Children are a sensitive lot who require utmost care and observation to ensure they get to mature appropriately. Their cognitive, emotional, physical, and social development relies on a pleasant environment that facilitates maturity from simple to complex understandings. Foster children face challenges to proper development, given their afflictions that require an assessment through the development theories.
A people of interest that I chose for the Human Service career that I pursue are the foster children given their afflictions and space they occupy in the system. Children are the leaders of tomorrow, an ideology that informs how essential they are for the nation. The composition of a child is interesting as they offer adults multiple lessons to learn from and challenges. Foster children are a unique lot who face tons of tribulations given their afflictions from neglect bearing physical and mental abuse. Some bear the effects of parental drug abuse or behavioral problems coupled with the abandonment that places them up for foster care. They require intensive service needs to restore health parity, given they are prone to chronic, physical, or emotional development difficulties, which is from cumulative effects regarding adverse life events. I love the challenge they pose, which resonates with the Human Service career that I pursue that seeks to address such conditions threatening one’s wellbeing.
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Developmental Milestones of Target Population Supported by Research
The research on the foster children seeks to establish the potential adversities young ones face physical and emotional development. It is noteworthy that the Human Service career seeks to meet the goal of addressing human needs using interdisciplinary knowledge. It focuses on methods of prevention and remediation of concerns showing a commitment to making improvements on the overall quality of life. For this research, the focus is on young ones between the age of 3 to 7 years seeking means to improve service delivery systems by addressing their physical and social needs. It seeks to offer a blueprint for accessibility and accountability in service delivery for the young foster children whose traumatic experiences bear the probability of destroying ideal growth and development (Palmer et al., 2017). The children are susceptible to environmental hardships, given their lack of a thick skin to the external hardships they face. They inform a group who may bear the scars of their past, thereby hurting proper physical and emotional growth (Palmer et al., 2017).
Apart from the high chances of destructive physical and emotional development, the research seeks to address the cognitive and social aspects of growth. The target population draws substantial influence from their external environment that fortifies their character development (Oshri et al., 2017). It is noteworthy that their growth draws influence from observation, which depicts fortifying various elements through repetition and discouraging others subject to punishment (Chakrabarti et al., 2019). The research seeks to establish the development milestones for the young ones between 3 to 7 years detailing fortifying their previous lessons in previous growth and development seeking independence. They encompass an age group that requires association with peers to develop socially. It is fete that faces a challenge given the traumatizing effects of neglect that makes the foster children lack trust. They understand their environment as a platform of harsh realities, which hurts their cognitive development. It shows the challenges they face in that require addressing to restore healthy relations making a foundation to conduct an analysis.
Case Study
During the time with the foster children, I came to observe the conditions of the home, getting to witness the challenges they face and systems put in place to improve their lives. On the first day of the visit, I had a sit-down with the head of the establishment to have a gist regarding the area. He would proceed to inform on the role they play as an organization offering foster care to young ones who are victims of physical abuse or abandonment from parental drug abuse. The head would transcend to reaffirm their role as parents with a dedicated workforce targeting to make the lives of the young ones as comfortable as possible. He depicted their efforts of issuing the young ones’ therapy to address their traumatic experiences with the help and support of relevant medical agencies. From our interactions, I came to establish that they receive financial support from donors.
After getting acquitted with the operations of the organization, I came across one girl called Melissa during rounds at the firm. I noticed Melissa from afar, given she seemed out of place in a group of playing children given she would frequently stare at the space in a daydreaming posture. She seemed jovial during some periods then get lost in thoughts, drawing her down to tears. I felt an urge to have a one-on-one session with Melissa. I would, therefore, proceed to ask the head about Melissa, where he disclosed Melissa as one of the exceptional cases at home. She came to the establishment at around three years after her parents abandoned her, given their affliction to drug abuse. I took the time to observe her behavior and spent ample time with her, whereby I discovered she is six years of age. She depicts a fear to peers and grownups alike as it takes her time to develop trust.
Theoretical Analysis of Case Study
Development theories present a systematic methodology of making meaning of the growth of human beings such as Melissa. They offer an understanding of how people grow from babies to toddlers proceeding to adolescents and, finally, adulthood with a depiction of the various changes during the transition from one stage to the next. Indeed, Melissa represents the infancy stage of development that accords young ones to gradual growth that details a move from comprehending simple subjects to complex aspects. It is a progress that draws a child to get a grasp of self and the environment over time. It is a transformation that happens in stages, moving forward to emerging complex understandings that continues to occur throughout the lifespan of an individual (Demetriou et al., 2018). It explains Melissa’s attempts to make meaning of her surroundings, which bears hitches drawing her to daydreaming. She has a particular case given the environment she resides in and afflictions that make progress to startle owing to overcoming developmental milestones.
Melissa presents interruption of sensitive periods in her development, making her growth progress to have hitches given non-achievement of various milestones. She is a child, therefore, entailed developmental milestones events such as learning to have object permanence. It is a stage that may have faced interruption from the afflictions of parental drug abuse, destroying the regular development progress. It explains her fear of placing her trust in peers and adults that may improve her cognitive, emotional, and social development. Her challenges warrant slow growth as the delay to emotional maturity occurring due to her adverse affliction. The progress requires much attention through therapeutic procedures as one cannot force the transition through development stages, which occurs at its pace (Demetriou et al., 2018). Melissa’s case requires correction of the developmental delays to minimize the cumulative damage it may cause to her maturing process.
Developmental theory suggests overcoming various milestones to progress from simple to sophisticated understanding. Working with foster children depicts challenges to ideal growth and development, given the traumatic effects of abandonment, among other afflictions. Melissa, who falls between three to seven years, presents a case of delays subjecting her to daydreaming and mistrust. She requires an address through sufficient therapy to mitigate the challenges she faces to proper growth and development.
References
Chakrabarti, S., Raghunathan, K., Alderman, H., Menon, P., & Nguyen, P. (2019). India's integrated child development services programme; equity and extent of coverage in 2006 and 2016. World Health Organization.Bulletin of the World Health Organization, 97 (4), 270-282.
Demetriou, A., Makris, N., Spanoudis, G., Kazi, S., Shayer, M., & Kazali, E. (2018). Mapping the dimensions of general intelligence: An integrated differential-developmental theory. Human Development , 61 (1), 4-42.
Oshri, A., Carlson, M. W., Kwon, J. A., Zeichner, A., Wickrama, K. K., A., & S. (2017). Developmental growth trajectories of self-esteem in adolescence: Associations with child neglect and drug use and abuse in young adulthood. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 46 (1), 151-164.
Palmer, M., Marton, J., Yelowitz, A., & Talbert, J. (2017). Medicaid managed care and the health care utilization of foster children: The journal of health care organization, provision, and financing the journal of health care organization, provision, and financing. Inquiry, 54
