Promoting Children’s Quality of Life


 


 


Introduction


 


            Children are considered to be one of the most vulnerable members of our society. Indeed, children themselves are powerless and have little control over their respective lives. What constitutes a good quality of life for children is something that must be understood through knowing the conditions required to achieve it. Quality of life refers to how one understands ‘childhood’ and responds to children based on their perceptions of their position in life in relation to their goals, expectations, standards and concerns within the surroundings of their culture and value systems. The quality of life of children should be looked at within the three categories: children’s physical development, children’s developing concepts of quality of life and children’s cognitive development. In this paper, key principles for practices and services to improve children’s quality of life will be addressed.


 


Concepts and practices for promoting and improving a child’s quality of life  


For one, quality of life of children could be promoted becoming better informed on the rights of a child. Embedding a wide spectrum of civil, cultural, economic, social and political rights, children’s rights are defined in copious ways, and the treatment varies from nation to nation. Basically, children’s rights embody the right of special protection and care and the right to association with biological parents and human identity as well as the right to basic needs for food education, health care and criminal processes appropriate for the age and development of the child. Children’s rights are the epitome of a quality of life. It is in this sense that children are ensured of survival, participation, development and protection, all of which are elements of a quality of life. In promoting a quality of life for children, first, children should be provided with the access to live own life that is according to the age of the child. Aside from being given access to heath initiatives and programmes, the educational rights of children must be upheld. Whether formal or informal, one basic element of a quality living is adequacy in provision for physical, mental, spiritual and social development of the child. Next, a child should be supported with the freedom to express their opinions, thoughts, concerns and feelings. Children should be sheltered against any form of discrimination, abuse or neglect.


 


Second, these rights are embedded on the needs of the children. Such needs include: ongoing nurturing relationships that centers the physical, emotional, social and cognitive development as well as which behaviours are appropriate and which are not (Brazelton and Greenspan, 2000, p. 1); physical protection, safety and regulation whereby making children and their basic security a worldwide commitment and a higher political priority (p. 53); experiences tailored to individual differences whereby the child’s strengths and weaknesses are realized through individual development profile (p. 79); developmentally appropriate exercises or simply those individually-oriented activities which are adaptive to the young’s mind (p. 115); limit setting, structure and expectations so as to emphasize discipline, trust and respect (p. 145); stable, supportive communities and cultural continuity so that children would have the strong sense of identity and understand the value of cohesiveness (p. 159) and protect the future which means to improve the present conditions of the young children populace (p. 177).


 


Third, children must be given the opportunity for values clarification. According to Williams (2005), Values clarification, generally, refers to the process of examining one’s basic values and moral reasoning. The moral behaviour of a child is the framework to which judgments are made, consisting of beliefs, interests, attitudes and values. Values, specifically, are used as a behaviour assessment tool, and this can be acquired to gradual learning process. Moral reasoning, on the other hand, refers to the philosophical precept that includes intentions and reasons that sustains individual actions. Values and moral reasoning then are inseparable. There are three premises as to how values clarification impact children when it comes to moral reasoning. Reasoning abilities evolve as individual process, learning takes place through interaction and how individual interact and respond to the environment determines their self-concept and perceptions. As such, moral reasoning is dependent on individual’s stage of cognitive development. The impact on moral reasoning is generally on young children’s decision-making abilities whereby their understanding of good and bad will show. Children will act in accordance with symbolic play, learning through five senses, object performance and goal-directed actions; they make their own judgment, making values clarification a matter of perception.


 


Fourth, the quality of the environment by which a child will grow up should be a priority. As Brown (1999) puts it, the environment of the young children should always possess positive images that will aid in shaping these children’s attitudes about people, life and society as a whole. The reason is that mixed messages and the negative images that children unintentionally witness from the adults could determine how they will likely to succeed in their struggle against biases. The environment by which young children must be entrenched upon is an environment wherein non-stereotypic and unbiased images are dominant. How children could maintain a healthy self-esteem will also depend on the environment s/he grew up with.


 


Fifth, the social competence of the children must be developed. The ability to get along with other people is known as social competence. Social competence involves the ability to maintain, establish and develop constructive social relationships with other people. It is an assemblage of knowledge, understanding skills and emotional responses, all of which vary in degree according to the situation that child is in. Social competence is not a one-dimensional characteristic as others though it would be. It affects the cognitive, affective and psychomotor domains of the individual (Schneider, 1993). The underpinnings of social competence are generally inclined on the ability to understand another’s point of view when different from own, to interpret people’s emotional states and behaviour and to adjust behaviour to make it acceptable or rewarding to others. School success is not always academic but also points on making students onwards being a constructive part of the society, both at work and in personal and social life. It also means acquiring transferable skills within the classroom and applying it outside constantly. Being socially competent also means to perform in teams and to operate effectively as a team member. Social competence in school refers to creating and promoting lifelong social inclusion approach in many ways.    


 


Sixth, abuses against children whether inside the family or outside the family should be prevented. The reality, however, is that children are being tortured, detained in inexcusable conditions and being sentenced to death at other parts of the world. Thousands of children are still killed and maimed in armed conflicts while million others are forced by poverty or abuse to live on the streets where they are more vulnerable to abuse and exploitation. Likewise, there are still many who are engaging in exploitative and hazardous jobs and even fall victim of child trafficking and child prostitution. In addition, discriminatory attitudes and practices are prevailing causing more gender-specific abuses. Realizing the matter, more and more children miss out on their education; in addition to this is the incapacitation to educate them, undermining their chance to receive an education (Amnesty International).


 


Seventh, violations in children in general should be stopped as it impacts their development. Children who are being kept violated of their rights or discriminated giants might develop ideologies and psychological mechanisms that promote and perpetuate violence especially when they are not informed who to turn to in case of rights infringement. Children are consistently bothered by injustice and are concerns with people who they witnessed being hurt, physically or psychologically, by other people particularly at their own home. This could give them the implication that it is ok to mistreat people depending on what they see or hear or feel at that moment. Though children struggle to make sense of their actions and hence furthering their sense of morality, the tendency is to adopt things negatively when the rationales of specific issues are not being explained to them (Amnesty International).


 


Finally, uphold quality justice systems for children. The general lose of confidence on democracy, rule of law and inclusive society of children is one of the main impacts of perennial committing of children’s rights violations. These children will lose their respect of human dignity, equality and freedom which is the every essence of drafting policies and international treaties; the justice system will also be blurry and unfruitful (Amnesty International). The transparency and accountability in government will be also questioned on how well they are performing to address children’s rights and countering infringements to such, and also the service delivery that will prove to be insufficient for such endeavor. 


 


Conclusion


In sum, in promoting the quality of life for children, children’s rights must be promoted, protected and sustained, the needs of the children should be prioritized, values systems of children should be developed as well as their social competence, the quality of the environment should be also maintained and abuse and violations against children should be stopped while also having justice systems that will not tolerate such. Efforts to protect the innocence of children are to principally direct in investing in their future. Their life is the building block of a functional society.


 


 


 


References


 


Brazelton, T. B. and Greenspan, S. I. (2000). The Irreducible Needs of Children: What Every Child Must Have to Grow, Learn and Flourish. Cambridge, MA: Perseus Books.


 


Brown, C. L. (1999). Images We Give Young Children. Child Care Training Guide. NC Cooperative Extension.  


 


Children and Human Rights. Amnesty International. Retrieved on 12 March 2009, from http://www.amnesty.org/en/children.


 


Convention on the Rights of the Child. Commissioner for Human Rights. Retrieved on 12 March 2009, from http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/b/k2crc.htm.


 


Human Rights of Children: Overview. Amnesty International. Retrieved on 12 March 2009, from http://www.amnesty.ca/themes/children_overview.php.


 


Schneider, B. H. (1993). Children’s Social Competence in Context: The Contributions of Family, School and Culture. Routledge: London.


 


Williams, A. (2005). Moral Reasoning and Values Clarification. (Review).       


 



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