Theories of Healthy Childhood Development

This case study explores the theories of healthy childhood development and how they can be applied to support the growth and development of a child. It discusses the domains of development, analyzes observation through developmental theories, identifies child strengths and challenges, discusses influences on child development, and explores how knowledge of development theory supports child development.

Case study 1
Running head: CASE STUDY
Case study: Theories of healthy childhood development

Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
Identify the domains of development.........................................................................................4
Analyze observation through developmental theories and millstones.......................................5
Identification of child strength and challenges..........................................................................7
Discuss the influences that can impact the development of child..............................................8
Determine how knowledge of development theory supports development of child and
application of this theory into practice.......................................................................................9
Conclusion................................................................................................................................10
References................................................................................................................................12

Introduction
The early development of a child is one of the most essential developmental phases in life.
The development of a child is necessary to increase its independency throughout the life
span. This healthy childhood development consists of physical, social, as well as cognitive
domains of development. These things are equally important to have healthy growth of child.
In the early years of child if something critical happens then it can impact the development of
child route and life course (WHO, 2018). Moreover, all the children have a unique way of
developing themselves. Mostly, the children’s get influence by the environment at different
age level. Early child development also includes stable, responsive, nurturing caregiving like
safe, supportive, environment as well as appropriate nutrition.
The aim of this report is to demonstrate knowledge of development theories and how it is
applied to the development of child. The whole report is the analysis of a case study. It also
discusses the domains of development and it includes physical, thinking, social and whole
child. It also analyzes strength and challenges of the child. The report also explores the
influences that impact the development of child. It also determines the knowledge of
development theory support development of a child and how it can be implemented to
practice.

Identify the domains of development
The domain is defined as the specific aspects of growth and change. The domains of
development include the social-emotional, physical, cognitive and whole child. It is described
as below:
Physical development domain
It refers to the development of physical skills that is called as the motor skills. Motor skills
refer to the skills that provide children the capability to develop useful movements and learn
its own physical characteristics as well as learn about the nearby environment. In addition,
with the help of physical development domain, the gross movements are developed by the
children (Thill, 2019). It also includes other activities development such as fine controls,
balance and kinesthetic sense as well as hand to eye co-ordination.
Thinking development domain
Thinking development domain includes intellectual development as well as creativity. In
terms of intellectual development of child includes hold adequate attention, remember the
events, understandable environment, and capacity to predict, plan, or evaluation of any task
given. In terms of creativity, it includes acquired intelligence outcome, experience of events
as well as apply the knowledge that is gained on the daily basis. This domain depicts that

children’s are not limited to the material use (Chatterjee, 2019). For example, if the children
are allowed to play games then their thinking or creativity can be judged as for how they play
games and create an opportunity for expressing itself in various situations.
Social-emotional domain
This domain deals with the ability of children to understand the expressions of emotions,
attachment with others, handling peer pressure. It also helps the children to understand the
other’s feelings and control their own feelings (Thill, 2019).
Analyze observation through developmental theories and millstones
On the basis of case study, observation is quite important to know about the children
development. Observation of child is done through observing the behavior of child, and
learning capability. It also includes child reaction to new situations as well as how he/she
interacts with others. In other words, it can be termed as tracking the behavior of child in
terms of different activities. This observation is helpful in understanding the weakness and
strength of each child in an effective manner (Cherry, 2019).
In the case study as discussed child is 4 years old so it is required to observe the child by
covering different activities. Firstly, when the child interacts with others this can tell about
children development. On the basis of observation while interacting with others child is quite

frank as he is easily interacting with others. This shows his catching power is good as he
learn by absorbing information on the daily basis interactions. Another activity is social
gathering on the trip and observing child for 7-8 hours. By observing the child the individual
can know its strength and weakness. In addition, with the help of different child development
theory the observation can be done in an appropriate manner. It is as follows:
Freud’s psychosexual developmental theory
On the basis of this theory it depicts that conflicts occur in each stage can influence lifelong
on the behaviour and personality of children. In terms of development of child occurs on the
series of stages that concentrates on various areas of body pleasure. This theory depicts that
there are changes in personality and grow over the lifetime (Cherry, 2019). This theory helps
in better observation as child interaction with others can be observed.
Behavioral child development theory
According to this theory, the behavior of humans can be described in terms of influence of
environment. So, on the basis of observation, it can be seen that learning of child occurred
through daily interaction with others. This theory shows how the child is influenced by the
outside environment. In terms of activity of child, he has been taken on a trip where its
behavior is observed as how he is influenced by the environment (Lane et al., 2013). So, it

can be seen that the child was influenced by the environment and he was comfortable in
interacting and learning with others on different aspects.
According to my observation in order to grow up the child it is require observing their
behaviour and enhancing their productivity and making strong their weakness. The children
development is quite beneficial for the future perspective.
Identification of child strength and challenges
On the basis of observation of different activities of child different strength and challenges
were observed. Different strength includes from the activity of interaction includes high
interaction with others this shows high confidence in the child. Strength is high learning
capacity on the basis of daily interactions with different people. In the contrast to this, various
challenges were observed that are faced by children while doing different activities. It
includes emotionally weak domain that impact its decision making power. It also includes
lack of appropriate listening. It also include difficult in academic.
Discuss the influences that can impact the development of child
The development of child can be affected by different influences from certain people to
whom he/she is interacting with. There can be negative influence as well as positive
influence. If there is negative influence then it can impact his/her overall life. Moreover, there

are different factors that influence the development of child like genetic i.e. out of control,
environmental factors that can be controlled. In terms of environmental factor that can
include family or school. This can influence positively when the family spent time with child
as well as give love and communicating with the child and teaching him/her about different
aspects (Johnson, 2019). On the other hand, negative influence can be there when the family
avoids child in terms of its natural development. For example, child left playing games on
mobile phone.
In terms of environmental influences i.e. outside environment friends, and other people. The
child can be influenced positively by outside environment if he/she has good friends
company. The child can learn several good things from positive people around him/her. This
can depict positive behaviour of the child in terms of communicating with the people and
parents. In terms of negative influence it can impact the child behaviour negatively as lack of
skills, not listening. This can impact the whole growth of child. Thus for the positive
influence the parents had to keep observation on child about with whom he/she is interacting
with (NIH, 2018). It is also essential, to be frank with children so that they can easily tell
anything whatever they learned or faced from the outside environment.

Moreover, when the children interact with the other children at this moment the parent can
observe the activity of the child. This would be helpful in knowing the strength and weakness
of the child while dealing with other people outside the environment of house.
Determine how knowledge of development theory supports development of child and
application of this theory into practice
Knowledge of development theory is helpful in supporting child development. This theory is
developed by Jean Piaget. This is one of the most influential theory. With the help of this
theory, the thinking process and mental state are developed. This theory helps to know how
this process of thinking influence the way the individual understands as interacts with the
world. This consists of steps and sequence of the intellectual development of people. It is as
follows:
Sensorimotor stage: This stage depicts the time between birth and age where the knowledge
is limited.
Preoperational stage: This is the stage between 2 to 6 years where languages are learnt by
the child.

Concrete operational stage: this is the stage where the child is between 7 to 11 years of age.
In this age, it gains an appropriate understanding of mental operations. In this age, they
started thinking logically but they face problem in understanding hypothetical concepts.
Formal Operational stage: This stage where the child is between age 12 to adulthood. In
this age, he has the capability to think and understand the hypothetical concepts.
This theory supports the development of child by dividing the age of child into different
stages. It helps in knowing the thinking and creativity of child according to different age.
This helps in the growth of child according to the age. This theory can be applied into
practice by understanding the child set of mind according to the age. In terms of observation
of child can be seen according to the age group.

Conclusion
From the above discussion, it can be concluded that observation plays a significant role in
terms of growth of children. Different domains are discussed such as physical, thinking and
social. It has also been analyzed that different negative and positive influences can impact the
child development. Different theories are discussed such as behavioral theory and Freud's
psychosexual developmental theory to analyze observation of child is conducted in the case
study.

References
Borys, J. M., Le Bodo, Y., Jebb, S. A., Seidell, J. C., Summerbell, C., Richard, D., and
Raffin, S. (2012). EPODE approach for childhood obesity prevention: methods,
progress and international development. Obesity reviews, 13(4), 299-315.
Carson, V., Hunter, S., Kuzik, N., Wiebe, S. A., Spence, J. C., Friedman, A., ... & Hinkley, T.
(2016). Systematic review of physical activity and cognitive development in early
childhood. Journal of science and medicine in sport, 19(7), 573-578.
Chatterjee, R.A. (2019). Children’s Developmental Domains Retrieved from:
http://www.childhealth-explanation.com/developmental-domains.html
Cherry, K. (2019). Child Development Theories and Examples Retrieved from:
https://www.verywellmind.com/child-development-theories-2795068
Christian, H., Zubrick, S. R., Foster, S., Giles-Corti, B., Bull, F., Wood, L., ... & Boruff, B.
(2015). The influence of the neighborhood physical environment on early child health
and development: A review and call for research. Health & place, 33, 25-36.
Johnson, S. (2019). What Influences Child Development? Retrieved from:
https://wehavekids.com/parenting/What-Influences-Child-Development

Kruske, S., Belton, S., Wardaguga, M., & Narjic, C. (2012). Growing up our way: the first
year of life in remote Aboriginal Australia. Qualitative Health Research, 22(6), 777-
787.
Lane, J. D., Wellman, H. M., Olson, S. L., Miller, A. L., Wang, L., and Tardif, T. (2013).
Relations between temperament and theory of mind development in the United States
and China: Biological and behavioral correlates of preschoolers' false-belief
understanding. Developmental Psychology, 49(5), 825.
Morgan, P. J., Collins, C. E., Plotnikoff, R. C., Callister, R., Burrows, T., Fletcher, R., ... &
Cook, A. T. (2014). The ‘Healthy Dads, Healthy Kids’ community randomized
controlled trial: A community-based healthy lifestyle program for fathers and their
children. Preventive Medicine, 61, 90-99.
NIH (2018). Exploring Factors That Influence Child Development Retrieved from:
https://www.nichd.nih.gov/newsroom/resources/spotlight/092914-factors-child-
development
Sanders, R. H., Han, A., Baker, J. S., & Cobley, S. (2015). Childhood obesity and its physical
and psychological co-morbidities: a systematic review of Australian children and
adolescents. European journal of pediatrics, 174(6), 715-746.

Thill, R.F. (2019). Domains in Human Development Retrieved from:
https://www.verywellfamily.com/definition-of-domain-3288323
Wen, L. M., Baur, L. A., Simpson, J. M., Xu, H., Hayes, A. J., Hardy, L. L., ... & Rissel, C.
(2015). Sustainability of effects of an early childhood obesity prevention trial over
time: a further 3-year follow-up of the healthy beginnings trial. JAMA
pediatrics, 169(6), 543-551.
WHO (2018). Early child development Retrieved from:
https://www.who.int/social_determinants/themes/earlychilddevelopment/en/
Zarnowiecki, D., Sinn, N., Petkov, J., & Dollman, J. (2012). Parental nutrition knowledge
and attitudes as predictors of 5–6-year-old children's healthy food knowledge. Public
health nutrition, 15(7), 1284-1290.