Children's Needs – Parenting Capacity - Digital Education Resource ...

118 Children’s Needs – Parenting CapacityParents with learning disabilities are likely to be provided with considerablesupport from health visitors when their baby is very young; however, ongoingsupport and advice from wider family and/or professionals are essential becausethese parents may experience difficulties in adapting and coping with children asthey grow up and require different types of food (Cleaver and Nicholson 2007).Furthermore, the disabling effects of mental illness, learning disability, problemdrinking or drug use or domestic violence may result in parents not recognising ornot responding appropriately when the infant is unwell (Daniel et al. 2009). Forexample, all parents are stressed when their children are ill or injured and find itdifficult to take in what medical practitioners say to them. When parents have theadditional stress of mental illness, learning disability, domestic violence or substancemisuse, information may be difficult to remember and hard to recall.Patrick (aged two years) has recently been in hospital as Sally (mother) felt hehad a fever. However, the staff in the refuge felt concern as Sally had been givingPatrick too much medication and they felt his welfare was at risk.(Mother with a learning disability who had recently left her violenthusband, quoted in Cleaver and Nicholson 2007, p.77)Children are also placed at risk of injury when serious parental addiction to drugsresults in children, including the very young, being left alone at home while theparent is out buying drugs, as the report by this mother shows.One morning I got up – Sam was sleeping right, and I was rattling. And I waslike ‘Oh no, I’ve got to wake him up and get through all this getting dressed carryon, get the clothes on and into the buggy ... he was sleeping by the time I got backand I was like ‘that’s alright then’. So the next morning, same thing happened.(Mother, quoted in Barnard 2007, p.72)The effects of social deprivation exacerbate parental problems, and the linkbetween poor material conditions and illness in small children is well established.Shortage of money, debt, unemployment, chronic housing problems, fraughtrelationships, the hardships of single parenthood, personal harassment, victimisationand skill deficits all contribute to their vulnerability.(Booth and Booth 1996, p.15)Education: cognitive and language developmentExpected abilityTypically by about 12 to 13 months, infants start to say their first words. Early wordlearning is very slow and requires much repetition. Between the ages of 12 to 18months the infant may learn no more than 30 words. After this slow start, however,most children begin to add new words rapidly although the majority of new wordsare names for things or people; verbs tend to be learnt later. Thus, children of this