Heredity and Environment

in Child Development
By: Brandi, Kayla, and Emily
 Heredity
and
Environment
“Can’t turn a dog into a goat”
“For a seed to develop and grow it
needs sunlight, water, and soil”
Heredity is the genetic characteristics
between your mother and father received
at conception.
Environment means all that is found
around an individual that affects them.
• Heredity and environment play an
important role in determining our
personality and behavior.
• Our environment includes the society in
which we grow, what are community
standards are.
 Positive Home Environment
• Stimulating Learning Environment
• Developmentally appropriate workbook activities
• Playing educational games. Ex. Flash cards.
• Reading
• Family Spends Time Together
• Eating meals together
• Watching movies or Playing games
• Proper Communication
• Talking about their day
• Having the Kids Involved as Much as Possible
• Having the child involved with cooking, cleaning and all other household activities
 Negative Home Environment
• Stressful- A child dealing with a toxic events like any type of abuses, parent’s mental illnesses, violence,
or neglect.
• Neglectful- Not meeting basic needs like clothing, food, home, hygiene, and supervision.
• Physical/Emotional Abuse
• Parent yells at and insults the child
• Parent hits the child. Spanking, kicking, punching
• Physical violence causes bruises, scratches and internal injuries
• Guardian with an AODA issue
• Parents have drug and alcohol addiction can cause negativity
• Living in an area with high crime rates
• A bad neighborhood can cause a negative environment at home
 Strategies to Improve Environment

• Good Communication
• Listen to what everyone says
• Properly explain what you are talking about
• Allow and Encourage Chores
• It will help keep the house clean
• It will help the child feel like they’re contributing
• Spending Time Together
• It will encourage communication
• Help the family keep a close relationship
 Nature-Nurture Concepts

• Nature refers to heredity: Genetic makeup an individual carries from time

of conception to time of death.
• Temperament, gender, height, hair and eye color, ethnicity, spoken language
• Nurture refers to various environmental factors an individual is exposed to
from conception to death.
• Physical Environments: abuse, secondhand smoke, prenatal nutrition, toxic
environmental chemicals
• Social Environments: media and peer pressure
• Immediate and Larger Context: family, friends, school system, government
What to Avoid During Pregnancy
● Cigarettes
○ Chemicals like carbon monoxide and nicotine can cross
into placenta causing many health risks.
■ Miscarriage, SIDS, lower birth weight
● Alcohol
○ Your baby consumes what you intake.
■ Fetal Alcohol Syndrome causes physical
deformities; lower birth weight; delayed
development and learning disabilities
● Street Drugs: Cocaine, heroin, marijuana, and many others.
■ Long term behavioral and health problems
■ Suffer from withdrawal when born or stillborn
● Certain over the counter medications
○ It’s important to talk to your doctor before taking any
medicines.
■ Miscarriage during 1st trimester; deformities within
first 12 weeks as organs form; learning disabilities
● Fumes and Chemicals
○ Anything you touch or breathe can potentially reach your
baby causing developmental delays and damage brain,
kidney, and nervous system.
■ Aerosols, paint, insecticides, hair chemicals, and
natural gas exposure
 Food to Avoid During Pregnancy
• Foods that contain Listeria
• Sprouts, Deli Meats, cold cuts, hot dogs
• If consumed, it must be steaming hot. This kills off the bacteria that clings to these products.
• Soft cheese: Brie, Feta, Gorgonzola also can contain Listeria
• Listeria can infect the placenta and amniotic fluid, causing miscarriage and stillbirth
• Eggs
• Eggs may contain salmonella, so anything you consume where the yolk and egg white are not cooked
is not safe to eat during pregnancy.
• No fried egg, only scrambled. No cookie dough. Homemade eggnog, or restaurant-made caesar
dressing.
• No Raw Fish; Know mercury levels in fish
• Make sure all meat is cooked properly, steak.
• Caffeine Intake
• No more than 300 milligrams a day.
• Too much caffeine consumption causes low birth weight or miscarriage; increases the baby's heart rate
 Multiple Intelligence Theory

● Howard Gardner- American developmental psychologist

● Currently a professor of Cognition and Education at Harvard University.
● This theory became highly popular within K-12 education as a way to reach
students who didn’t respond to the traditional teaching approach.
● Originally only 7 Multiple Intelligences with the addition of a few others
over time, making 9 total.
● Spatial: visual thinkers. enjoys art, interior design,
architecture, and able to design/sew clothes
● Naturalist: enjoys plants, animals, and outdoor activity
● Musical: enjoys music, sound, and rhythm. Able to play
instrument, likes to sing.
● Logical-Mathematical:accountants, bankers, and
engineers. Enjoys numbers and scientific logic
● Existential: meaning of life, death. How we got here.
● Interpersonal: able to relate to others, great
communication skills. Therapists, healers, mentor
● Bodily-Kinesthetic: physically aimed people, athletes.
Move well. Good fine and gross motor skills
● Linguistic:writers, poets, speakers. Good with words
and language
● Intra-personal: understand themselves, appreciate their
feelings, accomplish what they need
 March of Dimes
• 120,000 babies are born every year with a birth defect
• These are caused by genetics, environmental, and unknown reasons
• Works to research these defects as well as outreach to parents to inform
them of their findings and ways to prevent these defects.
• For example, they were the first to discover that BPA in plastics
was causing genes to change and cause birth defects
• Research grantees are conducting studies on maternal health
conditions that contribute to premature birth, birth defects, reduced
birthweight, newborn illness and death, and childhood health
problems.
• This prenatal care increases the
chances of a healthy baby and is the
only way to find out if your baby
would have any birth defects.
• Low birth weight is a result of
smoking, and inadequate
nutrition from the mother.
• Every week 6,000 babies are born
with low birth weight.
• A mother’s chronic condition(ie.
Diabetes, obesity, preeclampsia, and
infections) plays a role in her baby's
prenatal development too.
Environmental Influences
• Lead
• Even low levels are toxic to infants and
children
• Is still in older homes paint, soil, and in
toys made in China
• As the Center for Disease Control and
Prevention states, lead exposure decreases
their IQ, attention span, reaction time,
“visual- motor integration”, and leads to
ADHD.
• Mercury
• Children are exposed through air, water, food like fish,
and soil
• Low levels affect their development by lower IQ scores,
damage their language, cognitive, and behavioral
development
• PCBs (Polychlorinated biphenyls)
• Used in plastics (toys, bottles, breast pumps), vinyl shower
curtains or gets put in our lakes where fish become
contaminated
• Affect cognitive and socioemotional functioning
• Pesticides
• are exposed from caregivers skin and clothing
• Affect brain development, motor and cognitive
functioning
• Like reaction time, attention span and short term
memory
• Air Pollution
• In urban areas, poor air quality can impact a child’s cognitive and socioemotional development.
• Nitrogen Dioxide from gas stoves and road traffic is linked with poor performance, and
decreased memory ability
• Water Pollution (Flint)
• Poor water quality can affect cognitive and socioemotional development
• Arsenic, the most common water pollutant, can lower concentration, cognitive functioning,
lower test scores, lower IQ scores, impact behavior, ADHD, and oppositional behavior is
increased
• Increases the chances of water borne diseases which can contribute to malnutrition, and illness.
This increases a child’s absences from school
• Chaos
• Frequent moving causes stress and insecurity for a child which increases their chances for
developmental delays
● Noise
○ exposure in childhood, impacts reading ability which
causes poorer cognitive skills, long term memory,
and fatigue
○ While noise near schools disrupts school and force
teachers to alter their teaching methods in classrooms
○ This constant noises is stressful and raises children’s
blood pressure
● Crowding
○ Crowding in cities, impacts the number of children in
school.
○ This impacts school achievement, IQ, reading
comprehension, and object spatial relations
○ This crowding makes for a more stressful family life
 Ecological Systems Theory

● Urie Bronfenbrenner- Russian-born American developmental psychologist

• Helped in forming the Head Start program in 1965.
● This theory states that we encounter different environments throughout
our lifetime and that our human development is influenced by these various
environments.
● Five Environmental Systems: microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem,
macrosystem, and chronosystem.
Microsystem- The direct environment in which we live, those who
have direct contact with us. (Example: family, friends, teachers, and
neighbors.)

Mesosystem- The relationships within our microsystem’s and how they

relate to one another. (Example: if a child is neglected or born in an
abusive home, they may have a harder time trusting their teachers and
friends)

Exosystem- The environments of the people within your microsystems

that have no connection to you, but still can have a large effect.
(Example: If one of your parent’s loses their job and your family begins
to struggle financially, that stress also builds on you)

Macrosystem- The cultural context, race, ethnicity, and economic class

in which you are born into. (Example: If you are born into a poorer
family, you have to work harder to get to a higher financial status)

Chronosystem- Transitions and major life events that happen in your

lifetime. (Example: Parent’s divorce, death of someone close to you,
national tragedy, or war)
 Erickson
• Trust vs Mistrust
• During infancy, trust is dependant on the quality of the caregiver
• Autonomy vs. Shame
• During early childhood, Children start gaining more independence. If independence isn’t achieved, the child can have self-
doubt
• Initiative vs. Guilt
• During the Pre-School years, children begin to initiate social interactions and playing. If this stage isn’t achieved the child
can lack initiative, and guilt
• Industry vs. Inferiority
• During school age, children start to develop pride in accomplishments
• If the child is not encouraged or complimented on competent work, they will doubt the work they do.
• Identity vs. Confusion
• During the teen years, a sense of self and independence begins to develop. If the teen remains unsure of what they want,
they can feel insecure in who they are.
• Intimacy vs. Isolation
• During young adulthood, you start to have close, committed relationships. If this stage isn’t complete there can be feelings
of isolation and depression
 Erickson’s Continued
• Generativity vs. Stagnation
• Middle adulthood. The person established their career, settled down with a partner and has a
family. The person tends to feel productive and being active in a community. If the objectives
aren’t met, the person might feel unproductive.
• Ego Integrity vs. Despair
• Over 65 years old. During this stage, the person is enjoying the memories of everything they’ve
accomplished in life. If the stage isn’t complete, the person will feel guilty about not doing
everything they wanted in life
 • Prenatal Environment: how mother takes care of baby can
affect temperament and lead to potential disabilities affecting growth
and development.
• Physical Environment
Effects of Abuse • Neglect/Malnutrition/Sexual Abuse
• Lack of food and proper nutrition affects the growing body

and Neglect • Living in poverty, exposure and access to drugs causes

unnecessary stresses on the child
• Verbal/ Physical Abuse
• Domestic violence, mental injury, and physical abuse can
Verbal and physical abuse and suffering negatively impact a child.
from neglect and malnutrition can all • Level of nurturing may be nonexistent, causing child to
lack empathy and normal human emotion may be
have long lasting effects on a child that stunted as they develop into adulthood.
can lead into adulthood. • Child considers this to be normal and acts out violently
at school
• Can affect social development and mistrust in
relationships with others
• Academics may suffer from stresses at home.
• Cycle continues and they also become an abusive adult.
• 9x more likely to become a juvenile delinquent or face
jail time as an adult. More likely to experience with and
abuse drugs and alcohol.
How it affects development
A child’s environment or heredity can affect their
development in many different ways:
• Language- A child’s language can be delayed. For
example, a child could develop a stutter or poor
pronunciation
• Behavioral- A child could develop poor self-
regulation which makes them unable to control their
behavior, aggression, depression, anxiety, or passive
noncompliance
• Learning- For example, the child could have dyslexia,
not achieve their developmental milestones, or
ADHD.
 Strategies to help abusive environments
• Parenting Classes
• Classes will give parents strategies to properly handle their children without abuse
• Counseling
• Counseling will help the parents manage underlying problems that may be causing
them to be abusive.
• Counseling will help the children with feelings they may have about the abuse
• Family Counseling
• Can help the family learn to communicate with each other and move past abuse
• Financial Support
• If the victim leaves, There are shelters that will help out financially
• Having a job with a steady income will also help the victim financially
 Strategies For Children
with Learning Disabilities
• Strategies
• Find out what learning style the child is
• This will help to know what types of materials to use with the child
• Have the learning materials in various formats
• Visual, audio, print.
• Have a comfortable learning environment
• The child will be comfortable to ask questions
• The child won’t be as anxious to learn the topic they have problems in
• Encourage the child to participate
• Including the child will help boost their confidence
• Minimize distractions
• Children with certain learning disabilities (ADHD, for example) are very easily distracted
 Resources for Learning Disabilities
• Birth to Three Program
• Federally mandated program to support children with delays
• In order to qualify, Child must have at least a 25% delay in developmental area
• A doctor’s diagnosis of the disability
• A team of professionals will evaluate the child and start treatments for the child
• Children and Youth with Special Health Care Needs (CYSHCN)
• This service works with national, state and local partners to get children proper services
• Service helps disabled children and youth birth to 21
• 15.5% of children in WI have a disability and use this service
Individualized Education Program (IEP)
• Are provided in the school
• Must include educational goals, current performance rate, required modifications, how to
monitor progress.
 Summary
• Our heredity and our surrounding
environment make up who we are
as individuals.
• It’s important to realize these factors
when teaching children.
• Give children a stimulating classroom
environment
• Able to observe and identify each individual
child’s potential and help them develop
appropriately
• Be open and understanding to the various
environments and background they come
from.
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