The effect of maternal employment during preschool years on school readiness

Many children referred because of “learning disability” have mothers in full-time employment. This study was undertaken to examine the effect of maternal employment on school readiness.

One hundred and seven children were studied. Forty-six were the offspring of women who had not gone out to work since the birth of the child (group A). The mothers of the other 61 had worked for 1 year or more during the lifetime of the child (group B). The mother of each child completed a detailed questionnaire. Each child was subjected to standardized tests of reasoning, numerical ability, Gestalt, verbal comprehension, eye-hand co-ordination, visual and auditory perception and IQ. Groups A and B were compared with regard to marital status of parents, their educational attainments, family size, ordinal position of the index child and years of nursery school experience.

Educational attainments of both fathers and mothers were significantly higher in group A and children had spent significantly longer at nursery school. Group B (working mothers) had a predictably higher incidence of single parents. Comparison of results showed no significant difference between groups A and B for 6 of the 8 tests administered. Group B results did not differ significantly when divided into categories according to years of maternal employment. The study suggests that there is no direct relationship between maternal employment and maturity at school entry.     

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.     

“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'     

Maternal Stressors, Maternal Wellbeing and Children's Wellbeing in the Context of Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis

The purpose of the present study was to examine the level of maternal stressors associated with Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis (JIA) and to explore the relationship between maternal wellbeing and children's wellbeing in the context of JIA.

The sample (n=60) comprised 30 children with JIA and their mothers. Children and mothers completed self-administered questionnaires independently in outpatient clinics.

Mothers had a mean age of 37.73 (SD=5.50), 73% were married, all were White/European. Child participants (20 female and 10 male) had a mean age of 11.46 (SD=2.93), 61% had oligoarticular idiopathic arthritis, 26% had polyarticular juvenile arthritis and 13% systemic onset juvenile idiopathic arthritis. Compared to normative data, mothers were at risk of anxious and depressed mood, respectively. The highest rated stressors concerned the side effects of medication, the child's future and becoming over-protective of the child. There was a robust association between maternal wellbeing and children's physical functioning that was partially mediated by maternal self-efficacy. In contrast, maternal wellbeing appeared to be independent of children's ratings of pain, anxiety, depression and self-esteem.

Maternal stress regarding JIA warrants further investigation, particularly in terms of mother's concern about children's physical functioning, the side effects of medication, visibility of the child's condition, and becoming over-protective.     

Teaching interactions of black and Cuban teenage mothers and their infants

Possible factors related to maternal teaching styles are socioeconomic status, ethnic group membership, maternal age, maternal locus of control, and the mother's “hidden agenda” or goals for her child. In this study, 32 lower income, Black and Cuban, teenage and adult mothers and their 12 month old infants participated in a simple task teaching their infant how to operate a “Jack-in-the-box”. The mothers were also interviewed on questionnaires designed to tap locus of control, “hidden agendas”, and demographic characteristics. The results showed that Cuban mothers demonstrated the task to their infant with verbalization significantly more often than the Black mothers. The groups did not differ on maternal “hidden agendas”. Adult mothers showed a more internal locus of control than teenage mothers. Infants of Black, teenage mothers vocalized significantly less often than infants of the other groups. Results of this study provide additional support for existing literature in which maternal age and cultural differences were reported for the amount of maternal verbalization during early teaching interactions.     

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.     

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.     

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.     

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.     

“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.     

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.     

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.     

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.     

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.     

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.”     

Psychological screening in the course of the health control of four-year-old children

The health control of four-year-old Swedish children will include an examination of possible psychologtcal abnormalities and defects. The methods which have been worked out for this purpose by a committee of the Social Council include two main components. A nurse will carry out an interview with the child's caretaker and then evaluate the child's behavior. In addition, a physician will make an attempt to evaluate the child's development. The “risk children” will then be selected for further psychological investigation.

An attempt has been made to test the efficiency of the screening methods mentioned. The evaluations by the child care centers have been compared to more comprehensive clinical-psychological investigations and the results show good agreement between the two teams.

The Investigation has been carried out at PBU, Stockholm (Chief physician Hans Curman, psychologist Lillian Gottfarb).     

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.     

Maternal Sensitivity: A Review of Attachment Literature Definitions

A tenet of attachment theory (Bowlby, 1969; Ainsworth, Blehar, Waters and Wall, 1978) is that attachments develop within the context of, and are thus influenced by, early interactions. “Sensitivity” has been asserted by many researchers to be the key feature of interactions promoting “secure” attachment relationships. Attachment theorists assume that attachment quality is based on the nature of a caregiver's responses to an infant's signals for proximity and contact. Although there appears to be broad agreement in the literature on the importance of maternal sensitivity in affecting attachment relationships, writers differ in their definition of “sensitivity” and the relative emphasis placed on particular aspects of parental behaviour in explaining its effect on attachment.

This paper reviews the literature addressing the construct of “sensitivity”. The problem of defining this construct will be highlighted by summarising relevant literature and identifying the range of behaviours typically used as indicators of sensitivity. Relations between these definitions will be highlighted to reveal the main threads of continuity. Issues related to the concept of sensitivity, arising from reviewing this literature, will be discussed.     

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.     

Food behaviors of young children: Cognitive and attitudinal factors

Young children's diets are determined to a large degree by their mothers' nutritional knowledge and food attitudes. The primary purpose of this investigation was to determine the effects of mothers' nutritional knowledge and food attitudes on their children's nutritional knowledge and food behavior.

The subjects were 159 children. They ranged in ages from 7 to 9 years old. Their mothers also participated in the study.

Bivariate relationships between pairs of variables were tested using the Pearson product-moment correlation. The major findings were:

(1) Children's nutritional knowledge was related to their mothers' nutritional knowledge and attitudes of sociability.

(2) Mothers' nutritional knowledge was related to their attitudes of sociability and frugality. Nutritional knowledge was negatively correlated with mother's attitudes toward health and social status.

(3) Children's food behavior was related to their nutritional knowledge and their mothers' nutritional knowledge.