Child Social Development

A child’s social development can be different between every child depending on many variables. These variables may be age, gender, parental styles, abuse, neglect, and any sort of disorder. Parents of children with developmental delays use a more controlling behavior with their children than the parents of children with typical development (Green, 2014). Parents of children who have developmental delays and use controlling behavior probably make the development slow down even more, if a child has no control over his or her own decisions they will never know how to be independent. It is more than likely that children become socially awkward when their parents are socially awkward. Some social development aspects may be hereditary. When …show more content…
From past experiences with friends who were beaten and sexually abused by their own fathers when they were children, abuse can negatively impact the social development. KJ, an old friend from elementary school, was abused almost every night by her drunk, drug-addict father to the point where she would not talk to any boy or be in the same room with any boy. Her father scarred her for life, to this very day she is extremely awkward and antisocial. She put her four year old son into foster care because she refuses to have a boy in her life even in the form of a child. In all honesty, I fear for her son’s social development. On the other hand, another friend, Cheyenne, was beaten by her father and then by her step-father after her mom and dad split up. This is one case where the abused child actually broke the cycle. She is the sweetest most social girl I have ever met; it is a very rare case. In other words, the way people deal with their abusive pasts may also affect their social development. Everyone deals with the same situation in different …show more content…
Some variables may be age, gender, abuse, mental disabilities, etc. While some of the developmental delays come from nurture some may also come from nature. A child may become socially awkward if their parent is, maybe some from the genes that the parent passed down and some from the environment and way they were raised. Many children who were abused growing up tend to be very socially awkward and introverted and sometimes even develop anger issues or depression. Abused children tend to imitate their parents while children that were not abused tend to make their own decisions and be more independent. Cheyenne, a close friend, is a rare case of “breaking the cycle” so to speak. Not many abused children break the abusive cycle. On the other hand, disabilities also have a major impact on social development. Not only do the parents of disabled children treat them differently than they do with nondisabled children but their peers tend to either feel sorry or bully them. All children develop differently in the social