Smacking debate

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1584963/To-smack-or-not-to-smack.html

Here is an interesting article about a Christian couple who have been denied the opportunity to foster because of the way they sanction their 9 year old daughter with the occasional smack and in one instance for telling a lie. It's a very interesting read, I cant write too much as its not that easy on an I phone!

Salamanca Statement - 1994

Thought i would blog this piece of work we did in class the other day the task was to help us to gather research from books, internet , original sources etc to work at an academic level and we were given the Salamanca Report which luckily i had been reading up on the night before! Together with Myself, Jazz and Bobby we did a super piece of team work i must admit, Jazz went book hunting and gathered bits of research, Bobby the writer and critical thinker and myself as the report analyser/researcher! JWD ladies! xx

Child B

For the safeguarding homework i have looked into a case of a little girl aged 4 who has cerebral palsy and was abused by her mother Harte aged 23 and her boyfriend Duncan aged 27 from West London. Its was said to be "one of the worst cases seen".

The girl known as Child B was tortured by Duncan & Harte repeatedly  which included them pouring boiling hot water over her hands, ripping out clumps of hair, kicking her in her groin which caused appalling bruising,internal bleeding and permanent liver damage. She was locked in the toilet every single night and sometimes forced to eat her own faeces.

She was removed from their home and put into foster care but then returned home last january despite the fosters carers concerns.

Within 4 wks of being home her arm was broken by Duncan along with further attacks. She was in constant systematic violence until the grandmother began to suspect the abuse and was finally removed. By now she had suffered horrendous injuries and would have died if not been given treatment and had to be given general anaesthetic so they could examine her injuries as she was in so much pain.

What is so disheartening is that social services and other professionals visited the family 20 times and no abuse was suspected. The couple manipulated these people into thinking that nothing was wrong and that the little girl was out with her biological father even though the father had a poor relationship with her anyway so it was highly unlikely she would have been out with him but hidden away somewhere. So why didn't the care authorities do more of a rigorous assessment? They were said to be too focussed on the adults when assessing Harte and Duncan's abilities to look after their daughter and inappropriately optimistic. Surely a bit of common sense from one of these people on one of the 20 visits would suspect something or see something??

The couple Kimberley Harte and Samuel Duncan were sentenced to a total of 22 years in jail on 09th Feb 2007. Not long enough in my opinion.
There is nothing to say in the article about any further investigation into the neglect given by the care workers but just that the staff who saw the child could not have foreseen the injuries. So because of a very poor decision made the child was handed back to the parents when she could have been safe in the arms of foster carers who didn't want her to go back...just doesn't make sense?

My Child's Not Perfect

I watched a programme on itv player that was brought up in fi's lesson and a really interesting watch.....it's about a selection of children/teens that have different emotional, behavioural and clinical issues that range from a little girl who is a selected mute and will only communicate with her family at home to a teenage boy that developed terret's syndrome on his 16th birthday. The one that really got me thinking was a 9 year old girl called Maddy who has extreme behavioural problems where she cannot socialise and play with other children and is in constant trouble at school for disruptive and aggressive behaviour  in one instance trying to strangle another child, she suffers from  lack of concentration and is behind academically etc. Maddy's parents have been told by specialists previous to this programme that she could be suffering from an "attachment disorder". The mother automatically puts the blame onto herself after going through post natal depression and struggling to bond with her daughter from birth. This connects with Bowlbys theory where he believes that there is a critical period for attachment to take place at a certain time or it won't happen which is usually within the first year of life, he also put emphasis on the mother being the main figure. I feel that its such a shame for the mother to have to go through life thinking that the reason her child has problems is down to her initially and sometimes there is too much focus and pressure put on mothers when there are so many other indicators through genetics and the environment that her condition could be down too. Later on in the programme Maddy and her parents go to see a team of specialists that do a range of tests and the outcome is that she is diagnosed with ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder). They said that her behaviour wasn't down to the "attachment Disorder" but her make up of her low IQ, not having firm boundaries at home (parents have split) and the ADHD. She is prescribed with Ritalin and mum & dad are offered parenting techniques to help with the disorder. It was nice to see the relief of her mum, knowing that her daughters condition wasn't down to her own doing but through nature and nuture together.

After watching this programme i decided to look a bit more into ADHD and here are some main points i gathered:

* More boys than girls suffer from ADHD
* It can also be known as ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder)
* The main symptoms of the disorder are lack of concentration, impulsivity (not being able to control what     they are saying) and lack of physical control, fidgeting and restlessness.
* ADHD affects 5 to 10 percent of children in the UK
* There are 3 types of the disorder as not everyone are effected the same they are: predominantly hyperactive-impulsive, predominantly inattentive and combined which is the majority of cases.
* More than half of ADHD people have specific learning difficulties for example dyslexia.
* Up to 60% of children with ADHD show signs of it in adulthood.
* It usually starts from 18months and signs are shown between the ages of 3 and 7.

The guidelines from NICE (The National Institute for Clinical Excellence) are to firstly combat the stress and behaviour through programmes and techniques and psychotherapy to try and tackle anti social behaviour. Secondly if the patient has severe symptoms then medication is prescribed if over the age of 5 which is usually Methylphenidate (otherwise known as Ritalin) this helps the child to focus.

There is a lot of negative stigma put on ADHD that it could be down to 'bad parenting' which i think is unlikely, i think it could be from a mixture of the child's genetic make up and their environment. There have been recent studies that ADHD has a genetic link, research shows that they have large and rare variations in their DNA and that they have a much higher rate which are either duplicated or missing.

I feel that if any of my children were ever diagnosed then i would try my very best to tackle it through an holistic route first before trying anything else, also by providing a better diet ( i personally think that a lot of foods can cause symptoms) and trying my very best to keep their lives as well balanced as possible.

Think I'm going to look into Ritalin a bit more and see the causes and effects it has on children...so watch this space!

Oh and below is a link i found really useful which has lots of information on ADHD:


http://www.bbc.co.uk/health/physical_health/conditions/attention2.shtml

Child abuse & neglect..... how much say do we have?

I recently had a horrible experience/ encounter with a family on a train which to my horror i had no control or say over....it happened a couple of weeks ago and i was with my family on our way back from a trip. We were sat in front of a family that had a few kids not sure exactly how many at least 3 we could see anyway and a young boy probably the same age of mine so roughly 3 plus. He was continually smacked and slapped and pulled by his clothes by the father, grandmother and possibly mother we couldn't see it all but heard every last one of his torments. The poor boy wasn't even doing anything out of the ordinary that any normal 3 year old would do he certainly wasn't being naughty and definitely didn't deserve to be treated in this way. The boy tried to interact with my children over the seat but was pulled back to be tormented by his dad and he actually said i could hear clear as day"look at you you scruffy snotty little tramp your disgusting" to this i stood up and had to control my almost outburst i felt like saying to him well take a look at yourself!.....i was so angry :0( earlier on i could hear the little boy say "no one looks after me no one cares for me" i could have cried. Its so saddening that i had no control over the situation and had to sit back down as if i had of said something then i could have been abused by the father and the little boy certainly would have got another good hiding from the reaction. It sickens me to think if they do this in broad day light then what happens behind closed doors? I have been given a book  which i read parts of whilst travelling but had to put down a few times it's called " A Child Called It" by Dave Pelzer a true story about a boy who took a remarkable journey through a life of abuse by his mother, thought it might come in useful for discussion in child protection/safeguarding module.

The Swan Report 1985

Here is the link to an online version of The Swann Report 'Education for all', based on the education for children from ethnic monority groups i blogged earlier. I think i am gonna have to go back and read this one through abit more:

http://www.educationengland.org.uk/documents/swann/swann00.html

Ethnicity Journals

Childhood and the construction of ethnic identities in a global age...thought this one would cover both Rachels & Lin's. It shows of how drama education in schools  can help to construct identities concentrating more on new ethnic identities.
Key points to consider:
Children are influenced by cultural tradtions
Children who are in the process of creating their identity do not construct them from tradition but transform them.
Identities are not essentially on their own as children switch them in different contexts and by diverse cultural influences often produce new ones.
The swann report published in 1985 helped to make the term ' multicultural education' happen, which was formed to help provide all pupils prepare for life in a multi-racial society.

http://chd.sagepub.com/content/6/4/443.full.pdf+html

Disability, ethnicity and childhood: A critical review of research.....An article showing how little research has been done giving the disabled childs perspective focussing more on black and asian children showing that their voices are almost silent. The disablility movement has mirrored socitey in genral and for most part has been led by white, middle class hetrosexual males. I concludes that further research is need in blac and asian disabled children to meet their particular needs.

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09687590120097845

Families, Ethnicity and social capital.....This journal discusses the relationship between ethnicity and social capital in british society, debating the changing ethnic minorities and migrant communities in our multicutural society today.

http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract;jsessionid=1AE4BC330D7FACFCE615310D45342032.journals?fromPage=online&aid=180329