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Essay on Child Development

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Introduction In developing countries, a large number of children are exposed to various risk factors in their early childhood. These include malnutrition, poor health and reduced levels of home stimulation. The risk factors including poverty, low levels of maternal education, child malnutrition, teenage parenting, increased levels of maternal stress and depression, low weights during birth, unsafe neighborhoods, and reduced stimulation at home, and those children that are exposed to a variety of risk factors are at a higher risk of poor development. For instance, a study carried out by Save the Children .(2003), estimates that more than 200 million children below the age of five in developing countries are not able to reach to their …show more content…

the general programs of basic health care and short term initiative programs that are disease-specific. These two types of programs can help significantly in the strengthening of the health systems and enabling communities and households improve their health and sanitation, thus betterment in their standards of living. New strategies are needed in order to continue impacting positively on the health of children and the population of developing countries in general. The intervention programs are usually affected by economic, political and social factors that sometimes cause more harm to the childhood and child care health instead of being beneficial. This means that attention should be paid to these interventions that affect issues concerning health not only during childhood but also in later stages of life (Brooks-Gunn et al 2003). This therefore means that the intervention programs can either be harmful or beneficial depending on these factors affecting them or the program appropriateness to the child’s characteristics, the surrounding environment and the existing transactions between them. Traditionally, childhood intervention programs believe that the more the stimulation the better, but this has not always been the case; there is a maximum level or specified stimulation amount for individual children, which is usually determined by both internal and external stimulation sources. Increase in

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