Define and describe the cephalocaudal and proximodistal trends in body growth

What will be an ideal response?

As a child's overall size increases, different parts of the body grow at different rates. Two growth patterns describe these changes. The first is the cephalocaudal trend—from the Latin for "head to tail." During the prenatal period, the head develops more rapidly than the lower part of the body. At birth, the head takes up one-fourth of total body length, the legs only one-third. By age 2, the head accounts for only one-fifth and the legs for nearly one-half of total body length. In the second pattern, the proximodistal trend, growth proceeds, literally, from "near to far"—from the center of the body outward. In the prenatal period, the head, chest, and trunk grow first, then the arms and legs, and finally the hands and feet. During infancy and childhood, the arms and legs continue to grow somewhat ahead of the hands and feet.