The Physical Development Of A Human Being
Catherine The Physical Development of a Human Being As defined in Berk's,
Development Through the Lifespan, physical development is changes in body size,
proportions, appearance, and the functioning of various body systems; brain
development; perceptual and motor capacities; and physical health. The physical
development of a human being is the unique because of all of the visible changes
that every human being goes through. Physical growth results from a continuous
and complex interplay between heredity and environment. Humans begin to develop
before they are out of their mother's womb. After conception, the zygote is what
I consider the earliest development of the human being. The period of the zygote
is about two weeks long. The zygote then becomes an embryo. The period of the
embryo lasts from the second week on through the eighth week of pregnancy. The
embryo then changes to form the fetus. The period of the fetus is from the ninth
week until the end of the pregnancy. The zygote, embryo, and fetus all form in
the first trimester or pregnancy. By the third trimester, the fetus is around
seven and half pounds. I weighed about eight and one fourth pounds when I was
born. My mother still tells me that when I was born I had enough hair to braid.
She says all my hair gave her horrible heartburn. Luckily she did not smoke or
use any drugs or alcohol during the time that she was pregnant with me. All of
these things can do serious harm to the fetus. Boys tend to be a little longer
and heavier than girls at birth. Babies change faster than older humans do. The
human body grows and enlarges at the most rapid rate during the first two years.
Weight is gained steadily during this time. By nine months baby fat has usually
arrived and is at its highest level. This helps babies to maintain a constant
body temperature. Babies become thinner during the second year. This held true
for me from what I have seen of my baby pictures. Babies do not tend to be very
muscular or coordinated. The child grows and size increases, and different parts
of the body grow at different speeds. There are two growth patterns that
represent this. The first is called the cephalocaudal trend. During this phase
the head takes up a fourth of the body and the legs take up a third.
The second
pattern is called the proximodistal trend. This is when the growth proceeds from
the center of the body outward. During infancy, the arms and legs continue to
grow ahead of the hands and feet. The brain is closer to adult size at birth
than any other body part on a baby. When a child reaches the age of two, the
brain is already at seventy percent of its adult weight. Some of the factors
that influence this early growth are heredity, nutrition, and emotional
well-being. Over the first year of life, babies begin to organize sounds into
complex patterns. During the second half of the first year, babies begin
focusing on larger speech units. These larger units are critical to figuring out
the meaning of what babies hear. By nine months babies begin to listen to speech
for much longer periods of time, and they begin to perceive it on wordlike
segments. A child’s vision goes through some extensive changes during the first
seven to eight months of the child’s life. The child’s vision improves a great
deal throughout the first year. When a child begins some form of independent
movement, they begin to better understand depth perception. When an adult moves
around on his/her own, they too have a better feel for landmarks and what is
around them. The rapid growth in body size that takes place in infancy begins to
slow down in early childhood. During this time boys still tend to be a little
larger than girls are. When I was this age, all of my friends were boys, and
they were a little larger than I was. Increasing control of the child’s hands
and fingers lead to a huge improvement in the fine motor skills. Their drawings
become more and more complex during this time. I have some examples of pictures
that I drew when I was younger, and as my age increased, my drawings became
better and better. The skeleton continues to change throughout early childhood.
Near the end of the preschool years, a child begins to lose their baby teeth. I
lost my two front teeth first. I have many pictures without any front teeth. I
lost the bottom front teeth after this. The teeth that grew back in their place
were larger and had a ridged bottom. They called me Snaggle tooth. Physical
development in middle childhood is an extension of the slow growth pattern that
takes place in early childhood. By age six, an average child weighs about 45
pounds and is around three and a half feet tall. On average, children tend to
add two or three inches to their height. In comparison, they gain about five
pounds a year.
