Risk factors that hinder a childs development
Child development is multidimensional; the dimensions consist of social, emotional, cognitive and motor performance as well as patterns of behaviour, health and nutrition. Also the early years of life are essential as the foundation to later development, these factors can have a significant impact to a child or children’s life, these consist of under nutrition, poor health and parenting this also affects a broad range of outcomes such as cognitive, motor, psychosocial and effective development. For example a child is naturally motivated to explore and to attempt to master their environment but with poor health, poor nutrition and non- optical parents the child motivation tends to be less developed. Another critical element is to understand and support the child’s affective development which will help the child assemble a sense of self, to help them in learning how to deal with their emotions.
Philippe Rochat (2004) has suggested that children’s awareness of their own thoughts, beliefs and personalities emerges from their recognition of the differentness of other people’s thought beliefs and personalities.
Emotions are feelings such as love, happiness worry, sorrow, excitement, shyness, pride, anger, frustration and jealousy. Young children show all these emotional development and the child’s inborn temperament depends on the genes the child inherits. Each child varies in strength of their emotions for example some children will be more excitable while others will be considerably shy. A child often has phrases of shyness for no apparent reason and has the child reaches the age of 6 months old the child will still be friendly with strangers but will sometimes display signs of shyness. Even when a child is older like Tamas the child may become silent and shy in the company of people they do not know. Tamas lacks love and security from his family, because his mom and dad are working to support their family which results in little contact with them. Has Tamas suffers learning disabilities he does not understand what is happening has he probably has not reached the stage in emotional development which helps him to control and express his feeling. Tamas may react by showing signs of distress such as temper tantrums, jealousy and elective mute.
Bronfenbrenner states that the most important setting for a young child is his family, because that is where he spends the most time and because it has the most emotional influence on him. Other important setting may include his extended family, early care and education programmes, health care setting and other community learning sites such as neighbourhoods, libraries and playgrounds (Adapted from Bronfenbrenner, 1998, p.996). Also Bronfenbrenner states that a model of ecology of human development acknowledges that human do not develop in isolation, but in relation to their families and home, school, community and society (Bronfenbrenner Ecological Model of Child Development)
The mind is the thinking part of the brain which is used to recognise, reasoning, knowing, and understanding. This is known has the intellectual development (mental development; cognitive development). A child mind is active from the moment they are born and day by day the child mind develops and they become more intelligent. A child’s intelligence will depend on two main factors which are genes and the environment. Genes controls the amount of natural intelligence a child has and the environment influences the intelligence of a child. Throughout childhood, the genes and environment continuously interact to produce people’s mind. People’s minds develop in a variety of ways for example; a child will vary in their ability to remember, also some will acquire musical talents, skills of different languages or be a mathematical genius. Tamas who is five has a multiple of conditions which could slow down the process of brain development. Has Tamas lacks the opportunity to play and interact with other children this will hinder his development of interacting with other and knowing how to communicate effectively. Also has Tamas does not get the help required in school with his learning difficulties this will also effect and slow down the process of is development. Another factor which will slow his process down is, his mom’s constant shouting has there are six people living in a small flat. Tamas also haves to deal with language barriers which will also affect his development.
Bronfenbrenner theory is if a child is encourage and nurtured more at home and school the better he would grow and develop. Bowlby states that early experiences in childhood have an important influence on development and behaviour later on in life. Our early attachment styles are established in childhood through infant / caregiver relationship. Bowlby believes that there are four distinguishing characteristics of attachment; the four attachments are Proximity Maintenance, Safe Haven, Secure Base and Separation Distress. (psychology.about.com 2009)
Social development is a process of learning the skills and attitudes which enable the individual to live easily with others and the community. Activities which encourage social development are family outings, parent and toddler groups, playground and nursery school and an opportunity to play with friends. Children are happier and healthier if they get on well with the people around them. Children are not born with knowledge of these social skills they have to learn them and their parents needs to teach them otherwise how they will learn. Now that Tamas is five, his social skills should be where he can co-operate with his companions and understand the needs for rules and play. Tamas has insufficient social contact where there are not enough people and friends to talk and play with, thus resulting in him feeling lonely and refusing to go to school. Although there is a playground nearby where he could learn some of the social skills required his parents do not always have the time to take him due to work commitments.
At birth your baby’s senses tell him / her things they need in order to survive, for example: crying when they want to be fed, changed or sleep. These senses unfold slowly but perceptibly, and soon you realise that the baby is seeing and hearing more clearly has his / her head turns when they hear sounds. Young babies are far more aware of their surroundings than was once thought; from the day they are born they use their senses to develop awareness and understanding of the world around them. Young babies are aware of their environment in the forms of light, sound, touch and smell and they can learn by looking, listening, feeling and smelling. They are more likely to be kept alert and happy if you incorporate a changing pattern of stimulation, for baby’s repetition of the same sound and movement will often send them asleep.
There are many risk factors that can hinder a child development these factors are biological, such as genetics or chromosomal, secondly, environmental, for example violence in the home or the neighbourhood, and lastly an interaction between the two, such as stress. This can reflect the differences between how a child will react in their ‘vulnerability’ to harm or ‘resilience’ where they will overcome any difficulties they are faced with such has negative circumstances. Each individual child react in different ways to parallel environmental circumstances, For example, two children can experience the same event and interpret it differently. Some children tend to create their own experiences and contribute to the direction of their own development. (J, Empson Pg 39-40 2009)
In conclusion children between the ages of 0 – 5 years show continuing development from simple to more complicated forms of social play. Most children pass through stages of solitary play which is when they play alone then go onto parallel play where they play alongside others but not with them, also looking on play where they watch from the edge of the group when other children play. Has a child becomes more mature they start to joining – in play where they will interact and play with others for example running around together and the last stage is co – operative play where they belong to a group and share the same task by doing jigsaw, cooking and drawing.
Also deprivation can effect education has the child’s parents cannot afford educational toys. Growing up in poverty is as much has a risk has growing up in wealth to the emotional side of a child has the rich and famous children can have many emotional disorders has a child that has been brought up in poverty. If you take the film that come out many years ago called Twins with Danny Devito and Arnold Schwarzenegger where they was separated at birth and one child (Devito) was brought up in a orphanage and poverty while the other (Schwarzenegger) child was brought up in wealth and was taught a very high standard of education. Has they came from two different background and upbringing the brotherly love and compassion for each other faded their past irrelevant. The emotions and poverty Devito suffered all his life started to prevail has he was taught how to be good.
