Child Welfare League of America

Internet Research

Factors that Influence Social-Emotional Development of Children

Annie E. Casey Foundation / Children’s Defense Fund / Child Welfare League of America

Steven L Douglas

Psychology 331

Professor McCauley-Tokach

Due: February 9, 2011

I found it easier to research using Bing versus Google. The first thing that popped up when searching out this phrase presented this wonderful picture that I placed on the cover of this assignment. The photograph encapsulates the wonderment of educating children. The three girls embody curiosity, awe and happiness so perfectly in their facial expressions. Of course you do have to ask why two of the girls are facing in one direction and the other somewhere else. The website is for the California Childcare Health Program (CCHP). The CCHP defines Social-Emotional Development as “family/community, parenting and child care”. The site states that these, and other factors, can serve as positive or negative influences on children’s development, which they believe are most critical in the first 5 years. [1]

Annie E. Casey Foundation[2]

Our two-generation approach seeks to change the future

for large numbers of at-risk kids by finding ways

to help their parents succeed in the present.

In the first class you told us that the school is a child’s second home and that many children do not receive the proper nurturing needed at home either because they only have one parent, parents are at work most of the day leaving children in daycare programs, children have no parents and live either in orphanages, homes for children and in the most unfortunate cases are homeless. The first thing I learned from this Foundation is their message that the family must be strong in order to raise the child. They tell that most programs created and funded by the community are to booster children’s development but neglect to focus on the family so that the only education remains outside of the home.

One of the ways The Foundation works to improve life for at-risk kids and to strengthen their families is through special programs they fund around the country. They also fund a statistical research program called Kids Count to best understand the up to date situation with the welfare of our nation’s children. According to their current website, although West Virginia has an office monitoring statistics for the Kids Count Data Book, no other direct programs are currently funded by The Foundation in the State.

The Data Book is designed around 10 indicators that evaluate where a State is ranked. These indicators include[3]:

Children’s Defense Fund[4]

Of all the information made available on this website I dug deep to find the following statistics I think are important to note in this paper since it applies directly to West Virginia and early child development [5]. After reviewing these statistics (January 2011) it reminds me that to be involved with the early childhood development is not enough just to participate. With these staggering numbers it is clearly evident that School Counseling is of such vital importance.

386,449 children live in West Virginia:

844 are American Indian/Alaska Native

2,829 are Asian/Pacific Islander

7,724 are Hispanic

8,813 are two or more races

19,283 are Black

347,750 are White, non-Hispanic

In West Virginia:

A child is abused or neglected every 2 hours.

A child dies before his or her first birthday every 2 days.

A child or teen is killed by gunfire every 37 days.

Early Childhood Development in West Virginia

Percent of children under age 6 with all parents in the labor force 57.1%

Number of children served by Head Start 8,767

Number of children served by the Child Care Development Fund/CCDBG 7,000

Average annual cost of child care for a four-year-old in a center $4,560

Percent of 3-year-olds enrolled in state pre-k, Head Start, or special education programs 19.5%

Percent of 4-year-olds enrolled in state pre-k, Head Start, or special education programs 73.3%

Education in West Virginia

Annual expenditure per prisoner $35,725

Annual expenditure per public school pupil $9,440

Percent of public school fourth graders:

Unable to read at grade level 74%

Unable to do math at grade level 72%

Percent of public school eighth graders:

Unable to read at grade level 78%

Unable to do math at grade level 81%

Number of high school students who drop out of school annually 8,539

Child Welfare in West Virginia

Number of children who are victims of abuse and neglect 5,473

Number of children in foster care 4,237

Number of children adopted from foster care 541

Number of grandparents raising grandchildren 19,310

Youth at Risk in West Virginia

Percent of 16- to 19-year-olds not enrolled in schools that are not high school graduates 8.8%

Averaged freshman high school graduation rate 77.3%

Percent of 16- to 19-year-olds unemployed 22.8%

Number of juvenile arrests 2,244

Number of children and teens in juvenile residential facilities 570

Ratio of cost per prisoner to cost per public school pupil 3.8

Number of children and teens killed by firearms: 10

3 homicides; 4 suicides; 2 accidents; and 1 undetermined

Child Welfare League of America[6]

Our focus is children and youth who may have experienced abuse, neglect,

family disruption, or a range of other factors that jeopardize their safety,

permanence, or well-being. CWLA also focuses on the families, caregivers,

and the communities that care for and support these children.

In addition to the public relations, political lobbying, and direct work done by the Child Welfare League of America (CWLA) they are also the publishers of a magazine called Children’s Voice which covers topical issues relative to the plights of America’s at-risk children and reports on programs around the country that are working to help these children along with strengthening families and organizations that support and take care of them. One article I found while researching on West Virginia was an interesting fact about grandparents raising their grandchildren[7]. I thought of this after hearing what is happening in the Frederick County School system in Virginia, a close neighbor of West Virginia. According to the 2010 Advocacy State Fact Sheets, “In 2008, approximately 19,841 West Virginia grandparents had primary responsibility caring for their grandchildren.”[8]

[1] http://www.ucsfchildcarehealth.org/pdfs/Curricula/CCHA/15_CCHA_SocialEmotional_0406_v2.pdf

[2] http://www.aecf.org/MajorInitiatives/KIDSCOUNT.aspx

[3] http://datacenter.kidscount.org/data/acrossstates/Default.aspx

[4] http://www.childrensdefense.org/

[5] http://www.childrensdefense.org/child-research-data-publications/data/state-data-repository/cits/2011/children-in-the-states-2011-west-virginia.pdf

[6] http://cwla.org/

[7] http://www.cwla.org/advocacy/statefactsheets/2010/westvirginia.pdf

[8] U.S. Census Bureau. (2009). 2008 American Community Survey, Data Profile. Selected Social Characteristics in the United States: 2008. Retrieved October 7, 2009, from http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/ADPGeoSearchByListServlet?ds_name=ACS_2008_1YR_G00_&state=adp&qr_name=ACS_2008_1YR_G00_DP2&_lang=en&_ts=272978192013. Washington, DC: Author.

Six Core Strengths for Healthy Development: Child Development (thecommunicatorwv.wordpress.com) Twenty Years of Beating the Odds (uspoverty.change.org) Despite Warning, Babies Still Get Cough Medicine (children.webmd.com) You: Families face cuts in budget proposals (menafn.com) Marian Wright Edelman: “Held Captive:” Child Poverty in America (huffingtonpost.com)