By Way of Thanks for Warm Recognition: Some Personal and Professional Reflections on the Field and Its Prospects for the Future

The author responds to the recent Child and Youth Care Forum Festschrift and the current special issue that were published in his honor, acknowledging the contributors, offering a few personal reminiscences, assessing the current status of the child and youth care field, and drawing implications for its continuing development.     

Early childhood education: Everyone's challenge for the 21st century

By the 21st century the need for early childhood education will increase due to societal and family changes. The types of programs offered will be fewer but with more flexibility and collaboration. The goal will always remain the same, namely to prepare preschoolers for their formal education. The ideal curriculum should have a developmentally appropriate, hands-on, multisensory approach to learning and should include play. The child's self esteem should be of primary importance. As we examine what other industrialized nations are doing to provide child care we realize we have a long way to go, especially in establishing a national maternity leave policy. Diverse coalitions must be formed to provide for family needs. Several innovative, collaborative approaches to the complex problems of quality, affordable early childhood programs are explored.     

Early support developmental journal for children with visual impairment: the case for a new developmental framework for early intervention

BACKGROUND: Congenital visual impairment has serious consequences for early development, particularly in those with the most profound impairment. Although there is individual variation, developmental delays and risks, including 'developmental setback', are widespread. There is no scientifically robust developmental framework grounded in contemporary theory and scientific knowledge to guide early intervention which may prevent or minimize the risk factors and developmental difficulties. The UK governmental initiative, Early Support, gave the impetus for developing a new developmental framework for babies and young children with visual impairment. METHODS: This paper reports on the scientific literature that underpins the new framework and the limitations of existing intervention materials. The case for focusing on particular vulnerable areas and developing a new developmental framework, the Early Support Developmental Journal for babies and children with severe visual impairment, is presented. CONCLUSIONS: The future direction for service delivery and evaluation is briefly described.     

Closing the Aboriginal child injury gap: targets for injury prevention

Objective : To describe the leading mechanisms of hospitalised unintentional injury in Australian Aboriginal children and identify the injury mechanisms with the largest inequalities between Aboriginal and non‐Aboriginal children. Methods : We used linked hospital and mortality data to construct a whole of population birth cohort including 1,124,717 children (1,088,645 non‐Aboriginal and 35,749 Aboriginal) born in the state of New South Wales (NSW), Australia, between 1 July 2000 and 31 December 2012. Injury hospitalisation rates were calculated per person years at risk for injury mechanisms coded according to the ICD10‐AM classification. Results : The leading injury mechanisms in both groups of children were falls from playground equipment. For 66 of the 69 injury mechanisms studied, Aboriginal children had a higher rate of hospitalisation compared with non‐Aboriginal children. The largest relative inequalities were observed for injuries due to exposure to fire and flame, and the largest absolute inequalities for injuries due to falls from playground equipment. Conclusion : Aboriginal children in NSW experience a significant higher burden of unintentional injury compared with their non‐Aboriginal counterparts. Implications for Public Health : We suggest the implementation of targeted injury prevention measures aimed at injury mechanism and age groups identified in this study.     

Case studies of child care training volunteers found to be at risk for abuse

Potential child abusers were identified in a comprehensive screening and training program for caregivers seeking child care employment. The complex dynamics which were evident in these women who were at high risk as abusers are presented as guidelines to be used in assessing and interviewing child care candidates.     

Implications for the development of children in over 11 hours of centre-based care

BACKGROUND: With increasing numbers of women joining the evening/night-time and extended-hour workforce, there is a need for quality childcare during these hours. This project, conducted in Japan, sought to compare the effects of expanded childcare on the development and adaptation of 648 young children after 2 years in care. METHOD: All parents in 41 governmentally licensed child care facilities in Japan completed a survey on the child-rearing environment at home, their feelings of self-efficacy, and the presence of support for childcare to provide a baseline of information. Two years later, 648 of these parents were surveyed again. Childcare professionals evaluated the development of children at both times. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: The results of multiple regression analysis indicate that factors in the home environment, not length of centre-based care, explained developmental risks 2 years later.     

Referrals and Admissions to the Children's Aid Society: A Test of Four Hypotheses

Four hypotheses are tested to account for the increase in referrals and child admissions to the care of the Children's Aid Society (CAS) of London and Middlesex: the threshold of measured risk between 2 years at referral; a lowering in the average cumulative risk scores in 2001 for children admitted to CAS care compared to children admitted to CAS care in 1995; a change in the pattern of referrals from community sources; and the possible shift in the length of time children spend in CAS care. Risk is measured using the Ontario Risk Assessment Tool and the principal comparisons are made between substantiated cases of abuse seen in 1995 and 2001. It appears that it is the likelihood of instances of child maltreatment—particularly serious instances—that are now more likely to be reported than was previously the case. These results are discussed in terms of their relevance for explaining shifts in the demand for child protection services in Ontario.     

Increase in best practice child car restraint use for children aged 2–5 years in low socioeconomic areas after introduction of mandatory child restraint laws

Objectives : To examine changes in child car restraint practices in low socioeconomic areas following the introduction of mandatory child car restraint legislation in New South Wales (NSW), Australia. Methods : Data from two cross‐sectional studies of child car restraint use at pre‐schools, early childhood centres and primary schools before and after the introduction of legislating mandatory age‐appropriate car restraint use for children up to the age of seven years was used in this analysis. All included observations were from local government areas with socioeconomic status in the lowest 30% of urban Sydney. Children aged 2–5 years were observed in their vehicles as they arrived at observation sites (107 pre‐legislation, 360 post‐legislation). Multilevel logistic regression was used to examine changes in observed age‐appropriate and correct use of car restraints. Results : Age‐appropriate car restraint use was higher post‐legislation than pre‐legislation. After controlling for child's age, parental income, language spoken at home and adjusting for clustering, the odds of children being appropriately restrained post‐legislation were 2.3 times higher than in the pre‐legislation sample, and the odds of them being correctly restrained were 1.6 times greater. Conclusions : Results indicate an improvement in car restraint practices among children aged 2–5 in low socioeconomic areas after introduction of child restraint laws. Implications : Despite improvements observed with enhanced legislation, further efforts are required to increase optimal child car restraint use.     

Perceived environmental restrictions for the participation of children with mild developmental disabilities

Aim In light of the International Classification of Functioning, and Health (ICF) model, to assess whether parents of children with mild developmental disabilities perceived various environmental factors as barriers to their child's participation, and whether these factors have a unique contribution to the total explained variance of participation, beyond personal factors. Methods Seventy-nine kindergarten children (mean age 5.20 ± 0.52 years old) with mild developmental disabilities and their parents participated in the study. Three questionnaires measuring the child's participation, performance skills and environmental factors were completed by the parents. Results Parents perceived environmental factors as slightly restricting to their child's participation. Associations were found between home and education factors and the dimensions of child participation - independence, enjoyment and parental satisfaction. Although parents perceived human environmental factors as more restricting than physical factors at home, regression analysis revealed that the latter was found to affect the child participation dimension of independence beyond the contribution of personal factors. Interpretation These findings are the first, to our knowledge, to support the contribution of environmental factors to the participation of young children with mild developmental disabilities. The results show that environmental factors have significant slight contribution to child's independence in participation beyond other predictors (i.e. personal factors). Therefore, it is recommended to include environmental restrictions measurement in the child evaluation process to facilitate effective intervention programs.     

江苏省妇幼卫生事业发展现况与对策分析

目的 为进一步做好妇幼卫生工作提供依据.方法对2008-2012年江苏省卫生统计年鉴相关数据进行描述性统计分析和比较分析.结果近年来江苏省妇幼卫生机构数和床位数有所增加,同期妇幼卫生机构工作量及入院情况、诊疗人次数增长快速,医生工作负荷持续加大,病床使用率接近饱和.结论进一步加强对各级妇幼卫生机构的领导,合理配置优化全省妇幼卫生资源,积极推进妇幼卫生服务体系建设,促进全省妇幼卫生工作的发展.     

Quality child care: what does it mean for individual infants, parents and caregivers?

It is argued that previous research on child care quality fits a “black box” model where individual characteristics and the experiences of children, parents and caregivers are largely ignored as factors influencing outcome. An individual model of quality child care is presented in which infant-caregiver, parent-caregiver and peer relationships are the central features of a model which considers the influence of pre-care differences and the effect of program characteristics and standards on the well-being of children, parents and caregivers.