Nature and Nurture in Child Develop

ment

Presentation By :
Nancy Li
• Every single person has a specific and unique nature that is determined
by the effect of two major influences.
• The first, is the genetic influence (nature) that contains our physical
appearance and gender.
• The second major factor is environmental influences
• It comes from different experiences and events that have occurred in our
lives, and our interactions we have with others within our surroundings
 Genetic Influences
• Traits or characteristics we inherit from our parents
• Determined by the chromosomes in the nucleus of the cells
• Chromosomes exist in all cells of the body and contain our genetic
information and is responsible for our physical appearance
• Create unique individuals from random selection of traits and
characteristics from the genes of our parents.
 Genes – inside the chromosomes
• There are two important chemicals that work together in transferring
genetics
• The two chemicals are called DNA and RNA and are organized into
structures called chromosomes
• They determine physical appearances such as eye and hair color, baldness,
etc
• DNA is found in the fertilized ovum and keeps a memory of the parents
appearance and passes it down to the child
• RNA helps by carrying the genetic codes to the ribosome
• The ribosome will then form new proteins that will help the child grow
to its full potential.
 Role of Nature in Child Development
• Includes physical appearance of a person, but it covers more than just
genetic makeup, it also affects the inner self of a person
• Children are born with a set personality, characteristics we call
temperament
• Temperament affects the child’s reactions and responses to certain people
or actions in his or her life
 Temperament Types
• The first type is the difficult child
• Often irritated, feisty, moody, and show other forms of negative reactions
 • The second type is the easy or flexible child
• He or she is usually happy or calm, flexible, approachable, having
emotional control and regular sleeping and eating patterns.
 • The third type is the “slow to warm up” child
• This child is sometimes fussy, inactive, and withdrawing in new situations.
• Shy around new people
• React negatively towards new changes, situations or new people
• However, the more exposure to new changes a child has in his or her
developing stage, they will develop adaptability and their responses to
change will become more positive.
 Dimensions
• The three different temperaments are broken down to nine dimensions
• The 9 dimensions are measured from mild to intense responses from a
child
•The first is activity, where the child is always moving and doing some sort of
an activity
• Second, Rhythmicity is the regularity of physiologic functions such as eating
and sleeping.
• Thirdly, approach/withdrawal is the nature of the child’s responses to new
procedures such as new people, places, situations, foods, or toys.
• Fourth, adaptability is the ability to adapt to fit new circumstances.
• Fifth, is intensity and it is the level of energy in responses regardless of
quality or direction
 Dimensions
• The sixth dimension is mood, it is the child’s amount of friendliness and
unpleasantness in certain situations or towards people.
• Seventh is the persistence and attention span of a child. It measures length
of time certain activities are pursued by a child without being distracted.
• The eighth is distractibility and it is how a person can concentrate with or
without being interfered by irrelevant thoughts or external actions.
• The ninth and final dimension is sensory threshold, it is how easily a person
is aroused by sounds or light, necessary to affect the child and evoke
responses.
• The three types of temperaments which are made up of the 9 dimensions
fit 65 percent of all children in one of their patterns. 40 percent are
generally easy to work with, 10 percent are looked at as difficult or feisty, 15
percent have the slow to warm up temperament, and the rest of the 35
percent are a mix of all three categories.
• The three different types of responses from children often lead to
different reactions and responses from their caregivers and the
people around them
• The easy child, who’s attitude is playful, joyful, and is continuously
responsive to the people around them is likely to receive a great
deal of positive and loving attention back
• The difficult child is quite different. They are fussy, difficult to soothe,
have problems eating and sleeping and have an overall negative
response to people and actions in his or her surroundings.
• The caregiver of this child may be stressed and full of anxiety and
respond back to the child in a less positive way because it takes more
time, energy, and effort to please a difficult child
•The caregiver of a slow to warm up child may be frustrated at first, but will
be extremely pleased with the child as they will gradually grow happier and
show more positive reactions later on.
•A child giver is extremely important to a child in its developing stage. They
spend the most time interacting with the child, and their responses are
important as it will have a positive or negative presence on the child
 Temperament
• Temperament is different in everyone due to genetics, however there are
factors that contribute to temperament
• One of the main factors is the gender of the child
• From a young age, in a school full of children, boys seem to engage in
more physical and verbal acts of aggression than girls.
• Research and reports show that this pattern of aggressive behavior in
boys is true across many cultures and socioeconomic groups
• it has been argued that this type of aggressive and competitive behavior
shown may be triggered by peers, family members, and other surrounding
factors in his environment. 
 Temperament Types
• Gender is only one of the factors, there are many more that can affect types
of temperament in a child
• Child’s involvement in out of home activities and parental influences
• Children who spend more time out of there home will likely be less held back
and more outgoing
• Over controlling parents will result in a child remaining withheld over a
period of time
• Cultural characteristics and differences also have their effects on
temperament
• Gender, physical appearance, temperament, are all characteristics of child’s
nature. However, the set personality a child is born with can definitely be
shaped or affected for the better or worse by his or her environment and
surroundings. 
 Environmental Influences
• The way a child is nurtured is strongly affected by their environmental
surroundings and the people they interact with
•A child’s experiences, fears, and different types of behaviours and habits
are picked up and developed through the environmental influences they
have throughout their lives. 
• five different types of environmental influences that affect a child either
in a negative or positive way.
 Prenatal Environment
• Exposure of toxic substances to the child that may alter or affect
developmental processes
• This includes any family member, caregiver, or anybody who uses toxic
substances around the child
•  A child who is exposed to toxic substances regularly are not only at risk
of physical damage, (Example : inhalation of smoke) but mentally as
well.
• It makes the child assume that what the parent does is correct which
allows the child to take part in those acts because the parent has
already taken part
• The child may not believe it is fully right at first to take in such toxic
substances, but the pressure from peers may increase his or her
chances of allowing themselves to be at risk. 
 Physical Environment
• The physical environment is the conditions a child is raised in and
surrounded with
• This would include the air the child breathes to the nutritional value of food
the child is given.
• The physical environment also includes the child’s exposure to injuries,
diseases, accidents, or any other negative affects on the child’s body and
health. This would also include abuse from family or other people. 
 Social/Cultural Environment
• The social/cultural environment is how a child is raised based on norms,
religious beliefs, values, morals, and standards of behavior that are seen in
society as normal or deviant. 
• As a child, you observe the things around you and the actions people choose
to take
• Children develop habits based on the values caregivers give them and they
look up to their role models
Learning Environment
 Emotional Environment
• The emotional environment is the nature of the child’s existing
relationships between people and the amount of warm and affectionate
emotional care given to the child
• The emotional environment affects the development of the child’s self
esteem, trust, identity, and the ability to be involved with more
friendships or love relationships in the future
• Parent to child relationships are important in the development of social
relationships and creating personalities.
• The five environments are all extremely important when it comes to child
development
• A child should be raised with good self esteem and sense of identity and
ability to interact and be involved with others
• They should have a sense of what is considered normal or deviant in their
society, and should be given proper nutritional foods and a safe and clean
environment where they can expand their creativity and imagination and
grow to their full potential
• Genie is a great example that when it comes to child development, nature
as well as nurture is important in every stage
•  It is true that nurture, as well as nature both play huge roles in a child’s
development
•  Our genetic influences will determine our physical appearances, gender,
and set personality, however it is our environmental influences, the
people we interact with and our surroundings that have shaped us to
who we are today.