness on the gross physical plane is no longer the normal mode of existence. Rather,
attention is constantly attracted to phenomena associated with the subtle realms, the dreamlike or
visionary regions of the brain. At its point of highest ascent, the meditative state traditionally
formless ecstasy in which all awareness of body and mind is temporarily dissolved in the
absolute bliss of self-recognition is activated. This profoundly ecstatic state is regarded as the
summit of realization in most esoteric yogic schools.

(f) The Awakening to the Transcendental Self Stage: In the sixth stage of life, one is no longer
perceiving and interpreting everything from the point of view of the individuated body and mind
with its desires and goals. Rather, one assumes the detached position of witness to all that arises
and even though continuing to participate in the play of life. There is a disinterest born of dis-
identification with any personal vanities or worldly concerns. It is the domain of the reclusive
sage found in certain schools of religion. The transcendental is refers to or concern with the
intuitive basis of knowledge, again independent of experience, acquired extraordinary or superior
knowledge about one-self.

This stage of life may include the experience like fifth stage conditional that is a form of
temporary and conditional realization of one’s true Self. However, fifth stage conditional comes
about through the strategy of ascent; the urge to move attention up and beyond the body and
mind, while in awareness of gross and subtle states is excluded by concentration in formless
transcendental self-consciousness. The awakening in the sixth stage of life represents a profound
revolution in consciousness. Such realizers discard the fascinations of experience, transcending
the gross entanglements of the early stages of life, as well as the subtle attractions of devotional
of the fourth stage rapture and of fifth stage mysticism. Instead, the Sages of the sixth stage of
life have traditionally contemplated the spacious freedom and luminous, refined purity of their
own innate awake awareness.

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Sixth stage practice is expressed by turning within, away from all conditional objects and
experiences including the movements of energy and attention within one’s own body and mind,
in order to concentrate upon the radiant source of individual consciousness beyond name and
form. Thus, the root of the self-contraction, the core story, is still alive. Mind has let go of
everything, everything except itself.

(g) The Liberation Stage: It represents release from all the contracted limitations of the
previous stages of life, and the end to the core story of “me and mine”. It is the stage of
completion in human spiritual development and is traditionally pointed to as well as by the great
and rare realizers who transcend all schools and sectarian affiliations. Remarkably, the seventh
stage awakening is not an experience at all. The true nature of everything is simply obvious as it
is, is simply is. This fundamental awake-ness has been called “Open Eyes” or the natural state.

Form is no longer perceived to be different than emptiness and emptiness is not other than form.
Beyond the sixth stage, any perception of dualism, even at the most subtle level, collapses. No
longer is there any need to seek meditative seclusion in order to realize perpetual identification
with reality or union. Reality and you are not two, nor have they ever been. There has never been
a single moment when everything was not pure perfection. It’s not that everything has finally
arrived at a state of purity, but rather that it always was, is and will be. It was only our temporary
case of amnesia that obscured this simple realization and there had never been any separation to
begin with; because the whole adventure has been a dream journey all along.

When one is finally able to turn their attention around without distraction and thoroughly
recognize mind for what it is, all fixation and false identification dissolve in what has been
described as the “Great Death”, although paradoxically, it is not an event in time that happens to
“me”. All sense of self or self are instantly recognized as transparent fantasies of interpretation
on perception, leaving the natural mind, awareness of the present moment without any
contraction or urge for modification in its open and relaxed simplicity. The essential emptiness
of both self and world becomes spontaneously apparent. Any emotional contraction at the heart
are dissolved, as the poisons of greed, envy, pride, hatred, and ignorance are effortlessly
transmuted into wisdoms, and the boundless compassion of awakened mind becomes
spontaneously activated.

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(N) HUMAN BEHAVIOUR DEVELOPMENT AND TRANSFORMATIONAL
DEVELOPMENT

The study of human's behaviour is probably the most fascinating interests that an investigator
can undertake. Actually, human beings are extremely complex that numerous disciplines of study
are already established so that we could choose the study of human behaviour which interests us
the most. One of the most popular areas of human study contains sociology, psychology and
anthropology, all of which explores human behaviour from another perspective. However, our
study on human behaviour here concentrates majorly on the psychological perspectives.

Human behaviour is referring physical action and observable emotion associated with
individuals, as well as the human race as a whole. While specific traits of one's personality and
temperament may be more consistent, human behaviour will change as one move from birth
through adulthood. In addition, human behaviour is driven in parts by thoughts, feelings, and
insight into individual psyche.

Human behaviour is experienced throughout an individual’s entire lifetime. It includes the way
we act based on different factors such as genetics, social norms, core faith and attitude.
Behaviour is impacted by certain traits each individual has. Human behaviour varies from person
to person and can produce different actions from each person. Social norms also impact human
behaviour; due to the inherently conformist nature of human society in general. Humans are
pressured into following certain rules and displaying certain behaviours in society, which
conditions the way people behave.

The term ‘behaviour’ can be described as the way we conduct ourselves. It is the manner of
acting or controlling oneself towards other people. It is the range of actions, responses and
mannerisms set by an individual, system or organization in association with themselves or their
environment in any circumstances. In short, behaviour is an individual or group reaction to
inputs such as an action, environment or stimulus which can be internal or external, voluntary or
involuntary, conscious or subconscious.

Different behaviours are deemed to be either acceptable or unacceptable in different societies

and cultures. Attitude can be defined as "the degree to which the person has a favourable or

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unfavourable evaluation of the behaviour in question. One's attitude is essentially a reflection of
the behaviour he or she portrays in specific situations. Thus, human behaviour is greatly
influenced by the attitudes we use on a daily basis.

People confuse behaviour with personality. Personality we are born with, personality is related to
genetics and life experience. Behaviour is not personality and it is learnt, and our behaviour
changes throughout life based on experiences, interactions and our mood at any given time.
There is no such thing as only being one type, as we use all types of behaviour. The more
interactive your life with others, the greater the chance you use all types of behaviour in a day.

Behaviour can be defined as the actions or reactions of a person in response to external or

internal stimulus situation. We understand behaviour when we know that what is caused or made
the person do it. We evaluate behaviour when we approve or disapprove it. Psychology is a
science of activity of people which lead to an understanding of nature of behaviour. Behaviour is
always the product of two things, one- the nature of individual or organism that behaves and
second- the nature of situation in which the individual find himself. Situation is a source of
stimulus and is always the organism’s response to stimulus from environment. Psychologist
believes that human behaviour is any activity which can be observed, recorded and measured.
They analyse behaviour from two point of view- Overt and Covert, the behaviour that is visible
and what occurs outside of human being is called overt behaviour. For example, playing football
and eating something are overt behaviour. The behaviour that is not visible and what occurs
inside of human being is called covert behaviour. For example, thinking. Behaviour is a function
of people and environment.

1. Types of Human Basic Behaviour

Human behaviour is actually experienced during somebody's entire lifetime. It contains the way
they behave based on various factors for example social norms, genetics, attitude and core faith.
Behaviour is afflicted by certain traits each and every individual has. The traits differ from one
individual to another and can generate different behaviour or actions from every person. Social
norms additionally impact behaviour. Human beings are expected to stick to certain rules in
society those conditions the way in which people behave.

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One can find different types of human behaviour which are unacceptable or acceptable in
various cultures and societies. Core faith could be perceived from the religion and philosophy of
that person. It shapes the way in which a person thinks and this in change results in various
human behaviours. Attitude could be defined as the level to which the individual has an
unfavourable or favourable evaluation with the behaviour in question. Our own attitude
extremely reflects the behaviour we may portray in certain situations. Thus, human being
behaviour is greatly affected by the attitudes we utilize on a regular basis.

A study on human behaviour has revealed that 90 per cent of the population can be classified
into four basic personality types. Behaviour encompasses both verbal and non-verbal
communication. Human behaviour falls into five (5) types. There are the familiar four, passive,
aggressive, assertive and passive-aggressive.

(a) Passive behaviour: The passive behaviour is basically becoming a doormat. Usually, they
can’t say no, they don’t make accurate decisions to manage themself because they fear being
rejected or failing others, yet this exact style leads to these end results, thus confirming their
irrational beliefs to begin with. The passive style sets them self-up to fail and when he/she do
fail, they have confirmed all these irrational beliefs within the process to themself.

However, advantages of the passivity are that they do have a time and place. For example, if they
go out with friends to bar and a drunken person bumps into them, spilling their drink and theirs,
being heavily drunk, they blame you and are going to fight you. As a result, passivity in such a
situation to accept the person is drunk from their behaviour then apologizes and offers to buy
them another drink to avoid a physical confrontation (aggression). This is not weakness; it’s an
assertive method to avoid aggression by using the passive style with someone who is clearly not
in a state of mind to have an assertive discussion with. For the cost of a few amount (naira),
passivity avoided aggression. If the person intentionally, did it again looking for another drink,
then passivity may not be appropriate.

(b) Aggressive behaviour: The aggressive behaviour is all about control and dominance, yet it
stems due to fear. The person feels that they must control the situation, they must be right, they
must win. To do that, they use aggression to feel powerful and within control of themselves by

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feeling in control of everyone around them. The funniest part of the aggressive behaviour is that
those who primarily use this style feel helpless, fearful, abused and subjected to constant
unreasonable demands placed upon them.

Aggression has little advantage in life, though is a requirement at times. If you are being
physically attacked, then aggression is quantified if used assertively to only achieve the aim, i.e.
to repel an attacker. Police are a perfect example of assertively using aggression; as a situation
escalates, their behaviour escalates based on the situation.

(c) Alternating behaviour: Alternating behaviour is simply the combination of both above,
being passive and aggressive. This is different to the passive-aggressive behaviour style,
discussed below; instead a person primarily uses both the passive and aggressive behaviour and
alternate constantly between them. Like hot and cold moods, its one or the other. Alternating
behaviour can often be found in people with mood and personality disorders. They struggle to
regulate their behaviour to one type primarily, and instead they are either passive or aggressive.
For example, they can be pleasant one minute, aggressive the next, and alternate like that all day.

(d) Passive-aggressive behaviour: The passive-aggressive style is all about harbouring and
bottling their emotions. The person is usually full of anger, yet will mask it with a smile, then
when their back is turned, somehow find a way to insult you or create concern for you, without
directly being able to be identified and held accountable.

There are no advantages to being passive-aggressive. If the person wants to be rude in a non-
threatening manner, and if they believe that is acceptable, then sure, they found a negative
advantage which they believe is appropriate. We all do this at times in our life, but there are no
advantages to passive-aggressive behaviour.

(e) Assertive behaviour: Assertiveness is simply, none of the above. Assertiveness is not a
strategy to get their way. It is behaviour where all people’s desires are respected. Assertiveness is
deciding for them self, owning their decisions, and accepting this exact right that he/she have, so
does everyone else. Assertiveness allows them to acknowledge their own thoughts and wishes
honestly, without the expectation on what others will give into them. They respect their feelings
and opinions are just as valid as their feelings and opinions.

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Assertiveness includes expressing their preferences for the behaviour of others, however; that is
where it stops. They acknowledge that their responsible for their behaviour, and they then decide
whether to communicate further with that person or not, as that is their assertive right.

Assertiveness is the most difficult behaviour to learn of all behaviour types. People raised within
assertive environments will often be primarily assertive, though that is not always the case.
Assertiveness takes constant practice; it is a process of change over years of constant self-
evaluation. Assertiveness provides the optimal level of self-esteem, combined with the least
negative stress consumed.

NOTE THAT there in high need that pastors, teachers, missionaries, evangelists,
counsellors etc. should understanding human behaviour; because it is actually a topic so
broad that individuals should devote their own lives for the subject simply to still be mystified
through it once the grim reaper knocked on the door. And although fully understanding of human
behaviour is probably never to become fact, nothing should limit us all from learning much more
about what causes us to behave the way we carry out our style of life on daily bases.

People need to be treated with value and as men and women and they could not be treated such
as machines as exactly how scientific management use to handle them. By identifying them and
managing them with uniqueness the worth of the individual gets improved. By this we are able to
understand the way the concept of managing human beings through machines to human capitals
has got evolved. However, the reason many people fail to understand human behaviour properly
is that they appear at their behaviour without taking additional variables into consideration.

2. How to determine human behaviour

Behaviour is any activity which can be observed, recorded and measured. Individual behave with
in an environment, it is human nature to respond stimulus situation created by internal and
external environment. How to determine human behaviour can be express as listed below:

a Social rules and regulations: Human are social beings and obedient to social rules and
regulations. Social rules and regulation drives an individual in a particular way to behave the
way we do.

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b. Language and understanding: Human beings express their feelings and emotion and
conversation with each other through language. Interaction of individual and group helps them
convey their news and views.

c. Education and knowledge: Education is power which enables an individual to acknowledge

the difference between right and wrong. The value of practice in acquiring skill or knowledge is
a common feature of human behaviour. Education and knowledge are important modification of
human behaviour.

d. Adaptability: It is human nature to change in order to deal successfully with new situation.
Human beings always face changing environment. Adaptability with changing environment is a
common characteristic of human behaviour.

e. Capacity to learn knowledge: Only human being is capable enough to learn knowledge.
Human beings can increase their capacity by acquiring knowledge and experience. This is unique
characteristic of human beings.

f. Drive/Aim: Human beings behave with a view to accomplishing their common aim that drives
him to a particular direction. Drive or aim pursues goal directed behaviour.

g. Human being is great in behaviour and knowledge: Human being is great in their behaviour
and knowledge, capable enough to board their knowledge and experience.

3. Causes of Human Aggressive Behaviour

Aggressive behaviour can cause physical or emotional harm to others. It may range from verbal
abuse to physical abuse. It can also involve harming personal property. Human aggressive
behaviour violates social boundaries. It can lead to breakdowns in our relationships. It can be
obvious or secretive. Occasional aggressive outbursts are common and even normal in the right
circumstances. However, we should speak to our doctor if we experience aggressive behaviour
frequently or in patterns.

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It is important to understand the causes of people’s aggressive behaviour in church and in the
society which can help us address it adequately. What can shape peoples aggressive behaviour
includes the following:

 physical health
 mental health
 family structure
 relationships with others
 work or school environment
 societal or socioeconomic factors
 individual traits
 life experiences

As an adult, one might act aggressively in response to negative experiences. For example, you
might get aggressive when you feel frustrated. Your aggressive behaviour may also be linked to
depression, anxiety, or other mental health conditions.

(b) Health Causes of Aggressive Behaviour

Many mental health conditions can contribute to aggressive behaviour. For example, these
conditions include:

 autism spectrum disorder

 attention deficit hyperactivity disorder
 bipolar disorder
 schizophrenia
 conduct disorder
 intermittent explosive disorder
 post-traumatic stress disorder

Brain damage can also limit your ability to control aggression. You may experience brain
damage as the result of:

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  stroke
 head injury
 certain infections
 certain illnesses

Different health conditions contribute to aggression in different ways. For example, if you have
autism or bipolar disorder, you might act aggressively when you feel frustrated or unable to
speak about your feelings. If you have conduct disorder, you will act aggressively on purpose.

(c) Causes of Aggressive in Children

Aggression in children can be caused by several factors. These can include:

 poor relationship skills

 underlying health conditions
 stress or frustration

The child might imitate aggressive or violent behaviour that they see in their daily life either
from their parents. They may receive attention for it from family members, teachers, or peers.
Sometimes, children lash out due to fear or suspicion. This is more common if the child has
paranoia, or other forms of psychoses. If they have bipolar disorder, they might act aggressively
during the manic phase of their condition. If they have depression, they might act aggressively
when they feel irritated.

The child might also act aggressively when they have trouble coping with their emotions. They
might find it hard to deal with frustration. This is common in children who have cognitive
impairments. If they become frustrated, they may be unable to fix or describe the situation
causing their frustration. This can lead them to act out. Children with other disruptive disorders
may show a lack of attention or understanding. They may also appear impulsive. In some cases,
these behaviours may be considered aggressive. This is especially true in situations when their
behaviours are socially unacceptable.

(d) Causes of Aggressive in Teens/Adolescent

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Aggressive behaviour in teenagers or adolescents is common. For example, many them act
rudely or get into arguments sometimes. However, they might have a problem with aggressive
behaviour if they regularly:

 yell during arguments

 get into fights
 bully others

In some cases, they may act aggressively in response to:

 stress
 peer pressure
 substance abuse
 unhealthy relationships with family members or others

Puberty can also be a stressful time for many teens. If they don’t understand or know how to
cope with changes during puberty, they may act aggressively. If they have a mental health
condition, it can also contribute to aggressive behaviour.

(O) SOCIAL ISSUES INFLUENCING HUMAN BEHAVIOURAL PROBLEMS

A social issue is a problem that influences a considerable number of the individuals within a
society. It is often the consequence of factors extending beyond an individual's social issue is the
source of a conflicting opinion on the grounds of what is perceived as a morally just personal life
or societal order. Social issues are distinguished from economic issues; however, some issues
have both social and economic aspects. There are also issues that don't fall into either category,
such as warfare. There can be disagreements about what social issues are worth solving, or
which should take precedence. Different individuals and different societies have different
perceptions.

There are a variety of methods people use to combat social issues. For example, some people
vote for leaders in a democracy to advance their ideals. Outside the political process, people
donate or share their time, money, energy, or other resources. This often takes the form of

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volunteering. Non-profit organizations are often formed for the sole purpose of solving a social
issue. Community organizing involves gathering people together for a common purpose.

A distinct but related meaning of the term "social issue" (used particularly in the Nigeria) refers
to topics of national political interest, over which the public is deeply divided and which are the
subject of intense partisan advocacy, debate, and voting.

(a) Personal issues

Personal issues are those that individuals deal with themselves and within a small range of their
peers and relationships. On the other hand, social issues involve values cherished by widespread
society. For example, a high unemployment rate that affects millions of people in Nigeria is a
social issue. The line between a personal issue and a public issue may be subjective and depends
on how groups are defined. However, when a large enough sector of society is affected by an
issue, it becomes a social issue. Returning to the unemployment issue, while one person losing
their job is a personal and not a social issue, firing 13 million people is likely to generate a
variety of social issues.

(b) Valence issues versus position issues

A valence issue is a social problem that people uniformly interpret the same way. These types of
issues generally generate a widespread consensus and provoke little resistance from the public.
An example of a valence issue would be child abuse, which is condemned across several
societies to a large enough degree that some social scientists might speak of them as though they
are universal, for the sake of illustration.

By contrast, a position issue is a social problem in which the popular opinion among society is
divided. Different people may hold different and strongly-held views, which are not easily
changed. An example of a position issue is abortion, which has not generated a widespread
consensus from the public, in some countries.

(c) Economic issues

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In most countries (including the developed countries) many people are poor and depend on their
little income and welfare. Economic issues in Nigeria in terms of unemployment rates vary by
region, gender, educational attainment, and ethnic group.

(d) Social Class

The so called "problem of social class” exist in Nigeria and in many other African countries.
These low class tend to have a high drop-out rate from secondary school, and children growing
up in these social class have a high opportunities of going to college compared to children who
grow up in other low class. Abuse of alcohol and drugs is common in these social classes. Often,
these social classes were founded out of best intentions.

(e) Public health

Widespread health conditions (often characterized as epidemics or pandemics) are of concern to

society as a whole. They can harm quality of life and the ability of people to contribute to society
and to work, and most problematically result in death. Infectious diseases are often public health
concerns because they can spread quickly and easily, affecting large numbers of members. The
World Health Organization has an acute interest in combatting infectious disease outbreaks by
minimizing their geographic and numerical spread and treating the affected. Other conditions for
which there is not yet a cure or even effective treatment can be viewed as public health concerns
in the long run.

(f) Age and the life course

Throughout the life course, there are social problems associated with different ages. One such
social problem is age discrimination. An example of age discrimination is when a particular
person is not allowed to do something or is treated differently based on age.

(g) Social inequality

Social inequality is "the state or quality of being unequal to other persons in the society.
Inequality is the root of a number of social problems that occur when things such as gender,
disability, race, and age may affect the way a person is treated. The example of inequality as a

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social problem is the indigenous en-slavery and mistreated, and did not share the national cake
with others. A number of civil rights movements have attempted to, and often succeeded at,
advancing equality and extending rights to previously marginalized groups. These include the
women's rights movement in Nigeria for many years now.

(h) Education and public schools

Education is arguably the most important factor in a person's success in society. As a result,
social problems can be raised by the unequal distribution of funding between public schools,
such as between the rich and the poor in Nigeria. The weak organizational policy in the place and
the lack of communication between public schools and the federal government has begun to have
major effects on the future generation. Public schools that do not receive high standard are not
being funded sufficiently to actually reach the maximum level of education their students should
be receiving.

1. The development plans in changing human behaviour

1. The pre-contemplation: In this stage, we have either literally never thought about needing to
change a particular behaviour or we've never thought about it seriously. Often we receive ideas
about things we might need to change from others, family, friends, but react negatively by
reflexion. After all, we're usually quite happy with our current stable of habits (if we weren't, we
wouldn't have them in the first place). However, if we can find our way to react more openly to
these messages, we might find some value in them. Remember, they aren't sent with the intent to
harm.

2. Contemplation. Here we have begun to actively think about the need to change human
behaviour, to fully wrap our minds around the idea. This stage can last anywhere from a moment
to an entire lifetime. What exactly causes us to move from this stage to the next is always in our
view, the change of an idea into a deeply held belief, as we discussed in an earlier post. What we
think will produce this change isn't often what does. This is the stage in which obstacles to
change tend to rear their ugly heads. If a person gets stuck here, as many often do, they will seek
another way to think about the value of the change they are contemplating.

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3. Determination. In this stage, we begin to prepare the person mentally and often physically for
action. For example, the smoker may throw out all her cigarettes. This mustering of a
determination is the culmination of the decision to change and fuels the engine that drives the
person to adequate goals. We firmly believe that human beings possess the ability to manifest an
unlimited amount of determination when properly motivated by a deeply held belief.

4. Action. This is when we start and take action in life. It is the stage when one wake up and take
a power walk to go for games or stop smoking. Here, the wisdom in the form of behaviour is
finally manifesting.

5. Maintenance. This is continuing abstinence from smoking to get to the gym every day and to
control the intake of calories. At this stage, initiating a new behaviour usually seems like the
hardest part of the process of change, people often fail to adequately prepare for the final phase
of maintenance. Yet without a doubt, maintaining a new behaviour is the most challenging part
of any behaviour change. One of the reasons we so often fail at maintenance stage is because
people mistakenly believe that the strategies they used to initiate the change will be equally
effective in helping us continuously to the change; but they won't.

Where changing a strongly entrenched habit requires changing our belief about that habit that
penetrates deeply into our lives, continually manifesting that wisdom requires that we maintain a
high life-condition. If our mood is low, the wisdom to behave differently seems to disappear and
we go back to eating more and exercising less. In a high life-condition, however, that changed
belief will continue to manifest as action. When you're feeling good, getting yourself to exercise,
for example, is easier because the belief that you should exercise remains powerfully stirred up
and therefore motivating.

2. Skills in solving human social problems

In recent centuries humanity has made great strides in overcoming the obstacles of nature. We
can house and feed and clothe ourselves better than ever. We can communicate almost instantly
and travel halfway around the world in a day. We have made progress against many diseases and
maladies that do much to increase our lifespan and comfort. Nevertheless, we still have war,
oppression, hatred, bigotry, crime, overpopulation, poverty, and unnecessary destruction of the

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environment. These are not problems that can be solved by technology alone, since they require
improving human behaviour. Many of us have felt the frustration that humanity, despite all its
enormous advances, cannot do better at solving social problems. We are held back by our
inability to cooperate. Far too much of our effort and resources are wasted in conflict, and the
conflict hurts even those who are not part of the fight.

There is a factor that is crucial to turning humanity around. It is caring about truth. To the extent
that the people of the world have a greater respect for, love for, and understanding of truth, we
can make progress toward solving the world's problems. If we love truth, we will constantly
strive to avoid beliefs that are false. We will learn why people believe things that are false so we
can avoid making these mistakes ourselves. We will point out these principles to our friends and
neighbours and co-workers and offspring, and teach these principles in our churches and schools.
As people get better at avoiding false beliefs, conflicts between well-meaning people will be
reduced and leaders will have to work for the public good if they wish to stay in power.

We must educate ourselves and others on how to avoid believing things that aren't true. The
politicians can raise all the money they want for advertising, but if we are properly educated we
will ignore their ads and phony images, realizing that they are irrelevant. The media can
sensationalize or otherwise distort the news but they will lose our business if we learn to use only
those sources that are most accurate and impartial. Businesses can try to sell us things we don't
need, but we won't buy them if we recognize their marketing ploys. Cult leaders, phony psychics,
and con artists will be unable to enrich themselves at our expense. Eventually the successful
businesses and media and politicians and spiritual leaders will be the ones that are serving the
people's needs - not because they have become self-sacrificing and public spirited, but because
they will fail if they don't.

The virtue of an effort to reduce false beliefs is that it does not require anybody to sacrifice
themselves for the benefit of the rest of us. People who improve their ability to recognize
falsehoods should find themselves better off than they were before. We are only asking people to
do what is in their own best interest. The only people who would oppose such an effort are those
who profit by deception. Such people will no doubt exert their influence, but they are in the sorry
position of trying to support the idea that people should believe false things.

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While there are many sources of power in our churches and society, the only one that can be
expected to consistently act in the public interest is the public itself. If we, the people, do not
understand what is in our own best interests because we delude ourselves or are deluded by
others, there is little hope that our problems will be solved. We must engage in a serious effort to
promote responsible thinking in ourselves and others if we really want the world to be a better
place.

(3) The development plans to handle aggressive behaviour

To work through aggressive behaviour, you need to identify its underlying causes. It may help to
talk to someone about experiences that make him/her feel aggressive. In some cases, one can
learn how to avoid frustrating situations by making changes to their lifestyle or career. We can
also develop strategies for coping with frustrating situations. For example, we can learn how to
communicate more openly and honestly, without becoming aggressive.

We could refer the person to the doctor who may recommend psychotherapy to help treat
aggressive behaviour. In some cases, the doctor may prescribe medications to treat their
aggressive behaviour. For example, cognitive behavioural therapy can help the person learn how
to control their behaviour. It can help them develop coping mechanisms and also to understand
the consequences of their actions. Talk therapy is another option which could help them
understand the causes of their aggression and for them to work through their negative feelings.

4. Human Transformation Development

Human transformation means various things to many different people. In our case we are talking
about the kind of transformation that allows one to ultimately transcend the state of mere mortal
and become something more than a human being. This is a long process and does not usually
happen quickly. The good news is that once transformation has been achieved and the change is
integrated into one's life, it remains. Human transformation is the goal of our work. The
hallmarks of transformation are change and growth. It is quite simply the process of evolution of
the physical into the spiritual. Mind is the complex domain associative force that reconciles
these two seemingly opposite realities. The greatest challenge life has to offer is to become true

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to one's inner self. The best things in life come from this inner space, but it's not always easy to
find.

One definition of Social transformation is the process by which an individual alters the socially
ascribed social status of their parents into a socially achieved status for themselves. However,
another definition refers to large scale social change as in cultural reforms or transformations. In
organizational context, it is a process of profound and radical change that orients an organization
in a new direction and takes it to an entirely different level of effectiveness. Unlike 'turnaround'
(which implies incremental progress on the same plane) transformation implies a basic change of
character and little or no resemblance with the past configuration or structure.

Transcending human becoming more than human progressing from imperfect evolutionary
creature into a perfected existential reality changes from one state into another, from one manner
of being and doing into a new manner of being and doing ascending to a higher level of order.
For example, most of us have something that we would change if we could. A better job, new
house, improved relationship and these desires will continue until we actualize our full potential.
Sometimes we are not who we claim ourselves to be and therefore must put up fronts, guard
against exposure, and cover up our shortcomings, unwholesome-ness, and failures.

The tension that is created by this polarity results in fear, anxiety, paranoia, and loss of direction,
all of which can further lead to bad health, lack of success, and dissatisfaction with life. Feelings
of love, peace, connectedness, universal security, and overwhelming ecstasy are not easy to
come by when the focus of attention is on the outer world. Although many techniques have been
developed to treat the symptoms caused by the difference between our manifested and un-
manifested selves, nothing short of true harmonic transformation can have a lasting effect. The
four types of transformations which you will encounter during this topic are:

 Rotation
 Reflection
 Translation
 Enlargement/Re-sizing

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(P) HUMAN INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES AND DEVELOPMENT

Individual differences are a cornerstone subject area in modern psychology. It refers the
psychological differences between people and their similarities. People vary on a range of
psychological attributes. People vary in personality and social behaviour. It is generally accepted
that some of this variation is due to differences in genes and some to environment. Individual
difference in psychology examines how people are similar and how they differ in their thinking,
feeling and behaviour. Due to individual differences, no two people are alike, yet no two people
are unlike. So, in the study of individual differences will strive to understand ways in which
people are psychologically similar and particularly what psychological characteristics vary
between people.

Dissimilarity is principle of nature. All the individuals differ from each other in many respects.
Children born of the same parents and even the twins are not alike, but each individual is distinct
and unique. This differential psychology is linked with the study of individual differences. This
change is seen in physical forms like in height, weight, in colour and complexion strength,
difference in intelligence, achievement, interest, attitude, aptitude, learning habits, motor abilities
and skill.

However, every person has the emotions of love, anger, fear and feelings of pleasure and pain.
Every man has the need of independence, success and need for acceptance. It is these differences
between individuals that separate them from one another and make one as a unique individual in
oneself. However, the Pastors, Evangelists, Missionaries, Teachers, Counsellors etc. should keep
in mind these differences while dealing, preaching, counselling and imparting knowledge into
their church members, students and clients.

(a) Causes of individual differences

The following are the various causes responsible for human individual differences.

i. Heredity: One of the most significant and chief causes of individual differences is heredity.
Individuals inherit various physical traits like face with its features, colour of eyes and hair, type
of skin, shape of skull and size of hands, colour blindness, baldness, stub-finger and tendency to

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certain diseases like cancer and tuberculosis, mental traits like intelligence, abstract thinking,
aptitudes and prejudices. Now it is an admitted fact that heredity differences result in the quantity
and rate of physical as well as mental development being different and different individuals.

By heredity is meant the influence of factors inherent in the child himself from the time he is
conceived. Research has shown that heredity proceeds according to certain laws. Heredity
influences are intrinsic or innate. Individual differences in mental and physical traits are due to
heredity and to environmental factors. Heredity as a cause of individual differences may be due
either to remote or immediate ancestry.

ii. Environment: Environment brings individual differences in behaviour, activities, attitude and
style of life characteristics. Environment does not refer only to physical surroundings, but also it
refers to the different types of people, society, their culture, customs, traditions, social heritage,
ideas and ideals.

Environment significantly influences individual differences. Changes in child’s environment are

reflected in the changes in his/her personality. Psychologically speaking, a person’s environment
consists of sum total of stimulation which he receives from conception until his death.
Environment consists of physical, intellectual, social, moral, political, economic and cultural
forces. All these forces cause individual differences. Modern psychologists believe that
individual differences are caused by both heredity and environment.

iii. Influence of caste, Race and Nationality: Race and nationality is one cause of individual
difference. Indians are very peace loving, Chinese are cruel; Americans are very frank due to
race and nationality.

Individuals of different castes and races exhibit very marked differences. Similarly, individuals
of different nations show differences in respect of their personality, character and mental
abilities. These are the outcome of their geographical, social and cultural environment. Many
studies have shown the existence of differences between Americans and Negroes, Chineese and
Japaneese, English and Indian individuals.

a. Differences due to nationality:

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Individuals of different nations differ in respect of physical and mental differences, interests and
personality etc. ‘Russians are tall and stout’; ‘Ceylonese are short and slim’; ‘Germans have no
sense of humour’; ‘Yellow races are cruel and revengeful’; ‘Americans are hearty and frank’;
Indians are timid and peace-loving’ and the like observations enter into our common talk.

In America the question of racial superiority has usually narrowed down to the rivalry between
the white race and the Negro race. That the white race is much superior to the Negro race cannot
be considered absolutely final. Such conclusion must be tempered by a consideration of the
superior intellectual opportunities available to the white Americans. Differences in mentality,
reflecting influence of country and city life, is shown by the study of Negro mentality in relation
to time lived in the city. This study suggests that the superiority of city children over rural
children is a direct consequence of better cultural opportunities. In causing differences in
physical traits this factor is prominent.

iv. Sex differences: Due to sex variation one individual differs from other. Men are strong in
mental power. On the other hand women on the average show small superiority over men in
memory, language and aesthetic sense. Women excel the men in shouldering social
responsibilities and have a better control over their emotions.

Development of boys and girls exhibits differences due to difference in sex. The physical
development of the girl takes place a year or two earlier than the boys. Between the age of 11
and 14, girls are taller and heavier than the boys. After 15, boys start winning the race. Girls are
kind, affectionate, sympathetic and tender while the boys are brave, hard, choleric, efficient and
competent.

Investigations also show an apparent superiority of girls in language and a somewhat better
showing of boys in logical processes. In interests, which cannot be definitely measured, the
difference is seem to be that women are more interested in people while men are more interested
in things.

Difference in instinctive equipment is shown by the fact that women excel in the nursing
impulses and men in the fighting impulses. As to physical equipment, men are much taller,

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stronger, and bigger than women. However, girls grow more rapidly than boys, especially before
adolescence. The girls reach physiological maturity earlier.

v. Age and intelligence: Age is another factor which is responsible in bringing individual
differences. Learning ability and adjustment capacity naturally grow with age. When one grows
in age, it can acquire better control over their emotions and in better social responsibilities. When
a child grows then this maturity and development goes side by side.

Physical, intellectual and emotional development is caused by the growth in age. Many
individuals differ because of the differences in intelligence. Individuals who are below the
average in intelligence and mental age find much difficulty in learning and the average
intelligent persons can learn quickly.

vi. Economic condition and Education: Individual differences are caused by economic
condition of the parents and the education of the children. It is not possible for the children of
two economic classes to have a similarity and equality.

Education is one major factor which brings individual differences. There is a wide gap in the
behaviours of educated and uneducated persons. All traits of human beings like social, emotional
and intellectual are controlled and modifies through proper education. This education brings a
change in our attitude, behaviour, appreciations and in personality. It is seen that uneducated
persons are guided by their instinct and emotions, whereas the educated persons are guided by
their reasoning power.

vii. Social status: A considerable body of evidence is available to show that children belonging
to the so-called higher social classes are superior in intelligence to those of the lower classes.
Parents found in high occupational levels usually provide good physical and intellectual
environments, which favour the speedy cultural development of their children.

Higher intelligence likewise exists in those states which rank high in their economic condition.
There exists a close relationship between occupational socio-economic condition and the general
level of intelligence.

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viii. Maturity: Differences in maturity of individuals have always been observed. The pupils in
any higher class always present a considerable range of maturity. The maturity of pupils varies
along three lines of development, namely: chronological, anatomical, and organic. The
chronological aspect of maturity is that which is presented by differences in mental development
considered in terms of actual number of years. Anatomical growth is shown by different degrees
of development of the bones of the skeleton.

Studies made in this line have revealed differences from two to three years in the anatomical
development of the vital organs of circulation and of reproduction. The organs most affected are
the organs of the circulatory system and those of reproduction.

ix. Temperament and emotional stability:

Some people are by temperament active and quick, while others are passive and slow, some
humorous and others short tempered. Emotional stability of the individual is differently affected
by physical, mental and environmental factors. Differences in emotional stability cause
individual differences.

(c) Areas of individual differences

1. Physical differences: Shortness or tallness of stature, darkness or fairness of complexion,

fatness, thinness and weakness are the various physical that determines individual differences.

2. Differences in intelligence: There are differences in intelligence level among different

individuals. We can classify the individuals from super-normal on the basis of their intelligence
level.

3. Differences in attitudes: Individuals differ in their attitudes towards different people, objects,
institutions and authority.

4. Differences in achievement: It has been found through achievement tests that individuals
differ in their achievement abilities. These differences are very much visible in reading, writing,
acquiring wealth and owning properties. These differences in achievement are even visible
among the children who are at the same level of intelligence. These differences are on account of

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the differences in the various factors of intelligence and the differences in the various
experiences, interests and educational background.

5. Differences in motor ability: There are differences in motor ability. These differences are
visible at different ages. Some people can perform mechanical tasks easily, while others, even
though they are at the same level, feel much difficulty in performing these tasks.

6. Differences on account of sex: The following differences between men and women are
discovered on the basis of sex account.

(i) Women have greater skill in memory while men have greater motor ability.

(ii) Handwriting of women is superior while men excel in mathematics and logic.

(iii) Women show greater skill in making sensory distinctions of taste, touch and smell etc.,
while men show greater reaction and conscious of size and on weight illusion.

(iv) Women are superior to men in languages, while men are superior in physics and chemistry.

(v) Women are better than men in mirror drawing, but faults of speech etc. in men were found to
be three times of such faults in women.

(vi) Women are more susceptible to suggestion while there are three times as many colour blind
men as there are women.

(vii) Young girls take interest in stories of love, fairy tales, stories of the school and home and
day-dreaming and show various levels in their play. On the other hand boys take interest in
stories of bravery, science, war, scouting, stories of games and sports, stories and games of
occupation and skill.

7. Racial differences: There are different kinds of racial differences. Differences of environment
are a normal factor in causing these differences. For example, there may be differences in levels
of intelligence among people who have migrated to United States from other countries than those
in under developed and developing countries. On the basis of these average differences between

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the races, the mental age of a particular individual cannot be calculated since this difference is
based on environment.

8. Differences in interests: Factors such as sex, family background level of development,

differences of race and nationality etc., cause differences in interests.

9. Emotional differences: Individuals differ in their emotional reactions to a particular situation.

Some are irritable and aggressive and they get angry very quickly. There are others who are of
peaceful nature and do not get angry easily. At a particular thing an individual may be so much
enraged that he may be prepared for the worst crime like murder, while another person may only
laugh at it.

10. Personality differences: There are differences in respect of personality. On the basis of
differences in personality, individuals have been classified into many groups. It is an admitted
fact that some people are honest, others are dishonest, some are aggressive, others are humble,
some are social, others like to be alone, some are critical and others are sympathetic. Thus, we
see that the differences in personality are dependent on personality traits.

(Q) HUMAN LANGUAGE GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT

Language development is a process starting early in human life. Infants start without knowing a
language, yet by 10 months, babies can distinguish speech sounds and engage in babbling. ...
Typically, children develop receptive language abilities before their verbal or expressive
language develops. Language development is the process by which children come to understand
and communicate language during early childhood. Studies show that syntax is learned as young
children are exposed to speech with proper, complex sentence structure. Before babies say their
first word, they have made a lot of progress towards understanding language and speech. A
young child listens and attempts to imitate the sounds it hears. In turn, we respond to and
reinforce these attempts at speech. A young child does not develop this ability all at one time.
Instead, the process consists of a series of developmental stages.

From birth up to the age of five, children develop language at a very rapid pace. The stages of
language development are universal among humans. However, the age and the pace at which a

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child reaches each milestone of language development vary greatly among children. Thus,
language development in an individual child must be compared with norms rather than with
other individual children. In general girls develop language at a faster rate than boys. More than
any other aspect of development, language development reflects the growth and maturation of
the brain. After the age of five it becomes much more difficult for most children to learn
language.

Pre-linguistic language development is when a child is learning to control the sounds he can
produce and to string these sounds together in vocal play. In this stage, the child is not yet able to
manipulate these sounds into proper words. These are vocalizations that the baby makes when
it's happy or content and can be made up of vowel or consonant sounds. During vocal play, the
baby begins to string together longer vowel or consonant sounds. Finally, babbling occurs
around the ages of 6-13 months. At this time, the child begins to produce a series of consonant-
vowel syllables and may develop utterances, such as ma-ma and da-da. The below are language
development stages of a person:

a. Infancy age

Language development begins before birth. Towards the end of pregnancy, a fetus begins to hear
sounds and speech coming from outside the mother's body. Infants are acutely attuned to the
human voice and prefer it to other sounds. In particular they prefer the higher pitch characteristic
of female voices. They also are very attentive to the human face, especially when the face is
talking. Although crying is a child's primary means of communication at birth, language
immediately begins to develop via repetition and imitation. Between birth and three months of
age, most infants acquire the following abilities:

 seem to recognize their mother's voice

 quiet down or smile when spoken to
 turn toward familiar voices and sounds
 make sounds indicating pleasure
 cry differently to express different needs
 grunt, chuckle, whimper, and gurgle

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  begin to coo (repeating the same sounds frequently) in response to voices
 make vowel-like sounds such as "ooh" and "ah"

Between three and six months, most infants can do the following:

 turn their head toward a speaker

 watch a speaker's mouth movements
 respond to changes in a tone of voice
 make louder sounds including screeches
 vocalize excitement, pleasure, and displeasure
 cry differently out of paid or hunger
 laugh, squeal, and sigh
 shape their mouths to change sounds
 vocalize different sounds for different needs
 communicate desires with gestures
 mimic sounds, inflections, and gestures
 make many new sounds, including "p," "b," and "m," that may sound almost speech-like

The sounds and babblings of this stage of language development are identical in babies
throughout the world, even among those who are profoundly deaf. Thus all babies are born with
the capacity to learn any language. Social interaction determines which language they eventually
learn. Between nine and 12 months babies may begin to do the following:

 listen when spoken to

 recognize words for common objects and names of family members
 respond to simple requests
 understand "no"
 understand gestures
 associate voices and names with people
 know their own names
 use sounds other than crying to get attention

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  use "mama" and "dada" for any person
 shout and scream
 repeat sounds
 use most consonant and vowel sounds
 practice inflections
 engage in much vocal play

b. Toddlerhood

During the second year of life language development proceeds of a toddlerhood, there are many
different rates in different children. By the age of 12 months, most children use "mama/dada"
appropriately. They add new words each month and temporarily lose words. Between 12 and 15
months children begin to do the following:

 recognize names
 understand and follow one-step directions
 laugh appropriately
 use four to six intelligible words, although less than 20 percent of their language is
comprehensible to outsiders
 use partial words
 ask for help with gestures and sounds

At 18 to 24 months of age toddlers come to understand that there are words for everything and
their language development gains momentum. About 50 of a child's first words are universal:
names of foods, animals, family members, toys, vehicles, and clothing. Usually children first
learn general nouns, such as "flower" instead of "dandelion," and they may overgeneralize
words, such as calling all toys "balls." Some children learn words for social situations, greetings,
and expressions of love more readily than others. At this age children usually have 20 to 50
intelligible words. Children constantly produce sentences that they have not heard before,
creating rather than imitating. This creativity is based on the general principles and rules of
language that they have mastered. By the time a child is three years of age, most of a child's

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speech can be understood. Language skills usually blossom between four and five years of age.
However, like adults, children vary greatly in how much they choose to talk.

c. Preschool

Three to four-year-olds usually can do the following:

 understand most of what they hear

 converse
 have 900 to 1,000-word vocabularies, with verbs starting to predominate
 usually talk without repeating syllables or words
 use pronouns correctly
 use three to six-word sentences
 ask questions
 relate experiences and activities
 tell stories is normal in preschoolers.

d. School age

Six-year-olds usually can correct their own grammar and mispronunciations. Most children
double their vocabularies between six and eight years of age and begin reading at about age
seven. A major leap in reading comprehension occurs at about nine. Ten-year-olds begin to
understand figurative word meanings. At age five most children can do the following:

 follow three consecutive commands

 talk constantly
 ask innumerable questions
 use descriptive words and compound and complex sentences
 know all the vowels and consonants
 use generally correct grammar

Adolescents generally speak in an adult manner, gaining language maturity throughout high
school.

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Language delay is the most common developmental delay in children. There are many causes for
language delay, both environmental and physical. About 60 percent of language delays in
children under age three resolve spontaneously. Early intervention often helps other children to
catch up to their age group. Language delay can result from a variety of physical disorders.

b. Developmental Plans on Children

Language development is enriched by verbal interactions with other children and adults. Parents
and care-givers can have a significant impact on early language development. Studies have
shown that children of talkative parents have twice the vocabulary as those of quiet parents. In
addition, language-based interactions appear to increase a child's capacity to learn.
Recommendations as development plan for encouraging language development in children
include:

 talking to them as much as possible and giving them opportunities to respond, perhaps
with a smile; short periods of silence help teach the give-and-take of conversation
 talking to infants in a singsong, high-pitched speech, called "parentese" or "motherese"
(This is a universal method for enhancing language development.)
 using proper words rather than baby words
 avoiding pronouns and articles

 talk to the child in simple sentences and ask questions

 expand on the toddler's single words
 use gestures that reinforce words
 put words to the child's gestures
 name colors
 count items
 gently repeat correctly any words that the child has mispronounced, rather than criticizing
the child
 talk about what the child and parent are doing each day

 ask the child yes-or-no questions and questions that require a simple choice

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  read books about familiar things, with pictures, rhymes, repetitive lines, and few words
 read favorite books repeatedly, allowing the child to join in with familiar words

 pause after speaking to give the child a chance to respond

 acknowledge, encourage, and praise speech
 introduce new words
 give their full attention when the child initiates a conversation

 talking at eye level with a child and supplementing words with body language, gestures,
and facial expressions to enhance language comprehension
 talking in ways that catch a child's attention
 using language to comfort a child
 providing objects and experiences to talk about
 choosing activities that promote language
 listening carefully to children and responding in ways that let them know that they have
been understood, as well as encouraging further communication
 using complete sentences and adding detail to expand on what a child has said
 reading to a child by six months of age at the latest
 encouraging children to ask questions and seek new information
 encouraging children to listen to and ask questions of each other

(R) BIBLICAL CONCEPTS OF TRANSFORMATIONAL DEVELOPMENT AS THE

AVENUES FOR WITHNES-BEARING

We approach the Bible with the agenda of Transformational Development. Everyone who draws
on the Bible does it with an agenda. We are seeking from the Bible knowledge resources to
address the causes of poverty, the approaches to poverty alleviation that come out of biblical
view of creation, persons and communities, the place and challenge of children, the relationship
between spirituality, faith and development engagement and biblically appropriate relationships
and Partnerships in development action.

As Christians our primary resource for the context of transformation is the Bible. Transformation
has to do with moral goods, values and virtues and where cultures have significant differences in

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the priority and values of moral goods. Some cultures may place a much higher value on family,
clan and community than the individual, on submission and obedience to traditional authority
than individual freedom. Biblical teaching looks forward to a new heaven and a new earth (Isaiah
65). It describes the components of this transformed creation reconciled and restored to God’s
purposes for it. The Bible also pictures transformation as from one degree to another (2
Corinthians 13: 18) till completeness is reached.

As Christians we draw on biblical knowledge for shaping our understanding of transformational

development. Development understanding and action in general, draws on different sources of
knowledge. Development understanding has included making the benefits of scientific advances
and industrial progress of the west available to the undeveloped areas of the world, but now
centres on human persons and the institutions that shape them and which they use. Human
wellbeing, capability, livelihood, security, freedom and choice are all at the heart of development
understanding. Development understanding is moral knowledge and profoundly ethical. It is
about moral goods, about actions and outcomes with moral worth and ethical integrity. It deals
with what is true and what is not, and what is good and what is not.

As Christians we recognize the Bible as the source of authoritative knowledge, which is both
historical and transcendent. Its origins are in the transcendent God who loves his creation and
expresses his love in revealing himself, his plans and will in history particularly in the history of
a people. God speaks in and through the Bible. We trust it to do so and we recognize it as very
different from other sources of knowledge we employ in our development engagement. The bible
requires interpretation. As a human document covering a long period of history diverse people
and events it is not self-evident and self-interpreting. However, the church over the years has
maintained that the Bible as God’s word is accessible to all people. It’s basic meaning can be
understood by any Christian believer who approaches it in humility, seeking illumination from
the Holy Spirit and open to enrichment and correction from other Christians who believe and
practice the faith. The church has often resisted the Bible becoming the exclusive tool of
knowledge elites and people in power.

The peoples’ use of the Bible and religious material in general can become an unquestioning
acceptance of someone’s dogmatic teaching. The use of the Bible in development work must be

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to release it to the people and facilitate them to discover God’s truth for them and their
community. When released among people, particularly the poor, the Holy Spirit quickens human
capacity to recognize truth from falsehood by removing the veil and blindness that affects all
humans. The Holy Spirit encourages the desire to search from truth, to accept it and live by it.
Biblical knowledge leads to awakening and strengthening of moral agency and responsibility
instead of a moral intimidation where a religions truth must not be explored but only obeyed.

Human development is a field that draws on knowledge from different study disciplines seeking
to explain social reality, human behaviour, economic and political systems and religious belief
and practice. It is also a field where technology, techniques and management processes exert
powerful influence. Biblical knowledge and truth provide a framework of assessment and
direction that can lead development to transformation. We must attempt to recover the Biblical
vision of Transformation recognizing that Biblical teaching embraces the universal and the
particular that reinforce each other. The Gospel does not impose one narrative of transformation
but creates room for diverse testimonies to it, all originating from a common source of
enlightenment and empowerment by the working of the same Holy Spirit.

Transformation is a term that belongs to a moral category. Moral categories refer to

understandings and even definitions of the good and the non-good, the true and untrue, virtues
and qualities. Such terms need an appeal to an authoritative source to be legitimate and
foundational. As Christians we turn to the Bible as the authoritative source for all legitimate
moral and ethical knowledge. We recognize the Bible that is the common supreme authority for
all Christians is understood in context and through traditions.

We must note that Transformation describes outcome of a process of Development. Shaped by

the outcomes of transformation development may be termed as transformational development. It
is important to distinguish between Transformation and Development. Transformation has to do
with the outcomes of moral goods. Moral goods are God’s purposes for Creation and Humanity
like Freedom, Wholeness, Truth, etc. Transformation is the state where moral goods flourish and
sustain production of a quality of life that reflects God’s purposes for humanity and all creation.

(1) The Church Response to Human Needs

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Some of us belong to churches which are situated among marginalized peoples who live in
situations of poverty, powerlessness, and oppression. Others come from churches situated in
affluent areas of the world. We are deeply grateful to our heavenly Father for allowing us the
privilege of sharing our lives with one another, studying the Scriptures in small groups,
considering papers on aspects of human development and transformation, and looking closely at
the implications of case studies and histories which describe different responses to human need.
Because God hears the cries of the poor, we have sought each other’s help to respond (Exod. 3:7-
9; James 5:1-6). We rejoice at what we believe the Holy Spirit has been teaching us concerning
God’s specific purpose and plans for His distressed world and the part the church has to play in
them.

Conscious of our struggle to find a biblical view of transformation that relates its working in the
heart of believers to its multiplying effects in society, we pray that the Spirit will give us the
discernment we need. We believe that the wisdom the Spirit inspires is practical rather than
academic, and possession of the faithful rather than the preserve of the elite. Because we write as
part of a world full of conflict and a church easily torn by strife we desire that the convictions
expressed in this document be further refined by God’s pure and peaceful wisdom. Some may
find our words hard. We pray, however, that many will find them a help to their own thinking
and an encouragement to “continue steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the
Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labour is not in vain” (1 Cor. 15:58).

2. Church response on social involvement

1. As Christians reflect on God’s intention for the world they are often tempted to be either
naively optimistic or darkly pessimistic. Some inspired visions seem to suggest that God’s
kingdom, in all its fullness, can be built on earth. We do not subscribe to this view, since
Scripture informs us of the reality and pervasiveness of both personal and societal sin (Isa. 1:10-
26; Amos 2:6-8; Mic. 2:1-10; Rom. 1:28-32). Thus. we recognize that utopianism is nothing but
a false dream (see the CRESR Report, IV.A).

2. Other Christians become pessimistic because they are faced with the reality of increasing
poverty and misery, of rampant oppression and exploitation by powers of the right and the left,

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of spiralling violence coupled with the threat of nuclear warfare. They are concerned, too, about
the increasing possibility that planet earth will not be able to sustain its population for long
because of the wanton squandering of its resource. As a result, they are tempted to turn their eyes
away from this world and fix them so exclusively on the return of Christ that there involvement
in the here and now is paralyzed. We do not wish to disregard or minimize the extensive
contribution made by a succession of Christians who have held this view of eschatology, through
more than one hundred years, to medical and educational work in many countries up to the
present day (Ps. 82:3), and practice justice and love (Mic. 6:8).

3. We can affirm that even though we may believe that our calling is only to proclaim the Gospel
and not get involved in political and other actions; our very non-involvement lends tacit support
to the existing order. There is no escape: either we challenge the evil structures of society or we
support them.

4. There have been many occasions in the history of the church and some exist today where
Christians, faced with persecution and oppression, have appeared to be disengaged from society
and thus to support the status quo. We suggest, however, that even under conditions of the most
severe repression, such Christians may in fact be challenging society and even be transforming it,
through their lifestyles, their selfless love, their quiet joy, their inner peace, and their patient
suffering (1 Pet. 2:21-25).

5. Christ’s followers are called, in one way or another, not to conform to the values of society but
to transform them (Rom. 12:1-2; Eph. 5:8-14). This calling flows from their confession that God
loves the world and that the earth belongs to Him. It is true that Satan is active in the world, even
claiming it to be his (Luke 4:5-7). He is, however, by having no property rights here. All
authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Christ Jesus (Matt. 28:18; Col. 1:15-20).
Although His Lordship is not yet acknowledged by all (Heb. 2:8) He is the ruler of the kings of
the earth (Rev. 1:5), King of kings and Lord of lords (Rev. 19:16). In faith we confess that the
old order is passing away; the new order has already begun (2 Cor. 5:17; Eph 2:7-10; Matt.
12:18; Luke 7:21-23).

3. Culture and Transformation

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1. Culture includes world-views, beliefs, values, art forms, customs, laws, socioeconomic
structures, social relationships, and material things shared by a population over time in a specific
area or context.

2. Culture is God’s gift to human beings. God has made people everywhere in His image. As
Creator, He has made us creative. This creativity produces cultures. Furthermore, God has
commissioned us to be stewards of His creation (Ps. 8; Heb. 2:5-11). Since every good gift is
from above and since all wisdom and knowledge comes from Jesus Christ, whatever is good and
beautiful in cultures may be seen as a gift of God (James 1:16-18). Moreover, where the Gospel
has been heard and obeyed, cultures have become further ennobled and enriched.

3. However, people have sinned by rebelling against God. Therefore the cultures we produce are
infected with evil. Different aspects of our culture show plainly our separation from God. Social
structures and relationships, art forms and laws often reflect our violence, our sense of lostness,
and our loss of coherent moral values. Scripture challenges us not to be “conformed to this
world” (Rom. 12:2) insofar as it is alienated from its Creator. We need to be transformed so that
cultures may display again what is “good and acceptable and perfect” (Rom. 12:2).

4. Cultures, then, bear the marks of God’s common grace, demonic influences, and mechanisms
of human exploitation. In our cultural creativity, God and Satan clash. The Lord used Greek
culture to give us the New Testament, while at the same time He subjected that culture to the
judgment of the Gospel. We too should make thankful use of cultures and yet, at the same time,
examine them in the light of the Gospel to expose the evil in them (1 Cor. 9: 19-23).

5. Social structures that exploit and dehumanize constitute a pervasive sin which is not
confronted adequately by the church. Many churches, mission societies, and Christian relief and
development agencies support the socio-political status quo, and by silence give their tacit
support.

6. Through application of the Scriptures, in the power of the Spirit, we seek to discern the true
reality of all sociocultural situations. We need to learn critically from both functionalist and
conflict approaches to human culture. The “functionalist socio-anthropology” approach
emphasizes the harmonious aspect of different cultures and champions a tolerant attitude to the

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existing structures. This position is often adopted in the name of “scientific objectivity.” By
contrast, the “conflict” approach exposes the contradictory nature of social structures and makes
us aware of the underlying conflict of interests. We must remember that both approaches come
under the judgment of God.

7. Give the conflicting ethical tendencies in our nature, which find expression in our cultural
systems, we must be neither naively optimistic nor wrongly judgmental. We are called to be a
new community that seeks to work with God in the transformation of our societies, men and
women of God in society, salt of the earth and light of the world (Matt. 5:13-16). We seek to
bring people and their cultures under the Lordship of Christ. In spite of our failures, we move
toward that freedom and wholeness in a more just community that persons will enjoy when our
lord returns to consummate His Kingdom (Rev. 21:1-22:6).

4. Social Justice and Mercy

1. Our time together enabled us to see that poverty is not a necessary evil but often the result of
social, economic, political, and religious systems marked by injustice, exploitation, and
oppression. Approximately eight hundred million people in the world are destitute, and their
plight is often maintained by the rich and powerful. Evil is not only in the human heart but also
in social structures. Because God is just and merciful, hating evil and loving righteousness, there
is an urgent need for Christians in the present circumstances to commit ourselves to acting in
mercy and seeking justice. The mission of the church includes both the proclamations of the
Gospel and its demonstration. We must therefore evangelize, respond to immediate human
needs, and press for social transformation. The means we use, however, must be consistent with
the end we desire.

2. As we thought of the task before us, we considered Jesus’ attitude toward the power structures
of His time. He was neither a Zealot nor a passive spectator of the oppression of His people.
Rather, moved by compassion, He identified Himself with the poor, whom He saw as harassed
and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd (Matt 9:36). Though His act mercy, teaching, and
lifestyle, He exposed the injustices in society and condemned the self-righteousness of its leaders
(Matt. 23:25; Luke 6:37-42). His was prophetic compassion and it resulted in the formation of a

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community which accepted the values of the Kingdom of God and stood in contrast to the
Roman and Jewish establishment. We were challenged to follow Jesus’ footsteps, remembering
that His compassion led Him to death (John 13:12-17; Phil. 2:6-8; 1 John 3:11-18).

3. We are aware that a Christ like identification with the poor, whether at home or aboard, in the
North, South, East, or West, is always costly and may lead us also to persecution and even death.
Therefore, we humbly ask God to make us willing to risk our comfort, even our lives, for the
sake of the Gospel, knowing that “everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be
persecuted” (2 Tim. 3:12).

3. Sometimes in our ministry among the poor we face a serious dilemma: to limit ourselves to
acts of mercy to improve their lot, or to go beyond that and seek to rectify the injustice that
makes such acts of mercy necessary. This step in turn may put at risk the freedom we need to
continue our ministry. No rule of thumb can be given, but from a biblical perspective it is clear
that justice and mercy belong together (Isa 11:1-5; Ps. 113:5-9). We must therefore make every
possible effort to combine both in our ministry and be willing to suffer the consequences. We
must also remember that acts of mercy highlight the injustices of the social, economic, and
political structures and relationships; whether we like it or not, they may therefore lead us into
confrontation with those who hold power (Acts 4:5-22). For the same reason, we must stand
together with those who suffer for the sake of justice (Heb. 13:3).

4. Our ministry of justice and healing is not limited to fellow Christians. Our love and
commitment must extend to the stranger (Matt. 5:43-48). Our involvement with stangers is not
only through charity, but also through economic policies toward the poor. Our economic and
political action is inseparable from evangelism.

5. Injustice in the modern world has reached global proportions. Many or us come from countries
dominated by international business corporations and some from those whose political systems
are not accountable to the people. We witness to the damaging effects that these economic and
political institutions are having on people, especially on the poorest of the poor. We call on our
brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ to study seriously this situation and to seek ways to bring

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about change in favour of the oppressed. “The righteous cares about justice for the poor, but the
wicked have no such concern” (Prov. 29:7).

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