Growth and Development Stages of Children

The rate of growth of all children varies but the average for gain in weight and height of school-aged children 5 to 12 years old is

• Weight: average gain of about 2-3 kg every year
• Height: average gain about 5-7cms per year

Change in Body Proportions: Change in body proportions occur— the head becomes smaller in proportion as compared to the rest of the body as the child grows. The head of the newborn is about 1/4th the size of the body and by 6-8 years of age it is about 1/6th of the body size.

Development of Teeth, Bones and Muscles

• Teeth: A 3 year old child has 20 baby or milk teeth but by the time the child is in middle childhood, he or she may have 28 teeth and some of these are permanent teeth.
• Bones: Most of the bones are well formed by middle childhood and they continue to grow in size and strength. Make sure your child has diet rich in calcium to make the growing bones strong.
• Muscles and Fat: The bones are surrounded by fat and muscles. Girls tend to have more fat than muscles around their bone on arms, legs and trunk, whereas boys have more of muscles than fat. This difference makes boys stronger than girls and this is why they can generally run longer distances, jump higher, etc.
• Motor development: As your child grows you will observe new and exciting skill that your child learns. Motor development or muscular co-ordination can be divided as gross motor development and fine motor development.
• Fine motor development: The movement of small muscles or activities such as writing, drawing, sewing that involve coordination of small muscles is called fine muscular coordination.
• Gross motor development: The movement of large muscles or activities such as running, balancing, skipping climbing, that involve coordination of large muscles is called gross muscular coordination.

What can my child do at this age

Children in the age group of 5-12 years if given practice and encouragement will learn any activity or skill, and will learn it best. This is the age when a child can learn maximum number of different activities. It is important to realize that every child progresses at different rates, however some of the common milestones your child may reach in this age group are as follows

6- to 7-year-olds

• enjoys several different activities and keeps busy
• enjoys painting and drawing
• may start lose milk tooth
• vision is as good as an adult's vision
• practices skills to improve them
• Can balance on one foot for a short while
• Can skip rope with two legs
• Can throw a ball to the distance that  he or she wants
• enjoys riding bike

8- to 9-year-olds

• has better coordinated movements and abilities
• Loves to jump, skip, and chase
• Can jump as high as self.
• Can dress and grooms self independently
• can use tools such as hammer, screwdriver

10- to 12-year-olds

• Better fine movements, like can play with a pencil using only the index finger and the thumb or twirl it around or apply just the right pressure for writing.
• Has more coordinated movements like can judge and catch a small ball, can balance him or her and hop on one foot for prolonged periods, can run and jump hurdles at same time
• remainder of adult teeth will develop
• likes to sew and paint

Issues related to physical appearance and skills

It is important to realize that every child grows at different rates like some...