The development process of children remains a core focus of study in psychology and complementary disciplines because of the importance of ensuring healthy growth from the onset. Naturally, the development process among humans entails physical, cognitive, social, and behavioural aspects that must individually and collectively receive close attention for healthy growth. Subsequently, this report will discuss the environmental influences, developmental concerns at the early and middle childhood, and influences of diversity on Carlos before designing a proper intervention strategy for the sake of normalizing his development profile.
Impact of Environmental Influences
Several environmental influences have a direct impact on the health of the unborn baby during and after pregnancy. Maternal nutrition is a critical factor that impacts the foetus and the mother after birth. These effects are based on the availability of nutrients, their intake, and their amounts. Pregnant mothers should strive to identify and acquire the right kind of nutrients that support their health as expectant mothers and their demanding foetuses. A complete profile of vitamins, carbohydrates, proteins, and macro and micro minerals must be accorded to the mother when they notice they are pregnant. However, this might be a problem for young mothers who may be unemployed or living in vulnerable situations, such as Carlos' mothers, who became pregnant at 19. Herein, it may be difficult for the student to get the right kind of nutrients for her son or even adequate amounts of the same nutrients as most teenagers are under their parents' care. Consequently, Carlos' cognitive and physical deficiencies may be traced back to her mother being a young student from a minority family, meaning getting the proper nutrition may have been hard.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
Teratogens are substances that may harm the expectant mother and her unborn mother if and when ingested. They include alcohol, tobacco, radiation, medical drugs, and banned substances such as cocaine, marijuana, and heroin (Mazzu-Nascimento et al., 2017). The mechanism behind teratogens harming unborn children when their mothers ingest them depends on the exact substance used. Alcohol disrupts the cognitive and physiological development of the unborn child while also exposing the mother to severe health issues such as fatty liver disease that may cause secondary metabolic problems for both mother and unborn child. Drugs such as cocaine and heroin cause severe cognitive deficiencies in children while disrupting the mother’s metabolic and psychiatric health, further affecting the foetus’ uptake of nutrients, if any. Carlos’s cognitive and physical deficiencies might be traced back to his mother’s consumption of alcohol while in high school. The case study literature reports how she smoked cigarettes and drunk to the point of inebriation, which might explain her son’s slow learning progress and stunted growth.
Developmental Concerns at Early Childhood
Carlos' development process is subject to several concerns whose explanation and solution are rooted in various developmental theories focusing on human beings. The first developmental concern touches on the stunted nature of Carlos' physical growth as the case study reports that he is noticeably smaller and uncoordinated compared to others of his age. This developmental concern can be explained by B.F Skinner and J.B Watson's behavioural theory of environmental interaction. Both theorists noticed how the environmental influences of infants and young children affect both their physical and behavioural development (Ziafar & Namaziandost, 2019). Carlos' earliest environment was characterized by violence as his father would molest and assault his mother, which would explain his stunted growth caused by anxiety. Additionally, the lack of physical coordination might be explained by the lack of interactive environmental stimuli at this critical stage of development.
Carlos' social development process is a significant cause for concern because he is reclusive even in the learning environment when children are most interactive and socially active. Erik Erickson's psychosocial development theories explained how the earliest social interaction an infant has exposed influences their social development and behavioural fluctuations. The parents of this case study's focal point engaged in substance abuse before he was born and created a discordant, violent, and turbulent social environment for him for his first two years of life. Consequently, Carlos developed social anxiety because much of his social interaction was characterized by violence, argument, and other negative influences.
There are concerns about the cognitive development processes that Carlos has exhibited, putting in mind that children undergo rapid but sustained cognitive development for the first two decades of life. Notably, Carlos has had problems with basic arithmetic, communication, and logic exercises at school, pointing to cognitive deficits. Jean Piaget’s Cognitive Development Theory stated that the cognitive development process in humans is divided into four distinct stages; sensorimotor, pre-operational, concrete operational, and formal operational. Piaget theorized that the first two stages are integral in the subsequent cognitive development of individuals as children are supposed to be exposed to positive cognitive stimuli which support healthy development. Unfortunately for Carlos, the first stage was characterized by violence and teratogens as his parents engaged in fighting and substance abuse instead of providing visual and sensory stimuli. Additionally, the second stage was characterized by further violence and negative language instead of engaging the child in speech and logic exercises. Consequently, Carlos has pronounced cognitive challenges both in the social and intellectual settings.
Developmental Concerns at Middle Childhood
Development concerns during the middle childhood stage between the ages of 6 and 12 years include emotional regulation, social relationships, and self-discipline. Emotional regulation for the child encompasses their ability to contain negative emotions, identify proper emotional cues from parents and siblings, and react favourably to emotional stimuli. Sigmund Freud's psychosexual theory best explained the emotional aspects of middle childhood when he noted the changes in various stages of childhood and early adulthood about ego and superego (Khosianah, 2019). The environmental influences surrounding a child impact the development and relationship among these two aspects of an individual's character. Therefore, Carlos's reclusive nature and sluggish emotional reaction can be explained by the violent and harmful home environment in which he was born and grew.
Social relationships at the middle childhood stage of development form an integral aspect of growth as human beings tend to form social bonds and maintain them early on in their lives. Lev Vygotsky's sociocultural learning theory explains the social development of children based on their hands-on experiences while at home, in play environments, and at school. Based on this theory, parents, caregivers, friends, and even teachers have a significant role in the child's social development. Negative social influences at home, possibly due to violence or molestation, might affect the child's ability to interact or trust anyone in the playground or school enough to form lasting social bonds. Carlos is a perfect example of negative social influences impacting the child's school and playground social development as he lacks clear social interaction or special friendships.
The self-discipline aspect of middle childhood development in children has benefited from intense research based on the severe social and legal ramifications later in their lives. John Bowlby's Attachment theory states that the proximity between children and their caregivers or parents influences their sense of restraint while imparting social, motivational, and behavioural stimuli for them to emulate. In the absence of such stimuli, such as the case with Carlos, whose father is absent and his mother struggling to provide, the child develops self-discipline problems either in the extreme or self-esteem spectrums. Carlos is not badly behaved, but he cannot restrain himself from bed-wetting due to a lack of attachment with his parents. Punishment only serves to instil fear instead of his mother demonstrating and teaching him tactics to avoid the embarrassing issue.
Impact of Multiculturism and Diversity
The impact of multiculturalism and diversity on the development processes of children benefits from several observational and theoretical inputs. From an observational perspective, children whose ancestry is characterized by multicultural origins develop better in social and behavioural aspects due to higher levels of self-confidence and self-awareness. Such considerations are more pronounced in diverse societies where minorities are socioeconomically or politically oppressed by their majority, as is the case in the United States. Therefore, in an ideal developmental environment, Carlos should have higher confidence and self-awareness than his peers because his Caucasian father diffuses the racial and socioeconomic oppression meted out to the Mexican minority. However, the exact source of strength remains absent and abusive, affecting the young boy's social, psychological, and cognitive development processes.
Suggested Interventions for Carlos
The best intervention strategy for Carlos involved a multi-pronged approach to solving his physical, cognitive, and social problems. First, the physical aspects can be managed with dietary inputs from a clinical or paediatric nutritionist who understands the needs of the 9-year-old boy to enable him to catch up in terms of growth and coordination. However, the cognitive deficits require more technical approaches due to the intense intellectual growth required at the child’s age. Carlos might benefit from the services of a specially trained teacher with training in Applied Behavioural Analysis (ABA). Herein, the student’s learning needs are assessed, and a tailor-made learning strategy is designed to enable Carlos to continue with his regular schooling routine and learn more effectively and faster to enable him to catch up. ABA entails changes in both the child’s environment and their behaviours at home and school to complement their learning process. Social interaction will require family members as the child is still dependent on his parents and caregivers. However, the family must employ the services of a peer-counsellor to ensure they strive to create the enabling social environment Carlos needs to develop an average social profile. Eventually, these three strategies must be coordinated to ensure a well-rounded development profile for the child.
Conclusion
The importance of a typical development profile in young children cannot be overemphasized. Children are subject to physical, cognitive, social, and behavioural growth aspects from birth through to adulthood. However, these aspects of their development process are impacted by various environmental and human factors. Using the case study protagonist Carlos, this report demonstrated how environmental factors affect the development process and possible interventions to create a typical development profile for the child.
References
Khosianah, F. (2019). Strategies based on child developmental stages to prevent child sexual abuse. Humanities & Social Sciences Reviews , 7 (3), 282-292. Retrieved from https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/268004101.pdf
Mazzu-Nascimento, T., Melo, D. G., Morbioli, G. G., Carrilho, E., Vianna, F. S., Silva, A. A., & Schuler-Faccini, L. (2017). Teratogens: A public health issue – a Brazilian overview. Genetics and Molecular Biology , 40 (2), 387-397. Retrieved from https://www.scielo.br/j/gmb/a/ZTzjJfHzkrFPwYxjqLyNbRf/?lang=en
Ziafar, M., & Namaziandost, E. (2019). From behaviorism to new behaviorism: A review study. Loquen: English Studies Journal , 12 (2), 109. Retrieved from http://103.20.188.221/index.php/loquen/article/view/2378/1799
