The Influence of Genetics on Child Development

The cognitive

impacts DNA has on a child

Genetic affects on a child’s social interactions

A child's social interaction is generally similar to their parents. For instance, if a parent tends to be very shy and not talk much while around people, the child will likely act in the same way. That is if the child inherited that parent’s temperament or attitude, which has to do with the way they socialize. Children also learn how to interact with others by observing the people around them.

If a child’s parents are positive members of society for instance, by picking up trash, helping others or are just a friendly person. The child will likely want to help others when possible and will likely have positive interactions with others. On the other hand, if a child’s parents are aggressive or abusive the children will likely also be very aggressive in their social interaction. Some say these similarities are due to the genetics and some feel they have more to do with observing the parents.

A child's cognitive function or brain function may be determined by the inherited genetics if a child receives an extra gene they may have medical ailments or mental disorders such as Down syndrome. However people also inherit many brain functions that you may not even think of. “Studies of animal behavior have shown that the offspring of a mother with good nurturing skills are more likely to be good parents themselves” (University of Cambridge) (2014)

What are genetics?

Genetics are what a child inherits from each of their parents, which are also referred to as their biology, generic code or their DNA. “DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) that contains the genetic code, or instructions, that make up all life. Except for the sperm and ova, all cells in the body contain 46 chromosomes. As you might guess, the sperm and ova each contains only contain 23 chromosomes. This ensures that when the two cells meet, the resulting new organism has the correct 46 chromosomes.” (Cherry 2014) Children inherit different aspects from each parent depending on which 23 chromosomes they receive from each of them. Therefore, a child could look like one parent yet take after the other.

The physical effects of genetics

Emotions caused by a child’s biology

Children inherit their physical appearance from their parents, since the child receives genes from each parent the genes compete in order to determine which gene will be dominate in the child’s appearance. “Eye color is one example of dominant-recessive genes at work. The gene for brown eyes is dominant and the gene for blue eyes is recessive. If one parent hands down a dominant brown eye gene while the other parent hands down a recessive blue eye gene, the dominant gene will win out and the child will have brown eyes.” (Cherry, 2014)

Children are emotionally impacted by genetics because they tend to inherit some of their parents temperament children of parents who are very active and very high strung tend to be easy going children or happy and active children. Children who have very negative parent or perhaps a mother who is depressed during pregnancy may also have inherited these flaws and the negative outlook or may suffer from depression themselves. These reactions are due to the DNA pasted down to the children from each parent and may even end up with an interesting combination from parts of each parent’s attitude.

Genetics in my profession

“Genetic effects on schooling are big. Up to 80% of differences in learning to read and write are genetic. For maths it is 60-70%. For science, 50-60%. A lot of the angry debate between environmental determinists and genetic determinists has focused on how much of this is down to heritability of general intelligence” (The Economist, 2013). As a teacher, with that in mind I will be looking for what subject each child excels at. In order to use each child’s genetically determined strong points to help them succeed. I also believe that getting to know each child’s temperament and possible their parents as well I will be able better understand my students. I will in turn be able to help my students overcome individual challenges such as dyslexia (which is a reading disorder, that I personally struggle with).

The Influence of Genetics on Child Development

References

Cherry, K. (Genes and Development How Genetics Influence Child Development,2014) , (para. 6 ), retreved from: http://psychology.about.com/od/early-child-development/a/genes-and-development.htm

Cherry, K. (Genes and Development How Genetics Influence Child Development,2014) , (para.9.1 b.) retreved from: http://psychology.about.com/od/early-child-development/a/genes-and-development.htm

The Economist, Genetics and Education Nuturing nature. (2013, para. 4) retreved from: http://www.economist.com/news/books-and-arts/21590881-genes-count-lot-schooling-whether-schools-can-adapt-knowledge-less

By Patricia Mackey August 14,2014