Introduction
When a child is born, it leaves its mother's womb and enters the real world. Still, children are sheltered by their families in a protective cocoon and raised in a nurturing environment. This is to ensure kids are not exposed to adverse conditions, as they can have an effect on their mental and physical development.
Environment plays a huge role in your child’s growth and development. While environment primarily refers to one’s immediate surroundings, aka home, family members, school, and friends, spending time in nature also has its own influence and healing powers. Just like a child needs a healthy diet and lots of physical activity outdoors to be happy and well-rounded as an individual, their home environment also influences their development.
Children are astute observers and often pick up on social or familial cues that others lack. As infancy and early childhood comprise the main formative years, it is ideal to avoid any kind of family conflict or distressing event in their vicinity. Any adverse or sudden changes in socio-economical, cultural, or familial equilibrium can affect them negatively and last well into their adulthood. Changes in financial status and living conditions also influence the future life goals of children, who may end up being workaholics. Here’s a quick guide on the role the environment plays in influencing child growth and development.
Factors Affecting Child Development
1. Family Bonding
Family bonding plays a big role in influencing your child’s growth and development. From spending time together to helping and supporting one another, the family bond encapsulates all connections of love and kindness between family members. Any conflict in it can disrupt home dynamics.
2. Home Environment
The environment at home should be a peaceful one. It is ideal to not fight or use bad words in front of children, especially if they are young. Do not let your kids hear or see such instances. The home environment should be a soothing one, full of daily chaos and love.
3. Financial Situation
Financial instability and lack of adequate resources can cause resentment and an absence of opportunities for deserving kids. Also, rich and well-established parents are comparatively less stressed and can afford to spend more time with their kids while financially insecure parents are too focused on making ends meet to give adequate attention to their kids.
4. Adequate Nutrition And Playtime
Along with financial stability comes the question of sufficient nutrition. Neither expensive junk food nor cheap unhealthy foods, only healthy home-cooked meals are the way ahead. Also, let Mother Nature have her turn babysitting your kids at least once a day by making them play outdoors for at least 30 to 60 minutes.
5. Digital Time
The time the family spends on the internet and with their smart devices influences younger children as well. It is ideal to lead by example and make kids understand that the offline world is the real one, where actual things happen. Let television and digital time be limited and time-specific for all to run a healthy household.
Role Of Environment In Your Child’s Growth And Development
Cognitive Development
The environment of learning, solving problems puzzles, and reading books at home automatically promotes cognitive development in kids from an early age. Let kids think and express themselves while trying to tackle problems and stimulating toys to thrive intellectually.
Social Development
If you have an only child, then this pointer is even more vital. Unless they are blessed with siblings, kids prefer to cling to their parents and mingle less with other kinds. Be it due to shyness, lack of confidence, or improper development of speaking skills, such children can get stuck in a rut unless encouraged and helped at home by family members.
Emotional Development
Children who belong to unstable homes or live with guardians may often be emotionally reticent and terse. This is due to improper emotional development as these kids do not know what a normal home environment and expression of emotions feel like.
Physical Development
The physical development of a child depends a lot on their surroundings. If children live in cramped, dark apartments with little access to sunlight or exercise, then they are bound to have stunted growth and developmental deficiencies. It is crucial to have a slice of nature at home or near your place to ensure kids get adequate exposure to the natural environment as well.
Moral Development
Children also develop core beliefs, ethics, and morality depending on the atmosphere they see at home. Be it honesty, kindness, and selflessness, or betrayal, selfishness, and rudeness, all these behaviors and moral habits are learned at home. Therefore, it is crucial to model healthy, ethical behaviors and practices at home to raise kind and respectful human beings.
Conclusion
The immediate environment of a child plays a big role in their growth and development. While you cannot change your child’s nature, you can nurture them to be the best version of themselves. But to do that, their home environment needs to be supportive, accepting, and encouraging, along with a steady hand on this trusty guide.
References
https://vishwankarschool.com/environmental-factors-and-early-childhood-development/
The views expressed are that of the expert alone.
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