Topic Description
The process of child development is very intricate and highly prone to external factors, which is why the factors in question need to be researched and evaluated closely. The importance of culture as one of the major influences on early childhood development has been a contentious topic since the exact extent of its impact is yet to be determined (Williams & Deutsch, 2016). In the modern world, where the focus on diversity has been one of the key trends in communication, examining the impact that culture produces on a child’s development is absolutely essential to determine the strategies for reinforcing early childhood development and ensuring that a child acquires the needed skills and the required extent of knowledge. Thus, the goal of this paper is to analyze the role of culture as one of the main sources of influence on a child’s early development. Defining the extent and amount of interaction with parents, as well as exposure of a child to essential information for early childhood development, culture affects the process of a child’s growth directly.
Rationale
Being a learner in the modern globalized context is a significant challenge. Children need to develop new skills promptly and develop the ability to process information rapidly. While the specified task does not represent a major challenge for most children with regular development, those that are not used to active learning are going to experience multiple failures. The resulting frustration may avert children from learning altogether, which will lead to stunted development (Dunst, Hamby, Raab, & Bruder, 2017). Therefore, younger students are in desperate need of guidance for personal cognitive development.
In turn, studying the available research on the promotion of early childhood development will help to isolate and apply the strategies that will encourage a child to develop crucial skills, as well as increase their motivation to learn, in general (). Therefore, the opportunities for the future learning process represent the main rationale based on which this paper was created.
Researching the Topic
In order to locate critical information about the role of culture in the early development of children, a thorough search was performed. Namely, several key databases were selected as the repositories of the articles that addressed the problem in question. Specifically, the databases such as ResearchGate, JSTOR, ScienceDirect, ERIC, and several others were used to locate the necessary sources. Afterward, key search terms were defined; these included “culture AND childhood development,” “culture impact childhood development,” “role culture childhood development,” and “culture influence childhood development.”
In addition to using the search terms mentioned above, the range of materials available in the specified databases was narrowed down to academic articles from scholarly journals. In addition, the authors’ credentials were considered closely prior to choosing a source as a credible reference for the paper. Finally, to ensure that the located document was relevant to the paper and that the argument that it provided contributed to the discussion, the range of publishing dates was restricted to the last five years, namely, 2016-2020. Thus, the relevance of the literature was maintained at its maximum point. In the course of the research, approximately 60 articles were located. Among these, three that contained the most important information that answered the research question directly were identified and incorporated into the analysis and documented accordingly with the help of the APA referencing guide.
General Findings
Early childhood development has become a crucial concept in promoting the active development of a learner and encouraging children to gain the necessary skills at a much rapid pace. The specified change has allowed preparing them for the acquisition of skills needed to gain the ability of critical and theoretical thinking, language skills, and the ability to attach concepts to specific situations. As a result, a child can connect theory to practical tasks and search for the means of resolving the provided scenarios successfully (Williams & Deutsch, 2016). In turn, culture is an important player in the range of background characteristics that define a child’s pace of learning, as well as the manner in which they approach specific concepts.
Since the culture of parents defines how much time they spend with their child, as well as what information the child will be provided during their early development, culture and the cultural background of a child are crucial components of the acquisition of critical skills by a child. The studies located in the course of the search generally support the thesis statement of this paper, namely, the fact that parents’ culture, as well as the culture of the social environment, in general, affects children’s development to a significant extent. Specifically, research points to the importance of introducing a young learner to a culturally diverse environment so that the child could acquire new skills at a faster pace, at the same time developing several unique abilities (Dunst et al., 2017). In addition, the general sense that the available literature makes can be expressed as the necessity to seek ways of exposing a child to a diverse environment at a specific age.
It has also been discovered that culture shapes children’s development due to the choices that it encourages their parents to make when approaching their children’s early development. For instance, while some cultures are likely to take an active part in the process of a child’s learning about the world around them, others are less encouraging of parents’ active participation (September, Rich, & Roman, 2016). Therefore, in the latter case, it is needed to convince parents that they should take a more active part in their children’s learning. Consequently, research has unsurprisingly found the connection between the negative impacts of culture on children’s learning process and the low socioeconomic status of their parents. Namely, the paper by Dunst et al. (2017) has shown that children from economically disadvantaged families are less likely to receive the support needed for them to start their early childhood development.
In addition, the cultural background of parents and its significance in promoting early childhood development is one of the key outcomes that the research performed above has demonstrated. Being another important source of early childhood education, the information provided by parents shapes children’s mindset and attitude toward learning. Therefore, a collaboration between parents and educators is highly required to ensure that young learners receive the needed amount of knowledge.
Future Research
Although the connection between early childhood development and the culture that surrounds students has been established, further studies will have to be performed in order to use the findings of this analysis productively. Namely, it will be necessary to focus on the strategies that one could use to maximize the advantages of the cultural influences affecting children’s development, at the same time reducing the negative cultural factors.
References
Dunst, C. J., Hamby, D. W., Raab, M., & Bruder, M. B. (2017). Family socioeconomic status and ethnicity, acculturation and enculturation, and parent beliefs about child behavior, learning methods, and parenting roles. Journal of Education and Culture Studies, 1(2), 99-122. Web.
September, S. J., Rich, E. G., & Roman, N. V. (2016). The role of parenting styles and socio-economic status in parents’ knowledge of child development. Early Child Development and Care, 186(7), 1060-1078. Web.
Williams, J. L., & Deutsch, N. L. (2016). Beyond between-group differences: Considering race, ethnicity, and culture in research on positive youth development programs. Applied Developmental Science, 20(3), 203-213. Web.