Factors Affecting Development

Introduction

Development is a process of regular, sequential and progressive alterations from the prenatal period to death. Development is an extraordinary process that begins with the cleavage of the fertilized egg of human being and progresses through physical and motor developments until birth, with the addition of cognitive, social-emotional developments to the prenatal developments after the birth, as well as language development in later stages. Development takes place based on a number of principles. These principles include inheritance and environment interaction, continuity, sequentiality, alternate progression, critical development periods, wholeness and individual differences (Deniz, 2017; Şahin, 2018).

Development, which is of great importance, consists of several factors and can affect one's life immensely. These factors may be chromosomal abnormalities and associated genetic diseases due to more or fewer chromosomes than the usual 46 passing through from the parents to the fetus in the prenatal period (Aral & Gürsoy, 2011) or may be other conditions due to the chemical structure of dominant or recessive chromosomes carried by the mother and the father (Çifci-Tekinarslan, 2012).

In addition to chromosomes, deficiency or excessive secretion of hormones that regulate body functions cause adverse impacts on development. Excessive secretion of growth hormone by the pituitary glands leads to gigantism, whereas insufficient secretion leads to dwarfism (Deniz, 2017); deficiency of thyroid hormones leads to cretinism (Metin, 2018), whereas excessive secretion leads to behavioral and social development problems; excessive secretion of the parathyroid hormone leads to physical development and personality problems (Deniz,2017); disfunctional pancreatic hormone leads to galactosemia and phenylketonuria (Aral & Gürsoy, 2011); overactive or underactive adrenal glands leads to respiratory, circulatory problems; and deficiency or excessive secretion of the sexual glands leads to physical, sexual and psychosocial development problems (Deniz, 2017). Phenylketonuria, Tay Sachs disease, Cystic Fibrosis, Sickle Cell Anemia, Neurofibromatosis, Hemophilia, Vitamin D Resistant Rickets, Tuberous Sclerosis are non-chromosomal conditions that are not carried by the chromosomes but seen in fetus (Aral & Gürsoy, 2011; Durualp, 2017; Feldman, 2017; Metin, 2018), whereas Down Syndrome, Kleinfelter Syndrome, Turner Syndrome, Fragile X Syndrome, Williams Syndrome, Prader Willi Syndrome, Edwards Syndrome, Cri-Du-Cat Syndrome, Paton Syndrome and Trisomy 22 Syndrome are among the chromosomal conditions (Ataman et al., 2016; Aral & Gürsoy, 2011; Çifci-Tekinarslan, 2012; Durulap, 2017; Metin, 2018; Reçber &Özen, 2005).

These conditions, which are observed in the prenatal period and have negative effects on the development of the fetus, can be detected by genetic counseling upon which necessary precautions can be taken. Amniocentesis, Cordocentesis, Ultrasonography, MRI, Cord Villus Sampling Method and Fetoscopy are among the methods used to determine the condition of the baby, upon which the parents can decide on whether to continue or terminate pregnancy (Kılıç, 2018).