How a child’s development is determined? Looking at every influential factor that is contributing to children’s development is impossible. What researchers can do though is, look at apparent factors. These will mostly include the following:
- Parenting
- Genetics
- Friends
- Family
- Education
- Experiences and;
- Relationship
Knowing the role that each factor play allowed researchers to identify better how these influences are contributing to the growth and development of children.
Nature versus Nurture
While other elements of development can be influenced greatly by biology, experts are not ignoring environmental aspects too. For instance, the timing of when puberty occurs is frequently brought by heredity. However, environmental factors like nutrition may have effects on it.
From the early stage of life, interaction of heredity as well as environment works in shaping who the children will become and who they are personally.
Genetic instructions that children inherited from parents on the other hand can guide them through development. With environment though, it is going to impact how these directions would be shaped, silenced or even expressed.
Prenatal Child Development
At the very start, child development already begins when male reproductive cell or the sperm has penetrated the ovum or the protective outer membrane of the female reproductive cell. The ovum and the cell individually contain chromosomes that serve as blueprint for life. Genes contained in chromosomes are made of chemical structure otherwise known as DNA. As you know, our DNA contains genetic instructions or codes that make up all life on earth.
Environmental Influences
With all these things said, how genetic instructions being passed down from parents are influencing child development as well as to what traits they have. To understand this better, it is essential to identify between genetic inheritance of a child and their actual expression of the genes.
Genotype is used to refer all kinds of genes that have been inherited by a person. Phenotype on the other hand is the way how genes are expressed. The latter include physical traits similar to eye color and even nonphysical traits similar to extroversion and shyness. So even if you are a type of timid person during your younger and adult years, environmental factors can still impact your child’s behavior and development and might have interest in things like Diablo 2 items, gaming and so forth.