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Parenting and Child Development MARCH 2018

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Parenting and Child Development MARCH 2018 Research Brief Parenting and Child Development MARCH 2018 The success of community and economic never made, eventually disappear. This process development depends greatly on how a society is often referred to as “pruning” and is invests in healthy child development. Proper influenced by every experience the child has child development, in turn, relies heavily on (Zero to Three, n.d.). support provided by parents and other Synaptic connections are formed throughout caregivers. Scientists, researchers, educators, various regions of the brain after birth during and policy makers uphold different, but inter‐ prescribed times. “The cerebral cortex connected theories about which types of produces most of its synaptic connections after support are most important for proper child birth, in a massive burst of synapse formation development. Some research focuses on known as the exuberant period. At its peak, the “nature,” such as the relationship between cerebral cortex creates an astonishing two brain development, prenatal care, and early million new synapses every second. With these childhood experiences, while other studies new connections come a baby's many mental examine “nurture,” focusing upon the milestones, such as color vision, a pincer grasp, emotional and intellectual factors necessary for or a strong attachment to his parents. By two well‐developed individuals. years of age, a toddler's cerebral cortex BRAIN DEVELOPMENT contains well over a hundred trillion synapses. Initial brain development occurs prior to birth This period of synaptic exuberance varies in and continues, at varying rates, throughout life. different parts of the cerebral cortex: it begins The neural tube first develops sixteen days earlier in primary sensory regions, like the after conception, fuses shut approximately six visual cortex or primary touch area of the days later, and ultimately transforms into the cortex, while it takes off somewhat later in the brain and spinal cord of the embryo beginning temporal and frontal lobes, brain areas twenty‐seven days after conception (Zero to involved in higher cognitive and emotional Three, n.d.). Neurons contain information which functions. Nonetheless, the number of allow for sensing, feeling, thinking, learning, synapses remains at this peak, over‐abundant and remembering. At birth, a baby possesses level in all areas of the cerebral cortex approximately 100 billion neurons, with limited throughout middle childhood (4‐8 years of age). nerve cell formation taking place after birth Beginning in the middle elementary school (You&Me, n.d.). years and continuing until the end of adolescence, the number of synapses then Neurons create the basic wiring plan of the gradually declines down to adult levels” (Zero to brain but how they communicate, or connect, is Three, n.d.). dependent upon use. Synaptic connections are made between neurons to carry information. The brain becomes more efficient during the Connections that are used frequently become childhood years by keeping the synaptic fixed while those that are infrequent, or are Page 1 of 5 Parenting and Child Development Research Brief March 2018 connections that are used and “pruning” the well as begin to show awareness of others’ unused connections. Because brain feelings. They acquire a larger range of development is activity‐dependent, every emotions, making their emotional states experience, or lack thereof, influences which more complex and dramatic. neural connections remain active. Although By the end of preschool, children can pruning is generally a good thing, a lack of anticipate, talk about, and use emotions in experiences can result in over‐pruning, which everyday situations. They begin to can lead to developmental delays throughout experience a broader range of emotions childhood (Zero to Three, n.d.). (i.e., jealousy, excitement, fear, PARENTING AND BRAIN DEVELOPMENT embarrassment). They are able to handle a Supporting healthy brain development begins difficult task involving control of a negative in the prenatal period by keeping the mother emotion for a longer period of time. (Children’s Therapy & Family Resource Centre, n.d.a,b&c) healthy. A child’s developing brain is more sensitive to environmental toxins than the The appendix provides more milestones in the brain of an adult. Exposure to environmental average child’s emotional development from hazards, smoking, taking drugs and certain birth to age five. medications, drinking alcohol, lack of or PARENTING AND EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT improper nutrition, and certain illnesses all Parents, family members, caregivers, and a few have negative effects upon the developing peers comprise babies’ and young children’s brain of a fetus. Prenatal care provides sole relationships. These relationships are expecting mothers relevant information so that paramount, as they provide “the loving context they may avoid an unhealthy pregnancy. When necessary to comfort, protect, encourage, and mothers do not receive prenatal care, babies offer a buffer against stressful times” for the are three times more likely to have a low birth baby (Zero to Three, 2010). Parents particularly weight and are five times more likely to die (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office on influence a child’s emotional development. Women’s Health, 2017). Children with more emotionally involved parents will have higher emotional competence EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT and regulation. This emotional investment from Emotional development involves “learning the start of the child’s life will positively impact what feelings and emotions are, understanding the quality of the child’s future relationships. how and why they happen, recognizing one’s Parents should “foster secure attachment in own feelings and those of others, and order for [their] children to grow into developing effective ways of managing them” emotionally stable adolescents and adults” (Kids Matter, n.d.). In addition, positive emotional (Murphy, 2014). development during a child’s first few years helps to establish healthy physical and On the other hand, young children who grow intellectual development. up in homes that are troubled by parental mental‐health problems, substance abuse, or Infants cannot control how they express family violence face significant threats to their positive and negative emotions. They begin own emotional development; they are at‐risk of to form relationships with those around developing social, emotional, and/or behavioral them from birth and will respond positively problems as a result (Healthy Place, 2017). In Texas or negatively depending on the type of during fiscal year (FY) 2017, CPS conducted and stimulation. They display positive emotions completed 289,796 investigations of child and are comforted by familiar people, and abuse/neglect, and 63,657 reports of child they generally respond negatively when abuse/neglect were confirmed. Of those interacting with unfamiliar people. children, 9,119 were removed from their Toddlers and preschoolers begin to homes and placed in substitute care as a result understand and control their emotions, as Page 2 of 5 March 2018 Parenting and Child Development Research Brief of a child abuse/neglect investigation (Texas Mathematical proficiency Department of Family and Protective Services [DFPS], Early mathematical skills, including counting, n.d.). Children who are abused or neglected in patterns, and spatial relationships, provide the their early years often suffer damage that stays basis for formal mathematics education with them their entire lives. The implications of provided in schools. While mathematics test the maltreatment of infants are far reaching scores have steadily increased over the past and surpass the implications of the same two decades between fourth and eighth grade, treatment later in life, because the brain is still there remains a parental education gap. In growing and producing connections. Abuse and 2015, eighth graders whose parents were neglect during this time will change the way the college graduates scored 29 points higher than brain develops and the way it reacts to various students whose parents did not have a high situations. In FY 2017, 21,751 children under school diploma (Child Trends, 2015). the age of 2 years were confirmed victims of Expressive language ability child abuse/neglect (DFPS, n.d.). Expressive language ranges from using words, INTELLECTUAL DEVELOPMENT sentences, gestures, and writing to convey The young mind has an amazing capacity for messages to others, ranging from an infant’s language. All of the world’s languages together cooing to complex vocabulary and sentences comprise around 800 sounds, and a baby is spoken by children. This area of development capable of discerning the difference between varies widely from child to child; abnormal all 800 sounds. Therefore, infants have the development in this area could require medical ability to learn any language. However, as they intervention (Kid Sense, n.d.). age, children begin to focus on sounds in the language they are exposed to and lose their Motor ability ability to distinguish between foreign language Motor skills can be classified as visual, fine, or gross. Visual motor skills are essential for sounds (Ramirez, 2016). In addition, the level of parental support and skill in developing reading developing reading ability. Fine motor skills are proficiency, mathematical proficiency, used for detailed tasks, such as drawing. Gross expressive language ability, and motor ability motor skills
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