2.1 Kinds of influences that affect children and young’s people’s development.
BACKGROUND refers to the family group where the child is born and the home circumstances. A strong family group can provide role models for children, also it can provide a source of social and emotional support.
Regarding to the physical development, the genes and biological factors have a strong influence in how the child is going to be. An example is if the family’s height is very short there is a strong possibility that the child is going to be the same. This factor can affect the development of a child who might grow below the average height. If during pregnancy the mother of the child didn’t look after herself properly the child might be premature, low weight or have a physical problem that can restrict the growth. Another barrier for the physical development is if the parents are drug addicts, smokers, alcoholics…there is a strong possibility of the child suffering an illness that restrict this development.
The ethnicity can affect physically too. In some communities the early development of muscles and bones makes the children to do activities like running or throwing with more strength or at an earlier age. A parent who is overprotective might not want the child to play outside or in the park in fear that something can happen. The child will miss vital exercise and activities than cannot be done indoors.
The communication and speech development can be affected if there are other languages in the family. Some children they adapt very well and will learn and switch languages according to the situation (for example English at the school and a second language with the parents at home).In other cases it can create confusion in the child and will end mixing up the languages and sounds.
I have a friend who came to the United Kingdom from abroad with a 4 year old. The child’s mother tongue is Spanish, before he was doing well and he didn’t know any English. Now it’s difficult to understand him because he says words that don’t belong to any of the languages or sometimes is a mixture of both. The way parents and family talk influence the way the child is going to talk. Parents who are not educated or have learning difficulties will not be able to help the child with the education and the child can be left behind on knowledge and vocabulary. Also there are parents who don’t value education, they will not encourage the child to pursue studies and this situation can leave him behind.
The social and emotional development can be altered if they is not bond between parent-child. A child might not feel is loved and the self-esteem will be low, feels rejected, isolated and not valued at all.
Significant changes in the family are going to affect the behaviour, for example a family break up. This can put the child in a difficult situation for being in the middle especially if there is violence involved (for example the child saw the dad beating the mum).There is a big change that those children in the future will repeat the violence and might be unable keep their own relationships leading to the cycle of another family