Child poverty as public policy: direct provision and asylum seeker children in the Republic of Ireland

This paper evaluates responses to asylum seeker children in Ireland from a child poverty perspective and from that of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. It draws upon research undertaken in early 2001 on behalf of the Irish Refugee Council among asylum seeker families with children in Cork, Limerick and Ennis on their experiences of poverty and social exclusion. The research was primarily qualitative. Interviews with adult members of households and some children were triangulated with data on benefit entitlements and take-up, household consumption, accommodation and amenities. The research sought to ascertain levels of income poverty and material deprivation. A range of indictors of child poverty and social exclusion were also employed. The research found that asylum seeker children experienced extreme income poverty, material deprivation, housing deprivation and social exclusion in considerable part due to the imposition of a system of lesser welfare entitlements, known as “direct provision”, introduced in April 2000. The paper argues that state-fostered social exclusion of asylum seeker children resulting from “direct provision” is contrary to Ireland's obligations under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, the goals of the National Children's Strategy and the goals of the National Anti-Poverty Strategy.     

The Education Welfare Service -A Naswe Perspective

NASWE members have a professional Code of Principles and Practice and work to protect the rights of children and young people in education. This is more simply expressed by the NASWE motto “For every child a chance”. In this submission “The Education Welfare Service” we, as members of Executive Committee of NASWE have presented an overview of the EWS giving its historical background and ongoing development including adapting to changes in Child Care legislation. The submission provides a policy statement containing aims and objectives and examines the role of die EWS and the duties undertaken by it. It gives the legal framework from which die service operates. The impact of die recent implementation of the Children (M) Order 1995 has been reviewed under the headings of legislation, partnership and initiatives.

It is hoped that this submission will help in some way to promote the EWS and raise awareness of its function in die wider field of Child Care practice generally     

The case for counselling provision in schools

This paper examines the case for including counselling as part of the normal school provision. It looks briefly at the statutory basis for pastoral care and then goes on to examine the present provision in two Education and Library Board Areas. An argument is then developed that suggests the true figure for child abuse may be much higher than is currently accepted and it uses this as the basis for supporting the need for providing school counselling. Finally it considers the experience of one school and uses this to substantiate the premise that counsellors in school are a “must” rather than a “luxury”.     

Encouraging Men to Enter the Field of Child Care: What Can Be Done?

Child care has traditionally been viewed by society as “women's work”. However, men who work in child care programs help challenge stereotypes and allow children to view males from a different perspective. The question then becomes one of how to encourage men to enter the field of child care. This article examines a few of the obstacles that prevent men from working in child care centers and provides one man's story about how he came to work in a child care facility. This is followed by suggestions of ways men could be encouraged to enter and stay in the field of early childhood education.     

The Contextuality of Children's Communication Difficulties in Specialist Practice: A Sociological Account

This paper reports findings from fieldwork in situations that brought young children and child welfare practitioners together with the aim of diagnosing and treating children's communication difficulties. The findings suggest that communication difficulties tend to be treated as a property of the individual child rather than as an emergent, contextual property of interaction. The attention will be steered from clinical definitions of “impairment” and “disability” to dynamics of social interaction, where understandings of “good” and “normal” communication play a central role. The findings have implications for current recommendations for good practice, which derive from needs-led, rights-led and skills-led approaches.     

Child Abuse Prevention: A Challenge Accepted

The Pennsylvania State Education Association, in response to new laws regarding child abuse, has undertaken a project to acquaint educators and other school personnel with their responsibilities under the revised laws. The project has also sponsored establishing parenting courses or units of study in the home economics curricula of 250 of the state's 505 school districts. The project has revealed important lessons about success factors in education for the detection and prevention of child abuse. During its first two years the project has reached all 100,000 members of the PSEA with informative workshops and articles, and has presented the program “Prevent Child Abuse and Neglect” to 750 education majors.     

Children drawing: Are young children really scribbling?

Most research on children's drawing concerns itself with analyzing configural end products, whilst all that precedes them is dubbed “scribbling”, and has received scant attention. This paper, based on detailed longitudinal and cross-sectional studies, puts forward evidence which suggests that the child builds iconography on a substratum of symbolizations which are as much to do with movement and time as they are with configuration. The paper describes how the child experiments with 2D representation much earlier than has been commonly accepted, before and during the “scribbling stage”. Investigations made by the child at this time include those which monitor and represent the movement of imagined objects through space and time. Differing, interacting modes of representation are described, hitherto ignored by most investigators, which are mutually reciprocal in their contribution to the foundations of later iconography. More than this, these experiments aid the child in understanding the nature of the world.

The discussion is placed within a developmental context which starts from the child's early mark-making experience, where drawing defines basic axes and trajectories of body dynamism. From there, the emergence of different modes of representation leads to depictions of a topological nature. Transition from topological space to early (and rather startling) configural representation is described, as this is based on discoveries made by the child in the so-called “scribbling stage”. Implications for childcare and education are considered.     

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.”     

When, How and Why Child Caregivers Respond to Children's Behaviors

In a qualitative study, 42 child caregivers participated in one of six focus groups. They were asked to address three questions in open-ended discussion. “What child behaviors are of concern to you?”, “How do you respond to these behaviors?”, and “How do you make the decision about your response?” Responses were analyzed and categorized to examine when, how, and why caregivers discipline young children. Results showed that aggression, not listening, and sexually-related behaviors were most often mentioned by caregivers as behaviors of concern to them. The most frequently mentioned disciplinary strategies were time-out, explanation, and redirection. The question related to how caregivers make decisions about responding to misbehaviors was analyzed in terms of attributions made by caregivers about misbehaviors. The majority of caregivers indicated that their response was dependent of the circumstances. Most frequently mentioned attributions were about the children themselves, for instance, their age, gender, or state. Also mentioned were home and family, society, caregiver emotion, and the child care setting. Results also showed that caregivers with higher levels of early childhood education and more experience, and those working with smaller group sizes and smaller adult-to-chiid ratios provided more thoughtful answers that were more congruent with developmental appropriateness.     

Book review

While the 1989 Children Act has been in effect in Great Britain for several years. Social Workers in Northern Ireland could be forgiven for feeling that legislative change is still some considerable time away with one delay compounding another. As we anticipate die Children (N.I.) Order it might be useful to examine aspects of the Great Britain legislation given that our own Order will be largely identical. Additionally the Children Act produced a considerable volume of case law which in turn will be persuasive on our own legal jurisdiction. Surprisingly one of the difficulties in respect of both of the above would be the sheer volume of publication on the 1989 Act. The Childrens Act 1989 “Putting it into Practice” is a book that may appeal to many practitioners in this context. Written by Mary Ryan and published by Arena under the auspices of the Family Rights Group “Putting it into Practice” is designed for those in the frontline of Child Protection work with specific emphasis on the responsibilities of Local Authorities.     

Alternative Education,Equity and Compromise: Dilemmas for Practice Development

The focus of this article is to provide a child rights analysis of the equity of educational experience afforded to young people outside mainstream schools by alternative providers. The dilemma for policy and existing practice is that alternative education supports children's right to an education as stated in Article 28 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child “when schools find they cannot”. However, in accepting alternatives are we compromising those same children's rights to achieve access to education on the basis of equality of opportunity? This is a right enshrined in the same article. In order to explore this dilemma, the present paper will firstly consider policy and practice concerns with regard to alternative education, drawing on periodic reports from the Committee on the Rights of the Child for the United Kingdom and how these findings relate specifically to the situation in Northern Ireland. The paper will then look at the articles relevant to the issue of exclusion from education within the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. From this consideration of legal standards applicable to the issue of exclusion, the paper will focus on the complexities of the issue within the context of current debates on marginalized young people and education.     

INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATIONS: THE REGION, NUTRITION, AND HEALTH

Geography and culture only loosely define the Middle East and there are differing opinions as to which countries should be included in the region. International agencies also use the terms “Near East,” “Eastern Mediterranean,” and “West Asia and North Africa” each with a somewhat different definition. The region has shown a greater than average increase in food availability in recent years and projections for 2010 show these trends progressing. Significant differences, however, exist between the individual countries since they range from some of the poorest in the world to some of the richest. As a consequence the nutritional and health conditions found, vary from those associated with poverty to those associated with affluence. Nutritionally related chronic diseases such as heart disease, diabetes mellitus, hypertension, and osteo-arthritis are now major contributors to morbidity and mortality in the industrialized world. However, in many countries of the Middle East, micronutrient malnutrition, especially iron, iodine, and vitamin A deficiencies as well as general child undernutrition coexist with the newer diet related chronic diseases. The papers in this volume, originating from Egypt, Kuwait, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, and Syria reflect our desire to highlight these twin sets of problems in the region.     

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.     

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.     

A sample of good practice developed through the education care and health forum

“Welfare and child care agencies need to develop comprehensive and integrated approaches to the provision of help and support and create a climate in which potential users will voluntarily seek the support of Agencies in resolving their problems. There must be some formal framework through which various Agencies come together to review and co-ordinate their joint activities”     

Rethinking “Harmonious Parenting” Using a Three-factor Discipline Model

Diana Baumrind's typology of parenting is based on a two-factor model of “control” and “warmth”. Her recommended discipline style, labeled “authoritative parenting”, was constructed by taking high scores on these two factors. A problem with authoritative parenting is that it does not allow for flexible and differentiated responses to discipline situations. It is argued that a simpler, and more adequate, approach would be to switch to a model of discipline with a third factor, labeled “tolerance”. Parents of the most socially competent children are adept at knowing when they have a problem and when they do not. An example of the latter would be when a child expresses negative affect while complying fully with a request. Baumrind's notion of authoritative parenting was a useful “dialectic”, demonstrating that control and warmth are independent and equally necessary behaviors, but it did not go far enough. Baumrind's category of harmonious parenting (high warmth, moderate control, high tolerance), which she sees as an anomaly, should be substituted for authoritative parenting as the preferred discipline pattern.     

Mother-toddler conversation: A two-way learning environment

Everyday conversation between parents and toddlers provides a rich context for the child's acquisition of conceptual skills and communication abilities. While earlier studies generally have analyzed the utterances of either parent or child, this analysis of conversations of one mother and 22-month old child focuses on the interaction of the two. The paper describes the sequences the pair uses in clarifying one another's focus of attention and in instructing and learning about concepts and motor skills. Mother and child adapt clarification and instruction patterns to the constraints of three play situations: free play, reading aloud, and parallel activity. The child adopts a “clarification” and the mother an “interpreter” role during free play, where the mother supports the child's focus. They reverse roles and communication strategies in the parallel context, where the child attempts to draw the mother into collaborative play. Further studies of mother-toddler discourse should focus on variations across mother-child pairs in the saliency of clarification and instruction in relation to other conversation functions.     

A qualitative study of caregivers' attitudes about child care

Thirty-one caregivers and directors involved in various types of day care for young children were interviewed. Qualitative methods were used to assess their role identity constructs and attitudes toward parents and the child care profession. Caregivers thought of themselves as “mothers,” “grandmothers,” or “teachers.” These social role identities clustered with attitudes about parents and professional role (e.g., “mothers” tended to see parents as neglectful, while “teachers” felt parents failed to reinforce progress made in day care). The authors concluded that conflict over attachment issues contributed to problems between parents and caregivers.     

The rights of the child in family and in society: cartography of laws and resolutions

This research is a documental review of laws, resolutions and others documents related to children and adolescents' rights existing in Brazil and overseas, aiming thus a comprehension and greater knowledge about the child and his rights. The documents chosen were: 1959's Pronouncement of Child Rights; 1988's Federal Constitution of Brazil; 1988's Letter of Hospitalized Child: 1990's Statute of Child and Adolescent; and the Rights of Child and Adolescent hospitalized (Resolution 41/95). We did floating reading of all documents, mentioning relevant articles to theme, highlighting some considerations. We conclude that already exist legislations that protect the right of child, though it is necessary to ensure the use of these rights.     

The myth of alcoholism prevention

Although practically every article about alcoholism contains at least one or two paragraphs that stress the importance and need for prevention programs, the “hows” and the “specifics” are rarely spelled out in any detail.The analysis of why this situation exists points to the existence of three central premises around which the present alcohol prevention model is constructed. Each of these premises has at its core the existence of some invalid statements, the perpetuation of which effectively blocks the establishment of more appropriate prevention models.Awareness of “facts” about alcohol leads to a change in drinking. The paper cites evidence from experimental and empirical sources, illustrating that the presentation of facts, although in some cases altering attitudes, does not result in changes in certain behaviors. An explanation and model are provided stating the conditions under which “facts” do and do not result in behavioral change and where “alcohol facts” fit into this paradigm.Prevention programs centered around “consequences” are an effective way to produce change in drinking. The common theme most alcohol prevention programs share today is that their “message” deals with the consequences of drinking. This approach is highly unsuccessful in appealing to alcoholics whose characterological style ties them to the present and not the distant consequences of their behavior.Applicability of a medical primary and secondary prevention model to alcohol education. This section of the paper deals with the misapplication of the medical primary and secondary prevention models to alcoholism. It discusses why the etiology of alcoholism must be understood prior to the establishment of a primary prevention program. It also questions the methodological premises around which the early warning signs of alcoholism are built and their validity in successfully predicting the later development of alcoholism. The need for more longitudinal studies is suggested.