Factors Influencing Children's Development - Research Paper Example

FACTORS INFLUENCING CHILDRENS DEVELOPMENT" include, ILLNESSES, ACCIDENTS, INJURIES Introduction Child development is very essential part becausethe children make up the future and add to the future generation (Thomas, Lee & Thomas, 2008, p.12). Environmental scan executed by the National Collaborating Centre for the Determinants of Health directed towards various assessment of the challenges which are faced by the health professionals for the purpose of supporting child development. The process of early development requires a priority issue within the policy and practice. There are different factors that affect the development of child. Different factors attribute to the development of child. The health professionals have mainly figured out four main factors which are environmental factors, biological factors, early environment as well as experience. Child development process starts from prenatal stage, and so health and nutrition of pregnant women affect the development of the fetus. Proper nutrition, healthy life style like abstinence from smoking or alcohol during pregnancy can reduce the risk of premature birth and infant mortality. The most important phase of a human being is his or her early childhood that should be properly monitored and nurtured for efficient child development. The physical, social and cognitive development during early childhood has strong impact on physical diseases like obesity, heart disease, and also competence in literacy and numeracy. The experiences during early childhood period have lifelong impact on an individual. The focus of this paper is that a nurturing environment where children spend their growing and learning years has a major impact of child development. It is not possible for parents to provide a perfect environment for their children without the assistance of local, national and international agencies. Therefore, government and child care agencies should work in collaboration with families to provide a healthy and nurturing environment for children worldwide. Family is the most important source of experience for children as family members are the ones with whom children spend most of their childhood years, and family members act as mediators between children and the broader environment. An efficient family environment is dependant on social and economic factors. Social factors include education of parents, cultural practices, relations between different family members, and health conditions of family members. Economic factors include employments conditions, wealth and standard of living (Siddiqi, et al, 2007, pp.3-5). Child development is also a natural process that depends upon proper growth of brain and body systems. Proper brain development will ensure a child’s ability to learn and experience new things. For example a child of 2 years can begin to understand language and speak to some extent because of growth of brain. These same qualities cannot be attributed to a 6 month old toddler because its cognitive system is not fully developed (Davies, 2010, p.3) 2. Review of Literature 2.1 Factors affecting child development A fair number of literatures have been concentrating on a large number of longitudinal studies direct towards identification of early childhood risk as well as protective factors. Significant risk factors which affect the child development are poor attachment, harsh parenting, negligence, family disharmony, conflict of violence, suppressed socioeconomic status, secure attachment and weak links with the community. There are several factors that affect the ways in which the children expresses various social skills or that of emotional competencies or the rate at which the children develop social skills or emotional competencies. The factors include various environmental risks such as residing within an unsafe community, receipt of care within a low quality child care setting, various family risk factors that include maternal depression or that of any mental illness in the family with parental abuse violence in family, poverty. Within child risk factors include fussy temperament. Several factors also affect the way in which the social or emotional competencies are challenged and they include various environmental risk factors like that of living within an unsafe community, receiving care within a very low quality child care setting (Factors that Influence Children’s Social and Emotional Development, 2013). 2.2 Focus on development delay of children Identification of biological, environmental factors causing development delay in the recent years has been substituted by model of child development which focuses on the complex and dynamic intertwining among the biological factors within the child as well as the caretaking environment. The model of child development directs that the outcomes associated with developmental outcomes are basically the end results of complex transactions between the intrinsic factors that include genes, development of central nervous system, style of parenting, socio economic status and so on. The poor development of the children generating from the intrinsic factors are to name a few genetic disorders occurring from abnormalities in chromosomes, problems in the brain, infections of the central nervous system, toxic insults attributed to the development of central nervous system that includes irradiation, drugs, alcohol, malnutrition and so on. For majority of the children, the transactional development model signifies that the biological insults to be regarded as risk factors that generate vulnerabilities for the infant rather than resulting in inevitable poor outcomes. A large number of environmental risk factors have been also identified which contribute to the poor development outcomes of the children. These factors attribute to the quality of environment of caretaking along with the characteristics of the parents, determination of socioeconomic factors, stress level as well as experience which the child possess with family functioning as well as parental mental health. A child who is biologically infant and experiences poor caretaking environment is at risk to moderate development delay. The children who are at risk for the worst developmental outcomes basically involve a combination of biological and environmental risk factors. These risk factors generally operate in a cumulative manner which directs that there is a directly proportional relationship between the risk factors present and the likelihood of poor developmental outcome. The relation suggests that more the risk factors present more is the likelihood of poor developmental outcome. There has been a wide array of attempts directed towards a large variety of biological and environmental levels of implementation. A large number of interventions have been directed towards minimizing the biological risks. These interventions include full immunization towards reducing the risk of maternal infection during pregnancy providing supplements during pregnancy for reducing risks that include structural abnormalities of the central nervous system which include anencephaly, spina bifida that advises the pregnant women towards significantly decreasing as well as refraining from habits like tobacco, use of drugs during pregnancy (Center for Genetics Education, 2007). There have been also major attempts in minimizing the environmental risks with a large number of intervention programs which are designed towards improving the quality of environment of caretaking through providing parent support and education, early education programs dedicated towards providing rich and stimulating learning experiences for the infants and the young children. These interventions have been widely useful in enhancing the development of the children. In fact early interventions during pregnancy, and lactation related to diet might prevent atopic diseases like dermatitis, asthma and food allergy in children (Greer et al, 2008). 2.3 Longitudinal studies . Longitudinal studies highlights on the examination of life course as well as circumstances of group of individuals over time. They also help in the identification of factors that are associated with the likelihood of negative outcomes and those that are attached with a diminished likelihood of negative outcomes which are protective factors. One of the advantages of longitudinal studies is that it has the ability to investigate the relationships between various taken early in the life of a child and outcomes in later childhood, adolescence and adult life. These studies direct helps in the guidance of designs of intervention. Other significant factors include easy temperament, secure family attachment as well as involvement in community. Studies of Werner and Smith (1995) carried on a longitudinal study on a sample of 698 children at the prenatal age. The early childhood factors that were taken into consideration include low birth weight, prematurity, injury at birth, poverty, low maternal education, parental desertion, parental alcoholism as well as parental mental illness. The early protective childhood factors incorporate easy temperament, positive social skills, early language, locomotion and self help. Variables are average intelligence, close bonding and attachment, positive attention with three or fewer siblings. The learning outcomes include serious learning or various behavioral constraints with problems like delinquency, mental retarded behavior, teenage pregnancy, resilience, religious faith and so on. Studies of Power et al (1997) carried on a study on a sample of 17733 in the United Kingdom with children at birth. The early child risk factors which have been studied are asthma, speech difficulties, poor family socio-economic status with poor housing as well disability. The associated outcomes that were identified include serious learning and behavioral problems with problems like delinquency, mental health problems, teenage pregnancy and resilience. The development of motor competence at the time of infancy as well as childhood is dependent and also influenced through the growth and maturity characteristics of the child which include morphological, psychological and neuromuscular factors. With the motor development occurring in a specific social context the importance of the environment in which the child is reared carries a significant importance. Each of the context places demands on the motor competencies as well as the physical activities of the infants and the children. The society in which a children lives , the setting of school which the child follows, family size and the number of siblings, interactions among the siblings as well as overall socioeconomic circumstances are significant factors which are to be incorporated into the forefront. For the motor development of the infants, variation in rearing conditions is rigorously regarded as important factor contributing to the development at the time of infancy and childhood. Differences in child rearing practices focus on the role of the parents in the provision of opportunities for action to the development of the child. As for instance, in the infant stage parents helps in promoting action through organizing and restricting circumstances that surrounds the development skills of the infants. The caregivers decide whether the infants are on the floor or whether they have access to stairs, whether they sleep on their stomach or on their backs and so on. The family environment quality seems to be in direct association with the intellectual as well as motor development of the family members. This can be associated with the notion that the boys are more susceptible as compared to the girls surrounding influences. Studies of Leitschuh and Dunn (2001) focused on a sample of 28 children, between 3 and 6 years old who were exposed to cocaine and other drugs and they were being grown up with foster mothers. Findings reveal that there are delays in the motor development observed during the time of infancy have been overcome by the time of examination. The researchers associated high scores of the children on the Test of Gross Motor Development for the favorable upbringing conditions and timely intervention after the motor delay. Researchers also highlighted that a permissive, accepting family environment adds to the motor development of the children (Venetsanou, & Kambas, 2011). Studies of Lejarraga et al (2002) surveyed the psychomotor growth of some boys and girls within the age group of 0.01 to 5.99 years in Argentina. The results of the experiment indicated that higher social class and level of education of mother is highly associated to the better psychomotor performance in the children over 1 year of age. The researchers also pointed out that the situation of low social class associating directly to the better scores in the test of development during infancy caused by indigenous child upbringing practices that impart positive influences on child development which include association between nursing and close contact between baby and its mother. In majority of studies of the children it has been encountered that the children belonging to lower social classes seem to perform worse than the children of the middle classes in the motor development assessment batteries. A large number of explanations for the lower for the perceptual motor problems in children may be associated to the poor pre and post natal nutrition that may have affected the central nervous system or it may occur from simply a lack of experience. These children may not be encouraged in developing skills like that of fine motor ones which will be useful for their achievement in school. Poor urban people residing in apartment blocks may also suffer from inadequacy of enough space which prevents them from developing their gross motor skills. In contrast, the children from the higher classes may have a possession of a large number and varied items of toys than children from lower classes due to their superior socio-economic status. 2.4 Role of mother in the development of children In the process of child rearing, the role of mother carries a significant position. A large number of researcher states that the role of mother possesses an increasing effect with the growth of child. Studies of To et al in 2001 targeted towards determining biological, social and environmental factors that associates the “development of the poor among a sample of 6,982 children within the age group of 0 to 3 years”. From the results of “maternal education, maternal depression, parenting practices as well as low income adequacy play a significant role in the development of the children at 2 years of age” (Venetsanou & Kambas, 2010, p.322). According to a report published by The Center for Community Child Health, in the USA it has been estimated that over half million children are being enrolled in the home visiting programs which provide services to pregnant women and the families with young children. There have been implementations of various goals which include promotion of child health and development, promotion of school readiness, prevention of the child abuse and neglect with the improvement in the skills of the parents with improvement in the lives of the mothers. Majority of the programs in the US struggled in implementing services that are implemented by various program models. As for instance there is an introduction of Comprehensive Child Development Program introduced in and around 21 sites including around 4410 families. Despite huge costs it was not found to impart positive effects for the families when compared with the comparison groups. The individual sites experienced various difficulties in integrating with the existing services. This added to the difficulties with the case management model approach which relied on the program worker broking services from various other providers. The families received only around half the number of visits which were intended in the model. Within the controlled studies of US home visiting programs directing towards improving child health and development which includes Hawaii’s Healthy Start, Teachers as Parents as well as the Comprehensive Child Development Program. These programs did not find any evidence that there has been consistent achievement to any significant extent. Studies of Johnson et al in 1993 with the Dublin Community Mother’s Program revealed that children within the intervention collection were more expected to receive all of their primary immunization and less likely towards receiving poor diet (Foley et al, 2000). Summary of Findings Interview with Macinda Morgan Employing a qualitative research and interviewing with Macinda Morgan a wide array of valuable information has been extracted. Among the large number of cases of illness, accidents and injuries encountered by Macinda, it has been found out that majority of the children coming out through the facility are suffering from types of illness that were inherited within the children from birth. Child abuses are also some common cases that attribute to the factors influencing their development. These are associated with huge financial stress. Macinda also revealed that in some of the cases the children are being beaten at home, exposed to sexual abuse which includes incest, rape. Accidents are also attributed to be one of the most common factors influencing the children development. The accidents are correlated with negligence from the parent’s side. The cases of accidents range from severe burns from a boiling pot on the stove, iron or child having a car accident and so on. Environmental and health influence on early child development Research has shown that a rapid growth occurs during early childhood which means from prenatal period till the age of eight. A child’s development starts as early as conception, pregnancy and pre-natal periods, and social factors have an important contribution. During this time the growth is influenced much by the environment. The critical phase of brain and physical development starts during pre-natal period and continues till adolescence. A proper development can be ensured by a stimulating and nurturing environment in which the children grow and learn (Maggi, et al, 2005, p.6). Monitoring the development of children during this period is essential as many diseases like obesity, heart diseases, poor literacy and criminality take root during this phase. It has been estimated that more than 200 million children every year do not achieve their optimum growth and development. A major proportion of these children are found in South Asia and sub-saharan Africa. This results in poor health and poor performance in school leading to low education in adult years. This group tends to give birth to children at early age thereby providing their children poor health and education facilities. Early childhood is the most important phase for brain development hence children during this period need proper nutrition and a healthy environment. Proper development of brain ensures cognitive skills, social and emotional growth. This will lead a child to full potential and will be a productive part of the future generation. Child development can happen best in a stimulating environment. From six months to three years a child should be exposed to language and cognitive development. Without proper physical or emotional support during this phase, there will be slow development of brain resulting in poor cognitive and social skills. In adult years they will be less capable of adjusting to complex situations, and can suffer from stress-related diseases (WHO, 2009). In the pre-school years a child’s development depends upon his family, neighbourhood or the society at large. Thus, social environment is a major factor for early child development which in turn means “a determinant of health, well-being and learning skills across the balance of the life course.” (Maggi, et al, 2005, p.6) The health of an adult is determined by as early factors like health of mothers during pregnancy and fetal development. Infants who are born with low weight have more probability to get coronary diseases in their middle ages. The metabolic changes that occur during pre-natal period have a permanent affect and can influence the health in later years. The type nutrition intake during pregnancy determines the weight of an infant and the subsequent development of health. Proper nutrition is determined by factors like family poverty, education of parents and unstable working environment. These factors are more common in developing countries where there is poor nutrition, improper prenatal education and socioeconomic setbacks. Even in a developed country fetal health causes obesity among poor and uneducated families. Poor nutrition and poverty are major causes of maternal and fetal health especially diet consisting of low fatty acids will hinder the physical and brain development of an infant. This will be manifested by low vision and abnormal behavior among the infants (Maggi, et al, 2005, pp.6-7). Parental influence on child development According to studies it has been seen that a father has an important role for child development and this matter should be emphasized so that families can implement effective parental strategies according to the circumstances. Parental influence is not only limited to childhood days but it has long-term influence; hence focus must be on continuous development of both parents and children. Traditional, the accepted idea was that a mother has more influence on child development, but recent studies have shown that a father is responsible for the intellectual, social and emotional development of a child. Hence, development of both parents and also the quality of relationship between parents need to be considered for proper parental process. In spite of cultural variations, “father-mother-child connection is the foundation for the family, each member benefiting and learning from the other.” (Biller, 1993, p.1) It is not only a mother’s prerogative to form a close attachment with her child, but a father too has the right to nurture his child. Cross-cultural studies have shown the impact of father’s positive contribution towards parental process. In a society, where only mothers are involved in infant care, children tend to be more reserved and attached to their mothers. The males who are deprived of father’s care tend to develop aggressive masculine behavior in adult years leading to violence and child abuse. Thus it can be said that upbringing by a single parent cannot be very effective in child development (Biller, 1993, pp.1-2). An event that can seriously affect child development is death of a parent because it means permanent separation from the primary caregiver. The effect can be can be more negative due to stressful environment, new expectations from the child’s behavior. A child’s psychology and behavioral pattern is also affected by parental divorce due to conflict between parents, economic instability and loss of contact of one parent. Children of divorced parents face difficulties that extend till their adolescent years (Gutman, 2010, p.334). Risk and resilience An extremely negative effect can occur from child abuse and maltreatment because it means a child is deprived of a normal and healthy environment that is needed for proper child development. Maltreated children do not often develop resilience although studies have shown that these children achieve higher level of adaptation than others, and this maybe because of different intensities and longevities of maltreatment experiences. It is seen that “children who are older at the age of onset of maltreatment and who are exposed to shorter, less severe, and pervasive experiences of abuse are more likely to experience resilience.” (Gutman, 2010, p.335) Psychological disturbances in parents caused by drug or alcohol intake can also affect the social, behavioral and cognitive development of children (Gutman, 2010, p.335). Psychological studies conducted in the 1960s have proven that children can develop different levels of adaptive abilities even if they have been exposed to equal risk factors like chronic poverty. While some children exhibit extreme trauma, others are moderately affected and there are others who have grown stronger from challenges. Children with positive outcomes in spite of growing up in stressful environment are said to be resilient which means “good developmental outcomes and adaptive abilities in spite of growing up in high-risk situations.” (Davies, 2010, p.60) Although resilience is usually an inherent quality of an individual, it is nevertheless an ongoing process that is influenced by positive factors like protective parenting. Even though a protective environment during infancy and early childhood can ensure resilience in later years, it is seen that resilient children have experienced parental affection throughout their growing years (Davies, 2010, p.61). Other factors that influence resilience of children are “biological conditions, genetic inheritance and personality characteristics.” (Davies, 2010, p.62) Classical and Operant conditioning An American psychologist John B. Watson associated children’s behavioral patterns with principles of classical conditioning. For example, he trained a nine month old infant to fear a white rat. Every time he placed the rat in front of the infant he made a loud noise to scare the infant. This developed a fear in the infant whenever Watson touched the rat. With this study it was concluded that environment plays a huge role in child development process, and parents can control the behavior of their children by carefully controlling stimulus-response associations. Another American psychological B.F. Skinner introduced the theory of operant conditioning which means a recurrence of a child’s behavior can be increased by “a wide variety of rewards or reinforcers, things such as praise or a friendly smile.” (Keenan & Evans, 2009, p.30) Similarly, recurrence of a certain behavioral pattern of children can be discouraged by punishments like scolding or withdrawal of privileges. In short, while a praise can encourage a child to repeat his or her good actions, a punishment can discourage the child from repeating his or her bad actions. Thus, it can be concluded that operant conditioning can affect child development process (Keenan & Evans, 2009, p.30). Race, ethnicity and community impact on child development A child’s growth and development are influenced by his or her race and ethnicity. Race can have a genetic or hereditary impact on physical development like body size, and color of hair and skin. An ethnicity creates an individualistic sense among members with common and traditional values. Ethnicity may influence personal behavioral patterns and development of self confidence (Bowden & Greenberg, 2009, pp.80-81). A community of a child includes the impact imposed on by peers, caretakers, school teachers, religious leaders and social circle. The interactions with all of them “take place within the context of a social culture that provides boundaries for acceptable and unacceptable patterns of behavior.” (Bowden & Greenberg, 2009, p.86) Communities establish gender differences and age specific roles, for instance, in many communities girls get married at adolescent age but in US this is not encouraged as adolescent girls are physically or emotionally not ready to bear children (Bowden & Greenberg, 2009, p.86). It is seen that although a disturbing relation between parent-child can cause social incompetence in children, the community at large also play a big role in this. For instance, a child by nature can extract positive responses can develop positive relation with another adult (other than parents) that can compensate for a neglectful home life (Rintoul, et al, 1998, p.36). The African American (AA) children The principle factors that influence development of AA children are lead poisoning and prenatal drug exposure. Infant mortality is essentially a cultural issue and the rate is extremely high among the poor AA population in the United States, the major reasons being low weight during birth and premature birth of infants. These are caused by various maternal risk factors like “maternal age, maternal SES (socioeconomic status), maternal health, maternal drug use, and maternal prenatal care.” (Harris & Graham, 2007, p.63) The AA mothers who live in high poverty areas do not have access of adequate prenatal care, are used to drug or alcohol intake during pregnancy; these factors result in premature delivery and low birth weight. Another major hindrance towards child development among this community is prevalence of AIDS among mothers. This raises the chance of giving birth to infected infants by 30%. These infected infants face physical complications and have low life expectancy (Harris & Graham, 2007, p.63). Starting from 1980s there has been growing rates of divorce and children born out of wedlock that resulted in many children being brought up by single parents which is a big contributory factor for inefficient child development (Charlesworth, 2010, p.138) Recommendations and implications Professionals as well as parents need to be very cautious regarding the proper development of children who are the future assets of any nation. Proper monitoring should be done which includes paying particular attention to the symptoms associated with the condition of the children, improvement associated with the physical, mental, social and emotional well being. Development screening is one of the significant tools dedicated for practice of the professionals. The parents have to be also well acquainted with the process. Along with that early intervention services, proper medication are considered to be of much importance for the development of children (CDC[2], 2013). Development milestones are “things most children can do by a certain age.” (CDC[1], 2013) In every phase of childhood they reach milestones like playing, talking, crawling, walking etc. In the first year, parents should talk and read to their babies so that they recognize sounds and languages. Cuddling and holding babies will make them feel secure (CDC[1], 2013). Parents should create awareness in their babies about other children. This can be done by allowing other children to play with the babies (Guidelines for healthy child development and care for young children, 2013, p.3). In the second year parents should play games with toddlers like simple puzzles. They should be asked simple questions and parents should encourage them when they attempt to talk. They should be shown pictures and things so that they can explore new things (WHO, 2013). When children start to attend school, child development becomes responsibilities of teachers along with parents. Teachers should be updating their child development knowledge with current developmental science, and this needs to be applied to curriculum design. They also need to address the cultural differences among children to bring solutions to problems like achievement variations between children belonging to different cultural groups. Teachers should eliminate simplistic teaching processes like leaving children to play by themselves so that they can construct their own understanding. Since it is not possible for children to learn everything important on their own, there is need for explanations from teachers. So, by understanding complex development process teachers can apply effective teaching strategy (Ritchie, et al, 2011, pp.32-33). Conclusion Early child development is a complex process and there is no absolute perfect method for efficient child development. There are numerous factors that remain responsible for a child’s proper growth and development, although the environmental factor is considered as the most important one. Maximum care needs to be taken during early childhood years as during this phase brain development occurs that determines the social and cognitive skills of a child in later years and even lifelong. Adult health is dependent on factors influencing the prenatal phase like mother’s health and proper nutrition that depends on parental education and family poverty. Another most important factor contributing towards child development is the role of parents. Unlike the traditional belief that a mother has more influence on a child, studies have now shown that a father has equal contribution. There can be a positive development of a child’s psychology and behavioral pattern if he or she grows up with both parents. Illness and accidents during childhood can also hinder proper development of children. Child abuse at home can be considered as a common factor influencing development and this can be attributed to financial stress and drinking habits of parents. Resilience of a child also determines development process as different children can develop different levels of adaptive qualities even if they grow up in similar environments and economic conditions. Finally, it has been seen that race and ethnicity also play an important role in child development. References Biller, H.B. (1993) Fathers and Families: Paternal Factors in Child Development, Greenwood Publishing Bowden, V.R. & Greenberg, C.S. (2009) Children and Their Families: The Continuum of Care, Lippincott Williams & Wilkins Center for Genetics Education, (2007), NEURAL TUBE DEFECTS - SPINA BIFIDA & ANENCEPHALY, Fact Sheet, retrieved on March 3, 2013 from: http://www.genetics.edu.au/Information/Genetics-Fact-Sheets/NeuralTubeDefectsSpinaBifidaandAnencephalyFS59 Charlesworth, R. 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