Biological And Environmental Influence On Child Development Essay

Many environmental factors begin affecting development during pregnancy and after delivery. Significant factors include Jane’s alcohol use during pregnancy, the stress Jane experiences during the third trimester due to Roberto’s layoff, and Sam’s 6-week preterm birth by C-Section. Alcohol is a teratogen that can potentially affect a developing

Bronfenbrenner’s (1977, 1979, 1989, 1993, 1994) ecological theory suggested that child (human) development occurs for the child within the context of various environments. These environments, or systems, are influenced from within and between other environments. The individuals within each system influence each other through various transactions that occur between them.

- Influences before and at birth eg. Maternal diet during pregnancy or birth itself eg. problems due to lack of oxygen etc.

The environment of the fetus is critical to proper development. Adverse factors experienced in the fetal environment interfere with early development. Genes respond to their environment. The adverse factors can essentially rewrite the genetic make up of the infant and alter the expression of the gene (Watters, 2006).

A child’s physical development can vary greatly from its environment; these things would include exposure during pregnancy, the child’s diet, and physical activity. Even during pregnancy the environment around a child has a huge effect on their growth. Exposures during pregnancy is when a mother has been exposed towards drugs, stress, poor nutrition, and other things the mother could be associated with. Many studies have shown that “Maternal smoking has also been linked to miscarriage, premature birth, and low birth weight.” “Children’s Medical Services.” Infant Toddler Development Training. Floridahealth online 2012 Web. 27 January 2016. Teratogens or other exposures such as these during pregnancy can a have a permanent impact this child’s entire life. Another factor that can affect a child’s growth is their nutrition. While a child is growing what they eat influence their: weight, height, and energy. An example would be “If a mother is malnourished it is likely the baby will be born malnourished, or worse, be born prematurely, suffer from low birth weight, or die soon after birth.”

However, infants and toddlers are not the sole product of their environment. Nature and nurture work

This can occur in some cases in reverse: situations of trauma or psychological abuse influence the growth and physical maturation. When the baby starts to move and to engage in activities with their environment, the psychomotor development is very important since it is the basis of cognitive development, language, social and emotional development.

Biological development processes impact child development in various ways. Biological issues in development have been associated with genetic dispositions as children may be more prone to an anxious temperament and depression among other disorders if a history of the disorder runs in their family. In addition, abnormalities in the brain, prenatal difficulties, and birth complications can affect a plethora of mental processes such as speech, cognition, memory and language, which makes it harder for children to learn and adapt to society. Many of these biological issues can cause a plethora of disorders such as conduct disorder, fetal alcohol syndrome, attention deficient hyperactivity disorder and intellectual disabilities which can have detrimental

This week in class we had a discussion about Early Childhood, Read Chapter 14 in Development of Children and Adolescents, and had our first debate over our topics. My topic was “Are Father’s Really Necessary?”, and I had argued the “No” side. Next thursday we will be doing the same topic, but arguing the other side.

Also institutions, parenting, and media affect the gender development idea (Hackman, 2013). The following examples which are obtained from scholarly work show these effects. Gender-based Harassment: in schools male students hurt other male or female students in order to show their aggression and masculinity (Martino, Wayne and Pallota, 2005). Body Image: due to social interactions boys and girls have different perceptions of body image: "girls typically wanted to be thinner, boys frequently wanted to be bigger"(Cohane and Pope, 2001). The last but not the least example is Education which was very interesting for me. Teachers playing the most crucial role in children’s education and also their gender socialization at schools (Garrahy, 2001). Although in standard test the overall score of boys and girls where close, their scores in some different aspects were different (American Psychological Association, 1994). Scholars believe the mentioned difference is because the teachers treat their female and male students in different ways. For example, teachers allow their male students to speak in class without raising their hands (Garrahy,

Jenna, I agree that in order for parents to attend child development class, there must be incentives. parents are not going to like someone coming in their lives and telling them what to do even if that action is beneficial for them in the long term. However, if there are consequences assigned by not taking the class such as not getting government assistance, than the only people affected are the ones in poverty. Than this approach will effect the environment of the parent. Like it says in the book, if we affect the parent's environment than the child's development will also be affected.

Over the past decade, play has been the focus of many researches due to its biological, sociological and developmental effects on a child. Play is understood as a basic human motivation and a phase for individual development and of cultural assimilation and construction which leads to a specific view on childhood. Play is sometimes opposed with serious work and learning activities which is not true because play is an important arena in a child’s life. Play is significant for a child’s growth, improvement of the child’s welfare and play is also the child’s legitimate right. Some people still get confused between the meaning of play and just having fun. Play, in similar words, is the universal language of childhood. It is through play that

Both nature and nurture (genes and environment) influence children’s development. The quality of a child’s earliest environments and the availability of appropriate experiences at the right stages of development are crucial determinants of the way each child’s brain develops. A large number of studies conducted during the past three decades have shown that children with divorced parents have an elevated risk of a variety of problems, including conduct disorders, emotional disturbances, difficulties with social relationships and academic failure (Amato 2000). The issues that raising children in single parent household affects their development have played a significant part in our society. Society tends to compare those children development to the relationships parents have with each other. The significance of children raised in single parent home happens is that it is indicated that they do worse than children in two parents household. They demonstrate poor behavior, difficulty in school, and have more outlooks in school.

Regarding the different influences on child development, first is the biological influence. As defined by a child psychologist on psychologydictionary.org, biological influence is “anything which affects the

Child Development is defined by the important concepts which change from before the child is born to when the child becomes an adolescent. The development of a child is a very important concept in life. A women dreams of the day she will have a baby and start a family with the love of her life. There are many concepts and many different factors which come into having a baby. Early child Development is a complicated subject that involves, how teratogens affect a new born, how a maternal age can affect a child and the physical growth and development of an infant. All are things which you have to take into account for the development of a child. You may face questions about what cigarettes or alcohol can do to your child. Or you may ask yourself how my child will progress physically and cognitively.