Early Childhood: Biosocial Development

Body Changes

  • Growth Patterns

    • Children become slimmer as the lower body lengthens

    • Each year from age 2 thru 6, well-nourished children add almost 3 inches in height and gain about 4 ½ pounds in weight

    • Center of gravity moves from the breastbone down to the belly button

  • Nutrition

    • Obesity among children

      • Childhood obesity, defined as the heaviest 5% of children, correlates with many measures of adversity, including loneliness and depression

    • Preventing overweight

      • Early childhood is the best time to establish good nutrition, because eating habits tend to endure

    • Children need far fewer calories per pound of body weight than infants do

    • Obesity if a frequent problem than malnutrition

    • Children in low-income families are especially vulnerable to obesity

    • Overfeeding is causing an epidemic of illnesses associated with obesity, such as heart disease and diabetes

  • Oral Health

    • Too much sugar and too little fiber cause tooth decay, which affects more than one-third of all young US children

    • Severe early decay harms the formation of permanent teeth and the jaw and may affect speech

    • Parent childhood experiences and habits, income, and access to create barriers to good dental care for many low-income children

  • Obsessions and Allergies

    • Some children insist on eating only certain foods, prepared and presented in a particular way

    • This rigidity, known as the “just-right” phenomenon, would be pathological in adults but is normal in children under age 6

  • Brain Development

    • By age 2, a child’s brain weighs 75% of what it will be in adulthood

    • Extensive sprouting and then pruning of dendrites has already taken place

    • The brain reaches 90% of adult weight by age 6

    • Thinking becomes faster with myelination

      • Myelin is a fatty coating on the axons that speeds signals between neurons

      • Myelination is a lifelong process

    • Contemporary views on left-right distinction

      • Distinction exaggerated

      • No exclusive sidedness in healthy people

      • Both sides of the brain involved in almost every skill

      • Brain is flexible

    • Impulsiveness and preservation

      • Before maturation, many young children jump from task to task and can’t keep quiet

      • Others act in the opposite way

    • Emotions and the brain

      • Early traumatic or stressful events

        • Increased risk

          • Permanent learning and memory deficits

          • Later major depression, PTSD, and ADHD

        • Benefits

          • Cognitive and memory growth with reassuring adults

          • Context and duration important

Injuries and Abuse

  • Accidents

    • In almost all families of every income, ethnicity, and nation, parents want to protect their children while fostering their growth

    • In every nation, more young children die from accidents than from any other specific cause

      • 2-6 year olds in the US are at greater risk

    • Children are a high-risk group for accidental hun death

  • Maltreatment

    • Child Maltreatment

      • Intentional harm to or avoidable endangerment of anyone under 18 years of age

    • Child Abuse

      • Deliberate action that is harmful to a child’s physical, emotional, or sexual well-being

    • Child neglect

      • Failure to meet a child’s basic physical, educational, or emotional needs

    • Reported Maltreatment

      • Harm or endangerment about which someone has notified the authorities

    • Substantiated maltreatment

      • Harm or endangerment that has been reported, investigated, and verified

    • PTSD

      • Anxiety disorder that develops as a delayed reaction to having experienced or witnessed a profoundly shocking or frightening event