The effects of day care: A critical analysis

Maternal employment has increased over the last thirty years in the USA. The result of this increase means more families are in need of day-care for their children. Examined in this paper are research findings on the effects of day-care on pre-school children and their families. The implications of these findings for policy development are critically discussed.

Currently in the USA, over 50% of mothers work outside the home; this figure is expected to rise to 75% by 1990. The fastest growing segment of the working mother population is among those with children under two (Zigler and Gordon, 1982). This increasing rate of maternal employment over the last two decades has created the need for alternative arrangements for infants and young children. There is some concern among child developmental specialists that these alternative arrangements of caremay have detrimental effects on a child's social and psychological development.

Much of the concern about substitute care is based on the theory and research related to the negative effects of institutionalization on young children (Bowlby, 1951; Spitz, 1945). This body of literature, however, tells one little about the typical forms of substitute care experienced by most children. Obviously, children generally do not experience the extreme physical and social deprivation reported on in the institutional literature (Advisory Committee on Child Development, 1976: 117). Consequently, the quality of substitute care received by the majority of children is not comparable to the type of care studied in the institutional literature.

Still, the possibility remains that even with high quality care, differences may be found in the behavior and development of children as a function of the type of substitute care received. The literature reports numerous studies on the impact of various forms of substitute care; however, most of these studies are not well designed (Advisory Committee on Child Development, 1976: 118). The typical form of substitute care focused on in the literature has been high quality, university based day-care settings, a form of substitute care most children do not have access to (Santrock, 1983: 159). Even though the majority of these studies have weak methodological designs and are based on day-care settings not experienced by most children, some meaningful findings have emerged in the literature. This paper will focus on those relevant studies reporting on the impact of one very common form of substitute care, day-care for the pre-school child. The major emphasis of the review will be on how day-care impacts the pre-school child's intellectual development, emotional development, social development, and the child's family system. The authors will draw from these findings several major policy implications.     

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.     

Research Note: Unmet Needs for Education of Primary School Children in Nigeria

According to the Convention on the rights of the Child, every child is entitled to receive compulsory basic education, and no child should suffer any discrimination irrespective of origin, birth, colour, sex, social beliefs, status or disability.

Bearing in mind these stated objectives of this Convention, three hundred children and three hundred teachers from twenty public schools in Lagos were the subjects of a survey carried out to Identify the unmet needs for education of Nigerian children.

About 90% of the teachers surveyed, admitted that the quality of education was poor and deteriorating on a daily basis. Reasons given were for the poor condition of services, poor teacher morale due to poor condition of service, lack of parental cooperation and general lack of interest among the children.

An observation of the children in the school showed that about 60% of the children had chronic malnutrition with ravages of diseases such as malaria, cough, catarrh, diarrhoea, and skin rashes. Many of the children complained of lack of adequate supply of water and electricity at home for several weeks. A large number (70%) were also found to be unkempt, without decent uniforms and textbooks.

Suggestions were made for proper teacher training, remuneration and more parental concern and involvement for the proper education of their children.     

Physical punishment - thinking about the issues, looking at the evidence

Introduction

Physical punishment Of children is an issue on which many people hold strong but radically divergent views. Some see it as an important part of child discipline, others as a violation of children's basic human rights, yet others as something of little consequence. These views may be based on people's own experience as parents or children - for many they are at the level of an instinctive reaction. The readers of Child Care In Practice, social workers, medical and child care professionals, have the advantage of having thought about child discipline in the course of their professional training and lives. The Minister for Finance and Personnel, through the Office of Law Reform, is consulting about the law on physical punishment, and wants people to look beyond our own instinctive positions and really explore the issue.     

The treatment of psychological problems experienced by the children of police officers in Northern Ireland

This paper will discuss the recent establishment of the Police Rehabilitation and Retraining Trust's Child and Adolescent Therapy Service. This service was set up in response to an expressed need within the police family to provide evidenced-based psychological therapies for child and adolescent psychopathology caused either directly by service-related incidents or indirectly via parental psychopathology. Officers receiving treatment within the Trust's Adult Psychological Therapies Service frequently expressed distress and guilt regarding the impact their service and related symptoms had on their children. In addition, officers reported a reluctance to utilise existing statutory child and adolescent mental health services.

The impact of the constantly changing political landscape on this population will be examined as the general decrease of an overt terrorist threat allows an opportunity for police families to count the cost the 'troubles' have had on their mental health and to assess what support is required. But the uncertainty of what level of covert threat remains continues to impact directly on family life.

This paper will examine the clinical approaches adopted by this specialist service, in particular Cognitive Behavioural Therapy and Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing. It will examine how an ongoing and current threat of further trauma impacts on treatment provision and on the establishment of the therapeutic alliance. Primary and secondary stressors unique to this population will be explored, and their impact on treatment, along with how these trauma-related problems might manifest themselves in a variety of disorders.

While the Child and Adolescent Therapy Service exists specifically to provide treatment for police children, the service aims to establish links with statutory services in an attempt to ensure that police families will be able to utilise existing resources, gradually moving away from the feelings of community isolation expressed by some police families.     

Child Care Providers' Experiences Caring For Sick Children: Implications For Public Policy

This study examines the experiences of preschool and school-age child care providers regarding sick child care.

In-depth, semi-structured interviews were conducted of child care providers at every city-sponsored preschool and afterschool program in an urban area in the United States. In addition, random sampling was used to identify home-based child care providers from a list obtained through a child care resources center. In spite of rules requiring that sick children be kept home, child care providers repeatedly described sick children whose health problems made it impossible to provide adequate care for the sick child at the same time as caring for the well children in their care. Problems arose for a range of reasons, including inability to provide sufficient attention to the sick child-s needs, inability to keep a sick child clean and well hydrated in the case of vomiting and diarrhea, spread of infectious diseases, and inability to care for healthy children adequately when meeting the needs of sick children.

International public health policy implications for child care and paid family leave are discussed.     

Aetiologies of Autism: Psychodynamic, Pharmacological and Behavioural, Related to Kuwait

Autism is a severe form of childhood psychopathology which has enormous impact on the child, his/her family, and the wider community. It challenges the expertise of doctors, teachers and therapists.

In Kuwait, recognition of the disorder is still in its infancy. However, the government has established a new Centre for Autism, the first of its kind in the country, to provide up-to-date medical care and education for autistic children.

This article will assess Kuwait's progress in catering for autism, in the light of current international thinking. Discussion of the roles of the main governmental and non-governmental bodies concerned with provision for autistic children in Kuwait, with an account of the only two special schools which are currently known to cater specifically for this disorder, is given.

It was found that, in Kuwait, provision is limited and fragmented compared with that of the UK and the USA. Moreover, there is, as yet, relatively little information available to researchers, parents, or the general public. Accordingly, recommendations are made for both action and research, in order to raise the profile of this disorder in Kuwait and extend provision.     

Children's rights to legal services: A child law centre for northern ireland

1 Introduction

1.1 CRDU and the UK Agenda for Children

This paper has been.produced by the Children's Rights Development Unit (CRDU), an independent project set up in 1992 with support from major child welfare agencies including Barnardo's, Save the Children, NSPCC and UNICEF-UK. CRDU opened in Northern Ireland in February 1993, with the support of the N.I. Children's Rights Alliance, to work for full implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. The UK Agenda for Children, CRDU's report to the UN monitoring body, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, gathered information from a wide range of organisations on how far law, policy and practice in the UK meet the standards of the Convention. The UK Agenda makes recommendations for hundreds of legal and policy changes which would, if implemented, ensure compliance with the standards of the Convention.     

Methodological Reflections on Using the Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale as a Measure to Make Cross-National Evaluations of Quality

How useful is the Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale (ECERS) as a research instrument in making cross-national comparisons of the quality of nurseries?

The paper briefly outlines the ECERS and discusses the extent to which it can be used as a universal evaluative tool to measure quality. The author reflects on her use of the ECERS scale in cross-national contexts, to comment on its advantages and its limitations.

The author used the ECERS as part of a qualitative investigation into nursery provision and practice between 1991 and 1994 in cities in fourcountries, New York, (USA) Harnosand, (Sweden), Arezzo (Italy) and Barcelona (Spain). The nurseries in which the author carried out observations and interviews were chosen by contacts in the countries concerned for both their willingness to participate and for their representativeness. A minimum of four institutions which took children under three were visited for at least half a day in each city.

The author uses examples derived from this research to argue that while the scale may have some advantages in that, ratings can be undertaken in two hours, and the scale can provide comparison measures on a number of criteria which child care professionals have agreed are significant, it also has a number of disadvantages. Because the scale is empirically rather than theoretically based and is not explicit about the evaluative categories, which underlie it, its use can obscure rather than illuminate, what different countries see as the most significant aspects of their care and education provision.

The paper concludes that we need to develop measurement tools which explicitly state the values and theoretical perspectives behind their construction.     

The Future Detection and Prevention of Institutional Abuse: Giving Children a Chance to Participate in Research

The involvement of children in research studies is historically fraught with difficulties. Experiments on children without their consent or knowledge have been carried out in the past and thus the need for stringent ethical control is undoubtedly necessary. However this paper argues that the need to protect children from unethical research has somehow become entwined in the web of secrecy that surrounds the very nature of child abuse. In the name of 'protection' are children in danger of not having their voice heard?

In the foreword to 'Listening to Children' (Alderson, 1995) Roger Singleton writes, 'much research is carried out on and about children, but seldom with children. Children themselves are often strangely silent'. This paper draws on recent literature on the institutional abuse of young people in residential care and the lack of voice that those abused in residential care have traditionally had, suggesting that their silence is not 'strange' but perhaps contrived.

This paper does not repeat the work of Alderson (1995) and make suggestions as to how research with children may best be carried out, but seeks to address the issues in relation to research with children who are in institutions.     

Third World children: promise and problems

Children as they are born into the world are a bundle of human potential. This potential must be nurtured and educated if these children are to make a contribution to the world society. Third World children hold the same promise as other children if they are born to healthy mothers. Societies must contribute both physical resources and human resources for this promise to be fulfilled.

Many Third World children need immunizations, better nutrition, oral rehydration therapy, and educational opportunities if they are to survive and reach their potential.

A proposal is made for international development agencies to help fund child care centers which could become a focus of many services for both the children and their families.     

The impact of mothers' perception of child care services and utilization

To examine the impact of mothers' perception of the roles of pre-primary institutions and what motivates them to choose a particular child care service, 138 working mothers and 20 proprietors of nursery schools and day care centers were interviewed. The facilities available to children in the centers studied was also assessed.

The results suggested that these mothers' expected these institutions to play custodial functions as well as to provide early childhood education. This knowledge could guide proprietors and other interested organizations in the provision of appropriate child care programmes to meet the needs of mothers and their children.

The demand for nursery/day care services in Nigeria has become very high due to the increasing number of women in the workforce.     

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.     

“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'     

The impact of children/caregiver ratio on activities and social interaction in six day care centre groups

Questions concerning caregiver — child ratio were studied in six day care centre groups. Twenty caregivers were observed, one at a time for 12 hours. The observer kept a running record, writing down social interactions and activities. A total of 6312 observational units were collected.

According to the findings of this study variations in observed patterns of activities and social interactions could not be explained only by referring to variations in child/staff ratio. More adults per children increased child-oriented activities and close interaction with the children only if the staff agreed on goals and methods in their work.

A model is presented where child-caregiver ratio is related to group characteristics, adult working styles and concordance.     

“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.     

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.     

First evaluation of The Down Lisburn Trust Befriending scheme for young people leaving care

The Down Lisburn Trust befriending scheme was initially set up in October 1998, this piece of research was conducted in April 2000 and is the first evaluation of the scheme.

The purpose of this research study was to evaluate the benefits of the befriending scheme for young people 'looked after' or leaving the care of Down Lisburn Trust. This was achieved by collecting the retrospective views of the young people and their befrienders in relation to how the befriending scheme has benefited them.

As the befriending scheme is a relatively new project, the subjects used in the study were from the first intake of participants on the scheme. This comprised of 5 young people and 6 befrienders. In order to obtain the relevant information, questionnaires were devised for the young people and the befrienders.

The findings of this research study indicated that the befriending scheme benefits those young people in care and leaving care, by providing them with someone to talk to and help them pursue their interests. Also it has ensured there was someone to support them through difficult familial relationships, life in care and/or life after care. The findings also highlighted the need for clearer procedures and follow up in relation to the ending of befriending relationships to ensure that this already vulnerable group of young people are not damaged further.

The findings of this study agree with the findings of other research studies dating from the early 1980's, regarding the plight of young people in care and leaving care.

The Adolescence Team was established in 1990/91 and provides an integrated, specialised service to young people aged between 14 and 21 years old living within the Down Lisburn Trust area. It also provides a supported continuum of care, which enables young people who have been or are in care to live independently and safely in the community. It aims to do so by providing the following services; individual counselling, family work, assessment, mediation/negotiation, preparation for leaving care, aftercare support, group work, and child protection investigations. The following is an overview of the first evaluation of the scheme.     

Issues of child care/social care policy and practice is the fepublic of Ireland

This paper views the National Council for Educational Award's Working Party Report on Social and Caring Studies (1992) and comments on Residential Care in the Republic of Ireland four years later (1996). It acknowledges that there is some division between key personnel in the caring profession with regard to what is perceived as 'acceptable and appropriate third-level training routes for child care/social care workers'.

The question of appropriate qualifications for Child care/Social Care is explored and the value of a new degree course in Applied Social Studies in Social Care is examined.     

From Togetherness to Equal Partnership in Role Play

In the day care centre, already at the transition stage to role play children show different kinds of participation. They observe each other's play, share goal orientation and directly tutor each other. The play process is materially supported and often initiated by educators. However, children also need to acquire the power to act autonomously in role play.

The different kinds of participation in young children's play, as well as the appearance and development of basic features of joint role play were examined in three games of a two-year-old girl, Katju, in her day care group. The games are examples of ten play sessions she was involved in. These data were collected by means of reactive participant observation and analyzed by using interpretive methods.

It turned out that Katju proceeded from a feeling of togetherness in a shared space, through parallel and successive play actions to reciprocity and equal exchange of play actions. Moreover, the three educators contributed to this process in different ways.

The findings may be of interest in discussions about play in early education practices, in particular with regard to the development of autonomy, social abilities and partnership in sociocultural activities.