Child Development

* 2.1 Describe with examples the kinds of influences that affect children and young people’s development
A child or young person’s development can be effected by more many areas of their life such as: * Background - like the child or young person’s housing, family, culture and maybe even their families.
If a child has problems at home such as mourning in the family or financial problems this may cause an impact on the child as they are worry about ‘ what will happen?’, this will effect that emotional and intellectual development. If the child is worrying this may cause lack of sleep causing problem with the child’s concentration in class. This could also make the child anxious causing some problem in their health.

Another effect on their development could be their culture, as some cultures will not allow the child to interact with others that are not of their same religion, this can cause an impact on their social development and understanding others around them. For example those who are Jehovah witness’s are not allowed to eat with other children unless they are one as well, this can cause problems with their communication with other children and interaction with them too.

Family is another effect on a child’s development. If a child has a small family they may find it easier to interact with other members of the family than someone who has a large number of relatives. Large families have problem with socialising as they try to get attention onto them while they are giving attention to a new baby or new member of the family. This may cause emotional development to lack as the child or young person may feel that they are un-loved and not getting the affection they desire.

* Environment – Depending where the child lives their outside area can be effected on their development. Temperature, Noise, light and even technology can be a huge impact on the child’s development.

The outside area of where the child lives can affect the child’s development for example if the child lives in an area with no grass or areas of play can cause an impact on the social and physical areas of development as the child or young person is unable to interact with people their own age and are also unable to develop their motor skills like kicking a ball or throwing a stick. If a child has a large amount of grass land then its opposite for the child, they are able to explore their area and learn to develop more advance motor skills and interact with others in their space which increase their social development.

Temperature and light is a big impact on the child for example if the child is cold or hot the child’s intellectual development is effect. They are unable to concentrate on the work or activity that they are doing, this can cause health issues as well to their bodies such as dehydration or lack of nutrition.
Light can cause an impact of the child as it can damage their eyes. Not enough lack of light can cause the child’s intellectual development to increase but causing strain on their bodies and eyes. Too much light can also cause an impact on this development which can cause strain on the child’s eyes and causing a lack of concentration.

In my opinion technology can cause an impact on the child’s development in all areas. Social is a huge problem as it doesn’t get the child to go an interact with others of his or her own age, it can cause problems with making friends as the child copies what is on the television thinking that is the correct way of behaviour while some children see it as wrong. Physical development can cause an impact on a child as they are not advancing their motor or finer skills and mainly sitting watching the screen not moving. The child is not learning to do things such as kicking a ball or throwing a stick. Emotional development is effected as well. For example the child may believe that the TV is what he or she needs but when a parent turns it off the child can have a temper tantrum causing behavioural problems which can connect to their social behaviour.

* Health - The child or young person’s health can cause an impact on the child’s development in many ways. For example if the child has ill health this can cause problems to the child’s emotional, social and physical development, such as if the child is weak they may not be able to participate in sport activities cause the child to feel left out of the group, social and emotional development is effect here.
A child with a disability will find all areas of development hard to cope with as the child may be physically disabled such as damage to their legs or arms causing their physical skills to be affected. The child may be unable to hit a ball with a bat or even run in sports activities. If the child has a mental disorder this will cause an impact on the social and emotional areas of development for example the child may find it difficult to communicate with another child of the same age or class and feel frustrated to tell them how he/she feels or wishes to say. This affects the social and emotional development areas.