Genetic And Environmental Effects On A Child 's Development

There are many factors that can influence the development of infants and toddlers. Two of the largest are biological and environmental influences. Biological influences can include gender, prenatal care, and the mother’s prior states of health. Environmental influences are widely ranged and can include, but are not limited to, income, housing, teratogens, and stimuli. While these two influences are different, they sometimes interlock, creating a cycle within each other.

Twin studies are a mainstay of the nature verse nurture debate because they allow researchers to conduct “natural experiments” on human beings. When researchers try to determine the relative importance of genetics and environment with regard to a certain condition, they have a hard time because they cannot generally get people with the same genes. This is where twin studies come in. Twins studies are part of the method used in behaviour genetics, which includes all data that are genetically informative. E.g. siblings, adoptees, pedigree data etc. Researchers use this method to estimate the heritability of traits and to quantify the effect of a person 's shared environment (family) and unique environment (the individual events that shape a life) on a trait.

The case study discussing Jane, Roberto, and their infant son Sam details many environmental effects that can influence Sam’s development. Using the environmental factors from the case study, the best and worst case scenarios will be explored concerning Sam’s development. Jane and Roberto live in a rural area with little to no support system. However, Jane’s mother and Roberto get along well, and she has offered to move in with the family temporarily. Jane has requested 12-weeks of maternity leave once Sam is born, but she is also considering going back to work early. Jane also reports drinking alcohol throughout the pregnancy, consuming the largest amount during the third trimester when Roberto was laid off. There is suspicion that Sam has Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD), however, the diagnosis has not been confirmed. Sam has been at home with his parents for two weeks. Sam’s parents feel he is a fussy eater who eats every two hours and does not sleep through the night. The complicated interplay of environmental factors can shape Sam’s development in many ways.

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

Demographic trends such as marriage, cohabitation, divorce, single parent-hood, same sex household and mortality have all influenced families and most of all our children. American infants are now entering households with fewer biological married parents. In addition, 4 out of 10 children are born to single women homes. Today we see more well- educated women having babies but does not exclude how we also see more teenagers who are raising children with no experience or help. This affects the child because they no able to get the full love and affection they need or they getting too much of it, especially in single family households. It effects the development and quality of life. To add the environment of which the child is raised in also plays a factor in the quality of life and how the child will be raised.

Environment means setting or circumstances in which a person lives. A child may need additional support because of positive and negative influences on development, derivable form external factor. And the external factors are:

Science has done a great job and continue studying individuals behavior and what factors can affect our development in society. The article The Science of Success is one of the best example to explain how genes and environment can have an effect in the people's behavior. The best way to show the environmental effect in a perso. Children in aggressive household are less likely success than those with a loving and caring household. I totally agree that when mothers have a caring and peace relation with toddler children have a better reaction to environmental situations. As a matter of fact genes can also have an impact in children behavior. As was shown in the article genes can increase violent behavior, anxiety and others. Genes can also shape

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.

Adolescence are the years spent morphing from child to adult start with the physical beginnings of sexual maturity and with the social achievement of independent Adult status (Myers, 2014). G Stanley Hall believe that tension between biological maturity and social dependence creates a period of storm and stress. A adolescent physical development starts with puberty which is the period of sexual maturation which a person become capable of reproducing. As they start to mature they are able to better communicate and are able to make that better judgement. Many times this is the time I don’t miss your help people feel about them and are usually all about self. Piaget believed that children’s moral judgements build on their cognitive development.

Children’s and young people’s development can be influenced by a lot of different factors such as family and friends, environmental issues such as where they live.

I contacted Brittany Kees, a Program Manager and IEP Coordinator, for a knowledgeable discussion on the importance of child brain development. Ms. Kees is proficient in the field, working with a non-profit organization that provides educational resources for adolescences and teenagers with mental and learning disabilities. I felt Ms. Kees would be a great fit for my interview because she constructs learning plans for individuals who were neglected an educational environment at an early age. Ms. Kees is experienced in early childhood development and has worked consistently with individuals that lack basic knowledge. In our interview she expressed the importance of early childhood brain development, how families of low income can provide educational experiences, and why nutritional foods play a large role in a child’s everyday life.

Generally, when we think of the word disease we assume it was caused by genetics or one’s personal lifestyle. All of which are individual or downstream causes of disease. What people do not consider when they hear the word disease is how someone’s environment, lack of care, background, or social economic status could determine if they develop a certain disease or not. All of these are downstream causes of disease, which are not based on just the individual and take into account everything that could cause the disease such as neighborhood and culture. If people just develop an exclusively downstream approach in public health, then it will not take into perspective all of the aspects that could be causing the disease and will just put the blame on the individual and most of the time the individual is not the one to blame.

Attention to every stage of a child’s physical, emotional and educative development is “both critical and vital” (Alison Dunn, 2004). Research shows that the care young children receive has dramatic long-term effects on how children develop and learn, how they cope with stress, and how they react to the world around them. “Science tells us that consistently positive and stimulating experiences in their early years helps children’s brains to grow” (Frank Oberklaid, 2008); it can also affect how they continue to learn later on in life.

There are many different variations of language, language that is seen, such as sign language, body language and written language, then there is the language that is heard, such as people speaking. There are over 7,000 spoken languages in the world alone without taking into consideration nonverbal languages. For adults and children alike, this can be overwhelming because in each language there are different behaviour patterns, different registers, different age groups and what is acceptable in one language may not be considered acceptable in another such as how close is too close to stand to someone else. For children who come from families whose first language is not English, this is even more difficult when trying to live somewhere that doesn’t predominately speak their first language, which is just one of the many differences people have to be aware of when considering diversity. This essay will examine the different environmental and circumstantial factors that may influence the development of children and the role that language can play in their lives as they grow, such as what and who children are exposed to, positive and negative influences such as adults and other children and the lifelong impact these surroundings have on the child.

According to Winkleby, Jatulis, Frank and Fortmann (1992), socioeconomic status (SES) is usually measured by determining education, income, occupation, or a composite of these dimensions. These factors establish your “rank” in society as high, middle or low class. Unfortunately, those in the low SES struggle to provide for their families. As a result, children in a low SES can suffer emotionally, physically, socially and academically. The American Psychology Association (2015) reports “children in the United States face one of the highest rates of poverty within the industrialized world”. Disproportion in wealth distribution, resources and quality of life is increasing around the world and is affecting the intellectual growth of our future generations (p.1).