The early stages of a child development are very important because that will define him or her in the near future. People around us matter a lot in the development of a child being surrounded by loving family members will help a lot since a child will experience total love from both parents. As I was growing up, I had a very loving family my mother, father and my siblings who were very supportive of me and they taught me all the good moral values that one can have to be a better person in the future. Having older siblings whose academic performance were exemplary and their carrier paths were well defined posed a challenge and compelled me to want to be like them during my early development (Smith, Witherspoon and Wayne, 2017). I was looking up to them and always admired and wanted to be at par with them in as far as academic, and carrier paths were concerned.

As I was growing up, there are some assets that built my growth development they are namely: family support, a caring neighborhood, positive family communication, religious community, and high expectation. In terms of family support having a family that supports you academically and even in the supplication of essential basic needs enabled me to be stable in my development because I was able to get the necessary comfort that any child growing up requires for a steady growth and development. Also, a positive family communication helped me to view thing positively(Smith, Witherspoon, and Wayne,2017).There was a point I used to fail mathematics in school, but my parents could always encourage me to do better next time and it really helped me a lot. I was also surrounded by a religious community that impacted my growth. I used to attend church, and we were taught good moral values.

A child who is exposed to many assets has more advantage than the one with limited assets; this is because one can have a good neighborhood but lacks family support. Since family plays a bigger role in the development of a child and if the family does not support him enough it will still bring a negative impact on the child’s growth.

Understanding a child development is very important this is because a parent is supposed to be so close to her children and by doing so that guardian will be in a position to learn how a child behaves or thinks. This will enable the guardian to come up with supportive strategies that will be a great asset in building the self-esteem and overall development of a child.

Reference

Smith, E. P., Witherspoon, D. P., & Wayne Osgood, D. (2017). Positive youth development among diverse racial-ethnic children: Quality afterschool contexts as developmental assets. Child development, 88(4), 1063-1078.