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Children and Culture

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Submitted By ladyt2002
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Children and Culture
HSER 509: Multicultural Issues in Human Services
Liberty University
Instructor: Dr. Mary Cooper
July 3, 2012

Abstract
Culture plays a huge impact in everyone’s everyday life. Culture helps in identifying members of a particular group who share the same behaviors, beliefs, traditions and values. Children begin to learn the culture of their family at a young age but don’t necessarily understand that everyone isn’t from the same culture and don’t follow the same traditions and values. This paper is going to explore what impact culture has on the lives of young children. What role culture plays in the lives of children who are being raised by parents who are from two different cultures will also be discussed. Also how these children cultural development are shaped by the diverse group of people they encounter in school and the roles their parents play in their lives.

According to Diller (2011), culture is viewed as a lens through which life is perceived (Diller, 2011, p. 5). A child’s first lesson in culture usually comes from the teachings of their parents. Swick (1986) points out that it is in the performance of various roles that parents introduce children to the basics of their culture (Swick, 1986, p. 72). Children also get to learn about culture through watching their parent’s behavior in various situations. Parents are usually the first people who a child can learn about their culture from and once they start school, their teachers also take on this role as well.
Thomas (1998) said that within a family, culture can define boundaries, expectations, rules for interactions, ways of defining problems, communication patterns and specific coping skills (as cited in Crippen & Brew, 2007, p. 107). Culture plays a big role in the lives of children because it dictates how these children will do things in their everyday

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