Factors influencing Growth & Development

Factors influencing growth & development:

Growth and Development are two important processes that change human life. Growth is a change in body size, volume and weight. On the other hand Development is an improvement in performance with changes in body size, volume and weight. Various factors affect Growth and Development. Those factors are usually divided into two categories. They are —

1) Internal Factors,

2) External Factors.

Let us know in details about these two types of factors.

1) Internal Factors:-

First of all let’s talk about internal factors. All the factors those are located inside the person that affect the growth and development of the person are called internal factors. Some of the most notable of these are-

i) Heredity,

ii) Intelligence,

iii) Emotional Factors,

iv) Biological Factors,

v) Gender,

vi) Race.

i) Heredity:-

Heredity is a biological process through which children inherit various physical and social traits from their parents and ancestors. It affects the growth and development of the baby in many ways. Such as- baby’s height, weight, body structure, hair color, eye color, intelligence, ability etc.

ii) Intelligence:-

Intelligence is a kind of ability that helps a person to learn, adapt to his environment and make the right decisions at the right time. Intelligence plays an important role in growth and development. The physical, mental, social, emotional, moral and linguistic development of a child is influenced and controlled by his level of intelligence.

iii) Emotional Factors:-

The Emotional Factors refers to the Emotional adaptive capacity and the Emotional maturation. These have a significant impact on a person’s growth and development. If a person cannot control his emotion, he can cause of damage to his own physical and mental health, which will affect his growth and development.

iv) Biological Factors:-

The most important biological factors affecting human growth and development are-

a) Hormone,

b) Nerves System,

c) Physically Weakness,

d) Defective constitutional make-up.

a) Hormone:-

There are multiple glands in the human body. Each of them secretes its own fluid. This is known as hormone. It is a type of biological component that helps to increase and decrease the activity of various organs of the human body. It is an important factor that affects human growth and development in many ways from birth. For the normal and harmonious growth and development of human beings, its normal functioning and emission is essential.

b) Nerves System:-

The nervous system controls a person’s entire physical activity and affects its growth and development. When a person’s nervous system is defective, his normal growth and development is disrupted.

c) Physically Weakness:-

Physically weak children are always lagging behind in terms of growth and development. They often suffer from illness, which affects their physical, mental, social and emotional growth and development.

d) Defective constitutional make-up:-

Some of the defective body structures are ugly face, abnormally low height, abnormally high weight etc. These give rise to feelings of inferiority among individuals. As a result, individuals face social adaptation problems, which affect their normal growth and development.

v) Gender):-

Gender is a very important factor that affects the growth and development of a child. There are many differences between the growth and development of boys and girls. This is why we see that the physical growth of girls in adolescence is faster than boys. All in all, there is a difference between boys and girls in terms of overall physical constitution and growth.

vi) Race:-

Race factor is another important factor in the growth and development of children and human beings. Due to Race factor, people of different races differ in their physical size, volume, weight, skin color, physical constitution, etc. For example, the physical size, height, weight, hair color, physical constitution of the ‘Gorkha’ peoples of the hill will be the same as other ‘Gorkha’ peoples of the hill.

2) External Factors:-

External factors influencing growth and development refer to the factors which remain within the environment and outside the individuals. All these factors are further divided into two categories. They are –

i) Environment in the womb of the mother,

ii) Environment available after birth.

i) Environment in the womb of the mother:-

The baby has to stay in the mother’s womb from the creation of the first life until the moment before birth. At this time the maternal environment has a special effect on the growth and development of the baby. For nourishment and rearing what environments are given to the child during this time is very important. The things which play a particularly important role at this time are –

I) Physical and mental health of the mother during pregnancy.

II) Quantity and quality of nutrition received by the child while in the womb.

III) Is one or more children being growing up in the mother’s womb at the same time?

IV) Any accident or loss of the baby while in the womb.

V) Normal or abnormal delivery.

ii) Environment available after birth:-

What kind of environment the baby gets after birth also affects the growth and development of the baby in different ways. The most common environmental factors that affect a child’s growth and development during this time are –

I) Accident and Incident in life,

II) The Quality of Physical Environment, Medical Care and Nourishment,

III) The quality of the facilities and opportunities provided by the social and cultural forces,

IV) Socio-Economic Factors,

V) Nutritional Factors,

VI) Pollution.

I) Accident and Incident in life:-

What kinds of incidents or accidents a person has faced in his life, that leaves a profound effect on growth and development of the person. For example, if a child’s nervous system is damaged by an accident, it will affect the child’s overall growth and development.

II) The Quality of Physical Environment, Medical Care and Nourishment:-

How much physical environment the person is getting to save his life and work? What kind of medical care he is getting? What kind of nutrition he is getting? What is their quality? Etc. affects growth and development in many ways. For example, living in an open and healthy environment, getting proper medical care and getting proper quantity and quality food or nutrition are essential for the healthy and normal growth and development of a child.

III) The quality of the facilities and opportunities provided by the social and cultural forces:-

The growth and development of a child depends to a large extent on the quality of the facilities and opportunities that the child gets from his social and cultural environment. The most important facilities and opportunities received from the social and cultural environment are –

a) What kind of care the child gets from his parents and other family members?

b) What are the neighbors and the environment where the child lives?

c) What kind of treatment the child or his family gets from the society in terms of caste, religion, nationality, citizenship etc.?

d) What is the social and economic condition of the child’s parents or his family?

e) What is the quality of school and education of the child? What kind of vocational facilities are there and what is its quality?

f) How is the child’s relationship with his or her classmates?

g) What is the power and status of the country in which the child is living?

h) What is the administration and law of the country where the child is living?

IV) Socio-Economic Factors:–

Another important factor influencing growth and development is the social and economic factors. Children from socially and economically advanced families are far ahead than children from socially and economically underdeveloped families in terms of growth and development. The most important reasons for this are – regular balanced and nutritious food, improved facilities, proper sleep, proper care, proper medical care, etc.

V) Nutritional Factors:-

The most important factor influencing growth and development is nutrition. Nutrition is essential, especially for the growth of individuals. Adequate nutritious food is essential for the healthy and normal growth and development of the human body. Lack of adequate nutritious food disrupts the normal growth and development of the human body. In the Studies, it is shown that in many developing countries, the lack of adequate nutritious food has caused many problems among the people there. If children are deprived from nutritious food, their growth and development will slow down. Because nutritious food contains nine types of amino acids. Which are very important for the growth and development of the baby. In addition, zinc, iodine, calcium, phosphorus and various vitamins are also essential for healthy normal growth and development. Children can get these only from nutritious foods.

VI) Pollution:-

Pollution is a factor that has negative effect on the growth and development of children and individuals. The information that has come up from different studies shows that different types of pollution such as air pollution, water pollution, soil pollution and above all environmental pollution have a negative impact on human growth and development. For example – air pollution has a negative effect on the respiratory system. Besides, it also has negative effect on the normal growth and development of a person.

So, from the above discussion we able to know the various factors influencing Growth & Development.

⇒ Growth and its characteristics.

⇒ Development and its characteristics.

⇒ Relation and Differences between Growth and Development.

⇒ Stages and Areas of Growth & Development.

⇒ Principle of Development in Psychology.

⇒ Educational Implication of Principle of Growth & Development.

⇒ Growth & Development affecting Special Social Factors.

⇒ Why should a teacher study Growth & Development ?

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⇒ Kindle Edition – Childhood and Growing UP (English Version) – Semester -1, Course – 1, First Half : Development and Its Characteristics