Influences on Development in Infancy, Childhood, and Adolescence

This article discusses the different influences that affect the development of infants, children, and adolescents. It covers factors such as heredity, nutrition, parenting, care, environment, exercise, school, wider community, career consciousness, and socialization. The article provides insights into how these influences shape the growth and development of individuals at different stages of life.

CONCLUSION
On the basis of above discussion, it can be
concluded that there are several context and
influences that have effect on development of
infants, children and adolescents. All these
factors are different that affect development
of individuals at different stages of life and
knowledge of these factors can facilitate
effective development of individuals.
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Module: Social, Personality and Developmental Psychology
INTRODUCTION
Developmental psychology is concerned with study of changes in life of human beings.
This mainly focuses in development of infants, children and later it included
adolescents, adult development and entire lifespan. Development of infants, childhood
and adolescents get affected by several influences and study will involve discussion of
these influences.
Different Contexts/Influences that have Effect on Development in Infancy, Childhood and Adolescents
Influences that have Effect on Development in Infancy- Infancy are the stage or period of life from birth to two years of age. Infancy is very important period and growth and
development of infants have important impact on their life in later stages of life. Contexts or influences affecting development in infancy are-
Heredity- This is concerned with
transmission of physical characteristics of
parents to children through genes. Heredity
has impact on all aspects of physical
appearance including heights, weight,
colour of eyes, hair. In addition to affecting
physical structure heredity also affects
intelligence and aptitude of the child.
Heredity can also cause certain types of
diseases and illness in children through
genes of their parents.
Nutrition- Nutrition in infants is
a very important factor for
growth and this requires that
infants are provided adequate
nutrition to fulfil requirements
for development of infants.
Malnutrition or not providing
adequate nutrition to infants can
cause deficiency in them
resulting in negative impact on
their development.
Parenting- Development of infants also depends on the
capacity of caregivers. It is important that during
development and growth of infants their parents provide
them personalised attention and care. Lack of personalised
attention during infancy can have significant negative
impact on heath, growth, personality and importantly on
their cognitive or psychological development.
Responsiveness and sensitivity have been considered as
very important factors for the positive impact on
development of infant and sensitivity and responsiveness is
given by parents making it a part of parenting.
Care- This also has significant positive impact on
development of infants. Infants have potential to learn
quickly soon after birth and they learn through seeing,
doing, touching and hearing and as grow older their
potential for learning increases. Infants are naturally
sociable and curious and are interested in communicating
with people through eye contact, sounds, and body
movement and facial expressions. It is very important that
to unfold their potential for their development caregivers
and other people play with them and communicate with
them to interact with them.
Influences that have effect on development in childhood- Childhood is a period of life that expands from the age of 2 to 13 years of age.
Environment- Environment involves
total of physical and psychological
stimulation that a child receives. Physical
surroundings and geographical
conditions in which a child lives also
have significant influence on their
development. This means that a child
who is well-nurtured performs and
develops better than child who lives in
deprivation.
Learning and reinforcement-
Learning and reinforcement
involves building a child in various
forms that includes building child
mentally, emotionally, and socially
so that they can function as healthy
individual. This learning and
reinforcement activities also enables
children to gain maturity.
Geographical influence- Geographical influence includes
school that children attend, their neighbourhood,
opportunities offered to children by community, and their
peer circle have important effect on development of
children. A child when lives in a enriching community
that offers several activities by having parks, libraries and
community centres for group activities and that allows
children to play and learn different things. It contributes in
developing skills, talent and behaviour of child.
Exercise and Health- For children exercise refers to normal
playtime and sports activity which help them in gaining
muscular strength. Playtime and sports activity also has
important effect on their psychological development. By
having good and favourable physical health children
become able to undertake different activities and this
contributes in psychological development. Having good
physical health also contributes in avoiding any negative
effect on mental health that is result of bad physical health.
Influences that have effect on development in adolescents- Adolescent are stage of life that starts from the age of 13 to 19 years.
School- School has very important effect on
development of adolescents because in which
transfer from small elementary school to
anonymous secondary school can hinder and
negatively affect adolescent development. In
this context it is considered that when
adolescent experiences many transfers their
development gets negatively affected
compared to their peers. This is because it
includes restriction on choices and high
evaluation of adolescent.
Wider community- Wider community also has
considerable effect on development of adolescents in
which social institutions, economy and social politics
like elements are included. This is because in stage of
adolescents these factors can arouse anxiety in
individuals. This is a stage in which individuals
determine and understand their career choices and
factors of wider community affect career choice of
individuals and what is rate of employment in
particular career and in overall economy.
Career consciousness- This is a factor that affect
development of individuals gets affected in later
stage of adolescence. This is a stage in which
individual or adolescent become conscious about
their career and this has strong effect on their
development and high career consciousness leads
development of adolescents towards their career
goals. Adolescents in this stage determine what
career that they want to pursue and followed by this
their learning also takes place in that direction.
Socialisation- For the development of
adolescents’ socialisation plays very
important role in which during adolescent
individuals move into widening circle of
companion and this has significant impact
on cognitive development of individuals.
This is because as a result of indulgence of
one in several types of activities individual
come in contact with several people which
lead to their multi-faceted development.