Understanding Inequalities in Child Development

The provided document is an assignment that delves into the concept of inequalities in child development. It begins with an overview of the importance of understanding these obstacles, which children face during their developmental stages. The focus then shifts to discussing the significance of inequalities on building a child's future by removing adversities and difficulties on profound levels. Furthermore, it highlights how these inequalities shape a child's attitude and behavior, making their development dependent on abilities and capacities.

REFLECTIVE ESSAY WHICH ADDRESSES THE
ISSUES OF INEQUALITY IN CHILDHOOD

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
Importance of issues of inequality in early childhood ................................................................1
Impact of inequality issues on the children and adults experiences in early years setting..........3
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION
Inequality is the determinant which reflects upon the disparities on the individual or
group levels on the basis of few socio-cultural parameters (Kluegel and Smith, 2017). With
respect to early childhood, there are several types of inequalities such as discrimination at home
and schools between siblings or peers or social inequalities like gender gaps, poverty etc. This
assignment is based on highlighting the significance of issues of inequalities that takes place in
the early childhood between the girls and boys. It involves reflecting on their mindsets, their
cognitive capacities and building of perspectives in constructive ways. Moreover, it includes
about the complete impact of such issues on the experiences of children and adults in the setting
of their early years.
MAIN BODY
Importance of issues of inequality in early childhood
Inequality issues are widespread in the entire world, especially among the children who
are incapable and dependent people. Such partial treatment is evident since the birth of an
individual. The early childhood is considered as the foundation of a person's life and is the
pavement of its growth and development on the whole. There is also need to understand that the
issues associated with inequalities are in expanded forms and ranging from sectors like
healthcare, education, social inequalities include status, gender gaps, etc. Primarily the gender
inequality and discrimination on the basis of race, colour, religion and others (Hunner-Kreisel
and Bohne, 2016). Additionally, the family members tend to differentiate between the children
which impact them both in positive and negative effects as well. Herein, the social, emotional
and cognitive abilities of a child is imperative and the inequalities act as a hindrance due to their
immaturities and insensibilities regarding the worldly affairs. Thus, their support system must be
strong to provide them with guidance and support.
In regard to the above, these issues of inequality are important for the overall growth of a
child in the early stages and has undermining development in context to the utilisation of
capabilities. Gender discrimination led to revolutionized changes for the girl child's education.
Famous personalities and well established scholars are promoting the participation of girls for
realising their families about the overall impact on the economy on both personal and
professional levels for them (Ulijaszek and et.al., 2017). There have been cases registered where
the culturally different people do not send their girl child to study especially from Arabic and
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Asian countries. It was normal idea that the dropouts were mostly girls who were forced to leave
their studies due to early marriage or the patriarchal mentality where women must be in kitchen
doing household chores. Such disheartening violation of their rights affected their access to early
learning and receiving proper care through nutrition.
Boys and Girls have always been spoon fed about the various social stigmas and their
gendered attitudes expectations from the society's point of views. It is always been associated
with the ways they must show themselves in front of the family members, teachers and other
kids. For instance, boys who cry are not manly enough top protect himself or his loved ones
whereas girls who play a sport like Rugby or basketball are manly and have no soft features like
women. This stereotypical notions also enlightened the needs to understand the prevalent
inequalities which hamper their attitude via self worth or boost their confidence (Smith, 2018). .
Furthermore, poverty also leads to an issue in the child's development and has significant part to
play in their growing years. Poverty is proportional to social status of a child which either he is
proud of or might be ashamed of. In both the cases, there is a slight influence on the mentality
and formation of attitude which is useful for their future. For instance, if a socially backward
child has solid upbringing and given genuine values to sustain, the child might have better
prospects for the future.
There is a deep rooted concepts regarding inequalities which poses many challenges and
give birth to static traditional role plays which have increased the significance for understanding
the inequalities to curb the adversities and foster complete humanity progression. It is related to
malnutrition which as life long impact on the overall growth of a child's physical and cognitive
development and growth. Children after their birth and completing 1000 days has already
reached eighty percent of their mental and cognitive capacities (Tawfik, Reeves and Stich,
2016). Therefore, these kids must be given proper food and must never be malnourished to
survive. In absence of proper platforms, there are several times when these kids moved towards
the darker side and led to perform activities like begging, theft etc. and must be given the
platforms to fulfil their basic needs. For this, government and non profit organisation initiated
social protection programme to minimise the negative impact of unattended kids who are
deprived of any necessity of life. Moreover, the focus is to provide them with all the necessities
which in turn ultimately leads them to have a fulfilling lifestyle and thus, they can focus on
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education. Education is the key to all the closed doors and pave the path of better future since
their potential is to bring transformational changes thorough reinforced strategic planning.
Consequently, the development trajectories of children is heavily influenced from their
surroundings and the experiences they encounter while developing their cognitive abilities and
analytical thinking. For instance, if a child receives sarcastic comments for fun due to its height
or any physical disability like unwanted marks or stammering issue, there is a high probability
that this child would be the victim of inequalities. In this regard, these kids need support and care
and the most important shapers are the parents, teachers and other members of their families.
From several studies, many communities treat the boys as the protector and provider for the
households whereas the girls are seen as caregivers in the role of mothers and home-makers
(Kanbur and Wagstaff, 2016). In such scenarios, there are clear inequalities on the basis of
gender and this depends on their caste or religion. Henceforth, by gaining an understanding about
the inequalities at early childhood, they are better programmed to support each other and
discarding the cycle of unequal gendered power relations.
Impact of inequality issues on the children and adults experiences in early years setting
Impact is the marked effect of an individual's encounter that has different effects and
influences. In context to the issues of inequalities on both children and adults are different but is
connected ad interrelated. A child if faced with any adverse impact of social inequalities, it is
clear that the adulthood might be affected in some or other ways. For instance, a kid who was
mocked for the stammering or wearing glasses and was short would have low self confidence
while growing up due to the constant mockery and discouragement received from his peers
(Mahmood and Lowe, 2017). Along with, the flip side of this incident could have been an
upsurge of boosted confidence by continuous support and guidance from the teachers and
parents. In this scenario, the entire ice breaking idea is to not encourage any such discrimination
already stages which in majority cases has been proved detrimental.
Moreover, any early intervention is crucial in formulating the psychosocial and
wholesome well being of children and adults as well. These interventions are directly inter
connected with the nutrition, social status of their family's reputation, monetary situation and
equal treatment in health and education sectors. One must be vigilant in providing with
qualitative delivery of services in terms of building positive circumstances for maintaining the
developmental needs and expectations. The prime focus is on to bring an assured and appropriate
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developmental trajectories to safeguard and prevent any mis-happenings due to the existence of
traditional concepts regarding the treatment given to girls and boys (Halfon and et.al., 2017).
This starting point is from understanding the evidence of practising the onset of such inequalities
which later outline the child's development and growth. Thus, early interventions is proved
beneficial in analysing the triggered points to comprehend, which has contributed to the rise of
such inequalities and bring solutions to implement it accordingly.
Furthermore, the household circumstances must be made optimistic where there must not
be any differentiation between the girl child and the boy child. The financial status in terms of
poverty, health aspects, access to education, size of the family ad more are the parameters that
framed the experiences of children who later turned into adults with the regressive influence.
There is a need to evaluate the depth of these parameters and its impact in shaping their minds
and help in developing into a responsible and mature adult (Gwatkin, 2017). For instance,
Abraham Lincoln who was mocked due to his disabilities and was thrown out of school was
given education through his other. He later turned into one of the most influential leaders of the
world who brought remarkable changes at all the societal levels.
Next feature is the health and sanitation which again marks the presence of these kids
among their surrounding people. This feature is the reflective factor of a kid's background and
awareness that is due to the presence of the family's cultural values and traditions (Bywaters and
et.al., 2016). It is one of the important parameters that shape the experiences of a kid for
becoming a more responsible adult after completion of studies and joining a job. There are many
illustrations that showed that to provide necessities of lives, young kids move towards the bad
world ad get trapped into drugs and other such illegal activities which tarnished their reputation
and bring defame among the communities. The kids are running to fill their empty stomachs and
more worried about sustenance. During this phase, they get deviated and start earning through
several means and have no responsibility towards the society's needs.
In relation to above, education is the necessary tool to bring them out of their difficult
and challenging situations and prevent them from jumping into this cycle of criminal world. The
government with eminent personalities and through collaboration from non profit organisations
and non cooperative societies, the children are given free education. For instance, India's
Government passed a law named 'Right to Education' under which children between 6-14 years
are given free education with one time meal to sustain and move ahead towards building a better
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world. This is vital since this has given platform to girls children to continue their education ad
must be implemented on global scales (Ulijaszek and et.al., 2017). In addition to this, the kids
have better experiences to share and impart education to those who are not in the position to
receive the support and appropriate care.
Subsequently, the impact has shed light on the vulnerabilities that kids face during the
early stages of lives and are unable to share or express it. Due to this, their formative years gets
affected in sharp manner that leads to challenging crisis. However, there is also benefits which is
crucial in turning them into independent souls who are taking care of themselves and the needy
people around them. This approach is constructive in nature and supported in bringing concrete
changes by understanding the dynamics of all the inequalities and the factors that initiated it
(Wengrow and Graeber, 2015). Henceforth, the triggers must be eradicated through collaborative
methodology and bringing all the people under one roof to overcome the prevalent trigger point
of the inequalities which is hampering the communities at larger extents.
CONCLUSION
It has been summarised that inequalities are imperative to have an understanding on the
existing obstacles that is faced by the children in their developmental stages. Moreover, the focus
is on reflecting upon the significance and its influence on the aspects of building a child's future
by removing the adversities and difficulties on profound levels. There is an emphasis on the
responses' ad the overall impact of such inequalities issues on the experiences of both children
and adults during their setting of early years. Henceforth, these inequalities shape the attitude and
behavioural approaches to be adopted by kids and make their development on their abilities and
capacities as well.
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REFERENCES
Books and journals
Bywaters, P. and et.al., 2016. Inequalities in child welfare intervention rates: The intersection of
deprivation and identity. Child & Family Social Work, 21(4), pp.452-463.
Gwatkin, D.R., 2017. Trends in health inequalities in developing countries. The Lancet Global
Health, 5(4), pp.e371-e372.
Halfon, N. and et.al., 2017. Income inequality and the differential effect of adverse childhood
experiences in US children. Academic paediatrics. 17(7). pp.S70-S78.
Hunner-Kreisel, C. and Bohne, S. eds., 2016. Childhood, youth and migration: Connecting global
and local perspectives(Vol. 12). Springer.
Kanbur, R. and Wagstaff, A., 2016. How useful is inequality of opportunity as a policy
construct?. In Inequality and growth: Patterns and policy (pp. 131-150). Palgrave
Macmillan, London.
Kluegel, J.R. and Smith, E.R., 2017. Beliefs about inequality: Americans' views of what is and
what ought to be. Routledge.
Mahmood, H. and Lowe, S., 2017. Population segmentation: an approach to reducing childhood
obesity inequalities. Perspectives in public health. 137(3). pp.190-195.
Smith, E., 2018. Key issues in education and social justice. Sage.
Tawfik, A.A., Reeves, T.D. and Stich, A., 2016. Intended and unintended consequences of
educational technology on social inequality. TechTrends. 60(6). pp.598-605.
Ulijaszek, S.J. and et.al., 2017. Inequality and childhood overweight and obesity: a
commentary. Pediatric obesity. 12(3). pp.195-202.
Wengrow, D. and Graeber, D., 2015. Farewell to the ‘childhood of man’: ritual, seasonality, and
the origins of inequality. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute. 21(3). pp.597-
619.
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