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Environmental factors that influence child development
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In recent years, policy makers, service providers, and researchers, have emphasised the importance of early intervention programs to promote development in young children. In this essay, I shall review and evaluate research that is focused on the development of children's cognitive abilities, particularly research that is focused on children from low Socio-economic status (SES) environments. I will focus on two types of cognitive outcomes assessed in the literature, specifically general cognitive ability, and, literacy and numeracy skills. I will examine literature that has a strong focus on environmental effects as the main causal element that impacts a child's cognitive development, then turn to research that has a stronger focus on the role that genetics play, not only in the developing cognitive abilities of children, but also its link to SES. I will suggest that, although environmental factors do need to be investigated, and play a role in a child's development, research that places little or no emphasis on genetics is overlooking a vital aspect of children's development, thus ultimately deficient, and has the potential to result in less helpful policy for intervention strategies. Furthermore, as the results of research that focuses on the genetics of cognitive development and SES are more widely accepted, and integrated into developmental programs and policy, there will be greater potential to close the gaps between the abilities of different children, as a greater understanding of personalised education can lead to its more successful application. According to Arnold & Doctoroff (2003) significant discrepancies between children in regards to their educational achievement, is a consequence of SES. They go on to say assert ... ... middle of paper ... ...s of children in the United States Part II: Relations with behavioral development through age thirteen. Child development, 72(6), 1868-1886. Kovas, Y., Voronin, I., Kaydalov, A., Malykh, S. B., Dale, P. S., & Plomin, R. (2013). Literacy and numeracy are more heritable than intelligence in primary school. Psychological science, 24(10), 2048-2056. Trzaskowski, M., Harlaar, N., Arden, R., Krapohl, E., Rimfeld, K., McMillan, A., & Plomin, R. (2014). Genetic influence on family socioeconomic status and children's intelligence. Intelligence, 42, 83-88. Tseng, J. C., Chu, H. C., Hwang, G. J., & Tsai, C. C. (2008). Development of an adaptive learning system with two sources of personalization information. Computers & Education, 51(2), 776-786. Whitehurst, G. J., & Lonigan, C. J. (1998). Child development and emergent literacy. Child development, 69(3), 848-872.