Growth and development can be impacted by various hazards that interfere with normal developmental patterns. Hazards can originate from environmental or internal factors, and affect physical, psychological, and social adjustments. During prenatal development, physical hazards like maternal stress can disrupt hormone functioning, while psychological hazards may have more persistent effects. Birth-related hazards include both physical risks of the process as well as psychological challenges of adjusting to life outside the womb. Delays or issues in areas like motor skills, speech, emotions, social skills, and personality can negatively impact personal and social adjustments if not addressed. Teachers play an important role through curriculum and activities in fostering children's moral development appropriate to their stage.

1. Growth and development: developmental Hazards
INTRODUCTION
Even when the developmental pattern is progressing normally, there are likely to be, at
every age, hazards in some areas of development that interfere with this normal pattern.
As Erikson has explained, “The struggles that inevitably characterize all growth that
inevitably characterize all growth can generate utterly reliable talents as well as
intractable problems”.
Some of these hazards are environmental in origin while others originate from within.
Regardless of their origin, hazards can and do affect the physical, psychological, and
social adjustments the child is attempting to make. As a result, they change the
developmental pattern by producing a plateau in which no forward movement occurs or
they cause a regression to a lower stage. When this happens, the child encounters
adjustment problems and is said to be ‘poorly adjusted’ or ‘immature’.
Hazards during the prenatal period
During the prenatal period, there are many hazards, often more serious and far-reaching
in their effects than most people realize. These hazards are easier to recognize and study
than the psychological; they have received more research attention. However, this does
not mean that psychological hazards are less important than physical hazards. In fact,
they are more important than the physical hazards. First, because they intensify the
physical hazards and second because their effects are often more persistent than the
physical hazards. As a result, they affect postnatal as well as prenatal development.
Traditional beliefs about prenatal influences may be regarded as hazardous not because
of their effects on the developing child during the prenatal period but because of their
effects on the attitudes and treatment children receive during the early, formative years
of their lives from formative years of their lives from significant people who hold these
beliefs. Maternal stress is hazardous to prenatal developmental, is that it upsets the
normal functioning of the maternal endocrine system.
Hazards Associated with Birth
As it is true of the prenatal period, there are certain physical and psychological hazards
that are commonly associated with birth. Some of these hazards are due to the birth
process itself and some to the adjustment the infant must make to a new pattern of life
necessitated by birth. Some of these hazards are due to the birth process itself and some
to the adjustment the infant must make to a new pattern of life necessitated by birth.
Some of the hazards are physical, some are psychological, and some are both physical
and psychological.
In the case of prematurity, for example, there are some serious physical hazards involved
in the birth process and in the physical adjustments immediately after birth. There are
also psychological hazards in the form of unfavorable parental attitudes as the
premature child grows older.

2. Hazards in Physical Development
Studies of hazards in physical development have all emphasized the psychological
significance of these hazards. The reason for this is that, in most cases, the psychological
repercussions are as severe and often more long-lasting than the physical effects.
Some children are illness-prone in the sense that they seem to have more than their
share of illness and tend to be sicker when they are ill than other children. Studies reveal
that the cause may be physical or psychological. Children who had poor prenatal
environment or whose nutrition is poor, before and after birth, tend to be healthier and
less illness-proneness.
When parents, but especially mothers, are anxious and concerned about their children's
health, they are not feeling well. The more parents talk to their children about their
health and the more they warn them 'to be careful' to avoid getting sick, the more likely
children are to wonder if they are not sick.
Regardless of whether an illness is physical or psychological in origin, it brings changes
in development, behavior, attitude, and personality.
Hazards in Motor Development
Motor development means the development of control over bodily movement through the
coordinated activity of the nerve centers, the nerves, and the muscles. This control comes
from the development of the reflexes and mass activity present at birth. Until this
development occurs, the child is helpless.
Most people think of awkwardness as the only serious hazard in the child's development
of motor coordination and skills. While unquestionably awkwardness is a serious hazard
t good personal and social adjustment, it is, by no means, the only hazard.
Delayed motor development means motor development below the norm for the child's
age. As a result, the child does not learn the developmental tasks the social group expects
children of the age to learn. The effects of delayed motor development are hazardous to
good personal and social adjustments. There are two reasons for this. First, it has an
unfavorable effect on children's self-concepts. As a result, it often leads to emotional and
behavioral problems.
Second, delayed motor development is hazardous because it does not provide the
foundations on which motor skills that can later be laid.
Hazards in Speech Development
The ability to speak also fills another important need in children's lives- they need to be a
part of the social group. While they may be able to communicate with members f the
social group by means other than speech, their position in the social group will be
marginal until they are able to talk to group members.
Speech is the motor-mental skill. Because speech development is very complicated, owing
to the fact that it involves both comprehensive of what others say and the ability to speak

3. in a way that others can understand, it is inevitable that there are many hazards in this
area of development.
The impact of speech on children's personal and social adjustments is even greater than
the impact of the motor development. This is because speech has a greater influence on
children's social adjustments than their skills. The kind of social adjustments children
make affect their personal adjustments.
Hazards in Emotional Development
Emotions play an important role in determining what kind of personal and social
adjustments children will make, not only during childhood but also as they become
adolescents and adults, their development must be of the kind that will make good
adjustments possible. Anything that interferes with good emotional development will
play havoc with children's adjustments. Furthermore, because the foundations for
different emotional patterns are laid early in life, the early years are critical in
determining what forms these patterns will take.
Emotional deprivation does not mean that children are deprived of all the emotional
experience. Such total deprivation would be impossible. Instead, it means that children
are deprived of a reasonable share of pleasant emotional experiences, especially curiosity,
joy, happiness, and affection. Numerous studies of human babies and young children and
Harlow's famous study f infant monkeys have all shown that deprivation of affection
during the earlier months and years of life can be hazardous to the individual's physical,
mental, emotional, and social development.
Hazards in Social Adjustments
Social Adjustments means the success with which people adjust to other people in
general and to the group with which they are identified in particular.
Learning to adjust to different kinds of people and different kinds of social situations is
an extremely difficult area of development during the childhood years. Because of this,
there are many possibilities of developing unfavorable attitudes and behavior patterns.
Most of these unfavorable attitudes and behavior patterns could be prevented or quickly
corrected if they are spotted in time and if efforts are made to correct them before they
are deeply rooted habits. in few areas of the child's development guidance and
supervision is more necessary than in making social adjustments. This is not only
because of the many potential hazards every child faces in the areas of development but
also because of the important role social adjustment plays in the child's life, especially in
the developing concept of self.
Hazards in Personality development
The term “personality” comes from the Latin word ‘persona’, meaning “mask”. Among
the ancient Greeks, the actors wore masks to hide their identity and to represent the
characters they were depicted in the play. This dramatic technique was later adopted by
the Romans, and from them, we get our modern term personality.

4. Prevention of unfavorable personality has, for years, been greatly handicapped by the
acceptance of traditional beliefs about personality. Acceptance of the belief that
personality is a hereditary trait has led to the belief that there is little one can do to
improve a child's personality.
Many children develop unfavorable self-concepts. As a result, they have difficulty in
accepting themselves and often become self- rejected to the point they make poor
personal and social adjustments. Danger signals of personality maladjustments are often
overlooked or ignored because many teachers and parents believe that children will
outgrow their unsocial patterns of behavior and develop more favorable self-concepts as
their bodies change to those of adults during puberty.
Teachers Role
The school plays a very important role in the moral development of children. Through the
organization of various curricular and co-curricular activities, teachers can foster among
children different moral qualities. This is only possible if the teacher takes care to
provide activities that are appropriate for different developmental stages.While
attempting the pedagogic analysis of the learning material for different subjects, teachers
should pay attention to such aspects of moral development.
Conclusion
No child is self- rejected can hope to make good personal and social adjustments. And, no
child who makes poor personal and social adjustments can hope to be happy.
To become well-adjusted people, all children should have a reasonably happy childhood.
Because childhood is the age when the foundations that guarantee happiness in
childhood, they will know how to behave so that they can achieve happiness during the
remaining years of their lives.