Experiments Concerning Child Psychology - Assignment Example

Child Psychology” Part I Experiment Children reared in poor families are found to posses’ low esteem and confidence as compared to the children who enjoy appropriate or ample earnings of parents. Poor earnings in family poses a great deal of psychological pressure on the young minds especially in formative years where they are not able to understand the disparity that exists between them and their peers resulting in the devastating consequences on the child’s mental and physical development. Income support programs like EITC has shown improvement in lot of children. It is observed that poor family income impose challenges like strained family environments, their reading abilities, mathematical and logical abilities, any extra income is always encouraging for the family especially to the children. SIV and PSIV studies state that if the income is increased by $1000 then an improvement is observed in the reading and mathematical logic of the child; implying that family income potentially affect the children belonging to the age group 5-10 years. The reason to justify this impact seems to be psychological impact that a child faces when the child is among peers who are well-off and could afford better facilities to procure good test scores. The present experiment opens the discussion on the effect of income to be short- lasting and not a long- term impact (Dahl, 2008). It is evident that parents do provide their wards the best possible they can do for them, but poor family income display struggle with the basic amenities and therefore little attention is being paid by the parents on the physical and mental development of child resulting in poor blow on the child psychology. This negative effect on the child psychology once formed, results in behavior problems if not treated appropriately. Therefore counseling is required for parents and child, especially mother plays a crucial role in this regard (Dahl, 2008). Experiment 2: Adequate nutrition is highly imperative for the development of child. Nutrition directly influences physical development, bone growth and strength, teeth development, clear skin, reduced risk of infectious diseases and mental development and performance of the child indicating that nutrition has neurological and psychological impact. During the early years of life starting from inception to school age, if the child gets sufficient and well balanced nutrition then it gives strength for enjoying sound health throughout the life (Hayden, 2002). The experiment emphasizes on two categories of nutrition- micronutrition and macronutrition. Macronutrition encompasses all the major components of food, proteins required for growth and development, carbohydrates and fats for providing energy. Micronutrients like vitamin A, iodine, iron and zinc for the development of body as they are required as co-factors for the proper functioning of enzymes. Therefore deficiency of these minerals in prenatal age or in early childhood results in poor physiological, neurological and psychological development. During pregnancy if deficiency of micronutrients occurs then it results in poor IQ of the child and children are prone to various infectious diseases (Hayden, 2002). On the other hand if the child is habitual of eating more, it results in obesity. It is also caused by poor eating habits like watching television and eating or ingesting junk food that contains transfat, fatty stuff or high sugar content (Hayden, 2002). It is essential that appropriate nutrition be given to the child and for this education of parents especially mother is highly demanded, application of skill and attitudes for proper nutrition is equally imperative. Even in poor income if knowledge and concern about food is implemented then it gives added value to the growth and development of child. It is therefore essential to create awareness and skill must be promoted to enhance nutrition value of the food, which should be supplemented with all the vitamins especially, A, B and C and all the required minerals. Along with the parents a positive attitude of the children towards eating habits is most essential in the present scenario where the children are more inclined towards fast food stuff and sugary candies. Appropriate guidance and parental interventions in teaching the child with love and affection plays a positive role in the cognitive development of child (Hayden, 2002). Experiment 3: it is essential to understand the early childhood development, education and primary education to bring confidence to the growing personality of the child. UNESCO laid certain interventions at various levels of development. These efforts are in the directions of improvement in care and education by making programmes which involve the child in complete sense, both physically and mentally, promoting thinking abilities, education of family and parents is also desired, identifying potentials of the child and enhancing them for better prospects. The program also involves collaborative artistic, intellect and cultural functions that reflects the social issues, this will enhance logical power and to react to the situation and thereby developing the ability to tackle the hurdles by self. The child must bear confidence to take the initiative to accomplish the task(s) (Action Research in Family and Early Childhood). All these experiments are in the direction of motivating the child in the formative years for the all round development with a sound body and sound psychological upbringing, to have balanced nutritional and income status and to provide a child best activities for the cognitive development. It is essential that proper education be imparted to the child with an understanding about what is good for him/ her, this will help the child to discriminate good/ bad and take logical decision as this is going to be a great help to the future citizens and formulation of future societies. Part II  A child suffering from Reactive Attachment Disorders (RAD) is incapable of forming meaningful relationships. This nature can be resolved with ample of love care and affection from the parents. Child suffering from RAD feels highly unsafe and insecure and this is due to deserted relationships, isolation, helplessness and gradually develop a feeling that world is dangerous and frightening. There could be various reasons for RAD development- mainly when there is no response to the cry of the child, if there is no response to the hunger or wet, there is no one who can possibly talk to the baby, shares smile and therefore the baby feels lonely, or if the baby is ill-treated or physically abused or badly threatened, when there is shift in care takers or loss of a parent or a parent has undergone some ailment or depression. This issue could be mild or severe. Attention must be given if the child shows the symptoms like- do not develop eye contacts, never smiles, doesn’t want to be picked up, doesn’t get calm easily, doesn’t make sounds and never follows through eye movements. Gradually developing aversion to physical touch or scared of everyone who is touching the child, show anger, poor conscience to display guilt, regret or any bad behavior. Appropriate measures are desired in the direction of diet, sleep and exercise to make the child comfortable, stress of the parents should not make the child suffer. Every child is important. It is the responsibility of parents to enjoy the parenthood when they are financially, emotionally and physically prepared to take the responsibility of another addition in the family. Parents do not have any right to ignore the child at any cost to make him psychologically disturbed individual in future so it is essential to nurture the child with all the love, affection, appropriate and balanced food and to develop an understanding how to behave and react in the society to be the build better social moves and a healthy community where there is no insecurity and no psychological pressures, it requires cumulative efforts of everyone who are associated with child, parents and teachers, caretakers and associates, peers and relatives (Attachment Disorders & Reactive Attachment Disorder: Symptoms, Treatment & Hope for Children with Insecure Attachment.). Research has been carried out in this regard to rule out the reasons responsible for RAD. Various factors governing the development of RAD symptoms encompass ignorance and negligence of parents in the proper grooming of the child. The outcome of research states that parents should take the responsibility of the child very seriously and nurture the child as an important part of their lives; they should give importance to the upbringing of child in every sense, promoting all round development. Care and education imparted at this age will last forever. These are the determining years for the child psychology and once framed the mind set is difficult to change. This is the reason that interests various psychologists to carry out research further and to develop an understanding about RAD. References: Attachment Disorders & Reactive Attachment Disorder: Symptoms, Treatment & Hope for Children with Insecure Attachment. Available at http://www.helpguide.org/mental/parenting_bonding_reactive_attachment_disorder.htm [Accessed on 22nd March 2010]. Action Research in Family and Early Childhood. Available at http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0010/001055/105505e.pdf [Accessed on 22nd March 2010]. Dahl, G., Lochner, L. 2008. The Impact of Family income on Child Achievement: Evidence from the Earned Income Tax Credit. Available at http://dss.ucsd.edu/~gdahl/children-and-EITC.pdf [Accessed on 22nd March 2010]. Hayden, J. (2002). Nutrition and child development: Global perspectives. Child Care Information Exchange, 5(02), 38-41. Read More