Genetics and Development Genetics Is a Scientific Essay

Genetics and Development

Genetics is a scientific discipline that deals with how individuals inherit their physical and behavioral attributes. Generally, genetics is a branch of biology that deals with the science of heredity, genes, and differences in living organisms. It's the process with which a child inherits traits from his/her parents and the molecular organization and function of genes. The question of what determines the development of a child has been an issue that has attracted considerable concerns and debates across educators, biologists, and psychologists. This issue has attracted huge concerns because it's impossible to explain each and every factor that eventually determines who a child becomes. Notably, the development of a child involves a mix of various influences such as parenting, genetics, individual experiences, family relationships, friends, and school. One of the most important influences on a child's development and growth is genetics, which primarily is the process of traits inheritance from parents to offspring.

Child Development:

Child growth and development is a process that consists of some building blocks, which are components that combine in an infinite number of ways (Cherry, n.d.). As a result of the variations of building blocks in a child's development, educators, psychologists, and philosophers have been constantly engaged in the debate of nature vs. nurture debate. Many researchers agree that child development is a complex interaction between his/her genetic background (nature) and his/her environment (nurture). In essence, some developmental aspects are strongly affected by biology whereas other aspects are influenced by environmental factors.From the onset of an individual's life, biology provides the platform for his/her path through physical and mental development. This biological platform consists of hereditary and environmental influences that shape the child to what he/she eventually becomes.

Role of Genetics in Development:

As previously mentioned, genetics play a crucial role in the growth and development of a child since it deals with how an offspring inherits physical and behavioral characteristics. A person's genes contain the genetic information that controls various characteristics like the color of hair and eyes. Genes, which are inherited from parents, are basically single units of genetic material that is found inside chromosomes. While every cell in a human body contains 23 pairs of chromosomes, one of every pair of chromosomes is in inherited from each parent. This implies that every individual have two copies of each gene in every cell with only one exception i.e. X and Y chromosomes, which determine the sex of a child. In essence, babies with X and Y chromosomes will be male while those without a Y chromosome will be female, which means that males only have one copy of every X chromosome gene ("Genetics: Introduction," 2012).

The role of genes in the development of a child can be attributed to when parents pass down genes….....