Environmental Factors Influencing Infant Development Essay

Hardship on an economic level and others can have lasting effects on a child’s development and lifestyle in the future. Being a low-family can get in the way of a child’s cognitive development and his/her ability to learn. Being at a low-income can cause children to have behavioral, social, and emotional problems, along with poor health. Children who are very young and live in low-income families and children who experience relentless and persistent poverty are at the greatest risks.

The issue of child poverty needs to be emphasized since so many families are in this international turmoil. Recent studies show that children from economically disadvantaged families have lower levels of cognitive functioning, academic achievement, and social development, including health and

In the video by Chaya Kulkarni Director Infant Health Promotion Hospitals for sick children elaborates on how poverty effects children’s development. Once the children are two years old their brain are fully developed. So if the parents are struggling and below the poverty line, then as soon as they are born they would sense it. That’s why the first few years with your child is so important, having a close bond with your child can effect the child in a positive way. A relationship can help the child develop a healthy brain and other muscles. She talked about how with poverty comes with stress which can lead to bigger and batter things. This is called, “toxic stress”. It can damage your brain, behavior and health. If the parents were to have

McLeod and Michael J. Shanahan (1993) state, “The children of poor blacks and Hispanics experience more frequent and more severe economic deprivation with fewer prospects for economic improvement…” (p. 352). McLeod and Shanahan (1993) also argue that black and Hispanic children are affected the most as they spend over 75% of their lives in poverty compared to 54% of non-Hispanic whites (p. 357). The more time children spend in poverty, the more they feel unhappy, anxious, and dependent. Intervention is needed in early childhood to avoid negative consequences in adulthood. The early years are critical to development because their brains are rapidly developing and their home life controls the way they grow up. Income support groups can grow the family’s income in order to minimize stress and early childhood interventions aim to improve their cognitive, social, emotional, physical, and adaptive growth. My target audience is the parents living in poverty because they are the primary influencers in their children’s lives. Income support groups and early childhood intervention will affect their mental health more positively and they will reap financial

A child’s physical development can vary greatly from its environment; these things would include exposure during pregnancy, the child’s diet, and physical activity. Even during pregnancy the environment around a child has a huge effect on their growth. Exposures during pregnancy is when a mother has been exposed towards drugs, stress, poor nutrition, and other things the mother could be associated with. Many studies have shown that “Maternal smoking has also been linked to miscarriage, premature birth, and low birth weight.” “Children’s Medical Services.” Infant Toddler Development Training. Floridahealth online 2012 Web. 27 January 2016. Teratogens or other exposures such as these during pregnancy can a have a permanent impact this child’s entire life. Another factor that can affect a child’s growth is their nutrition. While a child is growing what they eat influence their: weight, height, and energy. An example would be “If a mother is malnourished it is likely the baby will be born malnourished, or worse, be born prematurely, suffer from low birth weight, or die soon after birth.”

Poverty affects brain structure in children; socioeconomic status forms a huge part of this case. Children who grow up in the poorest households are having smaller brains than who live in affluence. Unfortunately, the child’s brain in family that earned less than $25,000 a year had 6 percent less surface area than other whose family earned $150,000 or more. Layton Lyndsey reports that in her study “The poor children also scored lower on the battery of cognitive tests.” (Lyndsey Layton). Children raised in poverty are faced daily with overwhelming challenges. The most significant risk factors affecting children raised in poverty, the poor parents are under emotional, financial, or other type of stress that effect on their children. Poverty

In recent years, about one in five children belong to families who live under the poverty threshold. Also another one in five children come from families who do not earn an income twice the poverty threshold. Since children depend on their families’ economic situation, their families’ economic situation is an important factor until they start their own household. One of the key areas that is influenced by family poverty is academic performance of the children who have been experienced poverty in their lives. Also family poverty is related to several social risk factors, including emotional and behavioral problems of children, poor health conditions, and poor parental mental health that can also related to parent-children’s interaction.

This study is based on Dr. Heidi Als' Synactive Theory of Infant Development which provides a framework for understanding the behaviour of premature infants. The infants behavior are grouped into 5 subsets which are:

For instance, a physical environment, a woman taking prenatal vitamin supplements; taking care of her and the child. Also, a social environment consists of the neighborhood, media and peer pressure. The environmental factors could have different levels of impact on human development as they involve multiple action from immediate families, friends, and neighborhoods to larger societal contexts such as school systems and local governments.

Our environment, before and after birth, affects us as a human. For instance, what a baby sees, hears, how they are spoken to (inside and outside the womb); how the baby is held, what the baby is taught, and the relationship between the baby and its caretakers will all play a significant role in shaping the child emotionally, physically, and spiritually.

Evidence depicting the critical significance of early childhood with brain development and in growing neural functions which consequently shape future social, emotional, cognitive, and health outcomes. The study includes various factors linking early poverty to the analyzation of the correlation between childhood income to adult outcomes. The results included the higher rates of non-marital births resulted in higher poor health rates and higher use of food stamps. (Duncan, 2011.) The largest correlations found in the data with childhood income were schooling years, adult earnings, and non-marital births. Family income can be determined by the specific number of adults in the household which are active in the workforce. This relies upon family structure and can independently influence a child’s overall standard of living. It is also acknowledged in this study that the investments present in later life for the child are significant and can provide an overall positive development for the child as well. Overall, this study showed the significance of time in reference to early childhood poverty on the impact of a child’s wellbeing. The results concluded that the weight of environmental factors such as low-income and poverty do have an effect on a child’s development which can furthermore inhibit them in later life.

Prenatal environment focuses on how important the environment of the womb is and how the behaviour and development of a baby could be influenced by environmental factors. The brain of a person is utmost intricate and the most delicate structure and organ in the body to develop in the womb and is subject to means of abuses from the prenatal environment. Even though it is not true, it is normal for people to assume that development is influenced by genes right from conception and that the development from the moment of birth is influenced by the environment. The environment of the womb influence development in many ways. The organ that directly links the bloodstream of the foetus and the mother is called the placenta and permits the exchanging

Poverty brings several things with it that increase the infant’s risk to physical, emotional, and cognitive harm. The infants and children raised in poverty are less likely to receive basic medical treatment. Untreated illnesses can have lifelong effect on a child. Poverty is a generational issue and often times the mothers has not been taught basic play and interaction skills with their newborn from their mother. It is rare that one moves beyond their scope of life experience. Poverty is one of the risk factors that have additional consequences that accompany it. The families are more likely to live in substandard conditions that expose the infant to environmental risks such as contaminated drinking water and lead. Additional stressors during this stage are financial stressors and depression among the infant’s caregiver. These issues can lead to ignoring of the infant’s emotional needs and the infant misses the opportunity to create a lifelong bond with another and trust in another being able to meet their needs. Inadequate parenting can occur over a child’s entire life span with different and yet still devastating results. As stated in by Hutchinson in her book Dimensions of Human Behavior, Changing the Life Course (2008):

First, the complexities of poverty impacted my mother’s behavior by limiting her ability to properly parent. For example, my mother was a single parent who was solely responsible for raising three children on her own. The level of parental stress she experienced created additional issues within the home. According to Kuther (2016), “Parents’ attitudes about child rearing, ability to show affection, and beliefs about discipline shape children’s emotional development and behavior” (pg.456).

It has been well acknowledged that developmental issues such as social and emotional complications that are plaguing our youth stem from contribution of financial hardship. From the published literature, i have found three common research themes: 1) Parental stress affects education, 2) Racism affects education and 3) Poverty affects education.