Factors Which Affect Infancy And Early Childhood Development

 Infancy and early childhood are remarkable periods of human development. Why? It is because they are the bedrocks of child's cognitive, emotional, social, and physical developments. If the infancy and early childhood stages of a child are inundated with challenges, especially health-related challenges, the developmental stages of that child will suffer severe setbacks. The following factors can adversely affect the infancy and early childhood development of a child:

a. If the parents of the child are poor, there would be limited access to resources, good residential environment, healthcare delivery facilities, education, and poor nutrition. All these factors can adversely affect infancy and early life development of a child. The reason is that poverty causes malnutrition and malnutrition causes low weight of the child at birth. This leads to impaired cognitive development.

b. If the pregnant mother is addicted to tobacco, alcohol, the exposure of these substances to the child can harm and hinder foetal development.

c. Family violence such as fighting between husband and wife can cause emotional and psychological trauma and death. For example, I once separated a fight between a husband and his pregnant wife. In the course of the fight, the pregnant woman started bleeding. Her husband who was fighting with her stopped immediately he saw the bleeding. He took her to the hospital when it was too late to save the unborn child. The pregnancy was lost. 

d. Untreated diseases (malaria, tuberculosis, and HIV/ AIDS) can adversely affect development of infants.

e. Exposure to contaminated water can lead to health problems, thereby causing impairment to development.

f. Deprivation of oxygen supply during child birth can trigger off brain damage and developmental setbacks.

g. Wars, conflicts, displacements and traumas can affect infants development. In fact, during war situations, infants are abandoned if their mothers want to do so, especially the crying infants. There are cases where the mothers are forced to do away with their crying infants so that the enemy does not know where they are hiding.

h. Systemic inequality or disparities to access the resources and opportunities can impair infancy and early child development. All of the above factors have unspeakable severe effects on infant's physical, emotional, cognitive, and social development. 

International agencies have emphasized the indispensable importance of infancy and early childhood development in shaping the future of individuals and societies. For example, the UN Sustainable Development Goals Number 4 highlighted the global priority placed on early childhood education, with targets to ensure that all children have access to quality and inclusive early childhood development, care, and education by 2030. Childhood Education International, a non-profit organization, stresses that early childhood education is crucial for cognitive, emotional, social, and physical growth. It advocates for accessible quality education and care for all children, irrespective of their backgrounds and circumstances. The UNICEF, which is the United Nations' apex children's welfare department, recognizes the significance of early childhood development, focusing on programmes that profoundly promote health, nutrition, education, and protection for young children everywhere in the world. 

The European Commission has placed emphasis on the importance of infancy and early childhood education development. The EU has set out priorities for early childhood education and care, aiming to improve access to quality of services. The European Commission supports every Member-State in identifying challenges in early childhood education and care, and finding ways to address them. It has also provided input to several policy initiatives, such as the European Child Guarantee. This initiative seeks to ensure that all children in need have access to essential services, including early childhood education and care. The EU has also emphasized the importance of investing in early childhood development, particularly for disadvantaged children. The EU has made it compulsory for Member-States to prioritize early childhood development in their policies and funding decisions.

Not only that, the World Health Organization (WHO) has also emphasized the indispensability of nurturing care for early childhood development, starting from pregnancy. This care includes adequate nutrition, good health, safety, security, and opportunities for learning from birth. It further lays emphasis on the importance of breastfeeding, responsive caregiving, and early learning opportunities.

These international agencies acknowledge indisputably that investing in infancy and early childhood development is obviously essential for destroying cycles of poverty, improving education outcomes, and fostering a more equitable society.

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