Childhood and Youth - OU Community Online

The series sponsored by the Netherlands-based Bernard van Leer Foundation features contributions drawn internationally from renowned experts in the field.

The two most recently published volumes cover developmental neuroscience, and health and children’s environments.

The language of neuroscience is increasingly being used to support assertions about the effects of early experiences on children’s development. The ‘Developing Brains’ ECiF volume gives an overview of the most significant areas of research, starting in the first section with sufficient basic explanation of the brain and how it functions for the research to be understood by people with little or no previous knowledge of the field. The second section gives an overview of the developmental processes involved as the child’s brain grows and matures in constant interaction with the environment, from conception through to adulthood. The third section focuses on the powerful effects of early environments, both physical and social.

Textbooks typically give much less attention to the physical environment in which children grow up than to their social environment, yet the physical environment is intimately linked to the process of growth and development of skills and identity. The most recent publication in the ECiF series, ‘Healthy Environments’, covers key global challenges in providing healthy physical environments and the opportunities and challenges of living in urban environments. It reviews a range of spaces designed specifically for young children, including innovative ‘democratic spaces’, and ‘child-friendly spaces’ in areas affected by disasters and emergencies.

Free copies of the eight volumes published so far can be downloaded from the Bernard van Leer website:

 

The OU and BBC have been co-producing the series for more than 10 years and will be interviewing him later this month. So this is your chance to put a question to him.

Please comment beneath this article (you'll need to log in with your OU username and password, or create a guest account to do so), or comment using the Facebook feature below, stating your proposed question. Questions need to be submitted by Tuesday 18 September.

A selection of them will then be passed on during an interview with Robert Winston and the interview will be published on Platform later this year.

Traditionally, disabled children in these countries have been excluded from mainstream school and social activities, and old attitudes still persist despite official support for more inclusive policies.

Professor Monica Dowling and Dr Majda Bećirević, of the OU's faculty of Health and Social Care, used participative qualitative methodology to examine the attitudes of parents of disabled children in both countries to their treatment by the medical, educational, social service and benefit systems.

While there were examples of good practice, parents reported many negative experiences. One mother described being reduced to tears after she was told by a doctor "we used to let children like this die". 

The research culminated in workshops (see picture), in Sarajevo and Zagreb, bringing together parents with policy makers and professionals to make recommendations for improvements to the system. 

The researchers conclude: "In essence, to better support families with children with disabilities, government organisations do not necessarily need to make major revisions in policies or increase in costing. Efforts need to be directed towards improvements in policy implementation and service delivery."

Parent activism and parents' groups are also playing an important role in changing the system, they say.

Their report adds that "participatory research is a good way for parents to identify and document their concerns and put forward suggestions for change".

It quotes a mother in Croatia who commented: "They will better listen to us if we have a scientific approach, if we come out with data and analysis. In that case we can say it is not only the needs of my child, but this is what many of us parents want.’

More information 

The study: Parents' participation in the social inclusion of children with disabilities in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia will be published by the Open Society Foundation.

You can read an abstract and request a copy of the study (available in English, Croat and Bosnian) from the authors on Open Research Online here.