The development of cognitive organization in young children: An exploratory study

Four questions guided the formulation of this study of the development of cognitive organization in young children. First, what organizational process-patterns do young children display when faced with an organizational task employing non-representational materials? Second, what developmental changes can be observed in the processes children employ as they engage in tasks? Third, what kinds of products are generated as a consequence of these process? Fourth, what are implications of the study of cognitive organization for developing educational programs for young children?

Eight preschool children were tested at 3 and again at 4-years-of age with the Designs Tasks, a non-representational set of items varying in the degree to which they could be fit together.

Children's performance on the tasks were video-taped and coded using the subject-process-product paradigm.

Findings suggest that irrespective of age and task type, children engage in tasks with high levels of affect and focus. However, the processes employed and the products generated indicated that both processes and products varied from Time 1(3-years-of age) to Time 2(4-years-of age). Findings are discussed in terms of the practicality of studying the development of cognitive organizational strategies of young children for both theories of child learning and the practice of teaching.     

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.     

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.     

The health and eating habits of young children in Japan

To eat is indispensable for the maintenance of life and also for living a good and healthy life. Especially during childhood when children develop their physical functions as well as mental aspects, the need is considered to be very important. However, children cannot choose their own parents and are obliged to eat what is given to them. In other words, they are passive, defenseless and obedient eaters. Therefore, the adults should be aware of this and regard eating as being much more essential to children than to themselves.

In eating, the maintenance of life is the first priority so that the nutrition must be essential. There are so many polluted foods, instant foods and punch-packed foods in the present-day Japanese society. Although much consideration has been given to this social problem, we still find our children attracted by TV commercials to those foods and confectionaries featuring popular comic characters. The increased number of working mothers may be another factor attributing to it.

As an activity of family life, eating time is also important for communication. At the dining table, young children are recognized as a member of the family and are stimulated to do something themselves. They also receive discipline there. But today, when people have ceased to feed themselves, children are not obliged to help their parents with domestic chores and the family does not eat together very often, the aspect of eating as an opportunity of communication is becoming less important. They are not aware that there are so many people in the world suffering from hunger. To them, that may only seem to be something going on in a completely different world. They do not know how happy and blessed they are.

In this paper, we are going to deal with the health and eating habits of the present-day Japanese children.     

Integration: Quality in care and education for the young disabled child

The presentation aims to examine the criteria of quality for care and education programmes for young disabled children in integrated early childhood settings. The conceptual and practical issues which influence quality programmes will be discussed with particular reference to the Integration Programmes operated throughout South Australia in early childhood centres.

The Integration Programmes, developed to enable and support the integrated or normalised development of young children has as its specific 'target' group individual children who are 'too delayed or disabled' to be able to fully participate or participate without direct assistance in community based early childhood programmes. Some of these children are extremely disabled and others' handicapping conditions are exacerbated by severe lack of other available community resources, isolation and other factors.

Integration is more than 'being there'—it is a complex process based upon the recognition of human value and human rights. For greater insight into the Integration Programmes an appraisal of the following aspects will be provided.

• the principles of integration

• the goals of integration

• the dimensions of integration.

The dimensions of integration will be placed in relation to the indicators of quality in early childhood programmes. The juxtaposing of these parameters of quality will lead to the emergence of guidelines for practical goalsetting and evaluation hallmarks of excellence in integration.     

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.     

Early reading: A developmental psycholinguistic approach

Experimental studies of reading in children as young as two or three years of age have indicated several factors: children from various socioeconomic backgrounds with a wide IQ range can learn to read words relatively easily during their first years; early readers tend to read better later on than matched non-early readers; early reading has not been shown to lead to eye injury or to emotional disturbance; young children generally enjoy reading; early readers have not been shown to be confused by differing preschool-school teaching methods nor need they be bored in first grade. Current controversy about teaching reading is discussed as an outgrowth of historical theoretical viewpoints.

Data on early reading, information about early bilingualism, and findings among children without early exposure to spoken language contribute to the viewpoint presented here that learning to read, if prevented until age six, may be similar to learning a second language.

Some parallels between the course of early reading and language development are suggested. Broad outlines are drawn of a psycholinguistic account of reading development in preschool children.

Investigation of this area is significant for both theoretical understanding of the nature of the reading process and practical questions relating to reading achievement and reading disability.     

“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'     

Some implications for the child's educational potential of recent investigations into early childhood interaction

The primary object of this paper is to suggest that recent investigations into early childhood, and particularly those concerned with adult-child interaction, are indicating what amounts to a new view of the cognitive nature of the young child. The paper will also begin to examine some of the evidence which may link this view with the development of his educational potential.

Babies are born, it seems, with highly developed perceptual systems and with inherited propensities to take part in interaction with other humans, especially the principal caring adult (who, for convenience is referred to as “the mother” throughout the paper). They can time their behaviour so as to interact in complex sequences. Moreover the baby displays initiative in interaction and by this means sets about learning about his world, especially the meaning of his social world.

Because this interaction is dependent on complex signalling, including the synchronisation of sequences of behaviour with those of others, it is probable that it can be very easily disrupted. Such disruption can occur in many ways: for instance physiologically, by minor brain damage, or socially, by the child trying to interact with an unresponsive depressed mother. Most easily lost would be the child's initiative and hence the power to direct the interaction process in his quest to make sense of his world.

It may be on this level that a child's cognitive potential is reduced. Perhaps the child's loss of initiative is a connecting factor between educational handicap and the social-cultural correlates variously identified within an extensive literature.     

“caught in the middle” exploring children and young people's experience of domestic violence

This document seeks to explore children's experiences of domestic violence and the effects such violence may have on their lives, both in the short term and in the long term. It draws on the conclusions of various studies in this area which have been carried out in America and the United Kingdom. It aims to raise awareness of the complexity of this issue and to highlight the importance of support for both women and children who may be survivors of domestic violence. The document highlights a number of issues, namely

How children and young people may experience domestic violence;

Identification of links between domestic violence and child abuse;

The impact domestic violence may have on mothering;

The effects domestic violence may have on children and young people's lives;

The legitimacy of the cycle of violence theory;

Issues to be considered when assessing the possible impact of domestic violence on children and young people.     

The cause of child abuse and neglect and their effects on the development of children in Samaru Zaria, Nigeria

Every child despite his individual differences and uniqueness is to be considered of equal worth. He should therefore be entitled to equal social, economic, civil and political rights, so that he may fully realise his inherent potential and share equally in life (Gill, 1979).

Obviously, these values are rooted in the humanistic philosophy of any nation's declaration of independence. In accordance with these value premises therefore “any act of commission or ommission by individuals, institutions or the society as a whole, and any conditions which deprive children of equal rights and liberties and interfere with their optimal development, constitutes by definition abuse or neglectful acts or conditions” (Gill, 1979).

Child abuse is a significant contemporary community problem. Although children have been maltreated throughout history, our community has been silent in defence of abused children. Child abuse is not a phenomenon of the 20th Century nor is it unique to our society and culture alone. It has occurred throughout the recorded history of man. The future of any nation depends on its children and their capabilities. For this reason, they must be given a full chance.     

Who cares?—Supporting parents in the care of children in Hong Kong

The paper addresses the following questions: Why are children placed in residential care? What problems do the parents have in caring for their children at home? What services have been used by the parents in seeking solutions to these problems? Are parents' personal resources so inadequate that the risk of removing a child into care must be taken?

The study involved a sampling of the parents of children who were placed in residential care facilities. The findings indicated that most children were placed in residential care because the parents lacked the tangible resources necessary for them to bring up the children themselves. The findings challenge the simplistic assumption that only children who are orphaned or of irresponsible parents are placed in residential care, and prompt social workers to reflect on the practical means to support parents in the care of children in Hong Kong.     

Co-operating to protect children -shifting the thresholds

It is now 30 years since Kempe delivered his watershed address to the American Academy of Paediatricians graphically describing the battered child syndrome. In the 30 years that followed elaborate child protection procedures, supported by strong legal powers, have developed not only in the UK and the USA but also in may countries around the world. In the last 5 years or so, however, there has been another great watershed. Independently in both the USA and in the UK, evidence has accumulated which is questioning the efficacy of our elaborate child protection systems. For social workers in the UK the history is familiar; the child abuse inquiries leading on to the Cleveland Inquiry, on going scandals in residential care and concern about the outcomes for children in the public care system, and, finally, the recent message from the Department of Health in 1995 “Child Protection - Messages from Research”. Less familiar will be the concerns which emerged in the USA. There, following the introduction of mandatory reporting which in some states is mandatory even for civil citizens, there was a huge rise in the number of children reported (3 million reported in 1992 of which less than half were substantiated). This largely incapacitated the child protection agencies and led to large numbers of children being admitted into the public care. In 1990 the US Advisory Board on Child Abuse and Neglect concluded that there was an urgent need to develop new approaches.

The answer put forward in this country and the USA has been the rediscovery of targeted preventive approaches. Central to these approaches is what we call family support and what is called social support in the USA.

Child protection is an important and demanding activity

- research and our own limited local information does pose serious questions about the efficacy of the process;

- this points to the need for reviews by area child protection committees;

- research also tells us important things about the characteristics of families involved especially about their social and economic circumstances. These need to be addressed.

Addressing these needs requires several things

- a good individual assessment and population assessment to plan appropriate services;

- a sound interagency/multiprofessional approach;

- maximising all the resource options and taking a broader view of the task - as well as mainstream services as currently arranged, we need to embrace a community development approach and to view die families involved in terms of their inclusion or exclusion from society and address these shortfalls.

We are only at the threshold of the implementation of the Order and we need to approach it with a broad vision.     

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.”     

Mathematics across the curriculum

Mathematics has traditionally been taught through a subject based approach. The advent of the National Curriculum has brought about a need for change to a topic based cross-curricular strategy, to deal with mathematics in real-life problems.

One way of approaching this with young children is to introduce an imaginary world in which they are asked to help solve the open ended real-life problems of the inhabitants. In this way the children are able not only to pose further problems arising from the initial task, but also to develop their own strategies to the solution of them, linking across the curriculum as they do so. In this way children appear capable of posing and solving problems at a much earlier age.     

Group treatment work with parents/carers of young people who have sexually abused children and others

This article reflects on group work with parents/carers of young people who have sexually abused children and others. It highlights the paucity of relevant literature and outlines the context, format and goals of a support group for parents/carers.

Recurring themes observed over a four year period are examined in detail. Three key areas are discussed :-

1. Emotional reactions of the parents /carers to the disclosure of the sexual abuse.

2. Lack of resources to facilitate/ accommodate the special needs of this population of parents/carers.

3. The parents'/carers' need to be aware of, understand and, where possible, facilitate the treatment programme of the young person who sexually abused.

Results from the evaluation of the four groups support the conclusion that parents are an important part of the treatment programme of young people who sexually abuse, and should be viewed as 'gate-keepers' in sustaining and monitoring relapse prevention plans.     

Who is the odd man out: men in early childhood settings?

Australia has, on the whole, been slow to react to many of the more innovative or welfare-oriented programs for young children and their families in the past two or three decades. We can speculate about this in terms of geographic isolation, natural caution or a population which is not appropriately tuned to the needs of parents with young children. Whatever the reason, Australia appears to be slow to respond to changes in attitude. One of the major potential areas for change in attitude is the employment of males in early childhood settings.

The history of the United States, which thirty years ago appeared to totally reject the notion of men working with young children, now records a substantial move towards encouraging males and females to assume androgynous roles in children's services.

It is interesting to note that this contemporary view has flourished in spite of the lack of empirical evidence to support previous notions relating to the role of male teachers and caregivers in terms of providing male models for fatherless children, offering more appropriate teaching strategies to young boys and providing examples of more tolerant caregivers for exhuberant boys.

While evidence suggests that prejudice still exists in U.S.A. about male teachers in early childhood settings, the androgynous philosophy appears to point the way in which early childhood services in Australia must go in order to provide a more balanced program for all young children.     

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.     

Empowering children through drama

The theatre has long been a powerful medium which enables human beings to examine their world and the people who inhabit it with them. Through drama people can learn more about themselves and others and can develop a greater understanding of society. Drama in education allows children to follow the same path of discovery. Drama facilitates the transfer of power from adults to children in developmentally appropriate ways.

This article explores the process of experiential drama in which adults and children work together and in which this transfer of power is engendered.