“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.     

“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'     

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.     

Art development and play

There exists a considerable international body of research and theory into children's art development. Art education is generally considered to proceed through a sequential series of stages beginning with the earliest scribbles. This paper seeks to link alternative sources of knowledge deriving from the theory and research into the studies of the development of perceptual awareness. These are modes by which children take in sensory impressions and come to know the world around them. The content of these sensory impressions is culturally linked and becomes the raw material for the symbols and images that the children know and make.

There is also a significant body of recent research into levels of children's play which should be evaluated in relation to what it can tell teachers and parents about optimal ways to ensure the circumstances that enhance children's long term development. The case for play as we now know it says that it is not valid to believe that any play will do. Qualitatively different levels of play have been shown to have different values for children. “Guided play” or “stretching play” has been shown to be positively associated with play with adults as partners or companions. Play with art materials has also been associated with higher levels of stretching play. The adult partner's role has been found to provide the “scaffolding” to which these higher levels of play are linked.

These findings on play, together with the social patterns whereby more young children are in group play programs raises the curriculum implications for teachers and care givers. These adults moderate the sensory and social experiences and the curriculum materials provided for children during the day. Teachers need to be aware of providing the partnerships in play with art materials, the need to encourage children's interest in sensory experiences and the processes whereby children learn through their hands as well as their eyes. The environment of play program is also important. The quality of the visual environment, the quality of design of play materials and all equipment with which young children have daily contact have their aesthetic influence. Program factors also include the conscious provision of an art curriculum, with regular visits to Art Galleries and Art Museums, as well as opportunities for free play in parks and gardens.     

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.     

Quality children's television: the case of “Lift Off”

“Lift off” is a new, innovative children's television series produced by the Australian Children's Television Foundation. It has been well received by critics, parents, educators and most significantly, by its three-to-eight year old target audience.

The program easily satisfies the five criteria for quality programming formulated by the Children's Program Committee of the Australian Broadcasting Tribunal. The typical half-hour program is dense, requiring close viewer attention but it is claimed that the viewer is rewarded for her viewing investment with an enriching and pleasurable experience. The doubt is raised that the socially disadvantaged segment of the child audience, who use television for diversion rather than enrichment, may not be prepared to make such an investment of viewing attention.

One final concern is voiced. The Foundation's official spokespeople publicly claim that “Lift Off” will enrich the lives of a whole age cohort. It is argued that such claims overemphasise the supposed direct consequences and impact of media messages on individuals.     

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.     

South Australian Parents want Child Protection Programs to be offered in Schools and PreSchools

It is now widely realized that child sexual abuse is an all too common crime against children, resulting in long term damage to victims and heavy costs to the community. It is also realized that much abuse could have been prevented if children had been given basic information about acceptable and unacceptable touching, secrecy about touching and norms of adult-child behaviour.

Parents representing 250 families, caring for 565 children aged 3-12 were interviewed to find out what parents tell their children to protect them from sexual molestation.

Three quarters of all parents told their children nothing and most of those who thought that they had given information had only given hints. Furthermore, this “information” was passed on only after a traumatic event had already occurred.

Parents revealed an inadequate knowledge of the dangers to children and a desire for school and preschool programs to remedy the deficit.     

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.     

Ethical and practical considerations in palliative child care and the support needs of parents and siblings

Death is one of the few certainties in life and yet it is the one event that most people avoid contemplating until forced to do so. When considering death and dying it is assumed by most to occur in old age and in hospital. The death of a child is a devastating loss which can cause the most distressing and long lasting grief (Davey, 1995). According to “Childhood cancer UK” the number of children developing cancer in the United Kingdom has remained constant over the past 30 years (about 1300 new cases each year), with only two-thirds of children with the disease being treated successfully. In Britain 32 per cent of cancer deaths occur at home (Bean, 1994) however only a small proportion of these will be children. Despite the deaths of children at home being a statistically small group it must not be ignored due to the great emotional impact it has on the individual, family, health workers and often local community.

The changing status of children in the UK means that health care professionals must uphold childrens' rights whilst working in partnership with parents. A balance must be found between the traditional protectionist and paternalistic attitude of care and the liberationist approach. This can only be achieved through communication and collaboration between families and members of the multi-disciplinary team allowing the promotion of constructive problem solving

The key aim of palliative care is to give the child as good a quality of life as possible in the time remaining with freedom from distressing symptoms including pain. Every health professional working with a dying child who has pain should give consideration to the complexity of pain, it's unique and diverse effects and engage the entire family and health care team in planning interventions and providing support to the child and to each family member (Graner, 1976).

Siblings, parents and health professionals may be profoundly affected by the experience of the death of the child, therefore, each multi-disciplinary team must develop formal coping strategies to deal with the possible psychological disturbance and to facilitate adjustment after the death of the child.

Martinson, writes of her greatest encouragement which came from the parent of a dying child;

“No matter if it culminates a full life or a life shortened much too soon, does death have to be terrorising? There are many to rejoice and aid in the event of birth, as with the patient that can be helped, but for those going through the frustration of 'not getting better' when science and the masses, sometimes even family and friends who can no longer face them, have deserted, could there be a greater challenge or more considerable need for help?”

(1976, p. 13)

This is a powerful message for health professionals caring for children in the end stages of a terminal illness. It is at this time that the family and dying child are in most need of the consistent, expert and humane relationships provided by the caring professions. The challenges are immense but great reward lies in the privilege of being intimately involved in this final rite of passage through life.     

Helping infants cope with change

An attempt will be made here to set forth in non-technical language, some practical suggestions on how teachers, students and child-care workers can help infants cope with change as may occur with adoption and foster care at various ages.

John Dewey once said, “Such happiness as life is capable of, comes from full participation of all of our powers in the endeavor to rest from each changing situation of experience, its own full unique meaning.”     

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.     

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.     

Parent-teacher involvement benefits everyone

Most educators accept that active involvement of parents in their children's education improves children's development and their academic success. Strong family backgrounds — i.e., the mother's education#shemployment focuses on school-type skills that are used to teach the children and the father encourages learning — influence high academic success for children. The roles parents assume in their children's education are key to children's overall development and achievements. Parents, involved as “teachers,” policy-makers, partners with school staff, and community liaisons, enable schools to address the developmental needs of their children. With improved preparation, teachers can be taught to work with parents and use them as allies in promoting their children's growth and development. They learn to encourage parents to provide good educational environments at home for their children and to teach them in out-of-school settings. As school personnel form partnerships with children's parents — everyone will benefit: parents expand their horizons by sharpening their own skills, their children achieve and seem to like learning, teachers seem to affect children's learning with less difficulty and behavior problems, and the entire community improves.     

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.     

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.     

The Future of Pre-Five Services in the UK

In the UK, as in the USA, early years services are characterized by the absence of any coherent national policy, low levels of provision, inegality of access, and fragmentation of services. Whereas there is a consensus that the State should provide for children deemed to be “in need”,there is less consensus over the provision of nursery education, and no perceived State obligation to provide daycare for children of working parents.

The influence of the European Union and the work of the European Childcare Network in setting European targets for coherent development of services offers some possibility of change both in types and levels of provision. However, the example of Strathclyde illustrates that making changes at a local level without a national framework which addresses training and without a fiscal policy, is problematic; it further implies that at both a local and at a national level, process is as important as policy. The paper concludes by highlighting the areas for radical reform.     

Professional and Parent Views of Early Childhood Programs: A Cross-Cultural Study

Interrelationships between the macro-, mesoand microsystems can affect the partnerships which parents and professionals form to effectively support the growth of young children. These “systems” were explored through a cross cultural study.

To study the mesosystem where family and early childhood progam meet, a fivesection survey was sent to a random sampling of ten per cent of parents and professionals involved in early childhood programs in Kronobergs Lan, Smaland, Sweden and St. Louis County, Minnesota, United States. In general, parents and professionals in Sweden agreed with each other that open-ended, creative, childcentered materials and activities were important. In the United States, however, there were many significant differences between parent and professional views. More parents than professionals favored academic tasks and conformity to rules, while more professionals than parents supported children's creative exploration of the environment. The views of the respondents were affected in diverse ways by the macro-system political and economic societal contexts.

This study suggests that parents and professionals, particularly those who have significantly different ideas, may need to discuss a common purpose and philosophy about what is important for young children in early childhood programs. This purpose needs to take seriously the societal context in which children live. Building on a common base, various formats for involvement can be created to maximize the support network among parents, professionals and young children.