Why We Should Learn About Child Development

    Child Development is such an important concept and stage in life that applies to everyone on this earth including you and me. Not many people understand the crucial effects that these stages have on young children, but this information should be known all around the world. There are three reasons why people should study child development. The first reason is to prepare for the moment when people begin to raise their own child. The second purpose is to be aware of which social policies we should have regarding young children. The final cause is to understand human nature.

    When people start to understand how children develop, there is a greater ability to raise children better. In the book, “How Children Develop” Siegler explained that the children who were spanked tended to express bad attitudes. They would argue, fight back, and would convey inappropriate behavior at school (Siegler, 2017, p.3). Instead of punishing the child with physical repercussions, Siegler explained that it is much more effective to express sympathy with the child showing that the adult is listening to their concerns and notices their distress. By doing so, children tend to calm down and are much more willing to cooperate. In a TED talk given by Annie Murphy Paul called, “What We Learn Before We Are Born” she explains how babies learn before they even leave the womb. They learn to recognize their mother’s voices, the tastes of preferred foods that their mothers enjoy while pregnant and even learn what kind of environment they will be born into. As society learns about these specific things that happen during child development, people can become more aware of just how significant and vital those 9 months of growth are for a child’s ability to learn and may make it easier to help understand and raise their own child.

    The world is starting to fall apart as each day passes. Nations are turning against each other, races are no longer finding similarities but only focusing on differences; all coming from the fact that husbands and wives are no longer striving to stay together. Divorce is becoming more normal than long lasting marriages. Children who come from divorced parents are having to deal with parents fighting in court, in which case, the outcome is hardly ever beneficial for the child. When social policies are enforced or created, people need to be aware of the fact that children are the most vulnerable and affected out of anyone involved. They deal with society, personal problems, and even secondhand parental problems all within the home. Children are prone to change what they think especially when they are young. “The younger the children are, the more their recall reflects the biases of the interviewer’s questions” (Siegler, 2017, P. 6). Instead of focusing on what society may want, social policies need to focus on what is needed in order for children to grow physically and mentally healthier.

    “Studying infants and young children offers an opportunity to learn what people are like before they are affected by the innumerable influences of family and society” (Siegler, 2017, P.8). If people were to take-in the idea that fetuses begin to learn in the womb, imagine just how different the world may be today. Babies are such smart intellectual beings given the age that they actually are. Once people understand how babies develop and the ways that they develop, we can begin to understand the purest of human nature. Paul said, “From the moment of birth, the baby responds most to the voice of the person who is most likely to care for it” (Paul, 00:05:08-00:05:14). We can immediately assume that we have natural hearing selection. We prefer to listen to somethings while others we tend to avoid.

    These are just three reasons why the world should learn about child development. It is so important to understand how to raise children even though it may seem like the most difficult thing in the world during the moment. Society influences children more than it may seem and it is crucial to do what is needed to help the next generation grow. By understanding how human nature begins, people can learn more beyond just child behavior and answer questions that may seem complex.