When I Think of Child Development...

Then I wish all of these quotes could come true for our children:

I have also seen children successfully surmounting the effects of an evil inheritance. That is due to purity being an inherent attribute of the soul- Mahatma Gandhi.

Children must be taught how to think, not what to think- Margaret Mead.

I would be most content if my children grew up to be the kind of people who think decorating consists mostly of building enough book shelves- Anna Quindlen.

Children are made readers on the laps of their parents- Emilie Buchwald.

Nothing you do for children are ever wasted- Garrison Keiller.

It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men- Fredrick Douglass.

There can be no keener revelation of a society's soul than the way in which it treats its children- Nelson Mandela.

Those who educate children well are more to be honoured than they who produce them; for these only gave them life, those the art of living well- Aristotle.

Intelligence Test

In my opinion, since human is made of three main parts, body, soul and spirit, then children should be assessed on these three areas to determine their wholesome development. For the body, physical activities like sports, dancing, personal hygiene etc. would be part of the assessing package. The soul could be assessed with cognitive activities like reading, school/academic work-maths, English, music, literature;  and the development of the spirit could be tested by some sort of religious activities like meditation, religious studies, etc. Sounds a bit awkward here, I guess

In Malaysia, school age children are tested by  written exams which whether passed or not leads to promotion to the next class. By age 7, children should be in primary school and it lasts for 6yrs. Between 1996-2000, the Level One Evaluation (Penitaian Tahap Satu) was administered to year 3 students which when passed, will lead to a double promotion from year3 to 5 but was stopped because parents were putting undue pressure on their children to pass this exam. To move on to secondary school, the Primary School Achievement Test (Ujan Pencapaian Sekolah Renda) must be written.   The subjects tested are Malay comprehension, written Malay, English, Science and Mathematics. In addition to the five subjects, Chinese comprehension and written Chinese are compulsory in Chinese schools, while Tamil comprehension and written Tamil are compulsory in Tamil schools. Aptitude tests are also written and then multiple choice is tested using optical answer paper sheet which is also marked by an optical machine.

 It's quiet unfortunate that most countries and schools test children mainly on academic achievement. I believe talents and natural abilities should be nurtured. Adding education to any talent one has will go a long way in making a big difference. But it seems most people go for one and not both. Most people who are making good use of their talents have little or no education and most people who have good academic degrees have swept their talents under the carpet and are just pursuing career.

Source
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_in_Malaysia

Consequences of Stress on Children Development

Noise is a common stressor in most African countries. I know of someone who grew up in a noisy part of Nigeria. She got accustomed to all manner of noise like horn blasts, children screaming and shouting while playing, noise of old cars and lorries, noise of heavy duty machines, very loud music of neighbours, etc. To this effect, she finds it difficult to sleep in a quiet or peaceful environment and may have to play some music while she sleeps. Reading without a music playing for is her is almost impossible as she said she does not enjoy silence. For me, I think it might be difficult for her to meditate or concentrate as these skills are needed for cognitive development. I feel this would have affected her ears too as she hardly hears low tone conversation and shouts while making phone calls. She probably might end up being a shouting parent in my opinion.

As I thought of a country to study about, South African Apartheid came to my mind and I am glad I did a research on it. I used to believe that apartheid has been completely eradicated in South Africa, but to my utmost surprise, I read that it still exists. South Africa has in existence more than one stressor like racism, violence, disease, hunger and poverty. South Africa has been called one of the most psychologically ill societies in the world because of the following reasons: high rates of family violence
It's among the  highest divorced rate countries in the world
Fifth highest in the world coronary disease
Has a high rate of motor accident
Experience traumas linked to political unrest .
South Africans (Blacks) still face racism daily as it is reported that a black child is 18times more likely to grow up poor than his/her white counterpart. About 60% of children survive on 575rand($67 or 51euros); or around 2/3 of black children that are 18yrs and only 2% of white children--this is incredible! Ironically, out of 10million children, 8million are blacks.
All these of course affect their development. They have a high rate of disease amongst the children and malnutrition is common in the rural areas. 1/3 of under 14 are stunted and under weight. Some schools for the blacks lack cognitive tools to teach hence they are mentally retarded.

Sources:
AFP, 2012,Oct 17. South African Children still face apartheid- like inequality. Retrieved from
 http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5i2lY455I6yN3_HCfTOk4mONdAe9A?docId=CNG.c87c030182d8aa078508c64fcad776ba.3b1

Hickson & Kriegler (1991, June). The effects of apartheid on the mental health of South African Children. International Journal for the advancement of counselling Retrieved from http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2FBF00117733