PSYC 2450 Lecture Notes - Pituitary Gland, Thyroid, Palmar Grasp Reflex
Document Summary
Chapter 6 - physical development: the brain, body, motor skills, and sexual. Grow very rapidly during first 2 years, doubling birth weight by 4 to 6 months and tripling it by the end of the first year. By age 2, toddlers are half of their eventual adult height and have quadrupled their birth weight. From age 2 until puberty, children gain about 5 to 8 cm in height and about 3 kg each year. Between ages 6 and 11, children seem to grow very little. Development proceeds in a cephalocaudal (head downward) direction. Children grow outward according to proximodistal (centre outward) direction. (organs and chest first, followed by arms, legs, hands, feet) Skeletal structures during prenatal period are soft cartilage that hardens into bony material. At birth, nearly all bones are a source of blood cells. Postnatal development production of blood cells limited to a few specific bones. At birth, the bones are soft, pliable and difficult to break.