Developmental dimension

Introduction

The early years in all children’s lives are very important for their development in
physical, social, intellectual, emotional and languages. These are called as the developmental
dimension. Each dimension has its own significance with respect to different stages such as
the two years old child will be able to say two to three words in a sentence and the child in
six years old will start speaking fluently. The developmental dimension is actually related to
developmental milestone. Developmental milestone is the guideline on what children should
be able to achieve in different stages. Children might not achieve some developmental
milestones in their age because of the nature or nurture factors. In this assignment, we will
talk about the factors that influence the children’s development. Besides that, we will also
discuss the importance of a teacher to have the knowledge in child development such as
developmental milestones, developmental dimension and stages of child development. At the
end of this assignment, I as a future early childhood educator, should be able to understand
the influences that brought by nature and nurture factors will affect children in their
development. Next, I should be able to apply the theories that I have learned into my teaching
method and facilitate the development of children. Not only that, I must understand the
importance of having child development knowledge as a role of educator. Now, let us discuss
about the factors that influence child development.

Nature and Nurture Factors that Influence Child Development

Early childhood development is necessary for every child in their early life. Factors
that can affect a child’s development when they are developing their physical skills, cognitive
skills, social skills and emotions can be categorised into two categories, which are nature and
nurture. Nature refers to the genetic materials that control the appearance, personality, temper
and abilities of a child (Achwal, 2019). On the other hand, nurture refers to all the
environmental factors that is not related to biological factors (Achwal, 2019). Nurture factors
are those factors which will influence the children until they grew up such as cultural
background, how they were raised, their childhood experiences and their social relationship.
Now, let us talk about what are the specific reasons that affect a child’s development.

Nature Factors

1
 Firstly, nutrition is the most important factor in the child overall development. Before
the birth, the mother’s overall health and diet play an important role in a child development
(Haddad, 2019). Malnutrition can cause some diseases that will affect the growth and
development of a child. Not only during the pregnancy, the nutrition of breastfeeding after
birth is also important for an infant. Breast milk is the perfect and best food for infants. It
provides the best mixed of nutrition that contains proteins, carbohydrates and fats that needed
by the infants for optimal cell function and growth (Martin, 2016). Further, exclusive
breastfeeding until the baby is six months will help the babies by improving their health and
development. Besides nutrition, genetic and heredity factors also determine a child’s physical
traits, behaviour and emotions. It influences all the physical aspect of a child such as hair and
eyes colour, the height, one’s temperament and even intelligence or disorder. It is believed
that genetic factors sometimes influence on some behaviours such as depression and violent
characters (Arora, 2019). In addition, diseases inclusive obesity, diabetes, cancer and heart
issue can also be passed through genes and affect the children’s development negatively.
Besides that, physical development is determined by nature, which the children can first
control of the head, neck, sits without support, crawls and finally can be able to get up and
walk by themselves (Western, 2002). Therefore, the nature factors in child development are
hardly to be changed by man as all the aspects has already determined.

Nurture Factors

Next, nurture factors which included all the environment factors can also affect a
child’s development such as poverty, parenting skill, family background and education.
Poverty is very common in every country and numerous of child who are experiencing
poverty now has affect their health development in lacking of food and drinks (Johnson.
2002). Not only that, poverty also influence the physical development, behaviour and
emotion. Families who are experiencing poverty are more likely to buy the cheapest food for
themselves. But those food mostly contains a lot of fats and minimal nutrition values.
Children living in poverty are more likely to feel hopeless than their peers and they are at the
risk for social and academic problems which can turn into weak educational achievement.
Besides that, culture also play an important role in child development. Different culture may
have different opinions and belief in raising their children. For example, girls in many
cultures are not given as much opportunities as boys such as go to school and this issue will
limit their development in early years. Parents from different cultures also play an important
role in moulding their children’s thinking ways or patterns and behaviours. European and

2
American children usually emphasize personal preferences but Asian children are more likely
to take the passive role in conversations (Ching, 2018). Interaction between adults and
children in different culture also influence the behaviours and social skill of a child. In
Chinese family, parents are taking more responsibilities and authority over children (Ching,
2018). Most Chinese and Asian children would do something that their parents asked them to
do no matter they are willing or not. In contrast, most European and American children are
less likely to follow their parent demands. Hence, nurture factors are also very important and
indispensable for children.

The Importance of Having the Knowledge in Child Development

Developmental Dimensions

As teachers, we can transform the life of a child by facilitate different dimension of

development of children. Having the knowledge of developmental dimension will help the
teacher to know about the specific needs that require to be done for the children (Bornstein,
1999) such as making a child with low vision sit at front desk and using larger fonts on
chalkboard. Teachers should also call attention to the right position of sitting, regular
exercises and balance diet for all the children. Besides that, knowledge of physical growth
and development helps the teacher to arrange school activity more comprehensively and
broadly. Next, teachers’ assistance and facilitation in intellectual development is to give the
children a lot of attention. Teachers should make sure that children maintain intellectual
balance between new experiences and what has already known (Bornstein, 1999), explain
that others think differently when children show egocentrism and relate abstract and
hypothetical concepts to concrete objects. This balanced intellect and helps them develop
emotionally. By having the understanding in emotional development, teachers should know
stable emotions are important for a harmonious personality of an individual (Hein and Steve,
1996). Our role as teachers may include balance emotional behaviour of children, enabling
students recognize emotions of others and express their own feelings. Teachers also can be
sensitive enough to recognize everyday emotions of a child. In language development,
teachers have to create a learning environment where learners are not only learn the aspects
of language by using the knowledge of child development. Not only that, teachers should let
the children get exposure to the target language as much as possible to be able to use it
naturally and fluently. Further, teacher will apply the knowledge of social development in
their interaction with children such as observe the children posture to see whether the

3
children are interesting in the topic of lesson or not. Besides that, teacher also can teach some
conflict resolution skills to the children to make them have the ability to solve conflict.
Therefore, to facilitate these developments, it is important that teachers should have the
knowledge in developmental dimensions.

Stages of Child Development

Besides developmental dimensions, teachers should also have the knowledge in stages
of child development. Human development has been divided into four stages in infancy and
childhood according to Piaget Theory. Each stage has some specific characteristics such as
egocentrism and conservation. The first stage in Piaget Theory is Sensorimotor Stage which
occurs between birth and age two during which an infant's knowledge of the world is limited
to his or her sensory perceptions and motor activities (Cherry, 2016). The main achievement
during this stage is Object Permanence which is knowing that an object still exists, even if it
is hidden. The next stage is Pre-operational Stage. The characteristics of this stage include an
increase in egocentric perspective, limited logic and language ability symbolic thought
(Anderson, 1990). If a child shows egocentrism, it means they are unable to see things from
others perspective. Teachers should use hands on activities to allow the child to physically
visualize the space will help the egocentric tendencies and add to discovery learning. The
third stage is Concrete Operational Stage which happen between 7 to 11 years old. Children
begin to understand concept of conservation and think logically and but have difficulty in
understanding abstract or hypothetical concepts. This stage is suitable for teachers to use
open-ended questions that stimulate abstract thinking. The final stage is Formal Operational
Stage which occurs in 12 years old and above. At this stage, the adolescent or young adult
begins to think abstractly and reason about hypothetical problems. In order to facilitate the
adolescent in this stage, teachers give students the opportunity to explore many hypothetical
questions and teach broad concepts by using material and ideas relevant to the students.
Hence, stages of development are important to be understood well by all the early childhood
teachers in order to assist the children to develop in a good way.

Conclusion

In conclusion, there are many factors and reasons that will affect children
development no matter is nature factors or nurture factors. Both nature and nurture factors
influence behaviour and development and play significant role in child development. We as
the educator need to have a great understanding in the knowledge of child development such

4
as theories then apply them into our real life. All the developmental dimensions collectively
develop a child as a whole by reflecting an unavoidable interrelationship and interaction
among one another. To help in these developments, teachers can play important role by
planning teaching methods, strategies, activities by using the knowledge that have learned.
Besides that, by knowing the different stages of a child’s development, the teacher could
facilitate a particular child whether he or she has learning problems and needs additional help
or support. This is also a way for them to know how to discipline the children in a proper way
if they are misbehaving. A teacher can make the most appropriate decisions possible about
expectations for children, how to have students engage with the material and how to push
students to grow academically, emotionally and socially. Hence, teachers having the
knowledge pf child development can give their best and light the right way for all the
children.

5
References

1. Aarohi Achwal (2018). What is the Impact of Nature and Nurture on Child Development.

https://parenting.firstcry.com/articles/what-is-the-impact-of-nature-and-nurture-on-child-
development/

2. Douglas Haddad (2019). Biological Factors That Influence Child Development.

https://www.verywellfamily.com/biological-factors-affecting-child-development-2162219

3. Camilia R. Martin (2016). Review of Infant Feeding: Key Features of Breast Milk and
Infant Formula. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4882692/

4. Mahak Arora (2019). Factors That Affect Growth and Development in Children.

https://parenting.firstcry.com/articles/factors-that-affect-growth-and-development-in-
children/

5. Westen. D. (2002). Psychology: Brain, Behaviour & Culture. Wiley & Sons.

6. Sarah Johnson (2002). Environmental Factors That Influence 5 Areas of Child

Development. https://wehavekids.com/parenting/What-Influences-Child-Development

7. Ching-Yu Huang (2018). How culture influences children’s development.

https://theconversation.com/how-culture-influences-childrens-development-99791

8. Bornstein, M. A. (1999). Developmental Psychology: An Advanced Textbook. New

Jersey: Lawrece Erlbaum Associates, Publishers.
9. Hein and Steve (1996). EQ for everybody: A practical Guide to Emotional Intelligence.
New York, Basic Books.

10. Kendra Cherry (2016). The 4 Stages of Cognitive Development.

https://www.verywellmind.com/piagets-stages-of-cognitive-development-2795457

11. Anderson, J. R. (1990). Cognitive psychology and its implications. (3rd ed.). New York:
Freeman.

12. Piaget, J. (1977). Epistemology and psychology of functions. Dordrecht, Netherlands: D.

Reidel Publishing Company.

6
  Marking Rubric:

Criteria Distinction Credit Pass Fail Marks

(100% - (74% - 60%) (59% - 50%) (49% and
Part 75%) below)
Introduction The The The There is no
(10%) introduction is introduction introduction is proper /100
inviting with states the without the introduction.
clear proper proper
organization organization organization
of the write- of the write- of the write-
up. Objectives up with up.
of the write- statements of
up are clearly the objectives.
stated.
Part 1
Examine the A well-written An acceptable A vague A poorly
factors that discussion that discussion that discussion of written write- /100
influence examines the examines the the factors up that
child factors that factors that that influence examines the
development. influence influence child factors that
(30%) child child development. influence
development. development. child
development.

Part 2
Explore the The The A vague
The
needs for a discussion discussion discussion and
discussion /100
teacher to shows an in- shows a clear there is hardly
shows a lack
have depth understanding any discussion
of
knowledge understanding of the needs on the needs
understanding
about child of the needs for a teacher for a teacher
of the needs
development. for a teacher to have to have
for a teacher
(40%) to have knowledge knowledgeto have
knowledge about child about child
knowledge
about child development. development.
about child
development. development.
Conclusion A concrete Acceptable The No conclusion
(10%) conclusion conclusion conclusion is is provided. /100
with content with content vague.
well in some way
summarized. summarized.

7
Referencing, Provide Provide Some No references
language and references reference with mistakes with provided and /100
presentation with two or one relevant regards to the points are
of points. more relevant source of referencing poorly
(10%) sources of reference. style. organized.
references. Some
Correct mistakes with
grammar, regards to
spelling, grammar,
punctuations spelling,
and choice of punctuations
vocabulary. and choice of
Points are vocabulary.
well organized Quite well
and presented. organized and
presented.
Total Marks: /100%