Working with Children - Case Study Example

WORKING WITH CHILDREN By Location The case study is represents a case of 5 children hailing from North Wales, Swansea bay, in the Port Talbot town. The case scenario is, therefore, focusing on medium family, of around 7 members all living in the three bedroom house with poor living conditions, well-being and heath. The poor children’s poor living condition has been reported to a child service organization where the family is being accused of neglect because the unhealthy condition is posing the children to the dangers of suffering personal harm. The family members comprise Tina, a 45 year old mother, the only single parent to the 19 old Joanne, the 9 year old Jake and the 7 year old Anne. Besides, Joanne is undoubtedly a single mother to two children, Summer, and Jarred who are 1 and 3 years respectively. Therefore, the case study treats each child separately and as such are regarded with equality and this treatment is subject to the information that a volunteering social worker holds about the last visit she made to the family to view their accommodation status. In return, this information will be compared to the central aims of the section 25 of the Children Act of 2004 that sets conditions for safeguarding children and their wellbeing. Accordingly, the act provides for ‘‘Children should be provided with emotional, physical well-being, protected from neglect and harm and as such must be provided with education, recreation and training. Underpinning the need for providing these needs is that children contribute a great deal in the society, through social as well as economic well-being. Putting the set goals of children into consideration, a decision must be made to substantiate the necessary steps that must be taken to address the concerns of the children under neglect or harm, with a clear statement of the authorities or organizations that must co-operate in making the needed changes in the lives of these children, in addition to taking into account the children’s cultural as well as environmental backgrounds, their developmental needs including the views of the parents or the caregivers. The study puts strong emphasis on the children’s culture where the term, in this context, refers to both emotional and physical environment, and as such, the environment denotes family, inherited habits, religion, social groups, genetics, wishes, interests and communities. Besides, the children’s developmental milestone and age shows how culture is embedded in their development in terms of health. Nonetheless, a detailed knowledge of the cultural background of the family is poised to affect the assessment of their health conditions, implying that a child’s condition is affected by the parent, siblings, age group and grandparents. The study also appreciates that such information on of the cultural background also helps in understanding certain behaviors of children, their habits or situations, in addition to understating their families as the source of individual behaviors. Therefore, rich information on the cultural background will definitely puts a social worker in the best position to assess children’s conditions suitably which in turn, is helpful in creating suitable plans, and as such invite the appropriate organization that can provide services that the children deserve. The family used in this context, comprises two single mothers, the mother and the teenage daughter and the children. They live in Wales, residing in rather local town, small in size, having a population of about 35, 633. Besides, the town qualifies as an industrial town, implying that most of the population labor in the factories where no higher level of education is required. In this regard, families live below the poverty line. Nonetheless, the single parent household situation in UK also provides an insight for this study, since statistics confirm that UK leads in the numbers of such households, with 1.8 million being single parents in Britain, where 650, 000 are jobless. Despite the study choosing a working single parent household, because Trina and the teenage daughter engage in part time jobs, it still confirms the single parent household situation that is a common phenomenon in the British society. During any family assessment, it always imperative to consider the family to be a single unit, thus an integrated system (Beckett, Taylor 2010), because an individual is a unit of a system, where the system is the community, family, culture, the organization including everyone sharing the same environment affect an individual in various ways. However it is the family that has profound influence on an individual in the long run implying that a family is a representation of a whole entity, thus greater that the individuals put together. The family influence is portrayed in the recurring old behavioral patterns and keeps resetting within individuals years in and years out. Nonetheless, a family can be considered in terms of a cycle, where the scaling stages are not only linear, but the stages circulate as experienced by the individuals from their birth to demise or death because they experience them once. In this case, a family can be explained as a three-generation system, thus a cycle that is subject to many births and deaths, accompanied with other life stages like adolescence. Therefore, a family is subject to various challenges coming from adolescence, sickness or illnesses, birth, death and these issues are quite challenging for parents who are in their middle ages. To assess a family’s needs, it is imperative to consider the historic challenges and stressors, recorded in the previous events. Carter and McGoldrik 2005 (cited by Beckett, Taylor 2010) define horizontal stressors as the predictable events, always current, including child birth while the unpredictable events like divorces, are the vertical stressors and are always inherent thus transmitted from one generation to another. Erikson (cited by Becket, Taylor 2010) was of the opinion that proper assessment of a family’s challenge begins with revisiting previous challenges in the past stages, thus termed as vertical stressors. In the Davies or the Brown’s family case scenario, the horizontal stressors in this case, are the everyday issues confronting the adolescent, because the family has to deal with the 15 year old Darren. The teenager has been accused of acts of vandalism, thus qualifies to be a chronic offender, as evident with his theft activities, besides some neighbors complaining about burglary from the teenager. The horizontal stressors add to the problem poor living conditions as the family is living in abject poverty. Taking vertical family stressors into account, this single family is confronted by divorce issues and the challenges brings about serious consequences on the children, including psychological problems for the children besides the financial constrains. Carter, McGoldrik 2005:7 (cited by Becket, Taylor 2010) assert that difficulties are more imminent in the family when the vertical and horizontal stressors intersect, implying that the past events resets in the present leading to more anxiety for the coming generation. Therefore, the situation explains Trina and the teenage daughter’s situation, since they are both living in one roof as single mothers. In retrospect, Joanne’s kids, summer and Anne will definitely face the same problems, thus restoring the same vertical and horizontal experiences. In fact, the social worker has already provided the same evidence that there friction in the relationship in the family since both the two kids because Anne and Jake’s father is an alcoholic who have been convicted for many counts of toddler assault. In this case, such characters will be emulated by the children, especially Darren. Briefly, it is evident that each and every situation within the family not only affects the individual, but the problems are translated into the entire family. Nonetheless, the social worker is keen to notice the good or healthy relationship showed by Tina and the two children, Jake and Anne and also Joanne’s healthy relationship with the children, Jarred and summer. Moreover, the social worker got assured by Tina the children are treated with much sufficient care, including good food and clean water. Though Tina’s words may be true, it is evident that there is an agitated relationship between the Joanne and Tina, because the social works notes a heated argument between the two. The situation may not be considered as genuine but in the event there is such a situation, then it easily qualifies for psychological or emotional abuse as put across by the Welsh Assembly. The growth of human brain, according to (Sudbery 2009) depends to a large extent on the interaction between the child and the parent because during the first year, the brain of a baby begins to double and though it is true, according to science, that the brain development is a factor of genes, the external environment affected the production of the brain cells. In this case, the cells that are not utilized by the brain tissues die, a process termed as the cell-death. The case may be true when considering Jared’s situation, because despite having clocking one year, the child experiences delayed physical development, he has not developed the ability to crawl. The delayed development is attributed to the small physical space within the family house, indicating that there is actually the difference in children’s physical (Sudbery 2009). However, every social worker who knows the job must worried at the impaired physical development of Jared, the child is way much behind the expected development progress. The implication is that at this stage, the child should be taking the first steps, as confirmed by the social worker’s reports that the child has not developed the ability to crawl and instead, is always wrapped on the car seat. On the other hand, the social worker notes that the boy has never been to health clinics, thus qualifying to be the highest level of neglect from the teenage mother, Joanne. Nonetheless, assessment of a family is never complete without identifying the attachment of an infant to the mother because the mother must always provide the secure base during the first few months of birth. As a child clocks the first year, the family members become the secure base because the child develops and starts to engage in discovery of the world thus developing a coherent perspective of the external environment (Sudbery 2009). Thus, during the child’s developmental stage, separation from the mother should be excluded at all costs, since the social worker confirms a warm and heath relationship portrayed between Joanne and the two children, implying that Joanne is a true representation of a secure base for the children, in this case, the evidence substantiates the need to make a referral to the local authority (children act 1989). On the other end, a visit by the health official to assess summer, the three-year old, was accompanied by the reassuring remarks that the child is meeting the threshold of child development because the mother takes note of ensuring that the children is regularly taken for clinical checkups. The clinic move is a good sign for healthy child development, but there is also the need to establish if the child is given day-care services on a regular basis. Evidence from the social worker also suggests that summer is always seated sucking her thump, a cue used to evaluate a child’s development of critical thinking. The thump sucking is a normal phenomenon among children of summer’s age helps them to centralize. In this case, a clear understanding of the child’s thinking helps in understanding and developing the best way to communicate with it, because at this stage, they have developed emotional needs as it is their stage of cognitive development (Beckett, Taylor 2010). During the cognitive development stage, the mother’s attachment to the child is its secure base, and this is a crucial element to consider during the assessment. In this case, the attachment is important for summer as the child is learning how to play, thus the foundation of her learning experience (Beckett, Taylor 2010). The implication is that the age, year 3, is the marks a child’s ability to begin thinking, accompanied by the ability to engage in pre-logical and magical thinking. The implication is that there should be full attention paid to the child’s playing as in the case of summer whose age requires full attention from the mother. On the other, despite regular attendance of the nursery care, the family’s house environment should be well equipped so that the child can have proper pre-school development, as this means that there should be proper acquisition of numeracy and essential literacy skills but care should also be taken to make sure that they match the child’s age inoculation. In the Anne’s case, the girl aged 7 years is subjected to regular school attendance though the social worker confirms that the attendance is rather below average besides suffering from head lice, with occasional tiredness and this explains why she sleeps during classes. The lack of sleep is because she share the bed with the brother of her mother, Jake, the 9 year old. During the age between 7 and 12, a child begins to understand operations, including the classifications as well as home serration and beyond, because they grow and develop logical perceptions towards conspicuous phenomena besides beginning to decentralize (Beckett, Taylor 2010). On the other hand, it is not advisable force the children of opposite sex in the same bed because despite their age, they have increased their perception about sex and as they become more aware, they develop curiosity. On the other hand, children who are forced to sleep in uncomfortable places perform poorly in school, as with the case of Anne who is reported to have been sleeping on many occasions in the classroom. At the age 7 and 12, attention must be given to a child’s language as well as social interaction because language is crucial for the child’s development (Beckett, Taylor 2010), implying that a child will always attention to said words and demonstrate the same in action without proper understanding of what is being conceptualized in the language. Darren’s case for instance, shows a child who learned to use improper language as he speaks foul language in front of everyone in the house, even before Jake and Anne. The head lice problem as experienced by Anne is a chronic problem that has developed due to neglect, which in this case, is due to improper treatment, besides the grabby school uniform. Putting other points into consideration, Anne can be classified as suffering, thus, the child’s condition is far from the society’s aims of well-being and safeguarding. Although the case scenario treats Jake and Anne as having the same age because they are in their middle-childhood, they have different needs thus the need to treat each of them separately. Evidence suggests that Jake will grow into a lively boy but there is need to give him attention when in classroom. The evidence also shows that he fights fellow children in the playground though (Sedbury 2010) posits that theories of behavioral learning are embedded on the surrounding environment. In this case, people learn behaviors by watching what others do because some behaviors are triggered by environmental impulses as well as the external support that follows the individual behaviors. the concept is always applied in almost all school learning systems though it has been attributed to negative behaviors because the environment in this context is inclusive of the family that has both horizontal and vertical stressors, the schoolmates as well as neighborhood friends because Anne and Jake are documented to having spent a considerate amount of time in the streets. Nonetheless, the school social workers should provide any valuable information during the assessment because the information will be crucial in promoting the children’s well-being. Blackmore etal.,2007 (cited by Sedbury 2010) assert that the brain networks responsible for decision making among children are inherently different from the adult’s brain networks. Apart from the biological changes taking place in the body of the adolescents, there also occur many cultural as well as social changes. On the other hand, the socio-cultural changes are different from one individual to the other. On the other hand, there is substantive research that confirms that some individual behaviors are subject to unresolved childhood challenges, though attachment at the adolescent age is never dependent on the physical access where the secure base implies that the child takes the parent for granted. However, negative attachment manifests itself at the adolescent age though persistence of the parent for strong attachment plays a significant role on the child’s development as he or she enters the next stage (Sedbury 2010). Take the case of Darren for instance, the child is 15, an age where individuals form their identities, thus assessment is never complete without identifying the aspects that a child believes to be integral in forming his or her identity. For instance, it is quite necessary to question what Darren considers to be good in burglary. The implication is that the adolescents replace their identity with and leaves the identity that the parent gave them, where a child develop a new self and as such develops own self-confidence, and factors like security becomes more important as there is the increased interaction with peers (Sedbury 2010). Nonetheless, poor living conditions in addition to poverty explains Darren’s situation, though the parent’s divorce may also resurface at this stage. Despite Darren receiving much needed support from the YOS, a social worker should assess his situation by considering his stage of development and also taking into account the challenges associated to the adolescent stage. In this case, the challenges should be viewed from the perspective of a family as a system where actions of others influence other members of the family. Given the accommodation situation, the family can be described as living in an over-crowded condition, because it is ridiculous how a family of 7 can live in a 3 bedroom house. Besides, the social worker reported that Anne and Jake share a bed with the mother, while Darren uses the family’s third room. According to housing act (1985), the 3 bedroom house containing 7 members is not overcrowding currently, but there will be problems as the children attain the adolescence age. Moreover, overcrowding in the house has some adverse effects on the families and worse, children. The implication is that over-crowding at the house impairs both education and general development of the child, because the children have no room for playing, studying besides emotional problems since such conditions makes it difficult to have friends. A study on effect on house-overcrowding found out that the conditions leads to more arguments, relationship breakages because the family has no privacy at all; 70% of the participants agreed to this. On the other hand the situation increases mental health conditions like depression and anxiety (shelter 2005). For instance, the frictional relationship witnessed between Joanne and Tina is attributed to the house’s tightness, thus leading to lack of privacy. Though the situation may call the attention of a housing authority, any action take to avert the situation should but the plight of the children at the forefront. In effect, several solutions are available to address the situation so that the children’s safeguarding and well-being can be restored because there is enough evidence to ascertain the uncooperative behavior of Tina; she does not want to cooperate with the social worker. Thus, there is the strong recommendation that the matter should be referred to the appropriate local authority that may provide strict assessment order since the matter can be taken to children’s court as stipulated under children act (1989). After this, it an action plan should follow that takes into consideration the statements as well as evidence provided by the social worker. The evidence shows that Trevor Davis can be regarded as living in the family in absence. On the other hand, his existence in the family should be reconsidered as it is impacting on the children negatively. However, he has the chance to see the children, Anne and Jake, only under a court order (children act 1989). In a nutshell, viewing a child’s growth and development from psychological, biological, social as well as cognitive prospective is important but the family as a system also affect their growth and development. The implication is that the family cycle always extend to the generations to come thus it is important also to consider the family’s historic events because the events interact with the current situation. In this regard, older patterns are always reset and influence behaviors of children. Nonetheless, a proper and comprehensive knowledge of the children’s needs during a given developmental stage, including issues like levels of attachment as well as secure bases is quite useful during the assessment. On the other hand, the knowledge is useful when developing plans for response. Moreover, the assessment should also consider culture as well as environment especially for the adolescents. Read More