Understand the factors that influence children and young people’s development and how these affect practice. E-Book

Yasmin Um Musa

• Herausgeber: BookRix
• Kategorie: Bildung
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2017

Beschreibung

How children and young people’s development is influenced by a range of personal factors.

How children and young people’s development is influenced by a range of external factors. such as:  poverty and deprivation, family environment and background etc.

Development theorists, an explanation of their theory and details on how this theory influences current practices.

Child development  and Supporting Childhood Transitions Charts

Leseprobe

Yasmin Um Musa

Understand the factors that influence children and young people’s development and how these affect practice.

BookRix GmbH & Co. KG81371 Munich

Contents

1. How children and young people’s development is influenced by a range of personal factors including: • health status • disability • sensory impairment • learning difficulties 2. How children and young people’s development is influenced by a range of external factors.  such as:  a) poverty and deprivation b) family environment and background c) personal choices d) how they are looked after/care status e) education. 3. Development theorists, an explanation of their theory and details on how this theory influences current practices. 

4. Child development Chart

5. Supporting Childhood Transitions

Different factors can affect the child's development

1. Different factors can affect the child’s development.

A child’s health is important for its development and well-being. Eating healthy food and spending more time actively can influence the physical development. A child that spends more time watching TV or playing computer games will have less time to socialise and thus will not be able to develop socially. The child would feel neglected which would result in the lack of emotional well-being and self-confidence. This kind of unhealthy lifestyle can also lead to serious illness and cause obesity. One factor can lead to another. Illness would cause absences in school which would reduce the communicative and literal development.

Children with a physical disability may be discrimination at school and they could be treated differently by other children. They may be bullied which would affect their self-confidence and thereafter affect their learning capabilities and development. They would not be able to take part in all activities resulting in slower physical development. Their social skills would be less developed as well, as they would not be able to spend so much time with their peers due to their disability.

The term sensory impairment is used to refer to people with either visual or hearing impairments. A person with hearing impairment is going to develop language delays and this would cause deficiency in social interactions. Delayed social interaction could cause delays in other area of developments too. Sight impaired children might be detected too late which could affect their intellectual development.

If a child has language and communication difficulties, they may find it hard to socialise with people or join in with activities and may develop slow self-esteem. The child may have trouble being understood by others children and adults. Children with autism, a developmental disability, find it difficult to understand and try to avoid social interactions and therefore not develop socially. A child suffering from Dyslexia may become frustrated and problems could arise at home or in school. If dyslexia is undetected it will affect their development at school and could prevent chances of achievement.

2a Poverty and deprivation

Family income plays a big role in the development of the child’s health. Children from wealthy families usually partake in a number of clubs which increases their social and physical development. Children from low income families often skip events. They miss school trips, can’t invite friends round for tea and can’t afford holidays away from home. This could affect their physical, social and behaviour development.

On average, children living in low-income families have poorer health outcomes. Poverty affects children’s health not only when they are young, but also later in their lives. Children from lower-income households are usually less willing to learn and continue their studies further. This lack of eagerness can affect cognitive and psychosocial development and result in low academic achievement.

Children from poorer backgrounds lag at many stages of education. They are more likely to suffer chronic illness during childhood or to have a disability. Children living in poverty are almost twice as likely to live in bad housing. This has significant effects on both their physical and mental health, as well as educational achievement.

2b Family environment and background

A child’s early home environment has a big effect on his well-being and development. In infancy, a problematic home environment can delay the health development. Various researches shows how the home environment during a child’s first three years can cause developmental problems such as poor language development, aggression and depression and impaired cognitive development. A child whose family does not provide an inspiring and motivating environment and whose parents don't interact and speak to him may not develop properly. This may cause learning disabilities. Other circumstances including parent’s separation or losing family members can also affect the child.

2c Personal choices

Such as smoking, drinking, drug taking, friendship groups, obesity, sexual encounters. Choices affect development. Choosing less healthy foods and drinks (fatty, surgery) instead of healthy foods will cause obesity and dental decay. Less outdoor activities would cause delay in physical development. For older children sexual health choices and pregnancy, smoking, drinking and drugs would stop the cognitive and social and behaviour development.

2d Looked after/care status

Children in care have less opportunity to make positive relationships. They are more vulnerable, and have experienced family separations. This can affect their ability to relate to others and cause attachment disorder. This can lead onto communication difficulties which involve showing emotions. The social development will be affected due to isolation. They may become fragile and unstable because they get moved to different places.

2e Education

Every child has a right of education under the UNCRC. Parent's education and their feelings towards education impact on how a child sees it. This factor will affect the child’s attitude towards learning and with it affect the development of the child. The opportunities education provides will help them to achieve success and prosperity in their lives, helping them find solutions when problems arise.

Some children have no prior experiences of education. The might be home schooled or migrated from another country. They might take some time to reach the achievement level expected.

Development theorists

Theories from a psychological perspective often concentrate on development in terms of stages that children progress through as they grow and develop. There is no theory that has proven holistically on the development of a child. The milestones that they provide can certainly be useful when attempting to evaluate growth and development and make assessments about how children should be behaving and responding at different levels in their lives. However, growth and development will always be an individual process, depending on different factors.

All theories of child development are based on observation and the way in which children react in different situations. You will need to observe children so that you can assess their progress and plan for their future needs

Several of the main theorists associated with such an approach include:

Sigmund Freud (1856-1939): the founder of the psychodynamic tradition, explored stages of early childhood development to explain behaviours and psychological problems. He argued that parental responses affected the development of the child’s personality.

Freud stated that our personalities are made up of three parts – the id, the ego and the superego. Each of these will develop with the child and will be subconsciously driven by childhood events and experiences.

Freud established a psychosexual theory of development. He emphasised the importance of the unconscious mind. Freud declared that the ego applies a range of defence mechanisms in order to deal with conflict and problems in life.  Defence mechanisms operate at an unconscious level and help get rid of unpleasant feelings or make things feel better for the individual.

Jean Piaget (1896-1990): developed a theory of cognitive development based on the belief that children seek to understand and adapt to their environment and to do so they undertake certain actions as they move through progressive stages of development. He stressed the importance of the impact of education and learning on child development. He also suggested that as children develop so does their thinking.

Piaget’s work has influenced early year’s settings into providing relevant tasks for children. In other words the children are ‘learning through play’. Teachers are working out the needs of children and plan activities accordingly.

Piaget thought that children think differently to adults. He believed that the way children think and learn is governed by their age and stage of cognitive development, because learning is based on experiences they build on as they become older. As children’s experiences change, they adapt their beliefs.

The influence of Jean Piaget’s theory on current practise in early education includes that children need opportunities to learn through active exploration and investigating their environment. Teachers use the stages of his cognitive theory in today’s classroom. All kinds of activity should be available which is suitable for the ability of each individual. According to his theory children should not be taught certain concepts until they have reached the appropriate stage of cognitive development. Piaget emphasised the importance of extending children’s experiences, so that they are able to see things in different ways and challenge their ideas. This theory may influence the way in which teachers plan and evaluate work with children.

Burrhus Frederic Skinner (1904-1990) believed that children learn through experience or conditioning. He promoted the theory that our learning is based on a consequence following a particular behaviour. We will repeat experiences that are enjoyable and avoid those that are not. This applies to learning too. For example, a child who is praised for working well at a particular task will want to work at the task again. Skinner called this positive reinforcement.