The State of the Children: 2004 Prince Albert and Area

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The State of the Children 2004Prince Albert
and Area

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• Understanding the Early Years
• Linda L. Nosbush
• Community Research Coordinator

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The Distant Early Warning SystemThe Early
Development Instrument

• Indicates how well development has proceeded in
  the first six years of life in five domains
• Physical Health and Well-Being
• Social Competence
• Emotional Maturity
• Language and Cognitive Development
• Communication Skills and General Knowledge
• Available at the community and neighbourhood
  level
• Two types of Analysis
• Prospective Analysis These are our children,
  how can we support their future development?
• Helps to construct support systems for the
  present age cohort
• Retrospective Analysis How can we change things
  so that future age cohorts develop more
  positively?
• Helps to change the playing field for all
  subsequent age cohorts

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Community Influences on Child Development
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Prince Alberts Social Index Challenges Faced
By Neighbourhoods
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Childrens Readiness to Learn at School 2004
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How Are the Children Doing?Readiness to Learn
Results
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How Many Children Lack Readiness to Learn?
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Physical Health and Well-Being(145 children with
one or more of the factors)
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Physical Health and Well-BeingGross and Fine
Motor Skills Subscale

• Fine and Gross Motor Skills
• Overall Energy Levels
• Physical Skills
• This suggests that children will
• Be less well coordinated
• Lack agility
• Will find writing and the other fine motor
  requirements of school difficult
• Have reduced energy levels
• Find most physical tasks taxing
• Will likely be more accident prone
• across the life span unless
• their skill improves

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Social Competence(169 with one or more of the
factors)
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Social CompetenceOverall Social Competence
Subscale

• Social Skills
• Self-confidence
• Ability to play with children
• Capacity to interact cooperatively
• This suggests that children will have difficulty
• Interacting with both children and adults in both
  play and work situations
• Difficulty negotiating social situations because
  they lack both the social skill and the confidence

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Emotional Maturity(160 children with one or more
of the factors)
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Emotional MaturityProsocial Helping Behaviour

• Almost never show any of the helping behaviours
• Do not help someone who is hurt, sick or upset
• Do not spontaneously offer to help
• Do not invite bystanders to join in
• Children will experience difficulty because
• They lack empathy for the other
• They are not viewed as recognizing
• or being supportive
• of the groups needs

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Emotional MaturityAggressive Behaviour Subscale

• Demonstrate aggressive behaviours
• Get into physical fights
• Kick or bit others
• Take other peoples things
• Are disobedient
• Have temper tantrums
• When children are aggressive others
• Fear them and avoid them
• Do not readily seek them out and include them in
  groups

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Emotional MaturityHyperactivity Inattention

• Demonstrate most of the hyperactive behaviours
• Restless
• Distractible
• Impulsive
• Fidget
• Experience difficulty
• settling into activities
• These children experience difficulty sustaining
  their focus and frequently act first and think
  later.

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Language Cognitive Development(180 children
with one or more of the factors)
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Language Cognitive DevelopmentLiteracy and
Numeracy Skills

• Children in this area demonstrated marked
  difficulties in all subscales indicating
• Lack of basic literacy skills including rhyming,
  directionality, writing their own name and other
  simple words, letter recognition, and
  sound-symbol knowledge
• Lacking interest in books, reading, number games
  as well as difficulty remembering things
• Children who lack counting ability, shapes, time
  concepts, and numbers
• These children will experience difficulty with
  academic tasks requiring literacy and numeracy
  skills as well as those that require memory skills

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Communication Skills General Knowledge(161
children)
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Communication Skills General Knowledge

• There was only a general factor for this scale
  and it demonstrated that children in this area
  have difficulty with
• Communication skills
• Language activities
• Understanding as well as being understood by
  others
• General knowledge and mastery of their first
  language

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Readiness to Learn Factors2004(Age cohort of
642 Kindergarten Children)
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What do these results suggest as a Distant Early
Warning System?

• At a systemic level it strongly suggests that the
  root cause lies in attachment. The developmental
  literature suggests that when children have safe,
  secure attachments with their primary caregivers
  that are positive, enduring, and reciprocal they
  have a base of trust and security from which they
  can reach out and explore their world. When they
  are able to do this they develop
• Gross and fine motor skills,
• Prosocial skills,
• Empathy,
• Ability to focus their attention
• Cognitive skills
• General Knowledge
• Communication skills

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Understanding the Early Years Community Survey
National Longitudinal Survey of Children and
Youth

• Positive Parenting
• Parental Engagement
• Family Functioning
• Maternal Mental Health
• Social Support
• Social Capital
• Neighbourhood Quality
• Neighbourhood Safety
• Use of Resources
• Residential Stability

Factors that Influence Childrens Development
Prince Albert and Area Scored at or above the
National Average
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Building Blocks for Community Asset
BuildingJohn McKnight 2004

• Local Residents committed to community,
  capacity to come together around common issues
  conviction that if individuals are looked after
  the community will be strong
• Associations groups of local residents who come
  together to do work for which they are not paid
• Institutions groups of people who come together
  for work for which they are paid
• Environment buildings, space, land, and the
  social environment
• Economy a process for exchanging good and
  services

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Associations

• Circular organization because they come together
  by choice
• Cannot be replaced by Institutions
• Decisions by consensus
• Goal is to provide a site of care
• Capacity to mobilize gifts within a community
• Principle agents of support and problem-solving
• Create citizens who are the most powerful ones
  in a democracy
• Three types
• Formal Associations Have officers that are
  elected, e.g., Big Brothers and Big Sisters
• Less Formal Associations Solve problems,
  celebrate and enjoy their social compact, site
  for critical dialogue and decision making, e.g.,
  block of neighbours, a cooking or poker club
• Associational Activity that occurs as an
  Enterprise or Business People gather for
  interaction as well as transaction, e.g., grocery
  store, beauty parlor, barber shop, hardware store

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Individual Asset BuildingSearch Institute,
Minneapolis

• Forty scientifically based experiences,
  relationship, opportunities, skills and character
  traits that form a foundation for healthy
  development that unleash public commitment,
  passion, and capacity (Search Institute)
• External Assets are nurtured by the community and
  received by children from the people and
  institutions in their lives
• Support
• Empowerment
• Boundaries and Expectations
• Constructive Use of Time
• Internal Assets also require the commitment of
  the community but constitute the internal
  qualities that guide positive choices and foster
  a sense of confidence, passion and purpose
• Commitment to Learning
• Positive Values
• Social Competencies
• Positive Identity

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More Assets Increase Positive Outcomes
Fewer Assets Increase Negative Outcomes
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Four Targets for Asset-Building Communities

• Vertical Accumulation Ensures that young people
  experience an increasing number of assets in
  their lives
• Horizontal Accumulation Ensures that young
  people experience these resources or assets in
  multiple contexts so theyre reinforced
• Chronological Accumulation Asset-building
  experiences are renewed and reinforced across
  time
• Developmental Breadth Ensures the reach of
  asset-building energy reaches all children, not
  just those at risk
• The assets (external and internal) can function
  as a powerful blueprint for nurturing positive
  development

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Adults are Called to Action
Stuart and Bostrom, 2003            A
Adversity provides a catalyst for a childs
character growth and is essential to success T
A Trusting Relationship with a caring adult
helps a child interpret adversity and develop
promise character

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Physical Environment
Social Environment

• Societal relationships and influences
• Health Care
• Leisure
• Family, friends, community
• Work
• Childhood experiences environments

• Natural Environment
• Built Environment

Wellness

• Individual behaviours
• Spiritual well-being
• Genetic biological characteristics
• Coping skills
• Values

The Individual
Saskatchewan Provincial Health Council Determinan
ts of Health 1996
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CIRCLE OF COURAGE
Generosity
Belonging
Independence
Mastery
Brendtro, Brokenleg VanBockern
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We Live, Love, Learn and Discover our
Human-Being In the Shelter of Each Other

• Action has meaning only in relationship and
  without understanding relationship action on any
  level will only breed conflict (Krishnamurti).
• So often we focus on what we should do instead
  we need to focus on what we should be for our
  children (Neufeld Maté)
• Relationship is a two-way connection for it to
  facilitate development it must be
• Positive
• Enduring
• Reciprocal

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Childrens Developmental Destiny

• Self-regulated
• Self-motivated
• Mature
• Conscious of their own self-worth
• Mindful of feelings,rights, dignity of others
• However, only the attachment relationship can
  provide the proper context for child rearing.
  The secret of parenting is not what the parent
  does for the child but who the parent is for the
  child. When this is firmly established, the
  attachment relationship functions like the
  psychological umbilical cord and becomes the
  secure base from which the child develops trust,
  defines and integrates who they are, and ventures
  forth in the world and learns to function in it
  socially, emotionally, physically and cognitively.

Based on Neufeld Maté, 2004
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Weve Come Undone

• In periods of rapid change, groups must
  reconstitute who they are and how they function
  but it takes 100 years to create a working
  culture
• The type of society that supports the
  developmental needs of young human beings is
  vanishing. The cause is not individual parental
  failure but an unprecedented cultural breakdown
  for which our instincts cannot adequately
  compensate. Children need stability, presence,
  attention, advice, good psychic food, and
  unpolluted stories (Bly).

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How does this Happen and Why?

• Mobility interrupts cultural continuity
  incessant transplanting results in
• Children growing up peer rich and adult poor
• Loss of Extended Family who provide unconditional
  acceptance
• The Nuclear Family is under extreme pressure
• Divorce Rates
• Competing Attachments
• Secularization of Society spiritual communities
  provide an important supporting cast for parents
  and an attachment village for children which grow
  out of secure, primary attachments
• Recreation and many other activities for peer
  group thereby distancing intergenerational
  contact and support
• Immigration
• Powerful economic dynamics
• Two parents working
• Loss of the family meal
• Culture is eroded in its capacity to
• Evolve customs and rituals that serve attachment
  needs
• Games are an instrument of culture

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What is the Effect?

• Attachment Voids are created situations where
  the childs natural attachments are missing, and
  they are dangerous precisely because they are so
  indiscriminate
• Children hunger for relief from attachment void.
  Attachment instinct is blind to such factors as
• Dependability,
• Responsibility,
• Security,
• Maturity, and
• Nurturance.
• The likelihood of an attachment becoming an
  affair is much greater when it is born of a
  void instead of an existing attachment.
• Peer attachments are safest when they are the
  natural offspring of attachments with parents.
  Frequently, they are born of disconnection rather
  than connection. Then, attachment
  incompatibility results and the child must choose
  one or the other
• If we do not recognize what binds us together, we
  cannot understand what tears us asunder.

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Attachment

• The pursuit and preservation of proximity, of
  closeness and connection biologically,
  physically, behaviorally, emotionally and
  psychologically.
• Orchestrates the instincts of the parent as well
  as the child.
• When our attachments are out of order, our
  instincts will be too
• For parents to apply this knowledge properly,
  they must become conscious from within. The two
  ways of knowing
• Knowing About
• Experiencing Intimately
• must come together

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Orienting

• The Orienting Instinct is basic and it involves
  locating oneself in space and time. The need is
  both physical and psychological and involves
  having a sense of who we are, what is real, why
  things happen, what is good, what things mean.
  To fail to orient is to suffer disorientation.
• To find nothing, or no one to orient by, is
  absolutely intolerable to the human brain. We
  become like lost souls, cut adrift, wandering
  aimlessly.
• The attachment figure operates as a compass
  point, an orienting focal point.

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When Peers Become the Compass

• They dictate
• How to act
• What to wear
• How to look
• What to say
• What to do
• Arbiters of what is good and what is bad
• What is happening
• How to separate reality from fantasy
• What is important
• What works and what doesnt work
• How the child defines who he or she is
• Because the child is not yet capable of
  self-orienting

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Six Ways of Attaching

• Senses physical proximity
• Sameness attempting to form the same type of
  existence or expression by imitation and
  emulation
• Belonging and Loyalty to claim as ones own and
  then to be faithful and obedient to those one is
  attached to
• Significance feel that you matter to somebody
  please and want to win approval
• Feeling pursuit of emotional intimacy
• Being Known a psychological closeness defining
  by the secrets that are shared sharing deepest
  concerns and insecurities about self

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What Happens When There is an Attachment Void?

• Vulnerability to Gangs
• Violence and aggression
• Bullying
• Suicide
• Adolescents failing to mature
• Desensitizing
• Insolence and Defiance increasing
• Substance Abuse
• Addictions to a range of things like video games,
  internet
• Poor prosocial skills
• Horizontal rather than Vertical transmission of
  Culture Peers replacing parents
• ALIENATION

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• MISSION Our community dedicated to working
  together to eliminate injuries
• GOAL Intentional and Unintentional Injury
  Prevention
• Top Three Causes of Unintentional Injuries in SK
  and Prince Albert
• Falls
• Motor Vehicle Collisions
• First Nations Injury Prevention
• Workplace Injuries
• Intentional Injuries

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Signs of Hope and Positive Directionin Prince
Albert

• SchoolPLUS
• Food Charter and work with Food Security
• Crime Reduction Strategy
• Population Health Strategy
• Substance Abuse
• Food Security
• Mental Health
• Active Community
• Human Services Integration Forum
• Complex Case Needs Management Protocol

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Signs of Hope and Positive Directionin Prince
Albert

• The continued work of the multisectoral and
  multidisciplinary Regional Intersectoral
  Committee whose function is to address complex
  issues that require the expertise and resources
  of more than one sector
• SAFE Community
• Collaboration between and among government
  sectors, community-based organizations and the
  Civic Government to build a brighter future for
  all our citizens
• Prince Albert Integrated Human Services Practicum

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College of Pharmacy

• Working to Establish..
• A holistic approach to health care
• Challenging boundaries within the health care
  sector with the primary purpose of improving
  health for all
• Advocate for multidisciplinary/interdisciplinary
  approaches to health problems
• Become part of a Community Development Program
• Encouraged to participate with community
  programs where student nurses would typically not
  be sent
• Develop a new understanding of primary health
  care and the determinants of health

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Signs of Hope and Positive Directionin Prince
Albert and Area

• Citys Strategic Planning Changing the Way We
  do Business ( Alignment of Assets Strategic
  Alliances) Economic Development (Downtown
  Revitalization) Social Issues (Social Policy
  Coordination Allocation of Resources Based on
  Community Needs), Riverbank, Safety
• Citys After School and Playground Programs
• Forestry Centre and Mall Development will
  stimulate economy
• Prince Albert Police Services Foot Patrol as
  well as placement of an Officer at Carlton
  Comprehensive High School
• Food Charter and work with Food Security
• Development of a Crime Reduction Strategy
• Reorganization at City Hall
• Population Health Strategy
• Substance Abuse, Food Security,
• Mental Health, Active Community

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Signs of Hope and Positive Directionin Prince
Albert and Area

• Citys Strategic Planning Changing the Way We
  do Business ( Alignment of Assets Strategic
  Alliances) Economic Development (Downtown
  Revitalization) Social Issues (Social Policy
  Coordination Allocation of Resources Based on
  Community Needs), Riverbank, Safety
• Citys After School and Playground Programs
• Forestry Centre and Mall Development will
  stimulate economy
• Prince Albert Police Services Foot Patrol as
  well as placement of an Officer at Carlton
  Comprehensive High School
• Food Charter and work with Food Security
• Development of a Crime Reduction Strategy
• Reorganization at City Hall

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Signs of Hope and Positive Directionin Prince
Albert and Area

• The continued work of the multisectoral and
  multidisciplinary Regional Intersectoral
  Committee whose function is to address complex
  issues that require the expertise and resources
  of more than one sector
• Formation of The Dirty Dozen to address the
  issue that most compromises the developmental
  health and well-being of the areas children and
  youth
• Media Awareness on Substance Abuse
• Prince Albert Integrated Human Services
  Practicum
• Work toward helping Prince Albert become a SAFE
  Community
• Collaboration between and among government
  sectors, community-based organizations and the
  Civic Government to build a brighter future for
  all our citizens

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Five Pillars of Culture that provide
stabilization because they are crucial to a
cultures capacity to transform itself

• Community and Family
• Higher Education
• Effective practice of Science and science-based
  Technology
• Taxes and Governmental powers directly in touch
  with needs and possibilities
• Self-policing by the learned professions

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The Collaborative Synergy
Dialogue
Groups/Sectors
Individuals
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The Transactional Synergy
Process
Product
Transaction
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The Star of Hope, Resilience, Growth, and
Transformation
Dialogue
Process
Product
Transformation Resilience Hope
Change, Growth, Development Courage
Groups/Sectors
Individuals
Transaction
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The Virtuous Circle
Prosperous Society
Social Stability
Innovation and Competitive Workforce
Resources to Fund Programs that Foster Healthy
Child Development
Healthy Children and Adolescents
Healthy Child Development
Doherty Offord
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By looking after our children and keeping them
healthy and safe we are ensuring a brighter
future for ourselves.
- Constable Gwen Kennedy, Prince Albert Police
Service
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Silos need to be replaced by bridges between
community, stakeholders and individuals in order
to move toward collective understanding and
ownership of issues. For, alone we go fast and
together we go far! - Dale McFee, Chief of
Prince Albert Police Service
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I challenge you to look into the eyes of our
children and tell yourself that child abuse is
someone elses problem. - Sergeant Gordon
Beuckert, Prince Albert Police Service
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The Path of Life Unwinding
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Every Life Has Stormy Weather
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But There is Always Hope
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Our Children Trust Us to Build A Future Worth
Living
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They Have Hope in Us
As
We Have Hope in Them
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They Live On the Edge of Possibility
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Will We Help Them Sow Solid Dreams for the
Future?
Dreams that Help Them Realize Their Promise
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Together We Can Plant Hope!
Alone we go fast, Together we go far.
We can build a future that
Will shine for eternity!
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Children are 30 of our population but 100 of
our future..  - Inspector Troy CooperPrince
Albert Police Service
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How will Prince Albert grow its future? The
choice is.ours!
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We live, love, learn, and develop our human-being
in the shelter of each other.
Can we each go forth to make Prince Albert a
place where all can, not only survive, but thrive?
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A human life is a work of art than can reach
eternity. Each life has the ability to touch
other lives, which in turn touch yet more lives.
And so, person by person, generation by
generation, a world and a future are shaped
(Kinkade, 1999, p. 232-233).