Allama iqbal open university, Islamabad

Assignment No. 2
SPRING 2022

Name: Sumaira Bibi

Roll No: ce609332

PROGRAM: B.Ed. (1.5 YEARS)

Course Code: 8610

Course Name: HUMAN DEVELOPMENT AND LEARNING

Question no.1
Emotional development is important for children even before going to
school. Discuss emotional characteristics of preschool children.
Emotional Development
Emotional development is a complex task that begins in infancy and continues into
adulthood. The first emotions that can be recognised in babies include joy, anger, sadness and
fear. As children’s sense of self develops, more complex emotions like shyness, surprise,
elation, embarrassment, shame, guilt, pride and empathy emerge. School aged children and
young people are still learning to identify emotions, to understand why they happen, and how
to manage them appropriately.

Emotional expression includes several components:

• physical responses (like heart rate, breathing and hormone levels)
• behavioural displays of emotion
• feelings that children and young people recognise and learn to name
• thoughts and judgments associated with feelings
• action signals (for example, a desire to approach, escape or fight).

Influences on emotional expression include:

• values and beliefs about appropriate and inappropriate ways of expressing emotions
that children and young people learn from families and educators
• how effectively children and young people’s emotional needs are usually met
• children and young people’s temperaments
• cultural norms
• emotional behaviors that children and young people have learned through observation
or experience
• the extent to which families are under various kinds of stress.

The rate of emotional development in children and young people can vary from person to person. Some
children may show a high level of emotional skill development while quite young, whereas others take
longer to develop the capacity to manage their emotions well into adolescence.

INSTANT GRATIFICATION
Toddlers and preschoolers are ruled by their emotions and don’t have much, if any,
impulse control. And if there is one thing they don’t like, it’s being delayed gratification.
This, combined with their struggle to separate feelings from actions, means they’ll want to
immediately express an emotion or gratify a desire. They will cry immediately when sad and
when they feel they want something they will try to take it right away.
Keep this in mind as you try your best to teach them appropriate ways to show what they’re
feeling as well as sharing and turn-taking skills.

Feeling for others

Sympathy and empathy begin to develop at a young age too. After seeing a friend or
sibling get hurt, your child may try to comfort them, offering kind words or a reassuring hug
or pat on the back. As children become more aware of their emotions and how to control them,
they also become more aware of the feelings of those around them. This can be an especially
happy thing to see blossom in your child.

Separation anxiety
Three-year-olds are generally less interested in playing with other children, and have
a greater capacity to be affected by separation anxiety; they’ll be more interested in staying
with their parents or primary caregivers. Generally, four-year-olds will have an easier time with
this and any separation anxiety will be more short-lived.

Though your 3-year-old is beginning to understand the emotions they are feeling, they
still have very little control over them. If they find something funny, they'll laugh hysterically.
If something makes them feel sad or angry, they'll burst into tears.
At this age, your preschooler still hasn't developed much impulse control. If they feel
something, they are likely to act on it. This may mean snatching a toy away from another child
if they want to play with it, or getting upset when they want a snack after being told they have
to wait until dinnertime. Delayed gratification means nothing to them -- they want it, and want
it now.

Three- and 4-year-old children may use hitting, biting, or pushing as a way to solve
conflicts. They simply don't understand the difference between appropriate and inappropriate
interactions yet. It's your job to teach your child that there are right and wrong ways to express
emotions and resolve problems with others.
As your child gets older, they'll begin to see a connection between emotional outbursts and negative
consequences. Throwing a tantrum may result in a "time out" or a favorite toy being taken away.
These consequences are helping your 4-year-old understand a tantrum isn't an acceptable way to
show emotion.

Your 4-year-old is also a budding comedian. They are starting to develop a sense of
humor, and love being silly and making people laugh. Don't be surprised if you hear them calling
their friend a "poo-poo head" and then laughing hysterically; 4-year-olds find potty talk highly
entertaining.

Around age 3, children begin to develop a vivid imagination. At this age, your preschooler
will begin to spend a great deal of time in a fantasy world of their own creation. Their dolls and
stuffed animals all have names and personalities. They may chat with imaginary friends. Parents
sometimes worry that imaginary friends are a sign of loneliness or isolation, but in fact they're just
the opposite. Children use this type of fantasy play to learn how to interact with real people. It's
practice for the "real world." At an age when your child has very little control over their own life,
their fantasy world is their own creation. They're in charge. Around the same time your
preschooler begins to talk to an imaginary friend, they may also develop a fear of the monster
living under their bed. These types of fears are common. They are also quite serious to them,
so don't make a joke out of it. The best thing you can do is reassure your child that they are
safe and nothing is going to hurt them.

As your child gets older, fantasy play will continue to be an important part of their life,
but they'll get better at understanding the difference between fantasy and reality. their fantasies
will get more elaborate and sophisticated, and don't be surprised if they sometimes involve
violence. Don't let games of shoot-'em-up bother you; it's totally normal for children to be
fascinated with weapons and violence at this age, and it's not a sign that they'll be violent when
they're older.

Autonomy versus shame and doubt is the second stage of Erik Erikson's stages of
psychosocial development. This stage occurs between the ages of 18 months to approximately
3 years. According to Erikson, children at this stage are focused on developing a sense of
personal control over physical skills and a sense of independence.
Success in this stage will lead to the virtue of will. If children in this stage are encouraged and
supported in their increased independence, they become more confident and secure in their
own ability to survive in the world.
 If children are criticized, overly controlled, or not given the opportunity to assert
themselves, they begin to feel inadequate in their ability to survive, and may then become
overly dependent upon others, lack self-esteem, and feel a sense of shame or doubt in their
abilities.
The child is developing physically and becoming more mobile, and discovering that he
or she has many skills and abilities, such as putting on clothes and shoes, playing with toys,
etc. Such skills illustrate the child's growing sense of independence and autonomy.
For example, during this stage children begin to assert their independence, by walking away
from their mother, picking which toy to play with, and making choices about what they like to
wear, to eat, etc.
Erikson states it is critical that parents allow their children to explore the limits of their
abilities within an encouraging environment which is tolerant of failure.
For example, rather than put on a child's clothes a supportive parent should have the patience
to allow the child to try until they succeed or ask for assistance.
So, the parents need to encourage the child to become more independent while at the same time
protecting the child so that constant failure is avoided.
A delicate balance is required from the parent. They must try not to do everything for the child,
but if the child fails at a particular task they must not criticize the child for failures and accidents
(particularly when toilet training).
The aim has to be “self control without a loss of self-esteem” (Gross, 1992).

The older your preschooler gets, the more they'll crave independence. It may sound like a
contradiction, but the best way to nurture your preschooler's independence and self-confidence is
to keep their life fairly structured. Give them choices, but don't give them endless choices. Let them
choose between two outfits to wear, or ask them if they want a turkey sandwich or macaroni and
cheese for lunch. When they ask to do something you know isn't a good idea, hold firm. Being
allowed choices within a structured framework will help to boost their self-confidence while at the
same time letting them know they are safe and secure.

References:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/37811146_Emotional_Development

https://www.pubs.ext.vt.edu/content/dam/pubs_ext_vt_edu/350/350-053/350-053(FCE-134P).pdf

https://www.academia.edu/6652139/Emotional_Development
 Questiono.2
What is the role of community in moral development of a child?

Role of Community in Moral Development of a child

Community is essential to quality outcomes of children. A community provides an
important relationship environment; promotes belonging, a sense of identity and learning;
supports active participation in the world and continuity of learning; and connects children and
families to supportive relationship and resource networks.

Young children develop in an environment of relationships, with a child’s community

providing a vital relationship context for their learning and development. This is particularly
important during the early years when the foundations of brain architecture are being built.
From birth, positive, responsive, consistent and secure relationships with others provide a
supportive, growth-promoting environment for children’s development, wellbeing and
learning. Children’s academic, social-emotional and mental health outcomes are built on this
foundation.

A child’s relationship environment begins in the family, but then extends to adults and
peers outside of the family who have important roles in their life. Educators and other education
and care staff are a significant part of many children’s relationship environment. Communities
that foster positive interactions and relationships between children, peers and adults strengthen
children’s outcomes.

Community is essential to quality outcomes of children. A community provides an

important relationship environment; promotes belonging, a sense of identity and learning;
supports active participation in the world and continuity of learning; and connects children and
families to supportive relationship and resource networks.

When children have a sense of belonging and feel safe, secure and supported, they have
the confidence to play, explore and learn. A service that is strongly connected to the people
and place of its community is welcoming, inclusive, connected to the culture and context of
children’s families, while nurturing respectful and reciprocal relationships with children’s
families. Connection to community creates a responsive, safe and stable education and care
environment which, in turn, promotes children’s belonging and learning.
Children’s understanding of their self is developed through relationships and in the context of
their families and communities. ‘Relationships engage children in the human community in
ways that help them define who they are, what they can become, and how and why they are
important to other people’ (Center on the Developing Child, 2004, p. 1). Identity is a strong
foundation for children’s social and emotional development as well as their sense of agency.
Having everyday experiences and participating with the people and places of a community
enables children to observe, engage, understand and actively contribute to their expanding
world. This supports children to live interdependently with others, be decision-makers and have
influence. The ability to participate in different communities – a central element of citizenship
– helps young children to respond to diversity and become socially responsible.

Moral behaviour:
Moral behaviour means behaviour in conformity with the moral code of the social group. The
term ‘Moral’ comes from the Latin word ‘mores’ meaning manners, customs and folkways.
Moral behaviour not only conforms to social standards but also it is carried out voluntarily. It
is always a companied by a feeling of responsibility for one’s acts. It involves giving primary
consideration to the welfare of the group and considering personal gain or desires as having
secondary importance.

Moral concepts:
Moral concepts are the rules of behaviour to which the members of a culture become
accustomed and which determine the expected behaviour patterns of all group members.

Stages of Moral Development:

A-moral stage:
This stage lasts from birth to two years. The new born baby has no idea of good or bad,
or right and wrong. He is moved solely by his urges and wants. He is unaware of the effects
his act has on others.
Self-centered stage:
This stage usually goes up to six years. Some individuals may remain fixated at this
stage even much later. At this stage the person learns to distinguish between self-interest and
group interest but he is not prepared to sacrifice his own interest. A self-centred act is done
more with a view to satisfy one’s impulses or desires than to disregard a moral rule.

Conforming conventional stage:

During this stage motive or activity of the child is not self-approval but group approval.
At this stage a child may ignore his own impulses and act only in the manner which is normal
in his group. Conformity to norms of the social group is fairly common at the late childhood
stage. By doing so he learns many right things.
The heart plays an important role in pumping blood to the entire body. When students remain
inactive throughout the day, they can be at a risk of various cardiovascular issues. Unlike
adults, children don’t have to spend a lot of their time in the gym to get the adequate amount
of workout. All they need is ample playtime and running around the field.

• Regular physical activity promotes growth and development and has multiple
benefits for physical, mental, and psychosocial health that undoubtedly contribute to
learning.

• Specifically, physical activity reduces the risk for heart disease, diabetes mellitus,
osteoporosis, high blood pressure, obesity, and metabolic syndrome; improves
various other aspects of health and fitness, including aerobic capacity, muscle and
bone strength, flexibility, insulin sensitivity, and lipid profiles; and reduces stress,
anxiety, and depression.

• Physical activity can improve mental health by decreasing and preventing conditions
such as anxiety and depression, as well as improving mood and other aspects of well-
being.

• Physical activity programming specifically designed to do so can improve

psychosocial outcomes such as self-concept, social behaviors, goal orientation, and
most notably self-efficacy.

• These attributes in turn are important determinants of current and future participation
in physical activity. Sedentary behaviors such as sitting and television viewing
 contribute to health risks both because of and independently of their impact on
physical activity.

• Health-related behaviors and disease risk factors track from childhood toadulthood,
indicating that early and ongoing opportunities for physical activity are needed for
maximum health benefit.

• To be effective, physical activity programming must align with the predictable

developmental changes in children's exercise capacity and motor skills, which affect
the activities in which they can successfully engage.

• Frequent bouts of physical activity throughout the day yield short-term benefits for
mental and cognitive health while also providing opportunities to practice skills and
building confidence that promotes ongoing engagement in physical activity.

• Distinct types of physical activity address unique health concerns and contribute in
distinct ways to children's health, suggesting that a varied regimen including aerobic
and resistance exercise, structured andunstructured opportunities, and both longer
sessions and shorter bouts will likely confer the greatest benefit.

Irrational conscientious stage:

Conscience is a term which is used for internal self-criticism which makes a person
reject an act because it conflicts with his ideals even though it may attain his external goals.
Behaviour is irrational conscientious when an individual act in the light of the values which
are held emotionally rather than rationally.
For example, always speak the truth even if it results in somebody being hanged or
found out by a mob and lynched. Almost all adolescents pass through this stage of holding on
to social values or emotional basis before they attain the highest level of moral development.
Children who exercise regularly, have good nutrition and sleep well are more likely to attend
school, and do well at school. And the benefits are not just for children: good physical health
is associated with enhanced quality of life, increased productivity in the workplace and
increased participation in the community and society.

However, children and young people across the OECD are not engaging enough in the
behaviors they need to be healthy. Between 2000 to 2016, PISA data show that children and
young people were less likely to reach the minimum recommended daily physical activity
levels (>60 minutes of moderate to vigorous activity daily). They were also less likely to get
enough quality sleep, and more likely to be overweight and obese and have poor dietary
habits (including increasing overconsumption of soft drinks, sweets, salty snacks and fast
food).

These trends are extremely concerning. Unhealthy lifestyle behaviors are associated
with higher rates of cardiovascular diseases and type II diabetes, and while historically
considered to be diseases of adulthood, these are now evident in children as young as two
years old.

Education is uniquely placed to positively influence the health of students.

Rational altruistic stage:

That highest level is the rational altruistic stage. Here the values are not found in emotional
conditioning but in rational judgment. In other words the person acquires values and ideals at
rational and not at emotional basis. That is the values are put above or below in a hierarchy in
relation to their consequences for the welfare of others. At this level a person adheres neither
to the group norm nor to abstract ‘law’ or morality. But he acts and decides on the basis of
reasoning and the best consideration for others.

References:

https://www.cdc.gov/healthyschools/physicalactivity/facts.htm#:~:text=Students%20who%20are%20phys
ically%20active,%2C%20on%2Dtask%20behavior).&text=Higher%20physical%20activity%20and%20
physical,concentration%2C%20memory)%20among%20students.

https://ihtusa.com/why-physical-education-is-necessary-for-every-student/

https://studentwellbeinghub.edu.au/students/secondary/year-10-year-12/topics/physical-and-mental-
health-for-learning/

Question no.3
Language needs of community to be developed. Discuss.
Need of community to Developed
A speech community is a group of people who share rules for conducting and
interpreting at least one variety of a language or dialect. The term can be applied to a
neighborhood, a city, a region or a nation. We all belong to at least one speech community. The
earliest speech community we belong to is the one we share with our primary caregivers
(usually our parents) and is the basis for some of the most intimate and long term relationships
we form across our life. The rules and norms of this speech community show up in a dialect
referred to as the vernacular, the most basic variety or dialect of language we command. Our
vernacular speech is least susceptible to monitoring and least likely to change across our
lifetime.

Most of us were immersed in language from our first awareness of the world around
us. Since infants can hear the sound of their mother’s voice and the noises and interactions in
her environment in the womb, we probably hear our first sounds before we take our first breath.
Fairly early in our development, we target in our babbling those sounds that form the phonology
of our language or dialect. In interaction with us, our mother adjusts her speech to reflect the
phonology, morphology, semantic and syntactic relationships that we are learning. Indeed, our
vernacular speech forms the very basis of all future linguistic interaction and development.
Across our lifetime we will participate in, construct, engage in, and possibly abandon many
speech communities. No other will be as primary.

When we enter school we bring more than the pronunciation patterns, lexicon, syntactic
structures, semantic and interpretive frameworks of the language variation or dialect we speak.
We have begun to learn to whom we should say what and when. Furthermore, we have learned
rules of conversation and linguistic interaction. We have learned to identify whose turn it is to
speak, how to get the floor ourselves, and when a person’s turn is over. All of these linguistic
skills support us in our first steps toward the development of literacy. When the patterns of the
speech communities we join at school are not that much different from the discourse patterns
of the speech community (or communities) we participate in with our parents, literary
development is more natural and easier.

When the linguistic heritage we bring to school contrasts sharply with the norms of the
speech community of the school, it creates difficulties not just for speaking but for
participating. If our linguistic heritage is viewed as problematic, divergent, or substandard, we
may think of ourselves as problems. We may feel shame for who we are and the community
we come from. If how we speak, gain access to participation, interpret behavior, or respond
politely is misunderstood by the school as laziness, recalcitrance, disrespectfulness, or
stupidity, our entire educational future and our ability to achieve our intellectual potential may
be called into question.

Linguistic heritage that is suspect usually comes from those who either speak a different
language or use dialects judged to be non-standard. John Ogbu points out that just because
people speak a different language or dialect does not mean they will not do well in learning a
new language and in achieving success in a new culture. But in the United States as well as
other countries in the world, some groups do better in this process than others. Some point to
cultural patterns to account for differences in successful participation.
This term refers to the linguistic resources which learners need in order successfully to cope
with the forms of communication in which they are going to be involved in the short or medium
term. These needs (and hence these communication situations) are identified as part of a
specific process which consists of gathering together the information required to assess what
uses will actually be made of the language learnt and thereby determine what types of content
should be taught on a priority basis.

This process necessarily is the starting point for the development of language
programmes intended for learners like adults who are not covered by school education. It is
particularly relevant for adult migrants who have to cope in a pressing manner, from the
moment of their arrival and on a daily basis, with exchanges in a language of which they have
limited or no knowledge. It must lead to the development of tailor-made courses, which are the
only means of meeting the expectations of the relevant groups. However, it should not be
reduced to a technique for specialists, as the needs cannot be defined without input from those
concerned or indeed on their behalf.

In order to specify the language needs of a particular group which is regarded as

homogeneous on the basis of certain aspects, use is made of data such as information
questionnaires for learners, interviews with them and with native speakers in contact with them,
samples of their spoken and written production and observations of language activities which
take place in the context(s) concerned... This approach is particularly vital if the needs to be
identified concern professional activities: what competences for a given job or professional
assignment? The information is gathered by means of external observations (which may be
described as "objective") or through the feelings of those concerned (subjective analysis), the
two being complementary. Several players are involved in the process of developing courses
for adults and adult migrants and they do not necessarily have the same views about the aims
or the methods of the teaching.
Initiative versus guilt is the third stage of Erik Erikson's theory of psychosocial development.
During the initiative versus guilt stage, children assert themselves more frequently through
directing play and other social interaction.
These are particularly lively, rapid-developing years in a child’s life. According to Bee (1992),
it is a “time of vigor of action and of behaviors that the parents may see as aggressive."
During this period the primary feature involves the child regularly interacting with other
children at school. Central to this stage is play, as it provides children with the opportunity to
explore their interpersonal skills through initiating activities.
Children begin to plan activities, make up games, and initiate activities with others. If given
this opportunity, children develop a sense of initiative and feel secure in their ability to lead
others and make decisions.
Conversely, if this tendency is squelched, either through criticism or control, children develop
a sense of guilt. The child will often overstep the mark in his forcefulness, and the danger is
that the parents will tend to punish the child and restrict his initiatives too much.
It is at this stage that the child will begin to ask many questions as his thirst for
knowledge grows. If the parents treat the child’s questions as trivial, a nuisance or embarrassing
or other aspects of their behavior as threatening then the child may have feelings of guilt for
“being a nuisance”.
Too much guilt can make the child slow to interact with others and may inhibit their
creativity. Some guilt is, of course, necessary; otherwise the child would not know how to
exercise self-control or have a conscience.
A healthy balance between initiative and guilt is important. Success in this stage will lead to
the virtue of purpose, while failure results in a sense of guilt.
If the promoters of a language course are business managers, they may wish to obtain
immediate, practical results; for their part, teachers may give precedence to the
teaching methodologies which they believe are effective (communicative approach, task-based
approach...); while learners often approach their needs from the angle of their previous
experience of education/learning and their educational culture. These varied expectations
involving that many different interpretations of the language needs which have to be satisfied
require negotiation so that the objective and subjective needs are harmonised. Adult migrants
must not be excluded from the relevant exchanges.
The fifth stage of Erik Erikson's theory of psychosocial development is identity vs. role
confusion, and it occurs during adolescence, from about 12-18 years. During this stage,
adolescents search for a sense of self and personal identity, through an intense exploration of
personal values, beliefs, and goals.
During adolescence, the transition from childhood to adulthood is most important.
Children are becoming more independent, and begin to look at the future in terms of career,
relationships, families, housing, etc. The individual wants to belong to a society and fit in.
The adolescent mind is essentially a mind or moratorium, a psychosocial stage between
childhood and adulthood, and between the morality learned by the child, and the ethics to be
developed by the adult (Erikson, 1963, p. 245)
This is a major stage of development where the child has to learn the roles he will occupy as
an adult. It is during this stage that the adolescent will re-examine his identity and try to find
out exactly who he or she is. Erikson suggests that two identities are involved: the sexual and
the occupational.
According to Bee (1992), what should happen at the end of this stage is “a reintegrated
sense of self, of what one wants to do or be, and of one’s appropriate sex role”. During this
stage the body image of the adolescent changes.
Erikson claims that the adolescent may feel uncomfortable about their body for a while until
they can adapt and “grow into” the changes. Success in this stage will lead to the virtue
of fidelity.
Fidelity involves being able to commit one's self to others on the basis of accepting
others, even when there may be ideological differences.
During this period, they explore possibilities and begin to form their own identity based upon
the outcome of their explorations. Failure to establish a sense of identity within society ("I
don’t know what I want to be when I grow up") can lead to role confusion. Role confusion
involves the individual not being sure about themselves or their place in society.
In response to role confusion or identity crisis, an adolescent may begin to experiment with
different lifestyles (e.g., work, education or political activities).
Also pressuring someone into an identity can result in rebellion in the form of establishing a
negative identity, and in addition to this feeling of unhappiness.
Developing a shared language builds community.
Any sociologist could tell you shared language often forms the basis of a community. When
everyone uses the same vocabulary, the community becomes more close-knit and there is a
greater sense of camaraderie. You can shape community behavior with positive language.
There are a number of different approaches to the study of intellectualdevelopment in children.
As in the history of most branches of scientific knowledge, the study began with observation
and description. For many years descriptive accounts of children’s thinking, reasoning, and
other intellectual capacities were thoroughly mixed with descriptions of their social and
emotional development and of their verbal and motor skills. Moreover, there was at first a
tendency to attribute to the child mental processes that were simply miniature versions of adult
thought patterns. Such early observers as Darwin (1877) were careful and deliberate, but their
records often revealed the limitations of studying only one child, and the biases of the observer.
Predictably, the early, unsystematic observation of one child at a time was eventually replaced
by systematic efforts to measure children’s behavior and capacities in standardized and
objective ways. The growth of the mental testing movement in the first 40 years of the twentieth
century testifies to the enthusiasm that was generated by the possibility of applying the
precision of quantitative measurement to the task of comparing individual children and
calibrating the changes that take place over the early years of life. Although observation had
been supplemented by measurement, the primary purpose of these effortsremained descriptive,
and the generalizations achieved were themselves only descriptions of trends and
improvements that occurred consistently with increasing age.

Still more recently, since about 1950, there has been an increasing movement toward
the laboratory study of the ways in which patterns of development themselves change as age
changes. This recent work has been not so much concerned with the effects of age itself as with
the development in children of certain functional relationships between experience and
performance that have been demonstrated in human adults and have been found lacking in most
infrahuman species. The emphasis is on the application of laboratory controls and experimental
manipulations to the study of cognitive development. The aim is to control the stimulus
conditions under which behavior is observed and to explain why intellect develops, as well as
describing how and when it develops.

Such an approach does not obviate the need for study of the child’s understanding as it
changes with age. Rather, it relies on developmental descriptions of intellectual processes and
products for clues as to when a certain level of understanding or specific intellectual
accomplishment is likely to be achieved, and what repertoire of cognitive processes constitutes
the means available for such an accomplishment at that age. Even the correlation of processes
with products over ages, however, leaves the detailed cause-effect analysis still to be
performed.

In contrast, a functional emphasis, i.e., a concern with dynamics, processes, and

interrelationships, is found in the descriptions of cognitive development and in the explorations
of dynamic mechanisms in cognitive change that have largely been undertaken by American
behaviorists and behavior analysts and by Soviet pedagogists. These lines of research are more
concerned with the processes of learning and thinking than with the structure of understanding.
It is to the contributions of these functionalists that the present article is primarily devoted. It
will be necessary first to summarize the most important age changes that have been described
from infancy to adolescence. Consideration is then given to cognition, seen as the elaboration
and selective generalization of simpler forms of learning and conditioning. Concepts such as
mediation, learning set, and expectancy are discussed in relation to experimental studies of
discrimination learning and discrimination reversal, concept formation, and the perceptual
constancies. Curiosity and exploratory motivation are treated in relation to orienting responses
and observing behavior. Research on acquired dis-inactiveness, equivalence, and relevance of
cues is presented as evidence for the importance of a general class of intervening responses,
and the major role of language in this connection is stressed. Finally, consideration is given to
individual differences in cognitive style, including discussion of such variables as field
dependency, rigidity, reflectivity, and creativity.

2. Understanding the language of your community makes users feel like they’re on the
inside.
Everyone likes to feel important or in the know. Once again, knowledge of a community
language helps people feel like they are an integral part of the group, fostering a stronger sense
of member or customer loyalty.

3. The words that we use to refer to people change how we treat those people.
Using the right words will help to reinforce the community objective, while the wrong words
will obscure the purpose of the community.

References:
https://www.fraserhealth.ca/health-topics-a-to-z/children-and-youth/need of
community#.Ys2ha3XMIps
https://www.encyclopedia.com/social-sciences/applied-and-social-sciences-
magazines/community-development
https://childdevelopmentinfo.com/child-development/Role of development and
community-in-children-and-teens/#gs.5kq8g1

Question no.4
Discuss general characteristics of learning.

General characteristics of Learning

The process of learning is continuous which starts right from the time of birth of an
individual and continues till the death. We all are engaged in the learning endeavours in order
to develop our adaptive capabilities as per the requirements of the changing environment. For
a learning to occur, two things are important: 1. The presence of a stimulus in the environment
and 2. The innate dispositions like emotional and instinctual dispositions. A person keeps on
learning across all the stages of life, by constructing or reconstructing experiences under the
influence of emotional and instinctual dispositions.
Psychologists in general define Learning as relatively permanent behavioural modifications
which take place as a result of experience. This definition of learning stresses on three
important elements of learning:
• Learning involves a behavioral change which can be better or worse.
 • This behavioral change should take place as a result of practice and experience. Changes
resulting from maturity or growth cannot be considered as learning
• This behavioral change must be relatively permanent and last for a relatively long time
enough.
Learning is the process by which one acquires, ingests, and stores or accepts information. The
main characteristic of learning that; it is a process of obtaining knowledge to change human
behavior through interaction, practice, and experience.
Characteristics of learning are;
• Learning involves change.
• All learning involves activities.
• Learning Requires Interaction.
• Constitute Learning.
• Learning is a Lifelong Process.
• Learning Occurs Randomly Throughout Life.
• Learning Involves Problems Solving.
• Learning is the Process of Acquiring Information.
• Learning Involves far more than Thinking.
• Experience is Necessary for Learning.
Learning involves change.
It is a reconstruction, combined thinking, skill, information and appropriation in a single unity
process.
For example, when a child learns to read they can retain this knowledge and behavior for the
rest of their lives. It is not always reflected in performance. The change from the learning may
not be clear until a situation arises in which the new behavior can occur.

All learning involves activities

These activities involve either physical or mental activity. They may be simple mental activities
of complex, involving various muscles, bones, etc.

Learning Requires Interaction

At the time of learning, the individual is constantly interacting with and influenced by the
environment. This experience makes him change or modify his behavior to deal effectively
with it.
Constitute Learning
To constitute learning, the change should be permanent. Temporary changes may be only
reflective and fail to represent any learning.

Learning is a Lifelong Process

Learning is a lifelong process of gaining and using the information presented to a person. It is
not static.
A person never stops acquiring new information. It keeps a person’s mind active and aware but
also conscious of the world around them.

Learning Occurs Randomly Throughout Life

Some learning occurs randomly throughout life, from new experiences, gaining information
and from our, perceptions, for example: reading a newspaper or watching a news broadcast,
talking with a friend or colleague, chance meetings, and unexpected experiences.

Learning Involves Problems Solving

Learning involves problem-solving i.e. understanding and discovering relations between
different contents in a situation.
Learning is the Process of Acquiring Information
It occurs as a result of interaction with the person’s environment.

Learning Involves far more than Thinking

Learning involves far more than thinking: it involves the whole personality – senses, feelings,
intuition, beliefs, values, and will.If we do not have the will to learn, we cannot learn and if we
have learned, we are changed in some way. If the learning makes no difference it can have very
little significance.

Experience is Necessary for Learning

Some sort of experience is necessary for learning. We can get the experience from direct
observation or from formal approaches to learning such as training, mentoring, coaching and
teaching.
We can get the experience from direct observation or from formal approaches to learning such
as training, mentoring, coaching and teaching.
Learning is more or less the acquisition of a new discourse, a new way of speaking, acting,
interacting, looking at the world, and knowing it.
It will be successful only when the information gained is used and understood.
It is a continuous process followed by an individual that allows for the acquisition of
information, attitudes, and practices, through observation, seeking previous knowledge,
searching out guides, and looking within as well as without. It is a key process in human
behavior.
If we compare the simple ways in which a child feels and behaves, with the complex
modes of adult behavior, his skills, habits, though, sentiments and the like we will know what
difference learning has made to the individual.

Types of Learning

Motor Learning:
Our day to day activities like walking, running, driving, etc, must be learnt for ensuring
a good life. These activities to a great extent involve muscular coordination.

Verbal Learning:
It is related with the language which we use to communicate and various other forms
of verbal communication such as symbols, words, languages, sounds, figures and signs.

Concept Learning:
This form of learning is associated with higher order cognitive processes like
intelligence, thinking, reasoning, etc, which we learn right from our childhood. Concept
learning involves the processes of abstraction and generalization, which is very useful for
identifying or recognizing things.

Discrimination Learning:
Learning which distinguishes between various stimuli with its appropriate and different
responses is regarded as discrimination stimuli.
IndepePreschoolers with healthy independence will follow predictable daily routines and activities at
school and at home, start identifying a favorite friend and ask that friend to play, independently play
with toys and materials at home, school, or an outdoor playground, and complete many self-care tasks,
such as getting dressed, going to the bathroom, eating snacks, feeding themselves, or getting ready for
bed. Independent preschoolers will also tell caregivers about their day and learn and use new vocabulary
daily.

Moral development focuses on the emergence, change, and understanding of morality from
infancy through adulthood. Morality develops across a lifetime and is influenced by an individual's
experiences and their behavior when faced with moral issues through different periods' physical and
cognitive development. In short, morality concerns an individual's growing sense of what is right and
wrong; it is for this reason that young children have different moral judgments and character than that
of a grown adult. Morality in itself is often a synonym for "rightness" or "goodness". It refers to a certain
code of conduct that is derived from one's culture, religion or personal philosophy that guides one's
actions, behaviors and thoughts. This term is related to psychology. There are other types of
development such as social development, physical development and cognitive development.

Notions of morality development have been developed over centuries, the earliest came from
philosophers like Confucius, Aristotle, and Rousseau, who all took a more humanist perspective and
focused on the development of the conscience and sense of virtue. In the modern day, empirical research
has explored morality through a moral psychology lens by theorists like Sigmund Freud and its relation
to cognitive development by theorists like Jean Piaget, Lawrence Kohlberg, B. F. Skinner, Carol
Gilligan and Judith Smetana.

The interest in morality spans many disciplines (e.g., philosophy, economics, biology,
and political science) and specializations within psychology (e.g., social, cognitive, and cultural). In
order to investigate how individuals understand morality, it is essential to consider their beliefs,
emotions, attitudes, and behaviors that contribute to their moral understanding. Additionally,
researchers in the field of moral development consider the role of peers and parents in facilitating moral
development, the role of conscience and values, socialization and cultural influences, empathy and
altruism, and positive development, in order to understand what factors impact morality of an individual
more completely.

Research on socioemotional development and prosocial development has identified several

"moral emotions" which are believed to motivate moral behavior and influence moral
development. These moral emotions are said to be linked to moral development because they are
evidence and reflective of an individual's set of moral values, which must have undergone through the
process of internalization in the first place. The manifestation of these moral emotions can occur at two
separate timings: either before or after the execution of a moral or immoral act. A moral emotion that
precedes an action is referred to as an anticipatory emotion, and a moral emotion that follows an action
is referred to as a consequential emotion. The primary emotions consistently linked with moral
development are guilt, shame, empathy, and sympathy. Guilt has been defined as "an agitation-based
emotion or painful feeling of regret that is aroused when the actor actually causes, anticipates causing,
or is associated with an aversive event. Shame is often used synonymously with guilt, but implies a
more passive and dejected response to a perceived wrong. Guilt and shame are considered "self-
conscious" emotions, because they are of primary importance to an individual's self-evaluation.
Moreover, there exists a bigger difference between guilt and shame that goes beyond the type of feelings
that they may provoke within an individual. This difference lies in the fact that these two moral emotions
do not weigh the same in terms of their impact on moral behaviors. Studies on the effects of guilt and
shame on moral behaviors has shown that guilt has a larger ability to dissuade an individual from
making immoral choices whereas shame did not seem to have any deterring effect on immoral
behaviors. However, different types of behaviors in different types of population, under different
circumstances might not generate the same outcomes. In contrast to guilt and shame, empathy and
sympathy are considered other-oriented moral emotions. Empathy is commonly defined as an effective
response produced by the apprehension or comprehension of another's emotional state which mirrors
the other's affective state. Similarly, sympathy is defined as an emotional response produced by the
apprehension or comprehension of another's emotional state which does not mirror the other's affect,
but instead causes one to express concern or sorrow for the other. The relation between moral action
and moral emotions has been extensively researched. Very young children have been found to express
feelings of care, and empathy towards others, showing concerns for other's wellbeing. Research has
consistently demonstrated that when empathy is induced in an individual, he or she is more likely to
engage in subsequent prosocial behavior. While emotions serve as information for children in their
interpretations about moral consequences of acts, the role of emotions in children's moral judgments
has only recently been investigated. Research from the social domain theory perspective focuses on
how children actively distinguish moral from conventional behavior based in part on the responses of
parents, teachers, and peers. Social domain suggests that there are different areas of reasoning co-
existing in development those include societal (concerns about conventions and grouping), moral
(fairness, justice and rights) and psychological (concerns with personal goals and identity). Adults tend
to respond to children's moral transgressions (e.g. hitting or stealing) by drawing the child's attention to
the effect of his or her action on others, and doing so consistently across various contexts. In contrast,
adults are more likely to respond to children's conventional misdeeds (e.g. wearing a hat in the
classroom, eating spaghetti with fingers) by reminding children about specific rules and doing so only
in certain contexts (e.g. at school but not at home). Peers respond mainly to moral but not conventional
transgressions and demonstrate emotional distress (e.g. crying or yelling) when they are the victim of
moral but unconventional transgression.

Learning of Principles: Learning which is based on principles helps in managing the work
most effectively. Principles based learning explains the relationship between various concepts.
Attitude Learning: Attitude shapes our behaviour to a very great extent, as our positive or
negative behaviour is based on our attitudinal predisposition.
Communication and social skills are good to teach at an early age as most of these skills are
needed throughout life. You can do this in a fun way.

For example, teaching new simple words like mat, cat, rat, cat, bat, fat for very young
children and enacting each one of them as you say them. You can even show some pictures
related to those words to make it more interesting.
For social skills, teach them to smile, maintain eye contact, and say a greeting (it hardly takes
around three seconds to do these three things for anyone).

Throwing down a challenge:

When children are thrown a challenge, they most certainly try to complete it. Tell them that
they can never do this particular work or plead them not to do a particular work. (Play way/
Using negative psychology).In most cases, students would end up doing exactly that and as a
result, the primary task gets completed. This could also have an adverse effect, at times.
However, teachers must strategize this in their own way

References:
https://www.fraserhealth.ca/health-topics-a-to-z/children-and-youth/Characteristies of
learning#.Ys2ha3XMIps
https://www.encyclopedia.com/social-sciences/applied-and-social-sciences-
magazines/Role
https://childdevelopmentinfo.com/child-development/role of learning -in-children-and-
teens/#gs.5kq8g1

Question no.5
How is individual difference measured?
Individual Difference
All animals learn, remember and integrate information in order to reach decisions and
behave appropriately, but how, why and when these cognitive abilities evolve remains
uncertain. One reason for this uncertainty is that research in animal cognition has frequently
ignored individual differences and this precludes our understanding of how natural selection
sifts individual differences leading to evolutionary changes. Instead, the study of cognition in
animals has traditionally taken one of three (non-exclusive) forms. First, particular model
species (e.g. pigeons or rats) have been used to investigate the mechanisms underpinning
specific cognitive processes.
This has typically used laboratory paradigms involving prolonged training of batches
of individuals to complete tasks aimed to elucidate fundamental learning principles. Second,
the comparative approach tests species or populations with the same, or purportedly similar,
tasks to understand when in evolutionary history particular cognitive processes may have
emerged and what ecological or social conditions may facilitate these processes. The abilities
of a sample of individuals within a population or species are pooled and considered
representative of the whole grouping. Finally, within a species, the abilities of particular, often
highly enculturated, ‘genius’ individuals are explored in great detail in order to establish the
presence of, or limits to, particular cognitive capacities. From these instances of presence or
absence, broader patterns of evolution may be suggested and inferences drawn about the
adaptive benefits of possessing such cognitive abilities for the species, based on its ecology
and social behaviour. While progress has been made in understanding both fine-scale cognitive
mechanisms and broad-scale evolutionary patterns using these methods, it is hard to understand
the evolution of cognitive abilities through natural selection when we ignore inter- and intra-
individual variation in cognitive abilities.
While individual differences have been central to human psychology since the early
20th century research on non-human animals has, until recently, tended to ignore the variation
amongst individuals. Over the last decade, there has been a growing focus on intraspecific
variation in non-human animals. This is perhaps influenced by (i) the behavioural ecology
approach originating in the 1980s, which explicitly considered natural selection on individual
phenotypes; (ii) the more recent studies of animal personality, which emphasize individual
differences across correlated suites of behaviours (iii) the development of statistical (mixed)
modelling techniques that permit explicit consideration of individual differences; and (iv) the
development of technology permitting fine-scale tracking of individuals’ movements and
interactions. This special issue draws together recent theoretical and empirical developments
in the emerging field of individual variation in cognition.
As cognitive abilities cannot be directly observed, they must be inferred through careful
experimentation. Measuring individual cognitive variation poses particular logistical and
analytical challenges because it requires repeated testing of known individuals under
standardized conditions, in a way that allows for noise caused by differences in, for example,
motivation, attention and prior experience to be identified, quantified and/or removed
(experimentally or statistically). Papers in the first section of this special issue explore these
methodological aspects further.
By measuring the cognitive abilities of individuals, we can address otherwise
intractable questions regarding the mechanisms, development and evolution of cognition. For
instance, how is the ontogeny of cognitive phenotypes shaped by the physical or social
environment? What is the relationship between personality and cognitive performance? Does
an individual’s ability to solve cognitive problems influence its ability to survive and
reproduce? This special issue examines both the causes and consequences of individual
variation in cognitive abilities.
One means of addressing (although not eliminating) confounds is to assess individual
consistency through repeated testing. If we measure an individual once, and it makes more
errors in remembering a rewarded location than a conspecific, this could be because it has
‘worse’ spatial memory or because it happened to be distracted. However, if we measure
individuals repeatedly and we find that some individuals perform consistently better than
others, this may be indicative of a stable phenotypic trait that selection can act upon. It is,
therefore, vital that individuals are tested repeatedly to determine genuine among-individual
phenotypic variation. However, certain confounds may also be consistent over time and so
these would also consistently confound performance. This is an issue that has received a great
deal of attention in the literature on animal personality, yet is only just beginning to be
recognized in studies of animal cognition.
Measures of repeatability provide a way of assessing individual differences by
quantifying among- and within-individual variation. These modest estimates may be due in
part to carry-over effects of learning and memory. For example, if all individuals learn over
repeated attempts at the same task, then this can reduce among-individual variance and thus
repeatability. Another approach is to present individuals with tasks that differ in their physical
characteristics but are designed to measure the same cognitive trait by having the same causal
contingencies. Most studies have conducted only single repeats of tests; it remains to be
determined how adding further repeat variants of a test increases the reliability of the measure
of cognitive ability.
“Individual differences are found in all psychological characteristics physical mental
abilities, knowledge, habit, personality and character traits.”
“The psychology of individual differences is largely the study of group differences. This study
classifies individuals by age, traits, sex, race, social class and so on, and observes the
differences within and between those groups. Physical, mental, social and cultural differences
etc. are being studied, under individual differences.” – John P.De Ceeceo

Perhaps the first task of every teacher in a class should be to know and study individual
differences among his pupils. Individual differences in bodily appearance and physique, habits
and skills, interests and temperaments, abilities and attainments have already been recognised.

According to Skinner, “Today we think of individual differences as including any measurable

aspect of the total personality.” It is clear from this definition of individual differences that it
comprehends every aspect of human personality which is in some manner measurable.

a) Reducing noise

One common approach to quantifying individual differences has been to administer

‘problem-solving tasks' that measure whether an animal does or does not perform a novel
action, often to gain access to food. However, performance on problem-solving tasks can be
difficult to interpret because the putative cognitive processes involved have not been clearly
identified (for extensive discussion of these issues. In contrast, in psychometric tests,
individuals must make several decisions, where correct and incorrect choices are defined
a priori , such that learning or memory can be demonstrated by deviations from random
probabilities. Typically, each task explicitly targets one cognitive process that has been well-
described in the psychological literature. Nevertheless, individual variation in performance
may also be confounded by non-cognitive factors (e.g. hunger, motivation, breeding status,
environmental conditions). Many recent papers have pointed out the importance of
distinguishing signal from noise by controlling for such factors by standardizing conditions or
explicitly accounting for their effects in statistical analyses. In comparative studies, noise can
be reduced by averaging across multiple individuals, assuming that each differs randomly in,
for example, their attention, motivation or prior experience. Critically, averaging is not possible
when considering the performance of individuals and consequently it is important that non-
cognitive sources of individual variation are controlled or accounted for. For instance, in
captive studies one can ensure individuals have been food-deprived for an equivalent amount
of time ; although this does not control for inter-individual differences in basal metabolic rate
. In the wild it is sometimes possible to account for differences in food intake or body mass .
We can also attempt to control for the effects of prior experience by presenting stimuli or
contingencies that are likely to be novel to all subjects . One way to increase subjects' attention
to the cognitive task at hand and reliance on cognitive processing might be to increase the costs
of making mistakes. For example, in a spatial memory task, increasing the costs of exploration
(e.g. by weighing down lids covering food well may increase the benefits of relying on memory
rather than random search. The level of control over testing conditions required means that
working with wild populations can be especially problematic. Therefore, it is encouraging that
in at least one species, the performance of captive individuals on a reversal task closely matches
that of their wild conspecifics, suggesting that both test contexts may offer viable alternatives.
An important next step is to determine whether, at the individual level, performance is
consistent when tested in captivity versus in the wild.

(b) Repeatability

One means of addressing (although not eliminating) confounds is to assess individual

consistency through repeated testing . If we measure an individual once, and it makes more
errors in remembering a rewarded location than a conspecific, this could be because it has
‘worse’ spatial memory or because it happened to be distracted. However, if we measure
individuals repeatedly and we find that some individuals perform consistently better than
others, this may be indicative of a stable phenotypic trait that selection can act upon. It is,
therefore, vital that individuals are tested repeatedly to determine genuine among-individual
phenotypic variation. However, certain confounds may also be consistent over time and so
these would also consistently confound performance. This is an issue that has received a great
deal of attention in the literature on animal personality, yet is only just beginning to be
recognized in studies of animal cognition.

Measures of repeatability provide a way of assessing individual differences by quantifying

among- and within-individual variation . Cauchoix et al. provide the first meta-analysis of
recently published studies and a large number of unpublished datasets reporting individual
repeatability on a variety of cognitive tasks. They find low to moderate levels of repeatability
when individuals are measured several times on the same task (temporal repeatability; e.g. [.
These modest estimates (R = 0.15–0.28) may be due in part to carry-over effects of learning
and memory. For example, if all individuals learn over repeated attempts at the same task, then
this can reduce among-individual variance and thus repeatability. Another approach is to
present individuals with tasks that differ in their physical characteristics but are designed to
measure the same cognitive trait by having the same causal contingencies (contextual
repeatability; e.g.. Indeed, Cauchoix et al. find slightly, though not significantly, higher
estimates of contextual repeatability (R = 0.20–0.27). Most studies have conducted only single
repeats of tests; it remains to be determined how adding further repeat variants of a test
increases the reliability of the measure of cognitive ability.

(c) Assessing test validity

Developing different tasks that measure the same cognitive ability is more difficult than it
appears. For instance, in this issue Völter et al. explicitly examine individual performance in
two tasks that are widely assumed to measure inhibitory control (or self-control, i.e. the ability
to inhibit pre-potent behavioural responses): the detour-reaching task and the A-not-B task. A
recent high-profile study found that across species, average performance on the two tasks was
positively correlated and showed a strong, positive correlation with average brain size. This
was interpreted as suggesting that increases in brain size across evolutionary time underlie the
evolution of increased self-control. To determine whether the tasks genuinely measured the
same cognitive trait, Völter et al. re-analysed these and other datasets at the individual level,
consistently finding no correlation between individual performance on tasks measuring
inhibitory control. This suggests that (i) correlations across species do not necessarily imply
that the same pattern holds within species and (ii) that, contrary to common assumption, these
two tasks do not necessarily measure the same ability . Völter et al. advocate triangulating
across batteries of tasks by measuring individuals' patterns of mistakes as a marker of the limits
of their abilities in a particular cognitive domain . It remains unclear whether the lack of
correlation between performances in tasks deemed a priori to test the same cognitive process
is due to differential demands on cognitive processes or differential effects on attention, or non-
cognitive factors such as motivation.

(d) Domain-generality versus modularity

A related issue is whether individuals are also consistent in their performance across different
cognitive domains. As Dubois et al. highlight in this issue, human psychometric studies
consistently show strong positive correlations in individuals' performance on a disparate range
of tasks (e.g. verbal comprehension, reasoning, working memory). These results suggest that
common information processing mechanisms may underlie performance across different
cognitive domains, often referred to as general intelligence or ‘g’ . In contrast, the animal
cognition literature has tended to favour a modular approach, emphasizing specific cognitive
adaptations to specific ecological problems (e.g. spatial memory as an adaptation to the
challenges of food cache recovery . However, in recent years, researchers have also begun to
turn their attention to the potential for cross-domain individual consistency in non-human
animals . Although this consistency in non-human animals is also sometimes referred to as ‘g’,
it is important to note that animal psychometric tests often incorporate very different types of
tasks, methodologies and statistical approaches to human psychometrics. Indeed, it has been
suggested that in humans, test batteries primarily test reasoning or rule extraction while those
used with animals primarily focus on associative learning and memory . Thus, while there are
superficial similarities between human general intelligence and animal ‘general cognitive
performance’ , these may not necessarily reflect the same underlying cognitive architecture.
Interpretation is made harder because the likelihood of extracting a single component indicative
of a general ability is highly susceptible to the exact set of tasks that are included in the test
battery .

Conclusion

Acknowledging and appreciating the variation in cognitive abilities between

individuals, including the factors that cause it and the consequences that it imparts, provides
the basis for a novel and powerful approach to understanding the evolution of cognition,
whether focusing on general cognitive abilities or performance in a specific cognitive domain.
However, as we and other authors in this special issue highlight, the measurement of the
cognitive abilities of individuals is inherently difficult and highly susceptible to extrinsic
factors both at the time of testing and during earlier development. In addition, the fitness gains
manifest specifically through cognitive abilities may be hard to determine and be highly
dependent on particular elements of the selection environment. Consequently, we suggest that
in order to progress, research programmes wishing to measure individual cognitive abilities
and determine their causes and consequences should use the following approaches : (1)
Multiple tests to assess convergent validity of the test: although it is usually not possible to
determine that a given cognitive process has been targeted effectively, the use of different tasks,
stimuli dimensions and sets of cues, should reduce the probability of misspecification and may
also help to reduce the impact of confounding variables. (2) Multiple internal and external
states: this is akin to the method of ‘systematic variation’ and examines the robustness of
individual ranks in performance in a given task when variables related to internal state (e.g.
hunger, reproductive status) and external context (e.g. test room, laboratory versus field) vary.
Unfortunately, this type of experiment is rarely done, possibly because of issues associated
with estimating repeatability of cognitive performance . (3) Multiple traits: cognitive traits may
covary with other aspects of the phenotype, including personality traits. Exploring the different
hypotheses for this covariation (e.g. genetic correlation, common underlying physiological trait
or confounding variable) will be critical for our understanding of the evolution of cognitive
traits under constraints stemming from multivariate selection pressures. (4) Multiple fitness
proxies: this approach allows tests of hypotheses based on life-history trade-offs, and thus can
reveal complex ways in which cognitive abilities influence survival, reproduction and the
transmission of genes between generations.

References:
https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rstb.2017.0280

https://www.fraserhealth.ca/health-topics-a-to-z/children-and-youth/individual-
development measured-in-children#.Ys2ha3XMIps
https://www.encyclopedia.com/social-sciences/applied-and-social-sciences-
magazines/individual