How early life affects later development

Childhood Experiences on Human Development
Student’s name
University
Abstract
Childhood occurrences affect how children grow during their lifetime. Environmental and personal experiences in prenatal, infancy, preschool, school age children and adolescents have an impact on a person’s growth and personality formation. The government has invested billions of dollars in prenatal care to mitigate cases of excessive antidepressants use, to reduce cases adverse behavioral cases in children. Pregnant women excessively using antidepressants have given birth to children with sleeping problems. Infancy cases of neglect and poor nutrition have led to poor brain development, poor social skills, and lower self-esteem in adulthood. Toddlers actively depended on their parents to learn a new language and enhance their motoring skills. Children under supportive environment learned to speak quickly and likely to become sociable adults. Pre-teens engaged in active sports and games that may affect their lives either positively or negatively. Pre-teens growing in a supportive environment are likely to identify their talent, impacting their adulthood. Teenage sex has adversely affected teenagers.
The society exposes children to diverse challenges without proper guidance on how to overcome the problems. Psychologists agree that problems that adults face were caused by previous childhood experiences both positive and negative. Most governments have established home care services, through which nurses visit pregnant mothers and toddlers under the age of 2 years.

The program was started after the government realized it spent billions of dollars in treating later problems while committing funds to address the issue at an early stage could save the government billions of dollars annually (Olds, Kitzman, Cole, Hanks, Arcoleo, Anson & Stevenson, 2010). The actions of the USA government confirm that childhood experiences affect a person’s development in future and drastic measures need to be implemented to mitigate the problems. Human beings grow through stages of development such as prenatal, infancy, preschool, pre-teens and adolescents, with each having their fair share of challenges. The essay evaluates how early occurrences impact on a person’s development.
Prenatal Stage
The stage is the most difficult for women due to the changes in hormonal balance, which distort a person’s moods and their liking to certain diets. Physicians admit that the stage is the riskiest especially for first-time parents and without proper care could lead to disastrous results. Research indicates that pregnant women addicted to smoking were likely to bear children with sleep problems from birth until attaining 12 years. Moreover, expectant mothers regularly taking antidepressants were likely to affect their child’s behavior until the age of 3 years, if the problem is identified and treated. Antidepressants such as cocaine, alcohol, nicotine and marijuana, were the most common antidepressants used in the USA by expectant mothers. Similarly, another study indicated that expectant mothers that regularly used selective inhibitors (SSRIs) led to withdrawal and anxiety problems on their children at the age of three. Concerns have been raised about prenatal care since some pregnant women have taken drugs leading to life-threatening infections (Moore, 2007). Pollution and radiation during pregnancy have resulted in the birth of children with childhood cancer, brain damage and even death in some cases. However, it should be noted that proper nutrition and lower stress level for pregnant women reduces the risk of blood pressure, enhances the child’s bone formations and leads to the robust growth of the brain. Consequently, both positive and negative experiences affect the child’s development in future.
Infancy
Infancy experiences may alter how the child relates to future. The stage enables the child to develop bonds with their parents that may last a lifetime. The child can develop an identity at that stage and mostly depends on the parent’s to influence the formation of their behavior during the period. The doctors emphasize the importance of superior nutrition for the child while creating a supportive environment for the child. Studies have shown children facing neglect at the stage due to drug abuse by the parents, are likely to become introverts in future. Similarly, scolding infant children at the stage are likely to lead to higher anxiety, stress, and psychological trauma, demeaning the child’s self-esteem (Raby, Roisman, Fraley, & Simpson, 2015). Psychologists believe that children develop their self-esteem and self-confidence at that stage; thus negative experiences are likely to affect the child adversely. However, proper care for the child, especially by building the child’s self-esteem is likely to create a boastful personality in future. Doctors have confirmed that tutoring one’s offspring on how to walk and talk, enables the child to understand new things easily. However, children dependent on their nannies, especially in developing nations, have fared poorly in preschool. Consequently, infant children experience affect the person’s development.
Toddlers
The stage allows minors to interact, highly impacting their growth affected by their experiences. Primarily, the stages include children between the ages of 2-5 years. Children growing in a violent marriage were likely to become obese in adulthood. The children were found to be withdrawn and preferred to stay indoors eating or watching television. Furthermore, spending more time watching television reduced their attention levels in schools and reduced their understanding of technical subjects. However, the children developed complex language problems, mainly due to their dependence on television to learn new things (Pagani, Fitzpatrick, Barnett, & Dubow, 2010). Similarly, their parents during the stage thought it was better for the toddler to engage in passive play, further leading to neglect. The experiences resulted in children hating school and likely dropped out of school in the future. However, children growing in high-income families were twice likely to get higher education and earn double their parents. Imperatively, children from low-income families were more likely to develop memory deficits and apathy to education (Hawley & Gunner, 2000). Doctors have confirmed that children with closer bonds with their parents and engaged in active sports were twice more likely to participate in leadership positions. Consequently, toddlers are dependent on others to form their character at the stage.
School Age Children
Children are most active at the stage, and potentially dangerous experiences could alter their development. Children at the stage like to help out in every task the parents are undertaking. Parents have shared their experiences on some dangerous activities done by their children that potentially changed their lives. Imperatively, in one account a child pushed the lawn mower incorrectly, cutting the child’s foot fingers instantly, leading to the child’s shyness and poor social skills even in adulthood. Similarly, another child got stuck between two walls forcing the local rescue team to break one of the two walls, to save the boy. The traumatic experiences increased the child’s stress levels, leading to high anxiety and withdrawal. Recently released data indicates working parents with school-age children, missed most of their children’s anniversary celebrations leading to emotional stress (Walker, Wachs, Grantham-McGregor, Black, Nelson, Huffman & Gardner, 2011). The children were twice likely to engage in uncouth social relations. Moreover, poor performance in school will likely encourage the child to drop out of school. Psychologists admit that the stage emboldens a child’s personality, making the stage essential in child development. Football academies in the United Kingdom identify young talents during the stage, demonstrating the importance of supporting children during the stage.
Adolescence
Adolescent experiences impact how teens transition to adulthood. The stage is beset with physical and psychological changes that impact on the development of the person. Moreover, teenagers are given freedom to decide on their schedules unlike during their preteens. However, parents are always afraid that their children will engage in teen sex, drug abuse, and criminal activities. Teen sex has led to early pregnancies, contraction of sexually transmitted diseases and depressions. Psychologists believe that teen sex increases stress levels among the teenagers (Middlebrooks & Audage, 2008). Similarly, children abusing drugs are likely to arbitrarily drop out of school. Teenagers under supportive parents have performed exemplary in school and later becoming successful professionals. However, rude teens joined criminal gangs and later imprisoned or shot dead in the neighborhoods. Consequently, different stages of development of children affect their later development.
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