Child’s Development is Influenced by Environmental and Cultural Influences as well as parenting styles and education

Attention to every stage of a child’s physical, emotional and educative development is “both critical and vital” (Alison Dunn, 2004). Research shows that the care young children receive has dramatic long-term effects on how children develop and learn, how they cope with stress, and how they react to the world around them. “Science tells us that consistently positive and stimulating experiences in their early years helps children’s brains to grow” (Frank Oberklaid, 2008); it can also affect how they continue to learn later on in life.

This paper will discuss how a child’s development is influenced by environmental and cultural influences as well as parenting styles and education. This will be argued through four topics including environmental factors such as the socio economic environment in which a child is reared into, cultural influences, the effect of the four different parenting styles and how education from both the parent and teacher can also play a significant role.

Environmental Factors

There are many environmental factors that influence a child's early years of development (George G. Graham, 1972, pp. 1184-1188) For example issues such as the type of physical environment that a child is bought up within can impact on the development of that child. These factors, broadly divided into two areas, include their socio-economic status and state of the physical environment they grow up within.

The socio-economic status of the immediate family and the wider community can have either a “positive or detrimental” (Understanding the Early Years, 1999) influence on the individuals development. For example research has shown that children brought up with parents that are poor and have limited educational qualifications wi...

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...le, successful and happy children (Dr. F. Elahi, 2010, p. 16). Whereas the authoritarian parenting style can produce children that are obedient and competent but rate lower in the areas of self-esteem, social skills and happiness, and are more likely to be aggressive. The permissive parenting style does not involve following through with consequences for unacceptable behavior, these children will think they can get away with average effort, can be angry and demanding when they don't get their way. Children of uninvolved parents tend to lack self-esteem and the ability to regulate themselves; as a result, they are less capable and resilient than other children.

An education is essential to early childhood academic development. Children who receive schooling at an early age are more likely to stay in school, and those children perform better later with academia.