Effective Early Childhood Programmes - Literature review Example

THE INFLUENCE OF IMAGES OF CHILDHOOD ON CHILDREN RIGHTS Student’s Name: Code + Course name Professor’s name University City, State Date Introduction The images of a child influence the perspective held by a parent, guardian, or another individual towards the juvenile. Childhood images act as the indicator to where the learning process of the child begins. The images determine the way through which other people communicate with the child, listen to their needs, and observe their behaviour. Images of childhood have an influence on the rights of infants, children, and adolescents. The increase in the issue of the consequences associated with surrogate parenthood concerning the rights of surrogate children has elicited debates aimed at ensuring that surrogate children have equal rights in the family. Images of childhood also influence the right of the children to play. Moreover, images of childhood also have an impact on the educational and disability aspects of the child. The essay covers the influence of images of childhood on the rights of infants, children, and adolescents with particular regards to offshore surrogacy, the right to play, and disability and education. The Influence of Images of Childhood on the Rights of Surrogate Children Offshore surrogacy entails the decision of parents that are residents of a country to seek a surrogate mother from another country in the quest to obtain a child or children with the foreign mother (Cuthbert & Fronet 2014). Offshore surrogacy suffices to be the main practice in Australia because of the fact that onshore commercial surrogacy is prohibited in the majority of Australian states. The Australian law permits altruistic surrogacy that does not appear to meet the rising demand of surrogate children in the country. However, the rights of the resulting surrogate children has raised substantial concerns. It is evident that surrogate children have less psychological rights as compared to non-surrogate children. The principal argument behind the prohibition of commercial surrogacy in Australia is the fact that the act has adverse consequences on the rights of the resulting children to know their genetic background and biological parent. As a result, the commodification of reproductive services, women, and children yields substantial discomfort in Australia (Keyes 2012). As opposed to the imminent fear that surrogate children face psychological challenges, Jadva and Imrie (2013) conducted a study on the psychological well-being of children born out of surrogate mothers that revealed different results. According to the study, the surrogate children under study did not experience adverse psychological health of functioning within the family that could have an impact on their childhood education and development (Jadva & Imrie 2013). The study, however, revealed notable differences between the results presented by gestational and genetic surrogates. Gestational surrogates are surrogate children born via a treatment option such as IVF to women that present medical problems that may include a missing uterus. In such women, the successful development of the fertilised embryo requires the transfer of the embryo from the woman to a surrogate mother (Brinsden, 2003). On the other hand, the development of a genetic surrogate makes use of the sperm and egg of either the sperm donor or egg donor where the latter may be the surrogate mother or another individual. The notable differences between the two types of surrogates emanated from the fact that genetic surrogates underwent parental separation as opposed to their counterparts. Parental separation witnessed in the case of genetic surrogates did not arise as a consequent of the surrogate child since the separation statistics tallied with the statistics of the other marriages and families within the study population. Most countries that permit surrogacy recommend gestational surrogacy over its genetic counterpart because of the fact that genetic surrogacy results in parentage issues when the deal gets bad between the three parents. Limited research on the adverse psychological effects associated with genetic surrogates indicate that the challenges emanated from the fear exhibited by parents that the biological mother would reclaim the child and the associated negative psychological effect of the child that emanates from the confusion arising from the need to know the real parent (Jadva & Imrie 2013). With the exception of the rows over parentage that affects genetic surrogates, it is evident that surrogates, in general, exhibited positive relationships with their parents. About the amount of contact that surrogate children had with their families, surrogates in the study sample indicated that they had close relationships with their families at all times. This is still the case under traditional children born biologically by the parents. From the findings of the study, it is evident that the images of childhood of surrogate children do not have an influence on their rights with the exclusion of genetic surrogates in some cases. Images of Childhood and the Right to Play It is evident that the playfulness of children is an indicator of their mental wellbeing. Therefore, the mental wellbeing of children is a main determinant of their playfulness (Whitebread et al. 2012). Social and environmental factors either inhibit or support play. As a result, the formation of secure emotional attachments among young children has a major impact in determining their playfulness. Stress among children also inhibits their mental wellbeing thereby having an adverse impact on their playfulness. Therefore, early childhood images that determine the formation of secure emotional attachments during the early stages of child development contributes significantly towards the child’s healthy brain development process. This in turn affects various aspects of the child such as the ability of the child to create friendship and form emotional relationships with others and the child’s ability to regulate emotions and exhibit empathy. The child’s ability to exhibit the above-mentioned aspects creates emotional resilience that contributes towards the playfulness of the child. Playfulness is a crucial necessity in the ability of children to form and maintain friendships. The essence of playfulness emanates from its massive role in enabling healthy emotional and social development processes (Brooker & Woodhead 2013). Playfulness plays a pivotal role in securing the child’s emotional attachments thereby enabling the child to put up with stress and anxiety. This explains why it is important to consider play as a child right. Therefore, parents should not deny children the right to play with others bearing in mind the crucial role that play performs in the healthy mental development process of the child. It is evident that a certain level of environmental unpredictability or stress from the perspective of the child would support the engagement of the child in playful activities. However, extreme cases of stress have negative influences on the playfulness of the child thereby having a subsequent impact on the ability of the child to create and maintain relationships with others and tolerate stress and anxiety in the future. It is proper to emphasise the essence of manageable stress in stimulating playful behaviour among children (Gunnar et al. 2009). Therefore, parents should guarantee environments that stimulate and support emotional development. Certain uncertainty elements should define such environments to encourage playfulness and enable the proper development of resilience among children. However, the case is different when the environment presents ‘toxic stress’ to the child since such form of stress discourages playfulness. Poor children living in urbanised contexts and cities encounter environmental stressors that have adverse impacts on their playfulness. The fact that such children are malnourished implies that they lack the basic energy that is necessary for engaging in playful actions. The attachments of such children to their parents is also less secure because of the worry exhibited by their parents in the quest to fend for them. In essence, reduced play is one of the main causes of mental health problems among children. The primary causes of poor mental development among children include parental stress, poverty (Thompson 2014), and inadequate training. As mentioned before, low levels of playfulness implies poor mental development that further leads to the inability of the child to withstand stress and form positive relationships with others. The propagation of the adverse consequences of denying children the right to play to their inability to handle stress and form positive relationships implies that such children fail to live positively in their children, adolescent, and even adult stages of life. As a result, households should provide an environment that encourages children to play. Images of Childhood, Disability, and the Right to Education The inclusion of children with disabilities in all matters associated with child development is an early childhood imperative to all stakeholders associated with the early childhood development process. The necessity of treating disabled children fairly emanates from the fact that children with disabilities encounter stigma starting from the point of birth. Disabled children also encounter abandonment, abuse, institutionalization, concealment, and abuse. This explains the reason behind the high mortality statistics exhibited by disabled children even in countries that have an overall low infant mortality for children aged below 5 years. The situation gets worse in developing countries as evidenced by the fact that approximately 95% of disabled children living in developing nations do not attend school (UNESCO 2009). Early intervention and assessment suffices reduces the adverse effects of disability on the early childhood development process of the disabled child (Lange & Thompson 2006). Early intervention and assessment should take place before the child attains schooling eligibility. The assessment and intervention measures should aim at identifying and responding to the needs of the ‘at risk’ children. Families should also play a central role in the process to guarantee its success. The involvement of families would ensure the diagnosis of the disability conditions of their children as well as the identification of effective therapeutic measures that would assist in supporting the wellbeing and development of the child. The use of early intervention and assessment measures enables families to understand pertinent information about the child such as the capabilities of the child as well as the necessary interventions that would improve the learning potential of the child. The other objective of the early intervention and assessment measures is to ensure that children with disability can cope up well with mainstream educational settings rather than considering themselves disadvantaged individuals in the society (UNESCO 2009). Subjecting disabled children to the intervention measures prevents a significant percentage of such children from requiring special education upon enrolling into preschool. The image of the child as seen from the perspective of the parent or guardian is the proper starting point for child education process. The significance of the image of the child on the education process emanates from the fact that the child’s image determines the proper way of relating with the child. As a result, the child’s image orients the parent, guardian, or preschool teacher to behave in particular ways while communicating to the child, observing the child, and listening to the child (Malaguzzi 1994). Apparently, young children exhibit complexities concerning the different environments that they inhabit, the pressures given to caregivers and parents, and the determinant force behind their wellbeing. However, in the event of inequality, extreme poverty, HIV/Aids or other preventable diseases, ethnic struggle and cross-national conflicts, and corrupt and weak infrastructures of education and care as well as social and health support, subjecting a child to proper early childhood education becomes a fantasy rather than a reality. Multiple expectations and goals surround young people. Young children require a favourable environment characterised by the active engagement with multiple relationships, transitions, and activities as well as the ability to put up with certain situations for their proper development. Some of the hardship areas that are pertinent to the development of young people include separations, discontinuities, challenges and disruptions (Woodhead 2006). Access to education is a children right. In order to respect the rights of children, a radical shift in both professional and public attitudes is imperative. Instead of viewing children as passive objects of the society that should only be beneficiaries of services and protective measures, the society should be ready to listen to the needs of children by granting them their rights (Siraj-Blatchford & Woodhead 2009). Listening to the needs of children and providing a favourable environment for their education, growth, and development impacts positively on their ability to cope with life hurdles during their later stages of life. Conclusion Images of childhood have an influence on the rights of children, teenagers, and adolescents. Surrogates suffer from adverse psychological effects that emanate primarily from their inability to determine their actual parentage especially in the case of genetic surrogates. Gestational surrogates, on the other hand, do not suffer the same fate, as they are certain of their parentage. Parents, guardians and teachers should also grant children the right to play since playfulness contributes positively towards the mental health and development of the child. This in turn enables the child to create and maintain positive relationships as well as put up with difficult situations in life. Finally, assessment and intervention measures aimed at enabling disabled children to cope up with mainstream educational settings and their normal peers is pivotal to the positive development of their mental and cognitive aspects. Reference List Brinsden, P.R., 2003. Gestational surrogacy. Human Reproduction Update, 9(5), pp.483-491. Brooker, L. and Woodhead, M., 2013. The right to play (Vol. 9). The Open University with the support of Bernard van Leer Foundation. Cuthbert, D. and Fronek, P., 2014. Families, policy and the law: Selected essays on contemporary issues for Australia. Gunnar, M.R., Herrera, A. and Hostinar, C.E., 2009. Stress and early brain development. 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