Exploring Child Development and Intervention Strategies

Introduction

The present assignment is on the observation of the activities of children and their development within a setting with an eye of a social worker. A minimum number of six interviews or stories would be thoroughly read and in the present assignment it will set out a detail scenario of at least three children whose stories or interviews were analyzed available from the website of The NSPCC (https://www.nspcc.org.uk/). The website contains varied interviews on real life stories of many children who have been subjected to abuse or intentionally harmed by another adult individual either physically or emotionally. The website of the organization offers the required information via those written interviews or clips that how the organization offers helps to those children via the helpline number and in turn saved so many precious lives from death or suicide commitments. For students seeking psychology dissertation help, evaluating such cases can provide valuable insights into child development and the impact of abuse on mental health.

The first story that would be discussed is of Sophie who was a young girl child used to go to school but was extremely neglected at her own home by her parents (https://www.nspcc.org.uk/what-is-child-abuse/childrens-stories/sophies-story/). Her parents were abusive and used to quarrel daily among themselves that hampered the overall life of the little girl child. She used to feel absolutely neglected at home as no one used to support her or love her and she felt much maltreated at her home. She used to love spent her time going to schools as there she could talk to her friends and smile and in that way she used to fool herself and others to believe everything was fine in her life. Her mother paid no attention to her, i.e., whether she was attending her schools or not and used to stay upstairs in a demolished out of her face condition. Her parents were addicted to drugs which might be due to their troubled lifestyle and relationships and therefore, Sophie used to feel absolutely neglected and lonely at home. She even tried to talk to her parents regarding the drug use but they denied it and on the contrary started yelling upon her. She felt helpless, and thought everyone hated her so she herself took over dosage of the drug and following that event she was referred to the NSPCC service for their therapeutic services on child abuse, support their families and caring for children. Sophie disclosed everything to the NSPCC members and they also had conversation with her tutors of school. As she could open up her bottled up emotions and anxieties, it gave her so much relief and confidence. She even realised that her mother made the choice of drug addiction herself and she could do nothing about that issue. She was trained by the organization to make safe choices about her lifestyle as she also had the risk of up taking the risky habit. She was educated about the negative and positive aspects of life via artworks and was trained to always make the positive choices and keep a distance from the negative aspects of life like her mother’s conduct. She herself claimed that her life would have shattered if the NSPCC members did not intervene into her life issues at the right time. In this context, the age of the children and the help offered by the organization with regard to substance use disorder is not vivid. It is also not clear that whether the organization had utilized the evidence based family strategy or group strategy for the treatment of the drug abusive parents. According to the literature surveys, family serves as the main source of support and attachment for any individuals within the society (Maimon, 2010). The negative impact of substance abuse disorder (SUD) of any member of the family affects all the other members on varied aspects such as unfulfilled developmental needs, fragile bonds between the family members, financially crunched condition, emotional turbulence and violence that often leads to legal interventions within the family (Lander, 2013). There are two theories which help to understand the impact of substance use disorder on the family members such as attachment theory and the systems theory. With the use of attachment theory, the qualities of the relationships among the members of the family are evaluated, and it also states that the relationship in between the mother and her child serves as a template for all the other relationship (Erdman, 2013). On the other hand the family systems theory states that one individual cannot be treated successfully until it is properly understood that how that person functions within his or her own family system (Erdman, 2013). In the above mentioned interview on the life event of Sophie who might be within 5-8 years of age, the NSPCC service helped in the development in the following areas such as emotional conduct, social conduct with other child or an adult and also cognitive, sensory and language development (https://www.nspcc.org.uk/).

The second story that will be detailed is of James who is a 10 year old child studying in a primary school (https://www.nspcc.org.uk/what-is-child-abuse/childrens-stories/james-story/). At his 10 years of age he was shifted to a new primary school by his parents where he was extremely bullied by the other pupils of the school. He started developing phobia about going to school because he had to face hit, called by varied unwanted names and kicking. Those pupils did not accept James the way he was, they show hatred towards his glasses, looks and could not accept his presence as a new kid within the school. James started feeling sick due to this dread and started making excuses of not going to school and even thought of ending his life at 2am of the night with knife. His life was like a burden to him at that moment and he could not sustain the present condition. He also reported that he could not even visit the local shops or the nearby shops or park centre as the kids who use to bully him were all local kids. Therefore, the phenomenon of bullying continued even after the school. The condition of secondary school was much more pathetic in comparison to primary school. The students who used to bully him informed all the other students and the situation became worse. Varied incidents like slamming of doors in his face, his head was bashed against a brick wall, he was threatened made him felt exhausted and dreaded. Therefore, he decided to end his life. However, James had once noticed the child helpline number in a poster and therefore he wrote a letter to them explaining everything in details but he could not gather the courage of calling them up. Fortunately, the helpline contacted James within two days and had a detailed conversation with him (www.childline.org.uk). They believed him and about all his allegations, and suggested him to join the sessions on coping strategies against bullying. They also advised James to avoid those areas where those students are present in a group. As because they believed him, it provided James with lot of confidence and he disclosed the matter to his parents. He used to talk to the therapist twice a week and he saved his life by changing his negative thought pattern with the aid of talk therapy. He could release his negative emotions and in this way Childline helped him to cope up with the bullying. A Childline is an organization that helps children with their expert counsellors for 24 hours each day of the year (www.childline.org.uk). Bullying cannot be defined in legal terms. However, it is considered as a conduct that is repetitive with an intention to hurt someone physically and emotionally (Cornell, 2015). It often occurs against those individuals who are deprived or subjected to inequalities due to race, religion, gender or sexual orientation (Cornell, 2015). In the above mentioned context, it is not mentioned that what are the strategies advised by the members of the Childline to help James against the bullying students lawfully or officially. It is mandatory in the United Kingdom, that school students must follow a conduct policy or the “antidiscrimination law” (Leiter, 2011). The administrative staff members of the schools must be active to prevent any kind of harassment, victimization, or discrimination within the school premises (Leiter, 2011). The theory of mind is related to the bullying phenomenon and several studies have investigated about it’s association (Espelage, 2018). The service offered by the Childline had helped James to develop in certain areas such as the emotional development, physical or the motor development, the social conduct with child and with other adults, and also helped to develop his cognitive and sensory development (www.childline.org.uk).

The last and the third interview that would be discussed is of Leila’s story (https://www.nspcc.org.uk/what-is-child-abuse/childrens-stories/leilas-story/). Leila was a small girl of 8 years old. She was Muslim by religion and was born in Palestine and then their family shifted to England. When she became 13 years old, there was a lot of argument in between Leila and her mother. Her mother was extremely protective and conservative by nature so she did not want Leila to go out with her friends. According to her mother’s opinion, England is not much safe for her child as there the youngsters often get addicted to certain risky behaviours like drugs and alcohol. According to Leila she was feeling stuck up in between the two different cultures and therefore, she ran away from home to lead an autonomous life. She herself reported that some days she used to stay with the strangers and had sex with them in return of food, shelter and money. Initially she used to dread about the consequences but not that much that she would stop leading that life. According to her opinion it was better than going back to home. The men who exploited her condition were much older than her but did not bother about her age and innocence. When the condition in between Leila and her mother became worse she used to run away from home and would stay with her friends, boyfriend or any stranger for months. There were also some moments when she used to wander in the middle of the streets at the dead of the night time and used to dread about her condition. During that condition, she was referred to the NSPCC Protect and Respect service (https://www.nspcc.org.uk/) by the mentor of her school. She did this noble job as she was extremely worried about the safety of the girl. The NSPCC staff members educated Leila about varied types of exploitation and told her that she was getting sexually exploited because of her condition and it was extremely harmful for her growth and development. Leila had the misconception that she had turned into an adult but they trained and groomed her that about her condition and sexuality. During the session she came across other girls who also went through the same condition and there they could share their feelings. She did not expose her bitter life experiences to any of her friends. She also claimed that she felt at home with the therapist of NSPCC organization and never felt being judged. They were extremely professional and friendly at the same time and they saved her life. In the context of Leila the two theories that might illustrate the causal affect of risky life style habits due to the emotional turbulence going between her mother and her are the theory of attachment and the family systems theory (Erdman, 2013). It is evident from scientific pieces of evidences that health behaviours give a shape to our health and there is a correlation in between the social determinants, biosocial approaches and health behaviours (Short, 2015; Braveman, 2011). There are varied kinds of risky behaviours up taken by the youngsters in their life with regard to their age such as smoking, drinking alcohol, addiction to drugs and unsafe sexual relationships among the teenage youngsters (Short, 2015). Though some of these factors are genetic, however individuals make the choices based on the structural location, and nature of life style they are acquainted with (Short, 2015).

Reflection:

As a social researcher, the assignment invoked varied reactions within me which I will illustrate via the Gibbs Reflective model (Sekarwinahyu, 2018). The first step of the problem discusses about the issue or the challenges faced. Here, the problem is the varied troubled areas of development in the life of a child. In this context, the developmental theories or stages should be mentioned which illustrates about the development of child into varied stages categorized by qualitative differences within their behaviour (Newman, 2017). The theory illustrates the process that in what manner the physical and emotional development progress throughout the span of life (Newman, 2017). As mentioned earlier that family serves as the main source of support and attachment for any individuals within the society (Maimon, 2010). Therefore, the negative impact of substance abuse disorder or troubled relationships or negligence of any member of the family affects all the other members on varied aspects such as unfulfilled developmental needs, fragile bonds between the family members, financially crunched condition, emotional turbulence and violence that often lead to legal interventions within the family (Lander, 2013). The next step of the model is to illustrate the associated feelings with the problem (Sekarwinahyu, 2018). Here as a social research worker, following the observation of the case studies of child I could anticipate the development of mental health problems among the three children such as Sophie was going through extreme negligence and loneliness that bottled up anxiety and depression within her with regard to the drug abuse of their parents. She was trying hard to be happy but was felt hopeless and neglected and therefore to avoid the shame she wanted to end up her life with over dosage of the drug used by their parents. Similarly, James, the young boy was overall exhausted and dreaded about sustaining his life as he simply could not able to cope up with the persistent bullying by his school students. He was also unable to open up to his parents or to anyone else and also thought of committing suicide. On the other hand Leila who had a troubled relationship with her own mother had led her to opt for a risky life style such as unhealthy sexual relationship with strangers in return of food, money and shelter. She was completely ignorant about the harmful consequences of her drastic lifestyle and the exploitation she was going through by the older adult men. The third step of the model is the evaluation of the root cause of all these problems and their negative impact upon the emotional, cognitive and physical and motor development, and social conduct of a child during their developmental stages (Sekarwinahyu, 2018). The varied organizations such as the NSPCC and the Childline have offered prompt help to these children suffering from severe mental and psychological problems and inspired them about the positivity of their life. They also trained and educated the children about the varied problems and their consequences and how to make the right decisions at the right time of the life to lead a healthy life style (https://www.nspcc.org.uk/; www.childline.org.uk). The ultimate step of the model is the conclusion, where it can be said that being a part of such organizations as a young social worker can provide me varied ways to preserve many precious life from ultimate death or suicide. Providing the help and therapeutic counselling to these high risk vulnerable children may help them to lead a quality life and also prevent them from up taking any risky conduct or lifestyles (Sekarwinahyu, 2018).

References:

Maimon, D., Browning, C.R. and Brooks-Gunn, J., 2010. Collective efficacy, family attachment, and urban adolescent suicide attempts. Journal of health and social behavior, 51(3), pp.307-324.

Lander, L., Howsare, J. and Byrne, M., 2013. The impact of substance use disorders on families and children: from theory to practice. Social work in public health, 28(3-4), pp.194-205.

Erdman, P. and Caffery, T. eds., 2013. Attachment and family systems: Conceptual, empirical and therapeutic relatedness. Routledge.

Cornell, D. and Limber, S.P., 2015. Law and policy on the concept of bullying at school. American Psychologist, 70(4), p.333.

Leiter, W.M. and Leiter, S., 2011. Affirmative action in antidiscrimination law and policy: An overview and synthesis. SUNY Press.

Espelage, D.L., Hong, J.S., Kim, D.H. and Nan, L., 2018, February. Empathy, attitude towards bullying, theory-of-mind, and non-physical forms of bully perpetration and victimization among US middle school students. In Child & Youth Care Forum (Vol. 47, No. 1, pp. 45-60). Springer US.

Short, S.E. and Mollborn, S., 2015. Social determinants and health behaviors: conceptual frames and empirical advances. Current opinion in psychology, 5, pp.78-84.

Braveman, P., Egerter, S. and Williams, D.R., 2011. The social determinants of health: coming of age. Annual review of public health, 32, pp.381-398.

Sekarwinahyu, M., Rustaman, N.Y., Widodo, A. and Riandi, R., 2018. Development of problem based learning for online tutorial program in plant development using Gibbs' reflective cycle and e-portfolio to enhance reflective thinking skills. In Journal of Physics: Conference Series (Vol. 1157, No. 2).

Newman, B.M. and Newman, P.R., 2017. Development through life: A psychosocial approach. Cengage Learning.

Appendix:

Observing Children Pro Forma

Age, gender & ethnicity of child/children/young person: May be within 5 to 8 years, Female, British in origin, Child.

Duration of observation/length of extract/ setting for observation/extract: Not mentioned properly but for a long period of time as she underwent therapeutic sessions. She was a young girl child used to go to school but was extremely neglected at her own home by her parents. She herself took over dosage of the drug and following that event she was referred to the NSPCC service for their therapeutic services on child abuse, support their families and caring for children.