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Child development and growth: external factors
A happy confident boy with a parent and carer

External factors affecting child development and growth can include:

  • Family background (expectations of love, support, stability, attitudes
    to education);
  • Culture (different developmental expectations and opportunities);
  • Gender;
  • Finance (money for food, education resources, suitable housing);
  • Exposure to negative environments (eg abuse, chronic anxiety, pollution);
  • Health and physical activity.
(adapted from Bulman and Savoury, 2006)

Development after birth (1)

A baby's brain will develop as expected, shaped by genes and the environment, if:

  • The mother's pregnancy and birth has been unproblematic;
  • The baby has supportive, attentive and sensitive care from parents/caregivers;
  • Parents/caregivers respond attentively to interaction initiated by their child.

Nurturing relationships in the early years promote physical and mental health and benefit for learning throughout the life cycle.

Tremblay et al, 2011

The importance of family

...particularly in the early years, family life is widely recognized as one of the most important microsystems, if not the most important microsystem, for children's cognitive and
social-emotional development.

Siraj-Blatchford et al, 2011

Nurturing family relationships are important for children's development. They need to:

  • Be warm;
  • Be mutually responsive;
  • Use talk in building and maintaining the relationship;
  • Recognise the uniqueness and self-determination of the child;
  • Facilitate pro-social thinking and behaviour.
(Evangelou et al, 2009)

A father with his two children
The impact of parents

Parents can encourage and facilitate academic success through:

  • The proximal learning processes they offer their children;
  • The opportunities they create for their children to engage in learning processes with others;
  • The example they set their children through their own life.

...academic achievement that defies the odds of disadvantage, requires effort and determination from the children themselves as well as from the people around them. By having people around them that believe in them, encourage them, challenge them and support them children develop a strong sense of self-efficacy...

Siraj-Blatchford et al, 2011

Supporting a child's development

A child's development can be supported in an educational setting by:

  • Building positive relationships;
  • Enhancing children's learning;
  • Creating rich and appropriate environments and resources;
  • Enhancing partnerships with mothers, fathers and carers;
  • Taking children's culture into account.
Evangelou et al, 2009

The importance of culture

The cultural background of every child should be valued and respected. Developmental milestones used in the UK may not be relevant for children with different developmental needs and experiences.

Cultures need to encourage children to build different skill sets and those skills sets differ vastly from culture to culture. For example, in some amazonian cultures, the ability to use a machete

is more important than the ability to read. In other cultures, eye contact is considered rude, and in others play is not valued in the same way.

When assessing children who learn English as an additional language, it is important to make sure that apparent communication delays are not only due to a certain lack of familiarity with English.

The importance of health

In the earliest years, health lays the groundwork for long term well-being. This begins with the future mother's well-being pre-pregnancy. When developing biological systems are strengthened by positive early experiences, children are more likely to thrive and grow up to be healthy adults.

Sound health also provides a foundation for the construction of sturdy brain architecture and the achievement of a broad range of skills and learning capacities.

Find out more (1)
Open book

Bulman, K. and Savoury, L. (2006) BTEC First Children's Care: Learning and development. Harlow: Heinemann.

Evangelou, M., Sylva, K. and Kyriacou, M., Wild, M. and Glenny, G. (2009) Early Years Learning and Development: Literature Review. Annesley: DCSF Publications.

Siraj-Blatchford, I., Mayo, A., Melhuish, E., Taggart, B., Sammons, P. and Sylva, K. (2011) Performing against the odds: developmental trajectories of children in the EPPSE 3-16 study. London: Department for Education.

Paus, T., ‘Imaging the Growing Brain’ in Tremblay, R.E., Barr, R.G., Peters R. DeV., Boivin, M. (eds) (2011) Encyclopedia on Early Childhood Development . Montreal, Quebec: Centre of Excellence for Early Childhood Development.

Find out more (2)
Open book

If you want to find out more about this fascinating area, read the following:

Guavain, M. and Munroe, R.L. (2009) Contributions of societal modernity to cognitive development: a comparison of four cultures, Child Development, 80 (6), 1628-1642.

Visit the NHS website and look at the national service frameworks and strategies section for children's health and social care. This is important, because children with SLD/PMLD/CLDD will have a variety of medical and health needs that teachers need to know about.

Visit Harvard University's website:
Center on the Developing Child.

Centre on the Developing Child (undated) 'InBrief: The foundations of lifelong health'. Cambridge, MA: Centre on the Developing Child, University of Harvard

How can you relate the findings to a child or group of children that you are supporting?