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Social and emotional development underpins effective learning, positive behaviour and the judgements they make in and out of school. Schools need to be places where emotions are accepted as normal, unthreatening, discussed freely, expressed safely strategies and support are written in statements and policies. A successful strategy that has been introduced into schools is SEAL, SEAL stands for social, emotional aspects of learning, and this is a school programme that focuses on the development and the application of social and emotional skills. Not only does SEAL consider the needs of the children but also all that work in the setting, providing support for them to implement the strategies that it highlights. It’s important in the early years that practitioners understand that children develop at different rates; emotionally others are more mature than others. This is a similar situation for social development children that don’t have enough social experiences from a young age are less likely to be social in a classroom due to lack of confidence. The theorist Bowlby is most famous for his attachment theory he devised the term ‘maternal deprivation’ (Bowlby, n.d.) this was because he believed that if children were separated from their mothers at young age then they would be psychology damaged (Squire, 2007) this supports the theory that without enough social attachment and experiences in the early stages of life then children are more likely to be unconfident in social situations and find it harder to adapting to school life. The EYFS believe that all children are ready to learn. The EYFS (2012, pp.2) states that ‘Development is not an automatic process, however. It depends on each unique child having opportunities to interact with positive relationships and enabling environments’ being a unique child emphasises more on the fact that children do develop at different rates. So having relationships with people and being in a encouraging environment helps develop children socially and emotionally, this is why it’s essential practitioners and schools provide these are much as possible.

It is proven that in the 21st century children are more likely to worry about family, school, friendships from two decades ago (Blake, 2007). This is a worrying result because most people have the view that childhood should be carefree and trouble free. Schools have more pressure now more than ever to ensure that children have a safe and worry free environment to learn in. Social development is promoted in all child care settings, teachers are using group tasks more and involving children as much as possible, if they realise that a child is withdrawn then action is taken to involve this child such as talking to them and introducing new provisions such as a ‘buddy system’ at play times so children can always have someone to socialise with. However when it comes to emotional development, I haven’t seen many provisions put into place to support this, some schools introduce schemes such as ’emotion sticks’ in which the children place their name in the pot with the emotion that they are feeling that day, this quickly faded out because the children forgot and the practitioners forgot to remind the children that they need to do this, circle time is a popular way that schools choose to support emotional development, this is very effective in the early years, unfortunately not every school use circle time often because they don’t have time and it won’t fit into their curriculum so it’s often put aside. One way in which some schools promote emotional and social development is interacting with the community in which they live in, this gives children the sense of belonging and a strong self-image, this in turn builds self-esteem, the higher their self-esteem is then the more confident the child will be, making the most of opportunities especially throughout the school, because they have already had the experience of being involved with the charity event or helping the elderly they will be more confident in the social aspect of new activities but also emotionally because they have more confidence in what they can do. The every child matters document supports this strategy, the ECM has a section titled ‘make a positive contribution’ helping the community is part of this.

There are several strategies that schools use to support emotional and social development, in order to keep these as effective as possible, the school need to review the strategies as often as needed to ensure that they are working, if a method isn’t working then another is chosen and used in the school. This can be done by monitoring the children whilst they are taking part in the strategies to see how they are using them, if they are engaged and involving themselves in them then this is a good sign however if a couple of children don’t feel comfortable or utilising the method as desired then a different approach may need to be taken. Reviewing the strategies every term is a good way to see how effective it is, another strategy can then be introduced in the next term, and once the method that is the most effective in the school for the pupils, teachers and parents then it can be used throughout the school, different age groups may also need different strategies, older children’s emotional and social developmental needs will be different to the early years, this needs to be taken in consideration when planning approaches. Some schools may end up with 2 or 3 different methods being used in the school.

One of the most recent strategies that schools use to support emotional and social development is the healthy schools scheme. This was set up to promote healthy eating and exercise in schools, not only does this promote concentration in the classrooms but it involves children in activities organised by the school, the way in which the schools implement this strategy is up to them, some may decide to use Activate or Wake Up Shake Up in their school day or by introducing healthy snacks at break and lunch time. ‘A Healthy School promotes the health and well­being of its pupils and staff through a well-planned, taught curriculum in a physical and emotional environment that promotes learning and healthy lifestyle choices’ (Departement of Health, 2007) This strategy was more important than ever in 2012 due to the London Olympic Games, children wanted to be more active in and out of schools, so having sports days and Olympic challenges was an ideal way to promote healthy schools further. The walking and cycling provisions that some schools use, involve the children in the community as well as being sociable, this supports the emotional and social development of children. However not all schools provide strategies such as these, some schools don’t have the funding whereas others don’t see it as an important aspect of children’s learning. When the scheme was first introduced thousands of schools took it on board however as the years have passed it’s become increasingly difficult for schools to motivate themselves to continue the strategy. In order for healthy schools to once again be a priority for schools, new ways of promoting healthy eating and exercise need to be put into place, schools could involve the children in this process, this would also make the children more motivated to actually do the activities because they have had an input. If a child is constantly being told that they are unhealthy therefore they need to take part in the schools activities, then their self-esteem is going to get lower and lower which has a considerable effect on the child’s emotional welfare, they will eventually have a negative view of themself, schools need to be aware of this and ensure that no child is told they are unhealthy or lazy, every child needs to take part in the scheme as much as possible.

In contrast to the recent impact of healthy schools, there has been numerous research and discussion about gender roles. There is the ultimate question of, are girls born automatically liking pink and boys liking blue? There will never be an exact answer to this question some will say it’s to do with nature whereas others will say affected by nurture. When children first come into a setting, they may feel pressure to go and play with the construction area if they are a boy or immediately go into the role play area if they are a girl. This attitude is changing and children are becoming more confident in their own decisions as to where they should play, however some parents heavily promote girls playing with dolls and putting on makeup the same is for boys, parents may want their son to play football or rugby which are heavily male influenced. This goes against the various strategies that schools are implementing to help prevent children feeling as though they don’t have an individual identity, which affects their emotional understanding. Dowling (2012, pp.159) agrees with this point ‘young children will only become confused if values at home and nursery are in direct opposition’ Every classroom should be gender neutral with pale walls, and pictures of girls and boys playing in the different areas of the classroom, providing activities that both girls and boys can play with for example not just providing colouring pages for girls but for boys as well. However even though this method is being implemented, the media still goes against a gender neutral environment, portraying women in Disney films as being helpless and in danger and having a dashing knight coming to save the day, this gives children the perception that women are weaker and less brave then men. However this attitude will almost never be changed, companies know what makes them money and if it means giving children mixed views about themselves then they will continue to do it. It’s essential that schools continue to use the action that they are taking to help prevent these views coming into schools. Not only is it important that classrooms are inclusive, the practitioners also need have an understanding and agreement about inclusion, in order to provide equal opportunities for every child (Beaty, 2006)

One of the most effective provisions that schools have introduced is circle time. Jenny Mosley is the brains behind the whole school approach towards circle time. Good behaviour management is key when doing circle time, the children need to know the rules that surround circle time, it’s a trusting place where the children can communicate with each other and discussing issues that they feel are important and is also a great opportunity for children to socialise with the rest of the class. Circle time can also be used as a anti bullying technique, if children aren’t getting along in or out of the classroom then this strategy can be used to give the children the opportunity to talk about their issues, this also opens their eyes to the fact that they may of really upset the other children, providing emotional awareness that a child’s actions may affect another child and they may not even know it. Circle time works best when it’s not done too often; having circle time every day would be boring for the children and the teacher and would lose the desired effect. It provides opportunities to learn how to listen and respect others; it’s also an emotionally safe place for children to be in with trusting people and a comfortable environment. (Circle Time, n.d.) However because circle time is the most effective when it’s done regularly, it can be easy to forget the routine of circle time missing circle time several weeks in a row can effect children because they may have something specific they want to say in circle time and don’t get the opportunity to say it because the teacher has forgotten about circle time, this can be easily resolved the children could be responsible for reminding the teacher about circle time, having a day activity planner in a visible place that consists of pictures and words so the children can see what they are doing also, is a good way to inform that circle time will be happening, reassuring the children. Circle time additionally provides important time for children and practitioners to develop a trusting and positive relationship; this is why circle time is especially important in the first couple of weeks of term.

The professional relationship between parents and teachers is just as important, parents and carers need to know that their child is safe and happy in the setting, if a parent has concerns about their child then the teacher is the first person that they will go to, for example if a parent thinks that their child is being bullied by another child in the class then the teacher and parent can work together to think of techniques to use in order to stop this happening, circle time could be one of the strategies used. A method that was used in a school to promote the relationships between child and teacher and parent and teacher was stay and play. This occurred once a week and parents or relatives had the choice to join in on activities in the classroom, it would start off by the teacher explaining what the activities were for, how they linked in with the curriculum and what the parents could do to further encourage the learning at home, the stay and play session lasted for 45 minutes, the teacher answered any questions that they were asked, and the children enjoyed playing with the various activities in the classroom with the support from parents and teachers. This was a very effective strategy used in this school, and they can continue to maintain the building relationships by having parent councils like the one in Bruce Grove Primary School, they found a parent council very effective it provided opportunities for parents to communicate with one another and have their input into how they wanted their children to learn. This continues the positive relationship between schools and parents/carers, its essential that there is constant communication because they both want the children to learn and develop to the best of their ability, when children see the positive relationship between their parents and their teacher, it makes them comfortable around the teacher.

Not only is the relationships within school important but the environment is equally important, the EYFS’ approach to the unique child consists of positive relationships and an enabling environment. An environment that provides opportunities and exploration also needs to make the child feel safe and secure. These positive environments from the EYFS (2012, pp.2) explain that they need to have ‘stimulating resources, relevant to all the children’s cultures and communities’ successfully combining play and learning especially in early years settings, this is important because then children will link learning with being fun. Not only do schools need to support children with their emotional and social development but they also need to support them to take risks and explore new environments, children learn the most effectively through personal experiences so promoting these gives children more confidence in their abilities and having a better perception of themself. Positive relationships and enabling environments ensures learning and development. Observing, assessing and planning ensures that strategies work in the setting and meet the children’s individual needs. Each section of the EYFS document are individual however they are all underpinned by the basic factors to successfully support children’s social and emotional development. Every unique child needs positive relationships from every direction; parents, teachers and fellow peers. Enabling environments that are supportive and positive these together will equal to learning and development.

Caring for children looks at the range of settings and providers that care for children across the private, voluntary and independent sectors. The following report outlines the care needs for children.

Collate evidence which describes the role of the practitioner in caring for children

The role and responsibilities of an early years practitioner follow a number of codes of practice and state how you conduct yourself. When working with children a number of codes of practices exist. Such as Special needs, Safeguarding children, Children’s learning, Behaviour, Working with parents, Data protection etc.

The early years practitioner has clear responsibilities, like

Work to the principals of the sector and codes of confidentiality

Meet learning needs of a child

Provide an environment that is warm, welcoming and stimulating

Work with parents and partners

Work as part of a team that provides a quality service for both children and parents

The early years practitioner has to:

Put needs of children first – because this will help keeping children out of harm, keep them safe and encourage them to meet the standards for there abilities. Respect others choices -If you do not this could cause friction between staff members and can reflect on the setting and onto the children. Respect confidentially – It is important to respect confidentiality as it can help a child stay out of trouble, keep them safe and help them.

Plan, record and review – This is important as it can help you improve. It can help you notice your strengths and weaknesses. This also helps when doing activities where you can see what event went well and what did not, how you could do things differently and may allow you to handle a situation differently

It is important to demonstrate responsibility as it helps the children learn right and wrong and it is partly your responsibility to teach them this and they may treat you as a role model. Also partnerships with parents. This is also important as then you can learn about a child, their likes and dislikes, etc. It will also help build relationships with parents so they know they can trust you.

Continuing Professional Development is important as it shows you want to be the best that you can be. It also shows you are very interested in making the children be the best they can be and that you are dedicated in doing that. Observing children helps you recognise stages of the Childs development. This can help recognise where a child’s needs are, where they need extra help, etc

Lastly working as a team as this helps create a positive environment for everyone to work in and also help people feel included and this will help with self-confidence.

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E2 – Collate information about how care for children may be provided within families and society &

E3 – Include evidence which compares the differing roles of statutory, private, voluntary and independent settings.

Many parents adapt to changes in their lives and usually have the support of family and friends to provide assistance. Many families however can face issues that affect the family life and often need support to help them. Such factors like:

Financial Difficulties

Low income families

Cannot afford food or clothes

Poverty, poor health and depression

Poor housing, etc

Unemployment

Loss of jobs, no income

Depression

Changing jobs / Mother working

Loss of child care

Separation of child from mother

Divorce and separation

Lower income

Smaller housing / cramped conditions

Caring for other family members / long term illnesses

Elderly relatives

Hospital

Bereavement

Emotional strain

Dealing with grief

Social isolation

No communication

No transport

Living in a new area – no friends, etc.

Children and families need support at certain times and there are many organisations and self help groups that can provide this support. Such as

National Childbirth Trust, National Association of Toy and Leisure Libraries, Child Poverty Action group, Home Start, Parentline plus, Gingerbread, contact a family, etc.

There are many different settings where children can be cared for such as Respite Care, Holiday play schemes, Parent and toddler groups, Schools, Workplace nurseries, Childminders, Pre-schools, After school clubs, Residential care, Day nurseries and Creches

Usually the main support group is within the family network such as grandparents and Aunties and Uncles.

There are four different types of Sectors that provide care and education for children. They are;

Statutory Sector

Voluntary Sector

Private Sector.

Independent

A Statutory Sector is a Sector that has to be there by law, so dentist, local schools and hospitals are part of this. Local schools have to be there by law and get some funding by the government. The age range that schools cover is from five years to eleven years olds; they follow a set routine where reception covers the EYFS and then year one to year six covers the national curriculum. Schools are open from nine o’clock in the morning to half three in the afternoon, from Monday to Fridays, term times only. This means that schools are closed at Christmas, Easter, summer and half terms. Schools are in easy access areas, where there is enough space for an outside play area for example the playground and indoor space, for example somewhere to do P.E. A local school can be adapted, for example ramps for people with disabilities and for people to find it easy to access the school. A local school should also include snacks; they should be healthy snacks like fruit and vegetables. They should also include toileting times for the children. Statutory Schools are usually free except payment for school dinners, school trips and some snacks.

The aim of a Statutory Sector School is to provide opportunities of education for every child and to support their learning also making a safe and secure environment for children to keep them from harm. Another aim is to provide social opportunities for the child this will include learning to make friends, learning to socialise with people, learning the difference between adults and children and learning to respect others. It may also provide opportunities for the family by meeting new parents so they are making new friends and it may also prove as support for families as they might find people to rely on and also some services though school to help support them.

A Voluntary Sector is a sector, which people volunteer to organise and run, so mother and toddler, brownies and Pre school groups are apart of this.

Mother and toddler groups are usually for children age two to four years. The mother and toddler groups are usually opened from nine to eleven thirty in the mornings or half one till three in the afternoon. These kinds of organisations are usually placed in a church or community hall, which aren’t necessarily built for the use of children. The staffs are usually parents themselves but the person in charge of the organisation must have a level three childcare qualification. The organisation may ask for a small donation each week, approximately ?3:50 a week to cover the basic cost of the booking of the hall and also for lighting and water bills. The area in which the organisation is situated may not have an outdoor area for the children to play out in, the organisation should also follow the EYFS curriculum where children will learn through play and the space may also be Ofsted inspected.

The main aim of a mother and toddler group is to provides short term care of young children to give a parent or carer a little time to themselves and also to give young children stimulation and also play and social opportunities. Another main aim is to get children ready for school or nursery. Another way is to create social opportunities for the parent or carer of meeting new people while helping out with the organisation or just dropping off their child at the group.

A Private Sector is a sector, where people pay extra to try and get the best of their child’s education or health and also their own. When you use a private day nursery you are charged for using them, you are approximately charged ?150 a week to use the services. These nurseries are open from 8 am – 6 pm all year except bank holidays, the age range for these nurseries are usually from six weeks old up until five years. They also provide all meals, breakfast, dinner and tea and also snacks; they also have sleep facilities, indoor and outdoor play areas for children to play in. The building may not be purposely be built for the children but will be adapted for the children to provide their size facilities. All the members of staff will fully qualified, managers and rooms leaders must be at least level three or level two trained. Ofsted will also inspect the building and the staff to check if it’s safe and also to check if they are following EYSF curriculum.

The aim of a private day nursery is to provide safe and secure environment for children to keep them from harm for children in absence of parents or carer and also to provide opportunities of education for every child and to support their learning. Another aim of the private day nursery is to provide stimulating environment with bonding with other children and also to provide learning through play and also opportunities. Another aim may be to allow employment opportunities for parents or carers and knowing a child is in a secure place and is cared for.

An independent sector are companies with more freedom to organise their provision. Their services may not rely on government funding and does not have to follow the EYFS or the National Curriculum. However the service may be OFSTED inspected to make sure children’s welfare needs are being met.

Services of independent provision include independent schools and nurseries.

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E4 – Include a summary of the main regulations that govern the care of children in different types of settings.

The following is legislation that relates to working with children in a children’s centre:-

Health and Safety at Work Act 1974

Race Relations Act (1976)

Human Rights Act (1998)

Data Protection Act (1998)

Disability and Discrimination Act (2004)

The legislation can influence working practices in the children’s centre by:-

At all times complying with the Data Protection Act 1998.

No discrimination by it against any person with respect to opportunity for employment, conditions of employment or delivery of the Services because of sex, marital status, race or disability.

The Children’s centre shall in all matters arising comply with the provisions of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995, the Human Rights Act 1998, and the Sex Discrimination Act 1975, etc. The centre must comply with the provisions of the Race Relations Act 1976 and the Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000 and make sure that they perform their responsibilities, to eliminate unlawful racial discrimination, and to promote equality of opportunity and good relationships between different racial groups.

The centre should be responsible for and take all such precautions as are necessary to protect the health and safety of all persons employed by it and should comply with the requirements of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 and any other Acts or Regulations relating to the health and safety of employed persons. Human Rights Act 1998. It gives further effect in the UK to rights contained in the European Convention of Human Rights.

The Care Standards Act 2000 and the Regulations and National Minimum Standards set out the responsibilities of agencies and carers in promoting the health of children who are looked after.

The Education Act 2002 – Local authorities and schools where requires to protect and safeguard and promote the welfare of children. This included health and safety, child protection and the overall well being of children.

The Every Child Matters and Children Act 2004 – The Children Act 2004 introduced a new duty (section 10) to co-operate at a strategic level on local authorities, Primary Care Trusts and other relevant children’s services partners.

The act is to protect children and promote welfare and well being of children.Being healthy: enjoying good physical and mental health and living a healthy life style. Staying Safe – being protected from harm and neglect. Enjoying and Achieving – getting the most out of learning and life, and developing skills for adulthood. Making a positive contribution – being involved in community and society and not engaging in anti-social or offending behaviour. Economic well being – not being prevented by economic disadvantage from achieving their potential

Other legislation that helps the health and well being of children is shown below. Meggitt. C. (pg 249-251)

The Children Act 1989 provides care and protection of all children and young people in need, including those living away from home. Local authorities have a specific duty under section 22 of the Act to safeguard and promote the wellbeing of each child they look after.

The Children and Young Persons Act 2008 – amends the Children Act 1989; support the care system and putting in place the structures to enable children and young people to receive high quality care and support.

The Mental Health Act 2007 amended the Mental Health Act 1983. It requires hospital managers to ensure that patients aged fewer than 18 admitted to hospital for mental disorder are accommodated in an environment that is suitable for their age (subject to their needs). This is due to be fully implemented in 2010.

The Mental Capacity Act 2005 generally only affects people aged 16 or over and provides a framework to empower and protect people who may lack capacity to make some decisions for themselves, for example, people with dementia, learning disabilities, mental health problems, stroke or head injuries who may lack capacity to make certain decisions.

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E5 – include 2 activities which will each support and maintain a different aspect of the daily care of children

There are many different routines for children that can help them maintain a different aspect of daily care for children such as Hygiene – Toilet time, washing hands, bed time and teeth cleaning, Mealtimes – Sitting at the table and Sleep Routines:

Daily routines vary depending where the child is being cared for. But promoting and supporting a childs independence and self care is also important and a childs self image and self esteem are vital to their overall wellbeing.

However I have chosen the following as my chosen activities –

Shoe laces

and Dressing – weather appropriate.

Activity One – Shoe laces

What is the activity? Teaching children to tie their laces by making a personalized shoe. (the children decorate it themselves) with laces for them to practice.

What do you have to do?

Adults role – help the children learn to tie their laces

Child’s role – learn to tie their laces and keep practicing

How does this promote independence? It helps them learn to tie their laces so adults don’t have to do them

How does it promote daily living? It helps children tie their laces so they can do it daily and at their convinence

What areas of learning does it promote? Intellectual, Physical and Emotional

Is it fun? Yes especially the decorating

Is it important? Yes

Why? Because it is a basic skill for every day living

What age? 4- 5 years of age

Can you break it down to make it easier? N0 not really

Can the activity be extended? No

Activity two – Dressing weather appropriately

What is the activity? Dressing up a doll in appropriate clothes to go outside and play in, which will keep them warm and dry depending on the weather

What do you have to do?

Adults role – help the children learn how to dress appropriately

Child’s role – to be able to dress the doll properly and wear weather appropriate clothes themselves.

How does this promote independence? It helps them dress properly thrmselves without being told what to wear and they choose what they want.

How does it promote daily living? It helps children dress appropriately and to keep warm so that they don’t become ill and that we do it everyday

What areas of learning does it promote? Intellectual, Physical, Emotional and Health

Is it fun? Can be

Is it important? It can be

Why? It stops the child from becoming ill and keeps them comfortable with what they wear and do

What age? 4- 5 years of age (pre-school)

Can you break it down to make it easier? N0 not really

Can the activity be extended? Yes – broken down into holiday (warm weather clothing), wet weather clothing, winter (cold weather clothing)

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E6 – include an explanation of the key issues which enable multi-professional teams to work together.

Multi professional approach allows professionals share knowledge about a family needs so that the parents don’t have to ask the same questions over and over again.

The professionals are aware of each others roles in supporting the family so that conflicting advice can be minimise. It is essential that each agency communicates well and understands not only there role and responsibilities but the others agencies as well.

Parents/guardians are the most important people in a child’s life, and recognise the importance of this. We have a responsible role that involves sharing care of the child with parents/guardians; listen to parents/guardians, as they are the ‘expert’ on their child.

Respect will be shown for family traditions and childcare practice, and will work in harmony with the values and wishes of the parents. Partnerships with other agencies benefit children, for example

Speech and language therapists for children with hearing and language difficulties -This could include sign language or English as a second language. Bereavement management – play therapist, Educational psychologist to assess behavioral needs and bring about positive behavior in a child. Sensory impairment such as Limited vision, Hearing disorder or Speech problems. Also Dietary, Religious or Learning needs

This is to ensure that all the needs of the individuals / children are met and they develop to their full potential. These partnerships do have an important role to play in ensuring that children’s experiences and learning are maximized.

Tassoni pg 237

A multi professional approach when working with children and parents is important as it helps children not ‘to slip through the net’.

Communication is the biggest part of the multi – professional team, as everyone needs to know what is going on.

The multi professional approach team is made up of a lot of different agencies, they are agencies including Schools and teachers, Hospitals and doctors, Social workers, Police and many more. They all work together to help parents and children to stop tragic cases such as death, child abuse, etc.

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E8 Show an understanding of diversity and inclusive practices

Recognising diversity is about recognising that children can come from lots of different backgrounds and family structures and this could be from the language they speak, culture and beliefs.

Diversity means responding in a positive manner to differences, valuing all people.

All children are citizens and have rights and entitlements.

Children should be treated fairly regardless of race, religion or abilities. This applies no matter:

what they think or say

what type of family they come from

what language(s) they speak

what their parents do

whether they are girls or boys

whether they have a disability or whether they are rich or poor.

All children have an equal right to be listened to and valued in the setting.

Improving the physical environment – physical aids to access education such as ICT equipment and portable aids for children with motor co-ordination and poor hand/eye skills. New buildings should be physically accessible to disabled pupils and will involve improving access to existing buildings including ramps, wider doors, low sinks, etc

Improving the delivery of information to disabled children at nurserys or schools – The information should take account of pupils’ disabilities and parents’ preferred formats and be made available

Children should be treated fairly regardless of race, religion or abilities. This applies no matter what they think or say, what type of family they come from, what language(s) they speak, what their parents do, whether they are girls or boys or whether they have a disability or whether they are rich or poor.

All children have an equal right to be listened to and valued in the setting and all children have a need to develop, which is helped by exploring and discovering the people and things around them.

Some children’s development may be at risk, for example children who are disabled and those with special educational needs , those from socially excluded families, such as the homeless or those who live with a parent who is disabled or has a mental illness, children from traveller communities, refugees or asylum seekers and those from diverse linguistic backgrounds.

All children are entitled to enjoy a full life in conditions which will help them take part in society and develop as an individual, with their own cultural and spiritual beliefs. Practitioners ensure that their own knowledge about different cultural groups is up-to-date and consider their own attitudes to people who are different from themselves.

Children in the UK are being raised in a society with many sources of cultural diversity. Good early years practice needs to support this from the earliest months of babyhood. Practitioners need to work to create a positive learning environment. Play materials, books and other resources can be offered in a helpful way by reflecting on how young children learn about culture and cultural identity.

Diversity and inclusion is also linked to legislation such the Childrens Act 1989, SEN act 2001, Rights of Children 1989 and the Race Relations Act 1976. Also included is the Disability Act 2004.

Children like experiencing food, music or dance forms that reflect their own family and neighbourhood experiences. Early childhood is a good time to offer opportunities that enable children to stretch beyond the familiar. Children can learn to appreciate cultural diversity in styles of art, craft, music and dance. All opportunities need to be well grounded in positive pride for the styles common in every child’s own background.

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E9 – References

Child Care and Education – Tassoni. P. (2007). Heinemann (Harcourt Education Limited). Oxford , England

Child Development – Meggitt. C. (2006). Heinemann (Pearson Education Limited). Harlow, England

Department of education and Skills (DFES) 2007 –

Early Childhood Studies, Willan, Parker-Rees, Savage: (2004) :Learning Matters ltd

This journal article A practical approach to implementing theraplay for children with autism spectrum disorder by Russell, S. is taken from International Journal of Play Therapy. It is a qualitative research study to helping other teachers to develop skills in using Marschak Interaction Method (MIM) Model (Jernberg & Booth, 1999) which consists of Structure, Engagement, Nurture, Challenge to enable autism students to participate in Group Theraplay, especially for the kindergarten mainstreamed classroom setting. The approach used the existence of resources in school, for example, teachers, toys. The research examined the effectiveness of Group Therapy in this setting compared to the use of alternative therapeutic approaches. A sample of 60 children, age range from 2 years to 6 years of age, diagnosed with severe behaviour and communication disorders with approachability, cooperation and attention improvement. This research was carried out in Heidelberg of Germany, which is a small city. Another research study conducted in Germany and Austria using a wider range of client populations diagnosed with behaviour disorders and speech-language delays/deficits from years of age of 2 to 6. In this research, mild, moderate, and severe symptom groups of children are used with a wide range of assessments. In Wettig, Coleman, and Geider (2011), children with shyness/withdrawn and language disorder symptoms are studied. These two studies were conducted in one region of Germany with 60 children diagnosed with both communication and behavior disorders. In addition, another study was conducted in an urbanized area in Hong Kong with 46 children with internalizing behaviours in a mainstreamed elementary school.

Review of the article

The author of this article used several case studies and MIM model to effectively implement the Independent Study Process in this Group Theraplay as illustrated below:-

Fosters a child’s self esteem

MIM Analysis

Feedback Session

To develop the feeling of being connected and accepted within one’s family and community

Teaches to take care of others

To increase and help to develop trustiness

Brainstorm final product

Provide necessary assessments tools

Identify audience

Evaluate study

The criteria for selection of students for this study were that they must be diagnosed with autism spectrum in the mainstreamed classroom. By the end of their studies, students participating in theraplay showed improvements in self-confidence, social skills and communication skills.

An Introduction to Theraplay

Jernberg (1979) became Clinical Director of the mental health programme and developed Theraplay® in 1967 to cater to the children with special needs. It has numerous positive results in parenting and early-intervention programmes in day care centres and pre-schools, mental health practice and children with autism spectrum. Jernberg and Booth (1999) continue to establish and modify the model and make it as widely used as possible. Theraplay has also proven the effectiveness with younger children with language disorders (speech) and severe behaviour disorders, autism and developmental problems.

Theraplay is a proactive, intensive, relationship focused parent-child theraplay, which is developed according to the parent-child interaction in a healthy and natural way. It helps to develop secure attachment and lifelong mental health. Theraplay is a guided interaction and reflection focused on the parent becoming more available, responsive and attuned to the child.

Initially, the therapist will conduct an intake interview without the child and using Marschak Interaction Method (MIM). Then, the therapists will feedback to the parents before the weekly treatment begins. Parents will observe the sessions and then gradually participate more and more. A periodic parent meeting is essential.

Dimensions of Theraplay

Structure:

In the child-parent relationship has shown adult helps child becomes physically regulated. The adult is in charge to set limits and rules, and helps to complete a sequence of activities. The structure programme helps to control the child as well as a feeling of safe. For example, Simon Says, holding traffic lights up to start a name activity.

Engagement

The adult is attuned to the child’s state and responds in a way that helps the child’s regulate and integrate physical and emotional states. Adult focused on child in an exclusive way providing sensitively timed soothing and delightful interactions. For example, if a child is unable to comply by playing simple game.

Nurture

A child who has experienced such caring will feel loved, important, responded to, safe, and comfortable, and will begin to respond to the caregiver-parent. He/she will establish eye-contact and transfer this safe and comfortable feeling to the rest of the world.

Nurturing is a significant element in Theraplay and is expressed through activities that are soothing, calming quieting, and reassuring, such as rocking, feeding cuddling, and holding. The world will become more predictable, safe, secure and warm. Child develops expectation ‘people will take care of me” and “good things happen to me”.

Challenge

Challenge is an important aspect of Theraplay sessions, especially with children who are particularly fearful of new experiences. The activities are designed in a playful, physical ways that help the child to extend him or herself a little bit, appropriate to the child’s level of functioning. It also allows child to master tension arousing experiences, for example, extend finger to grab.

It is proved with positive results that Theraplay training is a successful way to produce or achieve intended results to teach special needs children with different disorders and to improve child and the parent/teacher relationships.

Assessment Tool

MIM (The Marschak Interaction Method) is a well-organised method to observe and assess the people-relationship between 2 persons. It is the assessment tool unique to Theraplay that is the basis of the treatment planning process. MIM assessment evaluates parent/teacher capacities from setting limits and providing order, child’s states and reactions to the sessions, encouraging and supporting the child’s effort and make it to be effective by providing suitable soothing, attention and care On the other hand, MIM assessment evaluates child capacities through the respond and accepts the parent’s/teacher’s attuned attempts to engage, to accept limits, order and directions, to accept parent’s/techer’s attention, soothing and caregiving and to participate in activities that support and encourage their efforts to advance developmentally.

Group Theraplay in a mainstreamed classroom setting

Theraplay was also used in group and kindergarten classrooms to promote engagement and interaction with peers.

Group Theraplay can be conducted into the mainstreamed classroom with a professional and teacher present, with the participation of all students in the classroom. Group Theraplay can be used to identify different areas like nurture, structure, engagement, and challenge, which are their needs. Apart from these, professional and teachers would be able to identify more children for the study. Professionals and teacher could use the toys or learning centres to conduct Group Therapy.

Case studies

According to Russell and Rachel (2011) reported that Rieff and Booth (1994) research with a child with age of 2, with PDD (Pervasive Developmental Disorder). By providing Theraplay training of eight months, the child has established trustiness with other people, the knowledge of the difference between oneself and other people and a sense of oneself.

Another case study reported by Russell and Rachel (2011) based on Fuller (1995) concerning a girl with age of eight years old diagnosed with autism in a day treatment centre. After participating for 14 months in a Theraplay group, it showed that the child has great and apparent progress in dealing with other people, and start to interact, play and talk to other children.

Strengths

It needs minimal supplies of toys in conducting Group Theraplay sessions, for example, a sensory ball, bubbles.

To help the teachers in the classroom to more effectively to use the instructional time.

Theraplay therapist makes appropriate decisions about what is going to happen, what modifications will be made and how the games will be played.

Students are exposed to the interest areas, which are unable to be found in the normal curriculum. Through lectures, demonstrations, movies, interest centers, these areas can be established. These activities showed new ideas to students in a non-threatening environment and providing the opportunity for them to freely explore any new ideas.

Family involvement

Structures, predictability and routine.

Limitations

The number of research/studies showing the effectiveness of Group Theraplay for ASD children in the mainstreamed classroom are very limited

It needs to use a well-validated instrument to evaluate the relationship between the parent / teacher / children with ASD and the degree of attachment

Tools or resources used are already in place in the classrooms. Thus, it is essential to have tools to meet these ASD children’s needs.

Ethical and cultural needed to be considered as ‘touch’ is incorporated in the various activities.

Individual difference in terms of the type of autism and individual characteristics of the child and their families.

Lack of trained professional or teachers to conduct Theraplay in the classroom.

Conclusion

Theraplay is an effective play therapy that can be conducted individually as well as in group in the mainstream classrooms by using resources that are already in place. Group Theraplay working with ASD children in the mainstream classrooms can reinforce academic and social skills with the teachers and peers.

Engagement Structure, challenge, and nurture – the four dimensions of Theraplay, form a effective supporting structure for children with ASD to achieve these therapeutic goals. For instance, the structured procedures provided safe, secure and predictable situations. Engagement activities could help ASD children into interaction with others. Nurture activities provide an opportunity to feel valued, accepted and loved. Challenge activities provide opportunities for ASD children to explore and try new experiences with high success.

By using MIM assessment tool is not adequate to evaluate the effectiveness of Theraplay. It needs a fully-tested instrument to evaluate the parent / teacher / children with ASD relationship and the degree of affectionate relationship

Results

Number of cases

Age range

Size of sample

Area(s) Studied

Results

7

2- 6

60

improve attention, cooperation, and approachability, interactive behavior, shyness/social anxiety.

+

Theraplay itself involves toys or play media which is the language of children. They can substitute verbal words and convey vast messages across. By using useful toys or play items in the classrooms, could be regarded as a useful tool for expressive purposes.

Therapist’s or teacher’s in the mainstreamed classrooms job is to make contact with autistic children in a comfortable setting. When Group Theraplay is seen as having meaning, the therapist or teacher is easy to sense the inner rhythm of the child.

Future Research

The number of children with ASD is on the rise and therefore teachers’ possibility to work with ASD children are more common than in the past. It is essential to train teachers to conduct Group Theraplay in the classroom to help ASD children.

From the above-mentioned limitations, a research study is needed to demonstrate the effectiveness of using Group Theraplay with ASD in a mainstreamed classroom using a variety of assessment tools to determine the degree of attachment and the parent / teacher / children with ASD relationship. Most mental health professionals were trained using verbal based interactions. Hence, they experience great challenge in communicating or establishing a relationship with children especially ASD children who do not rely on verbal means. Research should be planned with ASD children in the International mainstreamed schools setting. Lastly, studies need to be conducted in a multi-racial setting with different languages and cultures.

Aims and Objectives

Conducting Group Theraplay in mainstreamed kindergarten classrooms could help ASD children to overcome the challenge of change and adjustment to a new environment, participating and interactions with other children, and to enhance a better rapport using the MIM dimensions namely as structure, engagement, nurture and challenge.

To determine the effectiveness of Group Theraplay in mainstreamed setting, it is recommended to use the Achenbach System of Empirically Based Assessment (ASEBA; Achenbach & Rescorla, 2001), the Gilliam Austism Rating Scale (2nd version; Gilliam, 2006), and a 5-point rating scale (Gardner, 2010) for pre- and post interventions. These assessments are recommended for their validity and reliability with ASD population.

Teenage pregnancy is a term used to address girls between the ages of 13-19 years who become pregnant (UNICEF, 2008).Teenage pregnancy and its resultant health issues are of concern worldwide. In Ghana, for example, according Keller, Hilton & Tsumasi-Ankrah (1999), nearly 1/3 of the childbirths recorded in public hospitals occurred to women less than 19 years of age. Meanwhile, Guttmacher (2012) reported that in The United States of America, 750,000 teen pregnancies occur yearly. Health messages are crucial in effecting behavioural change of preventable factors on health (Mokdad et al; 2004). This message is created in an attempt to influence change in behaviour and can as well be used not only for changing adolescents’ sexual health behaviours, but also for informing and educating a larger population.

This essay will address the following: chosen medium, the rational for the message addressing political issues supporting its use, the underpinning health belief model, ways of evaluating the success of the health message, its impact on a wider population and, the influence of nurses, other health professionals and lay persons on health promotion regarding teenage pregnancy.

According to Guttmacher (2012), 3,312 girls become pregnant every 24 hours. Also, in every 26 seconds a teenage girl becomes pregnant and a child is born to a teen mother every 56 seconds. It is therefore sensible to explore the extent of teenage pregnancy and its impact. De Vienne, Creveuil & Dreyfus (2009), believes that 70,000 teenagers die yearly from obstetrical complications, and 1 million infants born to adolescent mothers die before their first year of life. Although the majority of teenage pregnancies occur in developing countries, one million babies are born annually to teenage mothers in the developed world. According to (Adeyinka, Oladimeji, & Adekanbi, 2010), in 2003 42/1000 births in the US were to adolescents. Furthermore, it has been reported that adolescents are at a higher risk for adverse outcomes such as preterm birth, low birth weight, pre-eclampsia, congenital anomalies, uterine rupture and infant death than their older counterparts (Phipps, Blume & DeMonner, 2002).

In view of the health problems the world is confronted with as a result of teenage pregnancy, this message is aimed at creating awareness of the various causes and outcomes of teenage pregnancy. It also aims at promoting healthy sexual behaviours, to give the youth the skill and knowledge they need to refuse sex, delaying the onset of sex and to practice safer sex and to reduce the number of conceptions among adolescents (Kirby, 2007).The message will also help debunk certain ideologies and myths about sex education such as those with regards to certain words or body part being unmentionable and the taboos of sex education that influence the human sexuality negatively (Adepoju, 2005).

Consequently, advances in communication strategies have changed how individuals access, assess, communicate and use information. Egger et al (1999), stated that health promotions are motivational and informative messages directed to one or more people. The idea of attaining improved health and a better quality of life needs tailoring our educational messages to the particular group of people it is intended for, taken into account the cultural practices of the community as such programmes involve community members who participate to define and solve the problems (Denison et al, 2009)

Cultural, religious and traditional issues influence sexual behaviours. Personally, in my area of practice culturally acceptable sex education is given using, local dialects in folk songs, radio drama and role plays avoiding sexually explicit words. This way community values are respected as well as responded to. In recent years there has been a much stronger religious and political focus on the teaching of sex abstinence in schools than in the past years (Butts & Rich, 2008). This is to add to the existing knowledge that most religious group preach abstinence before marriage e.g. Islam and Catholics even preach against contraception hence telling the youth to abstain from sex (Citizens Budget Commission, 2012). Contrarily, some social customs induce girls to stay out of school and enter into early sexual relationship were girls are given away in marriage at puberty (Keller et al; 1999). These observations considered a health promotion message using role play will inform the adolescents on causes, complications and prevention, of teen pregnancy and motherhood in a non-judgmental approach.

Role play therefore, is considered the appropriate medium as it focuses not on acting but on the actions of the characters. It helps in the process of decision making and clarifies judgments and behaviours and lastly it encourages looking beyond the self and into another person in a close and more intimate manner than reading or lectures allows (Rowles and Russo, 2009). Role play is unscripted and a dramatic technique of message delivery that encourages people to improve behaviours that illustrate expected actions of persons in a defined situation (Lowenstein, 2007).

In the delivery of such messages ethical issues could arise. Everyone needs to have equal access to care, thus the principle of justice must be considered and the nurse is to do good by providing the information and education they need but she has to seek consent from parents before she could go ahead. In developed nations parents can decide they don’t want their wards to sit in for such programs according discussions by fellow students from the UK whereas from experience in Ghana one needs to just tell the head teacher when the nurse is coming. It is important to recognise that in carrying out the principles of beneficence and non maleficence, the question will be how much information is too much? Knowledge of when information given becomes unethical is important. Appropriate information must be presented in an age appropriate manner as there will be potential harm if a wrong and inappropriate message is chosen. An ethical dilemma will arise when a choice has to be made between standardised and acceptable programs that are available (Miller et al; 2011) e.g. teaching abstinence as opposed to safer sex practice. Inappropriate programs for a particular age group could easily be misinterpreted and result in the adolescent being misled as she perceives the information differently from the way the educator intended for the message to be received (Miller et al; 2011).

Promoting the health and wellbeing of adolescents is a vital part of every society including health workers. Teenagers have been recognised to be at high risk of health-damaging behaviours such as teenage pregnancy (Jacobson & Pill, 1997).Similarly, Reeve (2002) in his study revealed that healthcare providers have the potential to strengthen young peoples’ awareness of appropriate sources of help and information, comprehensive sex education programs and advice on sexual health. He also reported that, the introduction of contraceptive services delivered by nurses, as well as trained teenage advisors or lay persons will be associated with an increase in the number of people attending for advice and contraceptives. Contrary to these assertions Thomson & Scott (1991), criticised that sexual health education at school has little or no relationship to the real choices and pressures around sexual health that affects the young women.

Furthermore, Denison et al (2009), proposed that every agent of health care including lay persons/peers can partake in communicating the causes and effects of teen pregnancy by mobilising community members to participate in role plays which will illustrate causes, complications and where to get help whether in the community or the hospital setup.

According to MARIE STOPES INTERNATIONAL (2012), in 1998 in England, the pregnancy of girls under 18years conception rate fell by 13.3% over 5 years. There has also been a shift in society’s views about how best to tackle problems like high teenage pregnancy rates and poor sexual health amongst young people.

Increasingly, from a personal perspective parents and professionals will recognise the need to offer teenagers with opportunities to talk about how they feel openly, skills and self-confidence they need to deal with the situations they face regarding sexuality. Also it will raise awareness in the community and at national levels which will in turn help them to strategise and tailor programs to help the youth to understand the way in which sex is, to help them know that relationships portrayed in the media are not always accurate and the appreciation of the challenges and responsibilities of parenthood. This includes supporting them delay early sex, equipping them to stay safe and healthy when they do become sexually active. Parents will play a more positive role in supporting their children on sex and relationship issues (Primarolo &Merron, 2010). According to Sexual Offences Act (2003), in UK the age of consent for female and their male counterparts is 16 years. This means men who have sexual intercourse with girls below 16years of age will be prosecuted. Meanwhile there are such clear cut age ranges and laws in Ghana expect for rape cases. Also support from national and international agencies may include development of national training standards on relationships and sexual health to provide a constant framework for local workforce development (Primarolo & Merron, 2010).

The evaluation of sexual health promotion programs has to be SMART-Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Reliable and Time bound (Haughey, 2012).

Assessments of sex education programmes can vary from changes in knowledge, attitudes and values to those of behavioural change including initiation of sexual activity and pregnancy rates (Fullerton, 2004). Arguably, initiation of sexual activity cannot easily be evaluated if the adolescent does not openly discuss it. Also clear statements given by students about the outcomes of unprotected sex and how those outcomes could be avoided at the end of the session (Vincent, Geiger, Willis, 1994).

The aims of sex education are often motivational, relating to lifelong quality of relationships, as well as pregnancy and STI prevention (Fullerton, 2004).

Moreover, studies have demonstrated that health decision making is a process in which the individual moves through a series of stages or phases. Interactions with persons or events at each of these stages influence the individual’s decisions and subsequent behaviour (Rosenstock, 2005).

As a matter of fact, behavioural change is a difficult process which starts with enabling change in personal behaviours of individuals by giving them the knowledge to do so through education (Bellamy, 2004). The health belief model posits that people who perceive themselves as susceptible to negative outcomes are more likely to reduce risky behaviours than those who do not see themselves at risk (Janz & Becker, 1984). The model postulates four conditions that predict a health related behaviour; perceived susceptibility, perceived seriousness, perceived benefits and barriers (Janz & Becker, 1984).

Perceive susceptibility refers to one’s perception of the likelihood of contracting a health disease or condition (Witte et al; 1996) or becoming pregnant in this case. It helps individuals to adapt to healthier lifestyles. The more the teenager perceives the outcomes of teenage pregnancy, the more they will try to avoid it.

Witte et al (1996) again stated that perceived severity will be the teenager’s belief about the implications of a health risk. The perception of severity is often based on the health information given or knowledge about the severity of a condition and difficulties it will create on general wellbeing. If she thinks of it as a serious issue she will try to avoid getting pregnant.

Also, the concept of perceived benefits is the teen’s judgments of the value of the action that will lessen the risk of getting pregnant. Usually, teenagers will practice healthier lifestyles when they believe a new behaviour will lessen their chances of getting pregnant and suffering the consequences (Janz & Becker, 1984). This assertion of Janz & Becker is not always the case as some will wait to be in that particular situation before they take action. On the other hand, as most teenagers don’t change their lifestyles easily, perceived barriers are their own assessment of the difficulties in embracing a new behaviour. Amongst all the perceptions, perceived barriers are most important in defining behavioural change (Janz & Becker, 1984) because if they are able to overcome these barriers their behaviours will change.

Cues to action are pieces of information which are given out with the intention of triggering decision-making actions. They could be internal or external e.g. informational flyers, advertisements on television or internal symptoms of an illness (Witte, 1996). Lastly self efficacy, measures the degree of the reaction taken to prevent pregnancy and that they are able to perform the recommended reaction to avert the risk.

Teen pregnancy and motherhood is a serious problem affecting adolescents which can causes health and social problems. With empowering the youth through education, teen pregnancies and its related problems can be prevented. From a personal view point, it will be acceptable to say that proven programmatic answers to this dilemma are likely to be dissatisfactory. The point is not that sexuality education and contraception education cannot be helpful, but that without more help from the society at large, their impact may be small. On the contrary, an intervention that starts by affecting behaviour in a self-effacing way may ultimately generate changes in behaviours. Behaviour is “contagious” and teens, in particular, are extremely influenced by what their friends do or say. This suggests that programs are not to be judged on the basis of their immediate effects only but also on their peer culture reorientation potential.

Specific purpose: to inform my audience about the positive side of stubbornness in children, the causes of stubbornness, and how to deal with stubborn children. Central idea: stubbornness in children is a repeatedly every day issue and people should take an action and try to understand it very well in order to resolve the problem.

Introduction:

As we are all university students, few more years from today, some of us will probably be married and have a kid or two. Did it ever occur to you: how are you going to raise your children? Or how are you going to be able to handle and deal with your stubborn child?

Imagine with me few more years from now; you are at your friend’s house having a good time, while both your children are playing together. You realized it’s time for you to go back home. You tell your child it’s time to go, but he/she refuses to leave and begs you to stay a little longer. So you give your child five extra minutes, and when it’s time, you face the same problem of refusing again.

At some point or another, each parent reaches to a battle with their own children, yet not many parents knows how to deal with their children’s stubbornness and how to handle such situations right. All parents want their children to be well behaved and know what’s right from wrong, but this goal is not always easy to accomplish, especially when the child is stubborn.

I myself have been in so many similar situations with my nephews and nieces, where I didn’t really know how to react.

I read some books and did further research to know more about the topic of stubbornness in children. The word “Stubborn” as defined in Cambridge Dictionary: describes someone who is determined to do what they want and refuses to do anything else.

Today I would like to inform you about the positive side of stubbornness in children, the causes of this matter, and the ways to deal with the problem.

(Transition: Let’s start with looking at the issue from a positive perspective.)

Body:

Stubbornness in children might not always be a bad sign of behavior; instead it could be helpful somehow. Let’s take a look at the bright side of stubbornness in children.

A child’s stubbornness could possibly be his/her way of representing that they can think for themselves and that they can emphasize on their own opinions and believes. Stubbornness makes children feel that they have a certain level of control over some situations, which psychologically will boost up their self esteem. It is a way for them to learn how to express their own thoughts, have choices, and have power over certain things. When a child recognizes that he/she might have an option and they act on it; that shows a great deal of development and intelligence.

For instance: instead of giving commands to your child which can be replied with a ‘no’ answer, you can give him/her the freedom of two choices that you choose. So instead of “Don’t jump on the bed”, a parent can try saying “You can either sit on the bed or jump on the floor, which one would you like?” Giving your children a little bit of control over their environment and the choices that they can make, is very empowering for them and very helpful to the parents as well.

(Transition: Now that you know that stubbornness isn’t necessarily negative, let’s look at the causes of stubbornness in children.)

There are number of reasons that cause stubbornness in children, some are:

Marital Disputes: Families that are dominated by tensions, have a highly strong emotion, and have a poor marital relationship lead children to tension and disturbance; which will cause the children anger and stubbornness. In some cases marital disputes might generate cases of mental disorders.

Rocking in the attitudes of parents: parental authority in evaluating their children’s behavior should be fixed and non contradictory between one time and another. Parents shouldn’t be tough at a certain case some time and then be lenient with the same exact case some other time or vice versa. Moreover, parents should have an agreement and put up clear laws and regulations for their children to follow; those rules should be clear and concise. For example, when a child asks his father something and the father refuses, the child probably will go and ask or beg his mother so that she can say yes to that particular thing the child asked for, which will generate some level of stubbornness in the child by time when each parent has a different word.

Jealousy between siblings: another cause of stubbornness in children might be because they are jealous of their siblings. A lot of children feel jealous of their brothers and sisters, especially when the parents get a new born baby. The child may start to feel that he/she has lost the love of their parents and they might also feel that the newborn baby took away all the attention and care.

Last but not least, an obedient child might suddenly become stubborn. And that can be only a grabbing attention behavior, and the minute parents make time for their child, the stubbornness behavior is not repeated.

(Transition: Given the causes of stubbornness in children, I’m sure you would probably be wondering what the ways to deal with this issue are.)

There are many ways to handle stubbornness in children:

Rule number one is to always stay calm but firm whenever your child is being stubborn. Don’t try to solve the problem by shouting. The key is to remain calm, and never allow your child to cause your temper to boil over. You should be the authoritative voice in the situation.

As Mrs. Joanna Al Khayat, who holds a bachelor of arts in social science majoring in child psychology from Boston University, suggests; setting up a daily routine life into your children’s lives might be helpful for they get to be able to distinguish what is expected from them. For instance: setting up meal times, bath time, and bed time.

Mrs. Al Khayat also adds that allowing some space to your children will enhance their ability of making their own decisions or forming an opinion and deciding for themselves, it’s also an important aspect of the child’s character development. For instance: giving your child the freedom of choosing which cartoon he/she prefers to watch won’t cause any harm and will satisfy their needs. However, when your child persist on doing something harmful, like playing with a knife for example, your child must understand that you, as a parent, should have the final word in decision making.

Another way of overcoming stubbornness in children is that parents must probably set some boundaries and guidelines and establish consequences for crossing them. Make sure that the punishments are age appropriate. And after that, parents should speak to their children and explain to them what will and will not be tolerated.

Praise your child and give him/her some kinds of rewards when they cooperate and behave well.

Reduce unnecessary rules: the more regulations you have, the less your child will obey and follow your guides. As a parent you should help your child feel less controlled by having more optimistic communication with him/her than pessimistic ones each day.

Conclusion:

In conclusion: As we have seen stubbornness is a very normal common behavior in children.

Parents shouldn’t just look at this behavior in a bad perspective; instead it could have a positive effect on their children.

Understanding the reasons behind stubbornness in children will prepare the parents to be patient to overcome this issue. With proper knowledge and understanding, parents learn how to react to their children’s behavior.

There are some certain methods that help a lot in dealing with stubborn children.

“aˆ¦Sugar and Spice and everything nice, that’s what little girls are made of.” Society today has made a clear cut line about what is appropriate for a little boy and what is appropriate for a little girl. Society has made that distinction through gender stereotyping. If you walk into a preschool class room today, little girls will be playing dress-up with fairy and princess costumes while the boys will be tackling each other or playing with dump trucks. Even though many people believe that gender is not learned, but instinctual instead, there may be outside influences on gender roles that children fall victim to, for example parents influence gender roles by the language they use and media and toys reinforce gender stereotypes in children by character portrayal and advertisements.

There are many different parenting styles that are seen today. Psychologist Diana Baumrind discovered four basic styles of parenting; authoritarian, permissive-indifferent, permissive-indulgent, and authoritative (Morris, 310). Regardless of the parenting style that one family opts for, there seems to be a common thread; the majority of parents will dress little boys in blue and little girls in pink. The thought process behind this is so that their gender can be identified properly by an outside source. No parent wants to be walking through a store with their little boy and have a stranger ask, “How old is she?” Interestingly enough however, according to the article “What’s Wrong with Cinderella?” author Peggy Orenstein points out “when colors were first introduced to the nursery in the early part of the twentieth century, pink was considered the more masculine hue, a pastel version of red. Blue, with its intimations of the Virgin Mary, constancy and faithfulness, was thought to be dainty.” Somewhere along the line, the reverse was thought true; pink was more feminine and blue was more masculine, and is so “enforced” by today’s standards.

Another example of how strongly parents influence gender was learned when an experiment was performed at Harvard University. Male babies were dressed in pink outfits and were then given to adults to handle under the impression that they were girls. The language used with the boy babies dressed in pink fell into the female stereotype, while the girl babies dressed in blue fell into the male stereotype, being called handsome and tough (Pruett). Language is a big influence on gender interpretation. Often we tell boys not to cry and explain things with different tones for boys versus girls. If a little girl hits a friend, parents/caregivers might use a gentler phrase like, “gentle hands on your friends please.” If a little boy hits a friend, parents/caregivers might just shrug the action off as “Boys will be boys” as the common saying goes or raise their voices to get the point across more strongly, “We DO NOT hit our friends!”

Even the compliments that adults bestow upon children can be gender stereotyping. When you tell a little a girl how pretty she looks in her dress is an illustration of that. Parents lead by example. Their children learn behavior from what they see their parents doing, even if unintentional. If a child sees their mother as the one who always does the laundry and cooks the meals and the father as the one who always takes the trash out, then chances are that the child will follow the same roles when as they grow up.

Media also plays a large part in where children learn about what their gender role is. Disney movies are a prime example of this. In these movies, the leading female character, usually a princess, is sweet, romantic, daydreams about Prince Charming, and almost always wears a dress in a pastel color. On the other hand, the same Disney movie can represent the male population watching with a prince, who is usually strong, willing to fight, and always gets the girl at the end. These characters often lead to a misconception of what is feminine and what is masculine. On the spectrum of gender identity, Disney may represent the extremes of what the appropriate gender role is.

Advertisements are often seen using gender as a marketing strategy for toys or games. If you look at a commercial for Tonka Trucks, there won’t be a little girl to be seen in these ads. However, if you see a commercial for Easy-Bake oven, the opposite will be true. There will be no boys in those commercials. Seeing these on television demonstrates to children what should be an appropriate toy for a little boy and what should be appropriate for a little girl. Even the behaviors of children portrayed in television advertisements are stereotypic. Boys are often seen as active and domineering while the girls are portrayed as shy or overly silly.

These advertisements usually lead to the purchase of the toys shown for the sex it was targeted to. Parents often wonder if you give a baby doll to a little boy or a dump truck to a little girl, will they be gender confused. Even the most new-age parents might find it bizarre to see their little boys walking around preschool with a purse and in dress shoes. Boys have a harder time crossing the gender line, whereas some parents of females might think that it’s alright for their daughters to play with dump trucks or Legos. This does not mean that the son will be more feminine and the daughter will be a tom-boy, but a majority of parents do not want to risk that.

Not everyone believes, however, that gender is strictly a learned behavior. In 2009, Texas A&M University used eye tracking software to measure infant’s interest in either “male” or “female” toys (Shaffer). According to an article published in 2010, the author M. Fox, found the results to be extremely informative:

Hormone levels in the saliva, as well as finger dimensions that indicate prenatal testosterone exposure were measured to see if these things could explain why the infants visually preferred certain toys over others. The results revealed that while the girls’ preferences weren’t affected by hormone levels at all, the boys’ preferences were affected by both current and prenatal hormone levels. It appears that the higher the presence of testosterone at the time of the test, the greater the preference for groups of figures over individual figures, and those who indicated a higher exposure to prenatal testosterone had a stronger preference for the ball over the doll.

This means that the boys showed an optical penchant for gender specific toys. In an article in New Scientist, Linda Geddes states that research has been done to show that the introduction of changing levels of testosterone and estrogen while babies are in utero may also have some sway in which toys boys and girls pick.

There are other theorists that believe that there is a cognitive connection to gender development. Carol Lynn Martin and Diane Ruble are two such theorists. They discuss Kohlberg’s theory of gender development is and what the impact is of knowing your gender does not change. This is an important fact for children to learn, generally setting the concepts of what is ‘correct’ behavior for your gender type. Martin and Ruble think that there are important cognitive themes for gender development, rather than the influence of a specific outside source.

The first important theme discussed is “The Emergence of Gender Identity and Its Consequences.” In this stage, it is allegedly general knowledge that children understand that there are two different types of genders, and they have the realization that they fall into one of those two categorizing sexes. This first theme is then broken down into two sub-categories, “Evaluative Consequences” and “Motivational and Informational Consequences.” The former meaning that the child understands and identifies one group as their own and sees this group as a positive. The latter sub-category means that one the child picks a gender to identify with and while the want to understand the opposite sex dwindles, the individual seems only interested it their own gender identity.

The second theme that is thought to be a cognitive gender identity link is “Active, Self-Initiated View of Gender Development” and the final theme is “Developmental Patterns.” In these two themes, the thought is that the main focus is learning about the social gender group that they most identify with, and forming and developing the characteristics that are most familiar with the identified gender. While exploring the cognitive connection to gender, many place a strong association to motivational significances and developmental configurations of the gender identity theory.

Even though many theorists believe that gender is not a learned behavior, but you are born knowing the difference between ‘appropriate’ male behaviors and toys and ‘appropriate’ female behaviors and toys, others disagree. Those people state that there are many possible outside influences on children when they are learning their gender roles in society. Some also believe that being aware of specific gender stereotypes has a connection to how one behaves. The media and toys that children do see and use play an intricate part in the concept of gender roles and parents influence gender identity by using specific language and actions. Whether or not gender is identity is solely obtained by influence or is pre-determined by some cognitive connection, it is an intriguing issue. Should boys and girls be able to make the choice of the toy that they want to play with or what their favorite color is going to be regardless of what society claims is “normal”? With the role that parents or caregivers play in gender role identification, they should learn different methods for breaking stereotypes. Adults could make sure that they use the same language for both sexes or become involved in activities such as cuddling with boys or wrestling with girls. Connecting children of both sexes in such a manner is a good way to encourage the cycles of gender stereotyping to end.

To raise a child of any age comes with many difficulties for caregivers. Most parents strive towards raising children that are responsible, independent and respectable. There are a few schools of thought to disciplining children. One may be to apply discipline by teaching and the other to physically discipline a child as a means to correcting inappropriate behaviors. The Encarta Concise English dictionary defines discipline as “To teach somebody to obey rules or to behave in an ordered or controlled way” (“Discipline,” 2001, p. 409). Physical discipline is based on the use of fear as the motivator to changing a child’s behavior. “Behaviors that do not result in significant physical injury (i.e. spank, slap) are considered corporal punishment, whereas behaviors that risk injury (i.e. punching, kicking, burning) are considered physical abuse” (Gershoff, 2002) Parents who use either form of physical discipline with children need to understand the damaging effects it can have on a child’s emotional, moral and social development.

Emotional Development

A child’s self esteem is developed through caregivers offering encouragement, acknowledgement and nurturing their range of emotions. “Recognition of emotion is particularly important because it represents the early utilization of social cues on which children’s subsequent interpretation and behavioral responses will depend.” (Cicchetti, Hormung, Pollak, & Reed, 2000, p. 680) Using physical discipline as the motivator for altering a child’s behavior affects their emotional stability. “Being slapped or spanked is a frightening and threatening event that arouses strong negative emotions such as humiliation, sadness, and anger.”(Straus, 2005, p.145) The use of punitive measures is in direct opposition to what disciplining is meant to achieve and may affect a child’s development. “They may be slow to reach milestones in social and physical development.” (Crosson-Tower, 2004, p.191) Physical discipline affects the child’s feelings of acceptance and they tend to respond with destructive impulses, rather than positive responses. “Children and adults reared in abuse have had their senses trained in such a way that to use them for receiving or transmitting positive messages is not part of their communications system.” (Helfer, 1980, p.38) Parents and caregivers need to help the child develop self confidence, self reliance and self discipline. Children who recognize self efficacy by being offered simple choices begin to develop moral insight.

Moral Development

Discipline, whether positive or negative, develops a child’s perception of themselves and defines their moral understanding of how they should behave. A child who learns hitting is acceptable may be confused, because in many other areas of their life; school, daycare and recreational activities, hitting is unacceptable. It is in direct contradiction to what they learn at home which in turn becomes a value. In addition, children exposed to physical discipline are more susceptible to becoming abusers themselves (Newman, 1993). Parents who are not armed with the proper parenting tools become frustrated and angry about controlling their children’s behavior. Straus (2005) says, spanking has roots in two cultural myths; one, spanking is okay if done by a loving parent and two, spanking will work if all other methods of discipline fail (p. 140-141). Parent’s who understand their children’s ability to internalize all discipline measures, also realize they are developing their children’s values. “Children’s internalization of morals is thought to be enhanced by parental discipline strategies that use, minimal parental power, promote choice and autonomy and provide explanations for desirable behaviors” (Gershoff, 2002, p. 1) The short term consequences of physical discipline will undermine the child’s developing moral understanding and further debilitates their social development.

Social Development

The expression of abuse with a physically disciplined child becomes apparent when their interaction reveals itself by their behavior with other children. A child who is physically disciplined at home is traumatized. A study conducted by Marin & Beezly (1977) suggests that children were more alert to their environment and cautious of peripheral danger around them (p. 375). Therefore, the resulting animosity that has built up is misdirected to whomever the child comes into contact with outside of the home which is usually learning centers such as schools. In a research study conducted by Eckenroder, Doris & Laird (1993) reporting’s on pre-school children demonstrated that children who have been physically disciplined showed aggressiveness and were more likely to be disciplined from teachers than children who have not been mistreated (p.54). Children who are unable to cope with their pent-up aggression react in a negative way in the school environment. “For the abused child, the lack of social responsiveness becomes more striking.” (Tower, 2002, p. 49)

The physically disciplined child who matures and enters high school with multiple disturbed behaviors reveals other social and psychological impairments. “Insecure attachments to their mothers, lower intelligence scores, impaired language development, lower levels of cognitive maturity and effectance motivation, more negative affect and less positive effect, less pro-social behavior, and more aggressive and non-compliant behavior.” (Eckenroder, Doris and Laird. 1993. p.57). Therefore, the initial bond between child and parent is vital in the development of the child. “A strong child-to-parent bond is important because children are more likely to accept parental restrictions and follow parental standards if there is a bond of affection with the parent.” (Straus, 2005, p. 146). If the trust is diminished from their primary source, namely the communication between parent and child, the bond and relationship is strained. Thus, a child’s friendship with other children, siblings and even family members are greatly affected which causes anxiety with the child.

Conclusion

In summation, the raising of children presents many challenges for caregivers. The goal of raising children to be responsible, independent and respectable individuals is an arduous task. In the teaching method of disciplining, a goal is to strengthen self discipline and personal control so that caregivers relieve themselves of parenting by the time the offspring leaves home. To reach these goals, parents must make sure their children learn the skills involved in problem solving and making decisions. Conversely, correcting inappropriate behaviors by physically disciplining children have long term consequences which will greatly hinder the child’s development as they mature. The short term results of physical discipline on a child’s development manifests long term effects, characterized by low self esteem coupled with morals which contradict the values of society.

Annotated Bibliography

Beezly, P., & Harold Martin, P. (1997, June). Behavioural observations of abused children.

Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology, 19, 373-387. Retrieved from

http://ibs.colorado.edu/cspv/infohouse/violit/violitDetails.php?recordnumber=3191&vio_nam=violit

A behavioural observation of abused children is an article derived from Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology, written by Patricia Beezly and Harold Martin. The article focus on how children’s development is directly affected by being physically disciplined by their parents or caregivers. The authors appear to support the claim that children should not be physically discipline by using case studies and statistics.

Cicchetti, D., Hormung, K., Pollak, S. D., & Reed, A. (2000). Recognizing emotion in faces:

Developmental effects of child abuse and neglect. Developmental Psychology, 36(5),

677-688. Retrieved from http://psych.wisc.edu/pollak/pdfs/recognizing_emotion_faces_devpsych.pdf.

This article is a study by Cicchetti, Hormung, Pollak and Reed with the hypothesis being the lack of recognizing certain emotions as a direct correlation to physical discipline. Utilizing social cues and how the child interprets and responds to them is important for their development and further predicates the child’s familiarity of negative environments. The writer understands the premise however the stats seemed weak in respects to differentiating between normal treated children and physically disciplined children, yet clearly neglected children showed the least responsiveness to the tests. Nevertheless, the outcome supports the paper in regards to physical discipline affecting the physicality of children to their reaction of emotions.

Crosson-Tower, C., (2004). Exploring child welfare: A Practice Perspective. Pearson

Education, Inc.

Cynthia Crosson-Tower, examines the protection of children in chapter 7 titled Protecting Children When Families Cannot-Child Abuse and Neglect. Her premise, “non accidental injury inflicted on a child” defines the quintessential meaning of physical abuse to children. In reference to the paper, the writer needed to support the argument of physical discipline being detrimental to the development of childhood milestones.

Discipline. (2001). Encarta concise english dictionary. London.

The definition of the word “Discipline” was found in the Encarta Concise English Dictionary. The relevance of the term being added to the research paper is so the reader has an accurate meaning of the conveyed idea.

Eckenroder, J., Doris, J., & Laird, M. (1993). School performances and disciplinary problems

Among abused and neglected children. Development Psychology, 29(1), 53-62. Retrieved from http:// http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/00121649.

Eckenroder, Laird and Doris ascertained data from a school and examined stats from kindergarten to grade 12 in their study. The study, for instance revealed the personalities of pre-schoolers as aggressive and requiring more attention from the teachers. The writer found the study helpful to the paper in supporting that physical discipline is exposed upon contact with learning centers such as daycares and schools.

Gershoff, E. T. ( 2002). Corporal punishment by parents and associated behaviors and

Experiences: A meta-analytic and theoretical review. Psychological Bulletin, 128 (4), 539-579. doi: 10.1037/0033-2909.128.4.539

This review paper by Gershoff anticipates the use of physical discipline or corporal punishment as detrimental to child behaviors and experiences as relative to pain. The review was helpful in defining how the study differentiated between corporal punishment and physical abuse, yet the bias was supported by Gershoff’s findings.

Kemp, C.H. & Helfer, R.E. (Eds.) (1980). The Battered Child (3rd. Ed.). Chicago:University of

Chicago Press.

In chapter 3 titled Developmental Deficits Which Limit Interpersonal Skills, of the text The Battered Child, Ray Helfer explores how senses vital to our development can be affected by abuse. Senses are developed by the child’s environment and when these external forces are not positive and safe the child suppresses and mutes their own development. Helfer’s focal points on interpersonal skills such as delayed gratification, responsibility, decision making, problem solving, trusting others, feelings and action are affected by childhood deficits.

Newman, F. (1993). Children in Crisis. Scholastic Canada.

Children in Crisis, is a book written by Fran Newman. It covers topics on different types of child abuse, precipitating factors to the events leading to abuse and the impact on family dynamics. This book was somewhat helpful, although the focus appeared to be more on family structure and values, rather than how child abuse directly affects a child’s self esteem and other developmental stages.

Straus, M.A. (2005). Children should never, ever, be spanked no matter what the circumstances.

In D. R. Loseke, R. J. Gelles & M. M Cavanaugh (Eds.), Current Controversies about

Family Violence (2nd ed., 137-157). Thousand Oak, CA: Sage. Retrieved from

http://pubpages.unh.edu/~mas2/CP67%20Children%20Should%20Never%20be%20Spanked.pdf

This article written by Murray Straus was located through Google Scholar’s search engine. The author presented relevant and accurate information on the topic of child development and the ineffectiveness of physical discipline on children. Although the article was interesting, the use of language and vocabulary may present an entry level university student with great difficulty when attempting to read and retain the information.

Tower, C. (2002). Understanding child abuse and neglect. ( 5th ed.). Boston, MA: USA

Cynthia Crosson-Towers in chapter 3 Maltreatment and the Developing Child, studies early childhood development. Infants that have not had the stimuli of care do not reach the required milestones outlined for that age. Milestones, as a standard measurement for development has shown that it is vital that children reach each phase and move onto the next phase for proper development. The material covered in the text was succinct and clear for the understanding of childhood development.

Select one of the following age groups: infants, toddlers or young children. Focus on two developmental domains (select from: physical, social and emotional, language and/or cognitive development) of the child. Describe how these two domains develop within your chosen age group with the support of human development theories and concepts studied in this course. Identify a range of teaching strategies that promote a child’s development in each of the two selected domains.

Development describes the growth of humans throughout the lifespan, from conception to death. The study of human development helps to understand how and why people change throughout life. This includes all aspects of human growth, including physical, intellectual, language, social and emotional and spiritual development. Papalia and Olds (1998) define lifespan development as “a lifelong process of development” (p.10).

This essay describes the physical and cognitive development of infants (birth-12 months) and also discuss about some teaching strategies that promote physical and cognitive development of infants in the early childcare centres.

Physical development refers to progressively gaining control over large and small muscles. Gross motor (large muscle) skills allow a child to do things like roll over, sit, crawl, walk, and throw a ball. Fine motor (small muscle) skills enable children to do things like draw, and eat with spoon. The development of new motor skills allows children to make new discoveries. As they explore, they begin to make sense of their environment (Berger, 2001).

The physical development of infants is very important. Although children develop at different rates, they learn to control their bodies in the same progression (Berk, 2006). Arnold Gesell, an American psychologist, is one of the first theorists who approached to determine developmental measure for children. He developed his theory by studying a number of children (Terry, 2008).

Newborn babies have very few motor skills. Their muscles are not strong enough to control their body, while their sense of hearing and smell are keen. Infants move by reflex when they are newborns. They move automatically in response to various stimuli. Some reflexes help parents to make sure that infants will get what they need to survive (Berk, 2006). For instance, when the mother touches the cheek of a newborn, the baby starts moving his/her mouth in search of a nipple. When the mother touches his/her mouth or when his/her mouth touches the nipple, the baby starts sucking. Also, infants have other reflexes such as reciprocal kicking (Terry, 2008).

In five months, most babies gain control of their arms and head. Gesell considered this process of physical growth “a genetically determines series of events that unfolds automatically” (Berk, 2006, p.14). He believed that physical development occurs to each child in a fixed order, and a certain development happens when an individual’s inner system is prepared. Gesell also suggested head-to-tail and centre-to-edge sequence (Berk, 2006). In other words, control develops from head to toe, and from the centre of children’s bodies out through their arms and legs to their fingers and toes. For example, a child learns to lift his/her head first and then sit, crawl, walk and run (Terry, 2008).

Gesell also stated that an infant gains control of the head before arms, and masters moving arms before fingers. According to milestones of motor development, infants can lift their upper body by using their arms two months after their birth, and sit by themselves a few months later. Then, infants become able to control their lower body to do things like walking and jumping (Berk, 2006).

When the children are of nearly one year, they are gradually developing their fine motor skills like grabbing objects. They begin to stack blocks or other toys. Also they can pick up small pieces of cereal, open and close small boxes, and turn knobs on toys because their pincer grasp becomes more coordinated (Berk, 2006).

Another aspect of physical development is shaping senses. A child’s sense of taste, smell and hearing are more developed than sense of sight. Infants can recognize the difference of flavors, people’s smell and tones of voice, while their vision is unclear. In addition to these four senses (taste, smell, hear and vision), infants develop their sense of touch (Berk, 2006).

Teachers play an important role in promoting children’s physical development. They should provide safe indoor and outdoor spaces for children to move their bodies. Educators should provide materials and equipments according to the age and developmental level of infants (Dodge, Dombro & Koralek, 1991).

Educators can promote physical development of infants by reinforcing and encouraging them. Educators should help and encourage children when they are learning new skills (Dodge, Dombro & Koralek, 1991). For example, when an infant is taking the feed from his/her bottle, educator should encourage him/her for holding the milk bottle (Terry, 2008). Educators should provide the opportunities for children to use their senses to explore, shape, volume and other characteristics of objects (Dodge, Dombro & Koralek, 1991).

Educators can promote physical development of infants by providing equipments and opportunities for gross motor skills. To do this, educators should set up the room in a way that infants have the freedom to explore in a range of safe spaces (Dodge, Dombro & Koralek, 1991). For instance, some infants have started crawling, so teachers should divide the space so that the infants, who do not crawl, won’t get hurt. Educators should provide a range of materials and equipments that helps children to use their large muscles. For example, push bikes, tunnels and so on (Dodge, Dombro & Koralek, 1991).

Educators can promote physical development of infants by providing equipments and opportunities for fine motor skills. To do this, educators should provide opportunities for infants that help them to develop small muscles by grasping, dropping, pulling and fingering (Dodge, Dombro & Koralek, 1991). Treasure basket is a good resource that teachers can use to develop fine motor skills of infants (Terry, 2008).

As human beings grow, they gain knowledge and produce different thoughts, and also their ability of memorizing develops. This change of intelligence is called cognitive development. The early years of a child’s life are crucial for cognitive development (Berger, 2001). Cognitive development of the baby means the learning process of memory, language, thinking and reasoning. Babies develop at their own pace. So, it is impossible to tell exactly when every child will learn a given skill. Jean piaget and Lev Vygotsky are two of the famous cognitive theorists (Tesar, 2008).

After birth of a baby, their intelligence develops rapidly during the first two years. According to Piaget’s cognitive theory, infants explore and understand their world by using their senses. For example, smelling, sucking, throwing, and mouthing and so on. Piaget proposed four stages of cognitive development, which he believed occur in a certain order to everyone at individual’s own rate (Berk, 2006).

The first stage of development is called sensor motor stage that applies to children from birth to two year. During this stage, an infant’s knowledge of the world is limited, but developing, to their sensory perceptions and motor activities. Behaviors are limited to simple motor responses caused by sensory stimuli. Children utilize skills and abilities they born with, such as looking, sucking, grasping and listening, to learn more about the environment. This stage has further six sub-stages (Berk, 2006).

During first sub-stage, which is reflexive schemes (0-1 month), the child understands the world through inborn reflexes such as sucking and looking. The second sub-stage, which is primary circular reactions (1-4 months), involves coordinating sensation and new schemes (Berk, 2006). For instance, if a child accidentally puts his/her finger in mouth and has started sucking it, then later on, that child intentionally repeat this action. By repeating these actions, infants find them pleasurable (Tesar, 2008).

During third sub-stage, which is secondary circular reactions (4-8 months), infants start paying attention on the world around them and begins to intentionally repeat an action in order to trigger a response in the environment (Berk, 2006). For example, a child intentionally picks up a toy from the floor to put that toy in his/her mouth (Tesar, 2008).

In the fourth sub-stage, which is coordination of secondary circular reactions (8-12 months), object permanence occurs, demonstrating that memory is developing. Infants realize that an object exists and they begin to recognize certain objects as having specific qualities (Berk, 2006). For example, if the mother shows the baby an attractive toy and then hides that toy under the blanket. The child in this sub-stage can find the toy (Tesar, 2008).

According to Piaget, infants develop their memory and imitation skills through these sub-stages. New born babies respond to what they feel through senses and also imitate facial expressions. As children grow, they enjoy repeating actions as well as becoming able to remember familiar people and objects (Berk, 2006).

The ways children adapt to situations were described by Piaget as assimilation and accommodation. Children organize their own experience when they encounter the similar events during assimilation, whereas in accommodation, the children adjust old knowledge to new understandings when unfamiliar situations come (Bruce& Meggitt, 2005).

According to Vygotsky, children’s learning is influenced by people in their society. His idea of zone of proximal development is that children’s intelligence expands more when they are supported by adults or older children than when they are working by themselves. Infants gain knowledge not only from their own discoveries but also from what other people illustrate to them (Nixon & Gould, 2003).

According to Piaget, the teacher should provide an environment where children can explore themselves. Teachers play an important role in the development of children. Teachers should create an environment where they can interact with the children and observe them closely (Tesar, 2008).

Teachers should provide opportunities for infants to use all senses to explore the world around them. For example, providing treasure basket is a good example to promote infant’s cognitive development. By doing this, educators can help children develop new concepts and gain thinking and reasoning skills (Dodge, Dombro & Koralek, 1991).

By providing musical instruments, teachers can help children to acquire knowledge of different sounds and children know the difference of high and low volume (Dodge, Dombro & Koralek, 1991). Teachers should provide finger food to the infants. By doing this, children can smell, taste or squish the food. This helps infants to get familiar with the taste, hardness, softness and smell of the provided food (Dodge, Dombro & Koralek, 1991).

Teachers can promote infant’s cognitive development by interacting with them in different ways. This helps children to promote their confidence and curiousity. Educators can promote infant’s confidence and curiosity by praising their successess. For example, if a child roll over or hold a toy for the very first time, then the teacher should praise that child. By doing this, teachers can help children in buliding their self confidence and inceases their curiosity for achieving success for next time (Dodge, Dombro & Koralek, 1991).

In conclusion, physical development occurs to infants automatically according to genes in the fixed sequence. Also, babies gain control of their upper body before lower body. Infants gain knowledge of world through explorations by using their senses as well as organizing previous experiences when they face unfamiliar situations. According to Vygotsky’s point of view, an infant’s cognition expands with the support from people around them. Educators play a prominent role for the physical and cognitive development of infants.

Objective: To investigate young people’s perceptions of sexual health services that they demand and sex education provided children.

Design: Questionnaires based on open-ended questions.

Setting: 30 young people (aged 19-21 years) surveyed at Anglia Ruskin University.

Method: I interviewed young people using the questionnaires.

Results: 80% young people think that “Confidentiality” and “Friendly atmosphere and staffs easy to talk to” are the important factors, when they ask someone sexual questions. On the other hand, they don’t think that general advice about sexual health and other health matters is important factors. Also, they think that children should be taught different sexual health educations, such as “How to say ‘no’ to sex”, “Contraception”, and “Sexuality, Religious and Morality”, at around 13 years old at school.

Conclusion: I identified that young people’s demands towards sexual health services are comfortable atmosphere and reliable staffs, not sexual health knowledge and counsellor’s advice itself. Also, I felt that young people’s versions of the proper ages that children should learn each sex education are almost the same as that of general Japanese through this study.

[Definition]

The World Health Organisation (WHO) define sexual health as

“Sexual health is a state of physical, emotional, mental and social well-being in relation to sexuality; it is not merely the absence of disease, dysfunction or infirmity. Sexual health requires a positive and respectful approach to sexuality and sexual relationships, as well as the possibility of having pleasurable and safe sexual experiences, free of coercion, discrimination and violence. For sexual health to be attained and maintained, the sexual rights of all persons must be respected, protected and fulfilled”. (1)

According to AVERT which is an international AIDS charity define sex education as

“Sex education, which is sometimes called sexuality education or sex and relationships education, is the process of acquiring information and forming attitudes and beliefs about sex, sexual identity, relationships and intimacy. Sex education is also about developing young people’s skills so that they make informed choices about their behaviour, and feel confident and competent about acting on these choices. It is widely accepted that young people have a right to sex education. This is because it is a means by which they are helped to protect themselves against abuse, exploitation, unintended pregnancies, sexually transmitted diseases and HIV and AIDS. It is also argued that providing sex education helps to meet young people’s rights to information about matters that affect them, their right to have their needs met and to help them enjoy their sexuality and the relationships that they form”. (2)

[Introduction]

Nowadays, the attentions on sexual health services and sex education towards young people have been increasing, because there are facts that the concept of sexually transmitted diseases, such as AIDS, Chlamydia, and Syphilis, has become more familiar to young people, and the number of unwanted pregnancies is increasing.

Governments and organisations try to deal with the problems through providing places where people can learn sex education, or establishing special institutions providing sexual health services. In fact, there is The Sydney Sexual Health Centre in Sydney, Australia. They state on their site,

“The Sydney Sexual Health Centre provides a confidential and comprehensive service that helps put you in control of your sexual health. We do this by providing screening, vaccination and management of sexually transmissible infections (STIs) including HIV, hepatitis B, hepatitis C, women’s and men’s sexual health care, education, individual and couple counselling, and needle and syringe program. The service is free and a Medicare card is not required”. (3)

They supply people with knowledge, advice, and testing for different sexually transmitted diseases for free. As a matter of course, there are many similar institutions in the UK, and such sexual health services are provided by National Health Service in each area.

According to AVERT, the purpose of sex education is the following.

“Sex education aims to reduce the risks of potentially negative outcomes from sexual behaviour, such as unwanted or unplanned pregnancies and infection with sexually transmitted diseases including HIV. It also aims to contribute to young people’s positive experience of their sexuality by enhancing the quality of their relationships and their ability to make informed decisions over their lifetime. Sex education that works, by which we mean that it is effective, is sex education that contributes to both these aims thus helping young people to be safe and enjoy their sexuality”. (2)

I think that the supplies of sexual health services and sex education to young people are important for their health and future, so I decided to investigate whether they were taught about sex education at their school or not, and what images young people in Cambridge have regarding it.

[Method]

I created questionnaires which are consisted of open-ended questions, and those questionnaires are based on questionnaires designed by C Reeves, R Whitaker, R K Parsonage, C A Robinson, K Swale, L Bayley in their research paper, “Sexual health services and education: Young people’s experiences and preferences”. (4)

I asked respondents to comment on services they expect counsellors or facilities providing sexual health services, and the right ages that children should be taught sexual relationship education at school.

I interviewed 30 young people at Anglia Ruskin University. I tabulated the data, and I assessed the differences between groups.

[Results]

Young people’s demands towards sexual health services

I asked young people, “If you went for information/advice regarding contraception/health matters, how important would each of the following be to you? For your information, you can choose as many as you feel appropriate”.

Table 1 showed the results. According to the table 1, 80% young people answered that “Confidentiality” and “Friendly atmosphere and staff easy to talk to” are the significant aspects. Surprisingly, they replied that counsellor’s character and comradely atmosphere are more important than their advice or knowledge. As the third best answer, “Tests for HIV and other sexual infections” were an important factor for young people. 63% respondents agreed “Emergency contraception” is also a weighty factor. Those two aspects were concrete and visible rather than abstract and sensuous such as top two factors. Following that, “Not telling your parents without your permission” was the fifth best factor. This might mean that young people are afraid of their parents’ views of their sexual lives. “Unplanned pregnancy counselling”, and “Pregnancy testing”, were important factors, with 53% and 50% respectively. These results might show that young people’s contraceptive use is low when they have sexual relationships with their partner. Also, they look that they understand a risk of having a sexual relationship without a contraceptive item, such as a condom. Next, Young people answered that “Being able to go without an appointment” and “General advice on sexual health” are less important that above sections, with 33% and 30% each. Last, “Advice on other health matters” was the least important element for them.

As I told above, to sum up, young people put importance on sexual health professionals’ character and the mood. On the other hand, they don’t care about advice or knowledge from sexual health professionals.

[Table 1]

The proper ages of being taught each sex education

Table 2 shows that the proper ages that children should be taught different sex education topics from the views of young people. According to the table 2, young people think that children should be taught the following sex education at around 13 years old. Interestingly, each age of “Homosexuality and lesbianism”, “Sexuality, religions and moral values”, “HIV/AIDS and other STDs”, “Rape”, “Abortion”, and “Sexual abuse” was slightly higher than other items. All of these items are related to individual belief regarding sexual relationships, or solemn problems, such as sexually transmitted diseases, and sexual violence.

On the other hand, the ages of children being taught “Contraception”, “How to discuss contraceptive use”, and “How to say ‘no’ to sex” were marginally lower than above one. Also, young people answered that children should be educated “Role of emotions in sexual relationships” sooner than others. According to the table 2, these 4 topics under 13 years old are more basic and central topics than the one over 14 years old.

To sum up, young people believe that children should be taught sex education around 13 years old, but they also feel that there are proper stages of being taught each sexual education topic.

[Table 2]

[Conclusion]

I found out that young people’s perceptions of sexual health services and sex education through this study.

Firstly, I discovered that the strongest demand of sexual health services of young people is the mood and personality of counsellors providing sexual health services, not their knowledge and their advice itself. I think that the reason is young people can get information on sexual problems itself through the Internet, TV, and books. Therefore, I feel that they need the environment and people that provide them with the sense of safety and a feeling of trust in the counsellors. Similarly, their concern about sexually transmitted diseases was a high score, so this might mean that sexually transmitted diseases spread young people. According to the Health Protection Agency’s report in the UK between 1999 and 2008 (5), the number of Syphilis rose dramatically from 223 to 2524. In the same way, there was a striking increase in the number of Chlamydia from 56991 to 123018. Also, the patients caused by herpes considerably increased from 17509 to 28957. Total number of patients went up by approximately 150000 only 10 years. In 1999, similarly, just over 3000 people were diagnosed with HIV in the UK. However, there were 7298 new diagnoses of HIV in 2008, so the increase was more than twice. On the other hand, young people don’t need advices of sexual health and general health so much. As I stated above, I think that the reason why they don’t put importance on these aspects is that they can get similar advice or much better information which are related to their problems through different ways, such as the Internet, magazines, and TV. Hence, they demand friendly atmosphere and conversable staffs on sexual health services.

When I was 11, 12 years old, I studied sex education at my elementary school. So, I found that the ages that young people in Cambridge were taught sex education at school is almost the same as that of general Japanese people experienced at school. According to the table 2, young people think that children should be taught primary and fundamental sex education, such as “Role of emotions in sexual relationships”, “Contraception”, “How to say ‘no’ to sex”, faster than others. I think that it is hard for children who are around 12 years old to understand completely the meaning of taking sex education, because most children don’t have an interest in sexual activities at the age. However, sex education would be important for them in a few years later, so they should be taught basic sex education at the early stage. After that, they should learn more ethical and serious sex education, such as “Sexually Transmitted Diseases”, “Abortion”, and “Rape”. In my opinion, at the same time, I feel that governments and organisations should establish institutions providing sexual health services and sex education for some children who want to study and need it. In a consequence, children’s understanding about sex education would improve, so unintended pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases would decline from a long-time point of view.

I found out that young people’s demands towards sexual health services and the staffs, and their notion of the ages when children should be taught sex education at school through this study. However, I didn’t explore the differences between gender, generation, and countries on this time. As future prospects, I feel that I should increase the number of respondents, and ask their gender, religion, gender, and nationality, and analyse the data. As a consequence, I could get more interesting and broad information regarding the perceptions of young people’s sexual health services and sex education.

INTRODUCTION

The development of children’s rights has been one of the great successes of the United Nations. Children are inherently and carry with them society aspirations for the future. In the words of the Geneva Declaration on the rights of the child, mankind owes to the best it has to give.

Meaning Of Children: Is generally a human between the stages of birth and puberty. Some vernacular definitions of a child include the fetus, as being an unborn child. The legal definition of “child” generally refers to a minor, otherwise known as a person younger than the age of majority. “Child” may also describe a relationship with a parent or authority figure, or signify group membership in a clan, tribe, or religion; it can also signify being strongly affected by a specific time, place, or circumstance, as in “a child of nature”.

Children are also defined as a person under the age of 18 years as stipulated in the Children Act, 2001 and The Convention On The Right of The Child.

Parents Teachers Association (PTA)

Parents Teachers Association (PTA) is a formal organization composed of parents, teachers and staff that is intended to facilitate parental participation in a public or private school. It role is to encourage closer link between home and school. The goal of all PTA is to support their school, encourage parents involvement, support teacher and organize family events.

As the largerst volunteer child advocacy association in the nation, PTA reminds our country of its obligations to children and provide parents and families with a powerful voice to speak on behalf of every child while providing the best tool for parents to help their children be successful students.

Aims and Objective of PTA

To promote the welfare of children, adolescent and youth in the home, the school and the community.

To create better understanding between parents and teachers and harmonious relationship between the school and the community.

To create the necessary consciousness among parents to stimulate their interest in their children and the school.

To work for the improvement of the school with the united efforts of parents, teachers on school authorities.

To help parents and teacher to adopt themselves to the changing concepts of society

To produce suitable literature for the purpose.

Functions of PTA

To help the parents to understand the school programs by arranging open days at school when parents can visit the school and observe their children at work.

To arrange for frequent general meetings where parents teachers consultation are possible in a group as well as individually.

To prepare program which can increase cooperation between school and community and can create better mutual understanding between parents and teachers.

To provide various opportunities to parents and teachers to meet on equal footing, and discuss problems of their children.

To arrange for social get-together and program of recreation for parents and teachers.

Meaning Of Discipline

Discipline is the training of mind and character to produce self-control, obedience etc.; school discipline, military discipline, home/family discipline. The result of such discipline allows the individual child to experience various codes of conduct according to personal and social behoural desires. Discipline can also function as a form of punishment. External motivation to help the child choose correct v incorrect ideas of behaviour.

Discipline of children involves a set of rules, rewards and or punishment to teach them about self-control. It is aimed at increasing desired behaviours in a child to aid their development.

Discipline refers to systematic instruction given by both society and parental/family regarding a certain set of rules, values, morals etc. It is means directing a person to follow a certain code of conduct. In its original sense, discipline is referred to as a systematic instruction given to disciple and train students in a craft or trade, or to follow a particular code of conduct or “order” often, the phrase “to discipline” carries a negative connotation. This is because when ensuring enforced instructions the process is often regulated through some form of punishment.

Disciplining a child is to develop and reinforce appropriate social behaviour and to enforce a positive attitude within children. In the field of child development, discipline refers to methods of modelling character and of teaching self-control and acceptable behaviour. For example, teaching a child to wash her/his hands before meals is a particular pattern of behaviour and the child is being disciplined to adopt that pattern.

The main objective of the establishment of child discipline is to foster self-esteem and morals so the child develops and maintains self-discipline throughout his/her life. To discipline also gives rise to the word disciplinarian, which denotes a person who enforces order.

Child discipline is a topic that draws from a wide range of interested fields, such as parents, the professional practice of behaviour analysis, developmental psychology, social work, and various religious perspectives. Because the values, beliefs, education, customs and cultures of people vary so widely, along with the age and temperament of the child, methods of child, methods of child discipline vary widely in this world. “Without discipline there is nothing to be proud of” Richard L Kemp. This is because of the need to maintain order .That is, ensuring instructions are carried out. It is Important to maintain discipline and order, making sure the instructions are executed. Order is often regulated through punishment.

Discipline of children is the process of teaching children to behave in a fit and proper fashion. This is often done with punishment being either physical or involving loss of property or privileges. It is a vital factor in a shaping one’s personality. In western societies, discipline of children is a hot topic. It has been debated in recent years over the use of corporal punishment for children in general and increased attention has been given to the concept of ‘positive parenting” where good behaviour is encouraged and rewarded.

Child Act 2001 (Act 611)

There are some parts of the Child Act that can we relate with this topic about child discipline and abuse on them.

An Act consolidate and amend the laws relating to the care, protection and rehabilitation of children and to provide for matters connected therewith and incidental thereto.

RECOGNIZING that the country’s vision of a fully developed nation is one where social justice and moral, ethical and spiritual developments are just as important as economic development in creating a civil Malaysian society which is united, progressive, peaceful, caring, just and humane.

RECOGNIZING that a child is not only a crucial component of such a society but also the key to its survival, development and prosperity.

ACKNOWLEDGING that a child, by reason of his physical, mental and emotional immaturity, is in need of special safeguards, care and assistance, after birth, to enable him to participate in and contribute positively towards the attainment of the ideals of a civil Malaysian society.

RECOGNIZING every child is entitled to protection and assistance in all circumstances without regard to distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, social origin or physical, mental or emotional disabilities or any other status.

ACKNOWLEDGING the family as the fundamental group in society which provides the natural environment for the growth, support and well-being of all its members, particularly children, so that they may develop in an environment of peace, happiness, love and understanding in order to attain the full confidence, dignity and worth of human person.

RECOGNIZING the role and responsibility of the family in society, that they be afforded the necessary assistance to enable them to fully assume their responsibilities as the source of care, support, rehabilitation and development of children in society.

Below are some of the acts that we means of:

No. 17; Meaning of child in need of care and protection

(1) A child is in need of care and protection ifaˆ¦

a) the child has been or there is substantial risk that the child will be physically injured or emotionally injured or sexually abused by his parent or guardian or a member of his extended family.

b) the child has been or there is substantial risk that the child will be physically injured or emotionally injured or sexually abused and his parent or guardian, knowing of such injury or abuse or risk, has not protected or is unlikely to protect the child from such injury or abuse.

c) the parent or guardian of the child is unfit, or has neglected, or is unable, to exercise proper supervision and control over the child and the child is falling into bad association.

d) the parent or guardian of the child has neglected or is unwilling to provide for him adequate care, food, clothing and shelter.

e) the child has no parent or guardian;

(i) has been abandoned by his parent or guardian and after reasonable inquiries

(ii) has been abandoned by his parent or guardian and after reasonable inquiries the parent or guardian cannot be found, and no other suitable person is willing and able to care for the chid.

f) the child needs to be examined, investigated or treatedaˆ¦.

(i) for the purpose of restoring or preserving his health

(ii) his parent or guardian neglects or refuses to have him so examined, investigated or treated.

g) the child behaves in a manner that is, or is likely to be, harmful to himself or to any other person and his parent or guardian is unable or unwilling to take necessary measures to remedy the situation or the remedial measures taken by the parent or guardian fail.

h) there is such a conflict between the child and his parent or guardian or between his parent or guardian that family relationship are seriously disrupted, thereby causing him emotional injury.

i) the child is a person in respect of whom any of the offences specified in the first schedule or any offence of the nature described in section 31, 32, and 33 and has been or is suspected to have been committed, and his parent or guardianaˆ¦

(i) is the person who committed such offence or is suspected to have committed such offence

(ii) has not protected or is unlikely to protect him from such offence.

j) the child isaˆ¦

(i) a member of the same household as the child referred to in paragraph (i)

(ii) a member of the same household as the person who has been convicted of the offence and appear to be in danger of the commission upon or in respect of him of a similar offence and his parent or guardianaˆ¦

(aa) is the person who committed or is suspected to have committed the offence

(bb) is the person who is convicted of such offence

(cc) is unable or unwilling to protect him from such offence

No. 29 ; Duty of member of the family

1) If any member of the family of a child believes on reasonable grounds that the child is physically or emotionally injured as a result of being ill-treated, neglected, abandoned, or exposed, he shall immediately inform a protector.

2) Any member of the family who fails to comply with subsection (1) commits an offence and shall on conviction be released on a based on conditions to determined by the court.

3) Any member of the family who fails to comply with any of the conditions of the bond provided in subsection (2) commits an offence and shall on conviction be liable to a fine no exceeding five thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years or to both.

No. 29 ; Duty of the child provider

(i) if a child care provider believes on reasonable grounds that a child is physically or emotionally injured as a result of being ill-treated, neglected, abandoned or exposed. He shall immediately inform a protector.

(ii) any child provider who fails to comply with subsection (i) commit an offence and shall on conviction be liable to a fine not exceeding five thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term no exceeding two years or to both.

N0. 38 ; Meaning of child in need protection and rehabilitation

A child is in need of protection and rehabilitation if the childaˆ¦

(a) is being induced to perform any sexual act, or is in any physical or social environment which may lead to the performance of such act.

(b) lives in or frequents any brothel or place of assignation.

(c) is habitually in the company or under the control of brothel, keepers or person employed or directly interested in the business carried on in brothels or in connection with prostitution.

Convention On The Rights Of The Children

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (commonly abbreviated as the CRC, CROC, or UNCRC) is a human rights treaty setting out the civil, political, economic, social, health and cultural rights of children. The Convention generally defines a child as any human being under the age of eighteen, unless an earlier age of majority is recognized by a country’s law.

The Convention deals with the child-specific needs and rights. It requires that states act in the best interests of the child. This approach is different from the common law approach found in many countries that had previously treated children as possessions or chattels, ownership of which was sometimes argued over in family disputes.

In many jurisdictions, properly implementing the Convention requires an overhaul of child custody and guardianship laws, or, at the very least, a creative approach within the existing laws. The Convention acknowledges that every child has certain basic rights, including the right to life, his or her own name and identity, to be raised by his or her parents within a family or cultural grouping, and to have a relationship with both parents, even if they are separated.

The Convention obliges states to allow parents to exercise their parental responsibilities. The Convention also acknowledges that children have the right to express their opinions and to have those opinions heard and acted upon when appropriate, to be protected from abuse or exploitation, and to have their privacy protected, and it requires that their lives not be subject to excessive interference.

The Convention also obliges signatory states to provide separate legal representation for a child in any judicial dispute concerning their care and asks that the child’s viewpoint be heard in such cases. The Convention forbids capital punishment for children.

However, we will not mention and elaborate all the contains of the declaration but only certain part that related with our topic discussion. Those are Article 1, Article 2, Article 7, Article 13, Article 14, Article 15, Article 28(1)(a) and Article 37.

Article 1

For the purposes of the present Convention, a child means every human being below the age of eighteen years unless under the law applicable to the child, majority is attained earlier.

Article 2

1. States Parties shall respect and ensure the rights set forth in the present Convention to each child within their jurisdiction without discrimination of any kind, irrespective of the child’s or his or her parent’s or legal guardian’s race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national, ethnic or social origin, property, disability, birth or other status.

2. States Parties shall take all appropriate measures to ensure that the child is protected against all forms of discrimination or punishment on the basis of the status, activities, expressed opinions, or beliefs of the child’s parents, legal guardians, or family members.

Article 7

1. The child shall be registered immediately after birth and shall have the right from birth to a name, the right to acquire a nationality and. as far as possible, the right to know and be cared for by his or her parents.

2. States Parties shall ensure the implementation of these rights in accordance with their national law and their obligations under the relevant international instruments in this field, in particular where the child would otherwise be stateless.

Article 13

1. The child shall have the right to freedom of expression; this right shall include freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, or through any other media of the child’s choice.

2. The exercise of this right may be subject to certain restrictions, but these shall only be such as are provided by law and are necessary:

(a) For respect of the rights or reputations of others; or

(b) For the protection of national security or of public order (order public), or of public health or morals.

Article 14

1. States Parties shall respect the right of the child to freedom of thought, conscience and religion.

2. States Parties shall respect the rights and duties of the parents and, when applicable, legal guardians, to provide direction to the child in the exercise of his or her right in a manner consistent with the evolving capacities of the child.

3. Freedom to manifest one’s religion or beliefs may be subject only to such limitations as are prescribed by law and are necessary to protect public safety, order, health or morals, or the fundamental rights and freedoms of others.

Article 15

1. States Parties recognize the rights of the child to freedom of association and to freedom of peaceful assembly.

2. No restrictions may be placed on the exercise of these rights other than those imposed in conformity with the law and which are necessary in a democratic society in the interests of national security or public safety, public order (order public), the protection of public health or morals or the protection of the rights and freedoms of others.

Article 28

1. States Parties recognize the right of the child to education, and with a view to achieving this right progressively and on the basis of equal opportunity, they shall, in particular:

(a) Make primary education compulsory and available free to all;

Article 37

States Parties shall ensure that:

(a) No child shall be subjected to torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. Neither capital punishment nor life imprisonment without possibility of release shall be imposed for offences committed by persons below eighteen years of age;

(b) No child shall be deprived of his or her liberty unlawfully or arbitrarily. The arrest, detention or imprisonment of a child shall be in conformity with the law and shall be used only as a measure of last resort and for the shortest appropriate period of time;

(c) Every child deprived of liberty shall be treated with humanity and respect for the inherent dignity of the human person, and in a manner which takes into account the needs of persons of his or her age. In particular, every child deprived of liberty shall be separated from adults unless it is considered in the child’s best interest not to do so and shall have the right to maintain contact with his or her family through correspondence and visits, save in exceptional circumstances;

(d) Every child deprived of his or her liberty shall have the right to prompt access to legal and other appropriate assistance, as well as the right to challenge the legality of the deprivation of his or her liberty before a court or other competent, independent and impartial authority, and to a prompt decision on any such action.

National Child Policy

Malaysia is among the country that totally against the abuse, neglect, violence and exploitation on the children. National Child Policy is a policy on the rights of survival, protection, development and participation of children in order to enjoy the opportunity and space to achieve the holistic development of a conducive environment. National Child Policy aims to produce individuals who are healthy, energetic, knowledgeable, innovative, creative, competitive, progressive and has good values.

First of all, the government held this policy is to ensure that every child has the right to live of custody, care, love, health services, support and social assistance. Second, all the children with disabilities have the right to be protected from any of neglect, abuse, violence and exploitation, and subsequently was habilitation, rehabilitation and integrated into family and community. Third, every child has the right to development of holistic physical, cognitive, language, socio-emotional, and spiritual character. Fourth, every child has the right to speak out, participate in (join) and participate according to their capacity in matters relating to the best interests and welfare. Fifth, parents or caregivers, community and society aware of children’s right to survival, protection, development and participation. And the last, research and development on survival, protection, development and participation of children carried out from time to time.

THE IMPORTANCE OF DISCIPLINING CHILDREN

Discipline is a necessity for children in order to train them to behave in a certain way. In addition, discipline is necessary to ensure the happiness and welfare of a child. Discipline is also important because it enables children to grow in many various aspects of life. If discipline is not applied to the child, they may not be able to lead a decent life. For children who are still at primary school level in particular, they are learning to manage behavior and regulate themselves. These children will go through various challenges and tests. They will have to navigate the challenges and temptations of many different events, and their success will rely upon their attitude and self-discipline.

Many parents mistakenly believe that children are not disciplined well or often enough. They can be dissatisfied with what is happening in their environment and how they perceive society is dealing with the new generation. Many teachers can have a bad experience within their daily working day. They were confronted with badly behaved students. This has led them to wonder whether they are being disciplined at all. Often when people refer to individuals who are not well disciplined they point out certain characteristics such as a lack of motivation, apathetic behaviour, rowdiness, and even jealous, spiteful and deceptive behaviour. How is it that they behave this way? This is a mysterious question. If discipline is to work properly what must happen is that the child needs to feel valued and then they can begin to appreciate themselves. So, how can this be manifested in children? The most accurate answer perhaps is that it must be learned over time through a consistent set of disciplined measures instigated in the home and school environment. However, one must be careful to not over play the discipline card it must be administered in a loving natural way depending on the situation, such as in the classroom, church, on the football field, playing in the swimming pool to name but a few scenarios. Why do we discipline? We discipline to provide for social order and individual productivity.

Behaviors: Child discipline is essential in order to install good behavior amongst youngsters. Without good discipline the next generation could display personalities of a lower quality. Everybody has their own opinion on how we should discipline a child. All of this (opinion) is strongly influence by culture and religion.

Nature and nurture: Nature is somebody’s character that is built from society and or environment. Nurture is education and care that is given paternally and both will affect a child’s development and attitude. One must also consider what we have inside of us, the personality we are born with. Again this has an effect on the person we become. So, in connection to discipline all of these have an effect on why and how we discipline a child. Parents may have an agenda, for example religion, and society may has an agenda, for example don’t be lazy, pay taxes, all of this has an effect on how we want a child to behave and how we want a child to be disciplined. Parent should consider the environment that their child exists within as well as their own personal agenda when deciding on appropriate ways to discipline. Parents must also be cautious not to sometimes repeat certain methods of discipline that were once administered to them when they were young. Violent forms of correcting behaviour can be very damaging to the individual and can cross the line from discipline to abuse.

Moral: We should try to implement the same code of conduct even though around the world there are differences in culture, religion and race. We have to find the similarity between us all as much as is possible. Individual rules are the ways we personally want a child to behave and social rules are the ways that society wants a child to behave. Both of which strongly influence the ways in which a child is disciplined and the different ways that discipline is carried out.

However the fundamental reason is that as parents and as a society on whole we have a duty and responsibility to try our best to enable every child the full amount of love and opportunities available and it seems that iscan only be achieved through a common self of beliefs and codes of conduct instructed via various form of discipline.

HOW TO DISCIPLINING THE CHILDREN

Discipline means “to teach and train”. Caregivers or parents and teachers need to be good disciplinarians, to acquire skills that will accomplish the goal they set for themselves.

There are several ways to “make” children behave. One is by using force, fear, and punishment. Unfortunately, these three methods imply that the caregiver is superior and should overpower the child. Rather than leading to a child with inner control, they make the child angry, resentful, fearful and dependent upon force. As the caregivers, they should not teaching and disciplining their children without using force, fear, and punishment. By offering parents and teachers proven ways to reinforce good behavior and minimize misbehavior it is hoped that the vicious cycle of child abuse and neglect will be broken

There is another way to discipline children. Though it may not appear to get the immediate results we might like, it is safer, more natural and humanistic. It is based on the assumption that children are by nature good, fair, and honest and ultimately capable of responding to that which is good, fair and honest within us. This method is to treat the child with respect. It is treating the child as if he or she is as important a human being as others.

Consistency also important for discipline and this same goes to parents who are teaching and instilling discipline on their children. Disciplining children are not easy and with the lack of consistency on caregivers or teachers discipline, it makes the children unsure and confused with the teaching. But once they are consistent, the children will take things seriously and obey them. Parents or caregivers should make an exception when disciplining the children. For instance, when they are for holidays or at grandparent’s house, parents must keep on focus and remind the children about it so they will know it is important for them to obey their parent. However, if the situation persists, parents should make a special exception and let the children know earlier about it and tell them this is not permanent. Caregivers or teachers must be realistic in their expectations of the children. They must not ask the child to do anything that that child cannot do. Asking the child to do what he or she able to do, or the child will get frustrated and be less likely to listen to them in future.

It is important for the children to understand that the same result will come from the same behavior. Parents and caregivers must make the child feel like he/she has control their life. If they can count on the rules staying the same, they are more likely to obey by them. Beside that, caregivers, parent and teachers must giving explanation in terms the child able to understand. Taking time to explain the reasons behind why they are asking he/she to behave in certain ways is among the best way in disciplining the child. For example, if the child understand the kind of behavior that them avoid of, they are more likely to apply that reasoning to different situations, instead of learning to stop one behavior at a time.

DISCIPLINING THE CHILD IN ISLAMIC PERSPECTIVES

There is a strong requirement in Islam to show love and mercy towards children, and to preserve their dignity – this is just as much a right of the child as the right to be fed, clothed, and educated. One of my favourite stories is this one:

Abu Hurairah reported: The Prophet (Muhammad) kissed his grandson Al-Hasan bin `Ali in the presence of Al-Aqra` bin Habis. Thereupon he (Al-Aqra` bin Habis) remarked: “I have ten children and I have never kissed any one of them.” The Messenger of Allah (Muhammad) looked at him and said, “He who does not show mercy to others will not be shown mercy”.

Fear as a method of raising children is effective in that it limits behaviour and enforces compliance. The consequence is that this fear damages the relationship between child and parent. Children are unlikely to confide their troubles to parents who they fear. A parent should not be resorting to fear, but to respect and love. The best form of discipline is, of course, being an example yourself of the kind of conduct you wish to inspire in your children. The proposed referendum is mischievous in its intent. The wording does not mention Section 59, it does not provide any solutions to dealing with the “reasonable force” defense which resulted in juries discharging parents who had used severe forms of physical violence. The referendum question shows little interest in the welfare or the rights of children, and that is its biggest failing. Children are not able to speak or advocate for themselves, nor do they have any ability to participate in the law-making process. It is up to us, as adults, to protect those rights and ensure that the vulnerable are kept safe. Gentleness is preferred according to the tradition of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) and the examples set during his own life.

Child abuse is forbidden in Islam. Islam teaches love and affection . As quote the hadith in which the Prophet SAW narrated “show respect to your elders and affection to your youngers”. Islam allows disciplining of children out of necessity, so that children do not go out of hand. On the other hand, such strict rules have been imposed in this matter, that does not allow any abuse of authority by the parent. In accordance with the teachings of Islam, occasions do arise when children need to be disciplined, even to the extent of employing corporal punishment. Among the ten important advises that Nabi (Sallallaahu Alayhi Wasallam) had enjoined upon his beloved companion, Hadhrat Muaaz bin Jabal (Radhiyallaahu Anhu), one of them is ‘let your rod be hanging on them (children), as a warning and to chastise against neglect of their duties towards Allah’. (Ahmad; Tabraani-Kabeer). According to this Hadith, it is evident that Musli