Author: Andre Coleman

In order to overcome our daily living needs we need to work and earn according to individual capacities. In a healthy society individual perform their role according to their age, capabilities and health condition. In contradiction to this, many of the children are deprived of their basic right of freedom and education and they are compelled to start work in a very early age. They are paid very less so they start to work long hours in order to full fill their needs. This causes compromise in normal physiology. So it starts to affect every aspect of life from health, education and off course the socioeconomic status, thus automatically affecting the family and the whole society. According to Freedman (1998), “Child labor is… Work done by kids full-time under the age of 15. Work that prevents kids from attending school, such as unlimited or unrestricted domestic work. Work that is dangerous for kids and that is hazardous to their physical, mental or emotional health”. There are number of children who are engaged in different kind of labours. According to International Labour Organization (2009), in Pakistan there are 40 million children age between 5- 14 years and among them 3.3 million children are engaged in labour.

There are many serious social issues which are not yet addressed properly and not getting attention from the public, media and the government. Child labor is one of them. I would be highlighting few of the impact of child labour on the society with the help of a story of a boy who suffered from child labour at the age of 8 years. This story was told by one of my friend.

I was born in a very low socioeconomic class. I am the only son to my parents and elder to my three sisters. My father was a laborer and worked for a company on a daily wages. Still we were spending prosperous life in our limited resources and I had the opportunity to get admission in a school. It seemed that education and comfort was there for my first eight year only as my father expired on road traffic accident. After this tragic movement my mother who at that time was expecting fourth child started working for the same company to overcome our financial needs, but she couldn’t continue it for longer and has to quit it as she had end up with serious gynecological issue which I hardly remember. One my relative suggested my mother to send me to work as she thought that was healthier than my mother and can earn enough if worked with dedication so I was referred to a gentleman who had an automobile workshop near by my house.

I had cross by this workshop multiple times but didn’t ever think of the life there. So many MACHINES (which I call it at that time), three men wearing unique costumes busy in fixing things together, very strong smell of different nature which couldn’t stop me to cover my nose for a while till one of them asked me to come to him in his autocratic voice. The sooner I get there he asked me wash an instrument and instruct me not to make it fall. That was so slippery but I did manage to wash it and get a smile from him. This helped me to believe that they are also human being. By the end of the day I get my first pay for the day which at that time my mother thought is enough for us and it was wise decision to quit mu school and get into job.

Oh yes I did show my dedication towards my work and by the time I was ten years old I had started to do overtime twice a week to overcome my family’s increasing need. I get very much used to the routines and was able to do stuff like cleaning, oil application and fixing very easily, so it was easy for me to work for longer hours without any complaints. I was able to handle scolds and verbal abuses from my seniors’ and was luckily safe from an accident in which I could have lost my right arm.

Things never remain the same and I have entered in my late twenties no more dedication to work and family, I have chosen my own way which gives me pleasure and I’m not alone as well, have my own group of deprived friends. We work for a person to transport opium to different places, he is happy with my work provide me all the drugs without witch I can’t think of life. I have no regrets and I think I was born to get here.

This issue has a great negative impact on individual and family life. It starts to effect health right from the beginning where the working environment comes. The environment plays a very crucial part in maintaining optimum health especially in early developmental age. In this age a child is very much susceptible to catch infections, acquire unhealthy behaviors and at a very much risk for physical and mental disability. Lawrence (2007), “Healthy children grow into healthy adults. The health of our children is one of the most important investments that we can make and should be among our top priorities”. In the above story the person is not playing its role as a healthy individual e.g. getting into drugs not only spoil his own health but also harmful to others. Not supporting the family can be cause of another social issue that his sisters may involve in other unhealthy practices for their survival. This becomes an unbreakable chain, unless it is addressed at family society and country level.

There are many causes of child labour e.g. poverty, illiteracy and least concerned parents. But to me the most important cause of child labour is the economic instability of the country. In an economically stable country there would be no unemployment issues, people will get proper salary secured job, health and education benefits. There are certain situations in which accommodation and negotiation is difficult but not impossible, like the example of the child in the above mentioned story he was left with no other option except to get a work and to support the family. Serious action taken by the family and the country starting from base could help reduce in child labour. In need child can work but it’s his right that he should be provided particular hours and adequate salary by the employer so that there will be no need of overtime and he has the time to rest and prevent exhaustion. If these issues are not taken care it start to affect the economy of a country as a whole, and there will be no contribution by the people to country’s economy. People will be living in hand to mouth condition and will be not able to identify country’s strength and hidden recourses causing economic recession and affecting whole society as well as globally.

Least concerned parents, illiteracy and unawareness these are all directly linked to educational level of the society. Uneducated parents do not understand the value of education and have no priority for it. Without knowing the consequences they encourage their children to engage in labour and quit education which hinders the society growth by providing less educated people. Thus people become resistant to change and there is no advancement in the field which they are working. In this way the country is deprived of their human power. Parent’s education also counts when it comes to speak for their right and they can identify that if their child is being misused by the employer or the child is getting in to unhealthy habits.

In Pakistan the Employment of Children Act 1991, describes almost all the condition in which a child can work and prohibition of work in certain hazardous environment and long working hour. According to Pakistan National Statics, more than two-third of child is working in the agricultural sector, 1.2 million Children are bonded in the carpet factories. 35 million soccer balls stitched in Pakistan, children produce one quarter of the balls, most of them as bonded servants.

Child labour does affect the whole society in every aspect. Making the law is the not the solution is not the solution to overcome it. The law should be practical enough so that it can be practiced. It has to have a check and balance also, to make sure its applicability. Strict action should be taken against them who misuse child by providing very less incentives and unhealthy work place. They underlying cause should be identified first so that alternative arrangement could be done. E.g. what if the child is the only earning member of the family, if he is stop by doing work the remaining whole family suffer from it. Since it is not an overnight process it can be reduced by using the accommodation and negotiation according to situation.

REFFERENCES:

Freedman, Lewis. (1998). Kids At Work: Lewis Hine And The Crusade Against Child Labor. Retrieved from,

http://www.nynetresources.org/Future%20Grant%20Projects/Projects/Child%20Labor/childlabor1.htm

International Labour Organization. (1998). Retrieved from,

http://www.oit.org/legacy/english/regions/asro/newdelhi/ipec/index.htm

Lawrence, D., & Deirdre, I. (2007). Environmental Injustice: Children’s Health. Pediatrics, 3, 5.

Employment of Children Act, (1991). Retrieved from

http://www.albarrtrust.com/Al%20Baar%20Web/SCAN%20RULES/Employment%20of%20Children%20Act,%201991.pdf

Pakistan National Statistics. (1999). Retrieved from,

http://www.globalmarch.org/worstformsreport/world/pakistan.html

Divorce. The infectious disease-like product of frequent problems and hate within a married couple. It is overtaking America’s people and rearranging the average person’s thought process on relationships. It has ruined the lives of both adults and children and frequently causes problems. Whether it is a messy divorce or a clean one, it leaves a painful scar on any child in the way of the conflict. Divorce causes problems, that is what it boils down to. And once the problems start, it is hard to stop them.

Many people of all ages have been affected by divorce. When we asked one of our subjects what their reaction to the divorce they immediately responded: “I just thought it was a big fight, but then it set in that they were never going to be together again.” Our subject was so shocked that it happened that it took him a while to comprehend that his parents will no longer live together. We also asked him what parts of the family were affected and they said, “My dad moved away three months later but during those months, there was tons of fighting and yelling. After he moved out, my mom had to get a full time job in order to support two children.” () Our subject had to go through many fights and arguments and then an angry divorce. After the divorce, our subject could not spend much time with each parent. A complicated custody battle went on and now our subject must spend less time with his dad and more with his mom. This weakens his relationship with his father, and makes it so that he will never have a father to go to when seeking guidance.

We also asked our subject how living in two separate houses affected him. In response, he said that “It is one of the upsides of the divorce. Say I get in trouble at my moms house, I go to my dads to cool off. It is like living two lives.” () Most people may think that living two lives may be difficult, but our subject took his predicament and turned around to the best it can be. However, when we interviewed another subject, they said that “The worst part was living in separate homes because my parents were in different states. So, coming home from graduation, I had no parents to go to, I had to decide which parent to visit. Also, holidays were difficult because I had to choose which house to visit.” ()

Our subject’s parents were divorced when she was 21. Although this age is older than usual, she still had many hardships to go through. She could never get her parents together for any important events. When she graduated, she could not get her parents together to celebrate. () Also, at her wedding, she could not seat her parents together, or make a toast to them because they refused to talk to each other. When she had her children, she could never take them to Grandma’s and Grandpa’s house, she must choose where to go.

Our subject had many sad and angry feelings about the divorce. “I was sad that they had been married for so long and raised three kids, but confused why they would get a divorce when it was their time, not their children.” () Her sister was also angered about the divorce. For many years, she would not speak to her father, and blamed him for everything. This made getting together as a family even more difficult because her sister would often not visit her father. Overall, family life got difficult due to the mixed feelings between everyone.()

Different ages and different genders also change the effects of each child. In most occasions infants are not as affected as preschooler aged children and ages above that. Infants will notice the mood changes of their parents, but do not understand conflict. They will spit up, or throw-up, more often once they begin to understand the conflict between their parents, or may not want to eat as much. Preschoolers (ages3-5) are much more affected because they start to believe that it is their fault that their parents no longer wish to be together. (, www.childrenanddivorce.com) They believe that their parents are getting divorce for reasons like: they did not do their homework or their chores. Preschoolers also begin to fear that they will be abandoned, and will then have more baby-like behavior. These actions will then cause them to start denying that anything has changed, or became very angry and filled with rage. School-aged children are able to understand what is going on between the two spouses, and are more vulnerable to it. (, www.childrenanddivorce.com) They realize that they are suffering emotional problems because of their parents divorce. Although, they may be old enough to realize what is occurring in the home, they are too young to control their emotions. Teens and adolescents alike both feel that they have lost one of their parents, or the teens themselves would never be able to get married, and stay married. (, www.childrenanddivorce.com)

Different genders, also means the divorce has had a different effect on the child. A recent scientific study has showed that boys raised by their fathers are better off living a more normal life, than living with a parent of the opposite sex. Boys living with their fathers are more apt to be less aggressive and have fewer emotional problems. (, www.childrenanddivorce.com) Girls living with their mothers are also more apt to be more mature than those living with their fathers. Children that are being raised by the opposite gender are more likely to have emotional problems, and be much more vulnerable to more problems that occur in the home. In divorce, girls may be more emotional to the problems that are going on at home, while boys may be more vicious and become angrier easier. Different genders can be a major effect on how the child turns out after either a messy, or a quick and clean divorce. (, www.childrenanddivorce.com)

During a divorce, the child begins to change and may start to have behavioral issues. At all times during a divorce, stress is always acting on the child or the children that are in the middle of it. Most children in a divorce do not develop major behavioral issues unless a divorce is incredibly messy. (Robert E. Emery, emeryondivorce.com) Children begin to become more resilient against their parents as well as other adult figures like teachers. Children are more resilient when their parents do an adequate job handling the stress that is continuously put on the child. Children that were resilient during a divorce grow up to have painful memories and worries about divorce nearly everyday. The child’s relationship with the parents is a major effect on if the child will have painful memories (Robert E. Emery, emeryondivorce.com). If the child had a very close relationship, but then were separated from said parent, they are more likely to be resilient against the other parent. This may cause more issues between the child and any other parent-like figure.

Divorce is very stressful and energy consuming for the couple being divorced. There are many steps and a whole lot of opposing ideas between the couple. Though it is horrible for the couple, you really have to think about it from a kid’s perspective. Kids don’t have the experience that the couple does in dealing with all the stress of divorce, so on them, divorce could be 10 times worse on them than it is on the actual couple. There have been many tests and experiments that involve this idea of divorce with kids and the results are frightening. A test was held on 99 college students whose parents had been divorced at least 3 years before when this test took place (Robert E. Emery, emeryondivorce.com). It is amazing because 73% of these college aged students reported that they would be a different person had their parents not divorced. Another amazing statistic is that 48% of these students said that they had a harder childhood than most other kids and the divorce still causes struggles for them. As you can see, divorce is a painful thing for anybody of any age. If these college-aged students were hurt this much from divorce, you can only imagine how much divorce can hurt a young elementary school aged child. It has been shown that 25% of kids that have parents that go through divorce come out of it with very serious emotional and social problems. This is a huge problem because it is such a big number (Robert E. Emery, emeryondivorce.com).

Divorce can have many different effects on kids, the biggest being stress. Stress is a huge problem with kids that experience their parents going through divorce. The child does not want their parents to separate, unless of course, the relationship is violent (, www.childrenanddivorce.com). The child has a hard time getting over the fact that the parents are going to be separated, and many times, especially for younger aged children, they really don’t understand what is going on and they fear the consequences. Divorce can also affect the parent-child relationships. Many times in divorced relationships, the child may not see one parent as much as the other. They feel detached and they don’t know what to do about it, they feel helpless (, www.childrenanddivorce.com). Divorce can also create economic problems in the family. This can be stressful for the child for obvious reasons. Lastly, when parents get divorced, many times the biggest problem is the legal conflicts. These can be hugely stressful on the kids because again, they feel helpless. They have no idea of what to do or what is going to happen. It feels like to them, it all plays out without them having a say (, www.childrenanddivorce.com).

Divorce can cause some serious psychological problems. Many times in divorces, kids can develop anger issues. They become very irritable and everything is wrong to them. They can also develop disobedience problems and will violate rules. They feel like they need the attention that they feel like they are not getting, which many times they really are not. Another common problem is school performance (, www.childrenanddivorce.com). This can be a big deal because this can happen to any kid, even the outgoing ones. Also, it is possible for a kid to become overly responsible. There have been cases where this has happened and the kid ends up taking care of the parent more than the parent taking care of the kid (, www.childrenanddivorce.com).

The last common effect is depression. Depression is a horrible thing that just many times, really can’t be helped too much. It has been shown that a child’s parents splitting up often brings on depression. Depression is a horrible thing that can stick with people for a long time and should be avoided at all costs. Depression hurts and is a big problem with many people. Depression can also develop into many of things mentioned before including many of the psychological problems and constant stress (, www.childrenanddivorce.com).

The last thing to remember that is probably the most important out of any of this is that the large majority of kids that have parents that go through divorce (about 70-75% of them) do not develop any serious problems at all. There may be some short-term stress or other quite small problems but they will act and be just kids, and that is all they want to be. They don’t want to be knows as a child of divorce. The majority of kids will be fine and will go on acting and doing things just like any other kid (, www.childrenanddivorce.com).

Many divorces happen for a good reason and can be the best choice and positive for a family. However, they do not have a positive impact on the child. Many children tend to think that the divorce was their fault and they are the reason that one of the parents left. This self-blame is called an “outlet”. Children use “outlets” to cope with their parents getting divorced (www.stopdivorcesource.com). (You can apply this to other problems where people use certain thoughts or actions to cope with that problem. Other outlets are drug abuse, alcohol abuse, withdrawal, acting out, and sexual activity. When children use “outlets” or blame themselves for the divorce, they can be affected negatively for their whole life. As adults, kids that use outlets will have trouble in relationships, finding a job, and may have marital issues (www.stopdivorcesource.com).

Often kids feel out of place within the first few years of their parent’s divorce. Especially boys are affected. Most likely, the custodial parent will be the mother and this has a dramatic affect on the boys because they feel like they should be spending time with their parent of the same sex. They cannot bond with a father (www.stopdivorcesource.com). They may see other boys with their dads having a catch or kicking a ball around. Without a male to look up to and bond with, it could change the way the child grows up because they start to act out, get in trouble in places like school, and make bad decisions that they would know not to make if a dad was there to help them grow up. Basically, kids feel out of place when a divorce occurs because they are missing what other kids have: a two-parent house (www.stopdivorcesource.com).

Usually, the father is the “bad parent” in a divorce. The mother gets custody over the children more than less and the dad moves out. Because the dad only has limited time to spend with the children, the kids may feel like he doesn’t want to be with them or he dislikes them (www.stopdivorcesource.com). Even though this usually isn’t true, it separates the dad from his children and the family. When the dad does spend time with the kids, he acts more like a pal than a parent. Many dads will ignore responsibilities like having the kids do homework and have them play outside. This will also make them the bad parent in the mother’s eyes. Also, when either parent wants to get remarried, it’s hard for them to take care of the children. This makes the kids feel like they are being ignored and rejected or that the parent is moving on (www.stopdivorcesource.com).

There has been a huge increase in divorce. It seems like that is all you hear about is everyone getting divorced. But is that the right choice? Are parents that selfish to not even think how their kid will be. Kids have bigger problems with divorce then the parents do. Do parents realize that 1 in 5 kids will commit suicide just from their parents getting divorced. When the parental divorce chart went up, so did the suicide chart (www.divorceinfo.com). Parents don’t realize what their kids are feeling when they get divorce. Their kids are hurt. And they don’t think what or how their kids are felling. They just care about themselves.

Suicide is not the only problem with divorced parents; drug and alcohol abuse is another huge problem. Teenagers think that drug abuse is the only way out of everything. A huge factor of drug abuse is when kids parents get divorced they get more depressed and hang out with the wrong crowd; which influences kids into drug addiction (www.divorceinfo.com). Witch will make them happy and they will think that if they do drugs it will make them happy and all of their problems will go away, until they are not high anymore. So what do they do? They do it again.

Depression is another factor in parental divorce. Without having both parents around kids get sick of seeing the same person over and over again. So they start to get into arguments with them. Then it gets more serious where it gets to a point where you can’t even talk without starting an argument. Arguing with their parent over and over will make kids sad (www.divorceinfo.com). With both of their parents in the house it seems everything changes because you don’t have to talk to the same person over and over.

Child Labor has been affecting human society through its problematic developing issues all over the world. Millions of children are engaged in hazardous situations, conditions, exposed to dangerous chemicals, and machinery daily. These children are being exploited physically, mentally, and morally. They are not being allowed to receive the education and leisure which is important for their future. Many children have been consumed into commercial and laborious activities in which was not made for them but for people beyond their years. Child labor must stop, and through this essay I will inform you how you could help.

By stopping burdensome practice of child labor in non and organized regions it can provide developments of the needs of growing children. To become a future citizen it is mandatory to train the nations children, giving them equal and proper opportunities for educational growth. (Child Labour Today)

Child Labor has been affecting human society through its problematic developing issues all over the world. Millions of children are engaged in hazardous situations, conditions, exposed to dangerous chemicals, and machinery daily. These children are being exploited physically, mentally, and morally. They are not being allowed to receive the education and leisure which is important for their future. Many children have been consumed into commercial and laborious activities in which was not made for them but for people beyond their years. Child labor must stop, and through this essay I will inform you how you could help.

“Child Labor” has numerous definitions based on the person speaking of it; which means, that there is no such definition concrete enough and solid to define child labor. According to the International Labor Organization, child labor is defined as such, children under the age of 18 doing various forms of work. The ILO states that, child labor includes children under the age of fifteen years in full time work and prevents them from receiving an education or is hazardous to their health. Some sources and organization say with a much broader view that only when it becomes hazardous work or work in which interferes with education, and children working for pay. For example, UNICEF has a distinction between child work, which may consist of easy work completed by children beyond the age of twelve and child labor. (Oracle Education Foundation, Child Labor)

The causes of child labor in today’s society are the same as it was in the United States a hundred years ago. Insufficient enforcement of child labor laws and biased prohibition of child labor was mainly due to poverty, lack of education and exposure, suppression of workers’ rights, and poor access to education. (Child Labour Today) Our children do not deserve to have their rights stripped away from them and be consumed by industries and corporations to perform their dirty work for less. Children should be free from the worries of parental and adulthood responsibilities.

In the United States, it is most doubtful that businesses are able to open sweatshops due to all the strict laws and educated people. Thus, leads to third world countries, which are incapable to offer neither federally funded benefits nor monetary support. Therefore, the only solution to this epidemic is to either starve or allow children to work to support their families. (Causes: Businesses, The Path of Innocence) Two examples in which major companies used and abused child labor are: Wal-mart and Nike.

Wal-mart is a major company in the United States operating thousands of stores all over the globe. In January 2005, in 24 separate incidents Wal-mart repeatedly broke child labor laws. Wal-mart however, agreed to pay $135,540 for breaking child labor violations and was also fined $205,650 for 1,436 violations of child labor laws solely in Maine between 1995 and 1998. Nevertheless, Wal-mart continues to break child labor laws. June of 2005, despite the internal audit warning, in three Wal-mart stores in the state of Connecticut there was 11 violations of child labor. (Wal-mart and Child labor, Wake-up Wal-mart) Wal-mart operates sweatshops in China, Nicaragua, and Saipan where most of the clothes are sold in their stores and manufactured there. The workers in the stores are paid twelve cents and work for ten hours a day and seven days a week. Children are often hungry and dehydrated; they are often strip searched for food or water being brought in to prevent the children from soiling the clothes. Wal-mart has been warned several times, but yet they still persist. (Causes: Businesses, The Path of Innocence)

Nike is another major corporation and is worth about four billion dollars. They contain factories in places such as South Korea, China, Vietnam, Indonesia, and Thailand. These places are where they employ there workers, as well as children for twelve hour shifts and pay them as low as sixteen cents an hour. The work conditions in these countries are noisy, unsanitary, unsafe, injurious, and very strict. Many people have broken fingers, lost limbs, fainted, and contracted varies infections, some people have even died. While working, the employees have a strict set of rules in which they must follow, failed to do so the consequences are severe and consist of verbal or physical abuse and/or being fired. (Causes: Businesses, The Path of Innocence)

The future belongs to the well being of its children. The health of our nation and the nation of others becomes vital to protect its children from premature labor. Saving children from the clutches of the educational deprivation and social injustice is only the beginning. To guarantee all children that they are given the opportunity for a healthy, happy, and normal life. In the modern world, the government steps in to create laws to protect the people and their nations and here are two levels of how federal and international laws help to keep the children safe.

Federal Child Labor rules were established by the Fair Labor Standards Act or the FLSA, to create minimum wage, recordkeeping, overtime pay, and affects full and part time workers in the federal, state, and local governments, in addition to, the private regions. Employers must fulfill both federal law and applicable state laws dealing with child labor issues. The child labor law, was passed by the Federal Government, this law limits children on what job positions they can seize and when to work. For example, adolescences employed for non-agricultural employment must be no less than fourteen. (Solis, Youth and Labor) These days both federal and state laws regulate child labor in the United States. The federal laws are in action to forbid harsh child labor and state laws will relate when the corporation is not involved in interstate business. (Rights: Laws, The Path of Innocence)

The department of labor and other federal government organizations support numerous efforts to end abusive child labor overseas. A program created in 1993, in response to a Congressional demand to inspect and report on abusive child labor around the world led to the department’s Bureau of International Labor Affair’s (ILAB). The International Child Labor Program’s efforts and actions consist of research and reporting on directing grants to institutes engaged in efforts to abolish child labor, international child labor, and working to increase public attentiveness and understanding of the child labor issue. (Solis, Youth and Labor)

Reformers in no way discontinue developing laws to defend children. They carry on finding new ways to construct fairness in the life of children everywhere. In 1919, the Minimum Age Convention Number 5 of the Geneva based International Labor Organization (ILO) changed numerous characteristics of child labor. This convention recognized the age fourteen as the bare minimum for children to be employed in the work. (Rights: Laws, The Path of Innocence) According to the information agreed by ILO there are approximately about 218 million children between the age of 5 and 17 working all over the world. The United Nations and ILO considered child labor as exploitative. In article 32 of the UN speaks out about child labor in this manner, “States parties recognize the right of the child to be protected from economic exploitation and from performing any work that is likely to be hazardous or to interfere with the child’s education, or to be harmful to the child’s health or physical, mental, spiritual, moral, or social development.” (Child Labour Today)

Child labor may not have much of an effect in today’s economy, but if child labor persists and the economy worsens as it had in 2008, it will play a role in the world. This is another major reason why child labor should be solved now, instead of waiting for the world to recuperate. To show how child labor would affect the economy in the future, according to Blood, Sweat, and Tears: Child Labor, by the year 2020, 730 million new employees will have joined the adult workforce, 90% will be from developing countries, in where child labor is most common. Most of these new workers will have been child laborers growing up and now they will be the ones rebuilding the world’s society. This will possibly cause these developing countries to become unhealthy, crippled, and uneducated; some may not even make it to impact the world’s future. Many child laborers will never reach the age of 18; they will never be able to make a difference in this world. The former child laborers who may later become formal workers will almost undoubtedly affect the world’s economy in a dire manner, due to unfilled high educated positions and the manual labor jobs unfilled as well because the new workers are already crippled for working in rough environments as a child.

The recent awareness in child labor has been based upon four key myths, according to the report, by UNICEF’s Executive Director, Carol Bellamy. The first myth is that child labor has been a unique developing problem in the world. In actual fact, children have been consistently working in industrialized countries. For example in the US, children are employed in agriculture, most in which are immigrants or ethnic minority families. According to a survey done in 1990 of Mexican-American children, approximately half had worked in fields with pesticides in farms of New York.

The second myth states, that child labor will by no means be abolished until poverty disappears. The world will always have the sick, the healthy, the rich, and the poor. Child labor cannot wait for poverty reduction. Governments have begun to move on the issue, understanding that they have to uphold a commitment in which they assumed in passing the Convention on the Rights of the Children. At a local front, non-governmental organizations and activists are investigating new inventive ways to remove children from risky work situations.

The third myth is that most child workers are functioning in sweatshops of industries exporting inexpensive goods to rich companies all over the world. Many child workers can be found selling on the street, concealed away in houses or at work in agriculture. The reason for these unofficial areas is so that they would be far from contact of official labor inspectors and from media scrutiny.

The last myth, myth four is that through sanctions and boycotts, consumers and governments can make progress against child labor. Despite the fact that international commitment and pressure are important, boycotts can only affect export sectors, which are fairly small exploiters of child labor. These direct measures can essentially cause harm rather than help the children involved in the long term.

In order to make certain that children receive an education and eradicate the abuse of child labor the central and state governments to prevent the threat of child labor, must be given top priority in devoting to the child welfare issues. On all levels, child labor laws must be executed rigorously and corruption and carelessness in child labor offices and employee circles ought to be dealt with sternly by the police force and judiciary. (Child Labour Today)

The causes of child labor are complex and include: economic exploitation, poverty, cultural circumstances, and values, results must be broad and involve the widest potential assortment of partners in each culture. Immediate action needs to be taken in order to eliminate such hazardous and exploitative labor. The concern for the well being of families whose only survival is depended upon the income of their children must embrace efforts to increase job opportunities for adults. Some more direct actions in which are needed are as followed:

First, immediate elimination of perilous and manipulative forms of child labor, including commercial sexual exploitation, bonded labor, and work that hampers the child’s physical, cognitive, social and emotional development. The government must take an immediate action to end them and should not be tolerable. Secondly, the government must execute prerequisite of free and essential education for all children. Governments must carry out their responsibility to make primary education complimentary and to guarantee all children attendance to a primary school on a full time bases. As well as, budget the crucial resources for this function, with donors ensuring sufficient funds from existing aid budgets. Thirdly, a wider legal protection needs to be made. Laws on child labor and education should be mutually supportive and consistent in purpose. National child labor laws should be obliged to deal with both the spirit and letter of the Convention and with related ILO conventions. The vast majority of child work must encompass such legislation in the informal sector of the economy; this would take account of work on the farms and streets, domestic work or work inside the child’s own household.

Fourthly, all children should be registered at birth. This registration is essential to permit the exercise of the child’s rights, such as health care, access to education, and other services. This will furthermore provide employers and labor inspectors with evidence of every child’s age in order to cut down and prevent child labor abuse. Fifthly, data collection and monitoring child labor stringently, if in fact the dilemma is to be addressed successfully. International and national systems must be laid out to gather and analyze internationally equivalent data on child labor. Within the home, in domestic service or on the family farm special attention is needed to these so called forgotten or invisible areas of child labor. Monitoring communities are vastly important, and working children should keenly contribute in evaluating their circumstances and advise ways to improve their surroundings. Lastly, in order to end child labor adopting codes of conduct and procurement policies will guarantee that neither the companies nor their subcontractors will utilize children in surroundings so as to infringe their civil liberties. Procurement procedures have got to be developed to be aware of the best interest of the child and take all actions to protect those interests. (Bellamy, UNICEF)

The government is not the only ones who could help eliminate child labor. Everyone has the power to prevent child labor, just by understanding more about the issues, as well as preventing others, especially owners, from violating children’s rights. Some families feel that they have no choice but send their children to work because it is the only solution for their survival, thus it is important to find solutions to raise more fund for direct help. Not only should we the people, help the families in need, but at the same time, we should help to provide children with free schools and education to a brighter future. Participating in one of the many organizations that help and support children around the world can make all the difference to a young life who is in desperately need of your support. (Supports, The Path of Innocence)

What can I do to help? How can I make a difference? There are more ways to give and every contribution is a step towards another child’s freedom from labor. Free the Children is a network in which helps children through education. Their primary goals are to free children from exploitation, poverty, and free younger generation from the ideas that they are powerless to affect the world in a positive way. Free the Children has many campaigns in which one can participate in such as: their Adopt a Village campaign and its Brick by Brick school building component, their Sweat-Free Schools campaign, Alternative Income projects which permits children to be sent to school by their parents, or a movement to construct vocational and rehabilitation centers for the child laborers who escaped the harsh labor.

By stopping burdensome practice of child labor in non and organized regions it can provide developments of the needs of growing children. To become a future citizen it is mandatory to train the nation’s children, giving them equal and proper opportunities for educational growth. (Child Labour Today)

As we can see, television is playing a very big role in our life. Television has its good side. It can be entertaining and educational, and can open up new worlds for children, giving them a chance to travel the globe, learn about different cultures, and gain exposure to ideas they may never encounter in their own community. However, parents need to understand the negative influence of children’s TV, even children’s programming, because children are likely to learn things from TV that parents don’t want them to learn. Television can affect children’s health, school work and behavior in negative ways.

Excess television viewing can influence children’s physical and mental health. On one hand, it could affect badly children’s physical health. It is easy for children to be myopic if they watch TV more than two hours in a day. Children will spend less time on sports and TV time also takes away from participating in sports, music, art or other activities that require practice to become skillful. And they may have high caloric intake if they are watching TV at dinner. A person would burn fewer calories while watching TV than when just sitting quietly, doing nothing (Langholt, 2010). So it may contribute to obesity problems. Children who watch more TV are more likely to be overweight. TV is a bigger factor than diet. Estimates of risk indicate that more 60% of overweight incidence in this population can be linked to excess television viewing time (Dietz, 1996). Many TV ads encourage unhealthy eating habits. Two-thirds of the 20,000 TV ads an average child sees each year are for food and most are for high-sugar foods. After-school TV ads target children with ads for unhealthy foods and beverages, like fast food and sugary drinks. On the other hand, watching TV has bad influence on children’s mental health, too. Children who are addicted to TV are hard to communicate with their family members and classmates. One study found that TV viewing before age three slightly hurt several measures of later brain development. Before the age of three, children’s brain develops rapidly, forming connections and pathways that will assist with learning later in life. Studies indicate that exposure to television, with its fast-moving images and rapid actions, actually rewires children’s brain to crave this hyperactive stimulation. The benefits of parent-child interactions are proven, and under age three, talking, singing, reading, listening, to music or playing are far more important to children’s development than any TV show. The American Academy of Pediatrics strongly recommends that parents keep their kids away from all TV until after the age of two (Bushman, 2010). Children under age eight can’t tell the difference between reality in our lives and fantasy on TV. In this case, children may be frightened or upset by TV stories easily, and the symptoms include bad dreams, anxious feelings, being afraid of being alone, withdrawing from friends, and missing school.

TV viewing may replace activities that we know help with school work, such as reading, doing homework, pursuing hobbies, and getting enough sleep. First, it makes children read fewer books and have lower grades in school. Watching TV at age four is one factor to be associated with bulling in grade school. Second, children may become more seeing than thinking. It may prevent children from the development of their imagination and creativity. Finally, one research study found that TV’s effects on education are long term. The study found that watching TV as a child affected educational achievement at age 26. Watching more TV in childhood increases chances of dropping out of school and decreased chances of getting a college, even after controlling for confounding factors (Bushman, 2010).

Children who watch more sensitive TV may have behavior problems. First of all, they will imitate the violence they see on TV. Programs designed for children more often contain violence than adult TV. Young children may even try to emulate the things they see on TV, not realizing that they risk injuring themselves or others. According to the AAP, Extensive research evidence indicates that media violence can contribute to aggressive behavior, desensitization to violence (Bushman, 2010). Watching violent shows is also linked with having less empathy toward others. A university of Michigan researcher demonstrated that watching violent media can affect willingness to help others in need (Bushman, 2010). What’s more, alcohol advertising, including TV ads, contributes to an increase in drinking among youth. TV ads are a major factor in normalizing alcohol use in the minds of children, adolescents and college students. Alcohol has damaging effects on young people’s developing brains-and the damage can be permanent. Children who watch TV are more likely to smoke. Even though tobacco ads are banned on TV, young people still see people smoking on programs and movies shown on television. Recent research has shown that exposure to smoking in movie characters increases the likelihood that viewers will associate themselves with smoking (Langholt, 2010). Kids who watch more TV start smoking at an earlier age. The relationship between television viewing and age of starting smoking is stronger than that of peer smoking, parental smoking, and gender. Finally, children get lots of information about sexuality from television. Because most parents don’t talk to their kids about sex and most school don’t offer complete sex education programs, they get much information about sex from TV. However, watching sex on TV increases the chances that a teen will have sex, and may cause teens to start having sex at younger ages (Bushman, 2010).

In summary, television viewing affects children’s physical and mental health, school performance and behavior in negative ways. Therefore, children should replace TV time with creative and physical activities, reading and playing games with positive values and educational content.

ABSTRACT

Everyone in this world watches television. Some people do not like to watch it and some people have no time for it but it is a lie if they never watched it before. No matter how much they hate it or no time for it, they must have watched it once before. Television programs give us a lot of information and we can get a lot of benefits from it. However, it has been misused by today’s youths because they do not know how to interpret all those information very well. Indirectly, this causes the statement of television programs affect the attitude of today’s youth to arise.

It seems that television programs may lead to aggressive behavior because kids are very easy to be influenced as they are still young and just about to know the whole world. So, whatever they see on television, they tend to imitate it. As we all know, kids learn while they are growing up. After watching a lot of violence shows, they might be immune to violence and this will automatically encourage them not to hesitate to be violence in reality. Besides that, television programs also cause the development of negative social amongst youths due to the advertisements of alcohol, smoking and sex scenes. Youths will be encouraged by these scenes and advertisements as it is easier to attract people’s attention by using animation rather than pictures. Furthermore, television programs affect self development and self esteem. People who are addicted to television are willing to do anything for it including sacrifice their sleeping time just to watch their favourite shows. This will indirectly cause self development to be affected. Television programs affect self esteem because they might put on diet as they want to compete with skinny beautiful models and actresses that can be seen on television. Do television programs affect the attitude of today’s youths? From the reasons that have been mentioned above, the answer is certainly yes, television programs do affect the attitude of today’s youth.

1.0 INTRODUCTION

“Televiewing causes people to duplicate inappropriately, in other areas of their lives, behavior styles developed while watching television.” (Kottak, 1990, p.3)

Television programs can be educational as well as entertaining. It can give people the opportunity to travel around the globe, expose them to new ideas that they might not have encountered from their community and also a chance to learn about different cultures. Pro-social messages from shows on television will give a positive impact on the behavior of today’s youth. However, these youths are more likely to learn negative values from these television programs.

Statistics show that an average of children ranging from ages 2-5 years old spends about 32 hours a week in front of the television while children ranging from 6-11 years old spends about 28 hours a week watching these television programs (McDonough, 2009). Another set of statistics show that 68% of children between ages 8-18 years old have a television set in their bedrooms, 37% of them have cable/satellite television and 20% have premium channels. This is very interesting as studies show that 53% of households of 7th to 12th graders have no rules or boundaries regarding the amount of time they spend watching television or the type of programs they watch thus making these television programs a very influential tool because studies have shown that kids with no televisions in their bedroom spend an average 1.5 hours less per day watching television than kids who do (Roberts, Foehr & Rideout 2005).

Television has now become a debatable issue as some question its influences on the attitude and psychological development of today’s youth. Nowadays, the world of television has been discovered by children at very young age. As we know, television is an effective educational tool. With programs showcasing wildlife, scientific theories etc, it helps these children to be broad-minded and also have a better understanding about the world around them. However, we have to remember and be aware that the television also is seem to posses more negative effects than positive ones.

A day in a youth’s life will generally be filled with activities such as playing with friends, reading, doing homework and being physically active but this can be easily replaced with the presence of television. This is detrimental to their physical and mental development because studies show that the first two to three years of a child’s life is where he/she learns through observing, interacting, playing and also exploring new things. Thus if these children are glued and become addicted to these programs on television they will have lesser time to interact with human beings. This is crucial, as it can retard their normal physical and social development and skills. Hence, the burning question here is, do television programs affect the attitude of today’s youth?

If we look further into the issue, television programs do indeed affect the attitude of today’s youth as it enhances negative social development amongst youths, which may lead to aggressive or violent behavior, and they tend to affect self development and self esteem.

As we all know, youths are more likely to imitate and adapts ones behavior into their own because they can easily relate to what is shown on television. There surely will be a lot of behavioral changes in youths today if they are exposed to excessive violence shown on television. These kinds of programs will encourage these youths to be aggressive in both their behavior and in their thoughts. Not only that, they will also be more likely to be influenced with what they have seen regularly like smoking and drinking scenes which are shown frequently in these television programs and even commercials. This will encourage the development of such unhealthy habits at an early age (Bora, 2009).

This report shows the effect television programs have on the attitude of today’s youth. These research findings are confined to the United States of America as the knowledge and collective behaviors of contemporary Americans are everywhere. Like any other problem, there is always a solution, in order to ensure that television is used as a source of knowledge and healthy entertainment, one must be sure to watch it in moderation by setting a time limit when you sit down to watch it. Besides that, the government, the parents and the teachers should encourage today’s youth to participate in other positive activities like playing outdoor and indoor games. Not only that, they should also encourage today’s youth to watch programs that reinforce family values.

2.0 TELEVISION PROGRAMS MAY LEAD TO AGGRESSIVE OR VIOLENT BEHAVIOR

Aggressive attitudes, values and behavior can be increased by watching entertainment violence, particulary in children. The effects are measurable and also long lasting. Some of the television programs will show scenes with stabbing, hitting, shooting, punching, guns and any type of other violence. Almost all the violence shows on television are fake as television programs use fake guns and fake blood to represent violent acts during acting (Kaufman, 2004). Violent scenes on television may not be a great deal for the adults because adults know the difference between reality and fantasy compared to children who know nothing about it or not clear about the difference between reality and fantasy. Most of the time, children who see a lot of violence will settle their conflicts in violence way.

According to psychological research, youths can be negatively affected by the violence on television. Watching violence on television will give three major effects which youths will be less sensitive to pain and suffering of others, youths will be more fearful of the world around them and they might behave aggressively toward the others (Abelard, 2008).

ACT Against Violence (cited in Kaufman, 2004) states that infants are interested in television only for a short period of time as they are attracted to the light and sound from the television. Toddlers who are 18-36 months are paying more attention to what is on television and are able to get the meaning from the programs they watch. The link between their fantasy and reality is not strong which will cause them to react equally to animated violence and real violence. Preschoolers who are 3-5 years old are looking forward to shows on television. Eventhough they can understand what they are watching, they cannot give it a context. They cannot judge commercials versus regular programs or reality versus fantasy. Vivid scenes, rapid movement, sound and colour are highly attracted by the preschoolers. Hence, this shows that most of them pay the most attention to the most violent scenes on the screen. Children in the range of 6 to 11 years old believe that television reflects real life. They will show more aggressive behavior after watching the violent scenes.

2.1 THEY TEND TO IMITATE SUCH BEHAVIOR FROM WHAT IS SHOWN ON TELEVISION

Everyone knows that viewers may imitate positive and negative behaviors from the television programs. However, the Gerbner group has found that people will be more apt to perceive the real world as being similar to television programs if they spend more time on watching television (Kottak, 1990, p.11). This situation will be faced mainly by the children as they do not have enough knowledge and experiences to differentiate between reality and fantasy. Since they only spend their time on watching television, they might have forgotten that they are actually watching something that is fantasy, not a reality. Hence, the innocent children will follow blindly what they have seen on television because they think that the characters on television programs can do so, why can’t they. Violence on television programs may create blur images of good and evil. Kottak (1990) states that the distinction between heroes and villains is fading. This will cause the children to be more confused and lead them to do anything they want. For example, if they adore a character from one movie, they might just imitate the behavior of that character without knowing that behavior is a good behavior or a bad behavior. Most of the shows on television are using violence as the central to the storyline, where the heroes and villains can get what they want by using violence as it is an effective way. It is true that television programs may lead to aggressive behavior. This can be proven by an incident in Dallas where a boy has been killed by his elder brother, 7 years old with a “clothesline” maneuver he had seen on a wrestling show (Kaufman,2004).

2.2. THEY BECOME IMMUNE TO VIOLENCE

Children will tend to have favorable attitudes toward aggressive behaviors if they watch more violent television programs. This will indirectly cause the child to become immune to the horror of violence (American Academy of Child Adolescent Psychiatry, 2002). This is because, they can always see violence in the television programs that they are watching. Hence, the child will gradually accept violence as a way to solve problems. Lefebrve has found an example to show that a child has immune to violence until he uses the type of violence that has been seen by him on television to solve his problem. A six years old boy wearing turtle costume stabbed his friend in the arm for not returning his toy. This shows that this child has no humanity because for him, it is only a normal thing to stab someone as he has already immune to violence.

AGGRESSIVE AND VIOLENT BEHAVIORS ARE CONTRIBUTED THROUGH OTHER CHANNELS

Some people argue that not only television programs can lead to aggressive and violent behaviors but these behaviors can be influenced by people surrounding them like peers and family. However, children spend most of their time by watching television. Almost everyone in the world has their celebrity idol. Children tend to like the characters of their idols on the television programs or movie without thinking whether their idols are doing the good or bad thing in that show. This will cause children to imitate their favourite characters in particular shows because they are too obsessed with the characters. Factors that may lead to aggressive and violent behaviors that have been influenced by their peers or family members are not a strong argument compared to television programs. This is because, children will not always agree or listen to what people say to them because they are quite stubborn and will just follow their hearts to do whatever they want. Eventhough they have been influenced a lot of times by people surrounding them, they still can choose whether to do it or not as they might not interested in their type of violence. If they chose not to do it, they can just not do it and can stay away from people who are influencing them. Think about television, how are they supposed to stay away from television? There is no way for people in this world to stay away from television unless that person is in a jungle or no television set at home. Although they do not have television sets at home, they can still watch it at their office place or any stalls. No matter what, they can still watch programs on television and somehow will come across to violence. Besides that, television programs are visual and children can always see the act in an interesting way and it can be watched repeatedly. There are so many types of violence on television programs that can be seen by the children. So they have variety types of violence to be chosen and if children love what they are watching, then they will start to behave like what they are watching. Hence, television programs are the main source which may lead to aggressive and violent behaviors.

In a nutshell, the attitude of today’s youth are affected by television programs as they will indirectly encourage the children to be aggressive and violent in their behaviors. Children tend to imitate such behaviors from what is shown on television and also the immunity to violence cause the children’s behavior to be easier affected by television programs.

3.0 TELEVISION PROGRAMS ENHANCE NEGATIVE SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT AMONGST YOUTHS

Children are very curious because they are still growing up and just about to see the whole world. So, they are more easily being influenced to do either negative or positive things when they see something new or something that they can see often on the television. We cannot control children’s mind because they seem to keep it to themselves and we can only see the differences in them when they express it. Besides that, they do not know what the good and bad things are as they are just about to understand and see the real world. So, they will simply do whatever they like which have been seen by them on television. Examples of negative social development that can be enhanced by the television programs are drug and alcohol abuse, smoking and also sex amongst the youths. All of these cannot be expected not to be seen on television because these will be included in most of the television programs and advertisements.

Outley & Taddese (2006) state that one of the factors for increased drinking amongst the youths are due to the exposure to alcohol use on television and in music videos like MTV, Hitz, and [V] channels. According to Kaiser Family Foundation, three quarter of the prime time shows entitled Sex on TV contain sexual references. There is only one tenth of the sexual content shows include the risks, responsibilities and safety of sex. Only 17% of messages about safety and responsibilities of sex have been portrayed in shows about teenagers in sexual situations. Children will start smoking at an earlier age for those who watch more television as the factors of influenced by the peer and parental smoking and gender is not as strong as the relationship between the age of starting smoking and television viewing (Mekemson & Glantz, 2002).

3.1 THE MONKEY SEE, MONKEY DO THEORY

Audience can experience strong emotional reactions, gain new values and change the way they behave by observing the performance of actors. This will be more likely to happen especially when the models show new patterns of behavior and thought which are rewarded (Bandura, 1985). This explains that the audience will do whatever they like which have been seen by them on the television and this will affect their behavior and attitude. Most of the people who can think rasionally, they will not follow the negative things that have been watched by them on television. However, we have to remember that youths are still young and they are still learning about things around this world. This world is new to them and they do not understand which is good and which is bad until the adults thought them the right things. At this range of ages, youths will have problems in controlling themselves if they are addicted to television programs which will then lead to the monkey see, monkey do theory.

Television is the most influenced medium. It can be part of the solution and part of the problem in the area of sex amongst the youths. It will give solutions to the area of sex amongst the youths when the shows are giving a technique to have safe sex, a warning program to the teenagers about the consequences if that person gets pregnant, the responsibilities that they need to know from the start before they decided to have sex, etc. However, it will give problems when the children watch the sex scenes in the television programs. When they watch this kind of scenes, they will get attracted to it because everyone has the passion and it is a human nature to have the feeling to do it. Children will think that it is not wrong to have sex because they can always see the sex scenes on television without being censored and the monkey see, monkey do theory will be seen in this situation. They see it on television and they will do it in real life. Not all of them will do it in real life because some of them might not get a partner to do it in real life but nowadays, in this kind of situation, it is not difficult anymore to get a partner to have sex due to the influenced by television programs. For those who might not get a partner to satisfy his satisfaction, he might do something worst like rape the girls.

In most television programs, there will be at least one scene where they will be drinking alcohol and smoking. For those children who watch this scene, he or she might not know what is alcohol and cigarette. As the theory said, monkey see, monkey do, the children might try to drink and smoke in real life like what they have seen on television.

3.2 THEY HAVE BEEN ENCOURAGED BY THE TELEVISION PROGRAMS

People in the advertisements of alcohol can always be seen more successful, happier and sexier when they drink. Alcohol advertising including the television advertisements caused the drinking among youth to be increased (Johnson et al. 2004). When they see this kind of advertisements, they will be more likely feel encouraged by the advertisements because everyone wants to be sexy, happy and successful. Since these advertisements show that they can feel all of the feelings, this will indirectly encourage them to drink so that they can feel to be more successful, happier and sexier.

There are some of the television programs about a group of friends ignore he or she because that person doesn’t want to do something that had been asked to do by that group of friends, for example like smoking. When children watch this kind of shows, they will feel scared because they do not want to lose their friends, and they are still young to know that actually the friends who ignored them are not good friends for them. In order to be secure, children will take precaution steps before they lose their friends, and hence they will decide to smoke. This shows that television programs are indirectly encourage the children to develop the negative social in them.

YOUTHS RECEIVED THE KNOWLEDGE OF NEGATIVE SOCIAL FROM OTHER SOURCES

“We are doing our young people a real disservice by attempting to protect them from straight and open information that is imperative for adjustment in the real world.” (Maw, 2007)

Some people argue that youths can get the information and knowledge from their friends, parents, teachers, magazines, etc. There are also some of them who claim that the purpose of television programs show all these kind of programs is because they want to protect today’s youth by showing them the real side of world. However, television is still the most influenced medium. This is because, children can spend most of their time in front of television and can watch that particular show for a long period of time as well as get the information in detail throughout the show. If compared to the information by the parents, peers, etc, they will not get the information in detail. Besides that, it is not that they will spend their time with their parents and peers to talk about it for 24 hours, they need to talk about something else too like family talk and etc. Hence, that is why television programs will give more impact on the negative social development amongst youths compared to the other sources.

4.0 TELEVISION PROGRAMS MAY AFFECT SELF DEVELOPMENT AND SELF ESTEEM

In order to create a good relationship with other people, it is important for us to have good self esteem and self confidence in ourselves so that we can achieve our goals. People who have trouble getting positive relationship and afraid to do anything that can improve their life is due to the lack of self esteem. We can always see beautiful skinny models and actresses on television. Most of the children will then start to feel insecure and they will definitely want to do something with their bodies so that they can feel as good as the beautiful skinny models and actresses on television. However, in order for them to maintain their bodies or to get the body like their role models, they have to sacrifice a lot of things. For example, they have to diet in order to be beautiful and skinny like models and actresses on television. This will affect the youths’ self development and self esteem.

4.1 THEY HAVE SLEEPING PROBLEMS BY WATCHING TELEVISION

Sleeping disorders and sleeping patterns among youths have been altered by television viewing. In order to get healthy sleep, we need regular sleep schedules. Thompson & Christakis (2005) state that watching television makes the youths to have more irregular sleep disorders. Children need to get enough sleep so that their brain can work and can think carefully. If they do not have enough sleep, their brain will be very tired and cannot think carefully which will indirectly make their brain to be slow. When the brain is slow, this will affect the development of the youth. Besides that, the development of youth will be affected by the sleeping problems because they need to have enough sleep to grow. The growth at this age is very important and the growth rate should not be affected by anything so that the self development will not be interrupted.

4.2 THEY TEND TO PUT ON DIET

When they see beautiful actresses and models on television, they feel insecure about their bodies and they will start on diet to get hot body like those actresses and models. When they look someone beautiful on television, their self esteem will automatically being activated. They will start to ask themselves whether they are beautiful or not. For example, when someone sees Megan Fox on television, she will automatically feel very insecure and she thinks that herself is ugly. She will definitely think the way how to compete herself with Megan Fox. No matter how preety that person is, normally if she sees someone who she thinks is preety, her self esteem will then automatically be activated and cause her not to eat in order to be preety like the others. Not only that, when they are not having a proper diet, this will also affect the self development on them.

SELF ESTEEM AND SELF DEVELOPMENT CAN BE AFFECTED BY PEOPLE SURROUNDING THEM

People who do not agree with television programs may affect self development and self esteem say that self esteem and self development can be affected by people surrounding them. It is true that it can be affected by surrounding people but we have to remember that our surrounding people are random people. We will not see the same person every day. It is also possible if the children see their idols as random people for only once. Compared to television, children can always see their idols on television again and again, which will make them feel more uncomfortable with themselves due to the self esteem and self development. Hence, television is the biggest influenced medium on youths.

5.0 RECOMMENDATIONS

The following recommendations have been made to solve the problem of youth’s attitude that has been affected by the television programs:

Provide the youths with media education and monitor them

Discuss the contents of the shows with youths

Give them more confidence in themselves

According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, the kids will be less influenced to the negative effects of watching violent shows on television by the help of media education. Some studies have shown that media education can make the kids to have less violent behavior after watching violent shows on television (Kyla, 2009). This shows that media education can help the youths to control their aggressive behavior eventhough they have watched a lot of violence shows. Hence, it is not wrong for the parents to try the method of providing their children with media education. Either it works or not, parents are highly recommended to try this method as it is one of the most effective ways for controlling children’s behavior. We have to remember that we cannot control everyone’s interest. If the kids love to watch violent programs, we cannot stop them from watching it and it is not wrong for them to watch it as long as they can differentiate what is good and what is bad. Besides that, another way to prevent the youths from having aggressive or violent behavior is parents should monitor the children on what they are watching. This is to prevent the children from straight away imitate whatever they have seen on television, especially for kids. Parents should try to explain to kids as many as possible about what have been shown on television because the children do not know how to differentiate which one is reality or fantasy as they are still young and know nothing about it. Usually, children love to imitate the aggressive or violent behavior from cartoon and this is the main reason that the parents need to explain to their children about reality and fantasy terms to give the children an idea about this issue.

Secondly, parents should discuss the contents of the programs with their children in order to avoid the development of negative social amongst the youths. The advertisements about alcohol and cigarette as well as sex scenes cannot be avoided from the youths. Parents should spend more time with their children to share opinions between them. Parents need to know what exactly on their children’s mind so that they can give advices to their children. This is the time for the parents to be a good role model for their children. Give them good advices and hear their opinion patiently without judging. Eventhough their thoughts are wrong, parents need to correct it and give them a bigger idea about the effects of alcohol, smoking and sex before married by giving them a story based on experience or tell them the consequences of all these actions.

In order to avoid self esteem and self development from being affected, parents should help their children to build confidence in themselves. They should remind their children how attractive they are and nobody’s perfect. Parents should keep on telling their children that that all those beautiful skinny models and actresses on television must have scarcity in themselves. Parents have to help their children to build their confidence so that they do not want to be someone else due to the confidences that have been built in them. Besides that, parents should set rules for their children. For example, set the rule that they have to switch off the television before 10 P.M so that they can sleep early and get enough sleep. This rule may help the children to have a good self development.

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6.0 CONCLUSION

To summarize, television programs contribute more damage than benefits. Television programs may lead to aggressive behavior and violent behavior as kids become immune to violence and they tend to imitate what is shown on television. Eventhough aggressive and violent behaviors are contributed through other channels, television is the main source which will lead to this behavior. This is because, they spend most of their time on watching television compared to the others. They can easily imitate the violent behavior due to the blur images of good and evil which have been created by television programs. Since they watch more violent television programs, they become immune to the horror of violence as they can always see violence in the television programs that they are watching.

Evidently, television programs enhance negative social development amongst youths. This can be proven by the theory of monkey see, monkey do. Whatever have been seen by them on television, they can always do if they want to without thinking the consequences because they are still young and do not know how to differentiate the good and the bad things. Eventhough the knowledge of negative social can be received from other sources, television is the most influenced medium because they can watch those actions as if it is real while magazines and posters are only in a form of pictures.

Not only that, television programs may also affect self development and self esteem. The self development is affected by the sleeping disorder because they might watch their favourite shows until late night and have not enough sleep. Sometimes they tend to put on diet due to their self esteem as they see beautiful skinny models and actresses so that they can be as preety as those models and actresses. Youths can always see the beautiful skinny models and actresses as long as they watch television, they cannot avoid from seeing them on television. Do you think it is logic for us not to see even one beautiful actress? Of course the answer is no and that is why television is the most influence medium which can affect self development and self esteem.

In a nutshell, television programs do affect the attitude of youth’s today as it enhances negative social development amongst youths, which may lead to aggressive or violent behavior, and they tend to affect self development and self esteem.

Natural disasters happen suddenly and cause devastation in the form of death, injury, and destruction. The Red Cross has recorded an average of 350 disasters per year in the last decade, a 75% increase from the average 200 disasters per year in the 1990s. In 2008, 326 natural disasters occurred around the world, killing 235,736 people, affecting 213,000,000 people, and causing an estimated $181,000,000,000 in damage (International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies [Red Cross], 2009). Research has found that children are the most vulnerable to psychological trauma but their emotional needs are often neglected in the aftermath of a disaster (Vennema & Schroeder-Bruce, 2002). Additionally, children may be at risk of developing post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) resulting from the “experiencing, witnessing, or participation” in the disaster (American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry [AACAP], 2008). Parents, caregivers, and aid workers need to recognize the psychological effect disasters have on children to help them cope with emotional trauma and prevent long-term repercussions.

With the rise in natural disasters and the terrorist attack of September 11, 2001, researchers have been observing how children respond to disasters. A child’s cognitive, physical, and social development influences his or her understanding of the disaster and potential trauma caused by it (American Academy of Pediatrics [AAP], 1999). Because of this, the role of child development will be investigated in this paper. Finally, children are not static but are influenced by their family, community, and national institutions. While research often recognizes the effect these structures have on a child’s development and disaster response, none have examined how each of these institutions interacts to influence a child’s response after a disaster. As a result, this paper will also analyze the literature to examine the effects of disasters on these institutions, and therefore children’s disaster response.

Literature Review

Even though natural disasters are today more common than before, adults often do not recognize their prevalence or impact on children. Shen & Sink (2002) examined the effects of disasters on school-age children and the prevalence of disaster interventions and preparation among school counselors. The researchers found that children may reenact their feelings or display their mourning through their play, especially with items associated with the event. Children may struggle with how to express their emotions and thoughts about a disaster. Parents, therefore, may not help their children cope because they are unaware of their children’s emotional needs. The authors note that changes in children’s behavior as a result of the trauma often decline over a period of a couple of months. However, children’s inability to cope with the disaster can have long-term effects on their development, education, and health. Shen and Sink (2002) also address the implications of disasters for school counselors and provide several suggestions for school-based disaster interventions. They note that schools provide support for children after a disaster and can be instrumental in the recovery process. For many children, being back in school restores a sense of normalcy, security, and order (Shen & Sink, 2002).

Through a qualitative descriptive study, Beuchesne, Kelley, Patdaughter, and Pickard (2002) investigated the effects of the September 11, 2001 World Trade Center attack on New York City children and how parents reacted to their children’s distress. By asking 88 school-age children and 51 parents of their response immediately after learning of the attack, they discovered that children felt unsafe, grief, empathy for victims, afraid of the future, and wanted retribution. Parents reported feeling unsure of how to help their child after a disaster. One significant feature of the study was the use of cognitive developmental theory to explain the developmental differences in children’s responses. For example, answers of how to avoid another attack included “don’t go in tall buildings,” “don’t fly on an airplane,” or “don’t grow up and become a pilot,” reflecting their concrete stage of development. The researchers also learned that older school-age children were concerned with the details of the attack (e.g. why, how) while younger children focused on how they felt. Similarly, school-age children understood the serious implications of the terrorist attack (loss of life, threat of war), while younger children remained focused on one aspect of the traumatic event, often how it influenced themselves directly These developmental characteristics may result in more intense reactions of grief and fear among school-age children in response to the disaster (Beuchesne et al., 2002).

Mercuri and Angelique (2004) conducted a literature review of 22 studies on natural, technological, and na-tech (natural and technological) disasters effects on children. Using content analysis, they coded for type of disaster, measurement instrument, instrument administration, and child’s age. The researchers found that children reported higher levels of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) than parental measures. In addition, children whose lives had been endangered or directly witnessed the disaster had the highest rate of PTSD symptoms. This finding was especially apparent among the adolescent age group. No difference in stress level was found between the three categories of disaster. Based on these findings, Mercuri and Angelique (2004) argue that older children are more likely than younger children to be distressed after a disaster. The authors reason that older children’s cognitive development allows them to understand the implication and significance of the disaster on society as a whole, causing a deeper emotional response. The researcher’s findings also show that it is also important to ask children about their experiences after a disaster instead of relying on parental reports (Mercuri & Angelique, 2004).

Development Considerations

Children’s development influences their response to a traumatic event. For young children, a disaster interferes with their attachment to caregivers, daily routine, and development of autonomy. School-age children, who understand the permanence of loss and the deeper implications of a disaster, may react to the disaster at a more profound emotional level. Adolescents are the most likely to respond in ways similar to adults. However, their developing identity, independence, and abstract thinking influence their reasoning and reactions to the disaster (Hagan, 2005).

In 1999, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recognized the effect development plays in children’s reaction in their report of the role of pediatricians in post-disaster interventions. In this statement, the authors assert that the most powerful effect of a disaster is the disruption it causes in children’s lives. Natural disasters suspend normal routines due to physical injury, damage of homes and schools, and loss of caregivers and loved ones. Children often respond to this loss in characteristic ways based on their age and development (see Appendix A). For example, a preschool age child may express their distress by regressing to behaviors previously outgrown while an adolescent may engage in risk-taking behaviors. Disasters often elicit responses of anxiety, depression, guilt, and sleep disturbances for both children and adolescents (AAP, 1999).

Murray (2006) also recognized how development affects the impact of disasters on children in his article addressing children’s psychosocial needs following a disaster. He noted that children’s reaction to a disaster depends mainly on the amount of destruction, loss, and the child’s age. Similar to the AAP (1999) statement, Murray (2006) mentioned how the death of a family member, physical injury, and destruction of home and school increases children’s reaction to the disaster. He argues that situations of separation and stress often elicit common reactions among children of similar ages (see Appendix A; Murray, 2006).

Due to disaster trauma, some children may display symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder such as recurring nightmares, feelings of detachment, and physiological responses to exposure of reminders of the event. In their study of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among children after a disaster, Veenema and Schroeder-Bruce (2002) revealed that children’s wide range of emotional, psychosocial, and physiological response to disasters are often characteristic of the child’s level of development. Similar to the previous studies, the researchers noted that developmental growth may be disrupted by disaster trauma. However, the authors found that the most severe psychosocial reactions in children were associated with close proximity to the disaster, prolonged exposure to death and injury, and poor parental response. Veenema & Schroeder-Bruce, (2002) also illustrated how cognitive developmental theory (Piaget) and psychosocial developmental theory (Erikson) influence children’s trauma responses and appropriate interventions. For example, according to Piaget’s theory, elementary children think concretely, understand the use of symbols (one thing standing for another), begin to reason and think abstractly, and are less egocentric. Also at this age, school-age children seek to be industrious by being competent in skills and knowledge. Because of these developmental issues, a school-age child may exhibit social phobia or engage in repetitious traumatic play or retelling of the event in response to the trauma. For this reason, opportunities in which children can attempt “scary” things, such as returning to school, can restore children’s autonomy and sense of competency (Veenema & Schroeder-Bruce, 2002).

Ecological Theory

The ecological theory of development explores how a child’s family, community, and nation influence the growth and development of a child. Because a disaster affects all of these, the child’s response to a disaster will be shaped by how these structures also respond to a disaster. Below, this theory is applied to the literature to corroborate the role of the family, community, and nation in children’s disaster response.

Research has shown that children’s reactions to disasters are often intensified by their parent’s distress. During times of crisis, children are especially aware of a parent’s worries and stress (AACAP, 2008). Research has also shown that infant’s level of anxiety reflects their caregivers anxiety level (Murray, 2006). Parent’s response to a disaster expresses to children the severity of the situation and how they should respond (Beuchesne et al., 2006).Thus, parents must cope with the disaster to facilitate their children’s coping ability.

Disasters cause multiple losses for families. For example, a disaster may destroy a family’s home forcing them to live in temporary shelter, sever contact with friends and family, and lose material possessions. In addition, the disaster may affect a parent’s employment and livelihood. The ongoing stress from the secondary effects of the disaster makes children more vulnerable to stress and anxiety disorders (Federal Emergency Management Agency [FEMA], 2004). Existent stressors, such as poverty, are often exacerbated after a disaster as opportunities for shelter, food, and employment are further restricted. Families must not only cope with the effects of the disaster, but also these additional stressors (National Institute of Mental Health [NIMH], 2006).

Disasters can have long-lasting impacts on communities by disrupting occupations, altering environmental resources (food and water), and societal structures (education and government; Murray, 2006). Community leaders can help in the recovery process of families and children by being available to discuss emotions caused by the disaster, allow the use of buildings as gathering places and temporary shelters, and collaborating with relief agencies (NIMH, 2006). Community organizations involvement in disaster relief validates a family’s feelings of grief and loss caused by the disaster (AAP, 1999). Families who have support systems through religious institutions, community organizations, or extended family are more likely to be able to cope and understand their own feelings, therefore leading to their children’s increased coping ability (FEMA, 2004).

Natural disasters occur more often in developing countries and cause a greater proportion of deaths. In developing countries, a large percentage of the population lives in poverty in poorly constructed homes, with poor or non-existent warning systems, inadequate emergency response, rural locations, and a poor national economy (Kar, 2009). Because of these factors, developing countries are often more severely affected by natural disasters (Red Cross, 2009).

In contrast, children also appear to play an active role during disasters and recovery that impacts their families and community. Penrose and Takaki (2006) interviewed children in Thailand after the 2004 tsunami and found that children often helped in the initial emergency response. The children described how they acted instinctively during the disaster in saving themselves and others. They also helped by applying first aid, searching for lost family members, and collecting food and water. Their active involvement during the disaster relief and recovery helped minimize feelings of loss and grief (Penrose & Takaki, 2006).

Conclusion

Research has established the role of families and communities in children’s response to a disaster and often provides suggestions of how these individuals can help children recover (see Appendix B). For example, resources such as the NIMH and FEMA publications are available on-line to assist parents and adults helping children recover after a disaster. The publications discuss not only the role of adults and community in the recovery process, but also risk factors for vulnerability and common reactions of children by age. However, these publications fail to distinguish the effects these risk factors have on children’s response compared to one another. For example, is a child more severely affected by losing his parents or his home? Despite this limitation, these publications are a useful guide for adults trying to help children after a disaster. Unfortunately, these agencies do not have on-site disaster interventions for children. Some organizations though, have begun to implement interventions in disaster areas and evaluate their successfulness. Current intervention programs include Rainbow Center for Global Health’s Children in Disasters Project (Olness, Mandalakas, Pairojkul, Holsinger, Bothe, & Herran, 2007) and the Indian National Institute of Mental Health and Neuroscience’s “train the trainer” model program (Becker, 2006). However, one topic that is often neglected in these interventions is culture. Future efforts should focus on how cultural and religious beliefs may influence children’s response to a natural disaster and how these beliefs can be incorporated into disaster interventions.

Disasters interrupt children’s lives through loss, injury, and destruction of their home and community. This disruption leads to a loss of routine and normalcy, affecting children of all ages. Children’s development affects how children react to trauma caused by a disaster. Family and social support also influence children’s reactions to disaster trauma, while children’s response impacts these institutions as well. Parents and relief workers can facilitate children’s normal development and coping after a disaster by understanding how development, families, and support systems influence children’s response to a disaster.

Appendix A

Birth – 5 years old:

Detachment from caregiver

Crying

Increased irritability

Separation anxiety; cling to caregivers

Heightened startle response

Difficulty sleeping

Nightmares

Changes in eating habits

Helplessness

Decreased level of responsiveness

Apathetic or passive

Increased temper tantrums

Withdrawn

Depressed

Regression in behavior

Fear

Guilt

Somatic complaints (headaches, stomachaches)

6-12 years old:

Aggressive

Difficulty sleeping

Need to be with family at all times

Withdrawn

Focus on direct consequences of disaster (e.g. no more school)

Need for details and information

Concerned for personal safety

Empathy for victims

Nightmares

Decline in school performance

Moody

Sad

Hostile

Reenact trauma

Loss of interest or avoidance of activities

Somatic complaints (headaches, stomachaches)

12-18 years old:

Risk-taking behaviors

Act out

Decline in school performance

Resentment

Guilt

Altruism

Increased anxiety

Depression

Fatigue

Loss of interest in activities

Difficulty sleeping

Data from American Academy of Pediatrics, 1999, Hagan and the Committee on Psychosocial Aspects of Child and Family Health and the Task Force on Terrorism, 2005, and Murray, 2006

Appendix B

Be available

Answer questions honestly and do not avoid difficult questions

Provide relevant and honest information

Respect children’s readiness to discuss their thoughts and feelings

Encourage child to discuss the event when they are ready

Ask open-ended questions to clarify thoughts and feelings

Reassure child that he or she is safe and loved

Allow opportunities to mourn loss

Focus on the good that has come from the disaster and not just the trauma

Discuss potential secondary effects of a disaster (e.g. moving)

When possible, minimize the amount of exposure to the disaster area

Re-establish normal routine

Give children specific roles and tasks

Encourage parents to spend extra time with children

Use touch (e.g. hugs, comfort positioning) when appropriate

Reassure child that his/her feelings are normal

Provide consistency and routine

Watch for signs of post-traumatic stress disorder

Meet fundamental needs of child and family by providing food, shelter, and medical attention

Try to keep families intact and minimize periods of separation

Educate family on what has been done and what is being done to help

Empower family to provide for themselves

Coordinate relief services with other agencies in the community

Clarify and correct any misunderstandings about the disaster and its effects

Encourage families to utilize existing coping strategies, family, and social support networks

Data from Beuchesne, Kelley, Patsdaughter, & Pickard (2002) and Veenema & Schroeder-Bruce (2002)

In this paper we will be highlighting the major areas of children at high risk, the causes behind and the effect on their lives {as derived from child theology}. Our focus of attention will be the role and responsibilities of church and different organisations working for the rehabilitation as well as reaching out to them with the Gospel.

CHILD THEOLOGY: SOME BASIC ASSUMPTIONS

Child Theology encompasses all children irrespective of their identity, since our God is impartial. The basic purpose of child theology is to see the pressing needs of children, their potential and to take purpose driven action on their behalf.3a?

What are Children to God? Or in child theology? Children are the most numerous and needy people we find on the earth. They are most needy people as they are small, weak, dependant, most vulnerable and powerless.

Children are the blessing of God to the families. God could have easily created prototype of Adam and Eve, instead He told them to multiply (Gen.1:28).

Secondly we also see that they are created in God’s image like any other individuals thus reflecting the nature and character of God (Gen.1:26). Though children are created in God’s image they, among all other human beings are also imperfect because of Fall and therefore needs to be redeemed.1 It is important to note that apart from physical healing they are also in dire need of spiritual healing which is often overlooked.

Thirdly it is very much evident all through the scripture that they are the focus of God and His Kingdom. In the sight of God children are very special. But God cares for them and they are the focus of His Mission. Dr. Dan Brester says that, “they are both key to Great Commission and an expression of Great Commandment”.2

DIFFERENT AREAS WHERE CHILDREN ARE AT HIGH RISK

Street Children:

These children are the once who are on their own deprived of basic necessities of childhood, thus trying to survive by living and working in a particular environment. They are categorised as – Children who live and work on street during day but return home at night, other group who find food, shelter and friends in the street. They are called children of the street. And the third category includes the abandoned ones, completely on their own for material and psychological support, so they are termed as children in the street.4a?

Kind of work they do: salvaging recyclables from waste, selling things on road junctions, polish shoes, collect alms, scavenge food from the market, pick pocketing, theft etc.

Problems they go through: They are neglected, abused by any and every kind of people passing by. Lack of roof over their heads leaves them only to be exploited sexually,abused and tortured physically. These children are deprived of proper food, education,and medical aid. They are at high risk of both physical as well as psychological problems since they are homeless and are left unattended if they suffer any health hazards. Many children are open to the dangers of addiction of tobacco, alchohol and all kinds of drug abuse.5 a?

Sexually abused Children/ Child Prostitution

There is considerable amount of increase in the sexually abused children in India during last few years. Children are dehumanized, demeaned and are reduced to mere comodities for sale and purchase just to satisfy the need of ruthless and inhuman sexually immature individuals. These children are deprived of their childhood. Prostitution has become a very profitable trade in which million of children are involved specifically girl child. Child pornography has alarmingly increased in our country, so also incest rarely coming to light but very common in our society.

The agony they go through: Apart from being sexually abused they also go through physical torture- beaten up, burnt, deprived of good food. They are kept in small cells or in very small and crowded rooms in unhygenic conditions getting very less light and air. Sometimes they are forced to take drugs to subside hunger and pain.

Reasons: Among many other, povery is the basic reason worldwide. In India we find parents selling child to gain financial aid. Children of sex worker are forced into prostitution. Sometimes parents sexually abuse their children and so they find them “ready” for sex – a good reason to earn money.a? a? a? 6a?

Effect: Looses childhood and dignity, no future, physical as well as psychological disorder. Psychologically they are depressed, post traumatic stress as disorder, anxiety, psychopathy in later life, poor self esteem, develop self destructive behaviour such as crime in adulthood and suicide. We also find they turn out to be anti-socials. Phisically they are infected with sexually transmitted deseases.

Children effected by Drugs and Alchohol:

Children who are not able to take out their anger indulge in taking drugs. Reason behind children addicted to drug are divorse of parents, family violence, lack of love and support, not being heard of and it is also because of peer presure. In some cases they pick up this habit from their parents.

Effects: It effects all areas of life such as emotional, psychological, spiritual as well as social and physically. they suffer loss of health.7a? a?

Child Labour:

In India 14.4% of children between 10-14 years of age are employed in child labour. It is effecting our society all over the world. They basically work in carpet factories, glass blowing units and firework factories. There are around 20 million child labourers in the country.

Causes: To alivate poverty families force them into it. According to Prof. Gangrade, child labour is caused by differea? nt factors eg. Social tradition, customs, and dearth of schools or parental reluctance to send children to school, industrialization, urbanization and also migration.

Effects: They are mal nourished, deprived of education, viewed as wage earner. It is hazardous to child’s developmental needs both mental and physical. They are also effected socially and psychologically.8a? a? a?

SOME OF THE ORGANIZATIONS THAT ARE WORKING FOR THE CHILDREN WHO ARE AT RISK ARE:

1) VIVA NETWORK: This organization works among the children and do investment for their future in order to break the pattern of poverty and love, equip and support them. They are also helping them to make them free from depression, exploitation and abuse. And for this they engage themselves with mobilizing churches, communities and individuals to play their part in changing the lives of vulnerable children.

2) WORLD VISION INDIA: A Christian humanitarian organization working to create lasting changes in the lives of children, families and communities living in poverty and injustice. They focus on building the community around children so that they have the opportunity to reach for a better future.

3) UNICEF: In India it is working since 1949 and known to be the driving force that builds a world where the rights of every child are realized. The purpose is to overcome the obstacles that poverty, violence, diseases and discrimination place in child’s path.

4) CEF: An international Christian organization seeks to evangelize and disciple children around the world. They target 10 million children worldwide to hear the good news. One of their main ministries is to do with children of prisoner’s because children of prisoner’s have 70% chance if going to prison when they grow up.

5) DIVYA SHANTI CHRISTIAN ORGANIZATION: Working since 1967 in Bangalore. They search children at market, railway station where the abused and runaway children take refuge. Their ministry is done by a night mobile clinic which is run by a staffed nurse and social worker who addressed the needs of children.

6) CRIN: They envision a world in which every child enjoys all human rights promised by United Nations, Regional Organizations and National Government. They also believe that children have the right to participate and express themselves freely and openly in all mater’s affecting them.

These are some of the organizations but there are so many NGO, as well as the secular organizations which are working for the children. Now these days we also see lot of books on this subject, lot of work has been done but lots have to be done in order to accomplish the need of the children.

OUR MISSION APPROACH

Today lot of churches as well as our government has worked for the upliftment of the children who are at risk. Many churches have come forward to help children in terms of finance, material, and medical facilities and had helped them to get status in the society. Government had also started schemes for children like providing them mid day meals, free education as well as learning institutions where children are equipped to do tailoring, handicraft work from which they can learn and earn also.

But apart from physical healing we need to reach out to them trough the Gospel which will bring spiritual healing. Evangelism to children is a special ministry of the church. There are various ways which church adapt to bring the Good News to children. For example through strory telling, visual aids such as flat pictures, graphics, projected materials, video-tape, Puppet show, music etc.

Therefore being a theologian student let’s stand in the gap for the children at risk and be sensitive about their needs serving and uplifting them in whatever capacity we can, so that they will become responsible leaders to serve the nation in future.

Due to the words limitation, this essay does not explain the rights of each specific group such as indigenous children, refugee and immigrant children, children with disabilities, children from poor families etc, therefore by mentioning rights meant also rights for these specific groups in their respective contextual requirements.

1. Introduction

One basic human rights principle laid down in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948 is that all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights (Article 1 UDHR). However, specifically vulnerable groups such as women, indigenous people, and children have been assigned special protection by the UN legal framework (Henry J. Steiner & P. Alston, 2000).

The UN Convention for the Rights of the Child, 1989 remind us that children, whilst retaining their entitlement to the full range of human rights, are often marginalised or excluded, and represent a special case required additional safeguards (Defence for Children International (ed), 1995). Therefore, the Committee on the Rights of the Child have also adopted about twelve General Comments (in addition to two Optional Protocols) guiding States on specific issues such as HIV/AIDS, the aims of education etc (Committee on the Rights of Child-General Comments). The Committee in 2005 adopted “General Comment 7 (GC7) on Implementing Child Rights in Early Childhood” (The Committee General Comment 7 of 2005). GC7 recognises that in implementing the UNCROC States parties have often overlooked young children as rights holders (GC7 para.3). The Comment seeks to redress this by clarifying State obligations for UNCROC implementation with respect to all children “below the age of 8” (GC7 para.4). The UNCROC regards young children as active meaning makers with “evolving capacities” (Art. 5) requiring age-appropriate guidance and support whom, both as individuals and as a constituency, have a voice which must be given due consideration. Parents/Caregivers and States are reminded to balance control and guidance with respect to evolving capacities of the young child, and of the obligation to facilitate genuine participation of young children in the process affecting their development (The Committee General Comment 7, 2005).

In this 21st century, when we Australians are busy counting our economic and political success both at national and international level, still is much needed to be done to improve the status of children in Australia for the coming future (Nyland, 1999). In this essay, I have tried to discuss the role of early childhood settings in enacting and promoting the children rights such as participation, protection and provision and in making these rights available to Australian children.

2. Children’s Rights: Setting Standards

2.1 Legal conceptions of children

The adoption of the Convention on the Rights of the Child marked a fundamental shift away from past conceptions of children and childhood to a new one. Until then, the law had seen a child as property – the property of the father – to be dealt with and disposed of as he saw fit (Hart et al, 1991). However a conceptual shift took place during the 19th century, based on the perception of children as vulnerable and so in need of protection from poverty, the voices of industrialization, immigration and urban living. In addition, to being considered property, the child began to be considered as a resource to society (Hart et al, 1991).

The human rights movement of the 20th century, previously focused for adult rights was extended to children (Hart et al, 1991) though children were still seen as vulnerable and in need of protection but this status was subsumed in a broader understanding of children as full human beings with all the human rights and fundamental freedoms that all human beings have. Their need for protection was transformed into a right to protection. They had a right to be free from exploitation, abuse and neglect of any kind. Seeing children as rights-holders (The Committee GC7, 2005) had implications beyond child protection, however. It meant that, like all human beings, they were also entitled to freedom of speech, freedom of religion and belief, freedom of association, the right to education and to the highest attainable standard of health, and so on.

2.2 The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, 1989

The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child is the universal statement of this new conception of rights-holders. The United Nations General Assembly on Nov 20, 1989 adopted the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCROC). In 1990 Australia ratified the UNCROC and to date 191 countries have ratified the Convention, while US and Somalia have become signatories (Berenice Nyland, 1999). The Convention is considered to the most comprehensive and complete international legal document on children’s rights concerning their protection development and welfare (P. Alston, 1991). The Convention deals with the child-specific needs and rights. It requires that states act in the best interests of the child.

The Convention’s objective is to protect children from discrimination, neglect and abuse and serves as both a rallying point and a useful tool for civil society and individual people, working to protect and promote children’s rights (Berenice Nyland, 1999). In many ways, it is an innovative instrument.

3. Categories of rights under the UNCROC

Greenwood suggests that the rights set out in the Convention fall into three categories (Module 1. Topic 2: The Convention on the Rights of the Child);

i. Provision: this category includes the right to posses, receive or have access to the right to life (Art. 6), a name and a nationality (Art. 7), health care (Art. 24), education (Art. 28), adequate rest and play (Art. 31), special care for disabled children (Art. 23), an adequate standard of living (Art. 27), care after abuse (Art. 39), and respect for the cultures from which the children come (Art. 30).

ii. Protection: it grouped the right to be shielded from harmful acts and practices such as; separation from parents (Art. 9), sexual exploitation (Art. 34), and physical abuse and neglect (Art. 19).

iii. Participation: this class encompasses the right to be heard in discussion affecting the child’s life so that the child has freedom of expression (Art. 13), freedom of thought and religion (Art. 14), and the right to be heard in court (Art. 12).

The UNCROC, 1989 formally-agreed standards cover: provision rights (to necessary, not luxury, goods services and resources); protection rights (from neglect, abuse, exploitation and discrimination); and participation rights, when children are respected as active members of their family, community and society, as contributors from their first years (Alderson, P. 2000).

4. The effect of the Convention for Children in Australia

Since the ratification of the UNCROC in 1999 by Australia till 2010, we can say that the Convention has realised neither the brightest hopes of its supporters nor the most dire fears of its opponents (Butler, B., 1993). The ratification of an international instrument by Australia, such as the Convention, does not ipso facto make that instrument part of domestic law hence the UNCROC is not part of Australian domestic law. Therefore, it has not revolutionised public policy making for children, nevertheless it has led to many very significant initiatives and reforms (Module 1. Is the Convention enforceable, p 29). It has provided a new basis for examining the situation and treatment of children, bringing a rights focus to what previously were seen as purely welfare issues. The effect of this is that the Convention has been declared an international instrument relating to human rights and freedoms for the purpose of Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission Act 1986 (Cth) (Module 1. Is the Convention enforceable, p 29). Consequently, the Convention has provided the legal and conceptual basis for the establishment of children’s commissioners in most Australian jurisdictions.

5. Children’s rights and early childhood settings

Early childhood, the period from birth to 6-8 years, is a significant and unique time in the life of every individual. Every child needs and has the right to positive experiences in early childhood. As with every other phase in life, positive supports and adequate resources are necessary for meaningful development.

In their everyday lives, children largely stay within and relate to three settings – their home, schools and recreational institutions (Rasmusen, K. 2004). These environments have created by adults therefore quality early childhood practice is built upon the unique role of the adult. The competencies, qualifications, dispositions and experience of adults, in addition to their capacity to reflect upon their role, are essential in supporting and ensuring quality experiences for each child (Wyatt, S., 2004). This demanding and central role in the life of the young child needs to be appropriately resourced, supported, and valued. Therefore, quality early childhood care and education must value and support the role of parents (Thorpe, R., & Thomson, J., 2003). Open, honest and respectful partnership with parents is essential in promoting the best interests of the child. Mutual partnership contributes to establishing harmony and continuity between the diverse environments the child experiences in the early years. The development of connections and interactions between the early childhood setting, parents, the extended family and the wider community also adds to the enrichment of early childhood experiences by reflecting the environment in which the child lives and grows (Thorpe, R., & Thomson, J., 2003).

5.1. Basing early childhood services on children’s rights

Children’s rights are relevant to early childhood education and care. The Convention on the Rights of the Child is directed towards the well-being of every child and the full development of every child to her or his full potential (Butler, B., 1993). Early childhood education and care shares that direction and commitment. The Convention states that the first objective of education is “the development of the child’s personality, talents and mental and physical abilities to their fullest potential” (Art. 29 (1)). Early childhood education and care contributes to the full personal development of children.

Early childhood institutions contribute to implementation of the requirements of the Convention in relation to the child’s right to the highest attainable standard of health care (Art. 24), the right to education (Art. 28), the right to protection from exploitation, abuse and neglect (Art. 19), the right to play and recreational activities “appropriate to the age of the child” and to participate in cultural life (Art. 31). Institutions also have particular regard for the specific needs and rights of particular groups of children specified in the Convention: refugee and asylum seeker children (Art. 22), children with disability (Art. 24), children of ethnic and religious minorities and indigenous children (Art. 30), children placed in alternative care (Art. 20), children who are the victims of abuse and neglect (Art. 39) (Alderson, P., 2000).

In Australia, the importance of children’s rights to early childhood care and education is recognised in many of the key documents that express the values and goals of the sector. The first commitment to children in its Code of Ethics is to act in the best interests of the child and the second commitment is a more general one, to “respect the rights of children as enshrined in the UNCROC and commit to advocating for these rights” (ECA Code of Ethics, 1990). Its policy positions are based on principles that “reflect adherence and commitment to” the Convention on the Rights of the Child (ECA position statement consulting with young children). They are expressed in rights terms: “All children have the right to access and participate in early childhood programs and services” (Inclusion of Children).

5.2 Children’s rights issues for early childhood institutions

Early childhood education and care institutions address children’s immediate needs and well-being, that is, children’s lives as children (Rasmusen, K. 2004). They provide children with opportunities for learning, play and socialisation. They provide the foundations for literacy, numeracy, later learning, and future life opportunities. They also focus for addressing the rights of disadvantage and particular groups of children such as indigenous children, refugee and immigrant children, children with disabilities, children from poor families.

The way children’s rights are interpreted and acted upon in early childhood institutions it has some cultural/social implications (Berenice Nyland, 1999). For example, when children interact in the complex cultural environment of a day care setting that can provides us with insights into how they construct their views of the world and culture. Therefore as adults we should observe children very closely in order to understand what they are trying to tell us about their surroundings.

Mostly caregivers based children developmental activities on observed activities of children focusing mainly on the individual child and areas of development and divide children into developmental areas – which is a problem because one area or dimension can not exist by itself. Therefore the practitioners should be motivated to plan for the different areas of development and therefore move away from play-based curriculum since tasks are developed to aid a particular area of development and overlook or neglect the ideal of whole child (Nyland, 1999). Another constraint of current mode of recording children behavioural observation is that we record observed behaviour – meaning something already has been done by a child (Nyland, 1999) so we look at the child of yesterday and not at the child potential (Vygotsky) in upcoming future.

In a child care centre caregivers can create an environment focusing to strengthen child development in a more holistic way which will give to the caregivers a better understanding of the physical and social settings of children from where they belong. In the child care centre the caregivers can also identify culturally regulated customs and can use it as a culturally niches (Nyland, 1999). The adult/caregiver’s role in these developmental niches/physical and social settings is one of scaffolding the child experiences (Valsiner, 1987) through an environment that is carefully considered in relation to three metaphorical zones (Cole, 1996).

These metaphorical zones make up the developmental niche and consisted of three zones i.e. zone of free movement (ZFM), the zone of promoted activity (ZPA) and the zone of proximal development (ZPD) (Valsiner, 1987). ZFM is understood as the child’s access to the environment, objects, events and ways of acting (Cole, 1986). ZPA covers a child’s particular action, or response which encouraged him/her to give by a more competent member of the culture or from the same physical environment (Nyland, 1999). But when the ZPA is matched to the child’s present development state which guides further development then it is referred as ZPD (Cole, 1996).

In early childhood setting the caregiver’s role is more important and dynamic since s/he can use the metaphorical zones as guide for designing and providing space, objects and interactions. The caregiver own role can be deliberately designed for enhancing the perceived developmental potential in an articulated cultured environment. The cultural activity where development is most likely to occur in a cultured environment is known as leading activity and such activities can be accomplished through manipulation for infants and spontaneous play for children (Bodrova & Leong, 1996).

For better understanding of the role of early childhood settings for the protection of children rights, Berenice Nyland (1999) in article “The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child: Using a concept of rights as a basis for practice”, quoted a 20 minutes observation period took place in a day care centre between two babies of under two years, with no spoken language. Kallina started the play by putting a nappy on a doll. She was thoroughly engaged and her physical moments were free. She had mental picture of folded nappy because she tried many times to match reality with mental event representation. Another baby Claudia joined the play, took a doll and wrapped a nappy around it. Claudia just matched the nappy and made no effort to fold it or put it on the bottom half of the doll. Similarly Claudia found another undressed doll in the same place and take out a nappy from a nearby clean clothes basket and draped it around it. The observer was asked to put the nappies on to prevent them falling off. Claudia then took a plastic play gym from an immobile baby and placed it to the book corner. She then placed the dolls underneath the play gym, so they ‘could play’.

The role of caregiver in this exercise is the children’s actions affirmed the suitability of the available environment created by the caregiver relating to the freedom of moments (ZFM) for the babies and they had access to inside and outside. They were having free choice of space and toys, and also access to domestic equipments such as clean clothes basket. The children initiated ZPA by themselves and there was no need of adult intervention or guidance. Scaffolding and learning in the ZPD occurred between children, as they were engaged in intentional goal oriented behaviour hence established their ZPA. Such zones should be dynamic and constantly being renegotiated.

This exercise shows that observing children in such expressive way – and to see their development within the context of relationships existing in the physical environment of the setting, cultural artifacts, and social interactions – gives a comprehensive way of individual child. At one hand it demonstrates a child’s competence for understanding changes and on the other hand the early childhood setting as a learning environment. Such an approach moves away from the straitjacket of areas of development and affords the child a voice while giving the caregiver a more meaningful role within the relationship (Berenice Nyland, 1999).

6. Early childhood workers as leaders in children’s rights advocacy

We then are needed as advocates for children’s well-being and not only advocates but leaders in advocacy. The basis of our advocacy should be children’s rights, as recognised in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Why we? Because as early childhood professionals, we have responsibilities and opportunities that require we to be advocates. Our responsibilities come from our role as workers with children. We know them and their needs well (Nyland, 1999). We know what promotes their development and their happiness. We know the importance of services for them being of the highest quality. We also know the consequences of children not receiving the services and support they need for their full development and the consequences of poor quality services. Advocacy cannot be left to others when we have so much expertise and experience (Module 4. Topic 1: Advocacy for children. p 5).

8. Conclusion

The legal obligations of the Australian government under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child are still to be realised, almost 20 years after its ratification. We can move beyond frustration, anxiety and despair and embrace the possibility of hope – or the audacity of hope, as Barack Obama (Quote for the Hope) calls it – if we are willing to do so. Children have few choices. We adults and professionals have many. The challenge is to choose to place ourselves at their service and in the service of their rights.

Children have the ability to construct their own images and now its upto the society how seeming it. The early childhood practices, like child study, provide a strategy for listening to the very young. A belief in children’s rights and an understanding of children’s strength and competence can be used as a basis for improving the quality of children’s daily lives (Berenice Nyland, 1999). By this our early childhood institutions would provide to the children with opportunities for learning, play and socialisation.

So the emerging vision is one of an actively participating and socially competent young child. This young child is ecologically situated: within family and caregiving environments; in relationship with peers; as part of a community; and as a member of society. This young child is to be considered holistically: as a being whose emotional, social physical and cognitive capacities are evolving in various social and cultural settings (The Committee GC 7). Therefore require us to reconsider young, active, participant children in the broadest possible sense, both as individuals and as a constituency.

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Homeless Children refer to Children who live on the streets. They are deprived of family care and protection. Most of them are between the ages of 5 to 18 years old. It’s a new phenomenon that has been occurred in the developed and less developed countries such as USA, India and Egypt. This Problem has evolved in some countries because of the gap between the rich and the poor and unequal distribution of the income. According to the United Nations Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention researchers in Egypt found that the average number of Children street is vary between boys and girls which is 45,5 respectively . This paper will examine the problem of homeless children focusing on Poverty, Child Abuse and Child labor as well as the proposing solutions to overcome this problem.

Homeless Children is a significant cause of poverty that results from low. The (UNO) in Egypt had interviewed 50 sample of street children and found that “Low income and educational level of the family (98% of the sample come from low income level families, whereas 66% of them were low educational level families)”. Many families cannot support its family because of their low income and because most of these people are not educated so they cannot be employed in high positions to support the needs of the family. In addition, these conditions encourage the parents to let their children drop their schools and support them to be source of money to provide their families with food, clothes and other basic needs. Poverty will keep the child poor throughout his life. In order to survive, children won’t have the chance to go to school and will be forced to work to get money so they will remain at the bottom of the social level.

Most of the homeless children have many siblings according to their illiteracy that will increase this problem. Most of the time, overpopulation is associated with poverty because of their families’ low income. For example in Egypt a poor family could have 8 children and the bread winner’s income is 100 EGP distributed in 8 Child which is not covering half of their needs.

Child Abuse is a cause of street children which lead the child to run away from home to avoid any kind of abuses such as physical or sexual abuses. However, running away from home may cause further abuses. “Most of street children have been beaten up or sexually abused by their parents, step parent or in the work which led them to resorting to street”, (Hussein, 1998). Furthermore, these children are forced to leave homes because they feel that they are neglected and being unwanted by their families.

Another cause of street children is child labor which lead that child bears the burdens outweighs his/her ability. Street children can work in factories and carrying heavy equipment and bags. They usually don’t live their lives as they should, they have been treated as adult because they have grew up before their times. Child labor is associated with child abuse. Children are being abused physically by their bosses who insult and beat them continuously.

Homeless Children negatively affects the entire society. It affects their unstable lifestyles where they do not have a regular place to stay in and they might not see their biological parents daily which make them unstable emotionally. In addition, These Children lack of medical care and they have higher susceptibility of getting chronic diseases gastrointestinal disorders, and sexually-transmitted diseases such as HIV. They could get these diseases as eat from garbage and are not aware of cleaning habits to avoid those diseases. In Mumbai, India “it is estimated that 30% of the prostitutes in this city are less than 20 years of age. Nearly half of them became commercial sex works when they were minors”, (Rhode, 2004). In addition, adults are using street children in drug trade and studies found that 90% of the homeless children are using some psychoactive drugs such as heroin, alcohol, cigarettes and some industrial products that are available such as shoe glue.

Street Children are more likely to acquire behaviors such as violence from the community or while working with others or with how the people react toward them in the streets. They obtain this behavior to protect themselves from the surrounding community and they don’t feel valuable in their society. Most of these children are abused and violence is a normal result of this act which is associated with most of street children. They experienced many things and they saw the black side of life very early and because they feel unwelcomed by the people based on their appearance or their behavior, people tend to drive them away using violence. Street children have a fear of being arrested by police because they are afraid of giving them back to their families.

There are some solutions that have been used previously but didn’t succeed to overcome this problem or reduce the rate of homeless children in some countries such as volunteering in organizations, government, emergency call services and provide awareness and education.

One of the solutions to reduce the problem of street children is volunteering in charitable organizations. These kinds of organizations provide help to street children to have a stable lifestyle and offer them the basic needs and rights as children. However, street children have adopt to the street and of course they don’t want to stay in streets for the rest of their lives, but these organizations offer help for the children not for their parents, so if the child went back home they will repeat the cycle again.so, these organizations actually isn’t the final solution this problem.

Another solution for this problem is the help offered by the government to eliminate this problem. Governments provide money to these children and their families, so that later there is no need to let the child work or the child is forced to leave the home. By this money, the family can afford their children needs. However, this solution has a drawback which is that the money is going to finish and the government is not and these families can’t rely on governments as source of money. Government will offer them allowance this month but maybe the next month they won’t. In addition, these children have acquired some behaviors such as the use of drugs, so these children might use the money provided by the government in the drugs and other illegal things. According to NGO,”in Brazil, sometimes governments have roundups when they remove all the children from city streets and place them in orphanages or arrest them”. Which might lead the child to leave the orphanage and go back to street again and there are some orphanages that take advantages of these children and let them work for them which cause to the same problem again.

A third solution for reducing the street children problem is emergency call. This service is done by the Human Rights to do their best in helping these children and offer them a stable life. These emergency calls are like hotline which the child dial their number and ask for help and then the responsible people come and help this child. However, most of these children have a fear of people and a fear that the community are not accepting them as part of the society, which result that not many children is going to call them. Moreover, this service also can be used by adults who are seeing street children and want to call a help for them but these children are not aware that they are being helped by the human rights and they will see it as they are being forced to go back to orphanages and child care and others.

The best solution that we recommend to reduce the rate of street children in our world is a combination between education and angle investors. First of all, these children won’t understand that they are being helped unless they understand that they are in severe danger. Education is a powerful weapon that will bring the children back into their societies and will help them to build their futures. “The main purpose of offering education for street children is that they are going to feel valuable in their society and willing to improve themselves to better”, (ANPPCAN, 1995). Small team of volunteers can offer an interesting and good environment of education to encourage them to attend school. In addition, the angle investors could help in providing money to their families as a persuasion but the money is given to start a small business with it such as supermarkets, laundry and joinery and others. So, they could have a stable source of money to provide their children with the basic needs required, and their children could attend school to improve their quality of life.

Street children have many negative effects on the entire society. In addition higher rate of homeless children could increase the probability that the country won’t be secure, stable and developed. Reducing this problem is important because they are part of our society and have needs and rights that should be achieved to get the best possible outcomes from them and raise the level of social and economy to the better. Something needs to be done to reduce and prevent street children from increase. There are several solutions you can do to decrease the disadvantages associated with the street children. While you can volunteer as a teacher, encourage investors to invest in small businesses to allow their families to work in it, support the governments to raise awareness about this problem and how it could be solved or reduced. However the best way for us to make an impact on this problem is to educate these children and make them believe that they are not the problem itself but their surrounded conditions were the problem. Solving this problem is important, we all need to take an action because we have to live in secure country and have a use of each person in our society to make it a better place to live in and create a better quality of life for everyone without exceptions.

There have been many theorists which have influenced todays early childhood education. From as early as 1698 with John Comenius to the most mentioned Jean Piaget in the 1920s? John Comenius was one of the first producers of the childrens picture books. Comenius paved the way for subsequent development in education. His understanding of learning through the senses and of the holistic nature of learning remains the cornerstone of educational theories today.

Friedrich Froebel also believed that teachers should not teach by rote but should encourage self-expression through play. He believed that the education of young children was a vital part of their development as individuals. Froebel was the 1st theorist to articulate a theory on how children learn and gave detailed instruction for putting this theory into practice. This was the first teacher training programmer for young children.

Rudolf Steiners theory is centered on all aspects of growth and development, which included spirituality. He wanted to create an education which gave children a balanced experience. The teachers attempts to engage the childs whole being in what they do, in as an artistic way as possible, by providing a warm and joyful environment in which the child can feel nurtured and at east, happy to explore and play, be busy and be still. The room is painted and in a warm colour has few hard rectangular corners, and is often furnished with soft muslins to mark off a different area or draped over a window to give a softer quality of light. The quality of sound is that of human voices rather than of mechanical toys. The materials in the room are natural and are at childrens level and are stored in aesthetic containers such as simple baskets or wooden boxes which may themselves be incorporated into the play (Drummond, MJ. Lally M. And Pugh, G. (EDS) (1989) Page 59) (Working with Children: Developing a Curriculum for Early Years). This theory and concept of teaching has influenced many types of early learning frameworks and curriculums. But his belief in the non-introduction of print to children prior to the age of 7 years remains a controversial part of his theory. As we are aware today, young children have a huge understanding of print, not just from books but from their environment.

Maria Montessori was one of the most influential theorists. Her aims were to harness childrens natural ability to learn and then offer defined experiences and materials to explain abstract principles. She wrote the child can only be free when the adult becomes an acute observer. Any action of the adult that is not a response to the childrens observed behaviour limits the childs freedom (cited by MacNaughton in Shaping Early Childhood) (Open University Press, 2003). She developed a range of equipment and materials to help develop the childrens daily living skills such as number concepts, language development, education of senses and exploration and science. Today these methods are still widely used and have been some of the most popular methods of early childhood education in the modern day.

Jean Piagets theories dominated developmental psychology in the 1960s and 70s. Like Sigmund Freud, Piaget identified stages of development but while Freud concentrated on the emotional and sexual development, Piaget focused on intellectual development. He identified these 4 stages as Stage 1: Sensorimotor, which was between the ages of 0 – 2 years. Stage 2: Preoperational, came from the age of 2 to 6/7 years. Stage 3: Concrete Operational, identified itself at age 7 years to 11 years. The final stage, Stage 4: Formal Operations, begins at the age of 12 and continues through into adulthood. His theories were covered during teacher training and influenced the education of young children during the 1970s. Today his theories are still taught but as part of a range of theories. He was created a sense of curiosity about how children learn but his emphasis on logic mathematical thinking resulted in his experiments being over-generalised from a narrow range of subjects. His theories were most influential to the modern curriculum of Highscope.

ACTIVITY 1

A

Using Highscope within the creche, I can identify many features from Steiner, McMillan, Froebel, Piaget and Melanie Klein.

Froebel theorised about the importance of outdoor experience. In our creche we ensure that all the children get outside to play every day. This is an important part of the daily routine, Froebel emphasised nature walks and gardening. The creche has limited outdoor space and the children have plenty to play with, which encourages their gross motor skills. Because of the safety flooring, we have little aspects of gardening outdoors. Melanie Klein believed that children use play to express and show their experiences. This is emphasised within the creche as the majority of the childrens learning/teaching is play-based and to manage challenging behaviour, we re-enact situations through play scenarios, i.e. puppets or stories. But we do not single children out, only observe them in group situations.

B&C

Rudolf Steiners theory concentrates on the child as a whole, balancing the childrens experiences. I can see through observations and toy selection that this is the thesis of our creche. As a supervisor, I see every child as unique. They may go through particular stage but not always at the same time! Each child needs to have positive and constructive experiences which develop their mind, emotions and will. We allow the children freedom of choice and support needed to help them make those choices. With group-time we give them the freedom to speak which builds self-worth and their listening skills. We encourage them to problem-solve which builds their confidence and teaches them patience and respect.

But unlike Steiners belief in not introducing them to the printed word, we show the books and flash cards from the babyroom up!

McMillan brought the importance of hygiene and nutrition to the forefront. Within the creche we encourage the children to be aware of self-care. Through role-play and story time, we show the children the importance of cleaning hands and face, of brushing their teeth and self-grooming. This is also taught to them through example (staff washing hands regularly, etc.). The creche has a daily well balanced and nutritious menu for the children. We liaise with parents to show them the importance of well balanced meals.

Maria Montessori had many contributions to creche curriculum but the one I see regularly in our creche is her theory and observations. The creche revolves around observing the children and planning their routines around that. Adults need to see what the children are interested in and how to enhance that so that their experience is full! Also when observing the children staff can see problems or issues which arise through play situations, i.e. social issues, developmental delays or problems. But we do not use any of the Montessori equipment as we use as much natural material as possible.

D

Although I can see concept from each theorist, I feel that Steiner/Piaget theories would be the most influential with the creche. Steiners theory about development of the child as a whole person is strong and his emphasis on the importance of play and imitation play a large part in the creche. Piagets theories of development were very influential to the Highscope approach which is used throughout the creche.

PART 2

Children love to play! It is an important part of their development. Play offers children the chance to be in control and to feel both confident and competent within relevant and open-ended experiences which are meaningful to them. It helps children make sense of the world around them. Children gain an understanding of their emotions. When children play it involves the exploration of ideas, feelings, relationships, materials and their environment. Play encourages creativity and imagination, and offers the children a chance to explore at their own pace and developmental stage without restriction or expectations. There are different types of play which can overlap and lead into each other.

These are symbolic play:

The child can use this type of play to reinforce, learn about and imaginatively alter painful experiences. Children mimic parents or pretend to be heroes theyve seen on T.V. or read in a book. This type of play helps children cope with fears.

Expressive play:

This gives children opportunities to express their feelings by using many different types of materials.

Physical play:

This has a large social aspect to it because it generally involves other children and it provides exercise which is essential for normal development.

Dramatic play:

This can be spontaneous or adult-guided. The children act out situations which they feel may happen or are fearful of or may have witnessed.

Manipulative play:

This starts in infancy. Children control and manipulate their environment and people around them. Children manipulate and move objects to better understand how they work.

Familiarisation play:

This is when children handle materials and explore experiences in an enjoyable way.

Surrogate play:

This is when an incapacitated child watches and enjoys through other children or adults.

Therapeutic play:

This is guided play used by professionals to help children understand their feelings and show them through play.

There are three main stages of play which are:

(0 2 years) Solitary Play where a child plays alone to explore.

(2 3 years) Parallel Play where a child will play alongside other children but not join in.

(3-5 years) Sharing Play where children co-operate and use conversation when playing games. This also involves children taking turns and using imagination.

Our role as Early Years workers is to facilitate and support each child in play.

Through observing practitioners can plan for play. Planning a daily routine and planning the environment around the childs play is important as through planned play a practitioner can best support the children. No matter the age group of the children they need adult support during play. By talking to the children about their play, recognising and supporting their choice of play (without interference) gives children a sense of competence and self-worth. Only participate in childrens play when invited or if you can help them develop the skills of playing. Practitioner can also support by acting as mediator teaching children skills such as problem solving and to be respectful of others feelings. Practitioners knowledge of equality and diversity will protect children from harm in play intervening in satiations that could be potentially harmful for children. Further to practitioners planning and supporting them also need to review play. Observing the children during play can show how the equipment materials and the environment is supporting or maybe hindering the childrens abilities to continue or to progress in the play.

Children today are growing up in a society where they are over-protected and parents are fearful of allowing them to play outside and explore houses are made so safe that children are stifled in their development. Things that we did to have fun and play developed our gross motor skills. We problem solved situations so as to stay out longer but today children have a lot of house based games such as PlayStation, etc., which are generally play solely and are intellectually based. I think children coming to an Early Years setting enjoy playing. Having materials and space which is suited and facilitates their interests, means they can express themselves freely and helps them explore and understand the ever changing world around them. As Froebels theory highlighted, children should be allowed to be children and enjoy the things that children enjoy.

1) What is the current framework available in Ireland? Siolta and Aistear are the most recent frameworks developed by the Centre for Early Childhood Development and Education (CECDE). Now the responsibility of Sioltas implementation lies with the Department of Education and Science. Aistear is the Early Childhood Curriculum Framework.

2) What will the Framework for Early Learning do?

Siolta focuses on all areas of quality within ECCE settings for children aged from birth to six years old. Aistear plays its part in giving children opportunities to learn based on their interests, strengths, culture and specific needs.

3) Who will the Framework be for?

The framework covers children from birth to six years old. This includes all Early Years settings, childrens own homes and infant classes in primary school.

4) How does the Framework consider the children?

Our society today has become more diverse. In allowing the children to learn to their abilities. It will give them quality interactions with other children and an enriched environment that encourages play indoors and outdoors, adult/child interactions, exploration, conversation and observation.

5) What themes are included in the Framework?

a) Well-being

b) Communication

c) Exploration and thinking

d) Identity and belonging

6) What are Siolta and Aistear?

7) How can you as an Early Childhood Supervisor promote a quality Framework in your service?

Introducing the National Framework to the service involves educating both the staff and the parents. Training the staff and supporting them as a supervisor with the transition is very important. Aistear will broaden the range of strategies the staff will have for interacting with the children. Introducing new assessments and methods which will progress the childrens learning across the curriculum. The staff must support the children in the learning experiences by observing, listening and interacting, when invited by the child or if intervention is required. The involvement of the parent is essential. To help them understand the benefits to the children of quality play time and helping them understand the limitations paperwork can have with children, as most parents like to see their childrens progress through pictures or writings.

The introduction of project books for the children as a group and as individuals is a great way to review activities and allows the children express themselves through pictures and photos.

PART 4

Highscope and National Curriculum

The curriculum used at my service is Highscope. This was developed by Dr. David Weikart to serve children at risk of failing school. It originated in the USA in 1962 and is now used in many countries around the world. It can be used throughout the childcare setting with children aged from birth to six years. Staff encourages children to become decision makers and problem solvers. This helps them to develop skills that enable them to become successful students as they grow and progress through school. The central principles are given through a Wheel of Learning. At the centre the active learner (the child) and surrounding that the principles that will support the child while learning these are adult/child interaction: learning environment: daily routine and assessment.

These give staff and management a base on how to provide an environment and daily routine that will enrich a childs experiences within my service. My vision is to have a quality service that children will run into every morning with smiles on their faces and at the end then to watch them become fully rounded, capable children as they make the transition to national school. I want my staff to enjoy coming to work, feeling satisfied that they have made a difference in each childs life. That they have helped each child reach their full potential and have positive experiences in the setting. I want parents to feel secure in entrusting their children to my service, that they know that their children will be nurtured and encouraged positively during every step of the day. They feel still included in every part of their childrens day, even while they are away from them.

I feel that the new National Framework can slot in easily to a service that is High scope-based, as there are a lot of similarities. Aistear curriculum can be used during a Highscope daily routing as both are play-based, learning and emphasise the value of observations to plan routines and activities.

Because of this, I feel the transition to national school should be smooth. The children have built up the abilities to problem solve and make decision and choices for themselves. This builds confidence both socially and academically. I feel the largest problem for children when progressing initially to national school is more social than academic and if a child is confident, self-aware and happy in themselves, the transition can bring more positive experiences than negative which sets a good base for a child to progress successfully as a student.