How Far Do You Agree That Early Life Experience Is Important in Affecting Later Development? Discuss with References to Developmental Theories and Empirical Support.

Introduction

Early life experience is always regarded as a very important part in our life. However, how far is it affecting our later development? And does failure in early life mean failure in the whole life? This article tries to examine the role of early life experience and how it affects a person’s development in physical, mental, social and other aspects. The importance of later experiences to our development will also be discussed.

Early experiences influence the developing brain

Development of the brain architecture starts early in a person’s life, thanks to the vibrant interactions between the genes and the surrounding environment or events. Indeed, more evidences now show that environmental factors do play a very important and even decisive role in defining the gene expression (both in timing and pattern). It also means that initial brain architecture is closely related to environmental conditions (Fox, Levitt & Nelson III, 2010).

Importance of sensitive periods

Sensitive period means the period of time when a specific environmental experience or biological event would affect most on a person’s development, and it is suggested that some physiological and psychological processes are closely related to critical periods (Burns, Bodrova & Leong, 2013).

In fact, experience received during sensitive period in the early stage of a person plays a determining role in shaping one’s perceptual, cognitive and emotional capabilities. For example, the foundation of cognitive architecture for visual and auditory systems is determined during the sensitive period, same as the development for stereoscopic depth perception and the ability of language processing and proficiency. In the latter case, exposure to a varying tonal environment during the sensitive period is essential to forming such ability (Fox et al., 2010). Normal development during a sensitive period, when disrupted, will affect the skills or capabilities being formed. And the lost skills are...