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Reimagining Child Well-Being: Fresh Approaches in Troubled Times

This book explores novel ways to think about child well-being in high-risk families, focusing on risk reduction, prevention, and promotion. It examines the universality of protective factors, promotes positive behavior, and addresses child maltreatment through compensatory, remedial, and developmental approaches. The book also emphasizes the importance of resilience, readiness, and relationships in fostering educational well-being.

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Reimagining Child Well-Being: Fresh Approaches in Troubled Times

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  1. Novel Ways to Think About Child Well-BeingIn Troubled Times: Fresh Approaches to Working With Vulnerable Children in High-Risk FamiliesCenter for Advanced Studies in Child WelfareMay, 2009

  2. Risk Reduction Prevention How Well-Being is Traditionally Seen

  3. (-) Risk Reduction (0) Prevention (+) Promotion A Way of Re-Imagining our Work in Relation to Developmental Well-Being Traditional Work Progressive Work

  4. The Universality of Protective Factors/Processes “Buffers [protective factors] make a more profound impact on the life course of children who grow up under adverse conditions than do specific risk factors or stressful life events. They appear to transcend ethnic, social class, geographical, and historical boundaries” (Werner & Smith)

  5. Positive Behavior Focused • Protective Factors/ Processes • Supports and • Opportunities for • Healthy Development • and Developmental • Well-Being Harm Reduction Promotion Problem Behavior Focused • Risk Factors/Processes • Threats to Development • Developmental Deficits

  6. Positive Behavior Focused (B) Purpose / Intent is to DO BETTER • Purpose / Intent • is to • THRIVE Harm Reduction Promotion • Purpose / Intent • is to • STOP (C) Purpose / Intent is to OVERCOME Problem Behavior Focused

  7. Positive Behavior Focused • Compensatory • Minimize Risks • by Encouraging • Healthy Behaviors (D) Developmental Promote Competencies and Skills by Fostering Healthy Behaviors Harm Reduction Promotion • Remedial • Promote Competencies • and Skills by Prevailing • Over Unhealthy • Behaviors • Cessation • Minimize Risks • by Ending • Unhealthy Behaviors Problem Behavior Focused

  8. Positive Behavior Focused (B) Child Maltreatment Compensatory Social and Neighborhood Networks (D) Child Maltreatment Developmental Parental Capacity-Building Harm Reduction Promotion • Child Maltreatment • Cessation • Stop Harm Potential (C) Child Maltreatment Remedial Anger Management Problem Behavior Focused

  9. Distinguishing Goals and Objectives Cessation Parents stop behaving in ways that endanger the safety of their child/children. Compensatory Parents are linked to formal and informal sources of social support. Remedial Parents learn how to manage their emotional state in constructive ways. Developmental Parents acquire the motivation and skills to change their employment situation. .

  10. Positive Behavior Focused • Parent Engagement • Compensatory • Concrete Alternatives to • Permissive Parenting (D) Parent Engagement Developmental Enhancing Authoritative Parenting Harm Reduction Promotion • Parent Engagement • Remedial • Surmount Making a Child the Scapegoat • Parent Engagement • Cessation • Stop Authoritarian Parenting Problem Behavior Focused

  11. Distinguishing Goals and Objectives Cessation Parents end harsh and abusive behavior. Compensatory Parents will learn how to set age appropriate boundaries and rules. Remedial Parents will no longer accidentally, or deliberately, target a particular child in the family. Developmental Parents will strengthen children’s sense of self- efficacy through supportive and encouraging actions. .

  12. The Developmental Ingredients of Educational Well-Being “We need to focus on…the 3 R’s: Resilience, Readiness, and Relationship.” Former U.S. Secretary of Education Richard W. Riley

  13. The Essence of Resilience “A pattern of positive adaptation in the context of past or present adversity.” (Goldstein & Brooks, 2005)

  14. The Breadth of Resilience “What began as a quest to understand the extraordinary has revealed the power of the ordinary. Resilience does not come from rare and special qualities, but from the everyday magic of ordinary, normative human resources in the minds, brains, and bodies of children, in their families and relationships, and in their communities” (Masten, 1999).

  15. Redefining Readiness • Requires Adopting a “3-3’rd” Perspective

  16. The Emphasis of the Preschool to Third Grade Approach According to the Pre K – 3’rd Data Resource Center “Standards, curriculum, instruction and assessment are based on knowledge of children’s development over this period. The focus is not just on subject matter competency, but also the development of social, self-regulatory, and motivational capacities critical to support learning.”

  17. We Need to “Embrace” Relationship Necessitates Recognizing the Importance of • Socio-Emotional Learning (CASEL) and • Developmental Assets (Search Institute)

  18. Socio-Emotional Development’s Link to School Readiness • “Young children without developmentally appropriate emotional and social competencies participate less in the classroom, and are less expected by classmates and teachers to achieve. Teachers provide them with less instruction and positive feedback. They like school less and learn less” (60). • “Such social–emotional competence of young children predicts their academic performance in first grade, even when controlling for their actual cognitive skills and family backgrounds” (60). Denham, S. A. (2006). Social–emotional competence as support for school readiness: What is it and how do we assess it? Early Education and Development, 17 (1), 57–89.

  19. Socio-Emotional Development’s Link to Academics • Cognitive and emotional skills are interconnected, thus by promoting emotion-related skills one is helping to foster academic competence. • Students with less emotional control tend to worse academically than their peers (this is even when controlling for cognitive abilities, family background (i.e. SES). Valiente, C., Chalfant-Lemery,K., & Castro, K.S. (2007). Children’s effortful control and academic competence. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 53 (1), 1–25.

  20. Search Institute’s Developmental Assets • Define Socio-Emotional Elements & • Define Socio-Emotional Targets for children

  21. Search Institute’s Developmental Assets • Research Base of Developmental Assets • Synthesis of Studies and Empirical Findings From Multiple Literatures search-institute.org

  22. Developmental Assets • Research/Evaluation Synthesis • Child and adolescent development literature • Resilience literature • Prevention literature • Pediatrics & psychiatric literature

  23. Translation of Research Base • Adolescent Developmental Assets Framework (grades 7-12) • Middle Childhood Developmental Assets Framework (grades 4-6) • Early Middle Childhood Developmental Assets Framework (K-3) • Early Childhood Developmental Assets Framework (preschool)

  24. The Impact of Parental Involvement Parent involvement in elementary school is associated with highest grade completed, higher rates of high school completion, and increased rates of on-time high school completion. (Barnard, 2003)

  25. Pay Particular Attention to the Home Learning Environment Concentrate on the qualities and features of the home learning environment which are more crucial to cognitive and social development than what jobs parents have, how much money they make, and how much school they completed. (Evangelou, Brooks, and Smith, 2007)

  26. Factors that Enhance The Home Environment Strengthening Family Resilience Froma Walsh,

  27. THANK YOU

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