Urban Children in Poverty Cognitive Development

Sasha is 3 and Cayley is 1. Cayley is beginning to walk which is about normal for her age. Sasha is small for her age and could be considered underdeveloped. Cayley still uses a bottle and sleeps with the bottle for comfort and still puts everything in her mouth. Much of this is normal, though fewer things should be going in the mouth by about this time. She is able to say a few words which is good (often second children speak less than the first child anyway), and her interest in the blocks that the CPS worker brings is a good sign. Sasha is curious and interested in things, but she does not speak much and she does not listen well to basic commands. She also is abusive towards her sister and mother, which is a sign that she has not received the necessary amount of physical stimulation and touch that is needed at this age (Perry, Szalavitz, 2006)
Significant Illness
Neither child shows signs of significant illness. However, there are indications of nutrition issues. The children are also suffering from a lack of spiritual nourishment, as the mother has said she has no used for religion and is evidently an alcoholic. The children are more than likely not being taught to pray or to have a spiritual life. Thus, the significant illness that they have may not clearly be manifested in the physical form and may need to be assessed in the psychological or psychosocial form (Briggs, Rayle, 2005). The house is a mess and the stench of garbage is in the air. Sasha has a bad cold and may have gone untreated for some time, and her growth appears to have been stunted to some degree, but Cayley appears to be okay at the time.
Nutrition and Exercise Issues
Nutrition issues are identifiable by the lack of food in the house. There is clearly not much for the children to eat, let alone get their proper nutritional intake. That is why Sasha is small for her age and most likely why she has a bad cold: she is inadequately clothed and inadequately fed. Because the neighborhood in which they live is crime-ridden and there are no parks to play in, neither child is likely to be getting enough exercise outdoors or to be getting much fresh air. There is garbage in the house and it is untidy. They do not live in a healthy environment conducive to growth.
Psychological Development
Cognitive Development
Sasha’s cognitive development shows positive signs. She is curious and alert, which signals that her mind is active—yet she is shy and does not communicate with many words. Cayley has the use of a couple words and she is walking and likes to play with the blocks. The amygdale and hippocampus are sections of the brain that help children at this age develop properly (Durston, Casey, 2006). These parts of the brain help the child to learn. If they are not developed, a child may appear to behave inappropriately and demonstrate little awareness of others (Li, Sheng, 2003). Sasha tends to make her sister cry so may be deficient in development of her cognition. Cayley appears to be developing well and does not seem to have any irrational fears. Sasha is probably deficient somewhat in cognitive development because she has been exposed to this neglectful environment for longer than has Cayley.
Cultural Development
The children suffer from a lack of culture. Their mother has not demonstrated any connection to a church or group outside the home and has no interest in her own native culture. Nothing is being taught to the children in this respect.
Emotional Development
The children do not have a great deal of emotional issues at the present. Sasha has some behavioral issues, but this may stem from her cognitive lack of development. She demonstrates curiosity and is alert but there is no excessive crying or fear on her part. Cayley may suffer from slight emotional deprivation as she sleeps with her bottle and has probably not been breastfed by the mother so may be lacking in the needed warmth and touch experience that babies require (Perry, Szalavitz, 2006). The children have no toys and no furniture, both of which can be good for comforting and helping them to develop emotionally—so it is understandable that Sasha is probably undeveloped in this respect as well, while it also makes sense that Cayley does not want to be separated from her bottle, which is likely to be her only possession.
Self-Concept, Self-Esteem, and Self-Empowerment
Sasha’s self-concept does not appear to be very defined: she is curious and alert but also violent towards her sister and mother; she is lacking in positive reinforcement but also in recognition of others’ feelings. She is centered on herself when it comes to others and wants attention from them more than she is willing to give it to them. Her self-esteem may not be very high, and she is relying on a primitive kind of self-empowerment—i.e., empowerment through force and abuse, which is not healthy for her development. Cayley is still too young to display many signs of self-concept, self-esteem, or self-empowerment, but her dependency on her bottle signals that she has an attachment that she will need to overcome in time.
Significant Life Issues/Diversity Issues
The children do not appear to have any significant life issues aside from their current environment being impoverished, their health being at risk because of the neighborhood in which they live and the conditions of their home along with the unstable condition of their mother, who drinks and does not have a job. Their only diversity issue is that they have no real diversity in their lives. The live in this squalid condition and see nothing outside of it. Their grandmother comes to visit and help with the rent, but not often or for long, and when she does come she only berates the mother Aayla for getting pregnant, and this is not a helpful relationship for them to see or react to. They likely do not get to interact with many other children but they are likely to be the only Jamaicans in the building, as their mother is known as the drunk Jamaican, so they may encounter some diversity among the other people living there if they do ever see them.
Psychosocial Development
Family Environment
The family environment is not good. The mother is unstable, may be an alcoholic, and is not employed. The grandmother works 60 hours a week so is not often around. The mother’s brother lives in another city and is a drug addict. The children are not receiving the type of familial support that they should be receiving at this age. The father of the children is not involved in their lives.
Social Institutions
The children are also not receiving much contact from social institutions. Other than the CPS worker who has come, it is unlikely that anyone from any organization has had any contact with the children. Since there are no parks around, the children are not learning any social skills through play, which is an ordinary way for children to learn and develop, especially since there are several types of play that a child will go through during the developmental process: solitary play, onlooker play, parallel play, associative play, and cooperative play (Eggum-Wilkens, Fabes, Castle, et al., 2014). It is very likely that both Sasha and Cayley are sill engaged in solitary play, though Sasha may have advanced to onlooker play, since she is curious and alert. Neither is likely to be capable of parallel play, associative play or cooperative play—Sasha because of her lack of cognitive development and Cayley because she is still only 1.
Spirituality
The children are lacking in any connection to spirituality. They have not received any from their mother, and it is not apparent that the grandmother has exposed them to any. The neighborhood has no churches in it, so it is unlikely that a minister, preacher, priest, or other spiritual person has been to the home.
Community and Social Network
There is not much community as there is a lot of transience in the neighborhood, so neighbors do not get to know one another well, and if they do they are not likely to be neighbors for long. There are more liquor stores in the neighborhood than anything, and the gangs gather on the streets at night so it is really not safe to be outdoors after dark. The community is not conducive to childhood development and the children would benefit more from being raised in a better environment where they could play with other children, be outdoors, be cared for properly, receive adequate nourishment and clothing for the appropriate seasons, and so on. There is not any real or substantial social system or network in either Sasha’s or Cayley’s life.
Discrimination/Oppression and Economic Factors
The family is clearly oppressed by poverty. The mother is on welfare and cannot maintain a job—and even if she did she would need to find daycare for her children, which she could not afford.
Resilience/Strengths
The children are expected to be self-sufficient by their mother because clearly she does not want to care for them or else is not able to care for them. She does not nurture them, pick them up, hug them, caress them, rock with them, etc. The children are largely left on their own, and so to some degree they have become very self-reliant because they have learned to fend for themselves. But of course this comes with a cost: their emotional development and social development has suffered as a result of their isolation and need to depend on themselves for basic necessities. Evidently they are not able to provide themselves with appropriate levels of care (mainly because they are still only 1 and 3 years old).
Saint Leo University’s Core Value of Personal Development
Saint Leo University’s core value of personal development is this: “Saint Leo University stresses the development of every person’s mind, spirit, and body for a balanced life. All members of the Saint Leo University community must demonstrate their commitment to personal development to help strengthen the character of our community” (“Mission and Values,” n.d.). This means that every one’s mind, body and soul are important and vital and should be given the things they need to develop and grow properly. Everyone at Saint Leo’s should be personally committed to developing a strong character that wants to help all people strengthen their own mind, bodies, and souls.
How It Applies
The core value of personal development applies to the case of Sasha and Cayley (as well as to their mother) rather clearly. The family needs several things to support their growth. The mother needs to enter into a rehabilitation facility so that she can kick her alcohol dependency. This will help her mind and body to begin to have more stability. She should also receive counseling, for it is very likely that she has been mentally abused by her mother in some ways and has probably not received the kind of emotional care that she needed as a young person either (which is perhaps why she is unable to provide it to her children). By entering into a rehab facility, halfway house, or into a counseling program she could begin to receive the care her mind and body needs and then she could also begin to receive some spiritual care and guidance from a minister or even lay people who want to help others develop their spiritual life.
The children Sasha and Cayley also need care and may benefit from a foster program where they could be united to a stable family in a proper neighborhood where there is a sense of community, where there are parks and churches, and where there is real diversity and familial support. The children would receive adequate nourishment for their cognitive development in such an environment and their physical and psychological development would also improve. They should also be united to a family that is engaged in spiritual development so that they can begin the process of learning about religion, their souls, their God, and the point of life.
References
Briggs, M., Rayle, A. (2005). Incorporating spirituality into core counseling courses:
Ideas for classroom application. Counseling and Values, 50(1), 63-75.
Durston, S., Casey, B. J. (2006). What have we learned about cognitive development
from neuroimaging? Neuropsychologia, 44, 2149-2157.
Eggum-Wilkens, N. D., Fabes, R. A., Castle, S., Zhang, L., Hanish, L. D., & Martin, C.
L. (2014). Playing with others: Head start children's peer play and relations with kindergarten school competence. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 29(3), 345-356.
Li, Z., Sheng, M. (2003). Some assembly required: the development of neuronal
synapses. Nature Reviews, 4, 833-841.
Mission and Values. (n.d.). Saint Leo University. Retrieved from
http://www.saintleo.edu/about/florida-catholic-university.aspx
Perry, B. D., & Szalavitz, M. (2006). The boy who was raised as a dog: And other stories
from a child psychiatrist's notebook – What traumatized children can teach us about loss, love, and healing. New York, NY: Basic Books.