Consolidating Theory and Research: Childhood Studies

There is little evidence of what it was really like in the past so it is difficult for a lot of people to re-construct the life of a child, however from what I have researched, and in my own opinion I am going to summarise the historical changes in childhood experience and relate these changes to childhood development and rights.

The lives of children are greatly influenced by the environment they grow up in, and the people they come in contact with. For years, psychologists, researchers, and social workers have studied children, and why they do what they do. All have developed many different perspectives on how to view social problems and the development of individuals.

Every child deserves to live in peace and have no harm or abuse come to them.

Practitioners have to put the needs of children first because this will help keep children safe and encourages children to be independent. It’s important to show

Safeguarding the welfare of children and young people is extremely important. It involves more than just protecting children from abuse – it also includes promoting their interests, keeping them safe and protecting their rights.

This Act which is born from parent’s needs has a specific impact on childcarer's practice, but not only, as course handout 1a (2012, p2) confirms This Act is ‘for all those who are responsible for planning, running and using early childhood services’.

Each child is recognised and valued as an individual, “treat them as individuals and make them feel respected and valued as an essential part of our commitment to safeguarding children, young people”, LSCB, (2013:p5). Being accepted is what all children want, and it is another need on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, “Belongingness and Love: affiliate with others, be accepted”, Huitt, (2007).So providing children with the provision of equality, diversity and inclusive practice, children and young people are able to fulfil this need and move on to the next need.

During the course of the Introductory Child Psychology, several times, we touched upon the topic of "The active versus the passive child". The first time this topic was introduced to us during the studying of fundamental theories of child development, then, we've touched it during the discussion of perceptual processes and motor development, and family relationships. "The active versus the passive child" - is a theoretical debate from developmental theorists about whether or not children are passive and just receive environmental influences which help to shape them or are children active in learning and create their own pathway to knowledge. Robert Keil corresponds active view to

There is no one piece of legislation that underpins the safeguarding of children and young people in the United Kingdom but there are countless that are constantly being reviewed, changed or updated. From these many legislations, child care settings develop policies, according to the Oxford online dictionary a policy is ‘A course or principle of action adopted or proposed by an organisation or individual’.

This influential piece of legislation arose from the Green Paper ‘Every Child Matters’ and identifies five outcomes for all children:

The theories/approaches established by historical and contemporary pioneers provide valuable insight, underpinning the understanding of how children develop, allowing teachers to enhance the holistic development of every child. This essay will analyse the: behaviourist theory; cognitive-developmental theory; and socio-cultural theory.

Protecting children from maltreatment also preventing impairment of children’s health or development. This ensuring that children are growing up in circumstances consistent with the provision of safe and effective care. Taking action to enable all children and young people to have the best outcomes.

We also need to consider the child's perspective if they ask us for our opinion or advice. Children are much more likely to listen to our opinion or advice if we can put it in a way that means something to them. For

Childhood studies is a subject area surrounding the study of children’s lives through many different concepts or ideas with many different features. It is related to many different fields such as law, history, sociology, health, anthropology and much more as Martin Woodhead (Open University) said “It uses multiple methods rather than just singular methods” and is “inter-disciplinary” Childhood studies expresses and tries to understand the many different parts of a child’s life and the different issues surrounding childhood, therefore it has many different features.

Department for Education (DfE), (2003a), ‘Every child matters’, [online] Available at webarchives.nationalarchives.gov.uk (Accessed 17 February 2014)