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Children are found to be little ink blotters, eschewing very easily and quickly what they see, hear and understand through their experiences with their friends and peer group. These social experiences help shape a child’s values, morals and personality. Kids can forge friendships like a house on fire! These bondings could be lasting ties, giving them wonderful support, later; throughout life.

But we must teach our kids to be beware of bullies! Some kids can be very cruel at times. Out kids should be taught to be well equipped to handle bullies. Bullying, in particular, can have a huge detrimental effect on a child’s experience of growing up. As kids become big and older, fitting comfortably and naturally with the right companions becomes more and more important. A person’s character might be read by the company he keeps.

Culture: As we have seen so far, we see before us various factors that lend their hands in influencing a child’s growth and development. These influences steer a child’s growth path and decide how the child eventually develops as an individual.

The culture that a child finds himself living in adds yet another meaning to the existing varied combination of influencing factors. Cultural differences can make dramatic variations in the way how children are raised.

Eastern culture is dramatically varied to the western one. While the east emphasizes on the needs of community as a whole, a collectivist focus, the west emphasizes on the individual’s needs to be met. In the east community reigns the roost rather than individual needs and requirements the Western culture advocates the growth and development of an individual in terms of building a story sense of self esteem and independence in a child.

While parents from the Eastern culture might steer their child towards the path of achieving self fulfillment through contributing to the family as a unit and serving society as a whole, the Western culture based family may want the child to achieve self fulfillment through enhancing his own potentials such as to serve the society.

No matter what the child’s environment might offer, the parental strategies used are all steeped in the culture they were raised in. So these strategies will again reflect the culture in which the child is raised and thus influence the child’s growth and development. Every culture has its unique mark, defining its strengths and limitations. A child raised in a particular culture is bound by these definitions. So he/she has to necessarily meets the goals and expectations demanded by the culture in which he/she is raised in. Thus culture can also play a major role in how a child is raised. But would it not be wise to remember that it is the interaction of varied influences that dictates how a child eventually develops?

Genetics, parenting styles, environmental factors, friends, peers, teachers, school and the culture, at large, are thus some of the major components that go to make up the factors  that contribute to the unique ways in determining a child’s growth, development and learning.

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