Childhood Poverty and Deprivation

Relationship of childhood poverty and deprivation on suppressed cognitive development, executive functioning, and attention

Childhood Poverty and Deprivation

Of major concern to educators and psychologists alike is the relationship of childhood poverty and deprivation on suppressed cognitive development, executive functioning, and attention. Further, recent research suggests that childhood poverty also can play an important role in negative health outcomes and attitudes towards aging that extend into adulthood. Discuss the research of this topic and suggest effective interventions for using childhood as a springboard for promoting healthy aging.

The embedded articleis also found in the SUO library reference:

Wise, P. (2016).  Child poverty and the promise of human capacity: Childhood as a foundation for healthy aging.  Academic Pediatrics (16), S37-S45. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.acap.2016.01.014

Use the lessons and vocabulary found in the readings. Your responses should clarify your understanding of the topic and should be original and free from plagiarism. Follow APA guidelines for the writing style, spelling and grammar, and citation of sources.

Neurocognitive impacts for children of poverty and neglect

Children who grow up in low income households and who have experienced neglect are at risk for difficulties with cognitive and academic achievement
By Ashlee Loughan, MEd and Robert Perna, PhD

Most human brain growth occurs during our first 6 years of life. Extending through early childhood, there are many factors which continue to be relevant to brain development. High levels of nutrition, appropriate stimulation, and attention and emotional support all help contribute to healthy brain growth, maximize its productivity and essentially prepares the mind for future learning capability. However, many aspects of a child’s environment can adversely affect maximum brain functioning. Two significant and negative environmental factors are poverty and neglect. Research substantiates the negative effects poverty can have on a child’s brain including development, learning and academic performance. Numerous studies have documented that low-income children, as young as age two, perform worse across cognitive measures (Duncan & Brooks-Gunn 1997; Feinstein 2003). Smith and colleagues (1997), using data from two national datasets, demonstrated that family poverty was significantly correlated with lower scores across cognitive and academic readiness in preschool-aged children (ages three to four). This held true even after controlling for the effect of mother’s education, family structure, ethnicity, birth weight and gender. As children enter and progress through school, the kids living in poor families continue to perform worse on indices of school achievement. Specifically, poor children were twice as likely to have repeated a grade, to have been expelled or suspended from school, or to have dropped out of high school. Poor children were also 1.4 times as likely to be identified as having a learning disability in elementary or high school than their non-poor counterparts.

As if being raised in a low-income family did not present enough challenges, what is the impact on a child’s development when you compound these findings with child neglect? Sedlak and Broadhurst (1996) reported a strong inverse relationship between household income and likelihood of child neglect. Imaging studies focusing on neglected children have found significant cerebral abnormalities in the corpus callosum, left neocortex, hippocampus, amygdala, limbic areas, frontal lobe and cerebellar vermis (De Bellis, Keshavan, Clark, Casey, Giedd et al., 1999; Grassi-Oliveira, Ashy, & Stein, 2008). Investigations into the neurocognitive functioning of neglected children suggest possible sequelae, including compromised psychosocial functioning and psychopathology, brain dysfunction and cognitive deficits including impaired executive functioning, attention, processing speed, language, memory and social skills (Chugani, Behan, Muzik, Juhasz, Nagi, & Chugani, 2002; De Bellis,2005; DePrince, Weinzierl, & Combs, 2009; Gaudin, 1999; Gunnar & Vasquez, 2006; Johnson, Cohen, Brown, Smailes, &Berstein, 1999; Schwarz & Perry, 1994; Shonkoff, Boyce, & McEwen, 2009; Weber & Reynolds, 2004; Widom, 1999). When analyzing academic performance, Eckenrode, Laird, and Doris (1993) found that maltreated children were twice as likely to repeat a grade and score significantly lower on reading and mathematics testing than their IQ m

Childhood Poverty and Deprivation

ADDITIONAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE CLASS

Discussion Questions (DQ)

• Initial responses to the DQ should address all components of the questions asked, including a minimum of one scholarly source, and be at least 250 words.
• Successful responses are substantive (i.e., add something new to the discussion, engage others in the discussion, well-developed idea) and include at least one scholarly source.
• One or two-sentence responses, simple statements of agreement, or “good post,” and responses that are off-topic will not count as substantive. Substantive responses should be at least 150 words.
• I encourage you to incorporate the readings from the week (as applicable) into your responses.

Weekly Participation

• Your initial responses to the mandatory DQ do not count toward participation and are graded separately.
• In addition to the DQ responses, you must post at least one reply to peers (or me) on three separate days, for a total of three replies.
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• Cite all sources of information! When in doubt, cite the source. Paraphrasing also requires a citation.
• I highly recommend using the APA Publication Manual, 6th edition.

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• I discourage overutilization of direct quotes in DQs and assignments at the Masters’s level and deduct points accordingly.
• As Masters’s level students, it is important that you be able to critically analyze and interpret information from journal articles and other resources. Simply restating someone else’s words does not demonstrate an understanding of the content or critical analysis of the content.
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