Physical Development Presentation
According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, “Obesity as a young child is associated with poor health and emotional well-being in childhood and may lead to an array of health problems later in life including a higher risk of being an obese adult” (as cited in Weissman & Hendrick, 2014, p. 205). As educators and caregivers, we play a tremendous role in nurturing physical development in those children in our care. By effectively doing our part to nurture physical development in young children, we are one step closer to becoming a Whole Teacher.
Your discussion on physical development will be based on the following scenario:
For an upcoming staff meeting, you have decided to create a presentation on the topic of physical development. The goal of your presentation is to not only to remind your staff how important their role is in the physical development of children, but also to begin a conversation about what materials might be needed by your staff and why. To get the conversation going you decide to propose your idea of an exemplary classroom environment, and then ask your staff to do the same.
Initial Post: Using digital tools such as Screencast (Links to an external site.) or Jing (Links to an external site.), create a brief presentation for your staff where you will describe the importance of the physical development of young children and how to promote it. (If you are unable to use one of the digital tools listed above, please contact your instructor for additional options.)
In your presentation:
- Describe your expectations for the role teachers must play in promoting the health and safety of children in their care. Include the topics of immunizations, teachers as health screeners, physical fitness, and safety in the classroom.
- Explain how teachers can utilize each of the basic principles of physical development (i.e.,predictable patterns and sequences, development moves from head-to-tail, and large-to fine-muscle control) to assist them in setting up their classroom environment to promote physical development.
- Provide specific examples and/or scholarly research to support the use of these basic principles.
- Interpret how the basic priniciples of physical development specifically align with developmental theory. Provide specific examples and research from at least one scholarly resource that will illustrate this point for your staff
