Social Work and Child Development

It wasn’t until the time of Sigmund Freud that people looked at the psyches of an individual and what kind of impact that could have on that individual’s life. Before that time, children were seen as extra farm hands and generally as cheap labor. Families did not look at how the children were treated and the possible impact on their development. Later, Erikson and Piaget furthered the study of development and expanded the road that Freud had pioneered. While all consider Freud the father of psychoanalytic thinking, few turn to many of his first theories in reference to development. Freud forged a path by which all future developmental researchers walked through to further advance the study of development. While, experts have clearly not agreed on every measure by which development of an individual’s cognitive development should be measured, each have agreed to some measure that risks are involved to cognitive and emotional development at the time that could later lead to serious consequences in later stages of development.

Infancy by all standards is when the individual is most vulnerable physically. Infants are totally dependent for every need to be fulfilled by another. It is during this time that attachment begins to form and learning from others and the environment begins. As with every stage of development, risks factors exist and need to be acknowledged, by doing this, possible interventions can be put in place or social programs offered to address how to minimize these factors to give the individual the best opportunity to thrive. The risk factors to this stage of development are poverty, child abuse and inadequate caregiving.

Poverty is a crisis for the world’s infants and children. Statistics are referenced fro...

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...he caregivers, nutrition, and preventive programs concerning domestic and community violence. It gives social workers other criteria in which to evaluate programs, groups and services needed and used in the community. As a profession, in almost every area that field of practice, there are children in need. They are not only in the custody of DHR, but in our schools, and in our community. Children are in our community garden and growing every day. We have a professional responsibility to cultivate the community in which they grow.

Works Cited

Dr. Bruce Perry Aggression and Violence: The Neurobiology of Experience. (2005) http://teacher.scholastic.com/professional/bruceperry/aggression_violence.htm Retrieved June 6, 2010

Hutchinson, Elizabeth D. Dimensions of Human Behavior: The Changing Life Course. (2008) California: Sage Publications