ESSAY TOPICS CHOSEN- CHILDHOOD AND HEALTH
INTRODUCTION
In a human’s life, health is the most prominent basic necessity and childhood is the best phase to be in. With dynamic changes and new technological inventions through internet has put multiple risks on both health as well as children. An individual’s health conditions are inter-related to their childhood and well being. Although it can be measured separately and has no direct meaning but are definitely dependent on one another. This essay will shed light on the several dimensions of childhood and the contribution of health in the society. There are social constructs about both the elements and thus, it is indeed to understand its importance for the complete social, cognitive, physical and physiological aspects.
MAIN BODY
Childhood is that state or early stage that is necessary for the development and social engagement. There are many levels that are included for the child development and must be taken into serious account by the adults. For instance, television, when invented was a medium for news, connecting two separate countries etc but gradually it has started blurring the separation from childhood to adolescence to adulthood. It was noticed that cultural aspects assist in shaping the overall development for a child (van Hover and Hicks, 2017). A low or high level can be established or can be affected by the socio-cultural environment provided to a child while growing up. It is 21st century and still the kids are getting exploited and there are still children who are deprived of food, shelter, schooling and basic necessities of life. Child labour is still another negative effect in many under developed countries and makes few realists to re-think about their status in building a nation.
Furthermore, there are many theories of social constructivism that has put some insights in knowing the different variables for a child’s development. A child’s surroundings are vital in knowing its mental and cognitive abilities and also aid in exposing them to the right amount of interactions to the entire world. According to Vygotsky’s theory, a cognitive ability of a child only gets enhanced by giving them equal opportunity for developing the attitude, and behaviour. The focus is on knowing the cultural aspects in maintaining the interaction with guided surroundings to regulate the childhood. On the other hand, Piagnet and Inhelder have directly put light on the overall roots and their ability to learn in terms of mathematics, logical reasoning and practical implementation (Piaget and Inhelder, 2013). This does not tell about the reactions to the surroundings and environmental conditions which makes it difficult for overall survival or enhanced knowledge base for a child.
In regard to the above, it is clearly understandable that a happy childhood can develop a human’s mind in positive direction. For e.g. an elicit class kid have the accessibilities to good food, shelter, education etc. whereas a poor kid is deprived of it and must be making something to work for their survival. This led to the child labour which forced these young minds to work in unregulated surroundings for basic necessities of life (Britto and et.al., 2017). It was very disappointing to see that the radicals were not being able to make a constructivism viewpoint on childhood and it’s based conceptual frameworks. A social constructivism is based on collaboration and henceforth, it was sometimes promoted the wrong doings against the children and their pedagogical framework. Additionally, it was also suggested that the physical environment is independent of socio-chemical surroundings in which mental well being is also involved. A child must be given freedom and no responsibilities to live a fulfilling life in order to become a civilised human being to be socially accepted by the community.
Next topic is Health which is defined as the absence of diseases by maintaining the social, physical and mental well being of an individual. For an adult, its metrics are different and for a kid, it will be definitely different and henceforth, it could be the state of psychological, physiological, and anatomical units to function effectively. A child might be not sufficiently taken care by irrespective of class, religion, gender or age. However, the society must act responsibly in giving the right atmosphere in knowing the personal hygiene and self care aspects.
For instance, Psycho education has been adopted recently to make the children understand the importance of nutrients, and having a healthy lifestyle as they are now only spending times in front of mobile phones, TVs or online video games (Peacock, Bissell and Owen, 2014). It is such a counselling type to know about the triggering points, effects and overall impact on the well being of the individual. Moreover, this aspect also reflects upon a set of instructions to be adopted for a better lifestyle and high standards of living.
Additionally, there are many health inequalities observed in the children these day and involves obesity, speech disability, learning issues and many more. This is mainly due to the ethnic inequalities, gender inequalities etc. It has also been seen that there are several mediums such as therapies, group activities, counselling sessions etc. to generate awareness as well as imparting education to the children. This will be proved beneficial to help the maintenance and sustenance of the health parameters for the kids. Herein, two types of approaches can be implemented such as individualistic approach and collectivist approach (Matheson, O’Brien and Reid, 2014). The collectivist approach is useful for those social classes who are already having a stable life and standards of healthy living. However, there are other sections of people who are struggling with housing or unemployment and suffer the most. They are the ones who are socially deprived and not having any mental well being with healthy parameters to live in the society.
Additionally, the individualist approach as termed is different from the collaborative mode and assists in making the available resources more accessible. The kids here gets a benefit of doubt and is provided with basic necessities to survive by giving free education, one meal per day and a roof for shelter. Although, health is very individualist mindset and must be provided in order to keep the system of welfare intact (Messner and Musto, 2014). An adult’s income has direct impact on the health inequalities and therefore the more unequal a society is then the worse is the health of that society. Therefore, a community must foster better living standards for the compete society to live, and promote brotherhood.
CONCLUSION
It has been summarised that both childhood and health comes under social constructivism and must be given equal weight-age to have a safe growth. The overall learning abilities and cognitive maturity are inter dependent for a child’s development and must be given a high value to maintain a society in decorum. Moreover, many theories are established to understand the health inequalities as well as the child’s developmental stages and should be handled properly. It would aid in building a more balanced society with right kind of maturity levels and provided an equal opportunity. Therefore, one must know all the stages and the learning aspects for creating a more well kept community to promote overall development of an individual, especially for the kids.
REFERENCES
Britto, P.R. and et.al., 2017. Nurturing care: promoting early childhood development. The Lancet, 389(10064), pp.91-102.
Matheson, A., O’Brien, L. and Reid, J.A., 2014. The impact of shiftwork on health: a literature review. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 23(23-24), pp.3309-3320.
Messner, M.A. and Musto, M., 2014. Where are the kids?. Sociology of Sport Journal, 31(1), pp.102-122.
Peacock, M., Bissell, P. and Owen, J., 2014. Dependency denied: health inequalities in the neo-liberal era. Social Science & Medicine, 118, pp.173-180.
Piaget, J. and Inhelder, B., 2013. The growth of logical thinking from childhood to adolescence: An essay on the construction of formal operational structures (Vol. 84). Routledge.
van Hover, S. and Hicks, D., 2017. Social constructivism and student learning in social studies. The Wiley handbook of social studies research, p.270.