How does child development impact the life span

Child health and human development over the lifespan

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Front Public Health
v.1; 2013
PMC3854993

Front Public Health. 2013; 1: 1.

Published online 2013 Mar 19. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2013.00001

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The topic of child health and human development is a wide area of interest spanning from pregnancy, delivery, childhood, adolescence, adulthood, and end of life. A study of health, development, and well-being over the lifespan.

Before birth through young adulthood there is a wide range of health issues that affect our children, such as general childhood illnesses, eating and obesity, accidents and injuries, and particular stages of life, such as teenage independence. Childs health and pediatrics focus on the well-being of children from conception through adolescence, but human development is a life span issue, so research in childhood does not stop with the end of adolescence, but we need a long-term and lifelong study to observe and understand the development process. Pediatrics is vitally concerned with all aspects of children's growth and development and with the unique opportunity that each child has to achieve their full potential as a healthy adult.

Pediatrics or child health was once not a specific entity, just as adolescence really did not exist as a concept, since all was a part of adult medicine. This field emerged in the nineteenth and early twentieth century as a medical specialty, because of the gradual awareness that the health problems of children were different from those of adults and children's response to illness, medications, and the environment is very depending upon the age of the child.

This uniqueness of children, along with diseases that are particular to this age group, has been responsible for the development of pediatrics as a specialty and for the creation of children's hospitals for the care of children.

These same factors have also driven the creation of child health research, but we are still only able to do a few large lifelong studies to see the effects of pregnancy or early childhood on health and well-being in adulthood and older age. Long-term birth cohort studies have been and are conducted in the United Kingdom under the auspices of the Centre for Longitudinal Studies in London, like the National Survey of Health and Development (NSHD) established in 1946, the National Child Development Study (NCDS) established in 1958, the 1970 British Cohort Study (BCS70), and the Millennium Cohort Study (MCS) established in 2000 (1). In Denmark with the Copenhagen Perinatal Birth Cohort of 9125 individuals born 1959–1961 at the maternity departments of the Copenhagen University Hospital, Rigshospitalet (2) and the Danish National Birth Cohort 1996–2002 of 101,042 pregnant women recruited in first trimester at first antenatal visit at the general practitioner with 96,986 children resulting from the pregnancies (3). In the United States the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development has recently also initiated a large prospective life-history study, the National Children's Study, examining the effects of the environment and genetics on the growth, development, and health of children with more than 100,000 children who will be followed up from conception to age 21 years (4).

Such cohort studies of child health and human development over the lifespan are very important for our understanding of trends in health and well-being, quality of life, and quality of care, which will reveal emerging of “new morbidities” as we have seen over the past 50 years in pediatrics (5), but such cohort studies are very expensive, huge logistics involved and not always possible to conduct.

A healthy development begins before conception with parental health and their genetic composition and continues on to conception and through the prenatal period. Once delivered, new issues emerge, such as breastfeeding, newborn screening tests, health care appointments, and immunizations. Development constitutes a continuum and a child changes amazingly during the neonatal, newborn period, and early infancy. During this period there are many challenges both for the child, the parents, and the family and before you know it the child enter adolescence and adulthood.

CS Mott Children's Hospital at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor conducts a National Poll on Children's Health in order to monitor the future. In their collaboration with Knowledge Networks in this nationally representative household survey they administer to a randomly selected, group of adult with and without children of about 2000 person that closely resembles the United States population. In 2010, the following overall health concerns for US children in 2010 and the percentage of adults who rate each as a “big problem” included (6):

Childhood obesity, 38%
Drug abuse, 30%
Smoking, 29%
Internet safety, 25%
Stress, 24%
Bullying, 23%
Teen pregnancy, 23%
Child abuse and neglect, 21%
Alcohol abuse, 20%
Not enough opportunities for physical activity, 20%
Chemicals in the environment, 18%
Sexting, 16%
Depression, 15%
Sexually transmitted infections, 15%
School violence, 13%
Asthma, 10%
Neighborhood safety, 8%
Autism, 8%
Suicide, 8%

But the perception of the parent does not always portray the view of the child and researchers have therefore become concerned with the children's own perception of health. One study from Portugal (7) used creative drawing language to identify external factors perceived as negative or positive to health by children. The sample consisted of 130 children in 3rd and 4th classes from four randomly selected schools found that children value healthy food, physical activity, mental health, prevention of inappropriate substance consumption and health and environment. The drawings and comments showed links between diet and physical exercise, and between mental health and interpersonal relationships (7).

Just a few decades ago, children born with significant congenital anomalies or genetic and metabolic diseases perished at an early age and very few survived into their teens and even less into adulthood. Congenital heart disease, major errors in metabolism, cancer, cystic fibrosis, and many other major diseases were fatal. Because of that many physicians in adult primary care did not have the opportunity to see patients with these problems and thus were unable to learn how to care for them.

With major advancements in medical knowledge, technology, imaging techniques, surgical skills, and pharmaceutical products as well as prosthetic devices, many of these patients now live much longer life and sometimes even close to the average life expectancy for the country at least in the developed world. With that, a new medical care challenge has been created and we have to take a life span approach.

In the Frontier of Child Health and Human Development we would like to provide an academic focal point for the scholarly interdisciplinary study of child life, health, public health, welfare, disability, rehabilitation, intellectual disability, and related aspects of human development over the life span. Research, clinical work, public service activities in the field of child health and human development over the life span will be important topics for this journal.

1. Centre for Longitudinal Studies. (Accessed 22 January, 2013). Available from: http://www.cls. ioe.ac.uk/page.aspx?andsitesectionid=26andsitesectiontitle=About+the+Centre+for+Longitudinal+Studies

2. Copenhagen Perinatal Birth Cohort 1959–1961. (Accessed 22 January, 2013). Available from: http://publichealth.ku.dk/about/departments/social/research/cohorts/perinatal/

3. Olsen J., Melbye M., Olsen S. F., Sørensen T. I. A., Aaby P., Nybo Andersen A. M., et al. The Danish National Birth Cohort. Its background, structure and aim. Scand J Public Health (2001) 29:300–7 10.1177/14034948010290040201 [PubMed] [CrossRef] [Google Scholar]

4. Landrigan P. J., Trasande L., Thorpe L. E., Gwynn C., Lioy P. J., D'Alton M. E., et al. The National Children's Study: a 21-year prospective study of 100,000 American children. Pediatrics (2006) 118:2173–86 10.1542/peds.2006-0360 [PubMed] [CrossRef] [Google Scholar]

5. Bricker J. T., Omar H. A., Merrick J. editors. Adults with Childhood Illnesses. Considerations for Practice. Berlin: De Gruyter; (2011). [Google Scholar]

6. CS Mott Children's Hospital National Poll on Children's Health. Monitoring the Future Study. (Accessed 22 January, 2013). Available from: www.med.umich.edu/mott/npch

7. Rodrigues M. A., Cruz M. D. D. Children's health perception through creative drawing language. Invest Educ Enferm. (2012) 30:353–61 [Google Scholar]

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Child Development Basics | CDC

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Healthy Development

The early years of a child’s life are very important for his or her health and development. Healthy development means that children of all abilities, including those with special health care needs, are able to grow up where their social, emotional and educational needs are met. Having a safe and loving home and spending time with family―playing, singing, reading, and talking―are very important. Proper nutrition, exercise, and sleep also can make a big difference.

Effective Parenting Practices

Parenting takes many different forms. However, some positive parenting practices work well across diverse families and in diverse settings when providing the care that children need to be happy and healthy, and to grow and develop well. A recent report looked at the evidence in scientific publications for what works, and found these key ways that parents can support their child’s healthy development:

Responding to children in a predictable way
Showing warmth and sensitivity
Having routines and household rules
Sharing books and talking with children
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Using appropriate discipline without harshness

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Developmental Milestones

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Children develop at their own pace, so it’s impossible to tell exactly when a child will learn a given skill. However, the developmental milestones give a general idea of the changes to expect as a child gets older.

As a parent, you know your child best. If your child is not meeting the milestones for his or her age, or if you think there could be a problem with your child’s development, talk with your child’s doctor and share your concerns. Don’t wait.

Milestones children should reach from birth through 5 years of age

Learn more about milestones and parenting tips from the National Institutes of Health:

Normal growth and developmentexternal icon
Preschoolersexternal icon
School age childrenexternal icon
Adolescentsexternal icon

Developmental Monitoring and Screening

Parents, grandparents, early childhood providers, and other caregivers can participate in developmental monitoring, which observes how your child grows and changes over time and whether your child meets the typical developmental milestones in playing, learning, speaking, behaving, and moving.

Developmental screening takes a closer look at how your child is developing. A missed milestone could be a sign of a problem, so when you take your child to a well visit, the doctor, nurse, or another specialist might give your child a brief test, or you will complete a questionnaire about your child.

If the screening tool identifies an area of concern, a formal developmental evaluation may be needed, where a trained specialist takes an in-depth look at a child’s development.

If a child has a developmental delay, it is important to get help as soon as possible. When a developmental delay is not found early, children must wait to get the help they need to do well in social and educational settings.

Learn more about developmental monitoring and screening

If You’re Concerned

If your child is not meeting the milestones for his or her age, or you are concerned about your child’s development, talk with your child’s doctor and share your concerns. Don’t wait!

Learn more about what to do if you’re concerned

"Children play much less": what influences the success of students at school and in life M.V. Lomonosov - for several years, together with colleagues, studied the cognitive development of children in different regions of Russia, attending kindergarten and primary school, in order to find out which factors most influence academic success.

The study found its continuation in the large federal project "Growing up with Russia", in which 200 schools and kindergartens, more than ten thousand children, took part. Now other teachers will be able to use the methods of Alexander Veraksa in their work. nine0003

About the most important factor in a child's success

When we started the study, we wanted to see what is most important in a child's development, what factor most influences his development? Educational program, its content, family environment? We needed a longitudinal study, that is, monitoring the development of the child over time: both in kindergarten and at school. We came to the conclusion that now the defining sign of a child's success is the ability to self-regulate. It affects social development, success in school and work, and the ability to build relationships. nine0003

Self-regulation is the ability to control one's behavior, reactions, restrain impulses, switch from one to another, and consciously hold one's attention. This is something that even in Soviet times stood out as a component of children's readiness for school, but was not worked out conceptually to such an extent. If a child has good self-regulation, he is diligent, ready to clearly follow the instructions of the teacher, then he has a high chance of becoming a successful student and building a successful career. nine0003

About children with self-control problems and ADHD

Do not think that inattentive children, children with ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder - TASS note) will definitely be unsuccessful. It is very important to learn about the developmental features of the child as early as possible. Because if at preschool age one unit of time is needed to correct behavior, then at school this time is needed much more, and there, unfortunately, it is usually not available.

Children with ADHD are children who have difficulty managing their own behavior. That is, just with the problems of self-control and self-regulation. And teachers are faced with the task of giving the child a means of controlling their own behavior. This task is not solved without an adult. nine0003

It is important to teach a child to first set a goal and then move towards it. As our experience shows, this can be done in project activities, which are already available to children at the age of 4.

When a child shows interest in something, the adult's task is to hear him - it does not matter what question aroused interest, what he is talking about, the main thing is that it comes from the child. And the task of an adult is to support him, to deploy an activity that ends with a certain result. It is important that the child understands that in order to get a quality answer, it is important to go through a certain path, turn to sources, including relatives, acquaintances and peers. And then, over time, the structure of his activity changes, from impulsive actions he moves to actions that lead to the solution of a cognitive problem. The child begins to go towards his goals, to regulate his behavior in order to achieve it. nine0003

We hope that our recommendations and methods will be useful to both psychologists and educators. Teachers receive specific educational technologies that help to choose the most effective teaching aids for each child, depending on the characteristics of his mental development.

About the weak emotional development of children

Emotional development is how much a child understands his own and other people's emotions, how much he knows how to express these emotions, understands how to change them. nine0003

The problem is that in the education system we are traditionally accustomed to looking primarily at the intellectual, cognitive development of the child. So, unfortunately, it turned out that emotional development has always been in the background, it was believed that it takes place largely spontaneously in the conditions of an educational institution. Now, with the advent of new forms of education, aggressive digitalization, the opportunities for the harmonious socialization of children have become objectively less.

We must teach the child what emotions are, show him the connection of these emotions with the situations in which they arise, give him the ways of responding that are acceptable in society.

For example, a child gets angry and breaks his shoulder blade in a fit of anger. We need to make sure that he understands his state, so that at the moment when emotions overwhelm him, he can cope with this state, change it.

About individual approach, independence, home schooling and large classes

Now groups of about 30 children study in kindergarten and school, and although not all of them are present at the same time, it must be admitted that the number exceeding 15 is already difficult for the teacher to organize individual interaction.

Large-scale studies that could tell about the consequences of home schooling or learning in mini-classes, in mini-groups, have not yet been conducted in our country. Individual communication with a teacher is great, but the child needs a team as a condition for socialization. Only in a peer group does he always receive feedback from children. This is the value of kindergarten. Children must learn to solve their own problems on their own. nine0003

Our research showed an unexpected result. In kindergartens, where teachers are less responsive to children's conflicts, where children have fewer opportunities to be alone, that is, where there are circumstances that have traditionally been attributed to the negative characteristics of the educational environment of the kindergarten, the understanding of emotional development among preschoolers was higher. What does it say? This can be interpreted in such a way that the need for interaction with peers has become so high that it realizes itself to the maximum even in difficult situations of children's interaction, which in modern society is not "little". nine0003

Now many parents, due to their own anxiety at playgrounds, are very actively involved in the interaction of children, even interrupt it, do not allow children to get out of the situation on their own. Most often, children of the same age can figure out their problems on their own, an adult is needed to discuss the problem after, to think about what happened, but not to act as a puppeteer.

About "development", parental ambitions and the lack of play in the life of a child

Parents want from a preschool educational institution, first of all, the intellectual development of children, because in this, in our opinion, not always justified, they see the key to success. "Developers" almost from birth, reading from the age of two, foreign languages. Children come to the first grade already with a decent amount of knowledge, but far from everyone becomes successful in their studies, because in the pursuit of early intellectual development, the desire to teach the child to count, solve problems, read as early as possible, parents do not ask themselves the question: how my child lives childhood? nine0003

There is much less time for childhood than is necessary. Childhood is not fully lived, in its classic version, because the most effective, productive way for a child to explore the world is a game. Children play very little, and this leads to weak self-regulation, to low motivation to learn, without which it is impossible to achieve serious results in high school.

And if there is no game, it is replaced by gadgets, where there is a lot of everything except for value orientations. In fact, the child does not have time to mature emotionally for school, although he is ready technically. This is also facilitated by parents who orient the child towards achievements, victories, instead of focusing on activity and process. nine0003

About gadgets in a child's life

To talk about the harm, benefits and impact of gadgets on learning, it is important to understand where and when we give them to children.

Gadgets in the classroom, of course, provide objectively more opportunities. And if they are used in a context that allows interaction with the child in the form of an interesting presentation and easier search for material, then yes, they are useful.

If at a history lesson a teacher presents part of the material using an interactive whiteboard, gives tasks to be completed on a tablet, if this enriches the lesson, makes it more interesting, more dynamic, then this, of course, is a plus. nine0003

If a child watches a cartoon with mom and dad on a tablet or laptop, that's good. In the process of viewing, he can ask questions to parents, discuss something. But we see the opposite situation, that the child just spends a lot of time alone with the gadget. More than 70% of preschool children declare this.

The downside of gadgets is the child's passivity. Its activity is not involved in any way. There is no adult nearby, the child almost never pauses to approach the parent and ask something, understand for himself some kind of context of what he saw, hear feedback. nine0003

App developers are not interested in their deep content, it's rather low level content, you have to admit it, because the main task of developers is to make sure that the child spends as much time as possible inside the program. They build learning by trial and error: did it, clicked - got feedback. This is not directed, meaningful learning, but the most primitive learning.

Another disadvantage is that there are aspects of life that the digital environment cannot replace. Gadgets do not teach or explain what human values, morality, ethics are. The digital environment is built on a chaotic, unstructured principle. nine0003

Of course, it is impossible to replace the communication between an adult and a child with any technology. We see the consequences of uncontrolled use of gadgets by children and a decrease in interpersonal communication - they are sad.

Readiness of children for school

The fact is that childhood is not only a period in a child's life. Childhood, according to psychologist Lev Semenovich Vygotsky, is characterized by a special attitude to the world. In childhood, a child not only plays, he explores, checks, creates, discovers new things. Nothing is impossible for him. If childhood is not fully lived, this loss is irreparable. It is no coincidence that the outstanding child psychologist Alexander Zaporozhets spoke about the need for amplification, that is, saturating childhood with the most appropriate types of activity for the age of a preschooler. This courage for knowledge and invention, which is born in childhood, the preschooler carries through his whole life. It is the basis for the development of the personality and its readiness to interact productively with the world. nine0003

If a psychologist says that a 6-year-old child is not emotionally mature for school, but intellectually, on the contrary, is ready, it is better to leave him at home for a year. If a parent feels that the child needs more time to harmoniously live his childhood, then it is better to give him such an opportunity.

Karina Saltykova, Konstantin Krasheninnikov

How a child's physical development affects his progress

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How does the physical development of a child affect his academic performance?

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Healthy children are physically active - this is inherent in nature, but in recent years their lifestyle has changed: they spend more and more time in front of the TV, computer and other devices. They walk less, preferring to travel by transport. And they don’t even frolic on the street, but “stick” on their phones, and more and more often they don’t want to study. nine0003

School success depends on many factors - from the child's intellectual abilities to the psychological environment around, and the degree of influence of these factors is individual. One of them is physical activity.

The effect of sports and physical activity on the brain of a child

Active movement increases the heart rate, due to which the blood rushes to the brain more intensively, and frequent and deep breathing increases the supply of oxygen to the bloodstream. These processes contribute to the formation of nerve cells in the brain that are responsible for memory and thinking. So, in a study conducted by Californian scientists, it was convincingly proven that a regular bike ride improves memory. nine0003

In addition, the child's sleep quality improves, cheerfulness and good mood appear, which is also important for productive studies. Cheerfulness helps to maintain clarity of thought and promotes concentration - this is important for the assimilation of new knowledge and the analysis of a large amount of information.

Sports develop endurance, discipline, concentration, responsibility. Agree, all these characteristics play a big role in the educational process.

How to effectively combine study and physical activity?

Speaking of physical activity, we do not mean professional sports. Physical education should be in the life of every child, sport - selectively. We are talking about adequate physical activity, which should:

correspond to the age of the child;
take into account his physical fitness and abilities;
give pleasure;

It is necessary to instill in a child a love for sports and physical activity as early as possible, including by example, because children take an example from us. If you do not go in for sports, and consider TV and games on the phone to be the best rest, then the child adopts a similar behavior. Parents need to break away from gadgets themselves, lead an active, healthy lifestyle and involve the child in this.