Ideally, toddlers under the age of 5 years are exposed to multiple cases of poverty, family violence, food shortages as well as healthcare concerns that shape their lives as they grow in the societies. Such environments play fundamental roles in the development of character and personality among these children as most of them embrace what they see in the background where they live. Thus, the children tend to exhibit different characteristics when they become young adults in the middle ages of life. In essence, various concerns grow pivotal in handling the growth of these children in the societies (Hanson, Nacewicz, Sutterer, Cayo, Schaefer, Rudolph, " Davidson, 2015). This paper presents a case study of a hypothetical kid in the early ages of his development living with his parents and siblings.
Part 1: The Case: Early childhood
Andrew is the only boy in a family of two children residing the upcountry regions of California where they have been since his birth. As a toddler, four years old, he loves playing with his nails, matchboxes, toy cars as well as video games on his toy machines at home. Evidently, his family hails from an average background as the father is a local school teacher and the mother is a subordinate staff at a local hospital as psychotherapist assistant. While at home, he plays with their pet dog and has a high sense of humor that makes his parents love him in every endeavor he seeks to do in the settings. He is hyperactive and keeps running up and down in the house and within the compound creating multiple tantrums whenever awake. Although it is normal for a child of his age, his strength in handling pets amazes his parents, and they feel like he will make a good leader when grown.
However, Andrew has a major problem with learning and following instructions from anybody. His parents have kept on telling how he should behave and handle things in the presence of his younger sister and everywhere he is yet has failed to learn the simple instructions of childhood corrections. Therefore, his mother is worried about him that she feels threatened by having another child in future if the young boy cannot change.
He has never been on any dangerous medication indicating normal growth at his age. The medical records mean that he never has any serious mental illness and has had normal growth in his lifespan as a kid. However, his mother admits that the father loved so much that he never used to let the son go out and play with the other kids while at home. Based on Bronfenbrenner’s theory, a child’s development progress heavily rely on the impacts realized from his or her surroundings. The indications that he cannot compete with his age mates in simple duties such as shoe tying and fluent communication marks the beginning of every worry within his parents. Consequently, his early school results are not pleasing to his mother. At the kindergarten, he is still struggling with the basic aspects of life such as expressing himself for the calls of nature as well as potty training contexts. The current personality contradicts his early days when he was very much likable and easygoing in all circumstances falling asleep smoothly all across the night. He has become so stubborn and a slow too, facts that make his parents have sleepless nights thinking of what could be the problem with their only son in whom they had lots of hope for the future. Though happy in most instances, he gets irritated over petty issues while at dinner or any gathering within the family.
At the initial stages, the mother thought it was because of the schooling environment, and he would soon adapt to the changes to become normal like his peers in the learning. However, his persistence with the characters intrigues a clear concern among his parents making them develop multiple predictions on his unbecoming behaviors as a toddler. Learning and adapting to new environments is a major challenge for Andrew and he has failed on several occasions to rise to his mother’s expectations at school and home. Vygotsky believed that the socio-cultural character of people emanate from the knowledgeable other, in which case is the parents, the social interactions and the zone of proximal development. Ideally, exposure at the kindergarten and parental roles should help shape the cognitive response in the environment.
The case intervention analysis: early childhood
Evidence-based interventions
Andrew’s case is a comprehensive illustration of the impacts of the socio-cultural impacts of exposure on the growth of toddlers. The evidence presented indicates that parental care and environmental influence can have crucial impacts on the development of a kid over the early ages in the society. Primarily, his father endured too much parental love on the kid that he forgot to allow him to learn the cognitive skills embraced by his age mates in the community. In return, the toddler remained isolated from the peers making it hard for him to adopt the various aspects of the environment as required in his stage of development. Ideally, both the micro and the macro environmental factors played a part in the cognitive developments of the individual as he interacts with parents, peers as well as the inanimate objects in his vicinity. Based on Vygotsky theory, learning occurs when a knowledgeable individual imparts the knowledge of the young kids as the embrace what happens around them. Thus, his parents fell short of their responsibility in shaping the cognitive cell responses of Andrew as he grew to become a responsible kid. The deficit in cognitive and other development domains affect the development of children in numerous ways. Delayed personality growth and social response to the environment, for instance, may delay the cognitive performance of the individuals in these environments (Newman " Newman, 2017). Consequently, using the various cognitive therapies and behavior modification practices can help in rectifying the various aspects of delayed development as indicated in the child’s brain performances in this context.
Environmental contexts impacting development and functioning of toddlers
The role of environmental factors, parental as well as biological factors is vital in the mental development of children in any environmental setting. Children learn from the physical exposure and parental guidance during their tender ages. Nonetheless, the impacts of these factors change over time making the child to adapt to the new set of environmental contexts including the influence of peers and media stimulus. The physical environmental elements such as noise, chaos in the homes and the various manifestations of the environment can affect the overall development children. Andrew developed in an environment that was less crowded as he was used to his father’s protection and a lonely environment. Thus, getting to readjust to the new learning setting took him a longer time than expected in the end. Crowding, noise and other physical aspects of the environment posit the central position in the influence of cognitive cells besides personal character progress of Andrew as indicated in his slow pace of mental performances (Pallini, Baiocco, Schneider, Madigan, " Atkinson, 2014). The environment plays an important role in shaping the characters of children that may affect them for the rest of their lifespan. Physical exposure such as domestic violence and stressors may inhibit the progressive development of these toddlers in their social adventure.
How early cognitive development challenges could manifest across the lifespan
Andrew’s case is an indication a case of delayed development resulting from the challenges of cognitive responses within the child’s systemic operations in the learning environment. The earliest lesions learned by a child stick more on their system since they learn better at this age than any other stage. The human behavior principles and the cognitive learning theories posit that the mental cells of the kids capture their successive exposure as materials of learning contexts as the kids struggle to develop a foundation for their future lifespan. Between the age of 2 and five years, the kids have higher cognitive development rates as they strive for their social positions in the family culture. The parental stressors and cognitive impacts created in relationships such as that of Andrew’s father play crucial roles in the general development of the child. Based on previous studies, children exposed to such stimuli in the early stages may develop long-term impacts on the lifespan of the child in the society. Such children may develop low self-esteem in the social contexts making them vulnerable to delayed progress in the communities. Similarly, the slow learning and reluctance to adaptive behavior is an indication of subverted cognitive adjustment in the environment. These contexts explain the interrelationship between environmental factors and the cognitive development among the children in different contexts in the society (Campbell, Conti, Heckman, Moon, Pinto, Pungello, " Pan, 2014).
Some of the personality disorders such as autism and impaired cognitive balancing normally emanate from the earlier exposure upon which the subjects face in their onset of growth in the community. The main elements of maternal and parental guidelines may influence the connection between the mental developments of the child in his backyard. As such, one has to consider the interventions. Parents play crucial roles in shaping the lifestyle of their children in any set of environment (Sulik, Blair, Mills‐Koonce, Berry, " Greenberg, 2015).
In conclusion, the recent case study indicates the significance of early childhood development in various parts of the community. Andrew’s delayed cognitive performance may help us to understand the boundaries between the cognitive growth and the role of familial and social environment. Various cognitive theories may help us to establish the rehabilitative abilities of the child in this environment. Therefore, Andrew deserves a private coach to help him develop his cognitive response mechanism in the community. He needs to understand the diversity in the social contexts about the various objects in his surroundings and instructions fed into the mind. As a parent, the mother needs to avoid parental stressors in making decisions regarding the child’s behavior in the society. Likewise, there is a connection between the learning zones and the critical evaluation of the mental capacity of the child.
References
Sulik, M. J., Blair, C., Mills‐Koonce, R., Berry, D., " Greenberg, M. (2015). Early parenting and the development of externalizing behavior problems: Longitudinal mediation through children's executive function. Child Development, 86(5), 1588-1603.
Newman, B. M., " Newman, P. R. (2017). Development through life: A psychosocial approach. Cengage Learning.
Hanson, J. L., Nacewicz, B. M., Sutterer, M. J., Cayo, A. A., Schaefer, S. M., Rudolph, K. D., ... " Davidson, R. J. (2015). Behavioral problems after early life stress: contributions of the hippocampus and amygdala. Biological psychiatry, 77(4), 314-323.
Pallini, S., Baiocco, R., Schneider, B. H., Madigan, S., " Atkinson, L. (2014). Early child–parent attachment and peer relations: A meta-analysis of recent research. Journal of Family Psychology, 28(1), 118.
Campbell, F., Conti, G., Heckman, J. J., Moon, S. H., Pinto, R., Pungello, E., " Pan, Y. (2014). Early childhood investments substantially boost adult health. Science, 343(6178), 1478-1485.
