Physical Development
Physical development describes the biological changes that occur throughout a person's life time. This includes the quantitative changes in the body, such as a child's growth spurt or the growth of the brain. When looking at physical development we see that children start to integrate sensory and motor activities, develop fine and gross motor skills, and grown in size and strength. (Levine, & Munsch, 2018)
Paige is now ten years old and has begun to grow slightly. She is still under average in her height and weight. However, she has progressed greatly in her sensory motor skills. She has become a very picky eater and has a great balance as seen when she practices her balancing acts during recess. |
Cognitive Development
Cognitive development is the development of the mind itself. This domain explains the qualitative changes in the way a person thinks, understands, and reasons about the world. As a person grows older they begin to develop more advanced ways of thinking such as the development of language. Once a child hits the middle childhood stage they are usually pretty good with basic writing and reading skills and are moving into more abstract/logical thinking. (Levine, & Munsch, 2018)
Paige struggles greatly with her English skills. Ever since first grade when she started reading she has struggled to keep up. Even today she is far behind everyone else and has been placed into the enrichment programs at her school. Currently Paige is reading at a second grade reading level rather than a fifth and has a hard time forming coherent thoughts on paper. |
Social-Emotional Development
Social-emotional development is the last domain in child development. It describes the expected changes in the way we connect to other individuals. This domain also shows how we express and understand emotion throughout the stages of our life. When a child is developing they gain the strategies for how to react and interact with society through many methods. One of which can be through observing the ways their parents interact with the world. (Levine, & Munsch, 2018)
As for Paige, she lacks understanding for how to interact in certain situations. She lacks good sportsmanship as well as anger control. When she loses a game, she would act out in anger rather than congratulating her opponent. When playing with her cousins, she would even end up fighting them over the loss. |
Research Questions
1) How can child abuse and neglect affect a person's social and emotion development?
3) How can child neglect affect a child?
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A study on the effects of child abuse and exposure to domestic violence found that those who experience dual exposure to child abuse and domestic violence "appear to [have] increase[d] risk levels for antisocial behavior" (Journal of Interpersonal Violence, pg. 128). When applying this study to Paige, we can see a correlation to her social interactions and the participants in the study. Both the participants and Paige both have exposure to domestic abuse and child abuse that hinder their social development. (What is Bronfenbrenner's Ecological Systems Theory?)
When we take a look at Bronfenbrenner's Ecological Systems Theory we can see what parts of Paige's environment hindered her social development. When Growing up Paige lacked parental guidance in her microsystem. When a child gets proper nurture/guidance in the microsystem, they learn how to properly treat other individuals in return. However, Paige's father was never there interacting with her in a positive manor in order for her to have the support needed in order to develop essential social skills such as sportsmanship. Instead of treating people fairly, she would end up being too aggressive with them as that is what she is used to with her father. This relates back to the ecological perspective that describes the relationship between the environment and the child development. The environment that Paige's father put her in affects her child development. Furthermore, it also relates back to social-emotional development as her social skills are hindered by her environment, and put her at risk to antisocial and aggressive behavior. If you take a look at Jean Piaget's Stages of Cognitive Development we can assess how child abuse and neglect may affect a person's cognitive development. Without the proper nurture that a child desires and is necessary for child development, a child begins to slack in cognitive ability. It may not seem like a huge issue when abuse victims start to slow down due to the lack of language support in the home, as students often struggle with language development, but when they hit the ages between seven to eleven (Piaget's concrete operational stage) they will be severely behind in their cognitive abilities. Furthermore, they will not be able to think logically or have operational thought that Piaget suggests they would. (McLeod, S.)
Paige is starting to fall very behind in her academics. Last year she got almost all C's on her report card due to fear of asking her father for help with homework rather than doing her chores. She is now in fifth grade and is on a second grade reading level due to failure to practice at home. The abuse and neglect in her house has made her unable to achieve academically and further her cognitive development. Likewise, she is failing to progress into logical thinking as Piaget's theory would suggest she should start to do at her age level. The cognitive perspective is at play within this aspect of her development. Normally within the cognitive perspective a child develops the process that allows them to know, understand, and think about the world. However, due to the abuse and neglect that Paige experiences on a regular basis, her cognitive development has been hindered. A child that experiences child neglect can have many different problems that affect all three different area of development. Physically a child who suffers from child neglect can have issues with hygiene, illnesses, malnutrition, and much more. (Neglect.)
With Paige, she has had countless problems with sever ear infections, urinary tract infections, and many other illnesses that causes her to miss school. Not only is this affecting her physical health due to countless illness after illness, but it is also going to affect her cognitive development from missing school. Furthermore, Paige is below average in height and weight due to malnutrition. Her father forgets to buy food often causing her to go hungry. This is going to result in stunted growth and low weight that can potentially affect her health later down the road. Child neglect can also affect a child's emotional and social development. Children who suffer from this form of abuse often have problems with wanting approval and attention. They often have learning problems as well due to psychological conditions. (Neglect.) In Paige all of these problems were common. She had problems with reading skills which related back to her cognitive development. Her bad sportsmanship is often due to her neglect, as well, since she seeks the approval from winning the game. Thus, when she does not get the approval she is wanting she breaks out into anger due to the response she was taught by her father's actions. |
2) How can child abuse and neglect affect a person's cognitive development?
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