Diversity In Childhood

Essential Question #1: How do children AND adolescents become so different from one another within the same family?

Reporting:

When multiple children are born in a family, psychologists wondered how they become so different, despite growing up in the same family. The main causes of sibling diversity are genetic differences, differences in treatment by parents and others, differing reactions to similar experiences, and individual choices of environments. To explain the first factor, the genetic makeup of siblings is a large source of variety in their individual traits. In fact, 50% of their genes are shared, and 50% are unique. In addition to their genes, the way kids are treated influences them tremendously. One common

Reporting: Though many pay attention to heredity and environment in the development of children, there is one person in a child or adolescent’s life who will undoubtedly shape their path to adulthood: himself or herself. There are three main ways children shape their growth and progress: attention, language use, and play. The first way a child shapes their development is by paying attention to things and people. Young children are easily interested by sounds and movements, which we can observe easily by watching them and seeing how they look at their surroundings. What we might not understand is that their learning is influenced by these different objects of focus. If a kid decides to look at their mother’s face, for example, they will find that their mother reacts to their cooing and laughing, which can improve social interaction and the bond with their mother. Along with the use of learning through attention, children influence their own development by using language. Even while toddlers between nine and fifteen months may not fully understand speech, they are known to practice “talking”, even when no one is around. This shows that they are internally motivated since no one is around to react to this speech. “Crib speech” is a way that children can help improve their own speech, and is totally normal, though some parents may find it