Child

A child (plural: children) is a young human. Depending on context it may mean someone who is not yet an adult, or someone who has not yet reached puberty (someone who is prepubescent).

Human development

Human development refers to all forms of development above, often in the context of clinical or developmental psychology, or as human development theory (in economics, an outgrowth of welfare economics).

Related Topics:
Clinical - Developmental psychology - Human development theory - Economics - Welfare economics

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Both the psychological and economic fields share a special concern with education and language fluency including literacy and numeracy, and with identification and development of more unique talents into the economic variable known as individual capital.

Related Topics:
Education - Language - Literacy - Numeracy - Economic variable - Individual capital

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Earlier branches of economics see humans in terms of labour for production, means of persuasion or protection, which tend to be skills acquired only in adolescence and adulthood. The human development view is more evident in sports, music and other performing arts, such as acting where the child begins training often as early as three years of age. Think of Tiger Woods and his early practice golfing.

Related Topics:
Production - Means of persuasion - Protection - Sports - Music - Performing arts - Acting - Training - Tiger Woods - Golf

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While there are problems with such early "streaming", child murder, child abandonment, military use of children and other major social ills are thought to be reduced by a human development approach – as there is a high value assigned to children by the state.

Related Topics:
Child murder - Child abandonment - Military use of children - High value assigned to children

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The UN Human Development Index is a means of measuring well-being used to rank states by these criteria. Although child abuse is thought to be lower in countries with a high ranking on this Index, that is not easily proven.

Related Topics:
UN Human Development Index - Measuring well-being - Child abuse

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