How Racism Affects Development

It is critical that we follow a child's racial concept, from preschool years to at least middle adolescence to become aware of the major changes in the child's awareness. Data suggests that a sophisticated concept of race, in multifaceted manifestation, is not realized until adolescence.

"The reality of races as biological entities....is to be found in the human conviction that they exist...They are real because people believe they are..."(Williams and Moreland, 1976) I use this quote because I find the entire topic of race unfounded. We are all of the "human race", and that is really the only "race" I acknowledge. We are of many ethnicities, but only one race. How unfortunate children are forced by society to learn racism.

There are cultural stereotypes that children struggle with daily to overcome. Let's look at Trayvon Martin who was just assassinated in Sanford, Florida by a neighborhood watch captain who says he was only defending himself against a black teenager wearing a hoodie and NOT carrying a weapon while he was!

Comparisons are often made about self-esteem and the self-concept of ability. We are presently engaged in a struggle over the control of the minds(and the future) of our children.

References:
Allen, W.R., Brookins, G.K., Spencer, M.B., The Beginnings of Social and Affective Development of Children, 1985, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc., Hillsdale, N.Y.

Williams, A., and Moreland, R.L., Modification of children's racial attitude, Developmental Psychology, Volume 14 (5), Sept. 1976, 447-461.doi , Retrieved March 23, 2012 from the World Wide Web: http://psycnet.apa.org/journals/dev/14/5/447

South African children face serious threats to health and development as a consequence of poverty, racism, violence and residual social inequality. There are contrasting conditions of hope and peril. "Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate, Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous? (Barbarin, Richter, 2001) That is the contrast. Children in South Africa today know what they are told growing up is sometimes directly the opposite of what they are seeing.

There are two nations in South Africa. One black, one white. The second nation is black and poor and lives under conditions of a grossly underdeveloped economy. Given this gap, the challenge to equalize things for children is great. It is consistently the black children who struggle. They are poor, malnourished, in need of health care, with little or no access to child care or preschool. More than 2/3 of the 6th graders in South Africa perform below the level expected of them. Only 12 percent scored "achieved" or "outstanding". Only four of 100 are reading at grade level. (Barbarin, Richter, 2001) Children are often "stunted" because they lack good dietary habits. They are seldom given protein, dairy products or eggs.

Reference:
Barbarin, O.A., Richter, L. M., (2001), Mandela's Children: growing up in post-apartheid South Africa, Psychology Press, Routledge, NewYork and London.

Access to Healthy Water

 I chose this topic because so many of us take clean water for granted. We feel it is a right to have clean water to drink and shower daily. Water quality affects us all. Access to clean, reliable water is essential to our health and well being, and is a foundation of a thriving community. (Skidegate, 2010)

The lack of access to safe water is directly related to poverty, personally and often times because that government does not have the ability to finance satisfactory water systems. The direct human cost is enormous! Widespread health problems, walking for miles just to get the water, and severe limitations for economic development. Polluted water is estimated to affect the health of more than 1.2 billion people, and contribute to the death of an average 15 million children every year. (Vital, 2005).

The world is on track to meet the United Nations Millenium Developmental Goal (MDG) drinking water target to halve the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water by 2015. (CDC, 2009).

In Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, nearly 1 billion people in rural areas have no access to improved water supplies. Throughout Africa, rural water services lag far behind urban services. Bottled water is not considered improved due to limitations in the potential quantity, not quality of the water.

References:
Assessing Access to Water and Sanitation, (2009), (CDC) Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA, Retrieved March 5, 2012 from the World Wide Web; http://cdc.gov/healthywater/global assessing.html

Skidegate,A., Access to Clean, Reliable Water, Essential to Healthy Nations, 2010, WHO, UNICEF, New York, N.Y.

Vital, W., Inequity in Access to Clean Water, 2005, Unicef, New York, N.Y.

My Birthing Experience...

The birth experience I have chosen to write about is the birth of my youngest son. We had a difficult time getting pregnant, and then staying pregnant, so it was a joyous time in our household! I remember telling my husband to leave the plastic on the brand new mattress we bought when I was about 8 months pregnant. He looked at me strangely, but decided to humor me! Good thing, as my water broke in the bed about 3 weeks later! Must have been a pregnancy premonition. This happened about 3:00am, and by 5:00am, we were at the hospital.

It went pretty smoothly for a few hours, but my contractions were very slow. They gave me Pitocin three times to increase my contractions, and by that time, I scarcely had time to take a breath in between them! I dilated, effaced, and moved along according to plan until pushing time came! My son (and we didn't know the sex of the child)was definitely strong willed, and had decided he needed to see where he was going! The doctor would push his head back down and he would pop it right back up. After a couple off hours of that, I was informed I would be having a C-section. Well, I became a little panicked because when we had gone to childbirth classes; on the C-section day, the nurse giving the class was sick. My husband also tried not to come with me, but I was adamant that if he could gut a deer, he could certainly come with me! So, he did, and I received a spinal anesthetic and was totally awake during the procedure. However, intervention is not always best for the mother and child. In general, cesareans are easier on the fetus, and quicker for the doctor and the mother, but can increase the rate of birth complications in later pregnancies. (Berger, 2009).

My husband was giving me a play by play and my son was born shortly afterward. He looked huge to me! The doctors were joking about his size and said that he must weigh 10 or 11 lbs. My OB said he could not pick up a 10 lb. baby with one hand! So, his father took him to the nursery with the promise he would come right back and tell the doctors what his exact weight was. His official weight was 9lbs, 8.5 oz. He looked like a 3 month old baby to me!

I chose this example because it is still so clear in my mind, and it happened  26 years ago!

My thoughts regarding birth and child development are that I believe certain characteristics are evident from the very beginning! And long lasting too. He was strong willed (stubborn) at birth and that characteristic has served him well for the past 26 years too. I am sure it is with him to stay!

References:
Berger, K. S. (2009). The developing person through childhood (5th ed.). New York, NY: Worth Publishers.