Contextual Factors Affecting Childhood Development

Language skills
Language skill is one of the milestone achievements of the first two years of life. Children are born with innate schema of communication, such as body language or facial expression to communicate with parents or caregiver.
The acquisition of language starts from phonology, which is an important skill for a child to master where he or she is to absorb the sound and identify the sounds form one language to another. This was nurtured both at home and in school where Alexander has to absorb sounds from native (Cantonese) and foreign languages (English).
Semantics is the understanding and the usage of words. It has been described by the teachers that Alexander had learnt many words and the family played a factor in speaking with

This is a sign of pragmatic development as has a basic understanding of the functional use of language in social contexts (Alduais, Albassam, AlSantli & Alhazimi, 2012).
Contextual Factors that affects childhood development (40%)
Living in vastly different circumstances and the difference can have a dramatic influence on a child’s development. Bronfenbrenner (1989) believes child developments takes place in home, schools, neighborhoods and communities. This case study will look into the contextual factors of family and schools that affects Alexander.
The core An ecological model by Bronfenbrenner illustrates (Appendix B) the levels of ecological impacts and systems that exist at several different but interrelated levels. It includes the core, based on individual genetics and developmental history, where the child’s biological and a physiological characteristic that includes his or her cognitive functions, socioemotional process and intrinsic motivation to respond to the environment (Bukatko and Daehler, 2004). Alexander was born at a normal weight and on the week of due date. With his parents healthy and very much active during weekends, genetics would not be a factor affecting Alexander’s physiological factor. However both parents are relatively short (Mother at 5’1” and Father at 5’4”), genetics could have played part of Alexander being one of the shortest

The family is well educated which provides better education to the children (Guryan, Hurst & Kearney, 2008). Both parents style of parenting is very authoritative as both parents, especially Mrs. Yau displays a high degree of nurturance In the family, both parents are noted to be in high SES as they both are well respected doctors and have a respectable background in the family history. Studies showed that high SES families can afford their children services, toys and goods, family outings and social connections which could benefit to the child, whereas low SES families could have lack of access to similar resources (Bradley and Crowyn, 2002). A study by DeGarmo and colleagues (1999) also found that income, education and occupation were associated with better parenting, which positively affected school achievement with skill-building activities and behavior in school. This can explain how Alexander has good behavior in class. Moreover Shonkoff & Phillips (2000) found that high SES parents provide more teaching experiences and engage children in conversations. And language proficiencies are higher and have a positive relation to economic advantages of children’s homes and the frequency of language experiences (Hart & Risley, 1995). A survey showed that maternal occupation conditions and hourly wages have