Holistic Child Development With Special Needs Children - Research Paper Example

Holistic Child Development with Special Needs Children In the of upbringing a baby, parents need to acquire means and ways to respond to the crisis their children might find themselves in. Holistic child development understands the need for emotional, physical, mental and spiritual development. Salvation might seem to be the remedy of a child in crisis, but at the same time, food, security, safety and healing is equally important to this same child. Christians working with such children need to understand the mechanisms of dealing with them in an endeavor to provide them with whatever they need (Meggitt, 5). For a holistic intervention to be considered effective, the physical needs as well as the spiritual needs must be covered. An intervention that does not address the spiritual needs of the child falls short of the requirements of the intervention. In this aspect, Christians are assigned a major role in ministering to the children who finds themselves in such crisis. In as much as they are tasked with such duties, the other aspects of holistic child development have been availed by the world; the physical, emotional and mental needs. However the spiritual needs comes from the Almighty God, and all Christians can do is to direct people towards accepting God and believing in Him (Santrock, 96). Holistic child development is all about giving the child that first priority it deserves. It can be described as putting the child in the midst. Theologically, this is one of those situations that can be compared with what Jesus did in Mathew 18:2 where He took a child and placed him in the midst of the disciples educating them on who is the greater in the kingdom of God. The concept of holistic child development might be new. However, the principles behind it are definitely not, It is a reminder of what God requires of us as we focus on the blessing that comes out of a marriage; a child (Santrock, 99). Metaphorically, Holistic Child Development can be viewed as a lens that helps parents to magnify their approach toward handling a child in all aspect of its life. Confusion on this subject matter has been witnessed. Most of the organizations provide child development activity lists but fail in the definition of the chosen terms. In third world countries, Holistic Child Development is hindered by the discriminative social-economic and cultural factors that have provided a home for poverty (Santrock, 152). A clear outline of understanding of Holistic Child development is ideal in establishing the expectations between field ministries and missions of mercy. By provision of clear Holistic Child Development framework, the achievement of better training and evaluation is possible. Relevant programs can also take effect in the campaign for Holistic Child development. In the quest for Holistic child Development, four factors are considered and defined; Spiritual Development – This is the concept of creating change in the relationship with God and more awareness about Him. It is the subject where questions such as who am I, why am I here, what meaning does life have; are answered. This process of growth brings the believer in the maturity of Christ. Physical Development – This defines the changes in the sizes body organs. In this domain, health and growth are usually addressed together (Fox and Robert, 67). Social Economic Development – This addresses the change in the relationships between people. It consist changes in emotions and personality. According to a study of humans, it was discovered that emotional domain and social are inseparable. In merging the two together, we realize that the communication plays a major role in the growth of children in the fulfillment of emotional needs. Cognitive Development – It is true that the missions of mercy provide basic resources for the children who live in economic poverty. However, the subject of poverty seems to be multi-dimensional. Economic poverty would imply monetary handouts, micro-enterprise interventions and business ventures, but there is an absolute need to train children to utilize the interventions intelligently in an attempt to escape poverty (Tassoni, 28). Programs addressing isolated development area are less effective than those addressing holistic interventions of children needs. A synergistic coherence between developmental areas is a major requirement in the development of a child (Santrock, 96). Although a certain level of convenience is acquired in the separation of child development in specified areas, it is not a holistic representation of a person. Children’s development learning opportunity focuses on the entirety of the person. Therefore, multiple areas of child development are likely to be impacted by the initiated programs and activities. The program can take advantage of other available resources such as public education as a means of ensuring cognitive development. Disability of children poses as a serious challenge to the parents, the societies and governments of every stature. A holistic approach in coping with this situation; therefore, should be all inclusive of initiating proper national policies that seeks to expand opportunities for the disabled children (Santrock, 152). Allocation of resources in this context is by extension a central matter of interest in providing to the needs of both disabled person and their families. Party to the situation, the society is called upon to intervene in the situation by providing moral support and ensuring the emphasis and appreciation of strength show by those living with disabilities The government too should increase their spending on the disabled to cope with the increasing number of them. According to a study carried out, the situation of cases of disability in the developing countries is much serious than the developed countries. According to the statistics carried out by World Health Organization (WHO), approximately 600 million people live with a disability in the whole world. An estimated figure of 10% of children in the whole world was found to be having a disability. Surprisingly, 80% of children with disabilities come from the developing countries. Research has been carried out into cost-effective means of initiating interventions. Infrastructural development, training, advocacy, assistive devise procurement and financial incentives are some of the proposed means of tackling the issue cost-effectively. However, the existing structures and practices can be integrated to accommodate these interventions. Different people have different perceptions towards children with disabilities. The implementation of any interventions needs to come after an effort to transform the way of thinking and campaign towards equality and equity (Santrock, 199). The campaigns can establish the basic nature of having education; not just by parents sending their children to school but by sensitizing the whole world about the reality. This step would reduce the level of division and discrimination that might be in existence in the community. The formation of parent groups or child-to-child groups and even community groups would extensively assist in the inclusion and can prove to be easily sustainable. It is prudent to initiate programs based on possibility. A filtered research should be carried out to identify if the initiated programs have every worked anywhere else under same conditions (Kostelnik, 100). It is important to ensure equity for children with disabilities. Due to the need to cut costs, usually inclusion and access are treated as different concepts as it is perceived as an increase I the workload. It is seen as something that can be done anyway after all the other components have been completed. A consideration to the disabled children should be made in terms of the inclusion of any school related activity. They should be able to access and participate in any activity offered by the school (Santrock, 76). The disability in children is a major challenge for their family members. For people already living in hard situations, this calls for a high physical and emotional stress. It is important that in trying to improve on the situation of disability cases, the family members should also be considered more so in term of their environmental needs. These considerations would require a holistic child development approach, which involves as mention before; proper national policies and fair allocation of resources to promote access. Because of the simple fact that no one has an idea of what the disabled are undergoing better than they do, they should be included in the implementation of the programs. Many organizations have taken a front line in trying to intervene in the situation of the children with disabilities. One example of such organization is Compassion International. The organization is a Christian child sponsorship organization with the goal assisting children living on poverty in the long-term. Its headquarters is based in Colorado spring, and it is functional in 26 countries. Compassion International tackles the question of holistic child development from three angles; child survival, child sponsorship and leadership development. Child Survival Compassion International designed a program called Child Survival Program. The goal of that program toward a holistic intervention is to rescue, teach and nurture young children. The intervention program started in 2003, and it covered all aspects all inclusive of expectant mothers, children who are vulnerable and caregivers. The church behind the program is compassion Christian church. The program offer tool and support such that associated Christians provide spiritual love to their neighbors in the name of Christ (Inspired Children: How the Leading Minds of Today Raise Their Kids., 98). Critical interventions are provided by the church by the provision of food and medicine. Training is also given to the caregivers and mothers on how to make home environmentally safe and create opportunities needed to raise a healthy child with a bright future. The families are also recipients of spiritual discipleship in order to create an everlasting relationship with Christ. Under these circumstances, the spiritual strength of the community, families and children is raised providing a basic spiritual platform for the child. Child Sponsorship The growth of a child comes along with changes in its needs. Therefore, every child at least deserves the opportunity to develop and explore his or her own talent in environmentally friendly conditions. Child sponsorship offered by Compassion International is a program that has seen the success of comprehensive child development by ensuring that children get sponsored with people that they can connect with and explore their potentials in a holistic manner (Neaum, 67). The child sponsoring program ensures that children are secured from poverty through conducting educational programs, nutritional awareness, and life skills training among others. This program connects the child to his or her sponsor in an attempt to help the child discover his talent bestowed on him by the Almighty. Relations between the two; The sponsor and the child is a major contribution in the child development, Besides the relationship can be defined as mutually beneficial as God has His way of using children to teach adults. Leadership Development Compassion International created a program termed as Compassion Leadership Development Program. Due to their international figure, many students see it through to the university with higher success rates. These students are given sponsorships to the university and given leadership training. After the completion of the program, many students become successful in there are of study and being professionals. They are able to do more with much less. They are considered as Christian leaders who are expected to bring hope to their family and community members. Most students in this situation urge to achieve much more than what their sponsors offered them, and they would be more than will to give back to the society as much (Smith, 30). The handling of holistic child development is almost similar in every other country, but North America seems to be having other different believes in relation to child development. Child and youth care in the North America believes in the social competence model as opposed to pathological orientation to child development. They believe that at any given time, a child is constantly trying to do his or her best and the best method of assisting the children is helping them figure out the next move or step by taking advantage of the already existing abilities and strengths. The existence of family, organizations and communities are only viewed as contextual in the development process of a child. The development process of a child is considered an independent matter that only serves to its own cause (Santrock, 152). The existence of other parties in the development process of the child does not contribute a lot in the process. It is debated that the growth of a child involves therapeutic interaction with the kids and their families, formal and informal helpers. The therapeutic relationship defines the entire child development process. This relationship is defined as technical where it requires people with skills and knowledge (Santrock, 202). Therefore, according to the North American version, child development is probably something to go to school for and extensively take lessons on. This perception seems to be unfair because it is quite wrong to imply that only literate parents can be able to raise their children in a responsible manner. We have always seen illiterate parents do the job even better than literate ones. In conclusion, the concept of holistic child development is an important theme that needs to be addressed at all levels. The level of disability cases is on the rise and relevant measures have to be put forth in order to be able to contain the situation. Otherwise, holistic child development is something to be embraced by all families in consideration of responsible upbringing of the children. Work Cited Fox, Jill E, and Robert Schirrmacher. Art & Creative Development for Young Children. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 2012. Print. Inspired Children: How the Leading Minds of Today Raise Their Kids. University Of Sydney, N.S.W: Sydney University Press, 2011. Print. Meggitt, Carolyn. Child Development: An Illustrated Guide ; [birth to 16 Years]. Oxford: Heinemann Educational Publishers, 2007. Print. Kostelnik, Marjorie J. Children with Special Needs: Lessons for Early Childhood Professionals. New York: Teachers College Press, 2002. Print. Neaum, Sally. Child Development for Early Childhood Studies. Exeter: Learning Matters, 2010. Print. Santrock, Child Development, Madison, Brown and Benchmark Publishers. 1996 Seventh Edition. Smith, Maggie, and Chris Dukes. Recognising and Planning for Special Needs in the Early Years. London: Sage Publications, 2009. Internet resource. Tassoni, Penny. Child Care and Education: Cache Level 3. Oxford: Heinemann, 2007. Print. Read More