Prenatal Child Development

Child development involves the transformation a child undergoes from the moment they are conceived, till the end of adolescence. However, research suggests the fundamental period of child development occurs from the moment the child is conceived until the age of five. Child development is an extensive subject and consists of many key areas such as physical growth, psychological health and social wellbeing. While there is a lot of information to consider, the significant adults involved in a child’s life such as parents and caregivers should understand the key areas of child development. This way they can assist with social and emotional skills, learning abilities, and the overall health and wellbeing of the child.
One important aspect of

There are many areas a pregnant woman may want to consider throughout her pregnancy to ensure she is taking the appropriate steps to support her unborn child’s growth and development. During the nine months of pregnancy the most amazing developments occur within the woman’s uterus and is divided into three periods, the germinal stage, the embryonic stage, and the fetal stage (Rathus, 2017). Environmental influences that may affect a pregnancy may be teratogens, described as environmental agents that can be extremely harmful to an unborn child and/or malnutrition (Berk, 2011). Teratogens consist of radiation, infection and disease, drugs ingested, heavy metals and excessive hormones. A pregnant woman that experiences any of these teratogens puts their unborn child at risk in several ways and can threaten their cognitive development, the risk of organ defects and intellectual disabilities, growth deficiencies, prematurity, and miscarriage. The welfare of a pregnant woman can be linked to the

Physical development consists of a newborn child succeeding in taking control of their body and concentrating on motor skills. There are three key sequences of motor skills, cephalocaudal development which proceeds from the head to the lower parts of the body, proximodistal development which proceeds from the torso toward the edges of the body such as arms and legs, and differentiation, when a child matures their physical responses become specific (Rathus, 2017). In some cases, infants may go through a stage where they are not gaining any weight which could mean they are suffering a serious disorder called failure to thrive (FTT). The causes for FTT may be biologically or non-biologically based. Biologically based is the idea that the child’s health problems are due to the failure to acquire sufficient nutrition, whereas non-biologically based is psychological and/or social roots. FTT is linked to physical, cognitive, behavioural, and emotional behaviours. (reference add conclusive