Читать книгу Child Development From Infancy to Adolescence - Laura E. Levine - Страница 58

When studying development, we distinguish between three basic aspects or domains of development: physical, cognitive, and social-emotional. Physical development includes the biological changes that occur in the body, including changes in size and strength, as well as the integration of sensory and motor activities. Neurological, or brain, development has become a major area for research in physical development. Cognitive development includes changes in the way we think, understand, and reason about the world. It includes the accumulation of knowledge as well as the way we use that information for problem solving and decision making. Social-emotional development includes all the ways we learn to connect to other individuals, understand our emotions and the emotions of others, interact effectively with others, and express and regulate our emotions.

Physical development: Biological changes that occur in the body and brain, including changes in size and strength and the integration of sensory and motor activities.

Cognitive development: Changes in the way children think, understand, and reason as they grow older.

Social-emotional development: Age-related changes in the ways children connect to other individuals and express and understand emotions.

Although it is useful to make distinctions between these domains, it is important to understand that they continually interact with each other. For instance, during puberty adolescents undergo dramatic physical changes over a short period of time, but these changes also affect social development. As adolescents grow to look more like adults and less like children, adults begin to treat them more like adults, giving them new responsibility and expecting greater maturity from them. These opportunities, in turn, contribute to the cognitive development of adolescents as they learn from their new experiences.

Domains of development. When we study development, we look at changes in the physical, cognitive, and social-emotional development of children and adolescents.

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