Introduction

Child development is a sequence of physical, cognitive, language, socio-emotional and

moral changes that occur in a child from birth until they are grown up. During the process, the
child progresses from being dependent on their caregiver to complete independence. Child
development covers a full scope of skills that a child masters over their lifespan. These include
the ability to learn and solve problems, understanding and using language by reading and
communicating, physical activities, the ability to interact with others and self-control.

Several factors influence child development, including genetic endowment or heredity,

parents’ level of education and basic safety. These factors helped to develop the children to be
physically and mentally balanced and can live a better life. However, there are some issues
whereby some unfortunate family have to face when growing up their offsprings. Poverty and
parents mental health are some of the problems to be discussed in this paper. These issues
slowed, and some cases forbid one family to build the right environment and provide sufficient
facilities for their children to develop. Hence, parents and children need to acknowledge their
family incapabilities for them to create a promising future.

Factors Influencing Child Development

The first factor that influenced child development is a genetic endowment (heredity).
Genetic endowment means the total of inherited attributes, and it is passed from the parents
and ancestors. These genes contribute to the characteristics and hereditary health issues that
the children might have in the future. By decoding the genomes of the children, we can map
certain behaviours and personality traits of a child. Adopted children will get affected by their
adopted parents’ genes as it is innate factors and passed from biological parents only. Genetic
influences have an enormous effect on how a child develops. However, it is essential to
remember that genetics is just one piece of the intricate puzzle that makes up a child's life.
 Secondly, parental education levels are strongly associated with home literacy
environments. Parents who are more educated are most likely to have bright children.
According to Bradly and colleagues in 1989, parents with a good education will provide high-
quality child care for their offsprings. Plus, they also academically support their children by
providing them with educational materials for them to learn at an early age. According to
Geldhof (2016), Parents who have attended classes and learned effective discipline and
parenting techniques report having children with higher grades, fewer behaviour problems, less
substance abuse issues, better mental health and greater social competence. However, there is
no clear evidence that the roles of highly educated parents can promote the well-being of
children as it has to do with the genes concerning the previous point of genetic endowment.

Lastly, basic needs and safety are also important for child development. Particularly
crucial for newly born children and toddlers as they will explore their environment. Children with
special needs such as communicative and impulsive disorders, syndrome down and cerebral
palsy require extra attention as they are vulnerable toward unattended environments. By
installing home safety devices such as smoke detectors, windows and doors guards, it does not
mean that their safety is guaranteed without adult supervision. As parents, who have disabled
children, they must acknowledge what their children’s need the most. For example, children with
asthma need inhalers as it helps to ease chest pain whenever they have an asthma attack, and
parents shall provide this aid so that nothing terrible happens.

Issues

One of the issues relating to child development is poverty. Poverty is the number one
factors that prevent children from developing into well-balanced adults. According to the United
Nations in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), high fertility rates can trap countries in
poverty. The World Bank has warned that extreme poverty will not decrease in 2021 due to
population growth eclipsing economic growth in the poorest nations. Large family size and
poverty often go hand-in-hand. People living in deprived areas are usually not empowered to
choose the number of children they have and in some cases feel the need to have many so they
can be provided for in their old age. When people are poor and have many children, they cannot
invest enough in each child who often leads to kids not being able to attend school and girls
getting married off as child brides. Women are also less able to gain financial independence
when they have many children to look after at home. Ensuring everyone is empowered to
choose small families is key to eradicating poverty (SDGs, 2020).

Source from: https://ourworldindata.org/extreme-poverty

The second issue to be discussed is parental mental health. Behavioural disorders

among children reflect the psychological problems of parents, as mental illness of either parent
would increase the likelihood of mental disorder in the child. Studies have shown that
behavioural disorders in children are closely associated with parents’ psychological problems. In
other words, the more severe the parents’ psychological issues, the earlier the children’s
behavioural disorders emerge. Studies that have investigated the impact of interactive family
patterns in the creation of behavioural and emotional problems in children have considered
behavioural disorders as a child’s reaction against family problems and numerous inappropriate
environmental stimuli. These include rejecting the child, inadequate parents’ affection and
support, family’s aimlessness and coldness, lack of maternal love and care, insecure childhood
attachment, and parents’ stress on the other hand (Narayanan, 2016). Eventually, children with
deprived affections from family have mental illness in the future such as depression and anxiety
as they are commonly affecting today’s young adults.
Personal Opinion

This paper has critically explained on factors influencing child development. There are
many theories from famous theorists such as Carl Yung, Chomsky and others that can be
studied so that we have more information about developing and understanding our future
children. Each factor has to be analysed critically and thoroughly as they are essential for the
parents to follow any guidelines provided in it. Families that suffer from poverty shall be focused
more as poverty affects child development. Government plays a vital role in declining the
number of poverty amongst families by providing job opportunities for the heads of households
to work. Not just that, unemployed homemakers should also be given extra attention as they
spend more time with their children at home by handing them some incentive. Malaysian
Government has taken this initiative by channelling some donations called “Bantuan Rakyat 1
Malaysia” (BR1M) to families that their income is less than RM4000 per month.

On the other hand, parents that have mental illnesses should seek professional help.
Children that their parents are mentally ill are more vulnerable to child abusement and
neglected. Each year, it is estimated that 1,000 children in Malaysia are reported as victims of
child abuse and neglect. Child abuse is a huge global problem with a severe impact on the
child’s physical and mental health, well-being and development throughout their lives (Myhealth,
2012). As children growing up with this environment, they tend to have poor social skills as the
parents are not able to teach them correctly. In the future, most of the employment requirement
requires the candidates to have good social skills, and this can be a problem for children that
lack it. Non-Governmental Organisations and our social welfare department should corporate to
help those families that are in severe needs from having this issue extended up to the point the
mentally ill parents killed their children.
Conclusion

In conclusion, to have a better generation, everyone needs to study and understand

deeply about the factors influencing child development. Parents must be able to integrate other
aspects so that the children are more balanced, both physical and mental. Both parents and
external organisations need to resolve all issues that affect the children growth as it may affect
the children from all aspect. Hence, they might be having some as they are growing up and
unable to encounter these issues on their own.
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