greater risk) <strong>and</strong> girls halved between1971 <strong>and</strong> 1991. But even in relation <strong>to</strong>these statistics there are socio-economicclass differences, as we report later.Improvements in medical skills also meanan increase in the survival rates of childrenborn with special needs compared with afew decades ago. While their survival rateshould be met with joy, the extra cost ofsupport <strong>and</strong> other implications for theirfamilies, siblings, children themselves <strong>and</strong>their communities (both local <strong>and</strong>national) must also be acknowledged.As we pointed out in chapter 1,childrenwho inherit medical conditions ordisabilities can demonstrate resilience <strong>and</strong>develop strengths which they use <strong>to</strong>inform society <strong>and</strong> support youngerchildren in similar situations (Mason 1992).Yet for some children, a kaleidoscope ofproblems in their families, their homeenvironments <strong>and</strong> related <strong>to</strong> their ownbirth weight, appears <strong>to</strong> link with theirdisplaying developmental delays <strong>and</strong>behaviour problems (Feldman et al 2000).In other areas of childre n’s lives dire ct lyre l ated <strong>to</strong> health, such as nutri t i o n ,Gra h a m’s (1984) re s e a rch showed thatfood is assoc i ated with affe ction <strong>and</strong> love,<strong>and</strong> that both children <strong>and</strong> adults usefood as measures of co m m i t m e nt. If thefoods used <strong>to</strong> this end are not thosewhich provide the best diet, it can be hardfor those invo lved <strong>to</strong> change this pat te rnof eat i n g. Neve rt h e l e s s, the Jo s e p hRow nt ree funded study Food Pro j e cts <strong>and</strong>How they Wo rk ( Mc Glone et al 1999) hasi n d i cated that access <strong>to</strong> cheap, n u t ri t i o n a lfood helps <strong>to</strong>wa rds improving purc h a s i n g<strong>and</strong> eating pat te rn s. The Gove rn m e nt’sp rovision of vouchers should help in thisre s pe ct. This is espe c i a l ly impo rt a ntbe cause re ce nt surveys of the diets ofc h i l d ren aged be tween birth <strong>and</strong> five haves h own the inadequacy of babies’ a n dyoung childre n’s fruit int a ke, <strong>and</strong> thatthose in low income groups we re 50 pe rce nt less like ly <strong>to</strong> eat fruit <strong>and</strong> ve g e t a b l e sthan those in the higher income gro u p s(BMA 1999 ). Fu rt h e r, vitamin D co nt ri b u te s<strong>to</strong> building strong teeth <strong>and</strong> bones <strong>and</strong>its lack is implicated in ri c ke t s. Howeve r,re s e a rch by Lawson <strong>and</strong> Thomas (1999)i n d i cates that there are co n ce rns abo u tAsian (Ba n g l a d e s h i , Indian or Pa kistani ino rigin) childre n , in their study two ye a ro l d s, whose levels of vitamin D we rebe l ow the level thought nece s s a ry <strong>to</strong>p reve nt such phys i cal pro b l e m s.The British Medical Association (BMA 1999)report on a 16 year study by the MedicalResearch Council. They state that nutritionhas a proven effect on cognitivedevelopment <strong>and</strong> that this effect wasparticularly pronounced in boys.In addition they review a meta-analysis ofresearch on the effects of eating breakfas<strong>to</strong>n cognitive functioning, concluding thatthe omission of breakfast seems <strong>to</strong> alterbrain function.Being born pre-termIn a study of 36 <strong>three</strong> year old children,of whom 18 had been born pre-term,Walker (1989) found the pre-term grouphad more problems, such as sleep related127
difficulties, temper tantrums <strong>and</strong> beingoverly dependent. As one might expect,Walker argues that since there was noevidence of neurological delay, thesebehaviours may be the result of parentalmanagement, rather than intra-childproblems. Parents are naturally moreanxious about babies who have been bornpre-term <strong>and</strong> who may have been kept inhospital during their first weeks of life <strong>and</strong>this may result in parents being unable <strong>to</strong>set appropriate limits on their children’sbehaviour. Similarly, Walker’s finding abouthigher levels of separation anxiety seemlikely <strong>to</strong> relate <strong>to</strong> ‘vulnerable childsyndrome’ resulting from a continuation ofparents’ early fears for their child’s life. Butcan this account for Walker’s finding thatchildren from manual socio-economicgroups display significantly morebehaviour problems than those fromnon-manual groups? Walker’s researchalso found that mothers from manualgroups had significantly poorer mentalhealth <strong>and</strong> this finding ties in with thoseof other earlier studies (eg. Richman 1978;Stevenson 1985) which found strongassociations between disturbance inchildren <strong>and</strong> mothers’ depression.However, Walker did not find that thosemothers with mental health problemswere the ones who had children withbehaviour problems. In her study themothers’ depression tended <strong>to</strong> be related<strong>to</strong> a recent event (such as bereavement)<strong>and</strong> most were not expected <strong>to</strong> be of longduration. Thus Walker’s study suggests thatparents of pre-term children need advice<strong>and</strong> support, for example from HealthVisi<strong>to</strong>rs, but that other remedies arenecessary <strong>to</strong> break the link between lowsocio-economic status <strong>and</strong> children’sbehaviour problems.Poverty <strong>and</strong> its effects on bodily healthNumerous ill effects have been reportedas linked <strong>to</strong> poverty for babies <strong>and</strong> youngchildren. Firstly, it was recognised yearsago that poverty impacts on the mother’shealth, so children are affected evenbefore birth ( Townsend <strong>and</strong> Davidson1982). Higher infant mortality rates are alsolinked <strong>to</strong> socio-economic disadvantage(Spencer 2000) <strong>and</strong> although infantmortality rates have reduced in the‘developed’/minority world, the higherrates are still found among the lessaffluent (Leon et al 1992; Pearl et al 2001).Smoking, risky levels of consumption ofalcohol <strong>and</strong> caffeine, <strong>and</strong> other (socioeconomic)fac<strong>to</strong>rs are found <strong>to</strong> be moreprevalent among poorer sections ofsociety <strong>and</strong> it is among these families thatlow birth-weight (LBW) is found mostfrequently (Spencer et al 1999). In fact,according <strong>to</strong> Spencer (2000), death amongbabies under one year old is said <strong>to</strong> be themost sensitive indica<strong>to</strong>r of the health of apopulation. In Engl<strong>and</strong> <strong>and</strong> Wales, SuddenInfant Death Syndrome (SIDS) is <strong>three</strong> timeshigher in the lowest socio-economic groupthan in the highest (Basso et al 1997;Woodroffe et al 1993; Zimmer-Gembeck<strong>and</strong> Helford 1996). Babies with a birthweight of less than 1.5 Kg have a risk ofdeath that is 200 times higher than tha<strong>to</strong>f those weighing 3 Kg or more (Haddad128 EDUCATION ANDSKILLS B I RT H T O T H R E E M AT T E R S
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AcknowledgementsThe authors and pub
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Relationships with other people (bo
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policies for families. So this lite
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etween three and nine years old whi
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0 - 8 months: Heads Up, Lookers and
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e a rliest ye a r s’ 1 , is the c
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distinguish between things, and tha
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Chapter 2Influential research and t
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THE ISSUE OF THEORIES AS CULTURALCO
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p a rt i c u l a rly in re l ation
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developed by Bereiter and Engelmann
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familiar settings. By about one yea
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child as learning and developing in
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are important to them,blanking out
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THEORIES ABOUT EARLY CHILDHOODEDUCA
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Chapter 3A Strong ChildIn the Frame
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A GROWING AWARENESS OF SELF AND THE
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( a d a p ted from Davies 1999 : 12
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them with an inadequate modelof rew
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However, even sensitive parents and
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It is preferable to have stabilityi
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something surprising and strangehap
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when someone else is upset or hurt,
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main factors enabling such self-ass
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demonstrate achievements - ‘Go on
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implications for siblings, which ar
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with friends fared be t ter than th
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Attending to external demands (such
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Chapter 4A Skilful CommunicatorThis
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elationships with close and protect
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adults and siblings around them. Th
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interactions and interchanges depen
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in the first 18 months. Depressed m
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Karmiloff-Smith 2001: 183). Further
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National Association for SpecialEdu
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PEOPLE FOCUSED continued/setting fo
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BIRTH TO THREE MATTERSPro Forma for
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184 EDUCATIONAND SKILLS B I RT H T