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Key social and developmental issues for children from six to ten years

This report explores key issues affecting children aged six to ten, including knowledge and cognitive development, moral and behavioral development, and risk and protective factors. It also discusses promising family and school interventions to support children's well-being.

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Key social and developmental issues for children from six to ten years

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  1. Key social and developmental issues for children from six to ten years David Utting

  2. Time for a fresh start • The report of the Independent Commission on Youth Crime and Antisocial Behaviour (July 2010)

  3. Sure Start • ‘Making a difference for children and families’

  4. Cambridge Primary Review • ‘How do children live, think and learn during their early and primary years?’ • ‘How can primary education best meet the needs of today’s children and tomorrow's world?’

  5. Knowledge, reasoning and cognitive development • Children think and reason largely in the same ways as adults, but lack experience • They are still developing the ability to think about their own thinking and learning • They need diverse experiences to develop self-reflective and self-regulatory skills. Cambridge Primary Review: Goswami and Bryant (2007)

  6. Knowledge, reasoning and cognitive development • Children construct causal frameworks to make sense of their experiences in the biological, physical and psychological realms • Knowledge gained through active experience, language, play and teachers are all important for the development of explanatory systems • Biases in explanation reflect the tendency to seek information that appears to confirm a favoured theory Cambridge Primary Review: Goswami and Bryant (2007)

  7. Theories of mind What if children conclude they are: • unloveable? • unpopular? • ‘naughty’? • ‘useless’? • ‘stupid’?

  8. Moral and behavioural development “…altruistic or pro-social behaviour may be precluded by fragmented family lives, lack of skilled parenting, shortage of ‘quality time’ with parents and absence of positive role models.” Cambridge Primary Review, p.103

  9. Persistent, serious behaviour problems in childhood ‘Matter’ because: • They are distressing and disruptive for children and those around them • They are symptomatic of family background problems that may include abuse and neglect • There are well-established continuities with recidivist offending and adult antisocial personality disorder

  10. Continuity of antisocial behaviour from age 5 to 17

  11. Risk factors for conduct disorder • Individual (hyperactivity & impulsivity, low measured intelligence, cognitive impairment (low empathy), chronic ill health, attitudes condoning violence & offending, antisocial friends & peers) • Family (low birth weight, poor parental supervision & discipline, parental mental disorder, family conflict, family history of antisocial behaviour, parental drug and alcohol misuse, parental attitudes condoning antisocial behaviour, low income, poor housing, large family size).

  12. Risk factors for conduct disorder • School (low achievement beginning in primary school, aggressive behaviour, including bullying, lack of commitment to school, including truancy, school disorganisation • Community (disadvantaged neighbourhood, availability of drugs). Sources: Hawkins et al, 2010; Utting et al, 2007

  13. Protective and promotive factors • Being female • Resilience, self-efficacy and an outgoing temperament • Social bonding (stable, affectionate family relationships and a sense of belonging and feeling valued) • Adults modelling healthy behaviour • Opportunities for involvement • Social and reasoning skills • Receiving recognition and due praise Sources: Hawkins et al, 2010; Utting et al, 2007

  14. Promising family interventions • Parenting programmes (e.g. Parental Management Training (Patterson); The Incredible Years (Webster-Stratton) & Triple P (Sanders) • Multimodal programmes (e.g. Seattle Social Development Project (Hawkins et al), Multidimensional Treatment Foster Care (Chamberlain).

  15. Promising primary school interventions • Tutoring (reading and numeracy recovery programmes) • Anti-bullying strategies • Cognitive and social skills training (e.g PATHS, ?SEAL?)

  16. Children’s perspectives • Primary-age children express anxieties about local issues affecting their safety and global issues affecting their future • Even so, they are more positive and ‘upbeat’ than their parents • Children with experience of environmental projects and other collective action at school are especially likely to voice ‘can-do’ optimism. Source: Cambridge Primary Review

  17. Childhood today “Like parents who continually criticise their children, while ignoring good behaviour and denying them praise for genuine achievement, popular caricatures of childhood have been in danger of fuelling a deteriorating relationship with the younger generation that makes it more difficult that ever to promote change for the better.” Children, Their World, Their Education (2009),p54

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