1. Factors that Influence Growth:

• Genetic Background
• Health Care
• Nutrition

1. Brain and Growth Development:

• Age 2: Brain is 75% of adult weight
• Age 5: Brain is 95% of adult weight
• Age 7: Full growth

• Myelination: the insulating process that speeds up the transmission of neural impulses
• At age 5 there is a growth in the corpus callosum: a band of nerve fibers connecting the right and left hemispheres of the brain (Result: communication b/t 2 sides–coordination).

1. Accidents and the Brain:

• About 2/3 of childhood deaths among preschool children involve nonvehicular causes (falling, drowning, choking, and poisoning).
• Boys suffer more injuries
• Strongest risk factor of all is socioeconomic status (brain immaturity)
• Injury control

1. Eyes, Brain, and Reading:

• 4 yr. Olds are much better at looking at–and recognizing–letters and other small shapes than younger children
• At age 5 eye-hand coordination becomes fairly well tuned to left-right directions: children can copy a diamond & write letter "b" and "d" (showing proper direction)

1. Growth Spurts in the Brain:

• Left hemisphere (language): around 2 yrs.
• Right hemisphere (recognition of visual shapes): 4-5 yrs.
• Corpus callosum and frontal lobe: age 5

1. Mastering Motor Skills (ages 2-6)

• Gross motor skills (running, jumping, & throwing)

--Age 5 most children are skilled and graceful

--Learn basic motor skills by teaching themselves & learning from other children

• Fine motor skills (small hand movements–cutting food with a knife and fork)

--children experience difficulty b/c not yet developed the necessary muscle control,

patience and judgement

--parents and teachers can help children master fine motor skills through

encouragement

1. Child Maltreatment:

• Definition: any intentional harm or avoidable endangerment to anyone under age 18
• Child Maltreatment includes:

• Abuse: deliberate action that is harmful to a child’s well being
• Neglect: failure to appropriately meet a child’s basic needs

• Reported and Substantial Maltreatment Cases:

--Reported: those about which the authorities have been informed

--Substantiated: those which have been investigated and verified as maltreatment

• (1993) U.S. à number of reported cases was 3 million/yr and the number of substantiated cases was 1 million/yr.
• Reasons for gap:

--one case may be reported many times but tallied as 1 case

--proof (especially visible) is hard to obtain

--the report may be mistaken or deliberately misleading

1. The Cultural and Community Context:

• Cultural diversity makes the problem of substantiating reports more complex (examples: piercings, castor oil, tightly braided hair)
• Universally conducive to maltreatment : POVERTY AND ISOLATION

1. Consequences of Maltreatment:

• Decrease in social skills (more isolated, more aggressive, and less friendly)
• Find comfort in drugs and alcohol
• Engage in self-destructive behavior
• Also expensive money costs (treatment and investigation)

1. Intervention Policies:

• Laws require any teacher, health professional, police officer, or social worker to report all cases
• Institute a differential response: deciding to respond either one way or another, depending on the particular situation
• Foster Care: a legally sanctioned, publicly supported arrangement in which children are officially removed from their parents and entrusted to another adult or family whi is paid to nurture them
• Permanency Planning: devising a plan for a child’s long-term care that does not remove the child from the parents unless doing so is necessary
• Kinship Care: a form of foster care in which a relative of a maltreated child takes over from the abusive or neglectful parents
• 40% of foster children in U.S. are kinship care
• Adoption

1. Prevention of Maltreatment:

• Primary prevention: an approach that is designed to prevent maltreatment from ever occuring

• Secondary prevention: preventing serious problems by spotting and treating the early warning signs that indicate maltreatment might develop
• Tertiary prevention: aimed at halting the harm after it occurs and treating the victim