The First Three Years of Life and the Early Adolescent: Influences of Biology and Behavior -Implications for Child Rearing

This CME activity is intended for physicians, medical students and nurse practitioners. Pediatric emergency department physicians, emergency physicians, pediatricians, and family practitioners will find this information especially useful. Learning Objectives After completion of this article, the reader will be able to: Abstract Each person has a unique beginning, based on countless phenomena of biology and environment that have long perplexed scientists and society in general. This discussion focuses on selected comments regarding the influences of biology and behavior in the beginning of the first two decades of life: the first three years and the early adolescent years (10-14 years). These two important periods in human development have many parallels and differences; indeed, events that occur in the first 3 years of life impact the early adolescent years and subsequently shape dynamic development throughout adult life. The article concludes with applications for child rearing from infancy through adolescence