There are many factors that affect physical development in childhood. They fall into two main categories, namely biological aspects and environmental influences. These different factors generally have more or less influence during the various stages of childhood. The particular effects of each factor also vary from child to child. Determining the exact result each factor will have on a particular child is nearly impossible, but in most cases, there will be some degree of influence.
Biological factors that affect physical development in childhood include heredity, genetics, and ethnicity. Diseases and physical abnormalities greatly influence the physical development of the child. Nutrition also plays an important role and includes not only the child's nutrition but also prenatal nutrition and the health of the child's mother.
With regard to heredity and ethnicity, a child's physical attributes are largely determined by their parents. For example, if there is a family history of short stature, the child may not grow to be very tall. Similarly, ethnicity often determines developmental factors, such as skin or hair color. This not only includes obvious characteristics, such as hair color and height, but can also include "hidden" characteristics, such as a child's predisposition to weight gain.
Also, some conditions related to physical development in childhood are genetically linked to the child. For example, an endocrine deficiency such as hypothyroidism will often stunt a child's skeletal development. Other physical conditions or illnesses can also affect a child's physical development. For example, if a child develops a severe lung infection during childhood, her lungs may not develop properly and the child may have residual effects throughout his or her life. When serious illnesses are found early in childhood growth, they generally have a greater impact on later development.
Nutrition plays a very important role in physical development in childhood. If prenatal nutrition is lacking, a baby is likely to show developmental delays. Similarly, if a child does not receive enough vitamins and other nutrients in his early years, the body will not be able to grow properly. This is a tremendous and easily evident problem in parts of the world plagued by malnutrition.
While environmental factors are often associated with emotional development, they also play a role in physical development. For example, studies have shown that children grow faster during the spring and summer months than during the fall and winter months. Therefore, children raised in warmer climates tend to grow at a faster rate than those raised in cooler climates. As a further example of environmental impact, children raised in areas where air pollution is a problem tend to have a higher incidence of asthma and other respiratory problems and are more prone to developmental problems. Of course, issues like abuse and neglect, also considered environmental influences, have a serious effect on physical development in childhood.
Sometimes the categories of biological and environmental factors overlap and become more difficult to distinguish. For example, socioeconomic factors, such as poverty levels, can cause a child to be undernourished, which in turn will affect the child's physical development. As another example, a child born into a migrant family and subjected to child labor may not get adequate amounts of sleep and rest for her body to develop normally.
No two children develop in the same way. Similarly, no two children will react to biological and environmental factors in exactly the same way. Consequently, while it is possible to determine what factors will affect physical development in childhood, it is often quite difficult to predict what those effects will be.