Children and Childhoods 2 : Images of Childhood [1 ed.] 9781443846387, 9781443841641

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Children and Childhoods 2

Children and Childhoods 2: Images of Childhood

Edited by

Shirley Wyver and Peter Whiteman

Children and Childhoods 2: Images of Childhood, Edited by Shirley Wyver and Peter Whiteman This book first published 2012 Cambridge Scholars Publishing 12 Back Chapman Street, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE6 2XX, UK British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Copyright © 2012 by Shirley Wyver and Peter Whiteman and contributors All rights for this book reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner. ISBN (10): 1-4438-4164-1, ISBN (13): 978-1-4438-4164-1

To George Lewis (1939-2012), our colleague who changed the image of young Indigenous children’s education

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction Chapter One................................................................................................. 2 Forming Images of Children: The Image Impact Pyramid Shirley Wyver Part I: Images of Learners Chapter Two .............................................................................................. 16 Music, Minds and Myths Peter Whiteman Chapter Three ............................................................................................ 27 Image, Access and Opportunity: Children with Down Syndrome as Readers Kathy Cologon Chapter Four.............................................................................................. 43 We Can DO That! Using Technology to Improve the Social Participation of Children with Disabilities Angela Crettenden, Parimala Raghavendra and Toan Nguyen Part II: Images of Aberrant Behaviour Chapter Five .............................................................................................. 70 Do Harsh Penalties Deter Juvenile Offending? Andrew McGrath Chapter Six ................................................................................................ 88 Contradictory Images of Children: Growing up in a Dangerous (?) World Helen Little Chapter Seven.......................................................................................... 105 Because Looks Can Be Deceiving: Media Alarm and the Sexualisation of Childhood - Do We Know What We Mean? Kirrilly Thompson

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Part III: Media, Popular Culture and Images of Childhood Chapter Eight........................................................................................... 114 Mums, Media and Fat Kids: From Placenta to Lunchbox Halla Malik, Robyne Garrett and Timothy Olds Chapter Nine............................................................................................ 133 Images of Infancy: Research and Social Images Berenice Nyland Chapter Ten ............................................................................................. 148 Children’s Images and Visibility as Represented in Television and Newspaper in Singapore Marjory Ebbeck, Sheela Warrier and Fred Ebbeck Conclusion Chapter Eleven ........................................................................................ 168 An Optimistic View of the Role of Research in Changing Images of Childhood Shirley Wyver Contributors............................................................................................. 173

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER ONE FORMING IMAGES OF CHILDREN: THE IMAGE IMPACT PYRAMID SHIRLEY WYVER

The dominant images of childhood held by a culture or subculture are important. These images have a considerable impact on the life opportunities of children. While there are frequent public debates about what is in the best interest of children, it is often in the absence of an understanding that childhood is a loose concept. Children have more features in common with adults than they have differences. Yet the differences are magnified and analysed. This is partly to protect children from exploitative practices such as participating in low or unpaid labour. It is also to ensure that children’s characteristics are taken into consideration when they may represent a significant stakeholder group (e.g. educational and medical services). Magnification of the differences can also lead to a distortion of differences, such that children’s opportunities are stymied (see Helen Little’s chapter, this volume). The mantra of “Let children be children” often indicates an unanalysed view of childhood, and is frequently used to silence those who challenge accepted “truths” about children and childhood. Also, by negating many of the characteristics children share with adults, this unanalysed image can be used to prevent children from sampling or engaging in adult behaviours that may be important to them (see Kirrilly Thompson’s chapter, this volume).

Changing images and definitions Images of children are formed in many ways. The most productive understandings of image formation and revision have come from historical analyses of childhood (e.g. Cunningham 1998, 2007; Whiteman, De Gioia & Mevawalla 2012). Although these analyses have been restricted to relatively recent and mainly Western ideas of childhood, it is apparent that the broad community consensus on what a child or childhood is, can and

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does change. Changed images lead to changed expectations for learning and moral behaviour, provision of social and physical environments, legal recognition and rights. In Australia today, for example, there is debate about the number of gestational weeks that must have passed before birth and death certificates (i.e. legal recognition of the child) can be issued. Currently, a foetus born prematurely must be at least 20 weeks if birth and death certificates are to be authorised. With changes in medical imaging and approaches to monitoring pregnancies, it has been argued that a foetus is now recognised as a family member much earlier than has previously been the case, and legal recognition has not kept up to date with these changes. Others argue that a change in current legal arrangements, while supportive of family concerns, may have adverse repercussions for current legislation regarding pregnancy termination. For an overview of the debate, see Sexton (2012). There are many philosophical, medical, ethical, legal and personal issues involved in this debate that are well beyond the scope of this chapter. The key point is that images and definitions of childhood are not static. They are open to change.

Research and the Image Impact Pyramid Most modern Western economies invest millions of dollars each year into research related to children and childhood. The majority of funding is within the broad areas of education, physical health and mental health, but there are other related areas (e.g. history of childhood). The continued willingness of governments, industries, charities and philanthropists to invest in projects relating specifically to children is a demonstration that childhood is recognised as important within modern Western societies. It is also recognition of a societal belief that research can lead to changes that will benefit the lives of children. For example, one of the most prestigious Australian funding institutions, the Australian Research Council (2012), includes “A healthy start to life” as one of the research priorities/goals. It is a clear indication that high quality research is seen to be an important mechanism for revising images of childhood. Nonetheless, some processes for dissemination of research findings are cleaner than others. In this section, the Image Impact Pyramid is used to highlight methods by which research can be disseminated in a way that is consistent with the original research findings, and how research findings can be distorted to reinforce existing stereotypes or promote viewpoints or even commercial interests of particular individuals and organisations.

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The idea for the Image Impact Pyramid came from Frieden’s (2010) Health Impact Pyramid, which has been used to examine the impact of different types of health interventions; from those that have a broad population base to those that are designed for an individual. The Image Impact Pyramid is used to demonstrate the relationship between findings from research that meets a high standard within its discipline and broad dissemination of the findings. It partially addresses how findings become fragmented and more vulnerable to processes such as confirmation bias (to be discussed later in this chapter).

Figure 1: The Image Impact Pyramid

At the top of the Image Impact Pyramid are the peer-reviewed studies. As will be discussed, original research reports from these studies are often difficult to access by anyone outside of the research field. At the bottom of the Image Impact Pyramid are short media statements or other brief reports on research that are often highly fragmented pieces of information. These short statements are the most widely disseminated. A clear example of how a research finding has been decontextualised, distorted, exaggerated and commercialised can be found in Peter Whiteman’s chapter in this volume. His analysis of the “Mozart Effect” demonstrates how a transfer

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of information from a high-status research journal through to media, and other selective highlights of findings, has changed the ways in which many people interact with infants and think about the development of infants. It should be noted that transmission of information from original research to media statements can be accurate and beneficial. The important issue is to identify pathways for accurate or faulty transmission of information.

Peer-reviewed original research Each discipline and sub-discipline has a set of principles by which research should be conducted. Often the highest research standards are difficult to achieve in work with children. For example, in a study on pathways to crime it might be methodologically sound to randomly assign some children to live in Suburb A that has high crime rates, and others to live in Suburb B that has low crime rates, but the study could not be morally or ethically justified. Instead, researchers attempt to design the best possible study, taking into account ethical and other constraints. Usually, reports of the research include comments on the limitations of the study design. These limitations are important to note, as they often provide an indication of the extent to which the findings are generalisable to a broader population, and whether more research is required before they are suitable for application. Original research of high quality typically undergoes at least one process where it is evaluated by discipline experts who are not directly involved with the research team reporting the research. This process is known as peer review. For most high profile research, peer review would happen on multiple occasions, including when funding is sought and when the findings are published. The original peer-reviewed articles are the best source of information, because details are provided that may be useful in determining applicability of the research in another context. Unfortunately, peerreviewed original research reports are usually difficult to access. Typically, articles are published in journals that are subscription-based and expensive. Even when this problem is overcome with Open Access journals (i.e. free to public), it can be difficult for a reader without the appropriate level of discipline-based knowledge to understand the articles. Because dissemination of research findings is important, other systems are in place for reporting of findings, but these are sometimes faulty, as discussed below.

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Specialist dissemination by experts Most researchers are aware that dissemination of their findings is important. Many large research projects now have websites that include project summaries and press releases. Examples are the Autism Research Centre http://www.autismresearchcentre.com/whats_new, Down syndrome Education International http://www.dseinternational.org/en/gb/ and Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC) http://www.aifs.gov. au/growingup/. This method of dissemination ensures that the researchers are in control of how the research findings are presented. The limitations are that the detail provided in published papers is often missing, and it would thus be unusual to find a scholarly response or debate about interpretation, as is sometimes the case for the original published article.

Popular dissemination by experts Often high status researchers write books or articles to target a broader audience than academics and professionals. Frequently, this occurs when there is a large body of research and the author is seeking to raise public awareness in order to shift an image, or images, of childhood. Researchers are aware of the limitations of publication through specialist peerreviewed journals, as outlined above. Books or articles that are written for non-specialists can overcome accessibility issues. For example, increased awareness of autism has come about partly through books such as Frith’s Autism: Explaining the Enigma, and Baron-Cohen’s Autism and Asperger Syndrome. Some important features of these works are that the authors have a body of related published work that is in the top tier of the Image Impact Pyramid, the books have usually undergone peer review and an academic publisher is responsible for production of the book. The popular book or article category can be deceptive. There are many authors who use this form of publication to make powerful claims about childhood. Two recent examples are A Nation of Wimps (Marano 2008) and Last Child in the Woods (Louv 2010). These books are well researched and there is much to commend. Both books have, for example, been important in highlighting to the general community that erosion of opportunities for play in childhood has serious consequences for children’s learning and health. One of the difficulties, though, is the introduction of images of childhood without the level of peer review that occurs at the top tier of the pyramid. Louv, for example, introduces the term “NatureDeficit Disorder”, a term that he has trademarked, but a term that has not

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undergone the rigorous scrutiny that would normally be identified with a disorder. These types of books generally present an alarmist view of parenting and children’s environments. The image is of pathologised childhoods. The point here is not that such books should never be published; if examining evidence, however, it is important to separate these types of works from those discussed in the previous paragraph. The process of doing so can be difficult. An important differentiating feature is the author’s record of publication at the first tier of the pyramid.

Experts in the media Experts in the media can have an important role in dissemination of research. Some experts are researchers who choose to make research accessible by contributing to the media. Others are journalists who have developed a high level of specialisation in a chosen field. For example, Adele Horin, from the Sydney Morning Herald, frequently reports on childcare. A recent example of Horin’s (2012) work describes the findings of a study of outcomes for children who were in childcare in their first year of life. Important features of the article are that it is linked directly to a particular study that can be identified (no vague claims), it indicates who participated, what was measured and how the measuring was done. It also includes both positive and negative findings for child outcomes. A particular caution is experts who promote a perspective that cannot easily be traced back to peer-reviewed research. As one of many possible examples, Steven Biddulph has successfully used the media to promote negative research findings associated with childcare in the first year of life, and the idea that infants should be in a natural environment of one-to-one care with a parent. Aside from neglecting the issue of multiple births, which are natural for humans, in various interviews he makes general reference to research (but not specific studies) or to his own book, Raising Babies, published by Harper Thorsons, a specialist in self-help books. In an interview with the Sydney Morning Herald (Tortaro 2006), he reinforces the idea that one-to-one home care is best, if not with a parent, then with a nanny, and that centre-based care can damage brain development. His claims do not provide a full and thorough disclosure of the findings of the major large and reputable studies, and it is never clear precisely which study he is referring to. The largest study of childcare has been conducted in the United States, and they have not had such negative findings. They have also concluded that family effects are far more important than childcare effects in long term outcomes (e.g. Belsky et al,

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2007). One of the research team members, Jay Belsky, was quoted in an interview: "If God gave you the choice between putting a child in a well-functioning, well-resourced family but lots of crummy child care or into a poorly functioning, poorly resourced family and lots of good child care, there's no choice, you'd have to choose the former.” (APA Monitor, 2000).

Biddulph does acknowledge in his interview with Tortaro that in addition to reporting evidence, he includes some “strong professional opinion”. Experts are known to use the media in an attempt to change opinion, even when their own opinion has been formed by personal views rather than research evidence. Recently, 150 medical practitioners signed a Senate enquiry submission opposing marriage equality, and asserting that there were known adverse consequences for children raised by same sex couples. The group’s leader, Lachlan Dunjey, told the media: It's well proven that children who grow up with a mother and a father in a biological mother-and-father family do better than children who don't have the opportunity to grow up in that kind of family. (ABC News, 2012).

Fortunately, in this case, the attempt largely failed with the mainstream media. Many doctors and other professionals were quick to correct the record on the research findings (e.g. Colyer 2012), many pointing to the report commissioned by the Australian Psychological Society that reviewed a large number of studies and found differences are related to parenting type, but not parent sexuality (Short 2007).

Short media statements This includes any statements about research in a widely disseminated source. Short media statements can be very useful in raising awareness of new directions in research, but can also be detrimental and distort the research findings and intentions. Issues relating to young children and sexuality are highly sensitive, and as Kirrilly Thompson argues in her chapter (this volume), much of the current media alarm in this area comes from adult perspectives on children’s behaviour. In 2010, Anthony Semann and William DeJean edited a special edition of Australasian Journal of Early Childhood. The focus of the special edition was sexuality in early childhood. One particular article by Mindy Blaise attracted extreme attention. Her methods have been widely criticised in the media

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and concerns have been raised about her institution’s ethical approval of the research, motivations of the organisation funding the research and the journal in which it was published. For example, the child mental health website http://www.generationnext.com.au/ included an article originally published in the Herald Sun (newspaper) which included the quote: The fact that it was published in the Australasian Journal of Early Childhood also sets of (sic) alarm bells. Surely there is something wrong when a leading member of the Early Childhood Association is prepared to endorse these sorts of subjects being introduced into childcare centres and incorporated into the curriculum, as long as it is “child-led”. (Manocha, 2010).

The demonising of the researcher, funding body and journal has meant that while the research has attracted considerable attention, the main findings and recommendations from the research have not been disseminated. Blaise’s research showed that preschool-aged children have knowledge about sexuality. It is not sexuality as adults understand, but it is knowledge about attraction, kissing and marriage. From my reading, the most important finding was that children are developing theories of sexuality in the absence of discussion, or even acknowledgement, by adults in their environment. Children in the study seemed to have highly stereotypical views of romantic relationships that may be problematic in the development of their gender identity and understanding of human relationships. Selective and decontextualised use of questions from discussions, coupled with alarmist language in media articles criticising Blaise’s study, not only misrepresents the research, but gives a range of experts the opportunity to make claims about childhood without the scrutiny of peer review. The strong claims made by critics were about childhood innocence and the protective role of adults. As is typical of this type of writing, terms such as ‘innocence’ and ‘protective’ were left unchallenged, yet it could equally be argued that adults are protective if they support children in development of gender and sexual identity. And the mantra of “Let children be children” was invoked. The quoted response to Blaise’s research highlighted above was one of many. Blaise’s research identified that children are forming theories about human relationships, but used the term ‘sexuality’, knowing that an academic readership would understand the broad meaning of the term. What translated in the media was a clear message: experts agree that children are innocent and do not think about sexuality. The critics, many of whom were identified as experts, successfully distorted the findings of a peer-reviewed study to promote their preferred image of childhood in the media.

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It is important to note that not all widely disseminated brief reports of research findings are problematic. Many sources take care to ensure that transmission of information is accurate and as true as possible to the source from which it emanated. An example is the Raising Children Network http://raisingchildren.net.au/, which is a website dedicated to information for parents. Articles are written by academics and professionals with expertise on the topic, but the articles also undergo peer review.

Further challenges Accurate transmission of information can be seen as necessary, but not sufficient to provide a clear pathway between publication of original research and the wider dissemination of findings. People are selective in the information they attend to, and there are differences in interpretation and memory for details, including distortion of details at the point of recall. It is beyond the scope of this chapter to provide a detailed account of human cognition, but one important example, confirmation bias, is discussed below.

Confirmation bias Assume you have read one of the following fictional news reports. The first is that researchers have discovered participation in violent computer games is linked with bullying at school. This association is consistent with general beliefs about media violence, and possibly would not be questioned further. It may even lead you to restrict access to violent computer games by children in your care. The second story links playing violent computer games to prosocial behaviour, and includes a plausible explanation from the researchers about how exposure to the content of violent computer games helps children behave prosocially. After reading the story, it is unlikely that you would become more lenient or even encourage children to play violent video games. What is more likely to be the case is that you will be more critical of the latter research, searching for methodological problems or perhaps funding of the research that involves a conflict of interest. And while there is nothing wrong with critical reading of news reports, in fact it is something to be encouraged, it is unlikely you would apply the same level of scrutiny to the findings reported in the first story. It has long been established that people generally approach new information with a “confirmation bias”. That is, they are more receptive to information that is coherent with existing

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beliefs (Nickerson, 1998). The confirmation is not an intentional uneven weighting of information, which in many ways is more problematic, as people are unaware of their differential treatment of information. When evaluating research, it is important to be aware of selective preferences for particular research findings.

Concluding comments The chapters in this volume have been written by researchers who regularly have their ideas peer reviewed (i.e. publish at the top tier of the Image Impact Pyramid). Each chapter was also peer reviewed. Authors write from their discipline background to examine and provide evidence that challenges current images of childhood. It is important to read each chapter with the understanding that the aim is not to reinforce current stereotypes or to be intentionally provocative. Each chapter considers evidence that has either previously been published in peer reviewed outlets or, for newly published evidence, provides details of the methods used for data collection. Interpretations of the work are consistent with the discipline areas of the authors. This collection of chapters is not intended to provide a cohesive commentary on the current image of the child. Instead, it provides insights into the multiple images of children and how evidence can be used or misused to promote image change.

References Australian Broadcasting Commission (ABC, no author). 2012. “Doctors Group Says Heterosexual Marriage Better For Kids.” ABC News, May 14. Accessed June 20, 2012 http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-0513/doctors-say-heterosexual-marriage-better-for-kids/4008452 Australian Research Council. nd. “The National Research Priorities and Their Associated Priority Goals.” Accessed August 8, http://www.arc.gov.au/pdf/nrps_and_goals.pdf Baron-Cohen, Simon. 2008. Autism and Asperger Syndrome. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Belsky, Jay, Deborah Lowe Vandell, Margaret Burchinal, K. Alison Clarke-Stewart, Kathleen McCartney, Margaret Tresch Owen. 2007. “The NICHD Early Child Care Research Network. 2007. Are There Long-Term Effects of Early Child Care?” Child Development 78: 681701. Blaise, Mindy. 2010. “Kiss and Tell: Gendered Narratives and Childhood Sexuality.” Australasian Journal of Early Childhood, 35:, 1-9.

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Colyer, Sarah. 2012. “Gay Marriage a Health Risk, Says Doctors’ Group.” Paediatrics Update. 4 May. Accessed 20 July, 2012, http://www.paediatricsupdate.com.au/news/gay-marriage-a-healthrisk,-says-doctors-group Cunningham, Hugh. 1998. Histories of Childhood. “American Historical Review”103: 1195-1208. Cunningham, Hugh. 2007. The Invention of Childhood. London: BBC Books. Frieden, Thomas R. 2010. “A Framework for Public Health Action: The Health Impact Pyramid.” American Journal of Public Health 100: 590595. Frith, Uta. 2003. Autism: Explaining the Enigma. Malden, MA. Blackwell. Horin, Adele. 2012. “First-year Childcare Harmless: Study.” Sydney Morning Herald, July 26. Accessed August 8, 2012. http://www.smh.com.au/national/firstyear-childcare-harmless-study20120725-22r0s.html Louv, Richard. 2010. Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children From Nature-Deficit Disorder. Chapel Hill, NC: Alonquin Books of Chapel Hill. Manocha, R. 2010. “Let children be children.” Generation Next (blog) May 21, 2010 edited article by H. Splarn, http://www.generationnext.com.au/2010/05/let-children-be-children/ Marano, Hara Estroff. 2008. A Nation of Wimps: The High Cost of Invasive Parenting. Broadway Books. Nickerson, Raymond S. 1998. “Confirmation Bias: A Ubiquitous Phenomenon in Many Guises.” Review of General Psychology 2: 175220. Semann, Anthony & William DeJean. 2010. “Editorial.” Australasian Journal of Early Childhood 35: 1. Sexton, Mike. 2012. “Stillborn Definition Faces Review.” Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), April 5. Accessed August 8, 2012. http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2012/s3472327.htm Short, Elizabeth, Riggs, Damien. W., Perlesz, A., Brown, R., & Kane, Graeme. 2007. “Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual And Transgender (LGBT) Families: A Literature Review Prepared for The Australian Psychological Society.” Accessed June 20, 2012. http://www.psychology.org.au/assets/files/lgbt-families-lit-review.pdf Tortaro, Paolo. 2006. “Day Care is Bad for Babies – Biddulph.” Sydney Morning Herald, March 18. Accessed 8 August, 2012. http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/day-care-is-bad-for-babiesbiddulph/2006/03/17/1142582520873.html

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Whiteman, Peter, Katey De Gioia, & Zinnia Mevawalla. 2012. “Perspectives.” In Children and Childhoods 1: Perspectives, Places and Practices, edited by Peter Whiteman, and Katey De Gioia, 1-15. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

PART I IMAGES OF LEARNERS

The image of the learner is central to success in any intervention or educational program. Each chapter in this part considers images of learners from different perspectives. In the first chapter, Whiteman examines how a widespread misrepresentation of a research finding has not only distorted the idea of how infants learn, but also led to a diminution of the status of music in infants’ lives by relegating it to the role of conduit for the development of spatial reasoning skills. Chapters by Cologon and Crettenden, Rhaghavendra and Nguyen demonstrate the importance of the image of children with disabilities as learners. Cologon discusses how children with Down syndrome have historically been denied access to literacy instruction due to flawed assumptions of their learning. Crettenden, Rhaghavendra and Nguyen present their own innovative research on use of information and communication technologies by children and young people with disabilities. Their research demonstrates the importance of a positive image of children with disabilities as learners. Both chapters reveal how acquisition of particular skills by children with disabilities creates many more learning opportunities in their lives.

CHAPTER TWO MUSIC, MINDS AND MYTHS PETER WHITEMAN

That was the year that was Most people will have memories or knowledge of significant events in history, or in their lives. Depending on individual experience or context, 1945 could be chronicled by the end of the Second World War; 1953 might be signified by the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II; 1969 may be noteworthy due to the landing of the first manned moon mission. In 1993, Paul Keating was the Prime Minister of Australia and Bill Clinton was President of the United States; the Branch Davidian cult siege in Waco, Texas, ended in violence and fire; the European Union was born, and the first graphical web browser (Mosaic) was launched. Another seemingly insignificant event was the publication in Nature of a study (Rauscher, Shaw, and Ky 1993, 1995) reporting a brief (10 minutes or so) increase in spatial-temporal reasoning, measured by the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale spatial IQ reasoning subtest (Thorndike, Hagen, and Sattler 1986), after listening to the first movement (allegro con spirito) of Mozart’s sonata for two pianos in D major K448. For 10 minutes, adult student participants listened to the Mozart sonata, recorded relaxation instructions or silence. All participants listened to each recording and took the test three times, immediately after listening to a recording. Listening to the Mozart sonata resulted in significantly higher scores than listening to the other recordings, but the effect did not last longer than 10-15 minutes. Little did anyone (including the authors of the original study) know that this one page report in Nature would snowball the way it did. With more than 1,000 scholarly citations of the original Nature report or subsequent related studies by the same authors, several hundred stories in the popular press and at least 3,000 YouTube clips addressing the phenomenon in some way, the so-called “Mozart Effect” has invaded the minds and lives of many. Since 1993, replication of this effect has been

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attempted on numerous occasions with minimal success. Despite only a fleeting increase in spatial reasoning, the “Mozart Effect” industry was born. An extensive range of recordings, interventions and the like, became available for all manner of situations. Internet resources abound, scattered with free downloads of music by Mozart, instructional programs, books and CDs for purchase, all promising to make children smarter or better in some way. Who wouldn’t want to maximise children’s opportunities to be smart? On the surface, noble intent; in reality, alarming and contradictory to current thinking about music, children and learning. Such practices misrepresent music and pathologise childhood.

Music: Origins and purposes Music has been part of human life for several millennia. The recent discovery of bone flutes, thought to be the world’s earliest musical instruments (Conard, Malina, and Münzel 2009) and consideration of humankind’s propensity to make music (Mithen 2005) ascribes a history of at least 35,000 years to musical pursuits. Across time and contexts, music has been defined in a myriad of ways, serving a range of functions (see, for example, Hargreaves and North 1999; Merriam 1964; Small 1977; Turino 2008). For many, music is construed as arrangements of sounds and silences. Not unsurprisingly, the contemplations of composers lend support to this belief. Debussy declared that “music is the arithmetic of sounds as optics is the geometry of light” (Simonton 1994, 110), Varese referred to music as “organised sound” (Weng-Chung 1967, 207) and Cage famously broadened these conceptions to include silences and extraneous concert hall sounds in his 1952 composition for any instrument – 4’33”. When performed, this work consists of the musician at his or her instrument, not making any sound for four minutes and thirty three seconds. The intention of this absence of sound is to stimulate listening to ambient sound. While conceivably not patterns of sounds and silences in the more traditional sense, such compositions still exhibit some sense of sonic formality. Moving beyond the sonic, Cage also referred to music as “a purposeless play … an affirmation of life – not an attempt to bring order out of chaos nor to suggest improvements in creation but simply a way of waking up to the very life we’re living” (Cage 1961, 12). Music and dance are at the centre of complex rituals and ceremonies in which humans engage. We celebrate, commemorate, commiserate and congratulate with music.

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Birthdays, weddings, funerals, state occasions, even sporting successes are marked with music in various forms. Across time and cultures, identities are shaped and histories formed with music. Grounded in interpretive reproduction (Corsaro 2010), school playgrounds are rife with children casting existing songs and games in a new light, weaving new music from long-established material. The Venda people from the South AfricanZimbabwean border frequently engage in rituals and customs rarely shared with Westerners, where music and dance bring about altered states of consciousness such as trance (Blacking 1985). Thousands of kilometres away, the Kaluli people from Papua New Guinea present a different story. During a ceremony involving exchanges between communities (e.g. marriage), singing and dancing is accompanied by instruments such as rattles. At one point in the ceremony, the audience will probably burst into tears with sadness, one of the hosts may well leap forward, and seizing a flaming torch used to light the area, plunge it into one of the dancers. This is unlikely to be an isolated incident during a custom that continues from dusk until dawn (Feld 1990). While perhaps not exactly the “affirmation of life” that Cage had in mind, these small snippets of cultural practices are just some of the many pivotal roles that music plays in people’s lives. Children, too, tell of the important social functions that music plays in their lives and describe the range of its sonic properties. For example, music is used to encourage the onset of sleep, in the celebration of birthdays and weddings, and in rituals such as those associated with organised religion. Music emanates from human singing or playing, or from environmental sources such as animals, water or shells. It has a range of temporal and melodic aspects and can be live, recorded or written down for future reproduction (Whiteman and Campbell 2012) An alternative explanation of the origin and purpose of music can be found at the junction of some unlikely bedfellows: architecture, engineering, the culinary arts and pornography. For centuries, buildings and other structures such as bridges have been designed and constructed with curves meeting rectangular boundaries. For example, in many churches, arches can be found adjacent to each other or butting against a wall. These curves and straight lines form spandrels - triangular areas that generally have no architectural or engineering significance. Rather, they are by-products that result from decisions made about roofs, columns and the like. Since the Renaissance, spandrels have been used as areas subject to great decoration. Whether constructed of masonry, wood or other materials, they provide opportunities for intricate and sometimes lavish decoration. Similar, too,

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are the spaces between arches that form bridges. In older structures, these were solid spaces but with advances in building materials and processes these have become more exposed. Regardless, these spandrels provide opportunities for decoration serving no part in the function of the bridge. Walls, arches, beams and cantilevers are but some of the elements that constitute buildings and bridges. Likewise, cheesecake can also be seen as the sum of its parts: sugar, fat and fruit, to name a few. Pinker posits that music is nothing more than “auditory cheesecake, an exquisite confection crafted to tickle the sensitive spots of at least six of our mental faculties” (Pinker 1997, 534). Taking an evolutionary stance, he maintains that engagement with music, like other human pursuits such as literature and pornography, has no real evolutionary benefit: its loss would not result in a functional loss for our species. Just as cheesecake forms an enticing package for our evolved tastes of sugars, fats and fruits, music forms an alluring package for the evolution of communicative capacity. In other words, music just came along for the ride in the evolutionary wake of linguistic capability. Just as spandrels serve decorative functions but have no real engineering purpose, music, like pornography could be conceived as a non-adaptive pleasure-seeking endeavour. Early criticism of Pinker’s claims has been replaced with empirical support for the pleasurable feelings humans experience from musical engagement in its many forms. For example, in a study using positron emission tomography scanning and functional magnetic resonance imaging, Salimpoor et al. (2011) found that musical stimuli can arouse intense feelings of pleasure. The researchers provide strong evidence for music as a critical factor “in rituals, marketing or film to manipulate hedonic states” and contribute valuable additional support for conceptualising music as a valued phenomenon across societies (262). Dubé and LeBel (2003) examined the structure and content of Western adults’ conceptions of pleasure in a series of five studies. From a list of 60 pleasure antecedents, participants rated each from 1 (extremely poor example of the kinds of things that bring me pleasure) to 6 (extremely good example of the kinds of things that bring me pleasure). Music was ranked eighth, with an average rating just below 5, providing additional backing for music as pleasure. Pinker’s work provides an interesting hub around which debates on the origins, purposes and conceptions of music regularly occur: music is devoid of functional purpose; music is spandrel; music is pleasurable;

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music is a side-effect of language; music is precursor to language. Recent infancy research has reignited the music–language conundrum. Contradicting Pinker’s belief that music is a by-product of language, studies of neonatal crying behaviours reveal that music may well be a harbinger of language. Infants’ crying has been shown to reflect the prosodic features of their mother tongue in general (Cross 2009), and specifically, its melodic contour (Mampe et al. 2009). Additional conceptions of music as adaptive behaviour can be found in the literature pertaining to language (Levitin 2006, 2008), the development and management of relationships (Cross 2005) and evolution in general (Miller 2000). Music can also be conceptualised as an act or communal art (Keil and Feld 1994; Small 1977, 1998; Turino 2008). According to Nattiez (1990, 43) “There is never a single, culturally dominant conception of music; rather we see a whole spectrum of conceptions.” Music, in its many forms, while a contested phenomenon, has specific purposes according to the definition one chooses to adopt. Music can be framed in a myriad of ways, including as sound, social function, adaptation, pleasure, or a semiotic system. Conspicuous by its absence though, is the conception of music purely as a means to an end. Even when music is considered a by-product, such as spandrel or cheesecake, it has not been framed as a means to achieving something else. This is at odds with the Mozart effect: music, in its many forms, exists primarily for music’s sake, not purely (or even) as a tool to achieve something else.

Learning: New sociologies and post teleological terrains Childhood, in its various forms is a time for learning. At first, such a statement seems fairly straightforward, but what is actually meant by “learning” in childhood? Arriving at a contemporary understanding of what it means to learn (and consequently to teach) is best achieved by consideration of the evolution of the notion of “child” and the transformation of pedagogical practices that have arisen in response. Conceptualising learning by means of a maturationist lens (e.g. Gesell 1928, 1940; Hall 1904) or behaviourist lens (e.g. Skinner 1938, 1948, 1968) positioned children as empty vessels that must be filled with knowledge and skills determined by teachers’ cultural experiences, in light of understandings of children’s learning gained from others. In this sense, learning was often content driven and teacher directed. Assessment would

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be based on observable changes in behaviour resulting from environmental stimuli. Teacher feedback and rewards for successful responses would be used until the children displayed mastery of the lesson content, at which time new material might be introduced. Maturationist and behaviourist approaches to learning were rarely about the child, and mostly about what they should know. Success was measured in terms of distance from the desired outcome, which was set as a result of what was known about children in general. The role of the teacher was to ensure that children achieved these outcomes. Constructivist approaches to learning and teaching have grown from a Piagetian tradition. According to this perspective, children actively engage with their physical environments to construct meaning and knowledge about their world (Phillips 1997, 1995). The provision of people and physical resources, and the careful placement of these in the learning environment, are crucial for constructivists. Children test their ideas about the world by acting on parts of it. Social constructivists, whose approaches have grown from a Vygotskian tradition, are also of the belief that children form understandings of their world by direct interaction with it. A key point of departure though, is that social constructivists believe that this learning stems from socially located collective action, mediated via cultural artifacts. So a social constructivist perspective places considerable importance on negotiating meaning with others (Palincsar 1998). Constructivists (in general) place less importance on facts and knowledge about the world than on the meaning behind these things. It is through these meanings that children interpret and understand. A deal of importance is still placed on where children should be, but this is less so from a social constructivist viewpoint, where meanings are made together with others. There are two common themes among maturationist, behaviourist and constructivist perspectives: a certain universality about learning and capacity to learn, with age often a major determining factor of this trajectory; it is the place of teachers to provide and organise the environment appropriately, including expectations, so that children can achieve what they should. These colonising approaches assign great power to the teacher, as one who is knowledgeable and knows what learners need to know, while children are consigned to a position of relative passivity and need.

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More recent approaches to learning shift the focus from what should be to what is, recalibrating the learner-teacher relationship so that the learner becomes the centre of attention. Previous teleological approaches (approaches that focus on end-states) where children’s learning and development could often be taxonomised into a set of discrete stages (often age-related) on a pathway to a predetermined end, have been replaced by approaches that focus more on childhood as a valued and valuable construct in its own right, rather than as an apprenticeship for adulthood. These generative approaches to learning and children grew out of new sociologies (Corsaro 2010; James and Prout 1997; Jenks 2005), and children’s rights (Dahlberg and Moss 2005) discourses, which position children as valued and valuable co-constructors of cultures who are assigned some agency in the transaction of learning and teaching.

Babies, bathwater and attenuating the hype Given the right circumstances (especially in terms of opportunity and time), children co-construct complex musical cultures (for example, Barrett 2005; Campbell 2006) with far-reaching loci of control. Contemporary approaches to learning and teaching acknowledge these rich and diverse cultures, using them as springboards from which to expand musical knowledge, skills and practices with others, including peers and teachers. The days of addressing acquisition of atomistic, decontextualised musical knowledge are long gone. Instead, social practices, and situated music forms the backdrop against which musical knowledge and skills are acquired. There is no universal developmental trajectory in music or any other domain of children’s lives, and striving for the end-state does not fit with current views of children or learning. With musicking evolving from music, and learning becoming an ever more situated endeavour, the worth of the Mozart effect is increasingly questionable. In short: the effect itself lasted only a few minutes and is difficult to replicate; using music as a device to achieve a non-musical outcome falls outside the wide-ranging spectrum of existing conceptions and purposes of music; assuming that a child can be “made smarter” at all, is contrary to current views of what learning is and how one learns. Listening to Mozart’s music is a fine thing for children to do. Their engagement with this material is best facilitated with others, as a result of enquiry initiated by themselves or those with whom they interact. For example, children may hear about Mozart or some of his music and begin to talk of their experience with others. This could be further scaffolded by

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a teacher who might listen to some music with the children, guiding their listening with existing musical understandings and using musical terms in conversation. And let us not forget the possible pleasure that may be derived from listening to that music, whether the clean, uncomplicated sounds of a piano sonata, a rich, sonorous symphony or the abundance of alternatives that lie in between. Mozart’s music should not be banned – far from it! Children can learn something from active engagement with compositions by Mozart, but the context in which this occurs and the rationale with which it is underpinned must be closely bound to the children’s current context(s) and interests. What should be forbidden, on the other hand, are practices purporting to increase children’s cognitive abilities by listening to Mozart. There is no evidence supporting effective outcomes of such endeavours, which, themselves, relegate music to a back seat, and children and their learning to a state more suited to that found in Mr Gradgrind’s school, Coketown, in Charles Dickens’ Hard Times, published in 1854. In a letter to his father, Leopold, dated 26 September 1781, Mozart stated that music “… must never offend the ear, but must please the listener, or in other words must never cease to be music …” (Eisen et al. 2007). Who knew that 231 years later, these words would still ring so true.

References Barrett, Margaret. 2005. "Musical communication and children's communities of musical practice." In Musical communication, edited by Dorothy Miell, Raymond MacDonald and David Hargreaves, 261280. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Blacking, John. 1985. "The context of Venda posession music: Reflections on the effectiveness of symbols." Yearbook for Traditional Music no. 17:64-87. Cage, John. 1961. Silence: Lectures and writings. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press. Campbell, Patricia Shehan. 2006. "Global practices." In The child as musician: A handbook of musical development, edited by Gary E McPherson, 415-438. New York: Oxford University Press. Conard, Nicholas J, Maria Malina, and Susanne C Münzel. 2009. "New flutes document the earliest musical tradition in southwestern Germany." Nature no. 460:737-740.

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Corsaro, William A. 2010. The sociology of childhood. 3rd ed. Thousan Oaks, CA: Pine Forge Press. Cross, Ian. 2005. "Music and meaning, ambiguity, and evolution." In Musical communication, edited by Dorothy Miell, Raymond MacDonald and David J Hargreaves, 27-43. Oxford: Oxford University Press. —. 2009. "Communicative Development: Neonate Crying Reflects Patterns of Native-Language Speech." Current Biology no. 19 (23):R1078-R1079. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2009.10.035. Dahlberg, Gunilla, and Peter Moss. 2005. Ethics and politics in early childhood education. London: Routlegde Falmer. Dubé, Laurette, and Jordan L LeBel. 2003. "The content and structure of laypeople's concept of pleasure." Cognition and Emotion no. 17 (2):263-295. doi: 10.1080/02699930244000309. Eisen, Cliff, Eva Rieger, Stanley Sadie, Rudolph Angermüller, C.B. Oldman, and William Stafford. 2007. Mozart. Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online., http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/402 58pg3. Feld, Steven. 1990. Sound and sentiment. Bird, weeping, poetics, and song in Kaluli expression. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press. Gesell, Arnold. 1928. infancy and human growth. New York: Macmillan. —. 1940. The first five years of life: A guide to the study of the preschool child. New York: Harper & Brothers. Hall, G Stanley. 1904. Adolescence: Its psychology and its relations to physiology, anthropology, sociology, sex, crime, religion and education. New York: D. Appleton and Company. Hargreaves, David J, and Adrian C North. 1999. "The functions of music in everyday life: Redefining the social in music psychology." Psychology of Music no. 27 (1):71-83. James, A, and A Prout. 1997. Constructing and reconstructing childhood: Contemporary issues in the sociological study of childhood. 2nd ed. New York: Falmer Press. Jenks, Chris. 2005. Childhood. 2nd ed. New York: Routledge. Keil, Charles, and Steven Feld. 1994. Music grooves: Essays and dialogues. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Levitin, Daniel J. 2006. This is your brain on music. New York: Dutton. —. 2008. The world in six songs. New York: Dutton. Mampe, Birgit, Angela D. Friederici, Anne Christophe, and Kathleen Wermke. 2009. "Newborns' Cry Melody Is Shaped by Their Native

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Language." Current Biology no. 19 (23):1994-1997. doi: 10.1016/ j.cub.2009.09.064. Merriam, Alan P. 1964. The anthropology of music. Evanston, Il.: Northwestern University Press. Miller, Geoffrey F. 2000. "Evolution of human music through sexual selection." In The origins of music, edited by N. Wallin, B. Merker and S. Brown, 329-360. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Mithen, Steven J. 2005. The singing Neanderthals: The origins of music, language, mind and body. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson. Nattiez, Jean-Jacques. 1990. Music and discourse: Toward a smiology of music. Translated by Carolyn Abbate. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Original edition, Musicologie générale et sémiologie. Palincsar, A Sullivan. 1998. "Social constructivist perspectives on teaching and learning." Annual Review of Psychology no. 49:345-375. Phillips, D.C. 1995. "The good, the bad, and the ugly: The many faces of constructivism." Educational Researcher no. 24 (7):5-12. doi: 10.3102/0013189X024007005. —. 1997. "How, why, what, when, and where: Perspectives on constructivism in psychology and education. ." Issues in Education no. 3 (2):151-195. Pinker, Steven. 1997. How the mind works. New York: Norton. Rauscher, Frances H, Gordon L Shaw, and Katherine N Ky. 1993. "Music and spatial task performance." Nature no. 365:611. —. 1995. "Listening to Mozart enhances spatial-temporal reasoning: Towards a neurophysiological basis." Neuroscience Letters no. 185 (1):44-47. Salimpoor, Valerie N, Mitchel Benovoy, Kevin Karcher, Alain Dagher, and Robert J Zatorre. 2011. "Anatomically distinct dopamine release during anticipation and experience of peak emotion to music." Nature Neuroscience no. 14 (2):257-262. doi: 10.1038/nn.2726. Simonton, Dean Keith. 1994. Greatness: Who makes history and why. New York: Guilford. Skinner, Burrhus Frederick. 1938. The behaviour of organisms: An experimental analysis. New York: Appleton-Century. —. 1948. Walden two. New York: Macmillan. —. 1968. The technology of teaching. New York: Appleton-CenturyCrofts. Small, Christopher. 1977. Music, society, education: A radical examination of the prophetic function of music in Western, Eastern and African cultures with its impact on society and its use in education. London: Calder.

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—. 1998. Musicking: The meanings of performing and listening. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press. Thorndike, Robert L, Elizabeth P Hagen, and Jerome M Sattler. 1986. The Stanford-Binet intelligence scale. 4th ed. Chicago: Riverside Publishing. Turino, T. 2008. Music as social life: The politics of participation. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Weng-Chung, Chou. 1967. "Edgard Varèse [1885-1965]. Excerpts from lectures by Edgard Varèse, compiled and edited with footnotes by Chou Wen-Chung." In Contemporary composers on contemporary music, edited by Elliot Schwartz and Barney Childs, 195-208. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston. Whiteman, Peter, and Patricia Shehan Campbell. 2012. "Picture it! Young children conceptualizing music." In Musical childhoods of Asia and the Pacific, edited by Chee Hoo Lum and Peter Whiteman, 161-189. Charlotte, NC: Information Age.

CHAPTER THREE IMAGE, ACCESS AND OPPORTUNITY: CHILDREN WITH DOWN SYNDROME AS READERS KATHY COLOGON

Introduction This chapter explores different images of children with Down syndrome and the influence that these images have on expectations and, therefore, opportunities available to children to learn to read. Reading is one of the most complex of human activities, and can be an important source of information, education, shared communication, participation and – for many – a source of great pleasure. Unsurprisingly then, learning to read is a major educational focus related to young children in Australia and internationally. With reading instruction viewed by many as the “bedrock” responsibility of schools, lack of reading ability has long been viewed not only as a failure of schools but also as a “life-sentence” resulting in a reduction of opportunities and life choices (Kliewer and Landis 1999, 86). However, many individuals are still denied access to opportunities that enable them to learn to read. This chapter considers reading development in children who have Down syndrome, with particular regard to the differing images of children who have Down syndrome and the ways in which these images impact on expectations and the subsequent literacy learning opportunities that are provided. There are multiple perspectives on how children with Down syndrome learn to read and what learning opportunities or instructional approaches are optimal. However, much research has focussed on a limited sight word or functional reading approach. In considering the research in this area, I will outline and discuss a range of different approaches to reading instruction that have been used. In reviewing the research in this chapter, I

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seek to address the question of whether unnecessary limitations are being placed on reading development in children with Down syndrome. I also question whether children with Down syndrome are being excluded from learning to read for pleasure. The chapter begins with a brief historical overview of education for children with Down syndrome, followed by consideration of the current expectations of children with Down syndrome as readers. The major empirical findings relating to reading development in children with Down syndrome are then discussed. The chapter concludes with discussion of images of children with Down syndrome as readers, including factors that are essential in ensuring that learning opportunities are not restricted. At the outset it is important to draw attention to the individuality of every person who has Down syndrome. Sharing a genetic difference, and some of a range of its effects, does not negate individuality. Contrary to common myths, people with Down syndrome are not “always happy”, nor “stubborn”, nor always the recipient of help rather than the helper. In reality, a person with Down syndrome is simply a person who – like anyone else – engages with complex and varied, positive and negative, experiences that make up a life. While in this chapter I will refer to children who do or do not have Down syndrome as distinct groups, this is not in any way intended to negate, or make light of, the individuality of every person, whether or not she or he happens to have Down syndrome. Research on reading development in children with Down syndrome comes from a range of disciplines. In the main, the research discussed in this chapter draws from the fields of education, psychology and linguistics.

A brief history of educational opportunities for children with Down syndrome Prior to the late 1970s and 1980s, the prevailing image of individuals with Down syndrome (held by a wide range of professionals and family members) was as “ineducable” and providing opportunities for learning to read was therefore not even contemplated (Bochner, Outhred and Pieterse 2001; Buckley, Bird and Byrne 1996; Smith 2011). As recently as 25 years ago, children with Down syndrome were often denied formal education (Smith 2011). Among the few notable exceptions is Nigel Hunt, who was taught to read and write by his parents, attended mainstream schools in the 1950s and 1960s, and published a self-authored book about

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his life, The world of Nigel Hunt: The diary of a mongoloid youth (Hunt 1967). (At the time that this book was published, people with Down syndrome were referred to as “mongol’s” or “mongoloid”.) Other notable exceptions include Sarah Duffen, who was taught to read by her father and attended her local mainstream school in the early 1970s (Buckley and Johnson-Glenberg 2008; Duffen 1976). There were also educational programs for children with Down syndrome at the University of Washington in the United States, and at Macquarie University in Australia in the 1970s and 1980s (Hayden and Dmitriev 1975; Pieterse 1988); and early research by Sue Buckley and colleagues in the United Kingdom (Buckley 1985). Over the past few decades, recognition of the educational capacity of children with Down syndrome, including their ability to learn to read, has increased (Bochner et al. 2001; Buckley et al. 1996). In 1996 Brown wrote: For the first time teachers, and more particularly parents, no longer need to view children with Down syndrome as people who will spend a few years at school and die at an early age, but rather as individuals who need to learn as much as possible in order to gain social, vocational and allied skills to compete as adults in the community. (Brown 1996, 436)

Despite a growing body of evidence demonstrating the educational capacity, including reading ability, of children with Down syndrome (e.g. Byrne et al. 1995; Laws et al. 1995; Pieterse and Center 1984), the myth that children with Down syndrome cannot learn to read continued to be believed by many within the field of education into the 1990s and beyond (Kliewer 2008). For example, in research commencing in the mid 1990s focussed on supporting primary school teachers to individualise literacy instruction beyond stereotypical or institutional understandings, Kliewer and Landis (1999, 89) report a teacher’s observation: We just assumed he couldn't read because he was Down's. There was this assumption—always for the kids with severe disabilities—they're not going to be able to read; they're not going to be able to write. I bought into that.

As the images of children with Down syndrome have evolved, educational opportunities have improved in Australia and elsewhere (Bochner et al. 2001; Buckley et al. 1996). While children with Down syndrome were considered “ineducable” and then “trainable” only a few decades ago, it is

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now widely recognised that children with Down syndrome have considerable educational potential (Buckley and Johnson-Glenberg 2008; Kliewer 2008). Past exclusion from educational opportunities has been replaced with widespread adoption of inclusive education, within mainstream schools, as the most appropriate and beneficial educational placement (Buckley 2001; Kliewer 2008). This is consistent with research evidence demonstrating the benefits of inclusive education—as compared to segregated special education—on the language, social and academic outcomes for children with Down syndrome (e.g. Bochner and Pieterse 1996; Buckley et al. 2006; Laws, Byrne and Buckley 2000). As these improvements in available educational opportunities have increased, so too have the reading levels of individuals with Down syndrome (Bochner et al. 2001; Buckley 2001; Buckley et al. 2006). However, educational opportunities, including reading instruction, remain frequently and unnecessarily limited (Buckley and Johnson-Glenberg 2008). Factors influencing these limited educational opportunities will be discussed in the following two sections.

Current images of children with Down syndrome as readers Expectations affect opportunities. When Nigel Hunt was born, in 1947, his parents were told that because he had Down syndrome he could not be educated and they were advised to put him into an institution. In the forward to his son’s book, Douglas Hunt wrote: About a fortnight after Nigel’s birth, his mother and I were told that no matter how much trouble we went to, and no matter how much love and care we gave Nigel, he would be an idiot and that nothing we could do would alter that fact. If we had accepted this, it would have become true (Hunt 1967, 22).

The image presented to them of Nigel was not of the reader and writer that he became. Having been taught to read and write by his parents and having taught himself to type, Nigel began writing his book when he was 17. The negative impact of low expectations and a lack of reading instruction on the reading outcomes of children with Down syndrome has been raised in regards to low reading scores in a range of studies (Cologon, Cupples and Wyver 2011; Fletcher and Buckley 2002; Kay-Raining Bird, Cleave and McConnell 2000). Prior to participation in reading intervention research that I conducted in Australia with children aged between 2 and 12

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years, parents said that their children had never been provided with reading instruction or literacy learning opportunities, including one child who had been attending a special education primary school for more than three years – a time during which reading instruction is strongly emphasised in mainstream educational settings (Cologon 2008). For many children, reading instruction had been restricted to a limited functional sight word reading approach. The limited or absent literacy learning opportunities were reflected in the very low reading scores for these children at the commencement of the research. However, all children made significant progress with their reading development during the reading intervention. Lack of reading instruction has also been shown to be related to educational placement, with children who are placed in inclusive (mainstream) settings far more likely to demonstrate reading achievement, or a higher level of reading achievement, than children who are placed in segregated (special education) settings (Bochner et al. 2001; Buckley et al. 2006; Kliewer 2008; Laws et al. 2000). In contrast to the past and present images of children with Down syndrome as capable of only limited educational potential, educators and researchers such as Sue Buckley and her colleagues at the Sarah Duffen Centre in Portsmouth in the United Kingdom (among others) provide an alternative image of children with Down syndrome as readers. Through research and practice since the early 1980s, Buckley and colleagues have demonstrated that children with Down syndrome can learn to read for pleasure. While some children and adults with Down syndrome do not currently read to a level sufficient to engage in reading for pleasure, it remains unclear whether this is outside of the ability of these individuals or whether reading instruction has not been appropriate (or available). In the words of Sue Buckley (2001, n.p.): “The only way to find out what level of literacy each child is able to achieve is to give him or her every opportunity to learn, with well-planned teaching activities from preschool years to adult life”. “Functional” and sight word reading. Take a moment and think about all the ways in which you used your reading abilities in the course of the day today – right up until this moment as you read these words. Now imagine you were taking a trip to a country where you do not speak and cannot read the language. Think about the words you might learn to read in that language; for example, key information for getting around, staying out of danger and ordering food. Reading these words would be important and helpful, but would not enable you to pick up a book or a newspaper and

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read it. If you decided to migrate to that country you would want to learn to read a great deal more – you would try to become literate in that language. Being a tourist or migrating to a new country would alter your learning approach and the extent of your learning. For most children when they are learning to read, the intention is that they become fully literate over time. However, for children with Down syndrome (and other intellectual disabilities) when opportunities for learning to read are provided these are frequently limited to an approach that is more like that of a tourist. This approach is referred to as “functional reading” or “sight word reading”. An emphasis on a functional or sight word approach to reading instruction is frequently reported in research (e.g. Conners 2003; Cossu, Rossini and Marshall 1993; Fidler, Most, and Guiberson 2005). This limited approach to reading instruction for children with Down syndrome is in direct contrast to the focus of reading instruction for the broader population. The strong empirical evidence supporting the role of phonological and phonemic awareness, as well as naturalistic and explicit exposure to print and storybook reading, has resulted in an emphasis on approaches to reading instruction that incorporate these elements and work towards full mastery of independent reading for the general population in Australia and elsewhere (Adams 1990; Mol and Bus 2011; Snow 2005). Given the discrepancy between the focus of reading instruction for the broader population and the focus for children with Down syndrome, it is important to question why this is the case, and what image is prevalent in this emphasis. Functional reading instruction typically involves limiting reading instruction to teaching sight word recognition of key words that are considered essential for independent functioning (Kliewer 2008; Mirenda 2003). For example, words like “danger”, “exit”, “stop”, “toilet”, “male” and “female”. While functional reading is important as one component of reading, taken as a major focus it constitutes a severely limited view of reading. An over-emphasis on functional reading comes at the expense of supporting the development of reading ability for communication, education, participation and pleasure, within which the functional aspects of literacy are only one component (Mirenda 2003). Kliewer and Biklen (2001) argue that an emphasis on functional reading severely limits children’s reading development and removes the opportunity for critical thinking, interaction and abstract communication. Mirenda (2003) argues that a focus on functional reading reinforces the belief that children who experience disability are unable to become

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readers. Without instruction aimed at learning the alphabetic principle, an individual is unlikely to progress beyond a basic level of reading (KayRaining Bird et al. 2000). Given these concerns regarding an emphasis on functional or sight wordonly reading instruction and the lack of reading instruction made available to children with Down syndrome, even today, the question needs to be asked – is this limited view of the reading capacity of children with Down syndrome appropriate or necessary? To address this question, research evidence regarding the reading capacity of children with Down syndrome is considered in the next section.

Reading development in children with Down syndrome: Major findings In some research studies, reading ability in children with Down syndrome is reported to lag far behind what would be expected based on chronological age (Trenholm and Mirenda, 2006). However, a growing body of research provides evidence that children with Down syndrome are capable of developing reading ability at or beyond the level expected based on chronological age (Buckley and Johnson-Glenberg 2008; Cologon 2008; Groen et al. 2006; Pieterse and Center 1984). The amount and type of reading instruction provided is clearly a mediating factor and, as discussed above, it is clear that the past assumption that children with Down syndrome were not capable of learning to read has negatively influenced opportunities for learning and therefore outcomes in terms of reading ability. Numerous theories have been proposed and examined over time in an effort to explain and understand reading and reading development. While there is no one universally accepted theory, there are some factors that are generally accepted as important to the process. Understanding and background knowledge of the world and associated vocabulary, phonological and phonemic awareness, exposure to and experience with print and storybook reading, letter-sound knowledge and understanding of the alphabetic principle are all important for reading development (Snow 2005; Snow and Juel 2005). It has been hypothesised that once children develop sufficient phonological decoding and recoding skills they become able to self-teach recognition of new words (Share 1999).

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While reading research in general has a long history, as noted earlier in this chapter research examining reading development in children with Down syndrome is a relatively contemporary phenomenon. It is only in the past two decades that any level of reading development has come to be viewed more widely as a realistic goal for children who have Down syndrome (Kay-Raining Bird et al. 2000; Smith 2011). Theories of developmental reading are often based on concepts of staged development in which each stage is dependent on mastery of the preceding stages (e.g. Chall 1983; Ellis and Large 1988). However, it has been argued that an understanding of reading development as a process by which children are expected to develop reading ability in a linear fashion is unlikely to be appropriate to guide reading instruction for children with Down syndrome due to the different or uneven nature of development for many children (Buckley 2001). Waiting for a child to master prerequisite skills, “reading readiness”, or achieve a prescribed level of competence in a lockstep fashion before moving on to the next teaching step may inhibit, rather than enhance, reading development. In the general population it has long been known that individual differences in reading ability are influenced by cognitive ability, oral language and visual and auditory short-term memory (Ellis and Large 1988). These factors have also been found to influence individual variation in reading ability in children with Down syndrome (Buckley and JohnsonGlenberg 2008; Laws and Gunn 2002; Ricci 2011). Notably, however, the development of letter-sound knowledge, word reading ability and understanding of print concepts depends more on print exposure over time than on cognitive ability per se (Ricci 2011). For children who have Down syndrome, lack of reading instruction has inevitably contributed to limited reading development in the past and, for many children, continues to do so in the present day (Buckley and Johnson-Glenberg 2008). Beyond a lack of reading instruction, the limited types of reading instruction available may also provide one potential explanation for the limited reading achievement in some children. In the past, early demonstration of reading by children with Down syndrome was met with the suggestions that children who have Down syndrome do not comprehend what they are reading and are simply recalling memorised sequences of letters by rote, with no connection to meaning (Buckley 1985). But, while it appears that reading comprehension

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often lags behind word identification skills, research provides compelling evidence demonstrating that children with Down syndrome can, and do, comprehend what they are reading (Buckley and Johnson-Glenberg 2008; Cologon et al. 2011; Groen et al. 2006). Consistent with a developmental model of reading, print exposure, through engagement in a wide range of meaningful, contextualised, personally relevant and enjoyable literacy experiences, has been found to be essential to learning to read for children with and without Down syndrome (Buckley 2001; Evans and Shaw 2008; Mol and Bus 2011). As discussed above, a sight word reading approach has been widely recommended by researchers and educators for quite some time. While recognising words on sight is important as one element of the reading process (Coltheart 2005), the emphasis on sight word reading instruction has generally been to the exclusion of any other form of reading instruction. One reason for the emphasis on sight word reading instruction is the relative strength in visual processing and common difficulty that children with Down syndrome experience with auditory short-term memory, and the difficulties this may pose for developing phonological awareness and phonic decoding skills (Fidler et al. 2005). However, research in the past decade has increasingly demonstrated the benefits of reading instruction focussed on phonological awareness and phonic decoding skills, regardless of auditory short-term memory or the prior establishment of a sight word vocabulary (e.g. Burgoyne et al. 2012; Cologon et al. 2011; Cupples and Iacono 2002; Goetz et al. 2008; van Bysterveldt, Gillon, and Moran 2006). It is also interesting to note that in his own memories of learning to read, Nigel Hunt describes his mother engaging him in games through which he developed his letter-sound knowledge and phonic decoding skills (Hunt 1967). In Australia, in addition to the early pioneering research conducted by Moira Pieterse and colleagues (e.g. Pieterse and Center 1984; Pieterse 1988) and research with adults who have Down syndrome (e.g. Morgan, Moni and Jobling 2004), in the past decade there has also been intervention research investigating effects of reading instruction focussed on the development of phonological and phonemic awareness and phonic decoding skills. Cupples and Iacono (2002) investigated the benefits of analytic reading instruction (focussed on phonological awareness and phonic skills) compared with sight word reading instruction for children with Down syndrome aged between 8 and 12 years. The results of this study provided evidence that, while both forms of reading instruction

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resulted in improvements for reading the specifically-trained words, only the children who were given analytic instruction with a focus on phonological awareness were able to generalise reading skills to demonstrate reading ability for untrained words. In intervention research with colleagues (Cologon et al. 2011), extending on the research conducted by Cupples and Iacono (2002) and other researchers, I found that reading instruction focussed on developing phonology as well as word and sentence reading resulted in significant improvements in reading ability of children aged between 2 and 12 years with Down syndrome. This research examined the “phonological linkage hypothesis”, which is the theory that training phonological or reading skills in isolation is not as effective as providing reading instruction where the two are combined (Hatcher, Hulme and Ellis 1994). In particular, the children in this study showed significant improvements in word and nonword reading, word and passage comprehension, letter-sound knowledge, phonic decoding skills and phonological awareness (Cologon et al. 2011). This reading intervention emphasised instruction intended to assist with the development of phonological and phonemic awareness and phonic decoding skills. Taken together, evidence of the benefits of instruction focussed on phonological and phonemic awareness and phonic decoding skills, coupled with the importance of meaningful, contextualised, personally relevant and enjoyable literacy experiences, points to the need to provide educational opportunities without the limitations of a functional or sight word-only approach to reading instruction. Consistent with this argument, the research findings discussed in this section have also resulted in an emphasis on the importance of a balanced approach to reading instruction for children with Down syndrome in the literature (Al Otaiba and Hosp 2004; Buckley and Johnson-Glenberg 2008; Morgan et al. 2004). An approach that is more balanced may enable so-called “non-readers” to learn to read. Given the mounting evidence demonstrating the capacity of children with Down syndrome to develop phonological and phonemic awareness and phonic decoding skills, can a continued focus on a functional and sight word approach be justified or does this reflect an image of children with Down syndrome that is unnecessarily limited?

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Children with Down syndrome as readers Based on the research evidence now available, there is no doubt that children with Down syndrome are capable of developing advanced reading ability. At the same time, it is clear that the learning opportunities provided to young children are a determining factor in the level of a child’s reading development. The research evidence considered in this chapter demonstrates how one of the images of children with Down syndrome has served as a significant barrier to reading instruction from which they can clearly benefit. A willingness of some parents and researchers to challenge a prevailing image of children with Down syndrome has played a critical role in changing access to reading instruction and—coupled with the subsequent reading ability demonstrated by people who have Down syndrome—has, in turn, led to a revision of the “ineducable” image. As noted at the start of this chapter, reading is an important source of information, education, shared communication and participation; it can also be a source of great pleasure. Children with Down syndrome can learn to read for pleasure if they are provided with holistic learning opportunities including a focus on development of phonological and phonemic awareness, phonic decoding skills and meaningful, personally relevant print exposure and storybook reading. However, unnecessary limitations have been placed on reading development in children with Down syndrome in the past. Low expectations and a lack of literacy learning opportunities may prevent children with Down syndrome from learning to read to the fullest extent possible, including reading for pleasure. Based on the evidence discussed in this chapter, it can be concluded that limited literacy learning opportunities and expectations are neither appropriate nor necessary. When Nigel Hunt’s book was published in 1967, his father was concerned that those reading the book simply would not believe that Nigel wrote it himself. However, he also hoped that Nigel’s book would encourage others to provide children with Down syndrome with educational opportunities (Hunt 1967). Nigel’s story is now one of many, many examples of the importance of viewing all children as readers and, as such, providing opportunities for learning that are not restricted by unnecessarily limited images. Nigel’s book was influential in helping to bring the field forward to the point that it could be recognised. However, Nigel’s book is so much more than this. Through his book, Nigel shares with all its readers

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a snapshot of his journey through the experience of life, complete with humour, pain and nods to The Beatles! Nigel’s capacity to read and write is exceptional, given the image and expectations of people with Down syndrome in Nigel’s younger years. In Nigel’s words “all our friends were amazed and pleased with me when I began to read properly from books” (Hunt 1967, 98). What was exceptional about Nigel was not his capacity to read and write, but the fact that he was given the opportunity to do so.

References Adams, Marilyn J. 1990. Beginning to read: Thinking and learning about print. Cambridge MA: MIT Press. Al Otaiba, Stephanie and Michelle Hosp. 2004. “Providing effective literacy instruction to students with Down syndrome.” Teaching Exceptional Children 36: 28-35. Accessed December 1, 2011 http://www.cec.sped.org/. Bochner, Sandra, Lynne Outhred and Moira Pieterse. 2001. “A study of functional literacy skills in young adults with Down syndrome.” International Journal of Disability Development and Education 48(1): 67-90. doi: 10.1080/10349120120036314. Bochner, Sandra and Moira Pieterse. 1996. “Teenagers with Down syndrome in a time of changing policies and practices: Report on a study of the progress of NSW students who were born between 1971– 1978.” International Journal of Disability, Development and Education 43: 75–95. doi: 10.1080/0156655960430106. Brown, Roy. 1996. “Growing Older: Challenges and Opportunities.” In New approaches to Down syndrome, edited by Brian Stratford and Pat Gunn, 436-450. London: Cassell. Buckley, Sue J. 1985. “Attaining basic educational skills: Reading writing and number.” In Current approaches to Down syndrome, edited by David Lane and Brian Stratford, 315-343. London: Holt Saunders. —. 2001. “Reading and writing for individuals with Down syndrome - An overview.” Down Syndrome Issues and Information. doi: 10.3104/ 9781903806098. Buckley, Sue J., Gillian Bird, and Angela Byrne. 1996. “Reading acquisition by young children with Down syndrome.” In New approaches to Down syndrome, edited by Brian Stratford and Pat Gunn, 268- 279. London: Cassell. Buckley, Sue J., Gillian Bird, Ben Sacks, and Tamsin Archer. 2006. “A comparison of mainstream and special education for teenagers with

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Down syndrome: Implications for parents and teachers.” Down Syndrome Research and Practice 9(3):54-67. doi: 10.3104/reports.295. Buckley Sue J., and Mina C., Johnson-Glenberg. 2008. “Increasing literacy learning for individuals with Down syndrome and fragile X syndrome.” In Communication and language intervention series: Speech and language development and intervention in Down syndrome and Fragile X Syndrome, edited by Joanne E. Roberts, Robin S. Chapman and Steven F. Warren, 233-254. Baltimore: Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co. Burgoyne, Kelly, Fiona J. Duff, Paula J. Clarke, Sue Buckley, Margaret J. Snowling and Charles Hulme. 2012. “Efficacy of a reading and language intervention for children with Down syndrome: a randomized controlled trial.” Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry. (online Early View) doi: 10.1111/j.1469-7610.2012.02557.x. Byrne Angela, Sue J. Buckley, John MacDonald and Gillian Bird. 1995. “Investigating the literacy, language and memory skills of children with Down syndrome.” Down Syndrome Research and Practice 3(2):53-58. doi: 10.3104/perspectives.9. Chall, Jeanne S. 1983. Stages of reading development. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill. Cologon, Kathy. 2008. “Phonological awareness and ‘silent reading’: the benefits of intervention and early intervention in reading for children who have Down syndrome.” PhD diss., Macquarie University. Cologon, Kathy, Linda Cupples, and Shirley Wyver. 2011. “Effects of targeted reading instruction on phonological awareness, phonic decoding and reading comprehension in children with Down syndrome.” American Journal on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities 116(2):111-129. doi: 10.1352/1944-7558-116.2.111. Coltheart, Max. 2005. “Modeling reading: The dual-route approach” In The science of reading: A handbook, edited by Margaret J. Snowling and Charles Hulme, 6-23. Oxford, United Kingdom: Blackwell. Conners, Frances A. 2003. “Reading skills and cognitive abilities of individuals with mental retardation.” International Review of Research in Mental Retardation 27: 191–229. Accessed January 2, 2012 http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/bookseries/00747750. Cossu, Giuseppe, F. Rossini, and John C. Marshall. 1993. “When reading is acquired but phonological awareness is not: A study of literacy in children with Down syndrome.” Cognition 46:129–138. doi: 10.1016/0010-0277(93)90016-O. Cupples, Linda and Teresa Iacono. 2002. “The efficacy of ‘whole word’ versus ‘analytic’ reading instruction for children with Down syndrome.”

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Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal 15:549–574. doi: 10.1023/A:1016385114848. Duffen, Leslie. 1976. “Teaching reading to children with little or no language.” Remedial Education 11(3):139-142. Ellis, Nick and Barbara Large. 1988. “The Early Stages of Reading: A Longitudinal Study.” Applied Cognitive Psychology 2:47–76. doi: 10.1002/acp.2350020106. Evans, Mary A, and Deborah Shaw. 2008. “Home grown for reading: Parental contributions to young children's emergent literacy and word recognition.” Canadian Psychology 49:89-95. doi: 10.1037/07085591.49.2.89. Fidler, Deborah J., David E. Most, and Mark M. Guiberson. 2005. “Neuropsychological correlates of word identification in Down syndrome.” Research in Developmental Disabilities 26:487–501. doi: 10.1016/j.ridd.2004.11.007. Fletcher, Helen, and Sue J. Buckley. 2002. “Phonological awareness in children with Down syndrome.” Down Syndrome Research and Practice, 8:11–18. doi: 10.3104/reports.123. Goetz, Kristina, Charles Hulme, Sophie Brigstocke, Julia M. Carroll, Louise Nasir, and Margaret J. Snowling. 2008. “Training reading and phoneme awareness skills in children with Down syndrome.” Reading and Writing 21:395–412. doi: 10.1007/s11145-007-9089-3. Groen, Margriet A., Glynis Laws, Kate Nation, and Dorothy V. Bishop. 2006. “A case of exceptional reading accuracy in a child with Down syndrome—Underlying skills and the relation to reading comprehension.” Cognitive Neuropsychology 23:1190–1214. doi: 10.1080/02643290600 787721. Hatcher, Peter J., Charles Hulme, and Andrew W. Ellis. 1994. “Ameliorating early reading failure by integrating the teaching of reading and phonological skills: The phonological linkage hypothesis.” Child Development 65:41–57. doi: 10.2307/1131364. Hayden, Alice H., and Valentine Dmitriev. 1975. The multidisciplinary preschool program for Down’s syndrome children at the University of Washington Model Preschool Center. In Exceptional infant: Assessment and intervention (vol. 3) edited by B.Z. Friedlander, G.M. Sterrit and G.E. Kirk, 193–221. New York: Brunner/Mazel. Hunt, Nigel. 1967. The world of Nigel Hunt: The diary of a mongoloid youth. London: Taplinger. Kay-Raining Bird, Elizabeth, Patricia L. Cleave, and Lyndsay McConnell. 2000. “Reading and phonological awareness in children with Down

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Syndrome: A longitudinal study.” American Journal of SpeechLanguage Pathology 9:319-330. Accessed January 3, 2012 http://ajslp.asha.org/. Kliewer, Christopher. 2008. Seeing all kids as readers: A new vision for literacy in the inclusive early childhood classroom. Baltimore: Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co. Kliewer, Christopher, and Douglas Biklen. 2001. “‘School’s not really a place for reading’: A research synthesis of the literate lives of students with severe disabilities.” Journal of the Association for Persons with Severe Disabilities 26:1–12. doi: 10.2511/rpsd.26.1.1. Kliewer, Christopher, and David Landis. 1999. “Individualizing Literacy Instruction for Young Children with Moderate to Severe Disabilities.” Exceptional Children 66(1):85-100. Accessed October 10, 2011 http://www.cec.sped.org/. Laws, Glynis, Sue J. Buckley, Gillian Bird, John MacDonald, and Ian Broadley, I. 1995. “The influence of reading instruction on language and memory development in children with Down syndrome.” Down Syndrome Research and Practice 3(2):59-64. doi: 10.3104/reports.52. Laws, Glynis, Angela Byrne and Sue J. Buckley. 2000. “Language and memory development in children with Down syndrome at mainstream and special schools: A comparison.” Educational Psychology 20:447457. doi: 10.1080/713663758. Laws, Glynis, and Pat Gunn. 2002. “Relationships between reading, phonological skills and language development in individuals with Down syndrome: A five year follow-up study.” Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal 15(5-6):527-548. doi: 10.1023/A: 1016364126817. Mirenda, Pat. 2003. “‘He's Not Really a Reader’: Perspectives on Supporting Literacy Development in Individuals with Autism.” Topics in Language Disorders 23(4):271-282. doi: 10.1097/00011363200310000-00003. Mol, Suzanne E, and Adriana G Bus. 2011. “To read or not to read: A meta-analysis of print exposure from infancy to early adulthood.” Psychological Bulletin 137(2):267-296. doi: 10.1037/a0021890. Morgan, Michelle, Karen Moni, and Anne Jobling. 2004. “What’s it all about? Investigating reading comprehension strategies in young adults with Down syndrome.” Down Syndrome Research and Practice 9(2):37-44. doi: 10.3104/reports.290. Pieterse, Moira. 1988. “The Down Syndrome Program at Macquarie University: A model early intervention program.” In Early intervention for children with disabilities: The Australian experience, edited by

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Moira Pieterse, Sandra Bochner and Sue Bettison, 81–96. Sydney: Macquarie University. Pieterse, Moira, and Yola Center. 1984. “The integration of eight Down’s syndrome children into regular schools.” Australian and New Zealand Journal of Developmental Disabilities 10:11–20. doi: 10.3109/ 13668258409018662. Ricci, Leila. 2011. “Home literacy environments, interest in reading and emergent literacy skills of children with Down syndrome versus typical children.” Journal of Intellectual Disability Research 55(6):596-609. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2788.2011.01415.x. Share, David L. 1999. “Phonological recoding and orthographic learning: A direct test of the self-teaching hypothesis.” Journal of Experimental Child Psychology 72:95–129. doi: 10.1006/jecp.1998.2481. Smith, Kieron. 2011. “The politics of Down syndrome.” Alresford, Hants: Zero Books. Snow, Catherine E. 2005. “What counts as literacy in early childhood?” In Blackwell Handbook of Early Childhood Development, edited by Kathleen McCartney and Deborah Phillips, 274-294. Maldern: Blackwell Publishing Ltd. Snow, Catherine E., and Connie Juel. 2005. “Teaching children to read: What do we know about how to do it?” In The science of reading: A handbook, Margaret J. Snowling and Charles Hulme, 501–520. Oxford, United Kingdom: Blackwell. Trenholm, Brian, and Pat Mirenda. 2006. “Home and community literacy experiences of individuals with Down syndrome.” Down Syndrome Research and Practice. 10:30-40. doi: 10.3104/reports.303. van Bysterveldt, Anne K., Gail T. Gillon, and Catherine Moran. 2006. “Enhancing phonological awareness and letter knowledge in preschool children with Down syndrome.” International Journal of Disability, Development and Education 53:301–329. doi: 10.1080/10349 120600847706.

CHAPTER FOUR WE CAN DO THAT! USING TECHNOLOGY TO IMPROVE THE SOCIAL PARTICIPATION OF YOUNG PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES ANGELA CRETTENDEN, PARIMALA RAGHAVENDRA AND TOAN NGUYEN

Introduction There are many challenges for young people with disabilities to participate meaningfully at school, home and in the community. Service organisations such as Novita Children’s Services (Novita) provide support to maximise personal potential. Novita is the largest South Australian not-for-profit service provider for children and young people living with physical disabilities and other special needs. The organisation currently provides essential therapy, equipment and family support to more than 2,000 clients – and through broader work with families and communities, has a direct impact on more than 10,000 South Australians. Novita’s stated organisational purpose is to “connect kids with their worlds”, reflecting the primary importance of participation in the lives of children with disabilities. The chapter will summarise evidence relating to the participation of children and young people with disabilities, focusing in particular on use of Information and Communications Technology. The research described will include studies involving children and young people up to 18 years of age. However, emphasis will be on research relating to young people, or those of adolescent age.

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Research tells us that young people with disabilities are vulnerable to developing mental health problems and becoming socially isolated and lonely in later life (Baladin, Berg & Waller 2006; Burns & Blanchard 2010; Einfeld et al. 2006; McVilly et al. 2006). In part, this may be attributable to prevalent public perceptions of disability, for example, that they lack competence to participate and are dependent on others to achieve (Staniland 2009). The chapter will challenge public images of young people with disabilities, showing evidence that with appropriate support and a “can do” attitude they can participate with their peers in today’s digital world. Practice-based multi-disciplinary research, undertaken by current and past Novita staff (including the authors) and focused on understanding and enhancing participation of young people with physical and other disabilities using technologies such as the internet and mobile communications, will be highlighted.

Models of disability and the importance of participation The two most dominant conceptual models which have been used to understand and explain disability are the “medical” model which views disability as a problem of the person caused by a medical condition; and the “social” model which views disability as a socially created problem (WHO 2001). Table 1 highlights the different perspectives of the two models, illustrating very different “images” of disability readily apparent in the public domain. Table 1. Medical versus Social Models of disability ‹•ƒ„‹Ž‹–›‹•ƒ’‡”•‘ƒŽ’”‘„Ž‡ ”‡“—‹”‹‰ǣ Medical care Individual treatment Specialised professional help Personal adjustment Behaviour change Care Health care policies Individual adaptation Source: adapted from WHO, 1997

‹•ƒ„‹Ž‹–›‹•ƒ•‘…‹ƒŽ’”‘„Ž‡ ”‡“—‹”‹‰ǣ Social participation Social action Individual and collective responsibility Environmental manipulation Attitude change Human rights Political action Social change

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In 2001, the World Health Organisation published the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) (WHO 2001). The goal of the International Classification of Functioning was to provide a standardised way of classifying human functioning and disability, and a basis for a common language (Bult et al. 2011). The World Health Organisation recognised the need to synthesise opposing perspectives of disability, presenting a view of health which describes impacts from a biological, individual and social perspective (WHO 2001). Figure 1 illustrates the impact of a health condition or disease on individual functioning, and the complex interactions with personal and contextual factors, including: the person’s age; gender; level of motivation; their lived environment; access to technology; social supports; attitudes; and availability of services.

Figure 1: The ICF biopsychosocial model of disability (WHO 2001)

Importantly, the International Classification of Functioning model emphasised participation, which was defined as “involvement in life situations” (WHO 2001). For young people, including those with disabilities, participation includes involvement in home, school, recreational and social activities; in both formal and informal contexts (King et al. 2006; WHO 2007). Participation is essential to children’s development, health and well-being (King et al. 2003; Law et al. 2007). It is the way in which children and young people learn about their world and develop the

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skills and competencies needed to form relationships with others (King et al. 2003).

Participation of children and young people with disabilities Research undertaken in Australia has found that children and young people with disabilities experience poorer participation outcomes than their peers without disabilities (Raghavendra et al. 2012a; Raghavendra et al. 2011). Further, children and young people with greater functional impairments are more restricted than those with less severe disabilities (Imms 2008). When considering patterns of participation, children and young people with disabilities have been found to spend proportionally more time in activities in an informal rather than formal context, and are less likely to engage in physical activities than their typical peers (Imms et al. 2008; Law et al. 2006; Maher et al. 2007). Further, evidence suggests older children with disabilities participate in fewer activities and with less frequency than younger children with disabilities (Law et al. 2006; Majnemer et al. 2010). While all children reduce their level of physical activity and the range of activities they participate in over time (Aaron et al. 2002; Drummond et al. 2010), adolescents with disabilities are more likely to do activities on their own or with members of their family than with peers, and to undertake activities in the home rather than community settings (Imms et al. 2008; Raghavendra et al. 2011). This has significant implications, as young people with disabilities are at higher risk of becoming socially isolated developing a mental health problem than young people without disabilities (Blanchard, Metcalf and Burns 2007; McVilly et al. 2006; NPDCC 2009). A conceptual model developed by King et al. (2003) is a useful heuristic when considering the factors which may prevent young people with disabilities from participating in social and other activities. These authors suggest there are three types of factors: those relevant to the child; those relevant to the family, and those relevant to the broader contextual environment. Bult et al. (2011) undertook a recent systematic review of research to identify factors relating to the frequency of participation for children and young people with different diagnoses and ages. These authors found the “child” variables of most importance included gross motor function, manual ability, cognitive ability, communicative skills,

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age and gender (Bult et al. 2011). Research undertaken in South Australia has found, for example, children and young people with complex communication needs and physical disabilities engage in out-of-school activities with reduced variety, lower frequency, with fewer partners and in restricted social and environmental contexts in comparison to agematched typical peers and children with physical disabilities without communication difficulties (Raghavendra et al. 2011; Thirumanickam, Raghavendra & Olsson 2011). It is of note that augmentative and alternative communication devices that could aid the communication of the young people in the study were rarely used in the classroom context, leading to limited opportunities to converse and socialise with peers in the classroom (Raghavendra et al. 2012a). Finally, this and other research also highlights the importance of activity preference and child behaviour problems as important “child” predictors of participation (King et al. 2006; King et al. 2003; Law et al. 2007; Majnemer et al. 2010). Relevant “family” predictors of participation of children and young people with disabilities in leisure and recreational activities have been found to include: family participation in social and recreational activities; family cohesion and parent stress (King et al. 2006; Majnemer et al. 2008). A lack of availability of social supports and negative societal attitudes and physical environment are repeatedly found to be key “contextual” barriers to participation of children with disabilities (Imms 2008; King et al. 2006; King et al. 2003; Law et al. 2007).

Information and Communications Technology and social participation There has been a significant shift in the way that young people engage in educational, social and recreational activities in recent years. The internet has become a regular part of the everyday lives of children and young people (ACMA 2009a, 2009b). In particular, social networking tools such as Facebook, MSN Messenger, and MySpace are fast becoming the “norm”, as a way of sustaining and also developing new friendships. In 2009 in Australia, 90% of 12-17 year-olds and 97% of 16-17 year-olds were regular users of social networking services (ACMA 2009b). Mobile phones have also become an extremely important mode of social interaction, particularly for older children (ACMA 2009b), and with the advent of Smartphones are increasingly a way of accessing the internet and social networking sites (Nielson 2012a). In 2009 in Australia, 76% of Australian children 12-14 years had a mobile phone (ABS, 2009). This

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figure increases significantly for older adolescents and young people, with 97% of Australians 16-29 years owning a mobile phone, of which 64% are internet-capable (Nielson 2010). Statistics on the use of mobile phones by children and young people with disabilities are not clear. However, accessibility to mobile communication technologies remains an impediment for people with disabilities of any age (Dredge 2011). Current media reports and research tend to focus on the potential dangers of the internet and social networking services. Considerable attention, for example, has been given to the problem of cyber bullying and the multiple risks of exposure to harmful content, privacy invasion and predation (Heverly 2008; Livingstone & Brake 2010). The prominence and emotional salience of these issues may mean that the potential advantages of young people engaging with Information and Communications Technology can be overlooked. A recent review of current evidence identified a range of significant benefits associated with the use of social networking services (Collin et al. 2011). Broadly, these included opportunities for: the development of media literacy skills not taught in schools; innovative methods for formal education; creative content sharing practices; expression of identity and self-expression; and strengthening and development of interpersonal relationships (Collin et al. 2011).

Information and Communications Technology and young people with disabilities The internet and communications technology is generally thought to hold enormous potential for all people with disabilities, enabling them to escape the stigma and discrimination that can be associated with their disabilities (Blanchard et al. 2007; Ellis & Kent, 2011). Dobransky and Hargittai (2006) for example, describe the most striking benefit of online communication for a person with disabilities as the ability to hide aspects of self. Burns and Blanchard (2010) also suggest the anonymity and privacy of text-based communication bypasses physical boundaries and minimises differences, allowing young people with disabilities to share common interests and express emotions and thoughts without the complexities of face-to-face interactions. This facilitates development of interpersonal relationships, key to experiencing good quality of life and community participation in later life (McVilly et al. 2006). Additionally, Information and Communications Technology promises considerable potential for people with disabilities who are further marginalised by

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geographical isolation (Burns & Blanchard 2010; Dobransky & Hargittai 2006; Wood 2010). Public images arising from a medical model of disability may suggest that young people with disabilities do not share the same desire to use technologies as do young people without disabilities. A recent study undertook to interview young people with disabilities to identify patterns and experiences of using the internet (Raghavendra, et al. 2012c). Results of qualitative analyses found young people with mild to moderately severe levels of physical disability were using the internet for a variety of purposes including schoolwork, leisure, recreation and socialising with their friends. The internet was most helpful in sustaining existing relationships rather than making new online friends, a result which reflects outcomes of surveys of young people without disabilities (Subrahmanyam & Lin 2007). It is important to note that siblings and friends were instrumental in motivating the young people with disabilities to learn how to use the internet. Although Raghavendra et al. (2012c) found clear evidence of internet use in their sample of young people with disabilities, frequency and extent of internet use was found to be limited in comparison to the population of young people in this age group without disabilities. In this study, factors contributing to internet use of the young people with physical disabilities related more to family variables, including availability of resources and parental media literacy. Characteristics of the young person’s disability did have an impact, however, with some in the group requiring help with certain applications, or to type emails or instant messages.

Barriers to use of Information and Communications Technology and social networking services by young people with disabilities Parental perceptions of the additional vulnerability of children and young people with disabilities may indirectly limit opportunities for such young people to engage in Information and Communications Technology and social networking services. Raghavendra et al. (2012c), for example, found parental rules appeared to be rigorous for this group. As well, results of a large-scale Dutch survey of young people showed parents of adolescents with physical disabilities warned their children more about risks of the internet use and had more home rules (Lathouwers, Moor & Dibben 2009).

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While recent data suggest that social networking services are increasingly becoming used by Australian adults (Nielson 2012b) it is still the case that the parents are likely to be less confident and competent in the use of computers and the internet compared to their children. This may lead to suspicion of benefits, and fears that young people are ill equipped to handle the dangers that are present. Recent research in which young people designed and delivered a workshop to parents on the topic of social networking and cyber safety suggested that the young people in the “Living Lab” were much more aware of online risks than assumed by parents (Third et al. 2011). Results of the Raghavendra et al. (2012c) study also suggested a high level of awareness of cyber safety among young people with disabilities, with most knowing or using strategies to protect themselves online. One of the biggest hurdles to the use of Information and Communications Technology by young people with disabilities is physical access. In part, this relates to the fact that the purchase of mobile phones, computers, software and access to the internet is prohibitive for many families which include a person with disability (Dobransky & Hargittai 2006). There is very clear evidence that such families are significantly more likely to have constrained financial circumstances, or be in poverty, than other families in the community (Clarke 2006). It is also the case, though, that even if young people with a disability are able to access the internet there are significant technological barriers in the way of their use of it (Ellis & Kent 2011; Wood 2010). Goggin and Newell (2003) highlight ways in which the needs of people with disability are marginalised by policies and design processes underlying various information and communications technologies. Unfortunately, the predominance of an “ableist” normative world view in the digital field does not appear to have changed since the publication of Goggin and Newell’s seminal work (Ellis & Kent 2011; Wood 2010). It is still the case that accessibility is a significant issue preventing access to the internet, or requiring many young people with disabilities to be dependent on assistive technologies or the assistance of others (Raghavendra et al. 2012c). Finally, it is important to recognise the impact of negative social attitudes or stigma as a hurdle preventing young people using information and communications technologies (Burns & Blanchard 2010; Law et al. 2007). Community ignorance and marginalisation of the needs of young people with disabilities can lead others to assume they do not have the competence (i.e. “can’t do”) or interest to access new technologies, or to take part in

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social networking services. The recent “SHUT OUT” report, prepared as part of the 2009 National Disability Strategy Consultation, for example, found more than half of the submissions made by people with disabilities and their families identified exclusion and negative social attitudes as critical issues which may lead to the experience of social isolation and loneliness (NPDCC 2009).

Novita research supporting young people with disabilities to access Information and Communications Technology Research has always been a significant part of Novita, reflecting a history of both rehabilitation engineering research and development, and clinical research supporting the application of evidence-based practice within Client Services. Novita has a proud history of supporting the use of assistive technology to support the physical functioning and communication of children with disabilities. Evidence shows that assistive technology use impacts positively on children’s development, particularly those with significant disabilities (Hutinger 1994).

Figure 2: Young person using an augmentative and alternative communication device

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Most recently, in collaboration with key partners including researchers from the University of South Australia and Flinders University, Novita has been exploring ways in which information and communications technologies can be used to maximise the participation of children and young people with disabilities. Some of these cutting-edge projects will be highlighted in the remainder of this chapter. The projects will demonstrate what young people with physical and other disabilities “can do” when supported to access Information and Communications Technology and social networking services for the purposes of building social relationships.

Project 1 - Training children and adolescents with physical disabilities to use mobile phones Children with disabilities do not have equitable access to mobile phones and associated technologies. Not only do they experience difficulty typing, handling the phone, or dialling and answering calls, but for those who are unable to speak, the only option is to type messages using whatever parts of their body that is functional (Nguyen et al. 2008). Unfortunately, this places children with disabilities at a significant disadvantage. The ability to independently use telecommunications is now a key aspect of developing and sustaining a person’s social networks and relationships. Parents of teenage children would be acutely aware of the amount of time they spend on the phone to friends as they establish their role and place in their social group. This exploratory study (Nguyen & Garrett, in preparation) aimed to determine the type of training that works best for children with physical disabilities to independently use mobile phones and/or associated technologies to enhance social communication, potentially leading to increased independence and social interaction. The literature provides general guidance for developing training programs; however, training should support learning so that an individual can use the system when the instructional materials are no longer accessible, retain information over time, and generalise knowledge to other similar tasks (Hickman, Rogers & Fisk 2007). Often training that is best for immediate performance is not best for longer-term mastery and learning (Schmidt & Bjork 1992). The study examined two methods of training: guided action and guided attention. Both methods have been proven to benefit both younger and older adults learning to use a novel technology system (Hickman, Rogers & Fisk 2007). With guided action the trainees are told the steps to perform

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and the order in which to perform them. Guided attention directs the trainee’s attention to key aspects of the task, but also requires them to determine what to do to successfully achieve the task.

Methods The study evaluated the effectiveness of the two types of training methods (guided attention and guided action) to support children with physical disabilities to independently use mobile phones that were matched to their needs and capabilities. The study recruited 14 children and adolescents aged 12-18 years (average=14.29 years) with varying physical disabilities including cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy and acquired brain injury. These children had limited or no independent experience with mobile phone use. The children were assigned to each of the training methods in the order they were recruited. All children undertook training on a set of standard tasks to support independent use of the mobile phone, and were tested on these tasks over a period of time. Figure 3 illustrates an example of guided action and guided attention “training” and “test” conditions.

Figure 3. Guided action versus guided attention training

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The outcomes of each training method were compared to determine which method provided better performance and learning. Performance of training method was determined by measuring task completion time and accuracy during training and tests on trained and untrained tasks. Learning is the ability to complete trained tasks without instructional material and ability to perform untrained tasks – a good measure to how well the participant learned the system. A post evaluation of performance and learning of each training method was also taken after all children undertook a 4-week trial of the technology. An evaluation of overall performance and satisfaction of the technology intervention was also performed using the Canadian Occupational Performance Measure (Law et al. 1998), adapted to fit the purpose of this study. The Canadian Occupational Performance Measure is a standardised outcome measure tool designed to detect change in a participant’s self-perception of occupational performance over time.

Findings The study showed that young people with physical disabilities can be successfully trained to independently use mobile phones to enhance communication. For the majority of the participants this was a first-time experience. The children in this study were effective in using the mobile phone to make voice calls and send text messages (their primary communication goals) and other activities such as taking photos, listening to music/radio and playing games during the 4-week trial of the technology. The majority recorded high performance and satisfaction outcomes for the intervention, and rated highly ease of use (average of 9/10) of the phone that was matched to their needs and abilities. Experimental results showed that children who received guided attention training demonstrated consistent improvements in the change of performance between trained and test tasks compared to those who received guided action training. This suggests that children who received guided attention training consistently learned the technology and performed better on tasks when training materials were taken away from them during the tests.

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Figure 4. Study participant receiving guided action training

Comparison of the change in performance between the training and after trial tasks, after a 4-week trial of the technology, showed that the majority of children produced consistent improvements in the performance of tasks for both methods of training. This indicates that the children learnt the technology and performed better as they gained more confidence through practice and usage over time, regardless of the method with which they were trained. Observed factors that could have affected the performance outcomes of the children throughout the study included the level of motivation and enjoyment of tasks. Children who were motivated and enjoyed the tasks learned and performed better with the technology. Fatigue was also contributing factor to the performance outcomes. In summary, young people in this study were effectively trained to independently use the mobile phone to enhance communication, primarily through voice calls and text messaging. Results suggest that guided attention training is more effective in teaching children with physical disabilities to consistently learn new technologies and perform well. The outcomes also suggest that in order to maximise the benefit of learning and

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performance of children with physical disabilities to learn new technologies, training programs should be fun and motivating.

Project 2 – eMentoring project A mentor is someone whose hindsight can become your foresight. —Anonymous

Mentoring is a tried and long-standing approach to assisting individuals to maximise their potential for personal development, in the context of a supportive relationship. Formal mentoring programs, in contrast to the informal mentoring that happens in the natural environment, are characterised by the provision of guidance and support through planned relationships which are purposeful in their focus on the social and learning needs of young people (Hartley 2004). The advantages of mentoring for young people with disabilities have been widely recognised. It is thought to be particularly valuable if mentors also have a disability or close experience of such, and can provide lived experience and advice, or if mentoring is available at key times of developmental transition such as when a young person is moving out of school (Whelley et al. 2003). While mentoring relationships traditionally develop during face-to-face contact, the advent of new technologies has provided opportunities for mentoring support to assist young people with disabilities who are disadvantaged by face-to-face contact (for example, by their lack of mobility, communication or transportation difficulties) or who are further disadvantaged by being geographically isolated. Use of mobile phones, SMS, email instant messaging, and the internet allow mentoring to happen at convenient times, in convenient places, and when the mentor is geographically distant from the mentoree. Novita Children’s Services recognised the potential of Information and Communications Technology to enhance traditional mentoring methodologies and piloted an eMentor Program for young people with acquired brain iunjury during 2008-2010. The electronic mentoring program was the first for the disability sector in Australia at the time, and was guided by an Advisory Committee including several young people with acquired brain injury, and their parents. Acquired brain injury is an “umbrella” term that includes a number of different types of brain injury acquired after birth. Traumatic brain injury,

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for example, arising from an accidental blow to the head from a fall or motor vehicle accident is one of the most common causes of death and disability in childhood (Bruns & Hauser 2003; Keenan & Bratton 2006). The consequences of acquired brain injury, regardless of cause, can be significant and long-standing. Many young people with acquired brain injury experience restriction in participation in home, school and community activities, leading to social isolation and feelings of loneliness (Galvin, Froude & McAleer 2010; Souza et al. 2007). The key purpose of the Novita eMentor program was for volunteer mentors to build supportive relationships with young people with acquired brain injury experiencing or at risk of social isolation, through the use of mobile phones, SMS, email and the internet (including Skype®). The program aimed to assist mentorees identify and achieve personal goals focused on increasing social skills, independence, and/or social and community participation. Goals included learning and practicing use of the different modes of communication.

Method The Novita eMentoring program involved a process of recruiting, comprehensive screening and training of mentors. Where possible, mentors were selected who were: close in age to mentorees (i.e. in their teens or early adulthood); had personal or shared experience with acquired brain injury; had interests that could be shared; and who had access to and were proficient in using information and communications technologies. A rigorous matching process was employed to facilitate the best mentoree/mentor match and pairings underwent a process of contract development undertaken during initial face-to-face contact, involving a family member of the mentoree (usually a parent). The contract set out the parameters of the pairing in terms of mode of communication and time and frequency of contact. A Project Officer employed by Novita coordinated the program and provided support to the mentor and mentoree as needed.

Evaluation outcomes Evaluation of the Novita eMentor program involved a participatory action model, with ongoing feedback together with standardised measure tools at regular intervals (Ellison & Ellison 2011). Analysis of interim evaluation data for nine mentor/mentoree matches reinforced the importance of the relationship between the mentor and mentoree. A good “match”, sustained

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over an extended period of time, facilitated positive outcomes for mentorees. Outcomes included improved social skills, self-esteem and self-confidence as well as enhancing independence, and extending social circles. The use of Information and Communications Technology facilitated the mentoring relationship as expected, allowing considerable flexibility and convenience. Mentorees were eager to develop skills in the use of different modes of communication, as shown by the number of personal goals relating to this. In summary, early outcomes of the Novita eMentor program indicate the value of such a program to support the social and emotional well-being of young people with acquired brain injury. A high level of community interest suggests the longer-term sustainability of eMentorship, and Novita is presently expanding the program to other disability groups. The program highlights the potential of young people with acquired brain injury to “can do”, learning to use Information and Communications Technology to develop social skills and extend their social networks.

An example of how the Novita eMentor program helped one young person with acquired brain injury “can do” to improve his wellbeing and connectedness to friends Sam, a teenager with a traumatic brain injury as a result of a car accident, had returned to school but was struggling to reconnect with his friends and keep up with his academic work. An eMentor match was established with Sarah, a young woman with experience of disability and who worked in a sporting association of which Sam was a member. Sam was unsure about the value of the mentoring relationship at first, but quickly started to enjoy his contact with Sarah, sharing a common interest infootball and sport. Over the course of a year, Sarah helped Sam to learn to use email and SMS on a mobile phone, eventually using these means to communicate regularly with family members and friends. The eMentor relationship supported Sam to develop social skills more generally, for example how to initiate and maintain conversations with others. This in turn led to greater independence and improved self-confidence, helping Sam to negotiate a school placement that suited his needs. By the end of the year it was obvious that he was thriving in this new environment, participating in community activities, and successfully connecting with friends, including a new girlfriend!

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Project 3 - Connective Solutions: Effectiveness of strategies to support the use of the internet to facilitate the social participation of young people with disabilities “Connective Solutions” is an innovative intervention study initiated by Novita Children’s Services (Raghavendra et al 2012b). The study is the outcome of considerable previous research undertaken at Novita, highlighting participation patterns and the potential of Information and Communications Technology and social networking services to improve the social and emotional wellbeing of children with physical and other disabilities (Raghavendra et al. 2011; Raghavendra et al. 2012a; Raghavendra et al. 2012c; Thirumanickam, et al. 2011). Connective Solutions aimed to investigate the effectiveness of strategies to support the use of internet social networking in young people with disabilities. It was hypothesised that successful access to social networking services would enhance social participation, increase social networks and connectedness, and improve self-esteem and overall mental health.

Method Connective Solutions used single group pre-post design in which young people (10-18 years) with a physical disability or acquired brain injury were invited to take part in individualised intervention, focused on personal goals relating to the use of the internet for socialisation and recreation. The intervention provided training around cyber safety and installation of filters, if needed; training to the participant and their family in the identified problem areas; and, where required, supply of equipment or software relevant to specific goals. A number of standardised tools measured change and indicated short-medium term outcomes of the intervention. The Canadian Occupational Performance Measure was used to identify problem areas in using the internet for social networking (Law et al. 1998). Goal Attainment Scaling (Kiresuk & Sherman 1968) was then used to develop goals in problem areas identified on the Canadian Occupational Performance Measure. Examples of goals were: “To learn to use Skype so that I can talk with my grandmother more; To complete 5-15 minutes of independent Facebook-typing using Dragon Naturally Speaking.” Participants were also administered the Beck Self Concept Inventory for Youth (Beck et al. 2005), the Asher Loneliness and Social Dissatisfaction Questionnaire for Children (Asher, Hymel & Renshaw 1984), the Circles of Communication Partners from Social Networks (Blackstone & Hunt Berg 2003). Interviews with the participants and care-

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givers were undertaken to explore their experiences in using the internet for social networking.

Preliminary findings Assessment, intervention and interviews have been completed for eighteen participants. Across these participants, 55 problem areas relating to access and use of the internet for socialising and recreation were identified using the Canadian Occupational Performance Measure, and an average of three goals were set using Goal Attainment Scale. Preliminary analysis of the interviews with participants highlighted the benefits of one-on-one support to ensure that the technology worked, support to ‘have a go’, introduction to disability-appropriate software, and being assisted to increase use of, or learn to use, sites such as Facebook. Families were very positive about the individualised intervention support provided at home. They felt that this increased the confidence and use of the internet for social networking with families and friends, and for school work. Observations of progress showed that using the internet was highly motivating for participants and unexpectedly increased willingness to use written language and develop literacy skills.

An example of how Connective Solutions helped one young person to “can do” - to improve her connectedness to family and friends Kylie is a 16-year-old girl with physical disability and limited speech. On assessment, she wanted to learn to use Skype, but needed appropriate screen reading and word prediction software as her literacy skills were poor. Due to limited speech, the participant was unable to speak on Skype. Her average performance score on the Canadian Occupational Performance Measure before the Connective Solutions intervention was 4.25 and satisfaction score was 5 on a scale of 1 to 10. Following intervention, which included around 10 home visits with one-to-one support over a period of eight months, Kylie used Skype to communicate and keep in touch with her immediate and extended family. This was particularly important because Kylie spent some time in hospital and was unable to talk at all during this period. However, she communicated with her family using sign language and written messages over Skype. Kylie’s mean performance score on the Canadian Occupational Performance Measure increased to 8.25 and her satisfaction score increased to 9.25. The average Goal Attainment Scale score increased from -2 to +1.7 which

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shows that she achieved two of her goals from baseline to well above expected levels, and one goal at above expected levels.

Conclusion Research shows young people with disabilities to be more restricted in their social and leisure activities than young people without disabilities (Imms 2008; Kowalchuk & Crompton 2009; Raghavendra et al. 2012a; Raghavendra et al. 2011). Participation in such activities is essential for well-being (King et al. 2003; Law et al. 2007), suggesting that this may be one reason why young people with disabilities are vulnerable to mental health problems and to experiencing social isolation in later life (Blanchard, Metcalf & Burns 2007; Burns & Blanchard 2010; McVilly et al. 2006; NPDCC 2009). There are many reasons why young people with disabilities do not participate, including negative public images of disability (perceptions that they “can’t” or “shouldn’t”) which can lead to exclusion (NPDCC 2009; Staniland 2009). Family rules, limited parental knowledge and skills about the use of computer and the internet, and restricted family resources may contribute to young people with disabilities’ limited use of the internet and social networking services (Raghavendra et al. 2012c). Accessibility of information and communications technologies, such as mobile phones, is also an ongoing issue for many people with disabilities (Ellis & Kent 2011; Goggin & Newell 2003; Wood 2010). Research showcased in this chapter challenges the assumption that young people with disabilities do not have the interest or skill to independently use information and communications technologies, including mobile phones, SMS, email, and the internet (including social networking services). With appropriate training and support, young people with disabilities can take their part in today’s digital world, harnessing technology to overcome some of the hurdles associated with their disability and becoming better connected with their worlds.

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Acknowledgements The mobile phone training and Connective Solutions projects were grants funded by the Channel 7 Children’s Research Foundation in South Australia. The eMentoring project was funded by a Telstra Foundation Social Innovation Grant.

References Aaron, Deborah. J., Kristi L. Storti, Robert J. Robertson, Andrea M. Kriska, Ronald E. LaPorte, 2002. "Longitudinal study of the number and choice of leisure time physical activities from mid to late adolescence." Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine no. 156:1075-1080. Asher, Steven, Shelley Hymel, and Peter D. Renshaw. 1984. "Loneliness in children." Child Development no. 55:1456-1464. Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). 2009. Children's participation in cultural and leisure activities. Canberra: ABS. Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA). 2009a. Click and connect: Young Australians' use of online social media, 01: Qualitative research report. Canberra: ACMA. —. 2009b. Click and connect: Young Australians' use of online social media, 02: Quantitative research report. Canberra: ACMA. Baladin, Susan, Natalie Berg, and Annalu Waller. 2006. "Assessing the loneliness of older people with cerebral palsy." Disability and Rehabilitation no. 28 (8):469-479. Beck, Judith S., Aaron T. Beck, John J. Jolly, and Robert A. Steer. 2005. Beck Youth Inventories for Children and Adolescents. 2nd ed. Oxford: PsychCorp. Blackstone, Sarah W., and Mary Hunt-Berg. 2003. Social networks: A communication inventory for individuals with complex communication needs and their communication partners-manual & inventory booklet. Monterey, CA: Augmentative Communication Inc. Blanchard, Michelle, Atari Metcalf, and Jane Burns. 2007. Bridging the digital divide: Creating opportunities for marginalised young people to get connected. Melbourne: Inspire Foundation and Orygen Youth Health Research Centre. Bruns, John, and W. Allen Hauser. 2003. "The epidemiology of traumatic brain injury: A review." Epilepsia no. 44 (10):2-10.

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Bult, M.K., O. Verschuren, M.J. Jongmans, E. Lindeman, and M. Ketelaar. 2011. "What influences participation in leisure activities of children and youth with physical disabilities? A systematic review." Research in Developmental Disabilities no. 32:1521-1529. Burns, Jane, and Michelle Blanchard. 2010. Social Participation in Technology (SPiT): A pilot project for young people with a disability. Melbourne: Report for Interchange Loddon Mallee, Interchange Central Gippsland & VicHealth. Clarke, Harriet. 2006. Preventing social exclusion of disabled children and their families. Birmingham: Literature review paper produced for the National Evaluation of the Children's Fund. Collin, Philippa, Kitty Rahilly, Ingrid Richardson, and Amanda Third. 2011. The benefits of social networking services: A literature review. Melbourne: Cooperative Research Centre for Young People, Technology and Wellbeing. Dobransky, Kerry, and Eszter Hargittai. 2006. "The disability divide in internet access and use." Communication, Information and Society no. 9 (3):313-334. Dredge, Stuart 2011. Accessibility is vitally important for people with disabilities and older mobile users. The Guardian 2011 [cited 30 July 2012]. Available from http://www.guardian.co.uk/smart-accessibility/ accessibility-disabilities-older-mobile-users. Drummond, Murray. J. N., Claire E. Drummond, Jim Dollman, Liz Abery, Liz. 2010. "Physical activity from early childhood to adolescence: A literature review of issues and interventions in disadvantaged populations." Journal of Student Wellbeing no. 4 (2):17-31. Einfeld, Stewart L., Andrea M. Piccinin, Andrew Mackinnon, Scott M. Hofer, John Taffe, Kylie M. Gray, Daniel E. Bontempo, Lesa R. Hoffman, Trevor Parmenter, and Bruce J. Tonge. 2006. "Psychopathology in young people with intellectual disability." Journal of the American Medical Association no. 296 (16):1981-1989. Ellis, Katie, and Mike Kent. 2011. Disability & New Media. New York, NY: Routledge Ellison, Caroline, and Philip Ellison. 2011. Novita eMentor program: Evaluation. Adelaide, SA: Novita Children's Services. Galvin, Jane, Elspeth H. Froude, and Jennifer McAleer. 2010. "Children's participation in home, school and community life after acquired brain injury." Australian Occupational Therapy Journal no. 57:118-126. Goggin, Gerald, and Christopher Newell. 2003. Digital disability: The social construction of disability in new media. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.

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Hartley, Robyn. 2004. Young people and mentoring: Towards a national strategy. Sydney: Big Brothers Big Sisters Australia, Dusseldorp Skills Forum and The Smith Family. Heverly, Robert A. 2008. "Growing up Digital: Control and the Pieces of A Digital Life." In Digital Youth, Innovation, and the Unexpected, 199-218. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press. Hickman, Jayme M., Wendy A. Rogers, and Arthur D. Fisk. 2007. "Training older adults to use new technology." Journal of Gerontology no. Series B (1):77–84. Hutinger, Patricia L. 1994. State of practice: How assistive technologies are used in educational programs of children with multiple disabilities. Macomb, IL: US Department of Education. Imms, Christine. 2008. "Children with cerebral palsy participate: A review of the literature." Disability and Rehabilitation no. 30 (24):1867-1884. Imms, Christine, Sheena Reilly, John Carlin, and Karen Dodd. 2008. "Diversity in participation in children with cerebral palsy." Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology no. 50:363-369. Keenan, Heather T., and Susan L. Bratton. 2006. "Epidemiology and outcomes of pediatric traumatic brain injury." Developmental Neuroscience no. 28:256-263. King, Gillian, Mary Law, Steven Hanna, Susanne King, Patricia Hurley, Peter Rosenbaum, Marilyn Kertoy, and Terry Petrenchik. 2006. "Predictors of the leisure and recreation participation of children with physical disabilities: A structural equation modeling analysis." Children's Health Care no. 35 (3):209- 234. King, Gillian, Mary Law, Steven King, Marilyn K. Kertoy, Peter Rosenbaum, and Nancy L. Young. 2003. "A conceptual model of the factors affecting the recreation and leisure participation of children with disabilities." Physical and Occupational Therapy in Pediatrics no. 23 (1):63-90. Kiresuk, Thomas, and Robert Sherman. 1968. "Goal attainment scaling: A general method of evaluating comprehensive community mental health programs." Community Mental Health Journal no. 4:443-453. Kowalchuk, Krista, and Susan Crompton. 2009. Social participation of children with disabilities. Ottawa: Statistics Canada Lathouwers, Karen, Jan de Moor, and Robert Dibben. 2009. "Access to and use of Internet by adolescents who have a physical disability: A comparative study." Research in Developmental Disabilities no. 30:702-711. Law, Mary, Sue Baptiste, Anne Carswell, Mary A. McColl, Helene Polatajko, and Nancy Pollock. 1998. Canadian Occupational

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Performance Measure. 2nd ed. Ottawa, ONT: CAOT Publications ACE. Law, Mary, Gillian King, Susanne King, Marilyn Kertoy, Patricia Hurley, Peter Rosenbaum, Nancy Young, and Steven Hanna. 2006. "Patterns of participation in recreational and leisure activities among children with complex physical disabilities." Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology no. 48:337-342. Law, Mary, Theresa Petrenchik, Gillian King, and Patricia Hurley. 2007. "Perceived environmental barriers to recreational, community, and school participation for children and youth with physical disabilities." Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation no. 88:1636-1642. Livingstone, Sonia., and David R. Brake. 2010. "On the rapid rise of social networking sites: New findings and policy implications." Children and Society no. 24 (1):75-83. Maher, Carol A., Marie T. Williams, Tim Olds, and Alison E. Lane. 2007. "Physical and sedentary activity in adolescents with cerebral palsy." Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology no. 49:450-457. Majnemer, Annette, Michael Shevell, Mary Law, Rena Birnbaum, Gevorg Chilingaryan, Peter Rosenbaum, and Chantal Poulin. 2008. "Participation and enjoyment of leisure activities in school-aged children with cerebral palsy." Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology no. 50:751-758. Majnemer, Annette, Keiko Shiako-Thomas, Natahalie Chokron, Mary Law, Michael Shevell, Gevorg Chilingaryan, Chantal Poulin, and Peter Rosenbaum. 2010. "Leisure activity preferences for 6- to12- year old children with cerebral palsy." Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology no. 52:167 - 173. McVilly, Keith R., Roger J Stancliffe, Trevor R. Parmenter, and Rosanne M. Burton-Smith. 2006. "'I get by with a little help from my friends': Adults with intellectual disability discuss loneliness." Journal of Applied Research in Intellectual Disabilities no. 19:191-2003. National People with Disabilities and Carer Council (NPDCC). 2009. SHUT OUT: The experience of people with disabilities and their families in Australia, National Disability Strategy Consultation Report. Canberra: NPDCC and Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs Nguyen, Toan, Rob Garrett, Andrew Downing, Lloyd Walker, and David Hobbs. 2008. "An interfacing system that enables speech generating device users to independently access and use a mobile phone." Technology and Disability no. 20:225-239.

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Nielson. 2010. The Australian Internet and Technology Report -Edition 12. The Nielson Company. Available from http://www.nielsen.com/au/en.html —. 2012a. Australian online consumer report 2011/12. The Nielson Company. Available from http://www.nielsen.com/au/en/newsinsights/reports-downloads/2012/nielsen-australian-online-consumerreport-2011-2012.html —. 2012b. State of the market report. The Nielson Company. Available from http://www.iabaustralia.com.au/images/ uploads/Nielsen__Australian_Online_Landscape_Review_-_January_ 2012_WG_DRAFT_Jan_24th_v5.pdf Raghavendra, Parimala, Rachael Virgo, Cathy Olsson, Timothy Connell, and Alison E. Lane. 2011. "Activity participation of children with complex communication needs, physical disabilities and typically developing peers." Developmental Neurorehabilitation no. 14 (3):145155. Raghavendra, Parimala, Cathy Olsson, Janelle Sampson, Rachael McInerney, and Timothy Connell. 2012a. "School participation and social networks of children with complex communication needs, physical disabilities and typically developing peers." Augmentative and Alternative Communication no. 28 (1):33-43. Raghavendra, Parimala, Denise Wood, Lareen Newman, Emma Grace, Timothy Connell. 2012b. "Can the Internet facilitate the social participation of children with cerebral palsy or acquired brain injury? Preliminary findings." Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology no. 54 (S5):41. Raghavendra, Parimala, Denise Wood, Lareen Newman, and Jan Lawry. 2012c. "'Why aren't you on Facebook?' Patterns and experiences of using the Internet among young people with physical disabilities." Technology and Disability no. 24:149-162. Schmidt, Richard A., and Robert A. Bjork. 1992. "New conceptualizations of practice: Common principles in three paradigms suggest new concepts of training." Psychological Science no. 3:207-217. Souza, Ligia M., Lúcia W. Braga, Gilberto N. Filho, and Georges Dellatolas. 2007. "Quality-of-life: Child and parent perspectives following severe traumatic brain injury." Developmental Neurorehabilitation no. 10 (1):35-47. Staniland, Luke. 2009. Public Perceptions of Disabled People: Evidence from the British Social Attitudes Survey 2009. London: Office for Disability Issues.

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Subrahmanyam, Kaveri, and Gloria Lin. 2007. "Adolescents on the net: Internet use and well-being." Adolescence no. 42:659-677. Third, Amanda, Ingrid Richardson, Philippa Collin, Kitty Rahilly, and Natalie Bolzan. 2011. Intergenerational attitudes toward social networking and cybersafety: A living lab. Melbourne: Cooperative Research Centre for Young People, Technology and Wellbeing. Thirumanickam, Abirami, Parimala Raghavendra, and Cathy Olsson. 2011. "Participation and social networks of school-aged children with complex communication needs: A descriptive study." Augmentative and Alternate Communication no. 27 (3):195-204. Whelley, Teresa. A., Richard Radtke, Sheryl Burgstahler, and Thomas W. Christ. 2003. "Mentors, advisors, role models and peer supporters: Career development relationships with individuals with disabilities." American Rehabilitation no. 27 (1):42-49. Wood, Denise. 2010. "Communicating in virtual worlds through an accessible Web 2.0 solution." Telecommunications Journal of Australia no. 60 (2):19.1-19.15. World Health Organization (WHO). 2001. International classification of Functioning, Disability and Health. Geneva: World Health Organization. —. 2007. International classification of functioning, disability and health: Children and youth version Geneva: World Health Organization.

PART II IMAGES OF ABERRANT BEHAVIOURS

Chapters in this part consider diverse issues, but each contributes to an understanding of the problems confronted when making claims about aberrant behaviour (Little, Thompson) or intervening to prevent continuation of the behaviours (McGrath). It is now well recognised that identification of problem behaviours, accompanied by appropriate interventions, can significantly increase opportunities in children’s lives. Nonetheless, identification and intervention are not as straightforward as would initially appear to be the case. It may seem a commonsense argument that harsh penalties for juvenile offenders will act as a deterrent to further crime. Yet, McGrath’s chapter makes clear that examination of recidivism rates does not support this claim. Chapters by Little and Thompson both point to the misrepresentation of children’s behaviour when an adult-centric perspective is taken. Both authors consider the problem of adults identifying behaviours as not necessary or not in the best interests of children, then seeking to deny children opportunities to participate in those behaviours. These chapters are not only diverse in content, but also in the types of research examined and the process by which conclusions are drawn. All chapters make clear that short media statements (see Image Impact Pyramid), with limited reference to peer reviewed research, drive many of the public debates and continue to have an impact on policy.

CHAPTER FIVE DO HARSH PENALTIES DETER JUVENILE OFFENDING? ANDREW MCGRATH

Introduction The following excerpt comes from the Herald Sun on 10 May 2010: A VIOLENT teenage bandit has been accused of terrorising Melbourne shopkeepers within days of being granted bail on similar charges. The 16-year-old was released from juvenile detention in February after serving 10 months for his part in seven armed robberies in which victims were menaced with tomahawks and knives. Within two days, he allegedly embarked on seven more stick-ups in which staff at bottle shops, supermarkets and pharmacies were threatened with knives and hammers. The youth was granted bail on those charges late last month, partly because delays in DNA processing meant it was unclear when the case could be heard. Within days, he was arrested over an armed hold-up on a liquor store, and is being investigated for three other similar crimes committed within days. "Where does it stop?" one officer said. The Police Association said it was time for the legal system to start coming down harder on the worst of the community's juvenile offenders. "Our view is that our members do an enormous amount of work to bring these people to justice and the courts don't impose penalties in line with the seriousness of those crimes," president Bruce McKenzie said (Herald Sun, 11 May 2010).

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Juvenile crime has long been a concern for policy makers and the public both in Australia and internationally. Calls to “get tougher” on youth crime are a familiar staple of the media. A common concern is that existing penalties for juvenile offenders are too lenient (Cunneen & White 2002). This chapter addresses this controversy by discussing the question of whether harsh penalties can reduce juvenile offending. This will be done in reference to both criminological and psychological theory and research. Although a range of Australian and international literature will be discussed, the focus will be on the situation in Australia, and more specifically, NSW. In particular, the NSW jurisdiction will be used as a case study to illustrate the wider points made in this chapter. In addition, although there is an extensive range of potential penalties open to magistrates in the juvenile justice system in NSW, and indeed in many other jurisdictions, most research and theory has focussed on the impact of custodial sentences on subsequent offending. One reason for this is that imprisonment is clearly a harsher punishment than a bond. The objective distinction between a fine and a supervision order, by contrast, is less clear. The structure of this chapter will be as follows. First, I will describe the NSW Juvenile Justice system. Second, I will outline the theories and methods relevant to investigating whether harsh penalties deter juvenile crime. Third, I will discuss the major empirical findings, focussing on Australian research, but also considering international research. Finally, I will conclude by discussing some alternate justifications for harsh penalties, as well as alternate treatments for young offenders that might be more effective in reducing recidivism.

The NSW Juvenile Justice system Although records remain incomplete, it appears that some 48 of the convicts transported to Australia on the First Fleet were under the age of 18 (Gillen 1989). These 48 young people therefore hold the distinction of being the first juvenile detainees in Australia. In the early years of the new colony, sentences of imprisonment for children were commonplace. For example, John Seymour reports that 20 juveniles were incarcerated in the notorious Darlinghurst gaol between September 1849 and October 1850 (Seymour 1988, 9). Despite the introduction of reformatories throughout the country, juveniles continued to be detained in adult prisons in NSW until the passing of the Neglected Children and Juvenile Offenders Act, which established the NSW Children’s Court in 1905. Indeed, one of the

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primary motivations of this legislation was to ensure that juvenile and adult offenders were dealt with and incarcerated separately, largely because it was believed that such contact could accelerate the young person’s criminal career. Since that time, juvenile detainees in this state have been held in specialised detention centres that at present are administered by Juvenile Justice, which is now part of the NSW Department of Attorney General and Justice. The exception to this is the high security unit at Kariong, which has been administered by the adult Corrective Services Department since 2004. The New South Wales juvenile justice system is typical of juvenile justice systems in other parts of Australia and Western countries, in that it is a combined welfare/justice model, with an emphasis on using juvenile detention as a sanction of last resort. Recent years have seen the introduction of restorative justice principles, in the form of youth justice conferences, a phenomenon reflected in many other juvenile justice systems (Morris & Maxwell 1997; Hayes & Daly 2003; Sullivan & Tifft 2006; Braithwaite 1989). Youth justice conferences provide a forum for victims and offenders to meet to discuss the offence and attempt to repair the damage it caused. The legislation underpinning juvenile justice in NSW (the Young Offenders Act 1997) creates a hierarchy of sanctions for juvenile offending, beginning with a police warning, followed by a formal police caution, then a youth justice conference and finally, referral to the Children’s Court. Notwithstanding the high ideals embodied in NSW Young Offenders Act and similar legislation in other Australian States, the Australian juvenile justice system faces challenges similar to those faced in equivalent jurisdictions in the US and Europe. As elsewhere, there is an ongoing debate about whether courts should be diversionary or interventionist institutions (Zimring 2000; Smith & Jones 2008). Although detention is meant to be a sanction of last resort, more than one in 10 of the juveniles convicted in the NSW Children’s Court receive a custodial sanction (NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research 2011). Over the past four years, the number of juveniles offenders serving detention sentences has risen by 33 per cent across Australia, and by 50 per cent in NSW (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare 2011). The growing use of detention has not been accompanied by a reduction in juvenile offending. Indeed, recent official estimates suggest the rate of juvenile offending has increased (Smith 2010).

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In 2010-2011, 575 young people were admitted to NSW Juvenile Justice Centres after having been sentenced to control orders. On average, 391 young people were held in detention centres each day, although it should be noted that the majority of these were subject to remand orders (NSW Department of Attorney General and Justice 2011). However, although these young people comprised only a minority of all offenders dealt with by juvenile justice (by contrast, 4458 community-based orders commenced in 2010-2011), custodial services accounts for some two thirds of the total Juvenile Justice budget (NSW Department of Juvenile Justice 2009). Given this substantial expenditure, it is worth considering what we are receiving in return. In the next section of this chapter, I will discuss answers to this question that come from criminological theory, as well how one might go about testing the hypothesis that harsher penalties will act to prevent future offending by the young person concerned.

Theories and methods Deterrence theory holds that the actions of the criminal justice system reduce crime. It may be that fear of apprehension and punishment will prevent individuals from engaging in criminal activity; that is, the criminal justice system will exert a general deterrent effect. Alternatively, it may be that experience of punishment will prevent future offending by the sanctioned offender; that is, punishment will exert a specific deterrent effect. Modern deterrence theory has its origins in the so-called classical criminology of Bentham and Beccaria, who argued that punishment will deter future criminal activity when it is certain, severe, and swift (Bentham 1823/1948; Beccaria 1764/1995). This idea was revived in the 1960s by Gary Becker’s economic theory of crime. Becker argued that offenders will commit crimes where the benefits gained from the criminal activity outweigh potential benefits they might accrue from legitimate activities (Becker 1968). The risk of being apprehended and the cost of punishment are two important matters potential offenders take into account when calculating the benefits of criminal activity. If this theory is true, imprisonment will reduce the potential benefit of criminal activity, thus making it less likely. Testing the hypothesis that harsher penalties will reduce crime has proven challenging. The major methodological problem facing researchers investigating this question is selection bias. Magistrates and judges usually

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have good reasons to incarcerate young people. Indeed, for juveniles detention is the last option utilised. What this means is that the young people who are sentenced to control orders usually will have a more serious criminal history, have been convicted of a more serious offence, and exhibit a far greater range of risk factors commonly associated with an increased likelihood of reoffending. Comparing the reoffending rates of these young people with a group sentenced to community-based orders is not valid, because one cannot rule out the possibility that any differences in reoffending patterns are determined by these pre-existing differences, rather than the sentence received. There are a number of ways to address this problem. From a methodological point of view, the best way to avoid selection effects is to randomly assign offenders to either a detention or community order. This approach has been rarely utilised, primarily for ethical reasons. A recent review conducted by Nagin and colleagues, in fact identified only five randomised trials of this type having been conducted anywhere in the world (Nagin, Cullen & Jonson 2009). A more common approach is the use of what are known as regression-based studies. This type of study attempts to equalise the two groups statistically using multivariate regression analyses to account for potentially confounding variables. A problem here is that the researchers can never be sure that the groups are equivalent on factors influencing reoffending. Another method is to match subjects on salient factors and then compare recidivism rates. This can be done directly. That is, researchers will match individuals in the control and treatment groups on factors such as gender, race, criminal history. However, matching subjects directly on more than four or five covariates becomes too complex, which means this methodology is only a limited solution to selection bias. An alternate method is propensity score matching. Here, offenders in the control and treatment group are matched using propensity scores. Propensity scores are defined as an individual’s probability of receiving the treatment (i.e. imprisonment) given a range of observed covariates. Researchers first estimate a statistical model predicting whether an individual received a custodial order or not. Using this, all participants in the study are assigned a propensity score, which is their probability of receiving a detention order, regardless of whether or not they have been imprisoned. Then, using this propensity score, individuals in the treatment group are matched to individuals in the control group. Use of this methodology results in very close matching between the two groups, and short of a randomised trial, is the best way of accounting for selection bias (Apel & Sweeten 2010b).

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Deterrence: Main findings There is general agreement among scholars that the criminal justice system is indeed a deterrent to criminal activity in the community (Nagin 1998; Blumstein, Cohen & Nagin 1978; Cook 1980). How this deterrent effect operates is less clear. This is particularly evident when reviewing research on the impact of custodial sentences on reoffending. Two recent reviews have concluded that imprisonment has either no impact on subsequent offending, or a criminogenic effect (Killias, Villettaz & Zoder 2006; Nagin, Cullen & Jonson 2009). In regard to juvenile offending, there is a curious lack of research on this question, especially when regarding the increasing popularity of this sanction, both in Australia and internationally. In Australia, Kraus conducted three studies using matching techniques, controlling for prior record, conviction offence type, age, and sex, which Nagin et al. (2009) recommend as a bare minimum. In his first study, he compared a sample of 431 juvenile offenders given a sentence of probation with a sample of 665 juvenile offenders placed in an institution. The offenders were matched on age, age at current offence, age at time of first offence, number of previous convictions and number of previous committals to an institution. He found reoffending rates to be generally higher for those given a detention sentence compared to those given a sentence of probation (Kraus 1974). In a later study, he matched first-time offenders on age, type and number of charges, and found no significant differences in re-conviction rates between custody (n = 58) and noncustody (n = 33) groups for any offence (Kraus 1978). Finally, Kraus examined the delinquency rates among 99 juvenile offenders sent to a special school for truancy with delinquency rates among 115 juveniles placed on probation for truancy. In addition to offence type, the two groups were matched on age, sex and prior criminal record. No differences between the two groups in rates of reoffending were observed (Kraus 1981). A more recent regression type study by Weatherburn, Vignaendra and McGrath (2009) compared the reoffending of 156 young people serving custodial orders with 243 who had received community-based sanctions, controlling for a wide range of legal and extra legal factors. Without controls, the detention group had a higher likelihood of reoffending, however, once prior offending was controlled for the two groups, likelihood of reoffending was equivalent. Prior offending was in fact the

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best predictor of reoffending in the study, a result consistent with much previous research (Nagin & Paternoster 2000). Finally, McGrath and Weatherburn (2012) used propensity score matching to compare the reoffending of a group of young people given control orders (n = 376) with a matched group of offenders given communitybased orders. The factors controlled in this study were a mix of legal (date of first court appearance, prior offending, concurrent offences) and extralegal (gender, Indigenous status, socio-economic disadvantage) variables. Although the detention group was slightly less likely to reoffend after matching, this difference was not significant, leading to the conclusion that for this group of offenders detention served little deterrent value (McGrath & Weatherburn 2012). Thus, the limited amount of research conducted in Australia shows little evidence that harsher penalties are a deterrent for juvenile offenders. This conclusion is consistent with the wider literature investigating this question. There have been only two studies conducted using experimental methods to examine the effect of custodial penalties on juvenile reoffending. In the first of these studies, Schneider (1986) compared two groups of juvenile offenders. One group (n = 95) was randomly allocated to weekend detention, while the other (n = 86) was allocated to a “restitution” program. Rates of reoffending were found to be lower in the second group. Unfortunately, there was a breakdown in randomisation, as the presiding judge overruled the random allocation procedure in three per cent of cases allocated to custody, and 11 per cent of cases allocated to restitution. Consequently, it is difficult to interpret Schneider’s results. In the second study, Barton and Butts (1990) found significantly higher rates of offending among juveniles randomly allocated to a home-based rehabilitation program (n = 326) compared to juveniles randomly allocated to a period in custody averaging about 13 months (n = 185). The results for this study were obscured by the fact that the “non-custody” group actually spent an average of about six months in custody during the two year follow-up period. A high-quality matching study of custodial penalties and juvenile reoffending was conducted by Apel and Sweeten (2010a). They used data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (a nationally representative sample of 8,984 youth born during the years 1980 to 1984 and living in the United States during the initial interview year in 1997) to examine the effect of incarceration on employment during the transition to adulthood. As part of

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this analysis they looked at the effect of incarceration on illegal income earning (defined as where the respondent reported receiving cash for stolen items, for selling or fencing stolen property, or for selling or helping to sell drugs). They used propensity score matching and fixed effects models to analyse the data. The propensity score matching analysis revealed no significant effect of custody on illegal income earning, whereas the fixed effect analysis revealed that those placed in custody were marginally more likely to report illegal income earning. In another American study, Wooldredge (1988) investigated whether a number of different court dispositions could be effective in eliminating reoffending among a sample of 2,038 delinquents. Five of these dispositions involved some form of detention, of varying length. Four of these coupled detention with some form of community supervision and treatment. The custody comparisons tested in the study were first, case dismissed (n = 288) vs one month detention (n = 31); second, case dismissed (n = 288) vs one year probation and more than one month detention (n = 18); third, case dismissed (n = 288) vs two years probation and one month detention (n = 79); and fourth, case dismissed (n = 288) vs two years probation and more than one month detention (n = 45). The follow-up periods for all offenders ranged from three to seven years. The data were analysed using both logistic regression (controlling for exposure risk) and lifetable methods, but the results were the same in each case. In one of the four custody comparisons the two groups had equivalent likelihoods of reoffending. In three others, the custody group was less likely to reoffend, although one of these differences was marginally nonsignificant (p = 0.057). In conclusion, research conducted in both Australia and internationally does little to support the proposition that harsher penalties are a deterrent to juvenile offending. However, research of the type reviewed thus far only partially answers the question of whether harsh penalties have an impact on juvenile offenders. It has been argued, with some force, that subjective rather than objective assessments of punishment severity are more fundamental to the deterrence process, recognising that in this sense at least, deterrence is as much a psychological as a social phenomenon (Grasmick & Bryjak 1980; Nagin 1998; Paternoster 1987). If a young person does not perceive their sentence to be severe, even if it is a control order, there is little likelihood that it will serve any deterrent effect. Research investigating this question has taken two major forms: scenario type studies, where participants are presented with a vignette describing

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some type of offending behaviour, and asked to say how they would respond, and survey-based research, where subjective perceptions of the risk and severity of any punishment that might be incurred in the event of criminal activity are compared to self-reported offending behaviour. An example of a scenario type study was conducted by Nagin and Paternoster (1993), who presented a number of undergraduate university students (n = 699) with three scenarios, describing the occurrence of drink-driving, theft, and sexual assault offences. The following is an example of the drink-driving scenario: It’s about two o’clock in the morning and George has spent the night drinking with his friends. He decides to leave and go home to his apartment which is about 10 miles away. George has had a great deal to drink. He feels drunk and wonders if he may be over the legal limit and that perhaps he should not drive home. To get home he knows that he must drive down a busy highway. He also knows that his roommate is home and would be able to pick up his car the next day. He remembers hearing about a police crackdown on drink driving. He decides to drive himself home (Nagin & Paternoster 1993, 477).

The scenario condition was manipulated in a number of ways. The distance to travel home was either one mile or ten miles depending on which condition the participant was in. They either had to travel down a busy highway or by quiet back streets. Their roommate could pick up the car, or would have to walk to get it the next day. Finally, there was a police crackdown on, or there had been cutbacks in police patrols recently. The dependent variable was the participant’s rating of the likelihood of acting in the same way as the scenario character. Multivariate analyses showed that the perceived cost of the offence was a significant determinant of whether the offence would be committed, even while taking self-control and the shame arising from the offence into account, a result consistent with predictions made by deterrence theory. The main problem with this type of research, for the present discussion, is that it mostly involves samples of university students. Whether this is relevant to juvenile offenders remains uncertain. Some perceptual survey-based research is more directly relevant to this question. For instance, Paternoster et al. interviewed a sample of university (n = 300) and high school students (n = 262) at two intervals, a year and six months apart, respectively (Paternoster et al. 1983). The participants were asked to report their criminal involvement “ever” (on the first occasion), and in the past year or six months (on the second

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occasion). They were also asked to give a rating of their risk of arrest and the personal cost that might result from such an arrest. Social disapproval and moral beliefs were also measured. They found that when risk of arrest at time 1 was compared to previous offending, people who rated their risk of arrest as higher were less likely to have reported breaking the law. The problem with this finding is that the direction of causation might be in the opposite direction; that is, law-abiding people, with little experience of offending, might naively rate their risk of arrest as being high, whereas people with experience of un-apprehended offending might have more realistic risk assessments. This suspicion (the “experiential effect”) was partly confirmed by the finding that the relationship was weaker (but still significant) when these perceptions were compared to later offending. Another longitudinal study was conducted by Bishop (1984) who surveyed a number of high school students (n = 2147) at the beginning of their academic year. The participants were asked to rate their perceived likelihood of receiving both formal and informal sanctions if they were to commit a crime, and their moral beliefs about such criminal activity. At the end of the same academic year (a time gap of approximately a year), they were asked to report their involvement with delinquent behaviour in the previous year. By contrast with Paternoster et al. (1983), she found that perceptions of the risk of both formal and informal sanctions were associated with self-reported delinquent behaviour, even while controlling for moral beliefs about the offences. An Australian study conducted in the NSW Children’s Court surveyed a number of young people immediately after their sentencing hearing had concluded. The participants were asked to rate their subjective impression of the severity of the sentence they had just received (they were asked “how big a problem will this sentence be for you/your job/family/ friends?”) and their likelihood of arrest should they reoffend. The young people who rated their risk of arrest to be high were less likely to reoffend; however, perceptions of sentence severity had no impact on subsequent offending (McGrath 2009). This study is important because it is longitudinal and thus avoids the experiential effect discussed above, and, almost uniquely, involves a sample of juvenile offenders, rather than university or high school students.

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Labelling and differential association theory Alternate predictions about the impact of harsh penalties are provided by both labelling and differential association theorists. Labelling theorists argue that contact with the criminal justice system increases the risk of reoffending (Becker 1966; Braithwaite 1989; Tannenbaum 1957; Paternoster & Iovanni 1989). Some have maintained that the experience of imprisonment should increase subsequent offending because it will reduce future employment and educational opportunities for the offender (Bernburg & Krohn 2003; Sampson & Laub 1997). Others have argued that the process of labelling someone “criminal” and imprisoning them is inherently criminogenic. As Becker famously put it: “The deviant is one to whom that label has successfully been applied: deviant behaviour is behaviour that people so label” (Becker 1966, 9). Another famous labelling theorist, Edwin Lemert, maintained that individuals who are labelled criminal come to behave in ways consistent with that label (Lemert 1972). Although this aspect of labelling theory has proven elusive to empirical testing, some recent studies in Australia have provided evidence that subjective perceptions of stigmatisation can increase the risk of subsequent offending. In the study discussed above in the NSW Children’s Court, McGrath found that young people who reported feeling stigmatised by their sentencing hearing were more likely to reoffend. A later follow-up found this phenomenon to be particularly marked for the young women in the study (McGrath 2009, 2010). By contrast, differential association theorists contend that prison increases the risk of reoffending because it provides an environment which reinforces deviant values and which is conducive to the acquisition of new criminal skills (Clemmer 1940; Sykes 1958). This theory originates in Sutherland’s proposal that crime is a result of learning that takes place during social interactions (Sutherland & Cressey 1974). Prison, according to this theory, provides an ideal venue for such learning. A substantial research literature exists that is generally supportive of this notion. A recent meta-analysis, for instance, found an overall effect size of 0.225 (p < 0.001) for differential association variables such as deviant attitudes and behaviour of both peers and parents, based on a total of 385 effect sizes (Pratt et al. 2010).

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Incapacitation If harsh penalties for juveniles appear to serve no deterrent purpose, and in addition have the potential to increase offending, it must be asked why we continue to lock up young people. The most commonly given answer to this question is that incarcerating offenders will act to incapacitate them. Incapacitation strategies attempt to reduce crime by isolating and thus preventing individual offenders from committing crimes in the community (Piquero & Blumstein 2007). A commonly observed finding in criminology is that a small proportion of offenders account for a large proportion of crime (Blumstein et al. 1986). If these offenders were to be identified and incarcerated, this should have a substantial impact on crime rates. The literature on incapacitation is both large and technical. It is generally agreed that increasing the prison population would indeed decrease crime: a typical estimate is that an increase of 5% in the prison population would result in about 1% less crime (Piquero & Blumstein 2007). We also know from research conducted in this country that it is possible that incapacitation might be a marginally cost effective method of reducing burglary, which is an offence characterised by high frequency offenders (Weatherburn, Hua & Moffatt 2006). However, it remains unclear whether the same conclusion holds for lower frequency offences such as assault. As an example of the high cost of mass incarceration policies, California, in what has been described as the largest experiment in penal history, introduced its “3 strikes” policy in 1994 (Zimring, Hawkins & Kamin 2001). Under this policy, offenders convicted of their third felony offence automatically receive a prison sentence of 25 years to life. Since introducing this policy California’s prison population increased by nearly three quarters (73%). At the end of 2010, California state prisons held about 163,000 adults, which although a reduction from the peak of 172,000 in 2006, still meant Californian prisons were operating at over 175% of their intended capacity (Hayes 2011). In 2011-12 it is anticipated that California will spend US$9.34 billion on corrections (California Department of Finance 2011). At the same time, California’s budget is some US$14 billion in deficit (Legislative Analyst's Office 2009). Although there is evidence that this controversial policy has reduced crime, it is clear this has come at a considerable cost (Helland & Tabarrok 2007). Finally, incapacitation can be objected to on ethical grounds: it appears to contravene the principles of natural justice to sentence offenders based on their likelihood of future infractions, rather than for the offence that has brought them before court.

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Conclusion: what are the alternatives? This chapter has shown that the weight of evidence accumulating both internationally and in Australia casts considerable doubt on the doctrine of specific deterrence, and in particular the economic model of crime suggested by Becker (1968). This model seems particularly inappropriate for juvenile offenders given recent evidence indicating that the brain, and in particular its executive functions (governing planning and impulse control functions among others), undergoes a considerable process of reorganisation, leading to deficits in these important abilities in adolescence (Blakemore & Choudhury 2006; Reyna & Farley 2006; Spear 2000). Adolescents, of all individuals, are least able to make rational decisions regarding the costs and benefits of committing criminal acts. The policy implications of these findings are clear: we should be using detention and imprisonment as a response to juvenile offending far more sparingly, and give serious consideration to more comprehensive funding of rehabilitation and diversionary options. Aos and his colleagues (2006), for example, have suggested that it is more cost effective to place many of these offenders on a community-based program which combines intensive supervision with drug, alcohol and/or mental health treatment. There is also a considerable body of evidence that suggests intervention programs that target different aspects of young offender’s lives, such as their families, schooling, peer group and drug use can be effective in reducing offending among even the most serious and violent of juvenile offenders (Borduin et al. 1995; Loeber & Farrington 1998; MacKenzie 2002). Given that imprisonment is in many jurisdictions a major response to criminal offending, these are matters requiring urgent consideration.

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NSW Department of Attorney General and Justice. 2011. Juvenile Justice Annual Report 2010-2011. Sydney: NSW: NSW Department of Attorney General and Justice, accessed 21 October, 2011, http://www.lawlink.nsw.gov.au/lawlink/Corporate/ll_corporate.nsf/vw Files/AR2011_S03_JuvenileJustice_WEB.pdf/$file/AR2011_S03_Juv enileJustice_WEB.pdf NSW Department of Juvenile Justice. 2009. Annual Report 2008-2009. Sydney: NSW: Department of Juvenile Justice, accessed 18 May, 2010, http://www.djj.nsw.gov.au/pdf_htm/publications/annualreport/Annual %20report%20part%201.pdf Paternoster, Raymond. 1987. "The deterrent effect of perceived certainty and severity of punishment: A review of the evidence and issues." Justice Quarterly no. 4 (2):173-217. doi: 10.1080/07418828700089271. Paternoster, Raymond, and LeeAnn Iovanni. 1989. "The labelling perspective and delinquency: An elaboration of the theory and an assessment of the evidence." Justice Quarterly no. 6 (3):359-394. doi: 10.1080/07418828900090261. Paternoster, Raymond, Linda E. Saltzman, Gordon P. Waldo, and Theodore G. Chiricos. 1983. "Estimating perceptual stability and deterrent effects: The role of perceived legal punishment in the inhibition of criminal involvement." The Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology no. 74 (1):270-297. Piquero, Alex, and Alfred Blumstein. 2007. "Does incapacitation reduce crime?" Journal of Quantitative Criminology no. 23 (4):267-285. Pratt, Travis C., Francis T. Cullen, Christine S. Sellers, L. Thomas Winfree, Tamara D. Madensen, Leah E. Daigle, Noelle E. Fearn, and Jacinta M. Gau. 2010. "The empirical status of social learning theory: A meta-analysis." Justice Quarterly no. 27 (6):765-802. doi: 10.1080/07418820903379610. Reyna, V. F., and F. Farley. 2006. "Risk and rationality in adolescent decision making - Implications for theory, practice, and public policy." Psychological Science:1-44. doi: 10.1145/1142680.1142682 Sampson, Robert J., and John H. Laub. 1997. "Life-course theory of cumulative disadvantage and the stability of delinquency." In Developmental Theories of Crime & Delinquency, edited by Terence P Thornberry, 133-161. New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers. Schneider, A.L. 1986. "Restitution and recidivism rates of juvenile offenders: Results from four experimental studies." Criminology no. 24 (3):533-552.

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Seymour, John A. 1988. Dealing with young offenders. Sydney: Law Book Company. Smith, N. 2010. Why is the NSW juvenile reconviction rate higher than expected? Sydney: NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research, accessed 25 July, 2011, http://www.lawlink.nsw.gov.au/lawlink/bocsar/ll_bocsar.nsf/vwFiles/c jb146.pdf/$file/cjb146.pdf Smith, N., and C. Jones. 2008. Monitoring trends in re-offending among adult and juvenile offenders given non-custodial sanctions. Sydney: NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research, accessed 20 June, 2011, http://www.lawlink.nsw.gov.au/lawlink/bocsar/ll_bocsar.nsf/vw Files/cjb110.pdf/$file/cjb110.pdf Spear, Linda Patia. 2000. "Neurobehavioral changes in adolescence." Current Directions in Psychological Science no. 9 (4):111-114. Sullivan, D., and L. Tifft. 2006. Handbook of restorative justice: A global perspective. New York: Routledge. Sutherland, Edwin H., and Donald R. Cressey. 1974. Criminology. 9th ed. Philadelphia: Lippincott. Sykes, Gresham M. 1958. The society of captives: A study of a maximum security prison. Princeton: Princeton University Press. Tannenbaum, F. 1957. Crime and the Community: Columbia University Press. Weatherburn, D. J., Jiuzhao Hua, and Steve Moffatt. 2006. How much crime does prison stop? The incapacitation effect of prison on burglary. Sydney: NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research Weatherburn, D. J., S. Vignaendra, and Andrew McGrath. 2009. "The specific deterrent effect of custodial penalties on juvenile reoffending." Crime and Justice bulletin : Contemporary issues in crime and justice no. No 132. Wooldredge, John D. 1988. "Differentiating the Effects of Juvenile Court Sentences on Eliminating Recidivism." Journal of Research in Crime & Delinquency no. 25 (3):264-300. doi: 10.1177/0022427888025003004. Zimring, Franklin E. 2000. "The common thread: Diversion in juvenile justice." California Law Review no. 88 (6):2477-2496. doi: 10.2307/3481221. Zimring, Franklin E., G. Hawkins, and S. Kamin. 2001. Punishment and democracy: Three strikes and you're out in California: Oxford University Press, USA.

CHAPTER SIX CONTRADICTORY IMAGES OF CHILDREN: GROWING UP IN A DANGEROUS (?) WORLD HELEN LITTLE

POLICE today stood by a decision to arrest and take DNA swabs from three 12-year-olds for trying to build a tree house (Williams 2006). There is little doubt that parental fears of stranger danger have been an important factor that has helped drive a generation of children indoors. Recent surveys show that most children spend much more of their free time playing indoors than outdoors - a complete reversal of the play habits of children in the 1950s and before (BBC News Magazine, 8 December 2009). NATURE is being brought back to children's lives as childcare centres revolt against sanitised play areas and bubble-wrap parents. A generation of over-protective parents are so worried about their children getting dirty, tripping on pebbles or falling out of trees, they have developed "biophobia", a fear of nature's risks, experts say (Doherty 2011).

Introduction There is no doubt that children today are growing up in a world that is very different to that of their parents and grandparents. Yet the same can also be said of previous generations. It is how these changes are responded to that ultimately impacts on how children experience their world and live their childhoods. There is growing concern that changes to children’s social and physical environments have resulted in the current generation of children experiencing greater restrictions on their independent mobility, and greater adult control of their lives. It has been argued this changing environment and the restrictions and climate of fear (Gill 2007) that accompanies it means that children potentially lack the social, psychological, cultural and environmental knowledge and skills required

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for them to engage with their environment (Malone 2007; Little and Wyver 2008). Furthermore, lack of opportunity for independent exploration and limitations on outdoor play experiences may actually expose children to far greater risks associated with decreased physical activity, obesity and so on (Little and Wyver 2008; Tranter 2005). As the opening quotes illustrate, there are a number of contradictory views of children and childhood in contemporary society. The aim of this chapter is to explore factors associated with contemporary views of children growing up in an increasingly risk-conscious society, and the potential impacts on children’s ability to learn about their environment and manage risks for themselves. Throughout this chapter, examples from media reports and research are used to illustrate these contradictory images of children and childhood represented in various discourses. The discussion will focus on children in the early and middle childhood period (i.e. birth to 14 years) with the research cited predominantly related to children aged 3-14 years.

Children’s rights The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child recognises and sets down basic human rights with respect to children to foster all aspects of their safety and wellbeing. The articles of the convention have a dual role: on the one hand they seek to protect children, but they also acknowledge that children are capable and should have a say and contribute to decisions that impact on their lives. Both considerations are important in relation to this chapter, and characterise the way children are viewed. While children may need protection, there is growing concern that children’s autonomy may be undermined by the trend towards an overprotective style of parenting which has been observed for more than a decade in the USA, UK and Australia (Furedi 2001; Gill 2007). Of particular relevance to this chapter is Article 31 as it relates to an important aspect of childhood – children’s play. Article 31 recognises the vital role play has in children’s lives in fostering their learning and development, as follows: 1. Parties recognise the right of the child to rest and leisure, to engage in play and recreational activities appropriate to the age of the child and to participate freely in cultural life and the arts. 2. Parties shall respect and promote the right of the child to participate fully in cultural and artistic life and shall encourage the provision of

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As this chapter will demonstrate, in many contemporary developed western countries children’s opportunities for outdoor play, in particular, have been eroded as a consequence of changing social and environmental factors. Children’s lives have become highly organised and controlled by adults, and opportunities for independent mobility and autonomous decision-making are significantly limited. James and James (2001) argue that a tension exists between the promotion of children’s autonomy and agency as espoused within the UN Convention and the reality of children’s everyday lives which have become increasingly regulated and controlled (both overtly and covertly). The reasons for this stem partly from the way in which society (adults) perceives the risks inherent in children’s lives, and how children are positioned within society.

Real versus perceived risks …many parents had an unrealistic sense of danger, based on media reports about child abductions, assaults and accidents. “Parents vicariously feel all this. They think, 'if it has happened once or twice in the past few years, then it has got a high likelihood of happening to my child'. So they start to over-protect their children by not letting them out of their sight and the message they send is, the world is quite a dangerous place." (Herald Sun, 5 August 2008).

From the time we are born, we face numerous challenges and risks that we learn to confront and overcome. Whether it is taking those first tentative steps as an infant, learning to ride a bike, starting school, finding a job, leaving home, we all take risks in almost every aspect of our lives. Indeed, a willingness to face these challenges and the risks associated with them is a crucial aspect of growing up as we strive to reach our potential. Learning to manage these risks is perhaps one of the most important life skills we acquire (Boyer 2006). Yet, the above media report suggests that parental fears for their children’s safety are restricting children’s opportunities to learn to engage with and manage risks for themselves. This view is supported by a number of studies linking parental concerns for their children’s safety with children’s independent mobility and opportunities for outdoor physical activities (e.g. Soori and Bhopal 2002; Valentine and McKendrick 1997; Weir, Etelson and Brand 2006). However, the situation

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is not as straightforward as the above media report would suggest. Parents are often faced with a dilemma in managing the seemingly contradictory aims of protecting their children from risk while allowing them to explore risk and learn from independent appraisal of risks in their environment (Kelley, Hood and Mayall 1998). Parents may at times adopt an overprotective style of parenting and exaggerate the risks involved in many common childhood pursuits, consequently restricting children’s opportunities to engage in many worthwhile activities that facilitate their learning and development (Furedi 2001). In this section, I examine perceptions of risk and safety, and the role of media in influencing the way in which risk is perceived. A number of studies have found that parental fears for the safety of their children has had a significant impact on children’s opportunities to engage in many childhood activities that previous generations took for granted. Simple pursuits such as playing in the street or at parks with neighbourhood friends, riding bikes, walking to school and exploring their environment no longer figure in the daily lives of many children. Instead, they are driven to school, friends’ houses and so on, their time is more structured and adult controlled as they move from one after-school activity to the next, and opportunities for free play are more likely to be restricted to the home environment (Little, 2009; Valentine and McKendrick 1997; Veitch, Bagley, Ball and Salmon 2006; Weir et al. 2006). These studies have identified recurrent themes in the sources of parental fears with ‘stranger danger’ figuring very strongly in their concerns, followed by hazards related to increased traffic and exposure to bullying and other antisocial behaviour from older children. While each of these may be valid reasons for holding concerns for their child’s safety, the extent to which these factors represent real or perceived risks is a matter of debate. Statistically, abductions and molestation of children by strangers is low but receives disproportionate coverage in the media compared to more frequent threats to children’s safety (Zubrick, Wood, Villanueva, Wood, Giles-Corti and Christian 2010). The media attention given to some types of crime has possibly led to an over-estimation of the actual frequency by many, and parents often cite highly-publicised examples of crimes against children (Tulloch 2004). However, whether parental fears are justified and rational or not, they nonetheless exist in the minds of parents and consequently impact the experiences they provide and the freedom they allow their children.

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Children’s independent mobility Once upon a time in New York City, it wasn’t a big deal if pre-teen kids rode the subways and buses alone. Today, as Lenore Skenazy has discovered, a kid who goes out without a nanny, a helmet and a security detail is a national news story, and his mother is a candidate for childabuse charges (Celizic, 2008).

Independent mobility refers to “children’s freedom to move about unaccompanied within their neighbourhood or community” (Zubrick et al. 2010, 6). Many adults, when talking about their own childhoods, recall long days spent outdoors away from the close supervision of adults. Most recall spending times with friends roaming the neighbourhood and engaging with their physical environment. Yet for many of these same parents, the prospect of allowing their own children the same level of independent mobility is almost unthinkable, as the following quote typifies. From school age we started playing with friends and would go on bush walks and to the beach by ourselves. We used to go bushwalking…we made forts in the bush and we would spend all day in the bush and come home for dinner time. This is likely to be quite different [for my child], unfortunately. I would not let my kids go to the park by themselves, not even if they were nine or ten. I wouldn’t let them go even though we have a park almost directly across from us; I still wouldn’t let them go by themselves (Mother of 4-year-old child) (Little, 2009).

Concerns about restrictions on children’s independent mobility and freedom to play have been voiced for some time. One study conducted across three generations reveals a steady decline in children’s independent mobility over the past 100 years. Drawing on archival records and interview data, Gaster (1991) investigated the childhood (5-16 years) experiences of three generations living in one neighbourhood in Manhattan, New York. Specifically, Gaster examined various factors that potentially impact on children’s independent mobility, namely: age at which first allowed outdoors without supervision; number of neighbourhood sites visited; obstacles and barriers; parent-imposed restrictions; participation in professionally-supervised activities. Gaster (1991) found that each generation experienced very different levels of independent mobility for each of the five factors examined. In relation to the age at which children were first allowed to explore outdoors alone, there was a steady increase in age from a mean age of 5.5 years for the

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oldest generation, to 6.75 for the middle generation to 7.55 years for the youngest. The number of neighbourhood sites visited varied depending on age for each generation, with all three generations visiting more places between the ages of 8 to 13 years. For all three generations, between the ages of 5-7 years, participants were mainly confined to the vicinity of their home and from 14-16 years participants often had favourite places to “hang out”. But again, the youngest generation was more restricted in the number of places visited. Obstacles and barriers mainly related to factors associated with the physical environment (e.g. construction sites, thick woodland areas, rivers), economic considerations and adult interference/restrictions (e.g. monitoring of sites by guards, locking of gates). This latter factor was most prominent for the youngest generation. Interestingly, this generation also reported that they regarded certain streets and areas as dangerous, and thus avoided them. Similar generational changes in play spaces and mobility were found by Kinoshita (2009) in his study of children’s play opportunities across four generations in one neighbourhood in Tokyo, Japan. Using play maps and interviews, Kinoshita compared play opportunities of participants who grew up in the 1930s, 1960s, and 1980s with a group of 10 to 12–year-old children in 2005. Kinoshita noted similar transformations of the physical environment (e.g. former open spaces being built upon; less access to natural environments and an increase in built environments) and hence changes to the spaces used by children for play. Earlier generations were far more likely to play on the streets, vacant lots and parks, and be more visible in the community generally, than the youngest generation whose most dominant play spaces were home and school. While these studies illustrate that changes to the physical environment have had a significant impact on children’s independent mobility, children’s opportunities to independently access their local environment are also subject to parental control and influence; children’s independent mobility is constantly subject to renegotiation in response to real or perceived changes within the neighbourhood (Tranter and Pawson 2001). To examine variations in the degree of freedom children from different countries have to independently access their local environment, Tranter and Pawson (2001) compared data from their study with two other similar studies. Specifically, they compared children from New Zealand (Christchurch), the UK, Germany, and Australia (Sydney and Canberra) in relation to five specific activities: come home from school alone; visit places other than school alone; cross main roads alone; catch buses alone;

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cycle on main roads. Across the five activities there was considerable variation in the levels of freedom experienced by children in each country. German children experienced much greater freedom, with a larger percentage having permission to engage in all the activities except cycling on main roads, for which they had the second highest percentage. By comparison, children in Sydney had the lowest percentage of permission to engage in all five activities. Although children in Canberra, New Zealand and the UK fared slightly better, nevertheless, the percentage of children permitted to engage in these activities was approximately half that of their German counterparts. Tranter and Pawson suggest that these differences can be explained in terms of closer proximity to facilities and better public transport in Germany, but also in terms of there being a greater sense of collective responsibility for other people’s children. In contrast, in Australia and New Zealand people are more likely to adopt an attitude of not interfering in other people’s business (Tranter and Pawson 2001). This issue will be revisited later in the chapter. Whether children live in urban or rural areas also has an impact on children’s mobility. In a study of 10-year-old children in South Australia, MacDougall, Schiller and Darbyshire (2009) found variations in the experiences of children living in urban areas compared to those in rural areas. In general, rural children had larger boundaries within which they could move independently, but relied on adults to transport them between locations or activities such as school or sport. On the other hand, children living in metropolitan areas had much smaller boundaries around their houses where they could roam freely, and they were often supervised by adults when using facilities that their rural counterparts could use unsupervised. For rural children, boundaries were mostly determined by the distances involved between locations; for children living in urban areas, boundaries were more likely to be determined by fears associated with potentially dangerous people in the community. Even when children are seemingly allowed to independently access their local neighbourhoods or venture further afield, they are still subject to parental control. Fotel and Thomsen (2004) draw on interview data from Danish parents of children aged 11-12 years that revealed parents use technology to maintain some control over their children’s movements while allowing the children to experience some level of freedom. Advances in technology have provided parents with a means of monitoring their children’s movements. Mobile phones allow parents to check on their children’s whereabouts and ensure their safety by having children ‘check

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in’ with them when they arrive at their destination (Fotel and Thomsen 2004). While these trends in independent mobility, especially for urban children, can in part be explained by changes related to the physical environment such as increased traffic and greater urban housing density (and hence fewer places to play and more hazards in the environment), adult attitudes and practices also play a significant role in restricting children’s mobility. In particular, the way children are viewed in society has a significant impact on the way we respond to their behaviour. Even when parents do wish their children to experience independence, they are subject to scrutiny from others. As the media report that introduced this section illustrates, Lenore Skenazy’s act of allowing her son to travel alone on the New York subway drew world-wide attention, and while her initiative was applauded by many, there were, nevertheless, detractors. So what is driving these responses? The following sections will examine some of the contradictory images of children in contemporary society that influence the degree of freedom and agency afforded to children.

Children as vulnerable A North Queensland primary school…has banned all gymnastics activities during lunch breaks, declaring it dangerous because it has the potential to cause back and neck injuries. Cali Buschgens, 10, has been reprimanded for cart-wheeling on school grounds, and her grandmother Val Bryce says the ban is a sad reflection on modern society (ABC News, August 26, 2008). Like many parents, I have been wondering where the space rockets went. In the past decade, space rockets, merry-go-rounds and monkey bars have been quietly disappearing from our playgrounds. Australian Playground Safety Standards have been changing the design of children's play spaces to remove danger, risk and quite a bit of fun (Wilkinson 2011).

There is no doubt that the safety of children should be paramount. It is how we, as parents, teachers and as a society, ensure that children have safe environments to live and grow that is of relevance for this discussion. As the studies of children’s independent mobility discussed earlier demonstrate, “adult’s fears for their children and their desire to provide the best for them, means that they do not necessarily view the public space of the street as a place for their children to be…On the other hand, outdoor places are regarded as highly important by children themselves” (Elsley

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2004, 156). This section aims to examine the question: To what extent does parental fear limit children’s independent mobility and opportunities to engage in activities that may involve an element of injury-risk? The two media reports at the beginning of this section are examples of a society that is intent on providing safety at all costs. In an effort to reduce unintentional injuries (and any subsequent litigation associated with them should schools or playground providers be found negligent) playground equipment, sporting activities and other childhood activities have become increasingly regulated. While it is important to remove hazards from the environment (e.g. strangulation, entrapment and trip hazards in playground equipment) children still need to experience a level of challenge and risk that allows them to learn from their mistakes. There is no doubt that such measures have played an important role in reducing serious injuries, however, stringent application of safety measures has seen many playgrounds become boring and uninviting, or worse still, playground equipment has been removed completely. Furthermore, although many parents may recognise the benefits of their child engaging in physically challenging play and mostly accept minor injuries as an inevitable part of growing up (Little, 2010; Little, Wyver and Gibson 2011), their constant supervision of their children when away from their immediate home environment limits children’s opportunities to make decisions for themselves in risk situations. Adults are better able to anticipate potential risks and hence they often prevent children’s exposure to risk. In doing so, they can deny children the opportunity to explore their capabilities for themselves, and to succeed or fail on their own (Guldberg 2009; Lester and Russell 2008). Increased regulation of playgrounds and children’s recreational activities in the name of safety is only one of the outcomes of adopting a “children as vulnerable” viewpoint. As discussed earlier in the chapter, restrictions to children’s independent mobility are also related to children’s personal safety from social threats within the community, in particular, the issue of ‘stranger danger’. But social threats to children’s safety can also come from other children, and children can be viewed as a threat to the safety of adults as the following section will discuss.

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Children as villains A three-year-old has been accused of anti-social behaviour for playing football with friends outside his home (BBC News, 28 April 2006). VERBAL abuse and vandalism have become everyday occurrences as gangs of teenagers, fuelled by alcohol, congregate in a Buddina park each afternoon. The group has caused residents and nearby store owners to fear for their safety (Thomas 2011).

The image of children as villains in part arises from differences in how adults and children view the use of public space. Hart (2002) argues that adult assumptions about appropriate places for children rarely extend beyond the provision of specific spaces and activities, for example, playgrounds, skate parks and the like. On the other hand, children themselves have a much broader view of spaces to play (Elsley 2004; MacDougall et al. 2009). Children are often viewed as villains from two perspectives. First, a number of the studies discussed earlier in the chapter highlight parental fears for their children’s safety resulting from concerns about bullying and the anti-social behaviour of older children, particularly teenage gangs. Children themselves also have a heightened fear of being a victim of assault at the hands of other young people as a consequence of media attention given to such incidents (Harden, Backett-Milburn, Scott and Jackson 2000; Lester and Russell 2008; Madge and Barker 2007). Furthermore, the removal of playground equipment from parks and lack of provision of suitable facilities for older children may encourage anti-social behaviour as a result of having nothing to do. In their major report on risks in childhood, Madge and Barker (2007) report that one of the main sources of risk outside the home is of being bullied by peers. In their study of 10 to 15-year-old children, Percy-Smith and Matthews (as cited by Madge and Barker 2007, 35) found that “almost half of young people living in an inner-city location, and over a quarter in a suburban location, reported bullying by other young people in their neighbourhood. There were spatial patterns to bullying which most often occurred in parks, local shopping parades and local streets.” Second, as children become less visible in their neighbourhoods as a consequence of decreased independent mobility and parental fears, so too do they become less tolerated. As the excerpt from the BBC media report at the beginning of this section highlights, even harmless everyday

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childhood activities such as playing football in the street are at times frowned on by adults. Percy-Smith (2002 as cited by Lester and Russell 2008) found that while younger children have access to a wide range of activities (playgroups, parent-toddler groups, and playgrounds more suited to younger children), older children who had greater independence had less suitable facilities available for them and often were often “told off” by adults for engaging in behaviours the young people themselves felt were appropriate and normal. As a consequence, these young people felt a “sense of alienation…within their local communities arising from their exclusion from much of the public realm and the intolerance shown by adults” (Lester and Russell 2008, 150). This feeling of disengagement and lack of connection to the community is perhaps the cause of many of the anti-social behaviours attributed to young people.

Children as capable THE bravery of seven-year-old Luke Holloway is proof that heroism knows no age. Luke was yesterday awarded the Mercury and Sunday Tasmanian Pride of Australia Award’s Child of Courage medal for his vital role in saving his mother and sister when he was only four. More than two years ago, Luke's mother Nicole was seriously injured after her car rolled over her foot while she was trying to free it from mud at the family's Bagdad property. Mrs Holloway was unable to stop the car but Luke managed to pull the handbrake and halt it. Luke's sister Kate, two at the time, was sleeping in the back of the car, which might have crashed into a ditch had it kept rolling. Luke then fetched his mother's mobile phone and charger and ran to her so she could call for help (Ward 2011). A BOY, 8, has been hailed a hero for saving a little girl from drowning. What is even more remarkable is that rescuer Matthew Kennedy is autistic. But he leapt into The Entrance pool on Sunday afternoon to save Emily Gold, 3, of Killarney Vale. Matthew had just arrived at the pool, otherwise known as the Ocean Baths, about 4.30pm with his parents John and Karen and his two brothers and sister. He was the first in the water and saw Emily struggling and kicking to stay above the water. “I could see she was in trouble and that I had to help,” Matthew said. “I jumped in the pool, grabbed her arms, lifted her head above the water and pulled her out of the pool,” he said (Davies 2009).

Contemporary theories of child development such as sociocultural theory and post-structuralism acknowledge the multiple influences in children’s lives, view children as being capable, active in their sociocultural contexts, and as agents in their own learning, and challenge the assumptions that

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privilege certain positions over others (e.g. adult needs and rights over those of children) (Smith 2002). From this viewpoint, we would expect children to be actively engaged in constructing their own worlds, participating in society and being able to negotiate and contribute to matters that affect them (Kelley et al. 1998; Smith 2002). It is this viewpoint that underlies the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child as discussed earlier in the chapter. The convention promotes children’s right to have a say in decisions that affect their lives and recognises that children are capable of understanding issues that affect them, can make worthwhile contributions and should be provided opportunities to exercise their autonomy and have a sense of agency (Smith 2002). When children have the support, space and opportunity to act autonomously and with a sense of agency, they can and do demonstrate their competence as the above media reports illustrate. However, as we have seen from the discussion so far in this chapter, many children have little opportunity to make decisions for themselves in various aspects of their daily lives, or to demonstrate their capabilities and understanding of their world. In particular, over-protective control of many aspects of children’s environments, both at home and in educational institutions, undermines children’s opportunities to demonstrate that they can appraise and manage everyday risks for themselves. Yet a number of studies have illustrated that children are quite capable of perceiving and understanding risks associated with their environments and their own behaviour. A number of researchers have found that children aged from 3 to 10 years of age are able to accurately identify unsafe situations and behaviours (see, for example, Coppens 1985; Hillier and Morrongiello 1998; Little and Wyver 2010), although younger children (3 to 6-year-olds) are slower in making these judgments, less able to suggest preventative strategies (Coppens 1985; Hillier and Morrongiello 1998) and are less aware of the severity of any potential injuries (Little and Wyver 2010). However, it is only through engaging in situations that involve an element of risk that children learn how to manage risk and develop strategies to lessen the risks involved. Other studies have examined how children deal with risk and safety in their daily lives. Harden and colleagues’ (2000) study of 9 to 15-year-old children explored how children and parents negotiated issues of risk and safety within families. The findings revealed that children constantly made decisions about risky situations and how to keep themselves safe. They reported that they felt safer when there were people they knew around

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them as they knew these were a source of support if necessary, and also commented that personal characteristics such as age, or being sensible, responsible and mature helped to minimise vulnerability to risks. The children in this study were also very aware of places that were more risky than others, and identified behaviours that were considered risky, especially noting the behaviours of teenagers and issues such as smoking, drinking and drugs. Similarly, Christensen and Mikkelsen (2008) explored how 10 to 12-yearold children engaged with the everyday risks they encountered in play and other daily activities through observations and interviews that focused on both physical and social risks encountered by the children. Christensen and Mikkelsen found that children’s risk appraisals were closely associated with their assessment of their own capabilities and skills, and these assessments guided their decision-making in avoiding serious accidents. This acute awareness of their capabilities meant that some children would actively avoid some activities even though their peers were active participants. At other times, children would discuss the potential risks involved in the activity and negotiate rules as a means of managing the risks. Christensen and Mikkelsen concluded that through their everyday play children, both individually and collectively, recognise risks, expose themselves to risk and manage it.

Conclusion This chapter has explored some of the contemporary images of children. Images that position children as vulnerable or as villains impact on children’s engagement with their physical and social worlds. In an effort to either protect children from the world or save the world from the threat of anti-social and uncontrollable children, today’s children have become subjected to greater surveillance and control than previous generations. While children may appreciate that adult control is necessary at times to protect them from exposure to risks that they themselves may not yet have the experience to understand, at other times they view the level of control as unnecessary and constraining and a “source of risk to the child’s autonomy” (Kelley et al. 1998, 20). If children are viewed as capable, then they need to be given opportunities to be involved in negotiating the boundaries and rules associated with their increasing independence. As children become more knowledgeable and competent with age, issues related to risk and safety need to be renegotiated as part of everyday family interaction and communication (Backett-Milburn and Harden

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2004). By denying children the freedom to access their local environment we are also denying them their right “to participate fully in cultural and artistic life and...the provision of appropriate and equal opportunities for cultural, artistic, recreational and leisure activity” (Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights 1990).

References ABC News (26 August 2008). Primary schools bans cartwheels, handstands. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2008-08-26/primary-schoolbans-cartwheels-handstands/488916. Backett-Milburn, Karen, and Jeni Harden. 2004. “How children and their families construct and negotiate risk, safety and danger.” Childhood 11: 429-447. doi: 10.1177/0907568204047105. BBC News (28 April 2006). Three-year-old boy ‘anti-social’. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/manchester/4954826.stm. BBC News Magazine (8 December 2009). How stranger danger changed the way children play. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8399749.stm Boyer, Ty. 2006. “The development of risk-taking: A multi-perspective review.” Developmental Review 26: 291-345. doi: 10.1016/j.dr. 2006.05.002. Celizic, Mike. (2008). “Mom lets 9-year-old take subway home alone.” Today, 4 March. http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/23935873/ns/todaytoday_people/t/mom-lets--year-old-take-subway-home-alone/. Christensen, Pia, and Miguel Mikkelsen. 2008. “Jumping off and being careful: Children's strategies of risk management in everyday life.” Sociology of Health & Illness 30:112-130. doi: 10.1111/j.14679566.2007.01046.x. Coppens, Nina. 1985. “Cognitive development and locus of control as predictors of preschoolers' understanding of safety and prevention.” Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology 6:43-55. Davies, Leah. 2009. “Autistic boy, 8, saves little girl from drowning at The Entrance.” Central Coast Express Advocate, 5 November. http://express-advocate-gosford.whereilive.com.au/news/story/autisticboy-8-saves-little-girl-from-drowning-at-the-entrance/. Doherty, Elissa. 2011. “Bubble-wrap kids brought back to earth.” Herald Sun, 20 October. http://www.news.com.au/national/bubble-wrap-offkids-go-back-to-nature/story-e6frfkvr-1226171286923. Elsley, Susan. 2004. “Children’s experience of public space.” Children & Society 18:155-164. doi: 10.1002/CHI.822.

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Fotel, Trine and Thrya Thomsen. 2004. “The surveillance of children’s mobility.” Surveillance & Society 1:535-554. Furedi, Frank. 2001. Paranoid parenting: Abandon your anxieties and be a good parent. London: Penguin. Gaster, Sanford. 1991. “Urban children’s access to their neighbourhood: Changes over three generations.” Environment and Behavior 23:70-85. doi: 10.1077/0013916591231004. Gill, Tim. 2007. No fear: Growing up in a risk averse society. London: Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation. Guldberg, Helene. 2009. Reclaiming childhood: Freedom and play in an age of fear. London: Routledge. Harden, Jeni, Kathryn Backett-Milburn, Sue Scott and Stevi Jackson. 2000. “Scary faces, scary places: children’s perceptions of risk and safety.” Health Education Journal 59: 12-22. doi:10.1177/ 001789690005900103. Hart, Roger. 2002. “Containing children: some lessons on planning for play from New York City.” Environment and Urbanization 14:135148. doi: 10.1177/095624780201400211. Herald Sun. (5 August 2008). Cotton wool can harm your kids. The Herald Sun. Accessed 29 March, 2010. http://www.heraldsun.com.au/ news/victoria/cotton-wool-can-harm-your-kids/story-e6frf7kx1111117108214. Hillier, Loretta, and Barbara Morrongiello. 1998. “Age and gender differences in school-age children’s appraisals of injury risk.” Journal of Pediatric Psychology, 23:229–238. James, Adrian and Allison James. 2001. “Tightening the net: children, community and control.” British Journal of Sociology 52:211-228. doi: 10.1080/00071310120044953. Kelley, Peter, Suzanne Hood and Berry Mayall. 1998. “Children, parents and risk.” Health and Social Care in the Community 6:16-24. Kinoshita, Isami. 2009. “Charting generational differences in conceptions and opportunities for play in a Japanese neighborhood.” Journal of Intergenerational Relationships 7:53-77. doi:10.1080/15350770802629024. Lester, Stuart and Wendy Russell. 2008. Play for a change. Play policy and practice: A review of contemporary perspectives. http://www.playengland.org.uk/Page.asp. Little, Helen. 2009. Young children’s physical risk-taking behaviour during outdoor play: The influence of individual, social and environmental factors. Doctoral Thesis, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia. .

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—. 2010. “Relationship between parents’ beliefs and their responses to children’s risk-taking behaviour during outdoor play.” Journal of Early Childhood Research 8:315-330. doi: 10.1177/1476718X10368587. Little, Helen and Shirley Wyver. 2008. “Outdoor play: Does avoiding the risks reduce the benefits?” Australian Journal of Early Childhood 33:33-40. Little, Helen, and Shirley Wyver. 2010. “Individual differences in children’s risk perception and appraisals in outdoor play environments.” International Journal of Early Years Education 18:297-313. doi: 10.1080/09669760.2010.531600. Little, Helen, Shirley Wyver and Frances Gibson. 2011. “The influence of play context and adult attitudes on young children’s physical risktaking during outdoor play.” European Early Childhood Education Journal 19:113-131. doi: 10.1080/1350293X.2011.548959. MacDougall, Colin, Wendy Schiller, and Philip Darbyshire. 2009. “What are our boundaries and where can we play? Perspectives from eight- to ten-year old Australian metropolitan and rural children.” Early Child Development and Care 179:189-204. doi: 10.1080/ 03004430802667021. Madge, Nicola, and John Barker. 2007. Risk and childhood. London: Risk Commission: Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures & Commerce (RSA). Retrieved 9 October 2012, from http://www.thersa.org/action-research-centre/past-projects/riskcommission . Malone, Karen. 2007 “The bubble-wrap generation: children growing up in walled gardens” Environmental Education Research 13:513-527. doi: 10.1080/13504620701581612. Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights 1990. Convention on the rights of the child. Retrieved 9 October 2012, http://www2.ohchr.org/english/law/crc.htm . Smith, Anne. 2002. “Interpreting and supporting participation rights: Contributions from sociocultural theory.” International Journal of Children’s Rights 10:733-88. Soori, Hamid and Raj Bhopal. 2002. “Parental permission for children’s independent outdoor activities.” European Journal of Public Health 12:104-109. Thomas, Lahnee. 2011. “Anti-social teens take over park.” Sunshine Coast Daily, 25 May. http://www.sunshinecoastdaily.com.au/story/2011/05/25/anti-socialteens-take-over-park/.

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Tranter, Paul. 2005, November. “Strategies for building child friendly cities.” Creating child friendly cities conference. Melbourne. Retrieved June 2006, http://www.envict.org.au/file/Paul_Tranter.pdf. Tranter, Paul, and Eric Pawson. (2001). “Children’s access to local environments: a case study of Christchurch, New Zealand.” Local Environment 6:27-48. doi: 10.1080/13549830120024233. Tulloch, Marian. 2004. “Parental fear of crime. A discursive analysis.” Journal of Sociology 40:362-377. Valentine, Gill, and John McKendrick. 1997. “Children's outdoor play: Exploring parental concerns about children's safety and the changing nature of childhood.” Geoforum, 28(2), 219-235. Veitch, Jenny, Sarah Bagley, Kylie Ball, and Jo Salmon. 2006. “Where do children usually play? A qualitative study of parents' perceptions of influences on children's active free-play.” Health and Place, 12(4), 383-393. doi: 10.1016/j.healthplace.2005.02.009. Ward, Brian. 2011. “Luke’s cool hand saves family.” The Mercury, 30 August. http://www.themercury.com.au/article/2011/08/30/257361_tasmanianews.html. Weir, Lori, Debra Etelson, and Donald Brand. 2006. “Parents' perceptions of neighbourhood safety and children's physical activity.” Preventive Medicine 43:212-217. doi: 10.1016/j.ypmed.2006.03.024. Wilkinson, Cassandra. 2011. “Playing by the rules makes prisoners of children.” The Australian, 22 October. http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/opinion/playing-bythe-rules-makes-prisoners-of-children/story-e6frgd0x-1226173452613. Williams, Dale. 2006. “Children arrested for building a tree house.” Birmingham Mail, 25 July. http://icbirmingham.icnetwork.co.uk/mail/news/tm_objectid=1744262 9&method=full&siteid=50002&headline=children-arrested-forbuilding-a-tree-house-name_page.html. Zubrick, Stephen, Lisa Wood, Karen Villanueva, Georgina Wood, Billie Giles-Corti and Hayley Christian. 2010. Nothing but fear itself. Parental fear as a determinant impacting on child physical activity and independent mobility. Melbourne: Victorian Health promotion Foundation. www.vichealth.vic.gov.au/publications/Physical-Activity/ Active-transport/Nothing-But-Fear-Itself.aspx.

CHAPTER SEVEN BECAUSE LOOKS CAN BE DECEIVING: MEDIA ALARM AND THE SEXUALISATION OF CHILDHOOD – DO WE KNOW WHAT WE MEAN? KIRRILLY THOMPSON

Delaying the sexualisation of children: do we know what we mean? I have been following debates in the media about the sexualisation of girls for the past few years. I have awoken to morning television presenters remonstrating against pre-pubescent magazine cover girls, the sexualised poses of a photographer’s daughter (Taylor 2009), an infantilised catwalk model (see also Egan & Hawkes 2008a) and the availability of padded bras, g-strings and high-heels for pre-pubescent children (see Chambers 2002, Williams 2010). While I have not conducted a systematic analysis of media content, the message that I have received from an everyday engagement with television, radio and print media has been clear and consistent: sexualised behaviour and childhood should not mix. This message is revealed in fears of children adopting markers of adult sexuality (in clothing, make-up, dance, posture, etc.). It is clear in the backlash against non-sensual pole-dancing classes for children in New Zealand (Nash 2010), and the postures and presentation of children in beauty pageants. As one mother is reported to have said: There has to be a loss of innocence in treating these kids as mini grownups. Some of the boys [in a child modelling competition] were striking provocative, sexy poses. (Brennan 2010)

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I have been fascinated by adult concerns over what is interpreted as sexualised behaviour among children. As an anthropologist, I have wondered to what extent these concerns might be “adult-centric”, whereby adults assume that children share the same meaning they attribute to particular behaviours, and understand those behaviours on adult terms. In some cases, the fear is precisely that children don’t understand what they are doing or what it means (in adult terms). To advance a critical anthropology of the relationship between childhood, sexualisation and the media, this article’s aims are four-fold: 1. To establish a cultural incongruence between childhood and sexuality; 2. To propose that debates over childhood and sexuality are adultcentric; 3. To suggest a need for ethnographic research to understand children’s perspectives; 4. To propose that children should be taught critical thinking skills in order to question the representations with which they are frequently facedǤ In terms of childhood and sexualised behaviour, this article is primarily concerned with the mimicking of behaviours attributed to adult sexuality such as dancing, clothing and posturing. The incongruence of childhood and sexualised behaviour can be understood through Douglas’ concept of “matter out of place” (1966, p. 203), whereby childhood, a state that many people believe should be protected from impurity, is contaminated by the sexual representations that we associate with adults. That is, that adult sexual behaviour is “out of place” in childhood. Thinking about the contexts in which sexuality and sexualisation can be understood as “in” or “out” of place, highlights the ways in which our attitudes towards sex, sexualised behaviour and sexual representations are culturally contextualised. As noted by Ross and Rapp, “the bare biological facts of sexuality do not speak for themselves; they must be expressed socially” (1981, p. 51). Judith Butler’s work on performativity (1993), for example, emphasises the culturally inscribed ways in which gender and sexuality can be “performed” (see also Morris 1995). From this perspective, children’s imitation of adult sexualised

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behaviours could be considered a performance of adulthood (without children understanding the implications or adult context of that behaviour). Reciprocally, our anxiety around and control of children’s behaviours and influences could be understood as an attempt to “child” children. This is undermined by children’s attempts to “adult” themselves, contributing to parents’ and adults’ feelings of lack of control and their emotional reactions. In particular, cultural assumptions among adults underpin popular reactions to what is perceived as the sexualisation, perversion or pornification of childhood, together with the loss of innocence. As noted by Montgomery, the idea of the sexually innocent child is“…central to Western beliefs about appropriate childhood experiences” (2008, p.11). Sexualised behaviour is generally considered appropriate for adults (assuming it is expressed in socially acceptable ways). It follows that sexualised behaviours such as dressing, dancing or posing provocatively are considered inappropriate for children. However, this “appropriateness” is defined by adults and based on a negative construction of sexualised behaviours as harmful in childhood. When we express revulsion at what we interpret for young women as their pornification, we are often referring to asymmetrical relations that exploit girls’ desires to please, fit in and mimic their role models with the moves, language, look, clothing and selfpresentation that adults interpret as sexual. Rarely is sexualised behaviour among girls understood as the harmless mimicking of behaviours associated with adults, decontextualised from adult meanings. We seem happy for little girls to play with kitchen sets, shopping trolleys and other apparently benign symbols of normalised adult womanhood. However, we seem to draw the line on play when it strays into behaviours that, to adults, represent sexuality. This is often because we believe that children are too naive to understand adult sexuality. Rather than infer that sexualised posturing would therefore be meaningless, or hold a different, non-adult meaning for children, we fear that their naiveté may render them vulnerable. However, it is likely that young girls understand “sex” and “sexualised behaviour” in different ways to adults, and in as many different ways as adults do. We rarely present sexuality to children as something positive, if at all. Rather, we have become increasingly led to believe that paedophilia is rampant and that we live in a society where childhood is objectified, sexualised and capable of being “lost”. Of course, these are justifiable worries. One integrative review suggests a child sex abuse prevalence of

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16.8% for females, and 7.9% of males in North America (adjusted for response rates) (Gorey & Leslie 1997). According to the American Psychological Association’s Task Force on the Sexualisation of Girls: The work on the cognitive and physical decrements associated with selfobjectification suggests that sexualisation practices may function to keep girls “in their places” as objects of sexual attraction and beauty, significantly limiting their free thinking and movement in the world. (2007, p 22).

Similarly, anxieties over girlhood and sexualisation could function to delay empowerment. Concerns that girls are endangered by sexualised behaviour could derive from an underlying belief that sexuality should be controlled or constrained, and that female sexual empowerment is to be feared. While the sexualisation of young girls has been described as a “Lolita effect” (Durham 2008), it obscures the ways in which Lolita’s power and influence emanates from her combination of youth and sexuality. There may be a risk that the repression, surveillance or control of sexualised behaviours serves to control and “discipline” girls and female sexuality (Foucault 1978) or interferes with the transitional period from girl to woman. Anthropological studies of ritual have often focussed on “liminality”, a state of being between states (van Gennep 1960 [1909]). Whilst the transition from girl to woman is marked physiologically by menarche, the age at which this occurs can conflict with social constructions of adulthood which vary culturally and legally. Incongruence can lead to a period of time during which a girl can be said to exist in a liminal period, waiting for physiological markers and socio-cultural approval of adulthood to coincide. The liminal state is characterised by a loosening of social norms and structures (van Gennep 1960 [1909]). It has long been considered a period in which the individual is vulnerable or in danger, and is simultaneously dangerous to others (Douglas 1966, Turner 1969). Visceral reactions of horror at the sexualisation of girls, and attempts to limit sexualised behaviour among girls, might constitute an attempt to mitigate the social dangers implied by the liminal, transitional phase from girl to woman. Ethnographic research with children is required to determine the extent to which children appropriate adult behaviours and make them meaningful in

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and on their own terms. In particular, the following questions require research: what do children think about behaviours that adults describe as sexual; do children associate being “sexy” with sexual intercourse; does their mimicry of sexual poses or behaviours render them vulnerable; to what extent might adults contribute to a child’s vulnerability? These are all lines of enquiry that warrant ethnographic research with children to identity their beliefs and opinions. In addition to understanding children’s perspectives of what adults consider sexualised behaviour, there is a need to develop children’s ability to critically appraise extrinsic influences such as the media. The media is typically portrayed as the “bad guy” in debates about the sexualisation of children (see, for example, Festival of Light Australia 2008). However, critical media literacy skills could help mitigate the influence of sexualised content on children. Indeed, children could be taught to take a critical view on society broadly, including topics as diverse as poverty, family, socio-economic status, religion, consumption, materialism, the environment, mass production of animals for consumption, animal experimentation, drug use, alcohol sponsorship, fast-food advertising and the behaviour of “role models” such as sports heroes and celebrities. The incorporation of critical, philosophical perspectives into the curriculum of primary and secondary schooling could undermine the often consumerist and capitalist trends that promote sexualised images of childhood. That is, critical thinking skills may contribute to the development of a generation less likely to be influenced by sexualised imagery because they are more critical of its consumption and production. In summary, we need to examine and clarify what exactly are the adult concerns about sexualised behaviour among children, and what behaviour that adults describe as sexualised actually means to children. Without this reflection, our concern for children could unintentionally create other problems. For example, in what ways might adult revulsion of sexualised behaviour in children contribute to sexual “hang ups” and shame in children’s futures, or the construction of girls as passive recipients of their sexuality (Egan & Hawkes 2008b). Critical reflection is required by adults on the social and cultural causes of their concerns, together with the development of equally critical skills among children. The latter could contribute to children’s wellbeing and agency regardless of the images and representations that confront them. It is a gift that the humanities and social sciences, especially media studies, philosophy cultural studies and

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anthropology can give to educational systems that are increasingly concerned with the professions. More than being part of the curriculum, the humanities and social sciences need to engage with public debate. For example, anthropology’s drive to suspend judgment and privilege “insider” or “other” points of view can help to clarify the issues and perspectives at stake in the debate over childhood and sexualisation. Such clarification requires critical, ethical and ethnographic examination of the meanings of sexualised imagery from a child’s perspective. It could provide a basis for determining the extent to which children are influenced by, and can mediate, extrinsic influences such as the media. Child-centric understandings can then be compared with those of adults, to identify potential areas of incongruence. Theoretically, we need to scrutinise the relationship between sexualised behaviours and childhood, and explore the extent to which this relationship is adult-centric. Contextually, we need historical and crosscultural descriptions of childhood and sexuality that provoke critical and reflexive thought on our own milieu (building on Kelly-Byrne 1989, Morton 1996, LeVine 2007, Lancy 2008, Levine & New 2008, and the work reviewed by Davis & Whitten 1987). Empirically, we need to extend an anthropology of sexuality and gender (see, for example, Tuzin 1991 & Vance 1991) by conducting ethnographic studies of childhood which focus on children’s understandings of both sexuality and behaviours understood by adults as sexualised (building on work such as Montgomery 2008, pp.181-200). Practically, we should consider the importance of teaching critical thought to children, developing reflexive thinking and thereby minimising extrinsic influences such as “the media”. This research and education agenda would benefit from anthropologists collaborating with psychologists, physiologists and educators. Such diverse ways of looking at childhood, sexuality and the media can collectively address the many ways in which looks can be deceiving.

Acknowledgments I would like to thank Professor Drew Dawson for his comments on this article and conversations around the topic in general.

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This chapter was originally published as: Thompson, Kirrilly(2010) “Because looks can be deceiving: media alarm and the sexualisation of childhood - do we know what we mean?”, Journal of Gender Studies, 19: 4, 395 — 400. Doi: 10.1080/09589236.2010.533492 It has been reprinted with permission of Taylor & Francis Ltd, http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals

References APA Task Force on the Sexualization of Girls, 2007. “Report of The APA Task Force on the Sexualization of Girls.” Accessed 11 September 2009. http://www.apa.org/pi/women/programs/girls/report-full.pdf. Brennan, Zoe. 2010. "Would You Let YOUR 10-Year-Old Son Pose Like This in a Beauty Pageant?" Mail Online, 25 June. Accessed 22 July 2010. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1289420/Would-letYOUR-10-year-old-son-pose-like-beauty-pageant.html?ito=feedsnewsxml. Butler, Judith. 1993. Bodies That Matter: On The Discursive Limits of "Sex''. London: Routledge. Chambers, Suzanna. 2002. "Outrage as Argos Sells G-Strings For Children." Mail on Sunday, 14 April. Accessed 22 July 2010. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-109621/Outrage-Argos-sellsG-strings-children.html. Davis, D.L., and R.G. Whitten. 1987. “The Cross-Cultural Study of Human Sexuality. “Annual Review of Anthropology, 16: 69-98. Douglas, Mary., 1966. Purity and Danger: An Analysis of Concepts of Pollution and Taboo. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul. Durham, M.Gigi., 2008. The Lolita Effect: The Media Sexualization of Young Girls and What We Can Do About It. USA: Penguin Group. Egan, Danielle R., and Gail Hawkes. 2008a. “Girls, Sexuality and the Strange Carnalities of Advertisements: Deconstructing the Discourse of Corporate Paedophilia.” Australian Feminist Studies 23: 307 – 322. Egan, Danielle R., and Gail Hawkes. 2008b. “Endangered Girls and Incendiary Objects: Unpacking the Discourse on Sexualization.” Sexuality & Culture 12: 291-311. Festival of Light Australia. 2008. Submission on the Sexualisation of Children in the Contemporary Media Environment to the Senate Standing Committee on Environment, Communication and the Arts. Foucault, Michel. 1978. The History Of Sexuality, Vol. 1: An Introduction. New York: Pantheon.

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Gorey, K. M., and D.R. Leslie. 1997. “The Prevalence of Child Sexual Abuse: Integrative Review Adjustment for Potential Response and Measurement Biases.” Child Abuse & Neglect 21: 391-398. Kelly-Byrne, Diana. 1989. “A Child's Play Life: An Ethnographic Study.” New York: Teachers College Press. Lancy, David. F. 2008. The Anthropology of Childhood: Cherubs, Chattel, Changelings. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. LeVine, Robert. A. 2007. “Ethnographic Studies of Childhood: A Historical Overview.” American Anthropologist, 109: 247-260. LeVine, Robert. A., and Rebecca.S. New (eds) 2008. Anthropology and Child Development: A Cross-Cultural Reader. Malden, Massachusetts: Wiley-Blackwell. Montgomery, Heather. 2008. An Introduction to Childhood: Anthropological Perspectives on Children's Lives. Singapore: Wiley-Blackwell Morris, Rosalind. C. 1995. “All Made Up: Performance Theory and the New Anthropology of Sex and Gender.” Annual Review of Anthropology 24: 567-592. Morton, Helen. 1996. Becoming Tongan: An Ethnography of Childhood. USA: University of Hawaii Press. Nash, Kieran. 2010. "Kids' pole antics just 'a sport'." The New Zealand Herald, 27 June. Accessed 21 July 2010. http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=1065 4748 Ross, Ellen, and Rayna Rapp. 1981. Sex and Society: A Research Note From Social History and Anthropology. Comparative Studies in Society and History 23: 51-72. Taylor, Craig. 2009. “Art and Moralism.” Philosophy 84: 341-353. Turner, Victor. 1969. The Ritual Process. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul. Tuzin, D., 1991. Sex, Culture and the Anthropologist. Social Science & Medicine 33 (8):867-874. Vance, Carole. S. 1991. Anthropology Rediscovers Sexuality: A Theoretical Comment. Social Science & Medicine 33: 75-884. van Gennep, Arno. 1960 [1909]. The Rites of Passage. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul. Williams, Rachel. 2010. "Too much, too young? Retailers still selling over-sexualised clothing to kids." The Guardian, 16 April, Accessed 22 July 2010. http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2010/apr/16/childrenclothing-survey-bikini-heels.

PART III MEDIA, POPULAR CULTURE AND IMAGES OF CHILDHOOD

All previous chapters have commented on the role of the media in constructing images of childhood. With the exception of Thompson, previous chapters have not had the media as a primary focus or engaged in detailed content analysis. The three chapters in this part make an important contribution to understanding the ways in which images of childhood are constructed and altered. Media and popular culture are loosely defined and loosely regulated entities and sometimes difficult to distinguish. As discussed in Chapter 1, the media can be an important mechanism for wide dissemination of research findings, but there are also many cases where research findings are distorted. And the primary source of information to drive debates is not always research based. The first two chapters demonstrate how complex human issues are simplified, often with the consequence that ‘failed’ individuals are seen as responsible for adverse outcomes. Malik, Garrett and Olds argue that the media has identified childhood obesity as the product of failed mothering, a simple yet flawed argument that has the potential to negate evidence based approaches to reducing obesity. Nyland combines analysis of media and popular culture alongside a changing image of infancy by researchers. Her analysis highlights the highly conflicting messages about childcare, particularly its impact on infancy. Ebbeck, Warrier and Ebbeck’s detailed analysis of the media in the Singaporean context demonstrates alignment between images of children in the media and cultural ideals. They note the underrepresentation of children in the media and portrayal of children as passive and in need of protection.

CHAPTER EIGHT MUMS, MEDIA AND FAT KIDS: FROM PLACENTA TO LUNCHBOX HALLA MALIK, ROBYNE GARRETT AND TIMOTHY OLDS

Introduction The media coverage of childhood obesity within Australia has undergone rapid increases over recent years. In 1998, 103 articles cited the terms “children” and “obesity,” a number that increased to 347 in 2000, to 1,691 in 2004, and 1,891 instances were reported for 2006. The news media helps to inform public understandings of childhood obesity, and newspapers, magazines and television are increasingly relied upon as sources of information about health, in addition to traditional sources such as medical practitioners (Seale 2002; Lupton 1999). Reflecting shifts in the language of public health and health promotion, broader trends in media coverage have seen health issues increasingly talked about in terms of individual rather than governmental or social responsibility (Lewis 2006, 521). In light of these trends, it is increasingly important to investigate and understand how the mass media represent health issues. The assigning of responsibility for the causes and solutions of childhood obesity, like most other health issues, forms a central feature of public discourse (Lawrence 2004). In this chapter we discuss the findings of a study that investigates the Australian news media’s treatment of the role of the mother in relation to their child’s obesity. Specifically, we examine the discourses and themes that surround the public portrayal of the mother in relation to their obese or overweight child, as well as the broader political and social contexts that facilitate these discourses. In gauging the picture received by the Australian public about the role of mothers in relation to rising obesity levels, our discussion rests on a critical discourse analysis of news media.

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This chapter is structured as follows: in the first section we provide a broad overview of how obesity is defined, the current literature on news media representations of childhood obesity, and the two competing frames in public obesity discourse surrounding who should be held responsible. We then consider an emerging public health paradigm underpinned by a neoliberal approach of governance that centres the individual as primarily responsible for their health. This is followed by a discussion of the findings of a qualitative study we conducted that examines the public portrayal of the mother of an obese or overweight child in Australian news media. Our concluding comments consider the broader effects of this kind of reporting on mothers, as well as combating obesity in general.

Childhood obesity in the news media Overweight and obesity has been defined by the World Health Organization (WHO 2000) as “…abnormal or excessive fat accumulation that may impair health”, and are classified respectively as a Body Mass Index (BMI) greater than or equal to 25, and 30. The prevalence of overweight in Australia, in alignment with other countries, has undergone substantial increases over the past three decades. Latest estimates reveal that 63.7% of Australian adults are overweight, and of these 26.8% are classified as obese (WHO 2011). In Australia the number of overweight children doubled, and the number of children classified as obese tripled, during the 10-year period between 1985 and 1995 (Magarey et al. 2001). More recent data (Olds et al. 2010) suggest a flattening of this trend over the last decade with 21-25% of Australian children now classed as being overweight with 5-7% obese. These statistics present a number of concerns for the projected health of Australian children, as obesity has been associated with a number of physical and psychosocial impairments, including increased predisposition to cardiovascular disease, musculoskeletal impairments and type two diabetes (Goodell et al. 2008; WHO 2000). Throughout this chapter the terms “overweight” and “obesity” will be used interchangeably. Although there is consensus that obesity arises from an imbalance between energy intake and energy expenditure, it remains unclear what specific factors have catalysed this change in body size and shape in children (Crawford and Ball 2002). A wide range of factors encompassing behavioural, social and environmental causes have been implicated. In light of the lack of evidence regarding the primary cause of childhood

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obesity, there is growing consensus that a concerted effort between families and governments is required to address these risks (Boyce 2006). The news media represent one component of the mass media that plays an important role in translating health issues such as childhood obesity into a simpler form that can be readily understood by the public (Lupton 1994). The widely accessible nature of the news media means that they have farreaching effects on how people understand health issues, as well as influence on public policy priorities (Matheson 2005). The media contribute to the construction of obesity not only as a social problem but as an “epidemic”, where discourses of weight, risk and biomedicine cast obesity in the language of moral panic (Boero 2007). Of all the events occurring in Australia and throughout the world, childhood obesity has been consistently construed as “newsworthy.” The news media present issues in certain ways. This is termed “framing”, and involves the construction of meaning by presenting news stories in a manner which highlights some aspects of the issue while backgrounding others (Benford and Snow 2000; Goffman 1974; Matheson 2005). In terms of childhood obesity, two competing frames have been identified in public obesity discourse, each with a different perspective on who should be held responsible. These are the individual versus the social environment (Lawrence 2004). By framing childhood obesity as a direct consequence of individual behaviour, it is the parents as gatekeepers who are assigned responsibility. The social frame, in contrast, focuses on parental choices in the context of environmental influences such as inequality in accessing health information or exposure to junk food advertisements during children’s TV viewing hours. Therefore, responsibility moves from the individual level to the role of the environment in shaping eating and activity behaviour. The way an issue is framed largely determines how it is interpreted, and ultimately the courses of action that might follow. Lupton (2004) reported that the use of alarming language and statistics heavily permeated news texts related to food and risk, to underline the health consequences of childhood obesity. Similarly, in the US and the UK the media coverage of obesity was found to be equally alarming and suggestive of impending disaster, through a tendency to report on the most pessimistic scientific studies, dramatising the risks of obesity and blurring of the lines between weight categories (Rich and Evans 2005; Saguy and Almeling 2005). Lupton (2004) also found that news items portrayed obesity as a direct consequence of individual lifestyle choices, which

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translated into a consistent theme of parental responsibility. The assigning of responsibility to parents was also indicated by Lawrence (2004) in relation to children’s health-related choices, and more recently by Henderson et al. (2009) and Udell and Mehta (2008) in the Australian news media’s treatment of fast-food advertising. Saguy and Almeling (2005) suggested that although parents are largely assigned responsibility, it is the mother who was particularly blamed. The association of women with the role of primary caregiver and the early socialisation of children translates into mothers becoming implicitly accountable for their children’s health (Boero 2007; Hughes et al. 2010). Saguy and Almeling (2005) and Lupton (2004) also reported that a secondary emphasis within the news articles on childhood obesity were the roles played by schools, advertisers and fast-food purveyors. However, these potential contributing factors were highlighted far less than the role of parents. To understand how and why individuals are held responsible for their health, it is useful to look at the current political climate in Australia and other western nations – one which is influenced by a neoliberal conception of government.

Neoliberalism and individual responsibility Neoliberalism can be thought of as an umbrella term for a range of ideas, practices and approaches to the conduct of government (Beeson and Firth 1998). For social theorists like Rose (1996), neoliberalism is concerned with “distancing” formal political institutions from social factors, thus reducing state provision of services and increasing individual responsibility. Neoliberal governments work to dismantle the apparatus of the welfare state by privatising state industries such as hospitals and banks (Mawn et al. 2010). Power is in principle shifted from the government to the hands of individuals. This “empowerment” of individuals means that they are able to make their own decisions, for example whether to buy processed food or whole foods from the supermarket (Harvey 2007). Neoliberal governments depend on individuals policing themselves through social pressure and self-surveillance. In these contexts the functioning of the market depends on information. We must know what options there are (e.g. different types of food), and must be able to make an informed choice between them. The role of the expert then, is to enlighten individuals so they then can make informed and therefore “appropriate” decisions. For Rose (1996) and Rawlins (2008) the essence

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of citizenship in neoliberal thought is self-governance where people are asked to become “experts of themselves” (Henderson et al. 2009, 1403). The market is said to empower individuals by providing choice and information, but the corollary of this empowerment is responsibility. Parents are, for example, responsible for their child’s health, and morally culpable if they do not for fill this role. In terms of a new public health paradigm, neoliberalism operates on the premise that individuals and families are informed, skilled and self-reliant, or at least should be, and that they have a duty to be “healthy” (O’Malley 1996). This applies not only to economic matters such as buying goods, but also to the “disciplinary regime of the body” - choices about smoking, hygiene, immunisation, eating and exercise. We are expected to take active care of our bodies through enacting skills and knowledge about prevention and management of risks. Those who do not actively deal with risks are seen as “…reckless and culpable” (O’Malley 1996, 202) The news media and neoliberalism. The attachment of moral judgments to obesity by the news media was found consistently by Saguy and Almeling (2005) and Lupton (2004). Here, childhood obesity was associated with poor decisions made by parents, an idea closely aligned with neoliberal philosophy. Saguy and Almeling (2005) found that the media tended to moralise obesity by associating overweight with poor individual or parental behaviour, such as choosing to be sedentary or making bad food choices. The moralisation of obesity has also highlighted the idealisation of the thin body both in terms of aesthetics and health. Neoliberalism is central to a number of sub-discourses surrounding childhood obesity and the role of the mother. Neoliberalism sees adults as “rational choice actors” in perfect free markets (i.e. markets where there is unrestricted competition and complete and accurate information). In this environment, people are responsible for the choices they make. If they make poor choices, they only have themselves to blame. Behaviours and choices are therefore easily moralised. Individuals are also expected to manage risk by drawing on experts, who can advise about options and provide “truths” about risk and risk management. Because rational choice actors operate in an environment of perfect information, it is their duty to be self-reliant. Decades of welfarism are thought to have eroded this selfreliance, where the old skills of self-management (home-cooked meals, simple physical activity options) have atrophied and need to be reinvented. Thus, neoliberalism serves as the centre of a constellation of

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themes surrounding responsibility, blame and moralisation, risk and the expert culture, self-reliance and historical decline.

Method Discourse analysis is increasingly used for public health issues to develop awareness of the underlying meanings in accounts of health and illness, as well as understanding the context in which “…lay health beliefs are formulated and expressed” (Lupton 1992, 148). The media texts selected for analysis in this research included 50 tabloid and broadsheet Australian newspaper articles that primarily focused on parents and the overweight or obese child, published between 1998 and 2007. In selecting this range of publications, we attempted to include articles that were designed for different readerships in order to gain a broad picture of the public portrayal of parents and the overweight/obese child within the Australian news media.

Critical discourse analysis The methodology chosen to analyse the news texts was a version of critical discourse analysis developed by Fairclough (1995) specifically designed for media analysis. In broad terms, this method involves examining both the text (newspaper article), and the context in which the text is produced, and therefore draws on elements of linguistics and social science respectively. Fairclough’s interpretation of “discourse” is based largely on the work of Michel Foucault, which sees discourse as “…the different ways of structuring areas of knowledge and social practice” (Fairclough 1992, 3). Therefore, discourse can be thought of as the social rules for language use. These rules are shaped by the social and historical context, and largely determine what is and what is not accepted as the “norm” or as “truth.” For example, the precedence taken by the medical science discourse over alternatives ensures that medical practitioners are positioned in a much more influential and authoritative role than naturopaths. Consequently, dominant discourses (in this example medical science) effectively deny alternatives from being considered as “truthful” or as “worthy” of attention (Mills 2004). In this way discourses are intricately linked to the distribution of power within society and between the various health occupations (Fairclough and Wodak 1997).

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Critical discourse analysis takes into account both the content and structure of the texts as well as the broader influences (social, political and economic) in which the text is embedded (Mills 2004). Fairclough’s approach to analysing the media focuses on three key areas: description (text), interpretation (discourse practice) and explanation (socio-cultural context) (Fairclough 1995; Janks 1997). The textual level of analysis is concerned with the use of grammar and presuppositions or implicit meanings within the text, in addition to the main topics and themes (Richardson 2007). The second level of analysis considers the assumptions that the text makes. It is useful here to return to the example of health care, where the dominant discourse that assigns medical science as the superior form of health care presumes a common set of assumptions in the reader. For example, newspaper articles on health endorse this discourse by taking as “given” that the reader values medical science. The fact that this is left implicit tells us a great deal about the status of the discourse, because the more unspoken the discourse, the greater precedence it has over other ways of knowing. The third level of analysis involves expanding the insights yielded in the first two steps of analysis, by assessing them in relation to the wider society and relations of power (Fairclough 1995). In this chapter we look at these three levels of analysis simultaneously to identify recurrent themes and discourses (discourse practice), the strategies used within the texts to support these themes (text) and the broader contextual issues informing the themes (socio-cultural practice). The following section outlines our key findings, which are clustered around three major themes: parental failure, experts and risk, and mother’s responsibility.

Main Findings Mothers, media and fat kids Parental responsibility and failure. The majority of news articles (96%) explicitly assigned responsibility for childhood obesity to parents. This concept makes sense within a neoliberal schema. Within this frame, children are too young to make informed decisions therefore it is assumed that their health is a reflection of the choices made by their parents:

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Individuals choose what they eat, said Mr. Abbott (Federal Health Minister), and parents should choose what they feed their children (Sydney Morning Herald, 18 November 2006).

As mentioned, neoliberalism leads to the moralisation of choice. Parents with an overweight child are not only held responsible, they are blamed outright for the choices they have made: If you are giving in to your children's demands for anything on a regular basis, no one is to blame but you. You are a weak, ineffective parent and your behaviour is going to be reflected by the raising of a demanding, selfcentred child who will become an equally unpleasant adult (The Daily Telegraph, 11 May 2006).

The mother was particularly singled out as the primary culprit for a child’s obesity. Eleven of the 50 articles focused primarily on the role of the mother in relation to their child’s obesity. Of these, ten explicitly assigned responsibility to mothers: A large legacy - Overweight children may not have to look too far to find the reason - it could all be mum's fault (The Sunday Mail, 7 November 1999). …the health of kids falls squarely on the shoulders of mums (The Sunday Mail, 18 March 2007).

In sharp contrast, there is an absence of the role of the father. There were no articles devoted solely to the role of fathers, and in all cases where they are mentioned they share the responsibility with mothers. In the instances where reference is made to other influences on children's lives, it is stressed that the primary responsibility still rests with parents. The predominance of this theme is captured in the following quote, which implies that environmental effects would not matter if parents were more responsible: To this end, the Federal Government has threatened to exercise its regulatory powers against advertisers who promote child obesity indirectly…These moves may help the cause. But, as with so many ailments of modern society, enduring solutions begin at home. Families that do not find enough time for their children should rethink their priorities (Sydney Morning Herald, 30 September 2003).

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The idea of parental incompetence in the nurturing of children and the foregrounding of the mother across the news texts, allow underlying assumptions about the role of the mother to surface. Across the news texts it is the mother who is singled out as the cause and solution to childhood obesity. The mother is portrayed as inherently responsible for the food that children consume. They are regarded as the “nurturer” and food provider: What we've forgotten is that mothers of families are supposed to be creative experts, the nurturing of children being their greatest expertise. Perhaps somewhere along the path to self-fulfilment outside the home women have failed to recognise the fundamental nature of their role inside it. (The Age, 26 January 2004). If mothers knew how to cook better food, children would not be so fat (The Age, 26 January 2004).

The neoliberal backdrop allows for a differential between what constitutes good and bad behaviour. Good mothers have children who are not overweight; they therefore make responsible and informed decisions. They nurture their offspring with wholesome natural food. They embody hardworking mothers of the past. This contrasts with the neglectful “refrigerator mother” of the present, who has lost her fundamental maternal instinct. Her poor decisions are reflected in the “abnormal” weight of her children. She feeds her children carelessly with artificial and manufactured food and does not prioritise the care of her children: Not taking the time to prepare healthy meals for our children is shameful…The 2003 study, Maternal Employment and Overweight Children, found the epidemic rise in childhood obesity is directly linked to the increasing number of women in the workforce (The Sunday Mail, 17 September 2006).

Experts and risk. The reference to the “expert” directly or indirectly was common across the news items (82%). The role of the expert is to provide individuals with information so they are equipped to make informed and appropriate decisions. Implicit in this reliance on experts is that parents need assistance to parent successfully. The rational and responsible parent will act on information provided by experts and therefore make good decisions that ultimately are best for health. In contrast, not acting on public health information, or information offered by the expert, is seen as irresponsible on the part of parents and largely contributing to childhood overweight and obesity:

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In a country where obesity has doubled in the past 10 to 15 years in preschool-aged children, and continues to rise, the study shows many Australian parents are still not acting on public health messages warning them of the dangers of childhood obesity (The Advertiser, 20 March 2006).

Responsibility means risk. When we are responsible for making choices, we are at risk of making the wrong choices. Obesity is particularly risky. If mothers make the wrong choice, things spiral out of control quickly. The many metaphors of “loss of control” or “exponentiality” in the discourse on obesity reflect the consequences of bad choices: Corpulent youngsters are populating the nation at a rate of knots and if we don't do something to slim the chubby tide we face a future of mounting health costs and a sick, diseased population (Sydney Morning Herald, 17 May 2005).

However, mothers receive conflicting advice offered by the news articles about what is deemed “appropriate” behaviour. For example, mothers are irresponsible if they pack their kids lunchboxes with high-fat foods: Parents are continuing to pack fatty, packaged snack foods in children's lunch boxes despite increasing rates of childhood obesity, new State Government research has revealed (Sun Herald, 18 July 2004).

On the other hand, they put their kids at risk of “malnutrition” if they choose low-fat foods: Up to one in ten young children are malnourished because their parents insist on fashionable low-fat diets, according to research (The Daily Telegraph, 21 April 1998).

Mothers are morally culpable if they pay too little attention to their child’s weight and exercise habits. However, the same applies if they pay too much attention to a child’s weight, which is deemed as “unfair” to children and a potential cause of an eating disorder. Thus, mothers are constantly balancing on a moral tightrope in terms of how they should nurture their children. They not only have a responsibility to their children, the choices they make have implications collectively for the wider community. Parents who have overweight children are seen as an economic burden to the community. The economic costs associated with childhood obesity were conveyed strongly across the news sample:

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By attaching a price to childhood obesity, the attribution of blame is amplified. This line of thought is enhanced through the many metaphors of the “time-bomb”, and language within the news texts that enhances the sense of urgency to act. Here, the cumulative effects of childhood obesity will imminently become so disastrous and far-reaching that society will not be able to cope.. “…so bad it may change the course of evolution” (The Advertiser, 11 September 2002), “looming epidemic…disaster” (Newcastle Herald, 8 July 2003). It is not only the physical consequences, but also the social, that are evident in the texts. Obesity is a symbol of social decline where a sick child equates to a sick society. From placenta to lunchbox. Within the articles analysed, mothers were presented as responsible for the obesity of their children if they do not maintain their own bodies, do not breast-feed, do not cook nutritious meals or make poor choices about what to put in their child’s lunchbox. From placenta to breast, from breast to lunchbox, and beyond, the media holds mothers responsible: The children of overweight mothers are 15 times more likely to be obese by age six than those of lean mothers, researchers say (The Sunday Mail, 30 January 2005).

Throughout the pregnancy, children are put at risk if their mothers are overweight, underweight or do not make good dietary choices: A MOTHER'S obesity during early pregnancy more than doubles her child's risk of obesity at preschool age, a new study has revealed (The Sunday Telegraph, 11 July 2004).

Mothers who are able to breastfeed their children during infancy are viewed positively, as opposed to those who formula-feed their babies: Mr. Abbott wants more mothers to commit to breastfeeding their babies, warning a failure to do so could exacerbate the obesity epidemic (Illawarra Mercury, 5 August 2004).

How mothers prioritise their work was also viewed as risky:

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Lack of time means working mothers are too tired or too busy to prepare proper food (The Sunday Mail, 18 March 2007).

Childhood obesity – an affliction of modern life and the modern mother In light of the identified themes and discourses surrounding the Australian news media’s portrayal of the mother of the overweight child, we now consider the broader social and political contexts as well as other research that inform these themes. As our findings indicate, the mother was portrayed as primarily responsible for the food and exercise habits of her children and, therefore, overweight and obesity in children was assumed to reflect a neglect or lack of skill in this role. This is similar to the findings of Saguy and Almeling (2005) in their analysis of obesity coverage in the US press. Here, mothers were targeted by the news texts because they are the primary caregivers. Consequently, childhood obesity is directly linked to the role of the mother rather than parenting in broader terms, or indeed to structural or environmental characteristics of our society. The risk of children becoming overweight or obese heavily infiltrated the news texts, and was amplified by the many metaphors of obesity as a” time-bomb” or an uncontrollable force. As mothers were primarily held responsible, they were particularly singled out to manage and reduce their child’s risk. In other words, if people are responsible for their actions, then their failures are ultimately moral failures: they have only themselves to blame. This formed a strong undertone across the news texts where moral judgments about the character and integrity of parents, particularly mothers, were clearly made. The news media acts somewhat like a mirror of society by reflecting the values and pre-occupations of that society. The emphasis on parental responsibility, as seen in the findings of this study, reflects the presence of neoliberal philosophy in Australian politics. In the present case we argue that the parent, a “rational choice actor” informed by experts and the media chooses between a number of alternatives offered by “suppliers” (to exercise or not, to choose a healthy diet or not). The choices might not necessarily be in the form of purchasable goods or services, but the sum total of individual choices will nonetheless determine the availability of options, as in any free market. If enough people choose to walk, walking groups will be formed, and so forth. In this context, an obese child can be seen to be a social failure that represents a set of bad market choices.

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Where neoliberal governments take the stance that childhood obesity is largely the result of parental behaviour, the logical way to address the problem is to coerce parents to choose or act more wisely, as opposed to engineering the social and built environments. Thus, many of the existing initiatives to address childhood obesity in Australia primarily focus on providing parents with “better” dietary and exercise information so they are equipped to make informed and appropriate decisions for their children. Accordingly, there is a reluctance to intervene on the environmental, policy or regulatory levels (for example, restricting advertising of fast food and soft drinks). There are a number of implications associated with the neoliberal vision of parental responsibility. First, it assumes that all parents have access to unbiased information, and furthermore are able to comprehend this information. In practice, the current state of knowledge on obesity is far from consensual or complete, which poses a dilemma for parents because they are still expected to make the right decisions. Across the news texts, mothers were urged to manage their child’s weight, yet were often presented with conflicting and confusing information. Similar confusion has been identified in media analyses looking at breast cancer in Australia (Lupton 1994) and the US (Lantz and Booth 1998). Second, the assigning of responsibility to parents also largely ignores the particular circumstances of families, and therefore the influence of social, cultural and environmental factors on childhood obesity. It therefore overlooks the growing agreement that childhood obesity requires a concerted effort between families, schools and governments (Lobstein et al. 2004; WHO 2000) as well as the influence of race, ethnicity and culture on childhood obesity (Caprio et al. 2008). Hence, despite the recognition that there are both individual and environmental contributors to obesity, the picture created by the media continues to focus almost exclusively on the role of parents. In contrast to the picture of modern maternal incompetence that permeated the news texts, findings by Jackson et al. (2007), indicate that the Australian mothers within their study were extremely concerned about their child’s weight problems, and carried the guilt, blame and stigma of having an overweight child. Jackson’s study provides an important insight into the experiences of mothers of overweight and obese children, and indicates that the current blame attributed to mothers also found in this study could be blighting the mothering experience. For example, mothers

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often internalise the mother-blaming attitudes of those around them, which can lead to reluctance to seek help from health professionals and services available to them (Hughes et al. 2010; Jackson and Mannix 2004).

Conclusion: The mother’s tightrope The use of critical discourse analysis in this study allowed us to gain a clearer picture of the way that media reportage in Australia reflects key political and cultural-societal values. Public health in many western nations has undergone a shift towards encouraging individuals to take responsibility for their own health. This shift has been increasingly reflected in the news media where a powerful constellation of discourses intersecting around childhood obesity hold parents, particularly mothers, primarily responsible. In positioning parents as culpable, the medical discourse of health management is enmeshed with another discourse that constructs obesity as a moral issue. Other scholars in obesity research have similarly identified a central discourse of gender which accentuates the roles of women in the domestic sphere, and highlights maternal responsibility above and beyond paternal responsibility (Jackson 2004; Lake et al. 2006). These findings, in light of other studies, indicate that a strong theme of blame is registering deeply with a number of mothers and works toward complicating rather than supporting the mothering experience. There is some agreement that these ideas and theories are burdensome to women, and negate the role that fathers and significant others have in caring for children (L’Huillier 1996; Zivkovic et al. 2010). Burrows (2001) believes that it is easier to blame mothers than to consider the role played by societies and governments in reconfiguring social policy and community services to support women and families. While the burden of blame takes its toll and is experienced as feelings of guilt, inadequacy and low self-esteem, women themselves can collude in blaming themselves for things that are realistically outside their own control. While their child’s body size is public property, a mother’s “lack of care” is based on the presumption that a good mother has the power to stop anything that is harmful and does not account for children who are difficult to manage, diverse family circumstances (unemployment, sole parenting, poverty) or the lack of choice in everyday lives (Jackson 2007; Zivkovic 2010). To consider childhood obesity as a result of failed mothering provides a simple explanation to a complex issue, and works to limit future efforts to

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curb obesity. This position reflects a lack of understanding of the complex issues that contribute to obesity in people of all ages, and actively disregards the particularity of a person’s life story. Policy that is largely channelled toward providing individuals with better “information” with little recognition of their particular circumstances, works against the agency of children and their parents and implies that they need greater surveillance or disciplinary action. As Lister (2006, 326) argues, there is a “strong whiff of authoritarianism” around legislation designed to assist parents in raising competent and responsible children that highlights an increasing social control of childhood. We might also re-evaluate the role of the State in neoliberal governance where in governing “from a distance” the State does not completely disappear, but swings heavily into action as soon as people fail in their assumed responsibilities (Zivkovic 2010).

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Mawn, Barbara, Eduardo Siqueira, Ainat Koren, Craig Slatin, Karen Melillo, Carole Pearce, and Le Ann Hoff. 2010. “Health Disparities among Health Care Workers.” Qualitative Health Research 20(1): 6880. Mills, Sara. 2004. Discourse (2nd ed) New York: Routledge. Newcastle Herald. “Obesity crisis looming - Action finally.” July 8, 2003. Olds, Tim, Grant Tomkinson, Carol Maher, and Katia Ferrar. 2010. “Trends in the Prevalence of Childhood Overweight and Obesity in Australia between 1985 and 2008.” International Journal of Obesity 34(1): 57-66. O’Malley, Pat. 1996. “Risk and Responsibility.” In Foucault and Political Reason: Liberalism, Neoliberalism and the Rationalities of Government, edited by A. Barry, T. Osborne, and N. Rose, 189-208. London: UCL Press. Rawlins, Emma. 2008. “Citizenship, Health Education and the Obesity 'Crisis'.” ACME: An International E-Journal for Critical Geographies 7(2): 135-151. Rich, Emma, and John Evans. 2005. “Fat Ethics – The Obesity Discourse and Body Politics.” Social Theory and Health 3(4): 341-358. Richardson, John. 2007. Analyzing Newspapers: An Approach from Critical Discourse Analysis. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. Rose, Nikolas. 1996. “Governing 'Advanced' Liberal Democracies.” In Foucault and Political Reason: Liberalism, Neoliberalism and the Rationalities of Government, edited by A. Barry, T. Osborne, and N. Rose, 37-64. London: UCL Press. Rose, Nikolas, Pat O’Malley, and Mariana Valverde. 2006. “Governmentality.” Annual Review of Law and Social Science 2: 83104. Saguy, Abigail, and Rene Almeling. 2005. “Fat Devils and Moral Panics: News Reporting on Obesity Science.” Paper presented at SOMAH Workshop.” UCLA Department of Sociology, Accessed April 2, 2007. Seale, Clive. 2002. Media and Health. London: SAGE. Shanahan, Angela. 2004. “Why it is time to bring back domestic science.” The Age, January 26. Steele, Selina. 1999. “A large legacy - Overweight children may not have to look too far to find the reason - it could all be mum's fault.” The Sunday Mail, November 7. Sydney Morning Herald. “Finding time for balance.” September 30, 2003. —. “Gulp ...You are what Grandma ate.” November 18, 2006. Udell, Tuesday, and Kaye Mehta. 2008. “When Two Sides go to War: Newspaper Reporting of 'Television Food Advertising Restrictions' as

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a Solution to Childhood Obesity.” Health, Risk and Society 10(6): 535548. WHO. 2000. Obesity, Preventing and Managing the Global Epidemic (WHO Technical Report series 894). Geneva: World Health Organization. —. 2011. Non-communicable Diseases Country Profiles 2011. Geneva: World Health Organization. Wilkins, Michael. 2006. “Parents who can't say no are raising fat kids.” Daily Telegraph, May 11. Woods, Miranda. 2004. “Parents pack the fat snacks – The health report.” The Sun Herald, July 18. Zivkovic, Tanya, Megan Warin, Michael Davies, and Vivienne Moore. 2010. “In the Name of the Child: The Gendered Politics of Childhood Obesity.” Journal of Sociology 46(4): 375-392.

CHAPTER NINE IMAGES OF INFANCY: RESEARCH AND SOCIAL IMAGES BERENICE NYLAND

Introduction As keepers of our origins, infants are the most basic expression of what it means to be alive as humans in this world – alive with the potential for the formidable mental growth that leads infants between birth and the second year toward sophisticated self-awareness, enculturation and discernment of a consensual world that can be talked about and thus shared symbolically with others (Rochat 2001, vii).

This Rochat quote is derived from a particular theoretical image of infants. It is a meta-theory that acknowledges general features of growth and development while recognising the complexity of individual trajectories including personal history, culture and well-being. He rejects a simple causal explanation of why infants develop as they do, and suggests that trying to understand the infant research is not for the “fainthearted” (2001, viii). In this chapter I explore images of infants that have emerged from both the research in recent years and social and popular culture sources. As social attitudes to infancy have changed (Johansson & White 2011) the focus of research and infants has become one where beliefs about infants’ understanding of the world, and others, has moved from an image where babies were needy and had little conceptual awareness to an image where researchers are now able to explore complex questions like pre-verbal children’s capacities to display theory of mind knowledge (Trauble et al. 2010). Increasingly, early childhood scholars are arguing that the image of infants emerging from research should be incorporated into government policy when designing care and education institutions for babies, and

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training for educators who will work with the very youngest (Rockel 2009). A view of infancy that supports this argument is an ecological approach (Bronfenbrenner 1979) to infancy. In keeping with a view of a competent, communicative infant who perceives the world and acts intentionally on it, I have adopted a socio-cultural view of growth and development (Vygotsky 1978) for research that is presented in this chapter. The breadth of the socio-cultural world view means that historical, political and contextual factors are important. The adults in child care centres have their own theories of infancy derived from social and personal history, their present relationships with particular infants and their imaginings for these children in the future (Cole 1996). The image of the infant is therefore not only influenced by popular culture, but a social image also has an intergenerational effect. The infant needs the cultural image of infancy and this becomes a part of the infant’s experience. This interpreted view of infancy will be carried into the future and will help form the infant’s historical view of infancy, and potentially influence relationships with infants when this child becomes an adult. Infants are avid observers, and a recent article in Science (Thomsen et al. 2011) suggested that pre-verbal infants may even have mental representations of social dominance. Therefore, the acceptance and popularity of certain beliefs, expressed through popular media, are a measure of community sentiment and will have a potential long-term social impact as these beliefs become part of the infant’s culture, and will influence the child’s relationship with future infants. Another significant contribution of social belief systems is that perceived popular opinion is a powerful political force as long as it does not disrupt ideological considerations. Therefore, politicians will often pursue reform agendas, in this case in relation to child care funding and educational models, if they perceive an electoral advantage (Maiden 2012). In this chapter I discuss the research literature on infants, and infants in child care, and comment on the image of infants propagated through literature and popular culture. Examples from a research project I conducted, that examined the child care context through the language experiences of one infant, are presented. The findings of the study have been related to cultural images of infants to explain some of the interactions that occurred in the child care context I observed and recorded during the research. Implications in regards to policy support for infant care and education programs are addressed in the discussion. The

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competent infant, and the infant with rights, is an over-riding theme of the chapter.

Infants and child care The 1980s and 1990s were a period where increased child care places, especially for infants, were experienced, and the child care research at the time tended to look at two main issues (Hennessy et al. 2012). One issue was the desirability of placing very young children in non-parental care, and the other question has related to “quality” issues as they impacted on developmental outcomes (Belsky 1990). In the 1990s, interpretive research began to emphasise the flaws in research that assumed a particular kind of homogeneous experience for children in care. Interpretive research emphasised the importance of studying everyday experience in an attempt to discover more about the structure of the child care institution, and the cultural meanings constructed by those within these institutions (Grau & Walsh 1995). The voices of those involved in child care on a daily basis, that is, the children, caregivers and parents, were largely silent, while research tended to examine aspects of group care that were thought to have an impact on future development. Researchers began to redress this situation and over the next decade studies explored everyday life in the child care institution (Leavitt 1995). Caregivers had little part in research, and this situation began to change (Elfer & Selleck 1997). Another voice that received even less attention was that of the child. The research had focused on developmental outcomes which meant it was concerned primarily with the child of the future. As ideas of participation rights developed in the wake of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and the importance of relationships within the cultural context was acknowledged, research turned towards an explication of how experience was interpreted within the group care environment (Pramling 1995). In research that examined the emotional culture of infant-toddler child care, Leavitt broke new ground by exploring interactions within the child care context through the eyes of the children. Children’s everyday experiences with caregivers were observed and interpreted with a view to surmising what meaning children might make of caregiver actions and inaction. To Leavitt (1997), the crucial conclusion that arose from this research was: It is important to consider under what conditions caring relations and emotional responsiveness can be sustained. Emotionally responsive care giving requires attention to feeling, involvement, connection, compassion,

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Recent infant research (Johansson & White 2011) has explored ways of giving voice to young children, not just in relation to children interpreting their own experiences, but also as researchers in their own right. There is a new acknowledgment of the influence different contextual factors will have on the structure of children’s experience, and researchers have emphasised how each setting will be largely defined by existing societal images of infants. Local conceptualisations of the young child will dictate choices about methodology, ethical practice and reflexive spaces. Stephenson (2011), takes a “Generous” approach to research with young children and provides a bridge to earlier research, like that of Leavitt. The language that is the focus in this recent research emphasises the visual and how the camera, either in the hands of the child, or adult observer, or in one case on the child’s head, becomes an important tool for the collection of ethnographic data. This attention to what the child sees has been addressed in the language literature as well with linguists, for example, Halliday (1978), commenting on the relationship that researchers have observed between the infants' changing physical perspective on the world and corresponding changes in language abilities. The research I describe in this chapter concentrated on various aspects of pre-verbal language that included such actions as vocalisations, pointing, referencing through gaze direction, as well as overt movement to express interests and desires. The researcher's choice to use pre-verbal language acts as a window onto the child's experience grew out of the influence of Vygotsky (1978) and his theories on the role of language. Children construct their knowledge of the culture as they learn language, and therefore language is seen as facilitating an understanding of self and the community as well as becoming a mental tool (Mead 1934). Infants are subject to cultural mediation, and in the act of learning the culture of a context they interpret their experiences. By interpreting experience, infants become part of the culture and are also instrumental in its re-creation. The language focus in the research was on the voluntary actions of shared referencing and intentional action. Observations of children’s interactions are presented, and interpretations offered. Interpretations of the interactions occurring within the child care centre include a discussion on how the social conceptualisation of infancy influences these everyday lived experiences.

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Social views of infants Views of infants in literature and popular culture, and infants in child care, consist of two components; one a general cultural view and the other contextual. Both are significant as social images of children, and contextual images of children will form cultural positioning of infants. In this section, the social and cultural perceptions of infancy and childcare, contained in cultural artefacts like fiction, newspapers, cartoons and films, are summarised. It is worth starting with a lengthy quote about infants in Western literature, as this is indicative of attitudes found also in popular culture. Runcie (1991), in an article in the Daily Telegraph, discussed the status of children in some of the classics of Western literature. Authors do not trust babies. A threat to the imagination, they offer the kind of creative fulfilment that can distract a writer from the more serious business of literature. Boswell, for example, was worried that after the birth of his son he should “never again have an easy hour”; Coleridge had to stay up half the night to find the peace in order to write Frost at Midnight; and Carl Sandburg discovered that “nothing was ever so important” as having a child. A writer in thrall to a baby soon finds that there is no room left for literature. As Cyril Connolly put it, “there is no more sombre enemy of good art than the pram in the hall”. Perhaps this is why babies hardly ever take a prominent role in fiction. The writers that delight in them have found a new vocation; the rest are horrified spectators, regarding them, like Ronald Knox, as little more than “a loud noise at one end with no sense of responsibility at the other”. Consequently, it is hard to think of a major novel with a good physical description of a baby. The only one that comes to mind is of Dombey’s son (“very bald, and very red”), but apart from him, babies are given a rough ride in literature – murdered in Greek tragedy (“Medea”), cast out in Shakespeare (“The Winter’s Tale”) and abandoned or dying in 19thcentury fiction (Adam Bede, Tess of the D’Urbervilles, East Lynne).

Babies’ images presented in children’s books, films and cartoons are also less than desirable. The baby, Anabelle, in the Mary Poppins books (Travers 1934) is considered so unimportant she disappears in the film and stage play, so the version of Mary Poppins most young children are familiar with is missing the youngest family member. Baby cartoon characters present some challenges. Maggie, in The Simpsons cartoon, has a dummy, constantly falls over and is an excellent markswoman who saves her father’s life on occasions. She has only ever vocalised twice in the whole series. Another cartoon baby character is one-year-old Stewie

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Griffin in Family Guy. Stewie is a child prodigy who can speak, play music and dreams of killing his mother and taking over the world. The word infant means “without speech” so Stewie’s fluency is a reference to how unlike a baby he really is. This emphasis on the importance of formal language is also found in other contexts. There is the notion that babies who learn sign language will be advantaged by being able to formally communicate earlier than most, and will suffer less frustration. The “Mozart effect” to assist in early language and cognitive development has been an influential theory believed by many adults (Waterhouse 2006). Neither of these theories has yet been supported by strong research findings (Bruer 1999), but it is indicative of the attitude that the more quickly babies can move through the stage of infancy, the better. In other depictions of infants the recent film Babies, released in 2011, emphasised the cultural practices of the parents and portrayed the babies as universally endearing. One of the more popular representations of infants to be embraced by an enthusiastic public has been the photographs of Anne Geddes (for example, Geddes nd). These images present babies as tiny, beautiful beings who are other-worldly, as in fairies and pixies, belonging to the plant world, pictured on pumpkins and in flower pots, or belonging to the animal world, often oviparous creatures as they are portrayed in eggs or sitting in egg shells. In these pictures, infants have been photographed naked, in unlikely poses and usually shown as small, like Thumbelina in the fairy story. What messages are contained in such images, and what do infants read in them when they are displayed in contexts like the baby room in a child care centre? I have observed such images, especially the Geddes pictures, frequently displayed in cot rooms and change rooms when I have visited child care centres over many years. In the 1980s and 1990s the child-care research often focused on whether group care was desirable for infants. This issue has been a perennial in the media. One of the most enduring visions of infants and childcare was a Micheal Leunig cartoon that appeared in major Australian newspapers in 1995. The cartoon, “Thoughts of a baby lying in a child care centre”, depicted a baby as a head with a cocoon body, to emphasise vulnerability, and the thoughts were sad and full of self-blame. The first of six captions read: I can’t believe it! My own mother – who I want to be with more than anything in the world; my mother – font of all goodness and warmth, dumps me here in this horrendous crèche. I can’t believe it!

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This cartoon attracted a huge reaction and was re-visited in 2008 when the children’s author. Mem Fox, was reported in a Sunday Mail article on 31 August 2008 as likening putting babies into childcare to child abuse. In her Mem on babies in childcare blog on 6 September 2008, Mem Fox explained that she would not resile from her position and that she felt the need to speak up for all the babies under twelve months who are placed in child care. In these two examples, the adults have taken the baby’s voice to express their opinions. Journalists in the popular press also know child care for babies can be used to trigger emotions, so experts like Jay Belsky (2005) and Penelope Leach (1994) are cited when there is a perceived need to excite the reading public (Shell 1988). Bronfenbrenner (1979) has researched, at different levels,, both social and physical environments and the effect the environment has on human growth and well-being. Using an ecological systems approach, Bronfenbrenner discusses theories of cultural transmission, consciousness, history and use of language as part of the interconnecting processes whereby infants learn about their world and the place of infants in the world. The examples presented here would suggest that social images of babies are less than positive. Babies are treated with suspicion in literature, the examples from cartoons are fraught, the popularity of Anne Geddes’ images needs careful consideration, and the debate about child care for babies is used by the media gratuitously. It is, however, a serious topic, because if caregivers have been impacted by such views then these will have the potential to disrupt relationships with the baby and the parents. Examples of everyday interactions, from research I have conducted with a child care centre, are presented and discussed here.

Description of the research In this research project I observed an infant over a period of twelve months. Taking a view of language as communicative, interactive and a major cultural mediating tool (Vygotsky 1962), the infants’ language experiences were recorded and studied for the shared meanings created within the environment. The methodology used in this study was interpretive and naturalistic. The environment of the child care centre was studied by observing the infant as a competent, reciprocal member of the community of child care, who was learning language and culture from daily activity with people and objects (Leont'ev 1981). A video camera was used to record twenty minutes of continuous experiences every two weeks. Data was transcribed into communicative language acts using

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predetermined categories based on infants’ intentional and referential actions (Bretherton 1992). The setting was an Australian childcare centre. The child’s language acts were analysed using categories of shared attention and joint activity. For pre-verbal children the significance of joint activity can be looked for in expressive actions. Valsiner (1987) divided intentional actions within the context into three metaphorical zones, and suggested contextualised actions can be commented on in relation to the Zone of Free Movement (ZFM), the Zone of Promoted Activity (ZPA) and the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) in order to describe the context, or system, whereby children become enculturated. The three zones are interconnected and are interdependent. The ZFM and ZPA are seen as a complex zone, with the ZPD falling within the ZPA. Using the concept of the three zones, observations were studied to illustrate how adults canalised children's actions towards social expectation and acceptance. These observations were exposed to detailed analysis.

The competent infant - examples of language acts within the Zone of Promoted Activity The following example observations are taken from video transcripts of intentional communicative language acts that were categorised as “repair of failed messages”. Bretherton et al. (1981) defined failed messages to suggest that: If the addressee does not respond in the intended manner, infants frequently augment the intensity of the communicative behaviour or substitute a new gesture for the first, as if to clarify the message. This substitution of means is an especially telling index of intersubjectivity. (p. 55)

Observation at 7 months. Sam was in the nursery with two adults and a distressed child who was lying on the floor, crying loudly. Sam indicated through gaze direction that he was concerned. He looked at the distressed child and then at one of the adults. This was repeated twice and there was no reaction from the adult. Comment. This failed message was not repaired. The child used one communicative strategy twice, gaze alteration, and did not succeed in communicating with the adult about the child. As the adult was obviously

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aware of the distressed child, it is possible the adults’ ZPA was not to respond to the child for some reason. Observation at 12 months. Sam was sitting in a high chair for morning tea, and eating toast. He attracted the caregiver’s attention by putting his head down on the tray of his high chair. He sat up again with the toast hanging from his mouth and it broke off and fell to the floor. The caregiver interpreted these acts to mean Sam had finished his morning tea and asked if he was ready to leave the chair. She then started to wipe his face with a face cloth and he waved this away. He then banged on the tray of the high chair with his hand and looked away as the caregiver took his hands to wipe. He then tried to push off the harness of the high chair and raised himself looking down at the toast on the floor. The caregiver lifted him to the floor and pointed at the sandpit. Sam now stood looking at the toast on the floor, reached towards it, vocalised and then pointed at the toast. The caregiver moved him on towards the outside, and the sandpit. Comment. This observation contained a number of attempts to repair the failed message about still wanting the toast and a number of strategies were used including, gaze, both directional and protracted, vocalisation, pointing, reaching and gesturing he was not finished, by trying to wave away the face cloth which was used to represent the end of the morning tea ritual. He did not manage to communicate what he wanted, so his initiation of a promoted activity was not successful. In this case the caregiver did not seem to understand the meaning in his communicative acts. Observation at 18 months. Sam was on the verandah of the centre with a caregiver. The caregiver had been in the storeroom and she came out and locked the door. He noticed she had left an adult broom lying on the verandah. Sam indicated she had left the broom out by picking it up. The caregiver verbally acknowledged that the broom had been left out accidently. Sam’s facial expression was one of concern and the caregiver indicated she understood he was concerned. Sam looked at the storeroom door and held up the broom to suggest the solution. The caregiver then turned her attention to other equipment on the verandah and Sam expressed his dissatisfaction by banging on the storeroom door. The caregiver moved away and Sam stood looking at the broom in his hands. He tried to walk with the broom but it was too big and fell. He looked at the caregiver, moved towards her and then turned and walked away leaving the broom on the verandah.

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Comment. In this observation Sam sent nine messages and used seven communicative strategies. He successfully communicated his message but was unable to achieve the action required for the promoted activity, as the caregiver chose not to respond to his suggestion that the broom should be put away in the storeroom.

Discussion In these three observations Sam’s communicative competence could be seen to be growing by the number of messages he conveyed, and the increased number of strategies he used to communicate his meaning. In two instances he also managed to establish his ZPA, but in no instance were these successfully acted on. Sam’s desire for toast, and for the broom to be put away, were ZPAs that should have presented no disruption to the caregiver, or the centre. The toast message was not established, but the broom message was. Concern for the crying child may have been conveyed but there was no acknowledgement, so this cannot be known. In this observation the caregiver had made a decision not to immediately attend to the child, and in the case of the broom there was a decision not to attend to it at that time. Throughout the 12 months that observations took place most “repair of failed messages” were not successful. The ZPA was most likely to be successful if it was initiated by the adult, or if the adult and infant ZPA was the same. This has implications for the ability of Sam to make himself heard within the child care context. These were tiny, ordinary exchanges, but Leavitt (1994) suggested this could have longterm implications for children’s perceptions of infancy. Those moments in the lives of children and their caregivers which may (or may not) seem insignificant in themselves and their temporality, but which may be symbolically representative of major tensions, conflicts, or ruptures in their relationships, and which momentarily and cumulatively profoundly affect the meanings children give to themselves and their present and later experiences. (p. 1)

This is an issue still being discussed in the recent research literature, where White (2011) has queried whether our youngest have voice, or are voiceless, in these institutions of childhood. Leavitt concluded that the regulative norms of formal childcare are based on adult theories of infancy, and this could influence the infant’s developing sense of self. There have been suggestions from researchers like Leavitt, Rockel and Moss that communicating with pre-verbal

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children should be part of pre-service training. The research presented here indicates that the infant is a successful communicator but the adult is choosing to listen selectively. The possibility, then, is that it is the social image of the infant that is dictating the adult’s role in the relationship. As early as 1999, Penn challenged the concept of attachment theory as a suitable conceptualisation for the childcare context. She pointed out that as the mother is not present, and child care has a different culture to that of the home, then other related theories could be explored. This idea has been explored in a study I conducted that examined how infants and older children’s activities were privileged by educators in a child care centre. Findings suggested that safety was more an issue than emotional needs, and active pre-schoolers were often attended to if the infants were safely immobilised, for example, not yet mobile or waiting in high chairs (Nyland 2003). The low-key encounters in the observations reported here were indicative of unequal relations where the adult was the powerful partner. Though infants will be unequal partners in terms of physical, social and cultural competence, they can also communicate effectively and it is this competence that could be explored when resolving questions of participation and choice within the institution of child care.

Conclusion One of the most basic principles of cultural psychology is mediation through artefacts, and newspaper articles, popular works of fiction (books, films, cartoons, video games) must be considered cultural artefacts. Therefore, the child is introduced to the culture of infancy by adults skilled in the use of artefacts designed within our society to mediate messages of competence, social position, social role, exchange, value and change. How artefacts are used is recreated from one generation to the next, as more able members of the culture present objects and experiences for the discovery of meaning. The image of the infant that emerges from the examples given in this paper suggest one that is problematic and will influence societal attitudes about care and education, responsibility and even the desirability for infants to be viewed as citizens with rights. Participatory appropriation is a term used by Rogoff (2003) to explain that the process of entering the culture is an active one. The child does not acquire language and an understanding of culture, but actively appropriates knowledge and transforms social experience. This is done through participation. It is on this plane that the child's experiences, guided by the ZFM and ZPA, become the child's own understanding of the world,

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and the child's actions on the world become their own through their understanding within the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD). Within communities of childhood, infants are powerful communicators. Caregivers have opportunities to mediate infants into making sense of their world. Experiences will assist in cognitive understanding. The infant will learn more deeply and have more potential in an environment that is emotionally sustaining. There is also the significance of “theory of mind” theory. The role of interpersonal understanding in the infant's acquisition of knowledge has been emphasised. Of special importance is the skill of inferring others' intentions. Infants' emotional literacy, or intersubjectivity, makes possible the early reading of others' states of mind, and, therefore, an understanding about beliefs. There is also a problematic relationship between belief and action. Lillard uses the cultural heritage of Shakespeare's plays to illustrate how belief drives action. She uses the example of Romeo's belief that Juliet is dead, to show how people respond to the world they see. These plays are paradigmatic of our fascination with how people view the world, and how belief drives action. (Lillard 1999, 57)

Baldwin brings these points together as she relates infants' abilities in language, emotional sensitivity and imitation to how infants learn from others. Beginning in infancy, humans acquire knowledge at a pace far outstripping that found in any other species. Recent evidence indicates that interpersonal understanding - in particular, skill at inferring others intentions - plays a pivotal role in this achievement. Infants as young as 12 to 18 months actively utilize clues to others intentions to guide their interpretation of language, emotion and action more generally. (2000, 40).

From this it can be inferred that Sam was in an active learning situation as he interacted with the caregiver in his child care centre. The child care setting is a developmental niche, and one that was experienced by Sam on a regular basis for a significant number of hours per week. The situated nature of experience and learning has been emphasised in this paper. While Sam was observed as an active learner within the context, there was not strong evidence of reciprocity on an individual interactional level. The role of the more competent member of the culture, the caregiver, may be indicated more by the cultural practices of the institution, the history of the

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institution and the beliefs and theories about infants that the caregiver holds. As suggested in the discussion, the lived experience of the childcare setting does not suggest the infant is afforded participation rights. A theoretical reconceptualisation of infancy should be possible in an institution where adult members of the culture are trained in adapting theory to practice, and to plan their interactions and relationships. The structure of the child care setting needs a broad approach where children’s rights are thoughtfully and purposively considered. Relationships should be based on principles of reciprocity, participation and listening, in a context where familiarity gives the infant the communicative cues to have a voice.

References Baldwin, Dare. 2000. “Interpersonal Understanding Fuels Knowledge Acquisition.” Current Directions in Psychological Science 9 no. 2: 4045. Belsky, Jay. 2005. “Child Care and Its Impact on Young Children (0-2)” In Encyclopedia on Early Childhood Development (Centre of Excellence for Early Childhood Development: Montreal) 1-6. —. 1990. “Parental and Nonparental Child Care and Children’s Socioemotional Development: A Decade in Review.” Journal of Marriage and the Family 52: 885-903. Bretherton, Inge. 1992. “Social referencing, intentional communication, and the interfacing of minds in infancy.” In Social referencing and the social construction of reality in infancy, edited by Saul Feinman. 5779. New York: Plenum. Bretherton, Inge., McNew, Sandra and Beeghly-Smith, Marjorie. 1981. “Early Person Knowledge as Expressed in Gesture and Verbal Communications: When Do Infants Acquire a ‘Theory of Mind’?” In Infant Social Cognition: Empirical and Theoretical Considerations, edited by Michael Lamb and Lonnie Sherrod. 333-374. New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Publishers. Bronfenbrenner, Uri. 1979. The Ecology of Human Development: Experiments by Nature and Design. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. Bruer, John. 1999. The Myth of the First Three Years: A New Understanding of Early Brain Development and Lifelong Learning. New York: Free Press. Cole, Michael. 1996. Cultural Psychology: A Once and Future Discipline. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.

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Elfer, Peter and Dorothy Selleck. 1997. The Learning Needs of Children Under Three in Early Childhood Centres. London: National Children’s Bureau. Geddes, Anne. Gallery. http://www.annegeddes.com (accessed February 5, 2012). Graue, Elizabeth and Daniel Walsh. 1995. “Children in Context: Interpreting the Here and Now of Children’s Lives.” In Qualitative Research in Early Childhood, edited by Amos Hatch, 135-155. Westport: Prager Press. Halliday, Michael. 1978. Language as Social Semiotic: The Social Interpretation of Language and Meaning. London: Edward Arnold. Hennessy, Ellis, Sue Martin, Peter Moss and Edward Melhuish. 1992. Children and Day Care: Lessons from Research. London: Paul Chapman Publishing. Johansson, Eva and E. Jayne White, ed. 2011. Educational Research with Our Youngest. New York: Springer. Leach, Penelope. 1994. Children First: What Our Society Must Do – and is not doing – For Children Today. London: Michael Joseph. Leavitt, Robin. 1995. “The Emotional Culture of Infant-Toddler Day Care.” In Qualitative Research in Early Childhood, edited by Amos Hathc, 3-23. Westport: Praeger Press. —. 1994. Power and Emotion in Infant-Toddler Day Care. Albany: State University of New York Press. Leont'ev, Aleksei. 1981. Problems of the development of mind. Moscow: Progress Publishers. Lillard, Angeline. 1999. “Developing a Cultural Theory of Mind: The CIAO Approach.” Current Directions in Psychological Science 8 no. 2: 57-61. Maiden, Samantha. 2012. “Julia’s Childcare Plan Stolen from Howard Playbook.” The Telegraph. May 20th. Mead, George. 1934. Mind, Self and Society. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Nyland, Berenice. 2003, February. “Infant Programs in Australian Childcare Centres: Are there Gaps in Pre-service Training of Childcare Staff. Paper presented at the 8th Australian Institute of Family Studies Conference. Melbourne. Penn, Helen. 1999. “How should We Care for Babies and Toddlers: An Analysis of Practice in Out-of-Home Care for Children Under Three. Childcare Resource and Research Unit. Toronto. Pramling, Ingrid. 1995. “Phenomenography and Practice.” New Zealand Journal of Educational Studies, 30, no. 2: 135-148.

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Rochat, Phillipe. 2001. The infant’s world. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. Rockel, Jean. 2009. “A Pedagogy of Care: Moving Beyond the Margins of Managing Work and Minding Babies.” Australasian Journal of Early Childhood 34, no. 3: 1-7. Rogoff, Barbara. 2003. The Cultural Nature of Human Development. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Runcie, James. 1991. “The Penalty of the Pram in the Hall”. Daily Telegraph. http://jamesruncie.com/docs/press_babies.html (accessed February 4, 2012). Shell, Ellen. 1988. “Babes in Day Care.” The Atlantic Monthly 262 no. 2:73-74. Stephenson, Alison. 2011. “Taking a “Generous Approach” in Research with Young Children”. In Educational Research with Our Youngest edited by Eva Johansson and E. Jayne White, 135-160. New York: Springer. 135-160. Thomsen, Lotte.,Willem, Frankenhaus., McCaila Ingold-Smith and Susan Caey. 2011. “Big and Mighty: Preverbal Infants Mentally Represent Social Dominance.” Science 331 no. 6016: 477-480. Trauble, Birgit., Vesna, Marinovic and Sabina, Pauen. 2010. “Early Theory of Mind Competencies: Do infants understand others’ beliefs?” Infancy 15, no. 4: 424-444. Travers, Pamela. 1934. Mary Poppins. London: Collins. Valsiner, Jaan. 1987. Culture and the Development of Children’s Action. New York: John Wiley and Sons. Vygotsky, Lev. 1978. Mind in Society: the Development of Higher Psychological Processes. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. —. 1962. Thought and Language. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. Waterhouse, Lynn. 2006. “Multiple Intelligences, the Mozart Effect, and Emotional Intelligence: A Critical Review. Educational Psychologist 41, no. 4: 207-225.

CHAPTER TEN CHILDREN’S IMAGES AND VISIBILITY AS REPRESENTED IN TELEVISION AND NEWSPAPER IN SINGAPORE MARJORY EBBECK, SHEELA WARRIER AND FRED EBBECK

Introduction This chapter focuses on an important area: children as represented in the media. It presents the results of a research study in Singapore which examined how the media represents children there. In researching this area it was necessary to examine some perceptions of children and childhood. Kunkel and Smith (1999,79) propose that “How any nation conceptualises childhood, how it perceives or stereotypes its youth in terms of their patterns of behaviour, how it treats its children in terms of laws to protect them and policies to benefit them, all depend upon how children are viewed by the nation’s citizens”. The media wields a powerful influence and has a pivotal role in shaping societal perceptions of the child. Gerbner (1970), through his cultural indicator project, studied the media image of different social groups, including children, in terms of their visibility and form of representation. He found that the mass media could actually cultivate a public image, reflect an existing image, and also contribute to maintaining the social status and hierarchy of different groups. Hence, identifying the visibility and dominant type of representation of children in the media in Singapore will help to elucidate the dominant Singaporean perception of children. In addition to providing important information to professionals and researchers, this study can be used to assess the extent to which the representation of the child in Singapore’s media was consistent with

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fostering the rights of the child as set out in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, or, conversely, the extent to which those representations acted as barriers to the attainment of the goals of the Convention.

Singapore’s children Singapore is a small city-state, where people are the only natural resource, and hence children are publicly valued and protected as the country’s greatest asset and future citizens (Ministry of Education 2009). The Department of Statistics (2011) cites that as of 2011, around 16.8% of the total population of Singapore was children below 15 years of age. In the “State of the Family Report 2011”, the Acting Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports (MCYS) quotes Confucius, “The strength of a nation derives from the integrity of the home” (National Family Council 2011, 128). Though most Singaporeans possess strong family ties and cherish family values, statistics show that just as in other developed countries, Singapore also shows trends that point towards low birth rate and an aging population (National Family Council 2011, 128). Changing demographics contribute to the preciousness of children in Singapore. Children enjoy a good standard of health care in Singapore. According to “The State of the World’s Children 2012” released by UNICEF, Singapore has one of the lowest under-five and under-one mortality rates (UNICEF 2012, 209). Though basic health care in Singapore is one of the best in the world, some of the “new morbidities”, as pointed out by paediatrician Ho (2009, 135, 158) are mental illnesses, behavioural disturbances and social and emotional disorders. Along with many other factors that create stressful conditions for children, Dr. Ho also mentions school pressures and relationships with parents. The Singapore society, which has a strong inclination towards the Confucian ideals of filial piety, obedience, loyalty and collectivism, may contribute to students developing school-related anxieties. In many ways these anxieties are due to the expectations and pressures placed on them by parents who consider children’s school success as a matter of pride for the family and country (Ang 2009, 171; Lowe 2012, 169; Anderson 2010, 172; Tan 2011, 168; Ang 2006, 173). It is to be noted that since Singapore depends on her people to drive economic development, an educated workforce is vital and so education is

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valued throughout all sectors in the country (Ministry of Education 2009, 28). Singapore’s accession to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (“the Convention”) shows the Government’s commitment to the well-being of the children in Singapore as well as its openness to international scrutiny (Committee on the Rights of the Child 2003, 266).

The Convention The United Nations General Assembly unanimously adopted the text of the Convention on 20 November 1989 (United Nations 1989, 181). By ratifying the Convention, countries agree to abide by a set of nonnegotiable standards and obligations. The Convention, which is regarded as an internationally-accepted set of guidelines on the rights of a child, projects an image of the child as an active agent of society who is capable of taking decisions and forming age-appropriate opinions on matters that concern children. Within the many Articles of the Convention, there is recognition of the child as being both (a) needing special protection and assistance, and (b) being young persons who are increasingly competent and who will develop into participating individuals. Although many developed countries have acknowledged children through the Convention as individuals and citizens having rights of their own, whether this translates into practice depends on factors such as “economic, legal, political, geographic, and cultural contexts of a particular country” (Ebbeck 1995, 149). It requires a great amount of resolve on the part of the countries that have ratified the Convention, including Singapore, to comply with the regulations as stated in the Articles of the Convention. The Committee on the Rights of the Child (“the Committee”) is the body that has been established by the Convention to monitor the implementation of the rights by the ratified countries. The countries are expected to submit a report every five years which will be reviewed by the Committee. The Committee also issues a report on the country’s performance, including recommendations on how to improve their level of compliance and on how to deal with specific issues (OHCHR 2011, 208). Article 17(a) of the Convention directly calls upon governments to “encourage the mass media to disseminate information and material of social and cultural benefit to the child” (United Nations 1989, 181). According to UNICEF (2011, 195), the media should accept the

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responsibility to protect children by avoiding sensationalising news, stereotyping, and by providing a platform to conduct debates on children’s issues. UNICEF also believes that media can address topics from children’s perspective by giving them opportunities to voice their opinion and making them active participants in issues concerning them. The Convention states in Article 17(b) ‘‘the need for all those who work with children for high-quality programs for children and for the removal of inappropriate programs, classifications and advertising, as well as inappropriate use of children in programs and advertising’’.

Media and images of children Some of the common features that have emerged from the research on the media image of children (Children Now 1999, 213; Ebbeck 2008, 165; Gerbner 1999, 215; Harwood 2002, 217; Korac 2003, 76; Kunkel 1999, 20; Oyero 2010, 220; Young Journalists from Children's Express 1999, 216) are invisibility, portraying them as victims, helpless, vulnerable and challenging, sensationalising, using the child as a means to draw attention to themes unrelated to them, judging children based on adult standards, stereotyping and insensitivity to children’s characteristics and needs. There appears to be much variation in how countries regulate the portrayal of children in the media. For example, Italian regulators consider minors to be the most vulnerable, requiring special protection against aggressive marketing campaigns. Regulations are in place regarding advertising to children and advertising with children, so as to protect them against any harm to their “physical or psychological well being”. The rules governing the local broadcasting system ban the use of children under 14 in TV commercials or promotions (Cassandro 2004, 155). In Australia, the requirements for children’s television standards are set out in the Broadcasting Services Act 1992 (Cth). This Commonwealth Act makes provision for the determination of standards that are to be observed by commercial television broadcasting licences relating to programs for children. While these standards set basic policy positions with regard to children’s television viewing, a reading of these does not show that children are banned from being used in commercial advertising. However, the Australian Association of National Advertisers (AANA) has adopted a Code of Ethics, and also a specific Code of Advertising & Marketing Communications to Children. This Code specifically states that “advertisements or marketing and communications to children must not

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state or imply that Children are sexual beings and that ownership or enjoyment of a Product will enhance their sexuality” (AANA 2009, 255). Section 4.3.5.2 of the Commercial Television Industry Code of Practice deals with the privacy of children and states that “licensees must exercise special care before using material relating to a child’s personal or private affairs in the broadcast of a report of a sensitive matter concerning the child. The consent of a parent or guardian should be obtained before naming or visually identifying a child in a report on a criminal matter involving a child or a member of a child’s immediate family, or a report which discloses sensitive information concerning the health or welfare of a child, unless there are exceptional circumstances or an identifiable public interest reason not to do so” (ACMA 2010, 254). Though there is no ban on using children as models in advertisements in Singapore, the Advertising Standards Authority of Singapore (2008, 106) states that advertisements “addressed to or featuring children should contain nothing that is likely to result in their physical, mental or moral harm” and “should not exploit their credulity, loyalty, vulnerability or lack of experience”. This code applies to “all advertisements for any goods, services, and facilities appearing in any form, or any media” (Advertising Standards Authority of Singapore 2008, 106). In order to protect the children, Section 35 of CYPA “prohibits the media from disclosing any information relating to any court proceedings that will lead to the identification of any child or young person who is involved in the proceedings” (Ministry of Community Development Youth and Sports 2005, 236). The above Section also includes the print and broadcast media being “prohibited from disclosing any picture or particulars of the child or young person who has been involved in any court proceedings” (Ministry of Community Development Youth and Sports 2005, 236)

Media in Singapore The Media Development Authority is a statutory board under the Ministry of Information, Communications and the Arts. It was established in January 2003 by merging the Singapore Broadcasting Authority, the Films and Publications Department and the Singapore Film Commission, to develop “a vibrant media sector in Singapore”. The Authority’s mission is to transform Singapore into a “trusted global capital for new Asia media” (Media Development Authority 2011, 156). The Media Development Authority formulates regulatory policies and promotes initiatives in sectors

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such as film, television, radio, publishing, music, games, animation and interactive digital media (Media Development Authority 2011b, 157). Singapore is served by at least 21 local newspapers and 10 broadcast television channels. All major newspapers in Singapore are owned by Singapore Press Holdings (SPH), which has close links with the ruling political party. MediaCorp, a government investment company, operates TV and radio. In Singapore, the media is expected to assist the Government in nation building (Kenyon 2007, 158). In 1988, the then Minister for Trade and Industry and the Second Minister for Defence (Services), who is now the Honourable Prime Minister of Singapore (Lee Hsien Loong) spoke at the Singapore Press Club about journalism and its influence on public opinion (Lee 1988, 185). In his speech, he emphasised the role of the media in nation building and to “educate Singaporeans – not just with facts, but also in terms of national education and values. One way or the other, the press moulds the perceptions of Singaporeans”. He also noted that “Being for Singapore often means agreeing with the government”. As cited in Kenyon and Marjoribanks (2007, 158), Lee points out that the media in Singapore is expected to conform to the government’s agenda by merely conveying the government’s message “uncritically”.

Methodology The research study presented here was principally concerned with examining (1) the dominant media representations of children in Singapore, and (2) the extent to which the children of Singapore are visible in the media. One of the leading national daily English newspapers, The Straits Times, and Channel 5, which is the only free-to-air, 24-hour English entertainment channel in Singapore, were decided on as the main representative media. Newspaper clippings of news/articles, pictures/photographs and advertisements featuring children between foetus stage and 15 years of age were collected for a period of six months (1 July 2009 to 31 December 2009) and analysed for this study. News and advertisements featuring children or related to children between foetus stage and 15 years of age aired on Channel 5 during prime-time (between 7pm and 10pm) over the same six month period were also analysed. In case it was impossible to determine the age of a teenager (whether the child was 15 years or below),

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the child and sample were excluded from the study. The classified section of The Straits Times was not included in collecting the data. In order to identify the dominant type of portrayal of children in the Singapore media, the samples featuring or related to children were classified based on the four principles of the Convention namely, children’s rights to Participation, Survival, Development or Protection (UNICEF 2011, 92). Based on the researchers’ observation of the media in Singapore, and review of literature of the different images of children and constructs of childhood that are prevalent around the world, a fifth category was devised, ‘Not under UNCRC-Object’. The description of categories is given below. Participation. Samples that show children as capable, proactive, having the ability to think and communicate his/her thoughts and actively participating in the society come under this category. Survival. Any issue that relates to or is necessary for the survival of the child comes under this category. Some of the issues that come under this category are childbirth, infant and child mortality and abortion. Development. Issues that deal with the overall development of the child; physical, social, emotional, psychological and cultural development come under this category. Education, health care, entertainment and parenting are also some of the areas that this category covers. Protection. Samples that portray the child as needing protection come under this category. Children shown as part of a family unit, child labour and sexual exploitation of children are some of the issues that come under this category. Not under UNCRC-Object. The child is an adult commodity, used as an object in order to sensationalise the news, to grab attention to an unrelated topic or for adult entertainment. Each of the four principles of the Convention and the ‘Not under UNCRCObject’ category were subcategorised as shown in Table 1. These subcategories were derived from the studies by Korac and Vranjesevic (2003, 76), Shrestha (2004, 81; 2003, 240; 2002, 241), (UNICEF 2011, 92), the Articles of the Convention (United Nations 1989, 181), Sorin and

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Galloway (2006, 166) and from the researcher’s observation of the media in Singapore. The distinction made in the study also highlights the differing perceptions of the child as active, that is, competent and capable (participating individual) and as passive, that is, a developing individual, needing protection and security (survival). Issues that related to life-threatening situations in a child’s life were classified under Survival, whereas the issues that enable a child to realise their full potential were classified under Development. It cannot be denied that, in many instances, the child does indeed need protection. Recognition of this, and portrayal of the child as passive, can result in steps being taken which are consistent with protecting the child’s rights to survival, development and protection as set out in the Convention (UNICEF 2011, 92). The researchers used two other researchers to verify the procedures for collecting data over a period of one week, both scanning the newspapers and the television programmes to see if their verification procedures were accurate. The agreement rate was 100% for both newspaper and television recording. Any direct or indirect references to the Rights of the child were also noted.

Survival

Sur1-Children in accidents

Sur2-Child birth and maternal/paternal issues Sur3-Death due to crime Sur4-Health care and issues

Sur5-HIV related issues

Sur6-Infant and child mortality

Sur7-Child victims of natural calamities Sur8-Suicide

Participation

Par1-Children's club activities

Par2-Children's idea/activity for social change Par3-Children's creativity and expression Par4-Participation in competitions/performances/ sports Par5-Children's participation in media

Par6-Perpetrator of violence (negative)

Par7-Children's achievements/awards Par8-Children taking on responsibilities

Table 1: Subcategories

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Pro6-Children breaking the lawjustice and punishment Pro7-Child marriage Pro8-Missing children

Dev7-Education Dev8-Entertainment

Dev6-Nutrition

Pro5-Sale/ trafficking of children

Pro3-Children in war and armed conflict Pro4-Child labour

Dev3-Child care Dev4-Children's religious practices or cultural traditions Dev5-Disability

Pro2-Drug abuse

Pro1-Abduction/ kidnapping

Protection

Dev2-Birth registration

Dev1Maternal/paternal rights and custody

Development

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Obj5-Children used to capture reader's/ viewer’s attention Obj6-Amusing stories/news about children Obj7-Child as a miniature adult

Obj3-Sensational news items of children Obj4-Child pornography

Not Under UNCRC – Object Obj1-Child models/ children featured in advert or news irrelevant to children Obj2-Beauty/baby contests

Par9-Participation in social activities

Sur9-Abortion

Dev20Fashion/brands/ accessories Dev21-Accidents and injuries

Dev16-Parental responsibilities Dev17-Child psychology Dev18-Pregnancy and Child birth Dev19-Media

Dev12-Charity/support for children Dev13-Birthrate, population Dev14-Racial discrimination/ communal harmony Dev15-Health issues

Pro10-Orphans

Dev10-Gender discrimination Dev11-Sports/exercise

Pro16-Social discrimination

Pro15-Adoption

Pro12-Violence against children Pro13-Abandoned children Pro14-Child as part of family/society

Pro11-Sexual abuse

Pro9-Refugee

Dev9-Environment

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The visibility of children in each of the two data sources was measured by comparing (a) the amount of space/time used by the child-related samples to the total amount of space/time used for news and advertisements, and (b) the percentage of space/time used by the child-related samples against the percentage of children in the population of Singapore. The gender, nationality and stage of development of the children who featured in the child related samples were also noted, to identify any possible variation in visibility.

Analysis of the data Dominant media representation Figure 1 shows the percentage of child-related samples in each category for the two data sources. Both the news sources gave high importance to the ‘Development’ of children with their ‘Protection’ coming behind. The highest percentage of the samples collected fell into the subcategory of ‘Child as part of family/society’. Education and health issues were also widely covered.

Figure 1: Representation of children in the media

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Considering the top ten most widely covered subcategories, The Straits Times had two subcategories from ‘Not under UNCRC - Object’ category; ‘Children used to capture reader's attention’ and ‘Child models/children featured in advertisements or news irrelevant to children’ (Table 3). Channel 5 did not have any subcategory that belonged to the ‘Not under UNCRC - Object’ category, and there were four subcategories in the top ten that belonged to the ‘Participation’ category; ‘Children's creativity and expression’, ‘Participation in social activities’, ‘Participation in competitions/performances/sports’ and ‘Children taking on responsibilities’ (Table 2). Table 2: Channel 5-Top ten subcategories of the Convention Subcategory Child as part of family/society Health issues Education Nutrition Children taking on responsibilities Entertainment Participation in competitions/performances/sports Child victims of natural calamities Participation in social activities Children's creativity and expression Parental responsibilities

Percent 27.8 14.7 8.1 5.7 4.9 3.1 3.0 3.0 2.9 2.9 2.6

Table 3: The Straits Times-Top ten subcategories of the Convention Subcategory Child as part of family/society Education Health issues Children used to capture readers’ attention Charity/support for children Participation in competitions/performances/sports Violence against children Pregnancy and child birth Child models/children featured in advertisement or news irrelevant to children Entertainment

Percent 18.7 17.4 6.5 4.9 3.5 3.4 3.4 3.3 2.8 2.6

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The Rights of the Child was rarely mentioned in the samples collected. The Straits Times had 5 (0.2%) direct and 14 (0.6%) indirect references to the Rights of the child where as Channel 5 did not have any reference to the Convention.

Visibility of children in the media The visibility of children in the two data sources was below their presence (17.9% at the time of data collection) in the population of Singapore. Compared to The Straits Times (2.73%), children had a greater presence in Channel 5 (10.37%), although it was still lower than their presence in the population. Though the difference was small, girls featured more in The Straits Times, whereas boys featured more in Channel 5. Channel 5 also had the largest number of groups with children of both genders. The majority of the children did not have their nationalities mentioned. The representation of Singaporeans was higher than any of the other nationalities, which was to be expected. In both the news sources, the children belonging to the generalised group of early childhood stage (where age was not specified or could not be specified), were mentioned the most. This was closely followed by the school-aged children. Though both the news sources had a very high percentage of children with their photos published, or videos aired in the case of television, the percentage of children with their statements quoted was very low. Most of the children mentioned on television had their faces shown.

Discussion and implications of the findings The results of this study show that children, who are considered precious in Singapore, are practically invisible in the media. “The fact that children, among others, appear and are portrayed seldom in the media output may, thus, be regarded as an indication that they are, in many respects, attributed a lower value, and that the media, in this way, give expression to, and exercise, a form of cultural oppression” (von Feilitzen 2001, 264). Gender equality was evident, as both boys and girls were equally invisible in the media. Children did not have an identity based on their nationality.

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Whatever little glimpse that we get is of a very passive child, who needs to be protected and have their development taken care of by adults. A child is seen as a part of the family or society before he or she is an individual. This can be explained by the influence of the Confucian ideals in the Singapore culture, which values “social responsibility over individual rights” (Huntington, cited in Chang 2002, 144). Their development in terms of education and physical and mental well-being were of top priority. It is not surprising that Singapore media places a lot of importance on the education and healthcare of children. Reporting on Singapore, while concluding the 56th session, the Committee on the Rights of the Child, commended Singapore on the “high level of academic excellence delivered by the school system” but was also concerned that the “highly competitive nature of the education system may impose undue stress and prevent children from developing to their full potential” (Committee on the Rights of the Child 2011b, 167, para. 58). In spite of having an excellent basic health care system, the “new morbidities”, as discussed in the introductory sections, might explain the Committee’s concern about the education system in Singapore being stressful. The wide coverage given to the issues relating to children’s health reflects the importance attached to it by the Singapore government and society. Though the visual media can do much better in terms of projecting children as competent and capable beings, it is to be recognised that the visual media seems to be doing a better job than the print media in terms of making children visible to the world, and also presenting them as active participants in the community. Though the Committee has acknowledged the “various initiatives that were undertaken by the State party to raise awareness of the Convention amongst children and the public at large” (Committee on the Rights of the Child 2011, 167, para. 18), this was not reflected in the media in Singapore. Both print and visual media in Singapore can and should take responsibility in popularising and creating an awareness of the Convention among its citizens. The physical presence of children seemed to attract attention, and adults were ready to use it to their benefit. Their active participation in society is mostly limited to participation in competitions, performances and sports, and to some extent by taking age-appropriate responsibilities. Though children were seen as victims of violence and sexual abuse as much as they were victims of accidents and natural calamities, survival was the least of all concerns.

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Reflecting the Committee’s concern about children’s lack of freedom of expression in Singapore (Committee on the Rights of the Child 2011, 167, para. 33), this study also found that when most of the children who were covered by the media had their faces publicised, not many children were heard expressing their opinion. As the basic needs such as food, shelter, health care, safety and education of children in Singapore are increasingly met, it can be argued that Singapore can now move towards making sure children’s voices are heard and they are given a chance to express their opinion regarding matters that affect them. It is consistent with the philosophies underpinning the Convention for the media to represent a child as being “passive”. The Convention expressly acknowledges that children are vulnerable and in need of special protections. However, if the mass media predominantly portrays the child only in a passive manner, this may lead to the lack of recognition of the child’s competencies and the need for pursuit of those Convention rights aimed at children becoming educated, participatory, and viewed as active.

Concluding comments On the premise that the media is capable of changing the mindset of people as much as they can reflect the society’s perception, it is recommended that the government, journalists, editors, media owners and educators work together to promote the rights of the child, expand the coverage of children and improve their participation in the community. It is only through this type of advocacy that change can occur, and children be given their rightful place in society. This Singapore example may not be representative of other countries, but it does provide a data base and hopefully other researchers will extend this important work.

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Oyero, Olusola. 2010. "Children: as ‘invisible’ and voiceless as ever in the Nigerian news media." Estudos em Comunicação nº7 no. 2:25-41. Shrestha, Saurav Kiran. 2002. In Print media coverage on children's issues. Kathmandu, Nepal: Hatemalo Sanchar. —. 2003. In Print media coverage on children's issues. Kathmandu, Nepal: Hatemalo Sanchar. —. 2004. In Print media coverage on children's issues. Kathmandu, Nepal: Hatemalo Sanchar. Sorin, Reesa, and Greta Galloway. 2006. "Constructs of childhood: Constructs of self." Children Australia no. 31 (2):12-21. Tan, Joyce Beiyu, and Shirley Yates. 2011. "Academic expectations as sources of stress in Asian students." Social Psychology of Education no. 14 (3):389-407. doi: 10.1007/s11218-010-9146-7. UNICEF. 2012. Convention on the Rights of the Child, 3 June 2011a [cited 6 February 2012]. Available from http://www.unicef.org/crc/index_30219.html. —. 2011. Convention on the rights of the child, 2 June 2011b [cited 2 December 2011]. Available from http://www.unicef.org/crc/index_30177.html. —. 2012. The State of the World's Children 2012. In Children in an Urban World. New York, USA: United Nations Children's Fund. United Nations. 1989. Convention on the Rights of the Child edited by Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. von Feilitzen, Cecilia, and Catharina Bucht. 2001. Outlooks on Children and Media: Child Rights, Media Trends, Media Research, Media Literacy, Child Participation, Declarations. Children and Media Violence Yearbook, 2001. Goteborg, Sweden: United Nations Educational, Scientific Cultural Organization, Goteborg International Clearinghouse on Children Violence on the Screen. Young Journalists from Children's Express. 1999. " 'Kids these days...'." In Children and media: image education participation, edited by Cecilia von Feilitzen and Ulla Carlsson, 115-130. Nordicom, Sweden: The UNESCO International Clearinghouse on Children and Violence on the Screen.

CONCLUSION

CHAPTER ELEVEN AN OPTIMISTIC VIEW OF THE ROLE OF RESEARCH IN CHANGING IMAGES OF CHILDHOOD SHIRLEY WYVER

In chapter 1, it was argued that the pathway from peer-reviewed publication to broad dissemination of findings is not straightforward. There can be many barriers and distortions that prevent research findings being conveyed accurately or positively. While it is reasonable to take a pessimistic view of the role of research in changing images of childhood, it is also reasonable to hold an optimistic view if considering key reforms directly linked to research. Many of the chapters in this book have already highlighted the relationship between research and changes in children’s life experiences, most notably the chapters by Cologon and Crettenden, Rhagavendra and Nguyen. The issues raised in their chapters will not be repeated here. If this book had been written 20 years ago, it would most likely have reflected the approaches of a single discipline with a restricted range of research methods. New and improved methods of research and data analysis, alongside greater recognition of the role of multidisciplinary perspectives, have enabled more breadth and depth in many areas of research involving children. Researchers working with children have long been aware that there are limitations on the research questions that can be answered using standard experimental designs. McGrath’s chapter (this volume) is an excellent example of how developments in design and statistical analysis have aided researchers in addressing questions that could not be ethically examined using the classic experimental and control group designs. There are many areas in which research has made a difference to images of children, which has in turn been reflected in policy and opportunities

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for children. This concluding chapter focuses on one important image change, namely, that children can provide meaningful contributions to decisions that affect their lives. The examples are mainly from social sciences and education, but this should not be read as an indication that other disciplines have not contributed to methods and knowledge in this area. For example, paediatric medicine has made significant changes in pain management. In the 1970s, some surgical procedures for infants were routinely conducted without anaesthesia or pain management, and children were restrained to receive painful medical procedures (Frager 1998). Current procedures include discussions involving children before surgery and children being active in management of pain control (e.g. see advice to patients from Sydney Children’s Hospital, 2005-2009; Yale School of Medicine, 2012) In education and the social sciences, the idea that children think in ways that are qualitatively different to adults, largely based on Piagetian and other stage theorists, was an important turning point in understanding that developmental differences mattered. An unfortunate consequence of popularisation of stage theory, though, was the representation of children’s knowledge as consistently and substantially different to adult knowledge. For example, for a Piagetian theorist, children cannot engage in the type of abstract thinking that is characteristic of much of adult problem solving. Although remnants of these stage theories can still be found in educational approaches today, there has been a progressive shift away from stage approaches to an understanding of domain-based knowledge and the acquisition of knowledge within particular contexts (e.g. Fischer 1980; Siegler 1994). Children often exhibit their highest levels of knowledge in contexts of relevance, while showing less success in contexts that are more removed from experience. Research on memory (Chi 1978) and moral reasoning (Killen 2007) has demonstrated that the discrepancies between adult and child performance in these areas diminishes when the problem presented is of relevance and interest to the child. Research on children’s testimony has made a significant contribution to finding ways in which skilled questioning can elicit accurate information about events in children’s lives (Goodman & Melinder 2007). Changes in images of children’s thinking and reasoning has mobilised an understanding that children can be involved in decision making, particularly when they are directly influenced by the outcome of the decision. New methods and methodologies have been an important catalyst for this research, and continue to develop (see e.g. Harcourt, Perry

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& Waller, 2011, Stephenson 2012). Today, it is seen as standard procedure for government agencies to consult with children about significant decisions. For example, Section 13 of the Commission for Children and Young People Act 1998 (New South Wales Government 2012) requires the Commission to develop and use consultation strategies that are appropriate for children. The NSW Commission for Children and Young People (CCYP) has since promoted greater participation of children in a range of decisions, including changes in local communities, and developed expertise in facilitating children’s participation. They have also played an important role in children’s views being included in changes to policy and law (CCYP nd), although they have not always had success when children’s views diverge from the views of adults. For example, the CCYP’s (2008) submission to NSW Parliament included recommendations about the toilet facilities in schools; many children find these areas unhygienic or bullying hotspots, and therefore avoid using the toilet during the school day. Despite significant investment in school infrastructure as part of Labor’s Education Revolution (Australian Government, 2011), very little attention has been paid to replacing unacceptable toilet facilities. Although researchers and professionals working with children, in general, no longer dispute the value and authenticity of children’s perspectives, the idea that children can and should contribute to debates that directly affect their lives is still represented in the media as novel and untested. For example, Funnell (2011) wrote a relatively positive article in The Sydney Morning Herald about children’s participation in public debates. It was in response to Fine’s (2011) opinion piece published in an earlier edition of the same newspaper. Funnell describes Fine as an articulate 11-year-old, and although her piece is positive about his contribution and the role of children in public debate (about ethics classes in schools), she ultimately argued that Fine was atypically eloquent and was growing up in a household of writers. Yet, throughout his article, Fine refers to class and peer discussions, demonstrating that these are not the isolated insights of an atypical thinker. For example, My friend Edwin was discussing if children should be allowed to vote. One of the potential problems that we discussed was whether parents might tell their children how to vote and not let them decide for themselves.

As the chapters in this volume demonstrate, there is still progress to be made in reducing the dominance of adult-centric views of learning and aberrant behaviour. There is also progress to be made in how the media

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includes and portrays children. Yet reforms are achievable, and it is hoped this book has a role in changing images of childhood.

References Australian Government. 2011. “BER Factsheet: Community Use of BER Facilities.” Accessed July 30, 2012. http://www.deewr.gov.au/Schooling/BuildingTheEducationRevolution /Documents/BERCommunityUseFactSheet.pdf Chi, Michelene T.H. 1978. “Knowledge Structure and Memory Development.” In Children’s thinking: What develops? Edited by Robert S. Siegler, 73-96. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. Commission for Children and Young People. 2008. “Submission to the NSW Joint Parliamentary Committee on Children and Young People.” Accessed August 1, 2012. http://kids.nsw.gov.au/uploads/documents/9-14%20yrs_submission.pdf —. nd. “Advocacy and Research.” Accessed August 1, 2012. http://kids.nsw.gov.au/kids/advocacyresearch.cfm Fine, Charlie. 2011. “Keep Your Politics Out of Our Classrooms, Mr Nile.” Sydney Morning Herald, August 1. Accessed August 1, 2012. http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/keep-your-politics-out-of-ourclassrooms-mr-nile-20110801-1i77c.html Frager, Gerri. 1998. “Care of the Child with Chronic Illness: Are We Taking Care of Their Pain?” Paediatrics & Child Health, 3. Accessed August 24, 2012 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2851321/?tool=pubmed Funnell, Nina. 2011. Let’s Respect Children’s Ability to Think for Themselves. Sydney Morning Herald, August 2. Accessed September 30, 2011. http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/society-and-culture/letsrespect-childrens-ability-to-think-for-themselves-20110802-1i9ce.html Goodman, Gail S. and Annika Melinder. (2007). “Child Witness Research and Forensic Interviews of Young Children: A Review. Legal and Criminological Psychology, 12: 1-19. Harcourt, Deborah, Bob Perry, Tim Waller. (Eds) 2011. “Researching Young Children’s Perspectives: Debating The Ethics and Dilemmas of Educational Research With Children.” London: Routledge. Killen, Melanie. 2007. “Children’s Social and Moral Reasoning About Exclusion.” Current directions in Psychological Science, 16: 32-36. New South Wales Government. 2012. “Commission for Children and Young People Act 1998.” Accessed July 30, 2012. http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/nsw/consol_act/cfcaypa1998397/

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Siegler, Robert. S. 1994. “Cognitive Variability: A Key to Understanding Cognitive Development.” Current Directions in Psychological Science. 3: 1-5. Stephenson, Elspeth. 2012. "Young Children's Voices: Developing Innovative Research Methods." In Children and Childhoods 1: Perspectives, Places and Practices, edited by Peter Whiteman and Katey DeGioia, 137-150. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing. Sydney Children’s Hospital. 2005-2009. “Factsheet – children’s painful procedures and operations.” Accessed August, 25 2012. http://www.sch.edu.au/health/factsheets/joint/?painful_procedures_and _operations.htm Yale School of Medicine. 2012. “ Pediatric pain management.” Accessed August 25, 2012. http://medicine.yale.edu/anesthesiology/care/pediatricpain.aspx

CONTRIBUTORS

Kathy Cologon is a Lecturer at the Institute of Early Childhood, Macquarie University. Kathy’s research focus centres on practical issues relating to facilitating inclusive early childhood education. Kathy has a particular research interest in the area of reading development in children who have Down syndrome. Email: [email protected] Angela Crettenden is Acting Manager of Knowledge and Innovation at Novita Children’s Services. Novita has a proud history of research supporting participation of children with disabilities including access to new technologies. Angela’s interest in this area has been informed by her work as a Clinical Psychologist, both at Novita and in paediatric settings around Australia. Most recently, Angela’s area of research interest extends work undertaken for her PhD in the broad area of carer well-being, focusing on the ways that parents of children with disabilities balance paid work and care. Email: [email protected] Fred Ebbeck is a Senior Academic Advisor at SEED Institute where he assists in the development of early childhood courses and quality assurance of teaching. Fred has held many early childhood positions in Universities and his research interests include, research methods in early childhood, child development, and sociology of childhood. He has recently completed a major role in the development of a joint early childhood degree between SEED Institute and The Singapore Institute of Management University. He is also currently a consultant to the Yew Chung Foundation in Hong Kong in the development of an Associate Degree in Early Childhood Education. Email: [email protected] Marjory Ebbeck is an Emeritus Professor at the University of South Australia and also Senior Academic Advisor at SEED Institute Singapore. As an active member of the UniSA Professoriate, Marjory continues to supervise PhD students and to be actively involved in publications and research interests which include play in early childhood curriculum, culture and curriculum, leadership and early childhood program development. She is currently working with SEED staff on Ministry of Community Welfare, Youth & Sports, Singapore funded early childhood

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research projects. Currently Marjory is a consultant to Deakin University. Email: [email protected] Robyne Garrett PhD is a lecturer in physical education, dance and methodology in the School of Education at the University of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia. Her research interests include critical pedagogies, gender, dance, teaching methodologies and alternative movement approaches. Her PhD thesis investigated the construction of gender in physical activity contexts for young women. Current projects include aspirations for disadvantaged youth, well-being of university students, and alternative movement methodologies. Email: [email protected] Helen Little is a Lecturer in child development at the Institute of Early Childhood, Macquarie University, Australia. She is a trained early childhood teacher and previously taught in preschools and primary schools in Sydney. Her main research interest focuses on individual, social and environmental factors influencing children’s engagement in risk-taking behaviour in outdoor play. Current focus relates to how the physical features available in the outdoor environment and pedagogical practices relating to outdoor play provision in Early Childhood settings impact on children's experiences of risk taking in play. Email: [email protected] Halla Malik completed a Bachelor of Physiotherapy with First Class Honours at the University of South Australia in 2007. Her main research focus during the course of this degree was childhood obesity and the role of the Australian news media. She is now currently studying Medicine at James Cook University. Email: [email protected] Andrew McGrath is a Lecturer at the School of Psychology, Charles Sturt University. He teaches developmental and forensic psychology, and his main research interests are in the predictors of juvenile offending and juvenile risk assessment. Email: [email protected] Toan Nguyen is a Research/Rehabilitation Engineer of Knowledge and Innovation, Novita Children’s Services, and PhD Candidate with the University of South Australia. Toan has an interest in researching and developing new ways for children with physical disabilities and older people to effectively use latest telephony and assistive technology. Toan has extensive knowledge of accessible telecommunications technology

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and is experienced in the area of matching these technologies to someone with a disability. Toan’s current research focus is investigating the optimal training techniques and strategies to effectively teach children with physical disabilities and older people to use mobile communication technologies. Email: [email protected] Berenice Nyland is a senior lecturer in early childhood at RMIT University, School of Educaton. Her PhD thesis was a language study of two preverbal infants in child care settings. Infant/toddler programs, infant rights, music as a language of childhood, history of Child Art in Australia and early childhood services in China are amongst her present research activities. Email: [email protected] Timothy Olds is Professor of Health Sciences at the University of South Australia. After completing a PhD in French Studies at the University of Sydney, Tim went on to study exercise science, earning another PhD in 1997. His recent research interests have been in historical trends in the sleep, fitness, fatness, physical activity and food intake of children, and the relationship between health and use of time. Email: [email protected] Parimala Raghavendra is a Senior Lecturer in Disability & Community Inclusion, School of Medicine, Flinders University, Adelaide, Australia. She is a Speech Pathologist with significant research, clinical and teaching experience in working with individuals who have disabilities, especially those with severe communication impairments. She was the Manager of research at Novita Children’s Services for over 12 years overseeing a vibrant and an effective allied health research program with children with physical disabilities. Parimala’s research focuses on understanding and enhancing participation of children with disabilities at home, school and community using inclusive technologies such as the Internet and mobile technologies. Email: [email protected] Kirrilly Thompson is a Research Fellow at Central Queensland University’s Appleton Institute in Adelaide. She is a trained anthropologist who has applied ethnographic techniques to a variety of fields including humananimal relations, sport and risk. Kirrilly has published on children’s food knowledge and choices as well as perceptions of health and risk. She has a special interest in the role of animals and pets in children’s lives. Throughout her research on children’s issues, Kirrilly is committed to eliciting child-centric perspectives. Email: [email protected]

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Sheela Warrier is a final year PhD student with the University of South Australia. She has many years of teaching in multicultural contexts in early childhood. Her interest in the rights of the child led her to focus on the Media Representation of Children in Singapore for her PhD study. In addition to her research interests, Sheela is currently working in an international school in Singapore. Email: [email protected] Peter Whiteman is a Senior Lecturer in creative arts and Deputy Head of the Institute of Early Childhood, Macquarie University. His research interests span early childhood music education and musical development, children’s musical cultures, emergent symbol systems and reconstructed childhoods. He holds a strong commitment to participatory methods and children’s voices in research. Email: [email protected] Shirley Wyver is a Senior Lecturer in child development at the Institute of Early Childhood, Macquarie University. Her main research interest is in the relationship between early play and cognitive/social development. Her recent research in this area has also had a focus on physical activity in children’s play. Before her academic career, she was a psychologist with Royal Blind Society (now known as Vision Australia) and has continued to conduct research in the area of blindness and low vision. Email: [email protected]