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Children have many factors that can affect them throughout…
Children have many factors that can affect them throughout childhood. Many of these factors can have profound effects on their schooling and success within the school system itself. Each child has their own unique personality, temperament, learning style, culture, socioeconomic status, etc. All of these factors play a role on the child and how they experience school and develop through these childhood years.
Children grow in a multitude of ways. Three of the biggest growth domains for children are physical, cognitive, and social/personality (Feldman, 2022). Physical growth includes the growth of one’s physical body, but also development of physical activity. This includes learning new skills which include both gross and fine motor development (Feldman, 2022). Fine motor development can include grasping things with fingers, learning to hold a pencil, and steady their handwriting, etc. Gross motor skills include running, jumping, kicking, throwing, etc. Cognitive development includes growth of the mind, or more specifically the ability to think and reason (Feldman, 2022). Finally, social/personality development is essentially the continuous interaction between social, biological, and representational aspects of psychological development.
All of these domains of development are further affected by the unique circumstances each child has. Each child has their own individual personality/temperament which helps to shape how they see and perceive the world around them. These individual traits determine a child’s ability to take in information and how they decode and process it. Socioeconomic status can shape a child and can also determine the resources available for the child throughout their school career. Children with less resources may have a harder time learning and growing, especially in the cognitive domain. Culture can also have a huge impact on someone’s ability to develop through school. Cultural differences can make learning quite difficult. It can be harder for a child to understand and grasp concepts that may be foreign to them. On top of all of this, every child learns differently. It can be difficult for teachers to adapt a lesson to every learning style as this could be quite time consuming.
Furthermore, attachment styles and bullying also play huge roles in a child’s ability to succeed in school. Some children bond quite easily with their peers, whereas others find it difficult to make friends. Some children have stronger attachments with their parents than others. Some children develop separation anxiety and become fearful of school because it becomes difficult for them to leave their parents (Miljkovitch et al., 2021). Childhood bullying has become a growing problem for adolescents in this day and age. Research shows that 30% of children between 6th grade and 10th grade are victims of bullying (Norrington, 2021). Bullying can be quite dangerous and often leads to depression, anxiety, suicidal ideation, and other mental health disturbances (Norrington, 2021). Children who are victimized by bullies can have a significantly harder time succeeding in school.
It is imperative that we all do our parts to create a caring community for all of our children at school. We can all do this by teaching our children the importance of being kind to EVERYONE. By setting our expectations high when it comes to not bullying and developing a zero tolerance policy, we can really help our children to have the best experience possible with their fellow peers. It is also important that all staff members work to assist those who may be falling behind due to cultural or socioeconomic differences. Plans of action can be in place depending on individual circumstances in order to really help kids to thrive in a positive learning environment. It is crucial for parents, educators, and students to all work together to create the most positive atmosphere possible for all students.
References
Feldman, R. S. (2022). Child development (9th ed.). Pearson.
Norrington, J. (2021). Adolescent peer victimization, self-concept, and psychological distress in emerging adulthoodLinks to an external site.. Youth and Society, 53(2), 273-295. https://doi.org/10.1177/0044118X20910938
Miljkovitch, R., Mallet, P., Moss, E., Sirparanta, A., Pascuzzo, K., & Zdebik, M. A. (2021). Adolescents’ attachment to parents and peers: Links to young adulthood friendship qualityLinks to an external site.. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 30(5), 1441-1452. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-021-01962-y
Respond to the above discussion of my colleagues’ postings by highlighting an additional factor that affects children’s school success and explain why you consider it critical.
