The Role of Culture on Child Development Essays - Education

The Role of Culture on Child Development Yeney Armenteros Priyanka Khanna Brittany Williams Mays Hugh Wilks Professor Cox EDUN 101 Yeney Armenteros Priyanka Khanna Brittany Williams Mays Hugh Wilks Professor Cox EDUN 101 19 October 2014 The Role of Culture in Child Development Child development is a dynamic process that is extremely difficult to separate the physical and psychosocial factors, except conceptually. In these conditions, psychosocial development is the cognitive, social and emotional development and not small as a result of the continuous interaction between the child growing and changing environment. The differences of the ecological and cultural environment profoundly affect the physical and mental development. The interaction with the medium defines the character of the skills and knowledge acquired and how they are valued; learning experiences of the children of farmers in West Java will be somewhat different from those of the shepherd children of the Bolivian highlands, and every social group especially value those skills that are most needed in your environment. The Role of Culture in Cognitive Development Lev Vygotsky and Jean Piaget are cited more often by his theories on cognitive development. Piaget emphasized four stages of development that occur throughout childhood until the child cognition reaches its end around the age of 15. Vygotsky, on the other hand, proposes a socio - cultural theory of cognitive development, in which the cognitive abilities of children evolve from interactions with the culture around them, such as parents, teachers and other partners. While Piaget emphasized cognitive development as an individual and universal process, Vygotsky emphasized that cognitive development varies between cultures and is largely the result of the interaction with culture. Biological Principles Vygotsky proposed that children come equipped with some important mental functions. These functions include memory, sensation, perception and attention. These basic mental functions then take advantage of the culture of which are subject, and culture transforms these functions into new higher mental processes or cognitive abilities. Social Influence Early cognitive competence arises from interactions with adults and other relevant partners in the child's culture. Vygotsky cites as evidence the many tasks that a child must learn and are too complicated to assimilate in isolation, such as speaking a language. He proposes that most tasks are learned through the guidance and encouragement of the culture that surrounds the child. The cognitive development so influenced and shaped as participating in cultural activities and watch adults participating in them. Cultural Diversity and cognitive development Belonging to a particular culture influences cognitive processes of people in various ways, some so subtle that they cannot be recognized at first glance. For example, several studies indicate that people in urban European American and middle-class communities tend to have more interactions in pairs (dyads) than in groups, while people of other cultural backgrounds displayed more often multiple, simultaneous participation and group. This is easily understood if we remember that in communities where the family is usually extensive, as is the case in most communities of Peru is common for infants and toddlers are cared for by several people other than parents, which gives these children varied opportunities to observe and participate in different groups and have multiple simultaneous interactions. In contrast, in industrialized communities where usually only the mother or another adult (the nanny, etc.) is responsible for the care of these children have few opportunities t o participate in daily groups, either with adults or other children. The Role of Culture in Language Development When a child lives in a house where a second language is spoken, it becomes hard for the child to learn the material in the classroom. It also becomes had for the teachers as well. Because the students might not understand what the teacher is saying to them, it becomes hard for the student to understand the material. If the student does not know what the teacher is saying, then how can a student learn? For the teacher it becomes harder and harder because they have other students to worry about as well. If the teacher has an assistant teacher, then it becomes a little easier. But still there is a little worry in the back of the head for the student especially when it becomes time for testing the child's progress. In a NAYCE article