The Nature and Nurture of Child Development - Case Study Example

NAME : XXXXXXXXXX TUTOR : XXXXXXXXXX TITLE : XXXXXXXXXXX COURSE : XXXXXXXXXX INSTITUTION : XXXXXXXXXX @2009 The nature and nurture of child development Introduction Nature refers to the genetic makeup that a person carriers from the time of conception to the time of death. On the other hand, nurture refers to environmental factors that an individual is exposed to from conception to death. The nature-nurture issue has been debated throughout the history of child development. The major issue has been whether child development is due more to nature or nurture. In the past, most philosophers and psychologists such as Plato and Descartes argued that nature played a greater role in child development than nurture. Today, however, most psychologists believe that both nature and nurture plays an equal role in development. Both nature and nurture interact to bring about development. Despite the fact that some aspects of development are distinctly biological, for example teens, the onset of puberty can be influenced by environmental factors, for example diet and nutrition (Matt Ridley 2003). Development includes everything from physical development, when a child starts crawling, walking and running, to mental development, up to when a child gains the ability to speak full sentences and telling stories to brain development. Nature plays an important role in the development of a child as children inherit a lot of their looks, personality, temperament and skills from their parents. At the same time, nurture is also important since a parent can influence their children into what they will become through various parenting skills and techniques (Judith 1998). Another important thing in child development is the early experiences versus those that occur later in life. Researchers have discovered that the quality of early experiences in childhood affect the development of the child. Many children with better childhoods go on to develop into well-adjusted grown-ups. Another issue is that of continuity although it has been debated that changes are simply a matter of quantity since some skills are displayed as children grow older. Freud’s argument to development theory was his proposal that a child develops through a chain of psychosexual stages. The manner in which a child is raised and the experiences he/she goes through plays a significant role in determining the child’s outward appearance. If nurture does not play a vital role in personality development of the child then every child would grow to have the same character no matter the circumstances they are put in (Plomin 1994). Genetic materials that are inherited from the mother and the father such as eye color, height, ability to learn and patience cannot be altered. The influence of nature in child development can first be felt through emotions. Researchers have found out that few hours after the baby is born they will feel sympathy and empathy for each other since when one cries the others cry too .Emotions are fundamentally inborn, everyone is born with the genetic ability to express emotions such as happiness, temper to fear, however the circumstances around them determine how they are brought about. This shows that nurture too plays a significant role in emotion expression. For instance, a child will not express temper aimlessly, this will likely occur later in life when the baby is an adult and he or she gets in a quarrel. Brain and physical development are also inborn .The duration it takes to complete each development stage varies from child to child however that time amount is hereditarily fixed (Hughes et al 2005). Nature contributes to physical development from the time the baby is born since the baby to gains control over his or her head and neck making it possible for the baby to raise its head while sleeping on its back. At three months old, the baby is able to make simple physical movement and decisive movements. The child is able to sit without help and to reach and take hold of things at the age of seven months. At twelve months the baby is able to show concentration to other kids and fear of unknown, and he or she is able to crawl and stand. By eighteen months, is able to walk without help and also develops an inclination for a dominant hand .The baby is able to run and climb by the age of two years .The baby also starts to develop hand- eye coordination as she/he to use basic things such as cups without help. At three years the baby starts to discover and tests abilities by jumping, plummeting and dancing to music (Hoffman 1991). Language learning is also affected by both nature and nurture. By nature, a baby is able to distinguish his/her native language and react differently to other languages before even she/he is an hour or so old. At the same time, a child must be exposed to a language to learn it at all, which means that the environment too is important for language development. Though children are born with the capacity to hear, and hence gain knowledge, all the different sounds in every language, they have to practice and frequently hear these languages. Otherwise, they will lose this capacity within the first year of their life. This is quite significant since it shows that though human beings are born with the ability to understand a great range of language, learning also plays a vital role in language skills development. It is also important to note that children are not only genetically predisposed to learn a specific language. The fact that the child can speak different languages is 100 percent environmental (Halverson et al 1994). Nurture consist of the surrounding the child is raised in , as well as parenting , early schooling , the home , eating practice , and how one relates with people and many other things, however, it excludes heredity. The manner in which parents raise their child has an insightful consequence on how that child develops. The brain needs stimulation which is important for development. Stimulation includes everything that causes the brain to be used, by every sense. Without stimulus the brain has no chance to develop and since the human brain triples in size, from one quarter to three quarters its adult size, during the first year, it’s vital that these takes place early in life. However, stimulus doesn’t have to be anything intricate as piano lessons or terminology flashcards. It can be uncomplicated as hanging a mobile over the crib to presenting the baby with something to visually focus on. During the first couple of months babies need vision which is particularly very important since these is the time babies only truly see light , shadow, and some colors. At the age of two, the baby generally has twenty/sixty vision which continues to sharpen to about twenty/ twenty five by the age of five (Cadoret et al 1996). Other stimulus includes everything from playing with new toys to frequently speaking to the child and pointing out people, objects and other things as you address them. This will assist the child to make connections between speech and objects and these is how they learn words for things and also get the foundation communications that are useful. It’s vital to expose children to new people and environments, even if it involves visiting your neighbors next door. Various research studies have been conducted to find out whether stimulation affects sucking. These studies done with babies have basically involved giving the child a pacifier with apparatus inside that can gauge how hard and how swift they are sucking it. Faster and stronger sucking on the pacifiers takes place when the child is more devoted or delighted. It is clear that though a lot of physical development is pre-programmed to correspond with brain development and is caused by nature, nurture, for example stimulus, is also fundamental for brain development (Bronfenbrenner and Ceci 1994). Identical twins, especially those who are brought up separately, provide a perfect example to show that both nature and nurture play an equal role in child development. This is because both babies are exactly the same genetically. Therefore, any difference that is observed between the two is largely due to nurture and the environment they are raised in. However, research studies have shown that a pair of identical twins brought up together may be more different from a pair that is brought up separately. Twins who are brought up together may be different because they may try to divide up the territory and to struggle to be unlike since they are a single unit and not individuals. On the other hand, twins who are brought up separately are likely to be similar since they do not feel the need to make themselves unlike and hence do not act extraordinarily just to be so. Adopted children also provide an excellent group to study since they are influenced by nurture which is not controlled by the same people whom they inherited their genes from. They therefore help us to separate nature and nurture because of the two sets of parents and are excellent for study (Hall 2005). A good case study of identical twins which have been studied is the Jim Twins in which the twins were separated and then adopted one week after birth by different families. Both families were told that the other twin had passed during delivery. However, at 39 years old, one of the twins searched into his adoption and discovered that was false. The twins were therefore brought back together at the age of 39 for the first time. It was observed that they had incredible number of similarities: both were named James and called Jim by close friends; had a dog in their childhood who they named Toy; took family holidays to the same little beach in Florida while in high school; named their first children James Alan and James Allen respectively; had worked part-time in law enforcement; drove light blue Chevrolets; smoked Salem brand cigarettes and they bit their fingernails frequently. Though some of these similarities could be more based on similarities between the two families that adopted the twins, they are similarities that the two experienced and they also may have encouraged some of the things such as holidays even if it wasn’t all their decision. This case study provides a good example of the impact of nature on other things apart from basic personality traits (David Rowe 1994). This case study of identical twins provides a perfect example to illustrate that nature alone cannot influence development of the child. The whole idea would seem less credible if some of these similarities come about by chance and some turn out to be based on vague knowledge of their past. For instance, the fact these identical twins named their sons James is merely naming the child after themselves, and also it might be Allen/Alan because they were told their father was named Alan. The only way we can accurately account for their similarities is by knowing more about the context of all the things that are similar between them. Since we don’t know the context, then we can only take this information as being vague. Based on this case study of identical twins, it is evident that both nature and nurture are significant in child development (Hall 2005). In conclusion, both nature and nurture are very important in the physical development of the child. Both nature and nurture are significant to language development and well as emotions. The case study of identical twins provides a perfect example to illustrate that nature alone cannot influence development of the child. Both nature and nurture are so tied together and intertwined that you cannot separate one idea from another when it comes to child development. It is clear that for most human characteristics, both nature and nurture are inextricably connected and intermingle in complex ways to influence child development. Development is a complex process in which both the nature and nurture constantly interact. Though the genes a child inherit from his/her parents provide the basis of what kind of a person she/he becomes, the environment can modify and develop a person even more. References Bronfenbrenner U and Ceci S. 1994. Nature-nurture, reconceptionalized in developmental perspective. Psychol Rev 1994:101:568-86. David C. Rowe 1994. The limits of family influence: genes, experience and behavior. New York: Guilford Press. Ge X, Conger R, Cadoret R, Neiderhiser J, Yates W, Troughton E, Stewart M. 1996. The developmental interface between nature and nurture. Developmental Psychology 32: 574-89. Hall J. 2005. Epigenetic is here to stay. Journal of Pediatrics. Halverson C, Kohnstamm D and Martin R. 1994. The developing structure of temperament and personality from infancy to childhood. Hillsdale, NJ, USA: Erlbaum Hoffman L. 1991. The influence of the family environment on personality Psychol Bull; 110:187-203. Hughes, C., Happé, F., Taylor, A., Jaffee, S. R., Caspi, A., & Moffitt, T. E. (2005). Origins of individual differences in theory of mind: From nature to nurture? Child Development, 76, 356-370 Judith Rich Harris 1998. The Nurture Assumptions: Why children turn out the way they do. New York, Free Press. Plomin R. 1994. Genetics and experience. Thousand Oaks, Calif, USA: Sage. Matt Ridley 2003. Nature via nurture. New York: Harper Collins. Read More