‘Environment of the child has a major role in the development of the child’. Support your answer with examples.
Development does not take place in a vacuum; it is always embedded in a particular socio-cultural context. The environment has a major role in shaping the child's development, as it constantly interacts with biological factors throughout one's life-span.
Durganand Sinha's ecological model views the child's ecology in terms of two concentric layers. The upper and more visible layers consist of home, school, and peer groups. Important factors here include home conditions like overcrowding, space availability, toys, and technological devices; the nature and quality of schooling; and interactions with peer groups from childhood onwards.
The surrounding layers influence these upper layer factors constantly. This includes the general geographical environment such as space for play, congestion, and population density; institutional settings provided by caste and class; and general amenities like drinking water, electricity, and means of entertainment.
For example, a child from a rural area who is very intelligent may not get a job due to inability to express fluently or handle computers—this reflects environmental influence rather than genes. Similarly, life transitions like entering school, finding jobs, or marriage are joint functions of biological changes and environmental changes.
Urie Bronfenbrenner's contextual view emphasises that the environment can change or alter at any time during an individual's life-span, making it crucial for understanding development.
Explanation
This answer draws directly from the textbook's discussion of Durganand Sinha's ecological model and Bronfenbrenner's contextual view. It covers both the visible/upper layers (home, school, peer groups) and surrounding layers (geographical environment, institutional settings, amenities) with specific examples. The rural child example is explicitly mentioned in the context to illustrate environmental influence. The answer meets the 5-mark requirement with 5 paragraphs and appropriate bold terms.