The broadened scope of psychology
which includes not only kids
but adults and aged as well, known
as developmental psychology.
The process of aging has certain effects
on human brain and its behavior.
While aging is usually used in
reference to aged people, it
is a process that starts even
before the birth of a child.
The growth first takes place in
the womb, from an egg to a baby.
While after the birth, more
complex development takes place.
With regular exposure to society and
environment, the kids start picking up
on things that people do around them,
the way that people behave around them.
The way people move, the way they talk etc.
These are the initial things
that a kid learns from home,
from family, from society and
even from initial schooling.
While we all know that school is the source
of a lot of knowledge that a child holds,
it also is the source of behavioral skills,
speaking manner, habits etc that a kid has.
After the family, school is the
second most time-consuming
exposure that a kid has
in early childhood.
While the family does
play a crucial part in
the development of a
child, so does a school.
The crowd of the school decides
a lot of factors about a child.
As it is said that a kid is
like wet clay, that can be
shaped in whatever way, but
stays that way once grows up.
Which is why the selection of
schools, selection of teachers
is a critical choice and is the
key to a healthy childhood.
Even cognitive skills are highly affected
by the environment in which a kid grows up.
The creativity of a child’s mind depends
on the crowd that a kid has around.
If the creativity is not
appreciated and encouraged,
the growth might not
take place properly.
Along with perspective
skills, which means that
one’s perception affects
their kid’s perception.
When it comes to physical
skills environment does have a
role but so does diet, genetics
and geographical location.
When it comes to diet one
thing must be kept in mind
that nutrition of a child
is of great magnitude.
While physical growth is evidently on the
stake of good diet, so is cognitive.
A mind required proper nutrition to grow.
Without that, a mind can grow lethargic
and many consequences will follow.
Location is also of importance, the
gravitational force, as well as
the climate, has its own effects
whenit comes to physical growth.
The factors affecting it doesn’t
end yet, one of the main
factors is still remaining
and that factor is genetics.
Yes, genetics has a toll on the
physical growth of a child.
The genes of parents decide most of the
important growth factors in a kid’s body.
Most of the time the growth pattern
in children matches their parents.
Be that height, weight,
body-type, muscle growth etc.
Even the skin-tone and features are
decided by the parents' genes.
While genes are very important
sometimes some underlying
disease takes control over
the growth of a child.
These diseases can either fasten
the growth way more than an
average level or slow them
down by a considerable amount.
These diseases usually affect the
growth of bones and muscles but
in some cases, it fastens or
slows the aging process as well.
While these diseases are highly
rare, they must be taken into
account while studying the
physical development of a child.
With this section, the
physical development is
covered with all of its
major deciding factors.
Next comes the social as well
as emotional development.
The focal part of a child’s
development and the deciding
factor of his personality
and place in society.
Social and emotional
development is trivial to
psychological well-being,
the way a child reacts to
society and individuals
in a social situation is
what is basically known
as social development.
The behavior and manners
which a kid decides to
follow along with his/her
way of speaking, confidence
level and ability to
handle different social
situations ranging from
fights to embarrassment.
When a person goes out into
society, he/she must face all
social situations and there
might be a variety of them.
A kid starts learning how to behave
in society from a very early age.
By learning hoe the family
behaves in social situations as
well as what reaction they get
when they behave that way.
These things start leaving a mark on a
child’s moind from a very early age.
That is why families are
highly advised to behave
nicely all the time, whenever
their kid is around.
While social abilities are also
developed in school with the
exposure they provide by different
kind of students and teachers.
The school is where the major part of
social development takes place and when it
comes to emotional development then every
kid has a personal process for that.
The emotions of a kid might
be affected by the behavior
of those around him as
well as his perspective.
While in some age-group the
emotions remain extreme, in other
age-groups the process of
maturity starts taking place.
While early on the
socio-emotional aspect is almost
invisible to kids, it starts
development very soon.
Until the age of 1 or 2
years, children behave a bit
when agendas directly related
to them start occurring.
Smiling while seeing a familiar face and
scaring upon seeing a stranger’s face.
While this is a very initial
stage of development.
Until the age of 6, the social and
emotional development takes a huge leap.
The school and the exposure to social
scenarios help develop these skills.
The children see each-other day
after day developing a bond
of friendship and sometimes
of some other emotion even.
They learn to behave in
social situations at school.
They understand the difference
between crying and smiling and
how they should behave when
someone is crying or smiling.
They develop a sensitive side for
emotions that come into their view.
While the emotional
response is usually very
strong in early age
until the age of 13.
It begins to mature gradually
when they come closer to puberty.
The responses become more mature
and sensitive to almost every
emotional outbreak they see
rather than just some impulses.
During the process of puberty,
the emotional aspects
of a kid are on rising
and the rise is usually
very extreme and even
dangerous in some cases due
to the hormonal changes
that the body goes through.
This condition is usually
found in teenagers.
Everyone’s heard of how hard
managing the teenagers can be, that
is because puberty is a difficult
and very confusing process.
The body starts developing
capacity and desire of sexual
intercourse which results in
attraction to the opposite gender.
This also affects the social behavior.
But its main effect falls on personal
care and the way of living that kids
have and the changes they make in
those aspects are easily noticeable.
Children become more aware
of their body and start
taking more care of every
aspect of their looks.
This process changes their
social behavior when
they are around the gender
they are attracted to.
They become more conscious and cautious.
The attachment also increases,
due to puberty and a lot of
hormones in the bod, every
little detail becomes extreme.
Every issue goes beyond its
normal scale, the kids in
this age are usually moody,
and they prefer solitude.
While what they actually need is
a lot of support and attention.
A proper amount of attention
must be paid to teenagers
otherwise they can take extreme
steps under influence.
Even parents who are interested in
this subject are usually worried about
this period and seek professional advice
to handle such situation properly.
With increasing use and
influence of social media, the
problems amongst teenagers
have taken a rise as well.
The display of perfection
on social media causes
anxiety and depression
amongst many teenagers.
This has been the number 1 concern amongst
parents as well as psychologists.
More and more teenagers are suffering from
such diseases which don’t only affect their
socio-emotional development but also takes
a toll on their cognitive development.
When it comes to extremes,even self-harm
cases become common amongst the teenagers.
This is an increasing issue which is
inviting concerns from all over the world.
That is why a lot of people are
taking a keen interest in the
whole process and all the stages
of psychological development.
While initiatives are in
place, this requires serious
attention from every family and
even teenagers themselves.
The awareness should be spread
and the precautions are taken so
that not a single other kid takes
any extreme steps in any case.
These are the things which must be
spread even through social media because
it has a very powerful influence
on them and can help them greatly.
Every person who comes
in contact with any of
such cases must stand
up and raise the voice
against all of this so that a better future
can be provided for the generation to come.
And their psychological balance
can be maintained as well.
“Since the earliest period
of our life was preverbal,
everything depended on
emotional interaction.
Without someone to reflect
our emotions, we had no
way of knowing who we
were.” Said John Bradshaw.
This quote doesn’t only show
the importance of this process
but also describes the integrity
of socioemotional quality.
