Characteristics of Adults Vs. Children

It should go without saying that there are major differences between adults and children. While healthy adults are fully grown and mentally and emotionally fully mature, children are still developing. A child will undergo several drastic changes before he becomes an adult, and it is important to keep those changes in mind and remember some of the more drastic differences when caring for adults and children.

  1. Anatomical Differences

    • The most obvious differences between children and adults are physical. Adults are bigger than children and have a greater muscle mass to protect their internal organs, so many injuries in adults aren't nearly as severe as they would be in children. The head of a child is also proportionally heavier and larger, making head injuries more likely and common because children tend to have balancing issues as they develop. Children also have more pliable skeletons, making small fractures easier to miss than they would be in adults.

    Physiological Differences

    • In addition to the more obvious anatomical differences between adults and children, there are some drastic physiological differences as well. Children have higher metabolic rates than adults, which makes them more vulnerable to contaminants that can be found in food and water and puts them at greater risk for increased loss of water when they are sick or stressed. The immune systems of children are also still developing, and diseases that could be minor in adults could be far more dangerous for a child.

    Developmental Differences

    • Other rather obvious differences between children and adults are developmental. This can be especially important to keep in mind when dealing with communication barriers. For example, infants and very small children are unable to communicate verbally, and while they will learn language slowly, understanding the more complicated speech patterns used by adults are beyond them. Children do adapt and learn languages much more easily than adults, however; this is why many adults have more trouble learning a foreign language than a child who was exposed to it at a much younger age.

    Emotional Differences

    • By far the most fascinating differences between adults and children are in their emotional development. The average adult is fully developed emotionally and probably won't undergo any significant changes that are not brought on by underlying factors such as brain damage. On the other hand, children are still developing emotionally up until and including their late teens or early twenties. A child requires different emotional needs at different times in her life, and any good parent or guardian should bear this in mind. Younger children are also much more sensitive to changes in the world around them, especially when they are under a lot of stress.

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