Understanding the Child

About this chapter

Understanding the Child builds the foundation a Paper I primary teacher needs to read a 6–11 year old's behaviour correctly. It moves through six ideas: the difference between growth (quantitative, structural, measurable, stops at maturity) and development (qualitative, behavioural, lifelong, womb to tomb); nine principles of growth and development — pattern, cephalo-caudal and proximodistal direction, continuity, non-uniform rate, individual differences, general-to-specific responses, integration, interrelationship and predictability; the relationship of growth, maturation and learning; internal factors (heredity, biological make-up, intelligence, emotion, social nature) and external factors (prenatal environment, accidents, physical and medical care, social-cultural conditions, schooling, peer group, government); four stages — infancy (birth–2), early childhood (2–6), later childhood (6–12, the 'gang age'), and adolescence (12–19) with physical, language, cognitive, emotional, social and moral characteristics; and the teacher's role in matching teaching to the child's developmental level. CTET Paper I tests this through direct recall on growth-vs-development, principles, stage characteristics and the 'gang age' construct, plus application items on individual differences and harmonious development. The four tests below — Practice 15, Quiz 15, Hard 15, Mastery 30 — cover all six topics at CTET depth.