Essay on how families affect infants and young children development

Psychology

Infant and Early Childhood Development Paper
Infant and Early Childhood Development Paper
Infancy as well as early childhood is a unique period as there would be no greater stage in life for development and growth. During this period, growth occurs at physical stage, but just as remarkable are the cognitive and socio-emotional developments during this period. The womb and the physical environment as well as the genetics all combine after the delivery that will impact the manner and rate of growth. That is who we eventually become as a person begins here. The purpose of this writing is to enlighten how families affect the infant development as well as the young children, evaluate various parenting styles that influence development during infancy and early childhood including the most effective parenting style and early childhood education’ influence on cognitive development.

Families have a direct influence towards young children and infants’ development. As being part of their families, these young children could adapt the characteristics that the members of the family demonstrate. To cite an ordinary example, an event within the family at home may affect the child’s performance in school (Bronfenbrenner, 1986). That is, if there are negative events happening at home in which the child witnesses, various negative effects may occur such as difficulties in learning and other psychological outcomes unless otherwise. In addition, infants and children development in the family is also being affected by what occurs in some other settings that their parents live their lives such as their parents’ group of friends or places where children do not normally go to, such as their parents’ world of work (Bronfenbrenner, 1986). In this scenario, infants, especially young children may develop ideas that these environments where their parents go to as they can see what appears to be happening within these environments.
As part of a child’s development, emotion may also be affected by the child’s family. There are three ways in which the emotional development may be affected. Initially, young children may learn about the emotion through observation. Parenting behaviors and practices are the second aspect of a child’s development. Third is the family’s emotional climate that also affects the young children’s development (Morris, Silk, Steinberg, Myers, & Robinson, 2007). Family members may have not known that these infants and young children are observing every event that happens inside the house, which eventually become part of their development. Also, how the parents behave can be adapted by these children as well as their daily practice at home. Family’s emotional climate is a development factor as reflected in the attachment relationship quality, expressiveness of the family as well as the marital relationship’s emotional quality.

Parenting Styles and Influences on Early Childhood Development

Parenting style is regarded as parent characteristic, which is stable overtime and also constitutes the emotional and environmental context for socialization and child-rearing. Therefore, it has a great influence on molding and shaping a child’s development. Some of the classic parenting styles are authoritarian, neglectful, authoritative and permissive.
Authoritarian parenting style pertains to parents who have high self-control demands, but exercises low sensitivity level (Rhee, Lumeng, Appugliese, Kaciroti, & Bradley, 2006). Authoritarian parenting style is often not sensitive to developmental needs of the child and provides minimal emotional support, which considered strict disciplinarians. On the other hand, authoritative parenting style has high demands of self-control and maturity from their children, but it demonstrates high sensitivity, involvement and warmth level (Rhee, et al., 2006). An authoritative parent acknowledges their child’s importance and opinions along with maintaining certain limits, which is ideal for a child’s development. Moreover, neglectful parenting style has low levels of sensitivity and self-control demands. This has been associated with unfavorable results such as high levels of depression, poor school accomplishment, smoking, and poor psychosocial development (Rhee, et al., 2006). On the other hand, permissive parenting style is defined by low expectations in terms of discipline and self-control with the presence of high warmth and sensitivity. Young children that belong to this kind of family may have more confidence, but regularly show lower self-control level (Rhee, et al., 2006).
With all four classic parenting styles, the authoritative parenting style can be regarded as the most effective as it has the balanced factors that would directly influence the child’s development. It also has a give and take setting between the parent and the child, who is ideal as it is associated with better child outcomes in terms of school achievement, self-regulatory abilities and even lesser depressive symptoms.

Early Childhood Education with its Influence on Cognitive Development

Early childhood education is one of the branches of educational theory related to teaching children up to the age of eight, which focuses on education that is notable in the stage prior to the start of their compulsory education. Barnett and Belfield (2006) argue that the early childhood education has positive effects on a child’s cognitive abilities. However, effects may decline eventually that may affect general cognitive abilities. On the other hand, the most intensive as well as the longest-lasting educational interventions are the ones that may produce permanent gains when it comes to general cognitive abilities. Early childhood education mainly influences subject-specific abilities such as math, reading and so forth (Barnett & Belfield, 2006). These specifically lasted longer than the other cognitive abilities as those subjects are the usual focus of early childhood education.

References

Barnett, W. S., & Belfield, C. R. (2006). Influence of Early Childhood Programs on Child Development and Adult Outcomes. Opportunity in America, 16(2).
Bronfenbrenner, U. (1986). Ecology of the Family as a Context for Human Development: Research Perspectives. Developmental Psychology, 22(6), 723-742.
Morris, A. S., Silk, J. S., Steinberg, L., Myers, S. S., & Robinson, L. R. (2007). The Role of the Family Context in the Development of Emotion Regulation. Social Development, 16(2), 361-388.
Rhee, K. E., Lumeng, J. C., Appugliese, D. P., Kaciroti, N., & Bradley, R. H. (2006). Parenting Styles and Overweight Status in First Grade. Pediatrics, 117(6), 2047-2054.