Physiological Differences between Children and Adluts - Essay Example

Physiological Differences between Children and Adults As Armstrong et. al. (2008:31) depicts in their publication, children have weak bodies that can support a limited amount of exercises. Further, they argue that children response to physical activities is different to the adult response to the same activity. It is from these documentations that scientific evidence indicates that several factors in the human body influence maturation and somatic growth. Information regarding differences that exist between children and adult is very important in education because it helps to devise appropriate techniques of handling children. Knowledge about human physiology dictates the approach that a teacher should use when handling children. Human physiology of a child differs from adult. Notably, adult language is different from child language. This paper identifies the physiological differences between adult and children, which influence their response to exercise or sport. Physiologists believe that major physiological differences that exist between adults and children influence their ability to respond to physical activities. Human body systems such as respiratory system and cardiovascular system among other systems influence the ability of an individual to handle a particular amount of physical exercises (Kirk, MacDonald, & O’Sullivan 2006:232). The physiological differences that exist between adults and children include difference in cardiovascular system, respiratory system, and ability of the human body to withstand fatigue. Adults have fully developed organ systems, which influence their ability to withstand strenuous exercises. On the other hand, children organ systems are still developing. Concerning these physiological differences, children are able to do a given amount of exercises (Armstrong, et. al. 2008:81). Another notable difference is the blood content of the body. Adult have large quantity of blood, which is responsible for oxygen circulation in the body. Cardiovascular system is responsible for the transportation of oxygen in the body from the heart to other parts of the body through the blood (Armstrong, 2007:128). Oxygen delivery to various parts of the body depends on the amount of blood pumped by the heart. Children have low volume of blood, which translate to the amount of oxygen supplied in various body organs. On the other hand, the pumping rate of the heart in children is higher than in adult. Another notable difference is ventricular size of the heart. Adults have large ventricular size compared to children. This influences the volume of blood pumped by the heart in each pumping stroke. Another notable difference between adults and children is that children have low tolerance rate to high temperatures and humidity. The respiratory system is responsible for gaseous exchange in the human body. Ventilation refers to the amount of gaseous exchange per minute. Ventilation is a product of tidal volume and the rate of breathing. Children breathe rapidly compared to adults because they have low tidal volume. Adults have well developed lungs, which explain the difference in breathing frequency between adults and children. The later have small organs thereby influencing the volume of air exchange. Respiration depends on surface area of the body to its volume ratio (Kincheloe, & Horn, 2008:123). The children have a high rate of respiration compared to adults. Physical activities and gender influence the rate of respiration. When an individual is doing a strenuous activity, the rate of respiration tend to increase. Gender differences influence basal metabolic rate. Women have a basal metabolic rate which low compared to men. This explains the difference in ability to handle strenuous exercises between girls and boys. Naturally, girls would handle simple physical exercises without straining. Environmental factors such as temperature and humidity influence oxygen supply in the human body. Physiologists observe that children response to high temperature and humidity is poor compared to adults. This means that children would fail to take physical exercises in the above environmental conditions because their physiology cannot support the exercises (Wilomore, et. al. 2008:59). When temperature and humidity rises, children experience poor ventilation thereby dictating the amount of exercise that they are able to handle. On the contrary, adults have well developed organs, which can operate in these poor environmental conditions. Physiologists recommend suspension of physical activities in poor environmental conditions. This is because high humidity cushions the amount of oxygen supply in the body. Taking physical exercises during such environmental conditions result into increased breathing frequency. Physical education teacher should know the physiological differences that exist between a child and adult. These differences will help the teacher to devise the right method of handling physical lessons. Physiologists believe that knowledge about human body mechanism is essential in designing the type of exercise that a child should take (Winnick, 2010:114). Argument against this notion claims that respiratory and cardiovascular systems are responsible for the observation witnessed when a child is taking the same exercise as an adult. The body of a child is able to support simple exercises because of the amount of oxygen that his body is able to retain. This information is very crucial when a physical education teacher is designing the type of activities, which he intends to introduce to his class. For instance, athletics require oxygen retention in order to traverse many kilometers (Donovan, Jones, and Hardman, 2006). It is impossible for the child to take a race, which goes for several kilometers because the vascular and respiratory system cannot supply sufficient oxygen for the race (Metting & Kleshinski, 2010:41). Consistency in the physical exercises given to the child makes the child to develop a large vascular and respiratory system that would support physical exercises in adult age (Thomas, et. al. 2008:149). In this essence, it is important for the curriculum developers to repeat the content of physical exercises they expect the child to learn in several chapters. This would develop the cardiovascular and respiratory systems of the child to endure strenuous physical exercises in the future. In designing curriculum, introduction of a topic is usually important since it bring the attention of the child to new field of study. Continuous physical exercises help in enlarging the body organs (Winnick, 2010:91). Curriculum designers must consider the differences in child age in order to develop a curriculum that be would be effective. For instance, a young child age 6 is comfortable with simple physical exercises because he has underdeveloped respiratory and cardiovascular organs. Another notable observation is that young children breathe fast during physical exercises. Child performance in physical activities depends on body health. Children who suffer from respiratory or cardiovascular illnesses perform poorly in physical exercises. It is evident that as the child takes the physical activities he requires more oxygen in the body tissues (Wilomore, et. al. 2008:83). This means that blood circulation in the body should be effective for the child to remain active. The heart must pump enough blood in order to supply oxygen to various body tissues. Notably, when the brain fails to get oxygen supply during physical activities, the individual is likely to faint (Armstrong, et. al. 2008:54). Fainting is a common condition that many children suffer during physical lessons. Some arguments against this condition claim that inadequate oxygen supply in the brain is responsible for the problem. Scientifically, oxygen supply in human body tissues rely on the number of hemoglobin in the blood. The number of hemoglobin is low children, this explains why children breathe fast, are able to take a few physical exercises and faints during prolonged physical activities. Physical education teacher should know the above information since it would help in regulating the quantity of physical activities that the child would handle (Thomas, et. al. 2008:152). Body posture during physical exercise is very critical to human body tissues. Body posture influences blood flow to various body organs. For instance, when a child takes a headstand exercise, the blood to the brain would increase. Some physical activities influences blood flow to various body tissues thereby influencing breathing rate of the individuals taking the exercise (Thomas, et. al. 2008:121). For example, cat wheel exercise leads to rapid breathing because when a child is taking the exercise, oxygen intake reduces because of the posture taken thereby influencing the pumping rate of the heart. When the human brain senses inadequate supply of oxygen, it would relay information to the heart to increase its pumping rate. This information is very crucial to physical teachers because it would define the approach that the teacher will take when handling a particular group of children. Some physical exercises are complex for young children. Grouping of children during physical exercise is very important because it helps in assigning physical exercises according to age. It is important for the physical teacher to give physical exercises according to age in order to avoid straining the young children. Developing talents in physical activities such as athletics require early practice (Winnick, 2010:102). Children introduced to athletics at early age do well at later age. This notion has its backing from human physiological development where as a child grows taking a particular activity, the responsible tissues enlarge. In essence, when a child takes athletics lessons everyday, the child would perform better than another child who does not take frequent lessons in the same field. Usually, the development of the cardiovascular organs depends on the amount of work or activity that an individual does. It means that as the child takes the exercises; the heart enlarges its ventricular size, which responsible for the quantity of blood pumped in a given second. When a physical teacher wants to develop athletic talent, the child must start taking the athletics lessons at an early age in order to develop oxygen retention ability. For instance, in athletics oxygen retention ability of an individual influences the quantity of exercises that an individual would be able to take. Good athletes have numerous number of hemoglobin, which supply oxygen to various tissues during the exercises (Armstrong, et. al. 2008:112). Another important point to note in talent development is that physical environmental factors such as temperature, humidity, and altitude would influence the performance of the athletes. People who live in high altitude face the challenge of low oxygen supply. Human body physiology would respond to high altitude by generating more hemoglobin in order to make oxygen supply in the body adequate. It therefore means that an athlete who stays in a high altitude zone has good oxygen retention and supply ability. This explains why athletes take their lessons in high altitude places. Another observation is these athletes usually perform well than other from low altitude (Wilomore, et. al. 2008:92). Teaching physical lesson requires a lot of attention to body movements. Physical education teachers should be able to monitor the pulse rate of each child before assigning physical exercises (Armstrong, et. al. 2008:123). A change in normal breathing system before exercise begins is a normal trend, which occurs due to secretion of hormone in the blood. In addition, the physical teacher must be able to monitor child response to various physical exercises introduced. It is a disable that physical teachers should introduce their physical lessons by taking a simple physical exercise (Armstrong, 2007:236). Naturally, human body response to multitask occurs as the amount complexity increases. Enjoyment of the physical activity is another factor that would influence the response to the physical lesson. Research indicates that demonstration skills, social recognition, self-perception, and achievement skills among other factors influence approach that physical teachers should take when conducting their physical lessons (Winter 2006:235). Physical teachers should group children according to age since age defines human physiological development. This approach would help the teacher to offer physical exercises that the child’s body physiology is able to support. For instance, children have under developed cardiovascular system, which explain why they breathe fast compared to adults. Movement of body parts during the physical lesson class leads accumulation of lactic acid. This influences the amount of exercises that a child is able to take. Prolonged physical exercises lead to accumulation of lactic acid, which influence the functionality of the body. Sometimes accumulation of lactic acid leads to pain. It is important for the physical teacher to regulate the time taken by one body part during the physical lesson (Donovan, Jones, and Hardman, 2006). This would help in eliminating stresses that result from fatigue. In many, cases children would tend to change from one physical activity to the other when fatigued. Movement sensation in physical education class is unique because it differs from other learning skills such as music or academics (Metting & Kleshinski, 2010:13). Children tend enjoy physical lessons which create fun in their lives. Many children tend to avoid strenuous exercises. Physical instructors should identify enjoyable physical activities at the beginning of the physical lesson. Child morale is very important in the physical learning process since it influences learning speed. Studies indicate that less motivated children fail to learn new concepts in class. In conclusion, physiological differences between adults and children explain the differences experienced whenever a child or an adult react to an issue. The physiological differences in children are cardiovascular, respiratory, and body size. These differences define the amount of physical exercise that a child is able to take. Physiological science explains development of human body organs (Wilomore, et. al. 2008:59). Further, physiologists contend that age of the child influences physical activities. In this regard, physical teachers must be able to group children according to their ages when giving instructions (Metting & Kleshinski, 2010:71). External factors influence the respiration and cardiovascular activity in the human body. Environmental factors such as humidity and temperature would influence the amount of physical exercise that a child would be able to do. Health status of a child would influence the amount of exercises that the body is able to support. Talent development during physical education requires adequate practice since practice influence development of cardiovascular and respiratory organs. Body posture influences physical activities that an individual would handle. Bibliography Armstrong, N. 2007. Paediatric exercise physiology. Oxford: Churchill Livingstone. Armstrong, N. et. al. 2008. Children and Exercise XXIV: The Proceedings of the 24th Pediatric Work Physiology Meeting. London: Taylor & Francis. Donovan, M., jones, G. and Hardman, K. 2006. PHYSICAL EDUCATION AND SPORT IN ENGLAND: DUALISM, PARTNERSHIP AND DELIVERY PROVISION. Web 18 Dec. 2011. Kincheloe, L. J. & Horn, A. R. 2008. The Praeger handbook of education and psychology, Volume 1. Westport: Greenwood Publishing Group. Kirk, D., MacDonald, D., & O’Sullivan, M. 2006. The handbook of physical education. Los Angeles: SAGE. Metting, P. J. & Kleshinski, F. J. 2010. PreTest physiology: PreTest self-assessment and review. London: McGraw-Hill Prof Med/Tech. Thomas, T. K. et. al. 2008. Physical education methods for elementary teachers. West Yorkshire: Human Kinetics. Wilomore, H. J. et. al. 2008. Physiology of sport and exercise. West Yorkshire: Human Kinetics. Winnick, P. J. 2010. Adapted Physical Education and Sport. West Yorkshire: Human Kinetics. Winter, M. E. et. al. 2006. Sport and exercise physiology testing guidelines: the British Association of Sport and Exercise Sciences guide, Volume 2. Brighton: Taylor & Francis. Read More