Allama Iqbal Open University Islamabad

Book name
(8610)
Level: B.Ed.

Name: Saba Usman

Answer
1. Differences Between Growth and Development
Growth mainly focuses on quantitative improvement while development is associated with
both qualitative and quantitative improvement. For instance, growth is associated with
measurable changes in weight and height. When your child's weight increases from 35
kilograms to 40 kilograms, then the 5 kilograms increment is attributed to growth. On the other
hand, development is identified when substantial changes in IQ are recorded in your child's
brain power. For instance, your child's IQ level is relatively low during childhood but can
improve significantly into adulthood. Your child's IQ level can improve from 50 to 90 after
honing their creative and critical thinking skills.
Growth ends at maturation
while development continues until an individual 's demise. As a teacher or parent, it is
important to note that growth ends at maturation. Your child will experience various changes
associated with growth between childhood and maturation at adolescence. This means that your
teaching approach will be different at age 6 and age 15. At 6 years, your child needs simplified
information that they can understand because their brain can only process basic information.
At 15 years, your child's brain has improved significantly, and they are in a unique position to
grasp and retain complex information based on their improved information processing skills.
Development is a consistent process and continues throughout life.
Your child has the unique potential to absorb as much knowledge and skills to handle various
life challenges into adulthood. Even at 50 years, they can exhibit advanced skills such as
oratory and problem-solving skills based on their vast experience.
Growth is dependent on cellular changes.
While development is dependent on organizational transformation. Growth begins at
conception and progresses into adulthood. From conception, your child's body experiences
massive changes based on changes in cellular growth. An increase in cellular size and number
indicates that your child is undergoing growth. Development is often witnessed at a home or
school environment when your child experiences skillset changes. This simply means that any
skills learnt such as reading or arithmetic are indicative of your child 's development changes.
The older they get, the more likely they are to understand complex skills associated with
computation and reasoning. Growth is associated with the progressive physical change from
one stage to another. On the other hand, development is the gradual transformation of
behavioral and skill set changes. Differences in body size that are evident in clothing size
changes reveal the growth changes experienced by your child. Also, you might have noticed
that your child consumes more food than before. This can only mean that they are growing.
Development is usually characterized by behavioral and skillset changes. Your child might
outgrow certain childish behavior as they approach adolescence or acquire advanced writing,
oratory and computation skills. These changes aren't out of the ordinary but only attest to the
development changes experienced by your child.

Growth is external
While development is internal in nature. Regardless of your location or occupation, you can
observe your child's growth based on visible external features. These features include increased
body parts sizes such as hands, legs, ears, and much more. These changes usually manifest over
time based on improved nutrition and general wellbeing. It is important to note that family
instability can also affect your child's proper growth.
7. Unlike growth,
Unlike growth, development is an internal process and isn't visible by the naked eye. Instead,
it requires a comprehensive evaluation of your child 's reasoning, creativity and innovation to
ascertain their development status. This can be achieved by setting various tests designed to
evaluate your child 's IQ in relation with creativity and reasoning. Based on their performance,
you should be in a unique position to accurately determine their development level and the
changes
that ought to be made to rectify the situation.
8. Growth dictates changes in physical appearance
While development dictates change in the character of an individual. Growth is easily
discernible based on changes in physical appearance. These changes manifest over time and
include increased body size and voice intonation. Whether such changes are visible based on
hair transformation or skin tone, you can rest assured knowing that your child is experiencing
growth changes.
9. On the other hand,
On the other hand, development pays much emphasis in the character changes of an individual.
Your child might have been naughty during their early age but over time, they are likely to
transform into a mature young adult. With each passing day, they outgrow certain habits that
can only be traced back to character changes.
10. Growth takes place within a limited scope of time while development takes place within a
vast scope of time.
This means that growth spans from conception to adolescence depending on your child's
growth rate. During this period, your child undergoes progressive body changes designed to
transform them into adults. By 25 years of age, your child's growth rate will have peaked.
11. Growth focuses on one aspect of your child's life.
On the other hand, development focuses on several aspects of your child's life such as
emotional state, intelligence and interpersonal skills. Naturally, growth is a size- oriented
process from conception to adulthood. With every increase in body size,
you can monitor your child's growth rate.
12. On the other hand, development is an all-inclusive process designed to analyze various
aspects of your child's life. This usually stems from the need to evaluate their capacity to
interact with their peers and adults in an effective way. While their interpersonal skills might
be unpolished at a young age, your child is expected to make improvements based on their
advanced critical thinking and reasoning skills as they get older.

Question No.2
What do you think whether development of a child depends on heredity or environment?
Illustrate with examples.

Answer:
Heritability
Heritability is a statistical measure that expresses the proportion of the observed variability in
a trait that is a direct result of genetic variability. Environmental influences can be divided into
two classes, shared and non-shared environment. Both heredity and environment contribute to
personality traits. Although a person's environment plays an important part in his personality
development, heredity factors play a larger role in deciding disposition of this environment.
Heritability is defined as the proportion of phenotypic variance attributable to the additive
effects of genes. A person's genetic background has a strong influence on his personality. Some
personality traits are strongly capable of being inherited by a person. This can be seen by the
comparison of fraternal twins and identical twins, and twins brought up together with twins
brought up apart. The aim of such a study is to see which has a greater influence on personality,
the genetic background or the environmental influence. Twin studies showed that identical
twins are much more similar than non-identical twins, which suggests genetic influence.
Studies have found that identical twins are more similar than fraternal twins on a range of
personality measures, indicating that characteristics are heritable. If a family environment has
an influence on personality characteristics, twins brought up together should have more
similarities than those brought up apart. Yet, this is not the case. Thus, through twin studies, it
can be seen that a person's personality is based more on heredity rather than environmental
influences. An example is the hereditary of schizophrenia. Initially, the idea that schizophrenia
could run in families for genetic reasons was not taken into consideration. Instead,
schizophrenia was thought to be environmental in origin, with theories putting the blame on
poor parenting. However, schizophrenia is a hereditary deficiency which no environmental
factors can completely counteract. Thus, the individual will be defective, regardless of the type
of environmental conditions under which one is being brought up in. Hans Eysenck also
emphasized the biological nature of personality. He argued that personality traits are heritable.
Eysenck founded the biological and trait approach and he believed that genetic makeup plays
a significant role in the formation of personality.
All five factors of Eysenck's theory (extraversion, agreeableness,
conscientiousness, neuroticism, and openness) are heritable. People inherit more than the
global dispositions summarized by the five major personality factors; specific traits such as
self-consciousness, gregariousness and openness to ideas are also specifically heritable, and in
this regard can better be considered basic tendencies than characteristic adaptations. Through
the study of parental influences, one can see that parenting has a subtle effect on personality.
Results of adoption studies showed that children bear little resemblance to either their adoptive
parents or their adoptive siblings. Instead, adopted children appear to become more like their
birth parents. For personality, adoptive "siblings" (genetically uncorrelated children adopted
into the same adoptive family) correlate near zero, a value implying that shared environment
is unimportant and that environmental influence, which are substantial for personality, are of
the non-shared variety.
The heritability estimates, as well as estimates of shared and unique environmental influences
on personality agree well with those from twin studies in suggesting that the dominant reason
for familial resemblance in personality can be traced to genetic factors, with common
environment having only a small effect. Thus, this shows that neither parental role modeling
nor parenting practices that would influence all children in a family, seem to have much
influence on personality trait. In conclusion, both hereditary and environmental factors can
influence a person's personality. Heredity sets the limitation which environmental differences
decide the concluding result. However, genetic factors have a larger effect on personality traits.
Through twins and adoption studies, and the hereditary of schizophrenia, it can be seen that
hereditary has a bigger effect on personality as compared to family environment. Thus, studies
of heritability and limited parental influence all point to the notion that personality traits are
more of expressions of human biology rather than products of life experiences.

Question No. 3

Suggest some activities for preschool children which may enhance children's physical growth.

Answer:
Activities for children's physical growth.
Physical activity is an essential component of everyone's overall health and wellness. Getting
regular activity offers short- and long-term benefits for your physical and mental health,
including reducing your risk of disease, building stronger bones and muscles, increasing
energy, and decreasing stress levels. Exercise is essential for everyone throughout their lives,
so we need to be educated on the benefits of exercise and how to incorporate daily physical
activity as early as possible. Early childhood services and childcare should include physical
activity as a key component of a child's development. Services should offer play-based
activities and games that combine physical activity with a child 's interests and abilities.
Toddlers should be active for at least 90 minutes a day. When awake, they shouldn't be inactive
for more than an hour at a time, and ideally, time should be made for both indoor and outdoor
playtime and for structured and unstructured activities. If you need ideas for physical
development activities for toddlers in your care to get them moving, here are a few indoor
games to play with toddlers:
1. Row, Row, Row Your Boat
This indoor physical activity is great for toddlers ' physical development and socialization with
no equipment necessary. In this exercise, children sit facing a partner with feet touching. They
hold hands and lean forward and backward while singing the classic, "Row, Row, Row Your
Boat."
2. Musical Hide and Seek
Play music from a phone and hide it from the children. You and the children can then search
together to figure out where the music is coming from. This will be fun for the kids and will
get them moving.
3. Build a Tower
For this activity, you'll need a supply of blocks, containers with lids, or another similar,
stackable object. Using your item of choice, build a tower with a child. Take turns adding
blocks or containers to the tower and see how high the child can stack them. You can count the
number of stacked items together, and then when the tower is complete, the child can knock it
down.
4. Toss Balls in a Basket
Give toddlers foam or rubber balls to roll back and forth to a partner. Older toddlers can toss
the balls into a basket. During this activity, exercise caution with younger children who might
bite foam balls. A void small balls that toddlers could put in their mouths and swallow.
5. Throw Sponges
This activity is great for a hot day. Children take wet sponges and toss them toward a container
or bin. They can compare how far sponges of different sizes can be thrown or how different
amounts of water affect the distance the sponge travels.
6. Imitate Animals
While on their hands and knees, toddlers move, stretch, and play like animals. They can hop
like a frog or waddle like a penguin. They can arch their backs, roll on their backs, reach as
high as they can, and walk on all fours. Choose a variety of animals and movements to keep
children engaged and using their whole bodies to
stay active.
7. Traffic Safety
Cut three circles from colored paper one red, one yellow and one green. Label the red circle
"Stop," the yellow circle "Slow" and the green circle "Go." One child is chosen to be the traffic
light, and they will hold up the green circle, the yellow circle and the red circle in tum. The
other children move forward when "Go" is held up, slow down when "Slow" is held up and
freeze when "Stop" is held up. Take advantage of this fun activity to also teach children about
traffic safety.
8. Snake Dance
For this activity, children form a line to make a snake. They place their hands on the shoulders
of the child in front of them, and the first child or the teacher leads them around the room or
play area. To make things a bit more exciting and challenging, the child at the front of the line
can try to tag the child at the end. This will get everyone moving faster!
9. Catching Feathers
Take feathers and toss them into the air for children to catch with their hands or in containers
before they reach the ground. This will get toddlers moving and having fun!
If children are old enough, they can also each be given a feather and try to keep the feather in
the air by blowing on it.
10. Follow the Leader
Stand in front of the children and tell them to watch you carefully and copy your moves. Touch
your nose, hop on both feet, stomp in a circle, or crawl on all fours. Choose simple actions and
use large motor activities.

Question No.4
How Vygotsky's theory is different from Piaget's theory?

Answer:
Jean Piaget:
My theory of cognitive development is comprehensive and is the only perspective that should
be viewed as correct!
Lev Vygotsky:
'J disagree. My theory of cognitive development is the obvious choice for explaining how a
child learns and develops. Hmm, it appears that we have a difference of opinion here. There
may be no right or wrong theory of cognitive development, but there are definitely differences
between Jean Piaget's theory of cognitive development and Lev Vygotksy's cultural-historical
theory. This lesson will identify those similarities and differences. Jean Piaget's theory of
cognitive development described and explained the changes in logical thinking of children and
adolescents. Piaget proposed that children proceed through four stages based on maturation
and experience. Piaget's theory is guided by assumptions of how learners interact with their
environment and how they integrate new knowledge and information into existing knowledge.
Briefly, he proposed that:
1. children are active learners who construct knowledge from their environments
2. they learn through assimilation and accommodation, and complex cognitive development
occurs through equilibration
3. the interaction with physical and social environments is key for cognitive development
4. development occurs in stages Piaget believed those children's cognitive development
progresses through four stages which involve sensori-motor, preoperational, concrete
operational, and formal operational periods. These stages are treated as fixed and universal and
represent a general sequence which is observable in all types of cognitive change. Piaget argued
that children's thinking and the ways through which they make sense of their experiences
(schemes) change with age. The infancy period is marked by sensori-motor action patterns
during which a child acts on the objects around him/her to form schemes. Soon, he/she begins
to form mental images which help to transform thinking and experiences into meaningful,
manageable and memorable patterns. This transformation in thinking is supported by two
critical processes including adaptation and organization. Adaptation involves the process of
developing schemes by directly working upon the environment through assimilation or
accommodation. However, if the balance between these two is disturbed, it causes a cognitive
conflict or disequilibrium within the minds of children. It is important to resolve the conflict
through either assimilation or accommodation to bring the mind back to the equilibrium state.
These resulted in developing more effective schemes that help the child to advance his/her
thinking.
i. The sensori-motor stage.
The sensorimotor stage is characterized by the first two years of life during which infants think
through their five senses. At the beginning of this stage, the sensory reflexes of the child serve
to make up for his/her intelligence. The child engages in circular reactions (repeating chance
behaviors) which help him/her to adapt to his/her surroundings. Later, the child deliberately
employs intentional or goal directed behaviors by coordinating different schemes to solve
simple problems. Object permanence (the ability to understand that objects exist even when
they are not seen) emerges towards the end of this period which helps to set the stage for mental
representations and engage s the child in make-believe play.
ii. The preoperational stage.
As children grow, they enter in the preoperational stage (2 to 7 years) which characterizes their
immense representational or symbolic capacities. Children make advancements in their mental
representations as they develop more effective schemes. For example, as they get past the first
two years of their life, their make believe play gets more sophisticated. This cognitive change
is seen when a child older than 2 years of age pretends to use an object (cup) in different ways,
for example, using it to drink water as well as using it as a hat. Similarly, children's drawings
get more mature, realistic and detailed during the preschool years. However, their expanding
cognitive capacities are limited by their inability to take into account someone else's
perspective, referred to as egocentrism.
Vygotsky's Theory
Lev Vygotsky's theory of cognitive development, referred to as his cultural historical theory,
focused on the role of culture and social interactions. Vygotsky maintained that speech is a
major psychological tool in the child's development of thinking. As children age and develop,
their basic speech becomes more complex.
Vygotksy's theory is guided by six major assumptions:
1. children develop through informal and formal conversations with adults
2. .the first few years of life are critical for development, as this is where thought and language
become increasingly independent
3. complex mental activities begin as basic social activities
4. children can perform more difficult tasks with the help of a more advanced individual
5. tasks that are challenging promote cognitive development growth
6. play is important and allows children to stretch themselves cognitively

Question No.5
What are social skills? Also discuss the social characteristics and the factors affecting social
development at preschool level.

Answer :
Social Skills
Social skills are ways of dealing with others that create healthy and positive interactions.
Children who have social skills can communicate clearly, calmly, and respectfully. They show
consideration for the feelings and interests of their peers. They take responsibility for their
actions, are able to control themselves, and are able to assert themselves when neded. Children
learn social skills through experiences with peers, examples and instructions from their parents,
and time with adults.
It is important for children to use social skills because they are the route to creating and
developing relationships. They are needed for enriching social experiences, and they lessen the
chance for negative interactions. Being the building blocks for friendships, social skills give
children the chance to learn from their peers and learn how to be considerate with those they
meet in the future. By having a positive impact on life experiences, social skills also give
children a sense of confidence and mastery over their environment.
Factors effecting social development at preschool level
Research findings indicate that there are various factors, which contribute towards socio-
emotional development during the preschool years. These factors are discussed in the following
section:
i. Peer relationships
During the preschool years, peers (other children who are a child's equal) begin to play an
important role in children's social and cognitive development. Children's relationship with
other peers differs in several ways from their interactions with adults. Peer play allows children
to interact with other individuals whose level of development is similar to their own. When
peers have dispute among themselves, they must make a concessions and must cooperate in
resolving them if the play is to continue; in a peer dispute no one can claim to have ultimate
authority. Peer conflicts also let children see that others have thoughts, feelings and viewpoints
that are different from their own. Conflicts also heighten children's sensitivity to the effects of
their behavior on others. In this way peer relationships help young children to overcome the
geocentricism that Piaget described as being characteristic of preoperational thinking.
ii. Pro-social behavior
Pro-social behaviors are voluntary actions towards others such as caring, sharing, comforting
and cooperation. Research on the roots of pro-social behavior has contributed to our knowledge
of children's moral as well as social development. Several factors seem to be associated with
the development of pro-social behaviors (Eisenberg & Mussen, 1989). These include the
following:
• Parental disciplinary techniques that stress the consequences of the child 's behavior for others
and that are applied within a warm, responsive parent-child relationship. (Hoffman, 1993)
• Contact with adults who indicate they expect concern for others, who let children know that
aggressive solutions to problems are unacceptable, and who provide acceptable alternatives.
(Konig, 1995)
• Contact with adults who attribute positive characteristic to children when they do well
(Grusec & Goodnow, 1994)
iii. Play
Most of a preschooler's interaction with peers occurs during play. However, the degree to which
play involves other children increases over the preschool years. In a classic study of
preschoolers, Mildred Parten (1932) identified four categories of play that reflect increasing
levels of social interaction and sophistication. Solitary play is play that occurs alone, often with
toys, and is independent of what other children are doing. Parallel Play involves children
engaged in the same activity side by side but with very little interaction or mutual influence.
Associative Play is much like parallel play but with increased levels of interaction in than form
of sharing, turn taking, and general interest in what others are doing. Cooperative play occurs
when children join together to achieve a common goal, such as building a large castle with
each child building a part of the structure. Children engage in more complex form of plays as
they grow older, advancing from simple forms of play to complex pretend play in which
children cooperate in planning and carrying out activities. Play is most important for children
because it exercises their linguistic, cognitive, and social skills and contributes to their general
personality development. Children use their minds when playing, because they are thinking
and acting as if they were another person. When they make such a transformation, they are
taking a step toward abstract thinking in that they are freeing their thoughts from a focus on
concrete objects. Play is also associated with creativity; especially the ability to be less literal
and more flexible in one's thinking. Play has an important role in Vygotsky's theories of
development because it allows children to freely explore ways of thinking and acting that are
above their current level of functioning. Vygotsky wrote, 'in playa child is always above his
average age, above his daily behavior; in play it is as though he were a head taller than his self'.
Preschoolers ' play appears to be influenced by a variety of factors . For instance, preschoolers
' interactions with peers are related to how they interact with their parents. Three year old who
have a warmed nurturing relationships with parents are more likely to engage in social pretend
play and resolve conflicts with peers than are children with less secure relationships with their
parents. Children also play better with familiar peers and same sex peers. Providing age
appropriate toys and play activities can also support the development of play and peer
interaction skills.