ABSTRACT
How do we become the unique person that we are? How do our experiences, positive and negative, inuence how our lives will unfold? Scientic advances are helping to clarify the intricacies of the nature/nurture debate, to clarify the degree to which we are a product of our genes or a product of our environment. We can now say with some condence that we are shaped by neither nature nor nurture alone; we have certain biological predispositions that we inherit from our parents which underpin who we are and what we will become, but which (in the main) cannot be taken in isolation as the sole determinants of our development. Environmental factors also play a large part: the knowledge, skills, abilities and behaviours of our parents, the family in which we are raised, the people with whom we come into contact and the neighbourhood and culture that we live in all help to shape our ultimate selves. This chapter looks at how children in their early years are socialised – how they learn to t into their world – before going on to consider the impacts of ‘consequential abuse’; this is the term coined to describe the actions of adults which are not in themselves intentionally damaging to children but which can still result in children suffering signicant harm. After considering the impact of parental learning disability it considers the ‘toxic trio’ of parental mental illness, parental substance misuse and domestic violence. Ultimately the chapter considers the building of resilience and the part that early years practitioners can play in moderating some of the negative impacts on children. By the end of this chapter you will:
N recognise that children’s development is a complex blend of inherited factors and their experiences;
N understand the term ‘consequential abuse’ and how it relates to parental mental illness, parental substance misuse and domestic violence;
N understand the potential impacts for the early years child of living in a household where one or both parents have a learning disability;
N be aware of how to respond when there are concerns that a child is being maltreated, including when the child is suffering consequential abuse.
