Assessing Environmental and Biological Factors that Influence Cognitive Development

Cognitive development is the study of the neurological and psychological development of a child. It mostly progresses as human awareness and understanding of the world increases as they grow. Some of the factors that affect the cognitive development of people at particular stages in life are biological and environmental factors. These factors can be assessed well through the example of the life of Portia; a child who is in her preoperational stage.

Biological and Environmental Factors that Influence Portia’s Cognitive Development

Early child development is influenced by a wide range of biological factors which affects a child both in positive and negative ways and in turn it can jeopardize developmental outcomes (Bukatko&Daehler, 2011). The biological factors include parenting, exercise and health, and preterm birth. For example, some of the biological factors will affect the cognitive development of Portia. The first factor is preterm birth. Portia was born four weeks early and had to stay in the hospital for extra days. This may have contributed to her learning difficulties, behavioral and social-emotional problems, and required early intervention and special education services. The second factor is, parenting; girls mostly need more parental support than boys as they grow up. Portia did not have a father figure in her life, and her mother was hardly around; hence this would influence her cognitive development. The third biological factor is, exercise and health, practices to child development refers to sports activities and the routine plays which assist the body in improving muscular strength and adding bone mass(Bukatko&Daehler, 2011). Good exercises help children grow well, and they keep them healthy and fend off diseases by strengthening their immune system. Besides, the outdoor play exposes them to microbes that help them build resistance and prevent allergies. Portia did not play because they didn’t have a playing yard and the playing ground was unsafe; hence the effect is that this would hinder her proper development.

Environmental factors also affect the cognitive development of a child. Every child should have a family that provides an environment of warmth, maturity, consistency, and excellent communication and in return, the child will have a solid foundation for their development. Children should grow in environments where they are allowed to make mistakes and learn from them without judgment and where they feel free to create and explore(Bukatko&Daehler, 2011). The effect of negative environmental factors that hinder proper cognitive development of children such Portia’s that include, nourishment,  lack of stimulation, lack of encouraging families will play a role in developing confident children with strong cognitive.

Factors That Have Most Profound Effects

The environmental factors that influence the cognitive development of a child are more easy to understand or profound than the biological factors. This is because biological factors are not easy to adjust. A child in his or her preoperational stage is hard for any guardian to understand internal neurological and psychological problems due to lack of precise expressions. However, a guardian can adjust freely to the environmental factors and also understand well what the children want and needs.

Possible support that may help Portia

Some of the possible supports which would help Portia to follow developmentally appropriate practices. Portia’s mother should create time away from work and spend with her; this would provide Portia with the parental guide which would enhance her growth. Portia’s mother should find a way that would assist her in getting time to play around which would help improve her health due to exercises. Her preschool teacher should try and spend more time and look after Portia to support her family as another parental figure. Portia loves reading books and coloring with crayons. To promote early literacy, the teacher should spend time each day with Portia reading books aloud and providing her with books, which will help with reading comprehension and letter recognition and coloring with her to increase her printing and drawing awareness.

In conclusion, early child development is influenced by a wide range of biological and environmental factors which influence a child both in positive ways that can affect their growth and in negative ways  that can jeopardize cognitive developmental outcomes. Like in the case study of Portia.

Reference

Bukatko, D., &Daehler, M. (2011). Child development: A thematic approach. Nelson Education.

 
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