Nutrition Children need far fewer calories per pound of body weight than infants do. Children in low-income families are especially vulnerable to obesity Overfeeding is causing an epidemic of illnesses associated with obesity, such as heart disease and diabetes.   3 min

Brain Development  By age 2, a child's brain weighs 75 percent of what it will in adulthood.  Transient exuberance and then pruning of dendrites has already taken place.  The brain reaches 90 percent of adult weight by age 6.

Brain Development  The primary reason for faster thinking is new and extensive myelination.  Myelin is a fatty coating on the axons that speeds signals between neurons.

Brain Development Corpus callosum  Long, thick band of nerve fibers that connects the left and right hemispheres of the brain and allows communication between them Lateralization  Specialization in certain functions by each side of the brain, with one side dominant for each activity  Left side of the brain controls the right side of the body, and vice versa.

Brain Development Contemporary views on left-right distinction  Distinction exaggerated  No exclusive sidedness in healthy people  Both sides of brain involved in almost every skill  Brain is flexible, especially in early life

Prefrontal Cortex  Planning, decision making, prioritizing, reflection, emotional regulation (governs the rest of the brain) 11-7

Impulsiveness and perseveration  Prefrontal cortex is very limited in infancy and continues to develop at least until early adulthood.  Maturation of the prefrontal cortex gradually facilitates focused attention and curbed impulsiveness.  Before such maturation, many young children jump from task to task; they cannot stay quiet.  Others act in the opposite way: In a phenomenon called perseveration, some children persevere in, or stick to, one thought or action, unable to quit.

Brain Development: Planning and Analyzing Can she sit still? This is developmentally difficult, but for three reasons she probably will succeed: – (1) gender (girls mature earlier than boys) – (2) experience (she has been in church many times), and – (3) social context (she is one of 750 students in her school attending a special service at Nativity Catholic church). Many religious rituals have sustained humans of all ages for centuries, including listening quietly in church on Ash Wednesday—as Nailah Pierre tries to do.

Right hemisphere 10

Amygdala  Evaluates sensory information and determines its emotional importance  Assesses threat  Damage results in abnormality in processing fear 11-11

Hippocampus  Brain structure that is a central processor of memory, especially memory for locations. Hypothalamus  Brain area that responds to the amygdala and the hippocampus to produce hormones that activate other parts of the brain and body

Early stressful events Increased risk for…  Permanent learning and memory deficits  Later developing major depression, PTSD, and ADHD  Blunted or accelerated emotional responses Benefits  Cognitive and memory growth with reassuring adults  Context and duration important

Artistic Expression  All forms of artistic expression blossom during early childhood  Skill gradually comes with practice and maturation  Artistic expression in early childhood correlates with later creative drawing (adult encouragement, child practicing to develop technical skill)  Cultural context influences expression

Injuries and Abuse Accidents  In almost all families of every income, ethnicity, and nation, parents want to protect their children while fostering their growth.  In every nation, more young children die from accidents than from any other specific cause.  The 2- to 6-year-olds in the U.S. are at greater risk than slightly older children.

Avoidable Injury Age-related dangers  Falls  Motor-vehicle deaths  Poison  Fire  Drowning

Avoidable Injury Injury control (harm reduction): practices aimed at anticipating, controlling and preventing danger; reflects the beliefs that harm can be minimized  Safety surfaces  Car seats  Bike helmets  Safety containers for medications  Pool monitoring

Levels of Prevention  Primary prevention: he overall situation is structured to make harm less likely; reduces everyone’s chance of injury  Ex) side walks, speed bumps, breaks/head lights, driving exams

Levels of Prevention  Secondary prevention: reduces danger in high risk situations.  Ex) salt on icy roads, holding a child’s hand near a busy street

Levels of Prevention  Tertiary prevention: reducing impact after harm has occurred  Ex) laws against hit-and-run, speedy ambulances

The Ecological Model

Child Maltreatment “Discipline” Versus “Abuse”  Would you send a child to bed without any dessert? Without any dinner?  Would you tell a child to go to his or her room for 10 minutes? An hour? Two hours? A day?  Would you tell a child he or she is selfish? Stupid? Stubborn?

Child Maltreatment  Child maltreatment  Intentional harm to or avoidable endangerment of anyone under 18 years of age. This includes abuse and neglect.  Child abuse  Deliberate action that is harmful to a child's physical, emotional, or sexual well-being  Child neglect  Failure to meet a child's basic physical, educational, or emotional needs

Substantiated Child Maltreatment Getting Better? As you can see, the number of victims of child maltreatment in the United States has declined in the past decade.

Rates of Substantiated Child Maltreatment Still Far Too Many

Consequences of Maltreatment Effects of maltreatment are devastating and long- lasting. Mistreated and neglected children  Regard people as hostile and exploitative  Are less friendly, more aggressive, and more isolated than other children  Experience greater social deficits  Have higher risk of emotional disorders and suicide attempts

ABORIGINALS IN CANADA Aboriginal people represent only 2.8% of the Canadian population, they account for 18% of those who are in federal prison. In the Prairie provinces, 50% of prisoners are Aboriginals An estimated 80% of urban Aboriginal children under the age of 6 living in poverty The suicide rate among young Aboriginals is one of the highest in the five to eight times higher than the national average

Child Maltreatment Three levels of prevention  Primary prevention  Secondary prevention  Tertiary prevention

Child Maltreatment Three levels of prevention  Primary prevention: Focus on macrosystem and exoystem; stable neighborhood, family cohesion, decreasing financial instability, family isolation, and teenage parenthood  Secondary prevention: Focus on identifying and intervening ; insecure attachment  Tertiary prevention: Focus on limiting harm after maltreatment

Tertiary Prevention and Placement  Permanency planning  Foster care  evels.htm?WT.svl=LeftNav evels.htm?WT.svl=LeftNav  Kinship care  Adoption  v=eFNnb9WeTBk v=eFNnb9WeTBk

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) PTSD  Anxiety disorder that develops as a delayed reaction to having experienced or witnessed a profoundly shocking or frightening event Symptoms  May include flashbacks to the event, hyperactivity and hypervigilance, displaced anger, sleeplessness, nightmares between fantasy and reality