Explain how children and young people’s development is influenced by a range of personal factors free essay sample

2.1. Explain how children and young people’s development is influenced by a range of personal factors 2.2. Explain how children and young people’s development is influenced by a range of external factors 3.2. Explain the reasons why children’s development might not follow the expected pattern Factors that influence development. Core 3.1 2.1 Children’s development is influenced by a variety of different personal factors. Such factors can include Cerebral palsy, downs syndrome, dyslexia, and many more. Cerebral palsy occurs when there is lack of oxygen to a baby’s brain when being delivered. This causes brain damage which can then cause problems when trying to reach development norms. Cerebral palsy affects a child’s movement and coordination. â€Å"Your child may be slower in achieving important developmental goals, such as learning to crawl, walk or speak.† (NHS (Online) 21/04/2012). They may never even begin to do these things, depending on the severity of their illness. Down’s syndrome is another personal factor that will influence development in children and young people. Down’s syndrome is caused by an extra chromosome in the child’s genes. â€Å"All children with Downs syndrome have some degree of learning disability and delayed development, but this varies widely between individual children.† (NHS (Online) 24/01/2013). Even though their development will be delayed, they are very likely to achieve just at their own pace. Autism is a disability that can cause developmental delays. â€Å"Autistic children are unable to make eye contact. Without eye contact, autistic children often will not develop skills such as eating properly, speech and other motor skills babies and toddlers must develop.† (Living Healthy. (Online) August 13, 2008). Delays in speech development will then lead to poor communication skills, which will then affect that child for the rest of their life. Core 3.1 2.2 As well as personal factors, external factors also influence a child/young person’s development. External factors are things such as the environment, friends, family, food, along with many more. Poverty is an external factor that has a huge effect on children and young people’s development. â€Å"Being  poor puts children and young people at risk. Poverty has a negative impact on health, educational achievement and social participation.† (Cambridgeshire.gov. (Online) March 2010). This shows that poverty doesn’t just impact a child’s health but also a child’s development. By effecting social participation, it means that a child growing up in poverty may struggle to form relationships. This may also affect their communication skills which will possibly last into adulthood. Neglect is also an external factor that will impact development in children and young people. Neglect is failure to care for properly. â€Å"Its impact can become more sev ere as a child grows older and can encompass multiple areas, including: Health and physical development Intellectual and cognitive development Emotional and psychological development Social and behavioural development†(Child welfare. (Online) 2006). This shows how much of an impact neglect can have on a child/young person’s development, as it doesn’t just effect one area of development but multiple areas and can last a lifetime. Neglect in early years will then make the child develop trust issues and affect relationship building. They will also have low-confidence and low self-esteem which will possibly affect them for most of their life, or until at least adulthood. A child being in foster care is another external factor that will impact on their development. â€Å"Children in foster care face many challenges that affect their lives, some of which may even impact their development. Children may need to overcome obstacles from their past that impeded their ability to learn and grow.† (How kids develop. (Online) 2008). Children are taken/put into care for many different reasons, they may not have had a great life or may have missed out on opportunities, or maybe they were neglected and/or abused and being in care is an opportunity to give them the best life possible. However, being in foster care also has its difficulties. Children may be unable to form attachments; they may isolate themselves socially, making it hard to build relationships. They may have been through trauma and are unable to move on, which will affect many parts of their development. 3.2 Children’s development may not follow the expected pattern due to a range of personal and external factors. This could be due to disability, long-term illness, life-threatening illness, environment, friends, family, etc. Disability can affect the development pattern. For example, a child that may not be able to use their legs will not be able to start crawling/walking, therefore they are unable to fully develop in that area. If a child or young person struggles with social activities, this can then impact their social and communication development, making it hard to build and maintain relationships with others. This then means that they will not develop fully-functioning social skills, making it harder to in later life. A child’s diet could have a huge impact on their sequence of development. A poor diet can have a huge impact on a child’s growth, therefore affecting their physical development.