Laser Lessons - Lesson

Understand the factors that influence children and young people's development and how these affect practice

Table of Contents

In this tutorial you will learn:

That family influence is normally the most significant factor affecting a child's development
How all children are individuals so they should be treated as such and will develop at different rates
That children form attachments to key people in their lives and one of these could be you, as their practitioner

Table of Contents

Click this icon to watch this End Child Poverty video - watch this short film used by former Prime Minister Gordon Brown to highlight the problem of child poverty in the UK.
Click to read ‘’Domestic violence and its impact on children’s development’ which is an edited version of a presentation delivered at the Department of Community Services’ Fourth Domestic Violence Forum held at the NSW Parenting Centre.
The ‘Children’ section of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation provides a number of resources on external impacts on children including poverty.
‘The impact of homelessness and bad housing on children’s education’ from Shelter.
The Department for Education have produced a report on ‘Effective pre-school, primary and secondary education project (EPPSE 3-16+)’ which looks at how pre-school influences children and young people’s attainment and developmental outcomes over time.
‘Looked-after children and young people’ from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence. Read the section on ‘Considerations’
Click to read this article on ‘Child development theories and examples’ from the Very Well Mind website.
The Government of Western Australia has produced this ‘Child development and trauma guide’ which looks at some of the external factors influencing development.
Conduct your own research into the work of modern psychologists Sir Michael Rutter and Colin Blakemore. What do you think of their views? Do you think that ‘nature’ or ‘nurture’ is the most dominant factor in a child’s development? Give examples and use observations to support your views.
Bandura identified that children are more likely to copy the actions of someone they like and respect. Write a log account, giving three examples of how you have encouraged children to copy your actions.

Think And Challenge