Physical and Physiological Aspects of Physical Education and Sports

F actors A ffecting G rowth and D evelopment The following factors influence the growth and development of a living organism. Heredity Heredity is a biological process that plays an important role in the transmission of physical and social attributes from parents to their children. Height, weight and structure of the body, colour of hair and eyes, intelligence, aptitudes, and instincts of the child are highly influenced by heredity. The behaviour of a living organism is influenced by two factors — heredity and environment.

The biological or psychological characteristics which are transmitted by the parents to their children are known by the name of heredity. It is a biological process of transmission of certain traits of appearance and behaviour of the parents towards their offsprings. Heredity traits are innate, they are present at birth. The essential characteristics inherited by all human beings are physical structure, reflexes, innate drives, intelligence, temperament, etc.

Environment Environment plays an important role in human life. Psychologically a person’s environment consists of the sum total of the stimulations (physical and psychological) which is received from the conception. There are three different types of environment, such as — . Physical: It consists of all outer physical surroundings.

These are both animate and inanimate which have to be manipulated in order to provide food, clothing, and shelter. Geographical conditions such as weather, climate, and physical environment also have considerable impact on an individual child. . Social: It is constituted by the society, individuals, institutions, social laws, and customs that regulate human behaviour.

It refers to the physical and social setting in which a child lives. It includes culture, education, human settlement, etc. . Psychological: It is rooted in an individual’s reaction with an object and situation.

One’s love, affection, emotion, and feeling of friendship and brotherhood will strengthen human bond with one another. Environment is the sum total of the surroundings in which an individual has to live. It is generally divided into two categories—natural and social. Natural environment refers to all those things and forces on, and around the earth that are natural and influence a person.

Social environment means the environment which one sees around oneself on acquiring consciousness in the society, i.e., languages, religions, customs, traditions, means of communication, means of luxury, family, school, social groups, etc. Role of Heredity and Environment on Growth and Development •• Heredity is responsible for all the inborn traits, in­ stincts, emotions, and physical traits. •• Environment is responsible for the growth and develop­ ment of the mental and social traits. •• The two forces heredity and environment are com­ plementary to each other like seed and soil, ship and wave, etc.

So growth and development are regulated by the surrounding environment of a child, or where an individual lives. Gender Gender acts as an important factor in human growth and development. Boys in general are taller, heavier in comparison to the girls but girls demonstrate early physical growth during adolescence than boys. The body composition and structural growth of girls are different from boys.

Nutrition Growth and development of the child depends on food habits and nutrition. The human body requires an adequate supply of calories for its normal growth and this requirement varies with phases of development. Malnutrition has an adverse effect on the structural and functional development of the child. Exercise Physical exercises have positive impact on growth and development of the children.

The functional activities come in the form of exercises of the body. It means growth through use and atrophy (the reverse of growth) through disuse. The growth of muscles from the normal functioning of the child is a matter of common knowledge. It is a fact that repeated physical activity builds the strength of the muscle.

The increase in muscular strength is mainly due to better circulation and good stimulation supply of nutrients and oxygen to the muscles. Play and other physical activities provide for the growth and development of skeletal muscles. Hormones Ho rmones are chemical substances and play an important role in regulating the process of growth and development. There are many endocrine glands present inside our body.

Endocrine glands are ductless glands and are situated in some specific parts of the body. These glands make internal secretions locally and produce one or more hormones. Hormones are physiological substances having the power to increase or decrease the activity level of the body or certain organs of the body. For example, thyroid gland releases thyroxin hormone which influences the skeletal and muscular growth.

In the absence of this hormone in appropriate proportion, growth and development is affected. Similarly, the adrenal glands are situated very close to kidneys. These secrete adrenaline, which is responsible for strong and rapid heartbeat, release of stored sugar from liver and controls blood pressure. Gonads are repoductive glands, which secrete hormones that affect our growth and sexual behaviour.

Learning and Reinforcement Learning is the most important and fundamental topic in the whole science of psychology. Development consists of maturation and learning. Learning includes much more than school learning. Learning goes to help the child in the physical, mental, emotional, intellectual, social, and attitudinal developments.

All knowledge and skill, all good and bad habits, all acquaintances with people and things, all attitudes built up while dealing with people and things are learned. Reinforcement is an important factor in learning. Exercise or activity is necessary for learning. It may be a motor activity, as in playing on a musical instrument, or it may be a sensory activity as in listening to a piece of music.

Whatsoever, there must be activity in some form. ‘Learning by doing’, is an old psychological proverb. Now it is accepted that, activity should be repeated till we get the desired results. So the saying should be replaced as ‘learning by doing and getting results’.

Pollution According to studies, air pollution not only affects the respiratory organs but also has harmful effects on human growth. Indoor pollution or the pollution from housing conditions can result in ill health which can negatively impact human growth and development. For example, lead exposure from deteriorated lead-based paint in older housing can be very harmful. Lead is very harmful for children as it simply gets immersed into the growing bodies of children and obstructs the normal development of brain and other organs and systems.

Socio-economic Status Socio-economic factors definitely have some effect. It has been seen that children from different socio-economic background vary in average body size at all ages. The families with high income are primarily more advanced. The most important reasons behind this are better nutrition, better facilities, regular meals, sleep, and exercise.

Family size also influences the growth rate, as in big families with limited income, sometimes children do not get the proper nutrition and hence the growth is affected.