by Divya Muniyappan

How Genetic and Environmental Factors Influence Physical Health and Well Being

The physical health and well-being of a child is one way of measuring child development. This aspect of child development is greatly influenced by both genetic and environmental factors. Let’s consider a child’s proficiency at holding a pencil, pen or crayon as a way of measuring physical health and well-being.

Genetic Influence

Newborns begin by preaching and gradually progress to amore coordinated pincer grasp which opens up possibilities for manipulating objects around them. These early hand movements demonstrate how children are biologically prepared to build their hand-eye coordination and manipulate objects around them.

Environmental Influence

The more exposure a child has to develop his or her fine motor skills, the quicker those motor skills will develop. For example, encouraging children to play using their hands hold and touch objects helps them build their fine motor sills at a faster rate. Whereas, if a child is not exposed to handling objects very much would develop proficiency at holding objects later.

However, certain resilience factors can help promote kids become proficient at developing their fine motor skills as indicated by the following list 

Resilience Factors

  1. Where access to public parks is limited, provide children with household objects that mimic outdoor play
  2. Allow the child to spend time with an adult who is capable of initiating play time
  3. Provide children with objects giving them opportunities to explore with their hands.
School District SD43 – Trends in Physical Development

Data provided by the Wave 7 Subscales Community Profile provides information regarding trends in the development of physical health and well being of children specific to certain communities. Examining the tends with respect to the development in physical health and well being of children in Downtown Coquitlam and Coquitlam River has led to the following findings:

  • There has been a meaningful long-term (wave 2 to 7). Increase and a meaningful short-term (wave 6 to 7) decrease with respect to gross and fine motor skills in Downtown Port Coquitlam
  • There has been no change in terms of physical independence or Physical Readiness in Downtown Port Coquitlam

Therefore, Downtown Port Coquitlam has not seen many changes with respect to changes in vulnerability. However, gross and fine motor skills have displayed a meaningful increase in the long term. This means that the development of gross and fine motor skill in Downtown Port Coquitlam have worsened from wave 2 to 7.

Proposed Intervention Targeting Physical Health and Well Being

A way to target the trends seen with respect to the subscales report could be by improving nutrition. Nutrition directly impacts children’s physical readiness, gross and fine motor skills, and physical independence. Therefore, in order to improve the physical health and well being of children, I would propose implementing a school breakfast program.

The objective of implementing a food intervention system is to provide meals to kids who may not be receiving a proper nutrition-based diet at home. A breakfast program would target physical readiness to make sure kids are not frequently tired throughout the day or getting sick. A lack of nutrition invokes low energy levels and fatigue. Therefore, children may not be able to carry out activities throughout the day as they may feel too exhausted. If the lack of nutrition and tiredness persists, it could slow down other aspects of physical development such as gross and fine motor skills. This is because an inadequate diet would lead to fatigue which in turn leads to a lack of participation in activities. Furthermore, a persisting poor diet could potentially lead to a compromised immune system. This makes it easy for children to catch various infections. If children are frequently sick, they once again will lack the energy to carry out activities thus slowing down other areas of development

Since early child childhood encompasses ages from two to six, I would propose a food style intervention system in childcare centres, and in both preschool and kindergarten classrooms. Although my intervention would target children from low-income households, it would also be open to children who may not be receiving a proper diet. For example, children in middle- or high-income home households may not be receiving a nutritional diet due to parents’ lack of effort in preparing meals. A way to capture an idea of how children are eating at home would be to implement an eating journal. As a classroom activity, kindergarteners could list what they ate for breakfast, lunch, and dinner the day previously. Since it may not be possible for younger children to recall what they ate the day before and clearly convey it, parents could complete this activity when dropping their children off at daycare or preschool. Although this method may not provide completely accurate results, it aims to provide a more in-depth idea of how children are eating at home. It also gives caregivers and teachers insight into which children may need more intervention than others or need closer observation.

References

Human Early Learning Partnership. EDI (Early Years Development Instrument) W7 EDI Subscales Community Profile, 2020. Coquitlam (SD43). Vancouver, BC: University of British Columbia, School of Population and Public Health; January 2021.