Protecting Young Children's Welfare - Essay Example

 Protecting Young Children’s Welfare: Assessment-Action Plan Response to A Case Study Concerned about this child (Sarah): There are some grave concerns about Sarah’s behaviour according to the contents of the case study. She is showing some uncomfortable psychological symptoms of stress, self-isolation, social disconnect, and inability to sustain a prolonged interest in whatever around her (Isenberg and Jalongo 14). Her stress is making her to wet herself; her obvious disinterestedness discourages her from feeling sad when her mother leaves her at the nursery school; her speech difficulty may be due to anxiety and the constant stress she suffers. Although there is no indication that she has any health problem (in other words, nothing is revealed about her health status). Sarah will have problem enjoying her studies based on her inability to sustain her interest in a person (her mother or friends) for a longer period of time (Weis 221). And Sarah’s mother seems to be clueless about how to successfully handle the situation. Though, this does not necessarily mean that the child is in dire need of protection outside her home, but periodical visits of social workers could help her mother understand what her daughter needs (Rowe 25). Sarah’s mother is also have been affected by her sudden break from her husband, which may have weighed heavily on her psychological power to control her emotion and help her daughter overcome her own psychological stress. Theoretically, the absence of her father may be partly responsible for Sarah’s unfriendly disposition to people, friends or relatives she doesn’t like (Emery 163). My first actions as a practitioner: As an early childhood practitioner, it would amount to mere speculations if I should make my decision without first of all undergo the assessment of Sarah’s behaviour. Therefore, the first step is to closely and carefully monitor Sarah for revelations of any strange manners or symptoms that could show that she may have been suffering from psychological/mental, social and physical abuse by her depressed mother (Carr 202). With reference to National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children NSPCC, multi-professional approach is needed to offer believable consultation and assessment of any child in need. This modality will produce well-rounded assessment using professionals from the educational, social and health fields to monitor Sarah and document their findings to help map out the best strategy required to solve the girl’s problems (NSPCC 3-25). My first actions as a Manager: As the manager of the school, my first reaction will be to interview Sarah’s mother about her daughter’s problematic behaviour. Then I will assign an experienced teacher to handle Sarah with care and work hard to have a psychological connection with the child. A child like Sarah, who does not feel overtly attached to her mother can easily trust any other adult in so far such an adult (a teacher, perhaps) is willing to sacrifice time and dedication on Sarah (Reid and Tavistock 216). Further Developments: (i) My Initial Concerns about these Children: It is obvious that Sarah’s parents have become violent to each other lately with frayed emotional and open demonstration of anger, by beating, mouthing bad words and showing overwhelming disharmony in the family. Incidentally, this kind of environment is not healthy for children to grow up in: Sarah has already adopted the unbridled show of anger she might have seen in her parents; she also uses bad expression to describe her mother, an expression she may have heard from her father. Sarah has even shown her anger to her younger brother Michael and her friends at school. Considering these instances, both Sarah and Michael are unsafe, badly influenced by their parents’ manners and are emotional abused by their parents’ constant altercations (Wiehe 179). (ii) My actions as a practitioner: After visiting Sarah’s family home, school and other places she goes, I will immediately request that Sarah and her younger brother be transferred from their home to an orphanage or any centre that caters for kids from broken homes (Gardner 220). Then the kids would be made to pass through some therapies that would help them develop their ability to survive with their violent parents. They would also be encouraged to show more interest in their play things, books and, of course, studies. In United Arab Emirates, for example, all children born out of wedlock are whisked away from their parents when they are and tucked away in not-so-well-equipped orphanages. These kids would grow up without having any knowledge of who their parents were and they would be adopted as the children of the State, whom would later be enlisted as police officers or soldiers to serve the nation. Until recently, United Arab Emirates do not have any early childhood protection programme; but when an Emirati man violently raped a four-year-old, it was then the UAE government deemed it fit to investigate all sundry attacks and acts of cruelty against children in the country. (iii) My action as a Manager: Having been aware of the dangerous exposure Sarah and younger brother have had, I would recommend that a child educational psychologist attend to them for some periods of time; they would be instructed about how to live peacefully with the other kids without showing too much anger or isolating themselves from their contemporaries (Wachtel 19). Troubled kids always want to isolate themselves from the rest group because of feeling unhappy or unwelcomed by the remaining students in the classroom. I will make sure that all the teachers and instructors pay special attention to Sarah and her brother in the classrooms, detecting any signs of uneasiness during studies and offering timely solutions to improve the kids’ learning ability. These actions may not work properly if all the teachers and staff in the school are unwilling to cooperate together. Sarah will definitely improve her level of educational understanding all along. Works Cited Carr, Margaret. Assessment in early childhood settings: learning stories. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage publication, 2001. Print. Emery, Robert. Marriage, divorce, and children’s adjustment. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publication, 1999. Print. Gardner, Richard. Psychotherapy with children of divorce. New York: J. Aronson, 2008. Print. Isenberg, Joan and Jalongo, Mary. Major trends and issues in early childhood education: challenges, controversies, and insights. New York: Teachers College Press, 2003. Print. National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children NSPCC. NSPCC response to working together safeguard children consultation, 2010. Web. 12 April 2010 (http://www.nspcc.org.uk/Inform/policyandpublicaffairs/Consultations/2010/working_together_wdf72813.pdf) Reid, Susan and Tavistock Clinic. Development in infant observation: the Tavistock model. London: Routledge, 1997. Print. Rowe, Andrew. Heir to the millennium: what are we doing to our children? London: NSPCC, 1996. Print. Wachtel, Ellen. Treating troubled children and their families. New York: Guilford Press, 2004. Print. Wiehe, Vernon. Understanding family violence: treating and preventing partner, child, sibling, and elder abuse. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publication, 1998. Print. Weis, Lois. Critical perspective on early childhood education. New York: SUNY Press, 1991. Print. Read More