Understand child and young person development
Unit 022
Outcome 1

1. Aspects of a child and young person’s development include:
Physical development: gross motor skills (using large muscle groups and whole body movement such as in the arms and legs) fine motor skills (small muscle movements such as in the hands and fingers)
Communication: learning the skills of conveying information to others and understanding others in return.
Intellectual/cognitive: The development of our perception, attention and memory; producing and understanding language; learning; reasoning; problem solving and decision making. The ability to think and to process the information we collect and apply knowledge.
Social, emotional and behavioural: Learning the skills of living in society, the development of a child’s identity and sense of self enabling the development of positive relationships, and managing and expressing emotions.
Moral: the ability to learn the difference between right and wrong, to understand the necessity of rules and to understand how to make the right choices.
2. The difference between sequence of development and rate of development is that the sequence of development is the order that development happens; children generally follow the same sequence unless there are disabilities. The rate is the speed that it happens and this can be different for each child. The difference is important as they are both used to assess a child’s development: if the development is happening in the expected order and how quickly/slowly the child is progressing, this can flag up any possible concerns so that early intervention is possible.

Outcome 2

1. Children and young people’s development is influenced by a range of personal factors:
Health: Genetic health problems can lead to cognitive deficiencies, language delays and maturation delays. Chronic illness can cause delayed growth; loss of strength and stamina and socialization concerns. People with autism can find it hard to communicate their health problems and this can have a huge impact on their development. If a child had poor eyesight or hearing but was unable to communicate this and it was left undiagnosed it could lead to issues which touch on every aspect of a child’s life: education; reading; writing; speech; behavioural problems; social problems; problems forming relationships and withdrawal.
Disability: Children could have physical disabilities which can mean they are unable to take part in activities which other children can such as sport; activities which require fine motor skills; playing physical games which can make a child feel isolated or ‘different’. If a child relies on a wheelchair to get around, they can be denied access to activities or services if there is no wheelchair access (ramps etc.). Children with learning disabilities for example autism, can have problems communicating; understanding social situations; understanding emotions; facial expressions; body language; activities which involve turn taking and can be uncomfortable with eye contact. All of this can affect their development and ability to interact in the classroom and social settings. This can make a child feel very lonely and cut off from their peers resulting in avoiding social interaction/situations, feelings of frustration and behavioural problems. Children with disabilities can be bullied or subjected to prejudice or discrimination; this can affect their self-esteem, cause depression and withdrawal, and lead to problems with learning and development.
Sensory impairment: This can lead to lack of coordination; speech and language delays; delayed fine motor skills and gross motor skills; delayed social interaction and development of play; difficulty listening and identifying sounds. Children with autism may be very sensitive to heat; light; sound; touch and taste but be unable to communicate this. At the other end of this a child may need to experience strong tastes, loud noises or deep