PSYC2010 Chapter 5: Child Development (Berk) Chapter 5
8 Feb 2017
School
Department
Course
Professor
Document Summary
Humans devote about 20% of their lifespan to growing. Birth height is 50% greater after one year of life. Birth weight doubles by 5 months, triples by 1 year, quadruples by 2 years. A distance curve plots the average size of a sample of children at each age, indicating typical yearly progress towards maturity. A velocity curve plots the average amount of growth at each yearly interval, revealing the exact timing of growth spurts. As the child"s overall size increases, parts of the body grow at different rates. Prior to birth is the cephalocaudal trend, in which the head grows faster than the rest of the body. After birth is the proximodistal trend, in which growth occurs from the centre of the body outward. Body fat increase peaks at 9 months of age, and then body fat begins to decrease at around 2 years. Boys gain far more muscle strength during puberty than girls.
