Summary

Physical development within the school-age child is characterised by an increasing ability to coordinate both cognitive and motor abilities in order to interact with the world they are living in. As confidence develops, so the child starts to further improve their physical abilities, both in gross motor movements; swimming, dancing, sports and in fine motor movements; clearly writing, using scissors, making models and developing craft work.

As adolescence starts, the child enters a period of rapid and very dramatic physiological changes as they move from childhood into adulthood. The changes are complex yet interlinked and form the basis for all aspects of development. Every young person’s experience of these changes will be different and young people can struggle to come to terms with these. Here, now more than ever these physical changes and their attitudes towards them influence the young person’s sense of self and their social and emotional development.