Parents Whose Children with Learning Disabilities and Challenging Behaviour Attend 52-week Residential Schools: Their Perceptions of Services Received and Expectations of the Future

This paper reports the findings of a survey of parents whosechildren attended 52-week residential schools. Seventy-threeparents completed a postal questionnaire which asked questionsabout three main areas: support and services received priorto their child’s entry into residential education; perceptionsof the quality of care and education provided by residentialschools; and concerns for their child’s future care andwelfare. Telephone interviews were conducted with 14 parents,to obtain additional information on the topics addressed bythe questionnaire. Parents were critical of services and supportreceived prior to their child’s entry into residentialeducation and reported high rates of exclusion from local services.Residential schools were generally perceived as providing agood quality of service, though considerable concern was expressedabout their geographical distance from the family home, andthis had a significant impact on the frequency of visits. Parentsexpressed high levels of concern about the future care and supportneeds of their children. Further research is required to understandthe relationship between the availability and quality of localservices and the need for 52-week residential schools. The impactof distant residential education on parent–child relationshipsand on future demand for residential care is considered.     

Who Takes Care of Education 18 months on? A follow‐up study of looked after children's perceptions of support for educational progress

This paper represents a follow‐up publication to the findings of a previous paper by documenting the views of a follow‐up sample of 56 young people, aged 12–19 years, looked after in three English local authorities. Young people were interviewed on two separate occasions, 18 months apart, to assess their perceptions of educational progress and identify factors that might support or hinder their education. The interviews took place as part of an ongoing evaluation of the Taking Care of Education project, a development programme designed to facilitate improvements in the education of looked after children. Most young people were aware of individual project‐related activities and a number of these were seen to contribute towards educational progress. Perceptions of educational progress were significantly higher at follow‐up interview and an increased proportion of young people reported that being looked after had had a positive impact upon their education. Carers and teachers continued to be the most frequently mentioned providers of educational support, but the proportion of comments relating to educational support from social workers increased at follow‐up. The most consistent explanation given for improved educational progress was the availability of support and encouragement for educational progress and acknowledgement of young people's achievements.     

The Sound Of Silence: Listening to What Unaccompanied Asylum-seeking Children Say and Do Not Say

Unaccompanied asylum-seeking children are noted at times tobe silent or circumspect about their origins and circumstanceswhen faced with authority figures, including social workers.Using some key ideas from ethnography and narrative therapy,this article examines existing literature on silence in thelives of unaccompanied minors, and on how the choices they makeabout talking and not talking can hinder or facilitate resettlement.It then describes a small research study within which interviewswere undertaken with local authority social workers to elicittheir responses to unaccompanied minors in such circumstances.These revealed that practitioners understood the children’ssilence in varied ways, and that they could be practically helpful,therapeutically minded and reliable companions, accompanyingthe young people towards resettlement, with or without knowingthe detailed ‘truth’ about their past     

Disabled children, parent–child interaction and attachment

Although caregiver factors are generally considered the more potent in determining children's attachment organization, a number of child factors have also been considered. Among these have been temperament and disabilities. The present paper examines the effect of various types of children's disability on parent–child interactions, including how disabilities affect parental sensitivity and communications. A brief outline of attachment theory and patterns of organization is followed by a review of the research evidence that has looked at children with disabilities and insecure attachments. A complex picture emerges in which it is not a child's disability per se that is associated with insecure attachments but rather an interaction between children with disabilities and the caregiver's state of mind with respect to attachment. Transactions between both child and caregiver vulnerability factors affect sensitivity, communications and security of attachment. Practice implications for prevention, advice and support are considered.     

Do Socially Anxious Children Show Deficits in Classifying Facial Expressions of Emotions?

Studies with socially anxious adults suggest that social anxiety is associated with problems in decoding other persons' facial expressions of emotions. Corresponding studies with socially anxious children are lacking. The aim of the present study was to test whether socially phobic children show deficits in classifying facial expressions of emotions or show a response bias for negative facial expressions. Fifty socially anxious and 25 socially non-anxious children (age 8 to 12) participated in the study. Pictures of faces with either neutral, positive (joyful) or negative (angry, disgusted, sad) facial expressions (24 per category) were presented for 60 ms on a monitor screen in random order. The children were asked to indicate by pressing a key whether the facial expression was neutral, positive, or negative, and to rate how confident they were about their classification. With regard to frequency of errors the socially anxious children reported significantly more often that they saw emotions when neutral faces were presented. Moreover, reaction times were longer. However, they did not feel less certain about their performance. There is neither an indication of an enhanced ability to decode negative facial expressions in socially anxious children, nor was there a specific tendency to interpret neutral or positive faces as negative.     

Families, orphans and children under stress in Zimbabwe

This paper evaluates a programme called FOCUS in Zimbabwe: Families, Orphans, and Children under Stress. The programme was initiated in 1993 and works with seven community groups, providing support to around 6500 children in 2000 households. The programme succeeds through committed community volunteers, who made over 93,000 visits to households in 1999. Communities are mobilised by building on existing practices, using natural entry points, and careful selection of local volunteers and supervisors. There is good community ownership, extremely low volunteer turnover, and reporting systems verify that aims and objectives are met. The programme maintains good ethics, addresses a range of children's rights, and is sustainable through a mixture of donor funds, FACT (sponsoring organisation) support and community support. Issues of concern include better recognition of psycho-social needs, prevention and protection from sexual abuse, reducing stigma and discrimination, increasing child-centred approaches and participation, and reducing gender imbalance among volunteers.     

Play therapy: the children's views

This paper describes my efforts, as a practising play therapist, to listen to children’s opinions about the play therapy experience. There has been ongoing interaction between this project and my clinical work. Previous research has attended to adult agendas, and I have tried to give children a voice. There have been methodological challenges. However, data from the children confirm the overriding importance of the relationship, providing the context for the therapeutic experience. Within the playroom, children distinguish between talking and playing, and both have a role. However, while therapists ascribe meaning to play, most children see it as ‘just fun’. For some children having fun, in the context of a thoughtful and sustaining relationship, was the most significant aspect of the therapeutic process. Others were able to reflect more deeply and recognize the value of having difficult feelings thought about and understood.     

摩梭人民间文学对其幼儿的教养作用

摩梭人的儿歌、童话、神话、传说为孩子们提供了各方面的知识和经验,并帮助他们养成符合所处社会的道德感与价值观,这种教育融汇在生活中的方方面面,是一种潜移默化的教育。     

Children's comprehension of war

The purpose of this paper is to show how pre-school children, both from Zagreb and refugees, experienced and comprehended the war during 1992. The study included 98 children from Zagreb kindergartens (pre-school nurseries). The children were asked five questions about the war in Croatia. Each was interviewed individually. A content analysis of the answers revealed that the children, in defining the warring parties and the causes of the war, besides using much information obtained through the media, based their concepts of the war on personal experience. The worst war-related experience for Zagreb children was the air-raid alarms, while the displaced or refugee children felt worst when there were bombardments, destruction and shooting—mostly personally experienced events. Generally, the children's answers suggest more mature comprehension of war than usually expected and found at the pre-school age.     

Facilitating interviews with children who may have been sexually abused

The introduction of the Memorandum of Good Practice on interviewing children who have been sexually abused has had an important unifying effect on professional practice. However, because of the traumatic nature of sexual abuse there will be a group of children about whom there are high levels of suspicion and where arrangements need to be made for their future care, protection and treatment. These include children who have learning disabilities or communication problems, have psychiatric disorders associated with abuse, or where there have been considerable delays since allegations were first made. Such children require a second-stage facilitative assessment interview. These include different forms of questioning, and the use of a wide range of prompting materials including art work, free and structured play context and the use of anatomically correct dolls. These approaches are reviewed and illustrated through case studies.