“Potentially” contaminating behavioural practices in the preparation, feeding and storage of “ogi” — an infant cereal in a rural Nigerian community

Thirty households with children aged 6-18 months from four villages in the Badagry Local Government Area of Lagos State, Nigeria were studied. Open-ended unstructured ethnographic interviews were used to collect information on “potentially” contaminating food handling behaviour with particular reference to the preparation, feeding and storage of “ogi” an infant cereal. Focus group studies were conducted for women aged 18-45 years in the four villages to obtain more information.

Improper handwashing, widespread acceptance and use of feeding bottles, long storage and safety of place of storage were some of the “potentially” contaminating behavioural patterns identified.

Intensive health education on the dangers of feeding bottles, improper hand-washing and long storage of cooked “ogi” to the health of infants and young children is strongly recommended.     

The efficacy of the parent-teacher “partnership” of the 1990s

The 1990s are times of rapid social and technological change. There are many unknowns that face both adults and children. We all have problems that need resolution. The time when adults “knew” the answers and children learned by “watching” echo faintly in the whirl of scientific change which is impacting on most aspects of our daily life. As early childhood teachers we have to learn to enquire, to listen, to think together with children, their families and society. The concept of negotiation is central to communication while the basic tenet of the process focusses not on the person but the issue. It is in these times of rapid change that we need to deepen our understanding of the family and further our professional insights by “tapping” the wealth of crucial kndowledge that parents have about their children. Hurst asserts that the partnership of parents in issues of their children's education:

“is probably the greatest single opportunity for educational advance open to teachers today”.

Hurst: 1987; 109     

“Missing Milestones”

Missing milestones are known to be a normal variant of development. The purpose of our study is to find if missing milestones always lead to normal development?

METHODS

This is a prospective case study on seven patients referred for motor developmental problems from July 1997 to February 1998 and then followed over a 2-year period. On each attendance, the multi-disciplinary team assessed children

RESULTS

We present a case series of seven children with “missing motor milestones”. Six of the seven, had tactile defensiveness but absent parachute reflexes on presentation

At the end of the two year period, 3 infants had normal development (Group I). One was discharged after 7 months. The second one had speech problems most likely secondary to her bilateral serous otitis media, with no other developmental problems. The third child acquired age appropriate milestones before the care was transferred to another hospital. Of the four in Group II, three developed global developmental delay and the fourth was diagnosed to have multiple cavernous haemangiomata in the brain. The pre-school alert panel was alerted for two of them possibly needing future help in school

Five of the seven children in our study were still being followed up after two years

CONCLUSIONS

Missing milestones in a subject can be a benign variation of normal motor development. However, they may also be the first sign to appear in children with neuro-developmental disorders

Tactile defensiveness may be the most useful early sign to enable the early diagnosis of non-weight bearing children with 'missing milestones'     

Teaching art appreciation in the nursery school -- it's relevance for 3 and 4 year olds

This article, a report on recent research, draws attention to the positive response shown by nursery school children to art appreciation when it was introduced into their curriculum.

It explains how art appreciation was integrated into an intercurriculum approach and “taught” through activities that are a normal part of a nursery school day viz. mime, movement, telling stories, expressing feelings, games and puzzles. The method and content of each session is outlined and findings reported. It is noted how art appreciation allows for reflective and physical participation, cognitive growth, observation, the development of vocabulary, and can lead to children responding to paintings sensitively yet critically -- many four year olds can “spot” stylistic similarities and make cross references between paintings.

As art appreciation is a useful means to learning and children find it an enjoyable activity, it would be beneficial if it was “written-in” to the forthcoming National Curriculum document for art education.     

Effects of a prenatal “Information and Insights about Infants” program on the knowledge base of first-time low-education fathers one month postnatally

Pregnant women, in two clinics, one serving “low-risk” and the other serving “high risk” pregnancies, helped to recruit their male partners into a prenatal program. The 67 men, first-time fathers, all of low socio-economic status, were randomly assigned either to a control group or to an experimental group. The intervention group received two intensive 1 1#sh2 hour sessions of information and insights about infants in a small group within a clinical setting.

Father interviews and measures provided data on family parenting background; father attitudes towards infants; father perception of infants; father knowledge of when certain infant behaviors could be expected, couple dyadic adjustment, father social support, and father self-image. Postnatally fathers were videotaped with their infants during a feeding interaction. During the training sessions, detailed information about the behavioral capacities of the unborn#shnewborn and of infants during the first months of life were provided. Post test knowledge of infant scores of the experimental group were significantly higher #opp = 0.0001#cp than those of the comparison group.     

Building a Comprehensive School-based Drug/Alcohol Prevention Program

Concerned educators trying to help students who abuse alcohol and drugs want assurances that the process they use does work. They ask, “How are we doing? Are we making a difference in the lives of our students?”

Unfortunately, there often is no one person or group they can call on for a quick answer. The district personnel directing the prevention and intervention program, as well as trained outsiders, struggle to determine whether progress is being made. Self-made assessment tools can become subjective and selective.

Schools are struggling to find effective, cost-efficient programs that reduce drug use. Building a comprehensive Drug/Alcohol program is one of the most important tasks administrators can face.     

The paradox of “wonderful children”: The case of child abuse

In our society young children are generally considered to be “wonderful”. This dominant concept pervades not only parental thinking, but professional thinking as well. In the case of child abuse, however, profound contradictions can arise as a result. Professionals are primarily focused on children's welfare, while parents' views are much more ambiguous.

In our example of a Family Centre these contradictions are clearly illustrated, and we hope to draw conclusions as to what change in theory and practice could result from an analysis of contradictions.     

Children first: Protection & prevention in services for disabled children part II

SYNOPSIS

This paper is written in two parts.

Part I outlined the legislative and social economic contexts. A framework for analysing prevention and protection services for handicapped children was then presented. This framework was illustrated in relation to services at four levels of intervention: populations, early risks, significant harm and children already abused or “looked after”.     

Some aspects of mother-child relationships following the birth of twins

In the outline of a research program on the process through which mothers of twins begin to make a differentiation between their children and succeed or do not succeed in individualizing each of them, we have undertaken a preliminary study to get closer to the psychological and social questions mothers have to face in the first weeks after the birth.

We followed up five triads mother-twins at the maternity unit and at home for the first three months. The observations of children's behaviour, babies' material environment, and of mother's behaviour as well as mothers interviews have brought evidence of the complexity and specificity of such a situation.

We have shown that the overloading of the nursing tasks obliges the mother to adopt a precise organization in which she cares not to favour one of the twins to the detriment of the other. Furthermore the mothers feel they will never be able to satisfy each child fully, despite those true “egalitarian strategies”.

To those behaviours which consist of “doing the same thing” with both babies, an individualized representation of each child opposes itself very early in the mother's speech.

This lag between the differentiating maternal representation and the maternal behaviour that tends to cancel such a differentiation allows us to suppose there exists a double process: the necessity of individualizing the twins and the desire to confound them in one unit.     

The “syndrome of the post-premature child”: a study of its significance -- Part I

Prematurity has the greatest influence upon frequency and degree of mechanical disturbances uncovered by the Test of Imitation of Gestures. The authors look for the significance of this syndrome at various levels:

1. Possible organic damage to the central nervous system structures, through the tonic and motor disturbances checked out by the neurological examination.
2. In the disturbances of the early development of posturomotor abilities.
3. Deviant and delayed development of the cognitive factors (spatial and temporal structuring).
4. Emotional and relationship development.

The investigations were carried out on a sample group of prematurely born children and a control group group of children born at term.

After observing certain behavior disorders which occur among normal children -- mild disorders which become less obvious with age -- the authors show that frequent and gross disturbances which appear in the first months of life and persist beyond the age of 6 years distinguish the premature child. In this same group, however, delays in mental development noted early in life often disappear entirely by the age of 4 years, even among children who were born very prematurely.

The authors then isolated the most typical disturbances found among the premature children, with stress on factors of pathology, maturation, adjustment, and environment.

The authors study the relationship between the disturbances described above and the various aspects of the neurological examinations which enable them to objectify the dynamic factors of the body adjustment to the external world and to other people. The hypothesis that a fundamental relationship exists between disturbances of adjustment and the genesis of the “post-premature child syndrome”, develops from the comparison between the psychological and neurological data in their longitudinal evolution.

Commenting on the relevance of these findings for the care of premature children, the authors stress the value of motor training and remedial education for overcoming the disturbances of spatial structuration and body schema.     

Taking action for children's rights: The foyle experience

The Convention on the Rights of the Child was passed unanimously by the United Nations General Assembly on the 20 November 1989. The United Kingdom ratified die Convention in 1991 signalling its willingness to meet the provisions and obligations set out within it. In January of this year, ten agencies drawn from both the statutory and voluntary sectors in Deny came together and formed a partnership to take affirmative action widi regard to the issue of Children's Rights. They identified two estates within the city, one on the west bank and one on die east. Aldiough the two estates represented bom traditions, they shared many similarities regarding levels of deprivation and absence of facilities.

Summary

We found overall gratitude and appreciation for enlightenment of Children's Rights. Many people enquired whether this project would be carried out in areas where their friends and relatives lived and when told that there were no plans for this in the immediate future then they asked for extra literature for their friends and relatives.

Aside from the Project we found varying degrees of anger, frustration, disillusionment and apathy in the estate regarding raised hopes in the past by surveys, and an acknowledgement of need, but there was no movement on provision of facilities which might help parents keep children safe both at home and away.

Things like - safe play areas - playgrounds, nursery school, playgroup, youth club, library, health clinic. People were saying, “anything we have, we bought and paid for ourselves and it looks as if the more you do yourself, the less you get from the public purse.”     

Towards a unified approach to teaching and learning mathematics

The National Curriculum presents mathematics as a fragmented collection of unrelated topics. Children should experience mathematics as a coherent subject. This can be achieved by viewing Mathematics as a set of systems in which exist relations and operations on data in the systems. Every system has a structure which manifests itself through pattern. The study of mathematics involves a consideration of such patterns.

Children should develop a consistent approach to learning mathematics. Such an approach involves them constructing their own data for a system. The data they produce is recorded in a “dynamic” form enabling them to move each item of data from place to place assisting mathematical thinking and decision making. Relationships between data are explored using the “Operational Processes” of Sorting and Ordering. Children apply these processes to many of the topics in the Programme of Study developing a unified approach to learning mathematics.     

IMeonate-mother interaction: tactile contacts in the days following birth

The analysis of tactile contacts in the days following birth was conducted on the basis of observations of maternal behaviour in a natural situation #opduring the exchanges associated with the feeding of the new baby#cp.

This behaviour recorded by video, among 42 mothers — full term baby couples and 19 mothers — premature baby couples, allowed us to describe the “pattern manipulatoire des meres apres la naissance”. Different categories of contacts were distinguished according to the parts of the baby's body involved #oplimbs, face, trunk, clothing#cp and the apparent intention (so-called “utilitarian” contacts and contacts “not absolutely necessary for feeding”). No significant difference was found in the frequency of these contacts as a result of the order of birth, the term or age of the baby. On the other hand, a greater frequency of tactile contacts was shown with baby girls than with baby boys.

These data allow, within the framework of a wider study of the first corporal interactions, questioning of the significance to accord to this quite specific pattern.     

Developmental awareness and moral stage development in child Abuse

In an attempt to better understand why children who have been sexually assaulted commonly fail to reveal their victimization to parents or other adults, a study was undertaken in which the “engagement strategies” of 41 perpetrators were examined, exploring common rationalizations, threats, etc. aimed at insuring continued silence on the part of the victim. The “appeal” for silence offered by the perpetrator to the child was analyzed according to Kohlberg's stages of moral development.

Results indicate that perpetrators appear to alter their engagement strategies to coincide with the developmental level of the child, thus further insuring silence by appealing to criteria for assessing “appropriate” or “inappropriate” behaviors (eg. sexual contact) which are developmentally consistent with the child's level of cognition and moral reasoning.     

Diversity Within the Deaf or Hard of Hearing Population: Wisdom from Seeing the Whole

Issues of diversity and multiculturalism within the US population typically address concerns regarding between-group differences. That is, members of groups distinguished by race, ethnicity, alternative lifestyle, or educational exceptionality become typified by their common characteristic. For example, it is common to refer to children identified as having hearing loss as "the hearing impaired” or "the Deaf.” This terminology may lead service providers to make assumptions about standard practice as to how to assist these children and their families. However, to deliver appropriate services to qualifying children and their families, service providers must be sophisticated at distinguishing within-group differences, and view each individual case's needs relative to a picture of “the whole.”

This article examines the within-group differences that exist in children who belong to a group whose common characteristic is some degree of hearing loss. A rationale is provided for viewing service options for these children and their families as parts of a whole. A discussion of the implications of this perspective on service delivery is provided.     

Forms of knowledge, the curriculum and the young child

Children need to learn many matters, but not all their learning is of the same epistemological kind.There are something like eight fundamental and fundamentally different ways in which human beings encounter the world: Knowledge of Mathematics and Logic, Empiricist Knowledge, Scientific Knowledge, Knowledge of Persons and their Minds, Moral Knowledge, Knowledge and Experience in the Aesthetic Domain, Religion, Philosophy. These Forms structure children's learning, understanding, and experience both formal and informal, at all ages.Moreover they structure not just “scholarly knowledge and experience”, but also, “commonsense knowledge and experience”.

A suitable curriculum will be one which in one way or another provides diverse experiences of these Forms. Because there is no “transfer of training” between Forms as such, children need to be introduced to them all and to be shown how they differ. To say this is not to beg any questions about the best way in which to teach young children: no matter how we decide to organize a curriculum,we are still able to use a range of modern methods.

Although much learning in pre-school and early elementary school ought not to be directly concerned for the deliberate acquisition of the Forms as such, much of the casual learning in schools (and outside them) does indeed involve the Forms-with examples drawn from the child world.

In introducing children to the Forms, those who care for and who teach young children have an enormous responsibility.     

Message from the experience of child observation

“Messages from the Experience of Child Observation Training”

The following are the text of presentations delivered at the conference by two of the six participants in the first Northern Ireland group to undertake the Child Observation Training developed by the Tavistock Clinic.     

Characteristics of successful directors of for-profit child care centers

The need for quality child care is a national concern of increasing interest to parents, child care providers, employers, and policy-makers in the United States. One of the newest entries in child care options available for consumers is for-profit daycare chains. As for-profit chains increase in both number and size, they will receive increased research attention. Few studies have examined for-profit centers in general or the background characteristics of their directors specifically.

The purpose of this research was to develop a profile of directors of for-profit child care centers and to investigate whether certain background variables, such as level of education, differentiated “successful” from “unsuccessful” directors. Data were collected on 362 child care directors employed during a three-year period with a nation-wide daycare chain in the United States.     

Indexes and boundaries for “quantitative significance” in statistical decisions

Boundaries for S, representing a “quantitatively significant” or “substantively impressive” distinction, have not been established, analogous to the boundary of , usually set at 0.05, for the stochastic or probabilistic component of “statistical significance”. To determine what boundaries are being used for the “quantitative” decisions, we reviewed pertinent articles in three general medical journals. For each contrast of two means, contrast of two rates, or correlation coefficient, we noted the investigators' decisions about stochastic significance, stated in P values or confidence intervals, and about quantitative significance, indicated by interpretive comments.

The boundaries between impressive and unimpressive distinctions were best formed by a ratio of 1.2 for the smaller to the larger mean in 546 comparisons, by a standardized increment of 0.28 and odds ratio of 2.2 in 392 comparisons of two rates; and by an r value of 0.32 in 154 correlation coefficients. Additional boundaries were also identified for “substantially” and “highly” significant quantitative distinctions.

Although the proposed boundaries should be kept flexible, indexes and boundaries for decisions about “quantitative significance” are particularly useful when a value of δ must be chosen for calculating sample size before the research is done, and when the “statistical significance” of completed research is appraised for its quantitative as well as stochastic components.