Early Childhood : Nature vs Nurture

Early Childhood is the age extending from conception till 8 years of age. This is the period of tremendous growth. Early childhood experiences carve out pathways towards health and well-being that persist throughout life. Extensive and reliable scientific evidence demonstrates the critical importance of the first years of life. From conception throughout early childhood, children’s brains develop at a rapid rate and are uniquely sensitive to environmental inputs. Research emphasizes the profound influence of a child’s environment on development and learning: far from being dictated at birth, human capacity is strongly shaped by environmental conditions.

Stimulating environments unlock children’s potential and encourage neurological development. The different domains of development are namely physical, cognitive, social– emotional and language development (Walker et al., 2007b), the development of these must all be together to enable progress through each step. As all the domains develop together, nurturance in each domain is important.

In the case of language development, for instance, health and nutrition play important roles: similarly, early in life, a child’s vocabulary increases dramatically as h/she begin to move around, exploring and eliciting responses from others. Thus hugging, talking, cooing and responding to a child are equally important. Any stimulation provided to a child through various senses, (eyes, smell, hearing touch and taste) are very important. Because a child is a product of various forces at play, the role of each member becomes important. Apart from the physical touch, health needs to be taken care of.

Chronic sickness and malnutrition thus affect much more than physical health, as mobility and the desire to explore are essential for cognitive, linguistic and social–emotional development as well. Research demonstrates the cumulative effects of environmental deprivation, showing that the fewer adequately addressed domains, the greater the risk a child faces and the greater the likelihood that he or she will face difficulties in the future. Hence look after the physical, emotional health of your child as it has a direct impact on the cognitive abilities and socio-emotional development.