Family, Culture, and Community

Child development can be affected by many factors, including family, culture, and communication. A family can be a group of two or more people who live together and are related by either a commitment or by blood. A family can be a mother and daughter, a grandfather and grandson. When growing up, a child needs some sort of support for health, education, and welfare, as well as someone to guide them and teach them right from wrong. The family a child grows up in will shape their development. A family helps to shape behavior and gives the child an idea of right and wrong. The structure of a family can impact a child's development because not having a mother, who tends to concentrate more on feeding, bathing, watching over children, and giving kisses and hugs, can make a child less intimate. A father is the one to play around with the child, take them to the park, and do a lot of the disciplining, which varies with cultures. Parents that are getting a divorce can cause great hardship and pain on a child, especially if a child feels that it was their bad behavior that caused the divorce.

Culture can also influence child development by determining what is normal and appropriate for the child. Depending on the culture the child grows up in will play a role in what the child eats, who they interact with, how they dress, and who they marry. Each culture is different in how they do certain things, and what they do is normal to them, because it was how they were raised. Ethnicity is an affiliation with a group of individuals who share certain values, beliefs, values, and behaviors. In Miami, there are a variety of different ethnic groups and they all interact with one another. Family is very important to Hispanic, Asian, and Native American communities. Culture can influence a child's achievements in school because they feel differently about how children should do in school. For Hispanic families, a good formal education is not the only thing that defines being well educated; success in social situations and respect plays a factor as well. It is important to always think about different cultural beliefs, especially in a school setting, we well as representing all ethnic groups in a positive way.

Community also has an affect on child development because it is the environment that the child grows up around. It's the people outside of their house, who they interact with at the grocery store, school, or in sports. Growing up, children know all of the other children who live close by, because they can easily walk or ride bike to their house. The other people in the neighborhood can become a second family to a child, especially if they have a best friend who they are always with.