Factors Affecting Cognitive Development

A once bright and chatty child may become withdrawn and shy away from adult attention. The child maybe showing signs of aggressive behaviour and/or exhibiting signs of self harm. Abuse can affect a child from infancy through to adolescence and then into adulthood. It can set back a child's physical development, such as a tense mealtime can affect the child’s ability to eat.

Unfortunately, to reach the answer we seek, we need to answer other questions. For example, how are orphans affected by being orphaned? Next we must ask how does one achieve success, and what is it? And lastly, does this mental “programming” from being orphaned carry over into the orphan’s adult life? Our quest for truth cannot be achieved in one leap, but rather is accomplished by one small step after another.

There are a myriad of ways that the environment can influences behaviors and some children are subjected to childhood maltreatment. These youths may develop into adults with serious emotional problems or face various addictions. In an abusive environment, it may subject the abuse survivors struggle with many negative effects that include substance abuse, mental disorders, learning disabilities, impulsivity, promiscuity, anti-social behaviors, and various other complications.

Childhood maltreatment is a prevalent problem through out the world. As a child grows and matures the brain continues to develop according its experiences. During this time sensitive periods of development for different areas of the brain. A few areas that are of interest are the stress-influenced areas, which are at an increased risk for developmental problems when exposed to maltreatment. The extra stress from such exposures can influence abnormalities throughout the brain, which have been linked to structure changes with in the corpus callosum, anterior cingulate, dorsolateral prefrontal, orbitofrontal cortex, and hippocampus, amygdala, and cerebellum, as well as changes to stress related hormone systems. These structural changes are associated with an increased risk of psychopathology and other life long educational and physiological risk.

“There are situations of where the child shuts down and stays in his own world. Studies have shown a link between child abuse and delayed intellectual development. The child loses his ability to adapt to his or her environment leading to poor cognitive development. The child produces feelings of guilt, violation, loss of control and lowered self-esteem sometimes with suicidal tendencies. Common problems include emotional and behavioral problems, poor performance in school, and possible further abuse (Husted).

Children react to their environment in different ways, and those reactions can vary, depending on the child 's gender and age. Children exposed to family violence are more likely to develop behavioral, emotional, psychological, and social problems than those who are not. Recent research indicates that children who witness domestic violence show anger and temperament problems, depression, low self-esteem, and more anxiety than children who do not witness violence in the home. The trauma they experience can show up in behavioral, physical, social, and emotional disturbances that affect their development and can continue into adulthood.

The importance of Childhood Trauma is associated with the way children react later on in their life, as it plays an important role. There are several different types of maltreatment that are associated with abuse that can harm the child in the long run. Any type of physical abuse, emotional abuse or sexual abuse contributes to the negative affects that can change the child’s personality. If the child’s parents obtain physical neglect or emotional neglect, it can factor in changing a child’s moods, as it causes them to change into a different person. This experience causes them to develop different types of personality disorders such as Antisocial, Borderline, Narcissistic, Paranoia, Schizoid, and Schizotypal. Many children are affected through the terrible experience which develops mistrust in the world, and later causes them to turn against society because of the constant neglect that is inflicted onto them.

In the immediate, as well as long-term aftermath of exposure to trauma, children are at risk of developing significant emotional and behavior difficulties (CWIG, 2012). The most damaging types of trauma include early physical and sexual abuse, neglect, emotional/psychological abuse, exposure to domestic violence and other forms of child maltreatment (Hoch, 2009). Research has shown that children that are exposed to these types of trauma will experience developmental delays including language and verbal processing. Also, they will have risk of poor physiological and psychosocial functioning, and will be vulnerable to emotional and behavioral dysregulation disorders, thus, leading to an increase risk of poor outcomes including substance abuse, suicidality, teen pregnancy and paternity, criminal activity, and revictimization (Hoch, 2009).

"Physical consequences such as damage to a child's growing brain, can have psychological implications, such as cognitive delay or emotional difficulties." () "The cognitive effects of abuse range from attentional problems and learning disorders to serve organic brain syndromes. Behaviorally, the consequences of abuse range from poor peer relations all the way to extraordinary violent behaviors. Thus, the consequences of abuse and neglect affect the victims themselves and the society in which they live. (Nap.edu) Parents think they don't do damages as long as there is no violence. False, children can suffer from low self esteem, anger issues, trust issues and many more. Is easy to destroy and change an infant's behavior and mind. According to nap.edu "the scientific study of child maltreatment and its consequences is in its infancy." But that is not the only thing that can cause issues, "maltreatment often occurs in the presence of multiple problems within a family or social environment, including poverty, violence, substance abuse and unemployment.

There are significant signs of psychological trauma due to any kind of abuse. Children experience feelings of low self esteem and depression. Many exhibit behavioral problems including aggression towards other children. Other emotional problems include hostility, fear, humiliation and the inability to express feelings. The social impacts of physical abuse include inability to form relationships, poor social skills, poor cognitive language skills, distrust of others, over-compliance with authority figures, and tendency to solve interpersonal problems with aggression. (2008, p. 1). Verbal and physical abuse has a cumulative impact on children’s socialization. Abused children are caught in damaged relationships and are not socialized in positive, supportive way (Craig & Dunn, Ex.: 2010, p. 196). They learn defiance, manipulation and other problem behaviors that are used to escape any maltreatment. In turn they will learn to exploit, degrade and terrorize.

Child development refers to the alterations that occur as a child grows and develops. It is what shapes children's future happiness, growth, development and learning in life. Between the ages of three and five, children continue to grow rapidly and start to develop Fine Motor Skills and Gross Motor Skills. As children grow into the early stages of childhood, their world will begin to open up. They will come to be more self-determining and begin to focus more on people, both adults and children outside of your family.

In other instances, the parent can confiscate the child’s belongings or force the children to strip down naked and be photographed as a form of punishment. Considering the types of abuse that these children experience, there are psychological effects that can affect their life as they get older. The effects of household abuse can extend outside the home and affect the child in their performance in society. “Children Exposed to Domestic Violence” states that children exposed to family violence can experience difficulties in paying attention and staying on task (Geffner 39). Abused children are prone to externalizing problems which causes children to act out. Externalizing problems include temper tantrums, impulsivity, hyperactivity, aggression, conflict, cruelty and bullying. Another issue that abused children develop are internalizing problems. Internalizing problems are issues such as headaches, sleep disturbances, anxiety, fear of separation, social withdraw and depression. This overall causes the children to be less engaged in tasks and in normal behaviors.

Did you know children raised in poverty are less likely to do well in school due to the fact that they often don’t have much support at home? In a study done by Ekman it say that for a child to grow up mentally stable they require four things: a reliable caregiver, stable environment, ten to twenty hours of interaction a week, and enrichment in complex activities. This is important because it affects the education of children. Today many kids refusal to do well in school has decreased due to living in poverty, not having a responsible parental influence, and how nature vs. nurture play a part in a child’s life.

There are many different things that shape the cognitive development of children. To begin with cognitive development is when a child develops how to process, solve problems, and start making decisions. Once they have learned this they take everything they have learned into their adolescence. An example, of what can shape the cognitive development of a child can be an educational game. Educational games can be very useful in shaping a child’s development because they are having fun while learning at the same time and what kid doesn’t like to play games, the fact that it is even educational makes it even better for them. Not only are they having fun but there are many different games that help in different categories of development in

Researchers have identified the importance of interplay in the healthy development of cognition and social development (Biro, Alink, Huffmeijer, Bakermans‐Kranenburg, & van IJzendoorn, 2015). Engaging in daily interaction will allow infants to mimic and learn socialization, this will influence the way that toddlers and young children engage with peers and caregivers throughout their childhood (Biro, Alink, Huffmeijer, Bakermans‐Kranenburg, & van IJzendoorn, 2015). Learning to connect with others will encourage individuality, cognition and social skills that can only be learned by experience. Researchers conclude that caregivers and parental figures prove invaluable to developing a healthy attachment with effective social-emotional experiences (Biro, Alink, Huffmeijer, Bakermans‐Kranenburg, & van IJzendoorn, 2015). Middle childhood, cognitive development throughout childhood is a valuable process that will allow children to flourish both independently and within peer groups (Burger, K., 2009). Scrutinizing diverse social backgrounds and educational availability, researchers have identified long and short term effects in the cognitive development of children (Burger, K., 2009). Data supports that the higher quality of both education and social activity is beneficial to the overall development of an individual, it is important to acknowledge that the quality need not equate to fiscal quality, as it is the time and energy that is given to a child