Chapter 9

BODILY GROWTH AND CHANGE

Children grow rapidly between ages 3 and 6 but less quickly than in infancy and toddlerhood.

RACE/ETHNICITY

access to quality healthcare is a particular problem among African American and Latino children, especially those who are poor.

PREVENTING OVERWEIGHT

as children go through the preschool period, their eating patterns become more environmentally influenced.

ARTISIC DEVELOPMENT

by age 3, children draw in basic shapes, such as circles, squares or rectangles, triangles, crosses, X's, and odd forms. Between age 4 and 5, they enter the pictorial stage.

MOTOR DEVELOPMENT IN EARLY CHILDHOOD

development of the sensory and motor areas of the cerebral cortex allows the development of children's motor skills to become increasingly more effective.

HOMELESSNESS

has increased since the 1980s; families make up 40% of the homeless population, with the majority being in rural areas; many homeless children spend crucial early years in unstable, insecure, and often unsanitary environments leading to medical, neurological, emotional, and developmental problems.

SLEEP PATTERNS AND PROBLEMS

most U.S. children average about 11 hours of sleep at night by age 5, and give up daytime naps. They also sleep more deeply than they will later in life.

ENURESIS

repeated urination in clothing or in bed. About 10-15% of five year olds, primarily boys, wet the bed regularly. More than half outgrow the bed-wetting by age 8. It is a common problem that children should not be punished for. If it persists past age 8-10, it may be a sign of poor self-concept or other psychological problems.

SOCIOECONOMIC STATUS

the lower a family's SES, the greater a child's risks of illness, injury, and death.

HANDEDNESS

the preference for using one hand over the other is usually evident by age 3. Boys are more likely to be left-handed than girls. Some theories support that there is a gene for right-handedness, with about 82% of people inheriting this gene from either one or both parents. Those who do not inherit the gene have a 50-50 chance of being right-handed, otherwise, they will be left handed or ambidextrous