Ontario Grade 12 TOJ4C Child Development and Gerontology (Grade 12, College Preparation)
Chapters: 4
1. A. Child Development and Gerontology Fundamentals
A1 Stages of Development and Aging · A2 Diseases and Illness Prevention · A3 Health and Well-Being · A4 Community Health and Social Services · A5 The Final Stages of Life and the Impact of Loss · A6 Abuse
- Child Development: Stages, Milestones and Care – Growth is a child getting bigger. Development is a child getting more skilled: in body, thinking, language and feelings. It happens in an order, through stages (infant, toddler, early childhood, middle childhood, adolescence), with milestones that most children reach at about the same age. Good nutrition, play, love, safety and responsive adults help every area grow.
- The Immune System: How Your Body Fights Germs – Germs (pathogens) cause infectious disease. The body has three lines of defence: barriers (skin, mucus, acid), a fast general (innate) response (inflammation, fever, phagocytes) and a slow, specific (adaptive) response (B cells make antibodies, T cells kill infected cells). Memory cells make the second attack fast. Vaccines create memory safely. Immunity can go wrong: allergy, autoimmune disease, immunodeficiency (e.g. HIV).
2. B. Child Development and Gerontology Skills
B1 Meeting Nutritional Needs · B2 Meeting the Need for Physical Activity · B3 Meeting Cognitive and Social-Emotional Needs · B4 Care Techniques and Practices · B5 Communication Skills
- Nutrition – Nutrition is how we get and use the substances in food. The body needs six groups of nutrients: carbohydrates and fats (mainly energy), proteins (growth and repair), vitamins and minerals (small amounts to keep the body working), and water, plus fibre for healthy digestion. Carbohydrate and protein give about 17 kJ per gram, fat about 37 kJ per gram. A balanced diet gives all nutrients in the right amounts, and energy in should roughly equal energy out.
- Physical Fitness – Physical fitness is the body's ability to do daily work, play and sport with energy to spare. It has five health-related components (heart-lung endurance, muscular strength, muscular endurance, flexibility, body composition) and six skill-related ones (speed, agility, power, balance, coordination, reaction time). We improve it with a planned programme using FITT (frequency, intensity, time, type) and training principles like overload, progression, specificity, rest and reversibility.
- Child Development: Stages, Milestones and Care – Growth is a child getting bigger. Development is a child getting more skilled: in body, thinking, language and feelings. It happens in an order, through stages (infant, toddler, early childhood, middle childhood, adolescence), with milestones that most children reach at about the same age. Good nutrition, play, love, safety and responsive adults help every area grow.
3. C. Health Care,the Environment, and Society
C1 Health Care and the Environment · C2 Health Care and Society
- Environmental Stewardship: Caring for the Planet as We Use Technology – Environmental stewardship means using the Earth's resources carefully so they last, and fixing harm where we can. Every product, from a phone to a hospital machine, has a life cycle: raw materials, making, transport, use and end of life. Each stage uses energy and makes waste. Good stewards keep products longer, choose efficient machines, follow the waste hierarchy (refuse, reduce, reuse, recycle, then dispose), send e-waste to proper recyclers and support laws and company practices that protect nature. Technology can harm the environment, but it can also help: solar panels, LEDs and smart sensors cut waste.
4. D. Professional Practice and Career Opportunities
D1 Health and Safety · D2 Career Opportunities
- Health and Safety: Hazards, Risks and Controls – A hazard is anything that can cause harm. Risk is how likely the harm is and how bad it would be: risk = likelihood × severity. A risk assessment finds hazards, decides who could be harmed, rates the risk, adds controls and is reviewed. Use the hierarchy of control: eliminate, substitute, engineering controls, admin (rules, training, signs), then PPE last. Safety signs use colour and shape. Workshops, art rooms and workplaces need guards, ventilation, labelled materials, clear exits and first aid. Laws in most countries make employers and workers share the duty to stay safe.
- Career Planning: From Knowing Yourself to Your First Job – Career planning has five steps. 1) Know yourself: interests, skills and values. 2) Explore career families and find out the work, study needed, pay and demand. 3) Plan a pathway with SMART goals and a plan B. 4) Search for jobs with a CV, cover letter, digital portfolio and interview practice. 5) Make the move from school to work and keep learning, because careers change over a lifetime.