Nature can influence a child’s intellectual development, by genetic inheritance, the child could have inherited Down syndrome, which could cause a later development with the children’s speech and language, Down syndrome can also affect the muscles for them to become weak. They can also develop behaviour issues, such as autism, stubbornness, tantrums, compulsive and obsessive disorders. Children with Down syndrome can also develop a brain disorder which can affect the memory, judgement and function in later life. Another genetic disorder that can affect a child’s intellectual development is Angelman syndrome. If a child has inherited Angelman syndrome this will affect the child’s nervous system. The characteristic that are affect by this condition can include, intellectual disability for example learning difficulties, looking after themselves and communicating. These genetic inheritances can affect the child’s learning skills and also the social skills for the child. Nurture can affect the child’s intellectual development, when the child is in school, the teacher might not be teaching the child the best way. This will affect the child’s learning skills. Another affect that nurture has on intellectual development would be the environment, if a child is brought up in crime, then there is a possibility that the child will grow up to commit crime. Another affect would be if the child parents do not spend time with the child after school, to help complete their homework then they can fall behind in lessons.
Nature can affect a child’s social development, if the child has inherited Autism. People with Autism find it hard to build relationships with people. This will make it hard from them to communicate in school, with other children. Autistic people also have difficulty with their speech and language. They also prefer to be alone which can also affect the child’s social development. Nurture can affect the child’s social