Safeguarding - Baby P case

So I think most people have already heard of the Baby P case, however I have chosen to blog some of my findings and the effects this has had.

Baby P was a 17 month boy that died on the 3rd August 2007 in Haringey at the hands of his mother, her boyfriend and a lodger in their family home. The two men were found guilty of causing or allowing the death of a child on the 11th November 2008. The mother had already pleaded guilty for the same charge. Since the 22nd December 2006 a child protection plan had been in place for Baby P, as it was feared he had been abused and neglected. This plan was still in place when he died.  He had been seen by social workers and health workers 60 times in a eight month period and suffered over 50 injuries.
The Serious Case Review - This review gives a summary of agency involvement up to peter's death and the circumstances of his death. - It's not nice to read, however it does show the clear breakdown in communication between agencies. Some of the things that were missed and overlooked are shocking.
 
Shortly after his death Ed Balls instructed Ofsted, along with others to conduct an urgent review of services to children in Haringey, looking into depth at safeguarding.

The Joint Area Review can be downloaded below:
HARINGEY-REVIEW
- The main findings of the review are outlined in the above article, they point out significant weaknesses in safeguarding and child protection arrangements in Haringey.

Since the death of Baby P record numbers of 'at risk' children have been placed into care, I have found a article in The Guardian outlining the "Baby Peter effect", which "has persuaded many Local Authorities to lower the risk threshold to remove a child, in the hope that this will reduce the chances of a high profile child death."

Sharon Shoesmith, the former director of children's services at Haringey - Her first interview after being sacked as a result of the Baby P case.
The Guardian - an audio interview

Lastly I have a Youtube clip of Lynne Featherstone answering questions about the failings of the Baby P case and what can be done to prevent similar happenings.

Refugee and asylum-seeking children

I have found two TeachersTV videos regarding Refugee and asylum-seeking children.  I thought I'd blog them as they may be of some use for insight into the challenges they face, for Rachel's presentation / Assignment.

(Hope these help you Leanne)

The first video shows some of what schools can do to help Refugee children that have just arrived, with the challenges they face.   

Secondly this video shows the moving life stories of Refugee children.

Childhood and Ethnicity

Journal articles I have found for ethnicity: 

Brown, C., (2011), Ethnicity and Gender in Late Childhood and Early Adolescence - Group Identity and Awareness of Bias, Developmental Psychology, 47(2), pp. 463-471.

Gibson-Davis, CM., Gassman-Pines, A., (2010), Early Childhood Family Structure and Mother–Child Interactions - Variation by Race and Ethnicity, Developmental Psychology, 46(1), pp. 151-164.

Radey, M., Brewster, KL., (2007), The influence of race/ethnicity on disadvantaged mothers’ child care arrangements, Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 22(3), pp. 379-393.

Now a website I have found: http://www.open2.net/healtheducation/family_childdevelopment/2005/ethnicity.html that gives some clear information about children and ethnicity :)

Lastly I have found a sociology research paper that's quite interesting it's not directly about childhood and ethnicity but more generally about ethnicity and social class in society, it's worth a quick practice of our new speedy reading techniques :)

www.c-s-p.org/flyers/9781847184702-sample.pdf

Childhood and Gender

Directed Time Tasks for this week :)
I've have done a key word search on childhood and gender, and found some interesting journal articles through Google Scholar on aspects of gender, they focus mainly on the social construction of gender identity.

Fagot, BL., (1985), Gender identity: Some thoughts on an old concept, Journal of the american academy of child psychiatry, 24(6),  pp.684-688.

Green, R., (1968), Childhood Cross-Gender Identification, Journal of nervous and mental disease, 147(5), pp.500-509

Ruble, D. N., Taylor, L. J., Cyphers, L., Greulich, F. K., Lurye, L. E. and Shrout, P. E. (2007), The Role of Gender Constancy in Early Gender Development. Child Development, 78(4), pp.1121–1136.

Also, I have found these additional books not on our reading list through the Warwick Catalogue for further reading.

Martin, B., (2011). Children at play: Learning gender in the early years, Dulles : Stylus Publishing.

Root, AK., Denham, SA., eds., (2010). Focus on gender: parent and child contributions to socialization of emotional competence, San Francisco : Jossey-Bass.

Lastly, I have found a YouTube clip showing three panelists, including Dr. Ken Zucker a controversial gender identity professional, discussing and giving their views on typical and atypical gender identity in children.

A useful ICT Journal

I've found a really useful article in the Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, for the ICT and child presentation group. A very interesting article with plenty of research into the effects of ICT on development :)

http://0-onlinelibrary.wiley.com.pugwash.lib.warwick.ac.uk/doi/10.1046/j.0266-4909.2003.00016.x/full

PLOWMAN, L. and STEPHEN, C., 2003. A 'Benign Addiction'? Research on ICT and Pre-School Children. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 19(2), pp. 149-164.

Now.. The History of Childhood

I am now attempting one of our Directed Time Tasks,
Google Key word searches for The History of Childhood.

2006, Re-inventing childhood, (Online) Available at: http://www.open2.net/theinventionofchildhood/childhood_inventions.html (Accessed 8 October 2011).

Corbett, B., 1985, Centuries of Childhood, (Online) Available at: http://www.webster.edu/~corbetre/philosophy/children/aries.html (Accessed 8 October 2011).
- Overview of the Centuries of Childhood book by Philippe Aries.

Vandergriff, J., 2002, Factors of Influencing The Development of The Idea of Childhood in Europe and America, (Online) Available at: http://web.grinnell.edu/courses/mitc/vandergr/201%20Web%20site/History%20of%20Childhood.htm (accessed 8 October 2011).

And now three further reading references:

Heywood, C., 2010, Centuries of Childhood: An Anniversary—and an Epitaph? The Journal of the History of Childhood and Youth, 3(3), pp.341-365.

Hanawalt, B., 1995, Growing up in medieval London: The experience of childhood in history. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press.

Walvin, J., 1982, A child's world: a social history of English childhood, 1800-1914. Harmondsworth: Penguin.

Now that referencing was difficult! So, sorry everyone if it's not right.

Theories of Child Development

My second post today :)

My reflections on Fiona's lesson last week.
Initially when we were told to explore the areas of development (P.I.L.E.S) and the components of these, I was a bit confused and did not understand. But after a little bit of help from Fiona I was well on my way :).
I find the theories of child development very interesting and have chosen to focus on Cognitive development and Piaget's theory for next week.
Piaget believed children were active in their own learning, building their own perception and understanding of things. By the child linking past experiences with their present ones, they would start to get a true concept of the world at a very early age.

Piaget's stages of Cognitive development:
- Sensori-motor Stage: Birth to two years
- Pre-Operational Stage: From around 18 months to seven years
- Concrete Operational Period: Seven to Eleven years
- Formal Operational Stage: Twelve years onwards


I have found a video on YouTube that gives an overview of his theory and outlines these stages of development.