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

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
  todays 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
Childrens 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