Early influence, Genes

The nature versus nurture argument assumes an all or nothing proposition. Nature gives us the type of material that environment can mold. Nurture shapes the natural material and can cut short potential or help it reach its maximum capability.

* Nature

The first source of natural influence is someone’s genes. A child with Down syndrome will, regardless of the degree of nurturing, never be a neurosurgeon. A child with the genes for high intelligence has a high maximum potential, but this potential can be cut short by the natural conditions in which they live.

Early environment has been ignored in modern science because of the emphasis of things we can shape by choice and the assumption of ideal health at an early age. A child exposed to rubella in the womb can be left retarded, deaf or blind. Malnutrition of the mother in the womb and malnutrition of a child in their earliest years stunts mental development.

Nurturing parents provide the best environment that they can, akin to planting seeds in good soil and watering them as needed. Neglect will make it harder if not impossible to generate the best outcome regardless of the degree of nurturing later.

* Nurture

An early influence on children is their first conditioning. Conditioning occurs naturally as children react to what they see and how they are treated by parents and caregivers. Adults provide the example that children assume they should follow. Children learn from parents what they should be considered frightening or pleasant, what is acceptable and unacceptable, what is desired and what is rejected.

Parents who play with children show that adults do indeed play. Parents also live the life script children initially assume they should follow. The parents shape the child’s ego through their approval and disapproval as well as through their own living example.

However, parents are not the only source of nurturing, direction and education. Grandparents, older siblings, friends and teachers also provide examples of how people should live. Children are attracted to adults who provide positive nurturing.

It is the broader network of social contacts that give children alternative life scripts they will consider following if their parents are not the example they want to emulate. Odd Uncle Jack running off to Hollywood or grandparents who were soldiers are examples that a child may want to follow, regardless of the life script their own parents followed.

Social interactions also create cumulative pressures that can direct children onto alternate life scripts. Teachers may make the mistake of assuming a child must follow a parent’s life script such as taking a job in manual labor regardless of their unique nature, be it artistic talent or a high IQ. Someone hearing a family name based on profession could joke that the child should consider that job, sparking a thought and even a divergent career path.