The document discusses several principles of human growth and development: - Development is influenced by hereditary, environmental, and self-factors that interact from birth. Hereditary factors are innate traits while environmental factors include prenatal and social influences. - Development proceeds from simple concrete skills to more complex abilities, as children's cognition advances from basic descriptions to hierarchical classifications. - Growth transitions from general whole-body movements to finer motor skills, paralleling cognitive shifts from global to specific. - Each new stage of development builds upon prior achievements through continuous learning and practice. Maturation and experience both contribute to developmental progressions. - Skills emerge in a predictable sequence as the brain and body mature over time

1. Principles of Growth
and Development
By: Marcliene May O. Obial^^*

2. • The principles of human development explain the basic factors which govern all
growth and development. The individual is a product of hereditary, environmental,
and self-factors.
• Hereditary factors are innate characteristics with which the child is equipped at birth.
• The environmental factors include the intrauterine environment, family atmosphere,
methods Child’s training, the family constellation, the total social community, and the
socioeconomic factors.
• Self-factors include the child’s feelings and conceptions about himself/herself, other
persons, society, and his/her varied experiences including his/her convictions, values,
goals, and attitudes.

3. Developmental Principles

4. These are just some of the principles of growth and
development:
• Development is a product of the interaction of the organism and its environment.
• Development proceeds from the simple (concrete) to the more complex.
• Growth and Development from general to specific.
• Growth development and care continuous process
• Development depends on maturation and learning.
• Development is sequential

5. Development is a product of the interaction of the organism and its environment.
The processes of heredity and environment are interdependent and complementary. Neither
appears to be dominant. Obviously, heredity cannot produce its effects without environment and
the environment and the environment needs the organism supplied by heredity upon which to
produce its effects. One can never really be separated from the other; height while largely
determined by heredity is also affected to an extent by nutrition.
Development proceeds from the simple (concrete) to the more complex.
Children use their cognitive and language skills to reason and solve problems. For
example, learning relationships between things (how things are similar), or classification
is an important ability in cognitive development. The cognitive process of learning how
an apple and orange are alike begins, with simplest thought of describing the two.
Seeing no relationship, a preschool child will describe the object according to a property
of the object, such as color. An apple is red. An orange is orange.

6. The first level of thinking about objects are alike is to give a description or functional
relationship (both concrete thoughts) between the two objects. “An apple and orange are
around” and “An apple and orange are alike because you ate them” are typically
responses of 3, 4, and 5 years old. As children develop further in cognitive skills, they are
able to understand a higher and more complex relationship between objects and things;
that is an apple and orange exist in a class called fruit. The child cognitively is then
capable of classification.
Growth and Development from general to specific.
In motor development, the infant will be able to grasp an object with the whole
hand before using only the thumb and forefinger. The infants’ first motor
movement are very generalized, and directed and reflexive, waving arms or
kicking before being able to reach or creep towards an object. Grows occurs to large
muscle movements to more refined (smaller) muscle movements.

7. Growth development and care continuous process.
As a child develops, he or she adds to the skills already acquired and the new skills
become the bases for further achievement and mastery of skills. Most children follow a
similar pattern. Also, one stage of development lays the foundation for the next stage of
development. Example: in order for children to write and draw, they must have
development the manual (hand) control to hold a pencil and crayon.
Development depends on maturation and learning.
Maturation refers to the sequential characteristics of biological growth and
development. He biological changes occur in sequential orders and give children
new abilities Changes in brain and nervous system account largely for maturation.
This changes in the brain and nervous system help children improve in thinking
(cognitive) and motor (physical) skills. Also children must mature to a certain point
before the can progress to new skills (readiness) Example: A fourth-month old
cannot use language because his/her brains has not matured enough to allow
him/her to talk.

8. Development is sequential.
There is a pattern of order and sequence in human growth and development. An
individual develops from single cell to a fetus to an adult/old man/ women; to sit then
stand first before walking; to cry, coos, babbles, before being able to say “Ma-ma-
ma”and “Da-da-da”.
An understanding of principles of development helps us plan appropriate activities
and stimulating in reaching experiences for children and provide a basis for
understanding how to encourage and support young children’s learning