Child Neglection

Child Neglection 

Neglection is defined by Polansky as a “condition in which a caretaker responsible for the child, either deliberately or by extraordinary inattentiveness, permits the child to experience avoidable present suffering and/or fails to provide one or more of the ingredients generally deemed essential for developing a person’s physical, intellectual, and emotional capacities.”

Neglect is the most common form of child maltreatment with 552,000 children being expected to be affected every year.

Examples of child neglect

• Not meeting a child’s needs for food, clothing, or shelter

• Leaving a young child alone

• Not having a child attend school

• Leaving a child in an unsafe place

• Not seeking necessary medical attention for a child

Consequences of child neglect

• Emotional Understanding

• When posted with the question of how to respond in a situation where there are negative emotional displays in others, most children that had undergone neglect often responded with disregarding the emotional display and withdrawing from the situation.

• These children do not have the ability to put themselves in another person's shoes to feel sympathy for them. Because they have an emotional disconnect they feel discomfort when situations that involve emotions come about.

• Neglected children often resort to avoidance strategies when dealing with emotional distress.

• These children learn to cope with their emotional issues on their own because they have no other choice, most of the time if not all they are by themselves.

• Emotional Dysregulation

• Neglected children have been reported to show less situationally appropriate emotions as well as less emotional self- awareness.

• Children learn how to respond to situations according to their caregiver and since they usually do not meet the basic needs they usually fail to teach these children proper emotion regulation.

• Emotion management and expectations of outcomes of emotional displays

• Neglected children have a lower expectancy of support from their mothers.

• They are less likely to display anger or sadness to their mothers in fear that this may result in negative outcomes from their mother.

Intervention/ Prevention

Child Neglection can potentially be prevented through awareness of child neglect and parental education. 

Becoming a parent is hard especially if you are juggling other things in your life. There is no guide to being the perfect parent, You learn as you go.

Teaching parents about essential developmental periods of children's growth can aid in the understanding of the importance of nurturing and care. Parental education workshops will support the acquirement discipline techniques, conflict resolution skills, and socially appropriate behavior.

Conclusion

Children that have been through neglectful experiences, as a result, have lower levels of emotional understanding, lower adaptive emotional regulation as well as lower coping strategies. As a community, we must come together and support our children and parents in this challenging quest of raising children because these children are our future. We must provide parents with the necessary tools to raise their children.

Related Resouces on Child Neglect

• InBrief: The Science of Neglect
• Risk Factors for Child Neglect: A Meta-Analytic Review

Works Cited

Department for Education. Childhood neglect: Susan Miller’s story. YouTube.Department for Education, 12, Jun. 2012. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROIGfGGx80U

Polansky, Norman A. Damaged Parents, an Anatomy of Child Neglect. University of Chicago Press, 1981.

Shipman, Kimberly, et al. “Managing Emotion in a Maltreating Context: A Pilot Study Examining Child Neglect.” Child Abuse & Neglect, vol. 29, no. 9, 2005, pp. 1015–1029.

Tyler, Shannon, et al. “Child Neglect: Developmental Consequences, Intervention, and Policy Implications.” Child and Youth Care Forum, vol. 35, no. 1, 2006, pp. 1–20.

GIFTED STUDENTS AND THE USAGE OF DEPTH AND COMPLEXITY ICONS

GIFTED STUDENTS AND THE USAGE OF DEPTH AND COMPLEXITY ICONS

Gifted students and students that are academically behind still are in need of our help as educators. They only difference is the type of needs. These students need to be challenged academically and the Icons of Depth provides just that. The purpose of the Depth and Complexity Icons is to raise the level of thinking by up-leveling questions through depth and complexity rather than focusing on surface knowledge.

DEPTH TOOLS

Depth encompasses an understanding of details to aid in the comprehension of new knowledge. 

COMPLEXITY TOOLS

This includes the relationships and connections among other concepts and disciplines.

The Icons of Depth and Complexity are listed as follows:

Language of disciplines

This icon describes the type of language that one needs to know prior to going into a topic. This may not only include keywords and their meaning but also phrases, signs/symbols, figures of speech and abbreviations that are related to the content.

For example, if a teacher is directing a lesson on culture some of the vocabulary terms that the students would be required to know would be terms such as religion, ethnicity, and race. For a subtraction and addition math lesson, on the other hand, students would need to know the meaning of the words “sum” and “difference” as well as the meaning of symbols such as +, -, and = in order to be able to comprehend and read a mathematical sentence.

Details

This icon describes the important features and characteristics that aid in the understanding of the concept. This icon may also be described with the questions who? what? When? Where? Why? How?

For example, this icon can be used in a lesson regarding animals such as learning about an Anteater. A detail about an Anteater would be its head shape that can aid the understanding of what and how the Anteater eats.

Point of view

This icon has students put themselves in other people's shoes and ask themselves how would others view a particular situation and why? Acknowledging different interpretations.

For example, having students view multiple perspectives such as how a person with no vision “sees” compared to those that do have vision. How would a home be seen by a contractor compared to a home interior designer?

Patterns

This icon has students observing reoccurring themes and making predictions based on past events.

For example during a Mathematics lesson student may focus on numerical and shape patterns such as 2, 4, 6, 8, 10. what would come next? or ⧫⧫, 🔺🔺, ⧫⧫, 🔺🔺 what would come next? In contrast during a literature lesson, students would make predictions on stories, for example, the story of the 3 little pigs the wolf blows down the house of the first and second pig. Will the wolf blow down the third pig's house? Why or why not?

Rules

The rules icon describes the standard, guidelines, and methodology of a particular item or procedure.

For example, in mathematics when solving operations students must know the rules of operations such a PEMDAS which explains the order in which the equation must be solved: parenthesis, exponents, multiplication, division, addition, and lastly subtraction.

Big Idea

This icon focuses on the general theme or principle of the area being studied and supporting it with evidence.

For example, in literacy, this icon would focus on the main theme of a book. What was the main idea of the story? Similarly, in Science, a lesson on gravity may have students focus on Newton's laws of gravity.

Ethics

This icon focuses on moral principles. Differentiating right from wrong.

For example, in science, lessons can open discussions on questioning rather or not scientist should experiment on animals. Why or why not? Similarly, in social studies, you would question if breaking the law is right or wrong?

Trends

This icon consists of influences that cause patterns over a period of time. For every cause, there is an effect.

For example, in science, the trends icon can focus on why an object such as a helium balloon goes up when released. Similarly, in social studies, students may focus on why the population voted the way they did. What factors played a role in this outcome? Did the winning politician spend more on his/her campaign?

Unanswered questions

This icon is intended to have students think about questions that are not answered or have yet to be answered. This teaches students to evaluate unanswered questions.

Evaluating unanswered questions consist of thinking and discussing why the question is unsolved. In science during experiments they may not answer the main question student can focus on why this is the case in order to fix the problem. This icon promotes problem-solving skills.

Change over time

Comparing and contrasting concepts through time. Applying historical content to present knowledge.

In science, this icon would look at climate and how it has increased over the years. Why has this change occurred? In math, this icon would look at statistics changes over time of people with cancer.

Interdisciplinary Relationships

This icon examines the relationship between and across different areas.

In social studies, we educators can focus on the similarities and differences among different cultures. How do Native Americans differ in their culture from African Americans? What foods do they eat? What beliefs and customs do they have? 

Incorporating Concepts into Classroom Lessons

Conclusion

The icons of depth and complexity teach students how to think rather than what they should think. It challenges gifted students to broaden their understanding and become critical thinkers.It creates challenging learning opportunities for students. I invite you to explore ways to engage with your students and meet their individual needs.

Other Useful Tools for Gifted Students

• Blooms taxonomy

Works Cited

Aspire Academy. Using Blooms and Depth and Complexity Icons to Drill Deeper Part 1. YouTube.Aspire Academy, 2 Mar. 2015, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FvvGWNdtk1c

“Understanding Depth and Complexity.” Envision Gifted, http://envisiongifted.com/services/understanding-depth-complexity/.