The experiences of early childhood development home visitors in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa

BACKGROUND This article examines the development of early childhood development (ECD) home-visiting services in South Africa. AIM To examine the factors that could support the success of home-visiting programmes as well as to explore the experiences of bachelor’s-level home visitors rendering such services. SETTING This study was conducted in the Eastern Cape, a highly impoverished area of South Africa. METHODS It begins with a discussion of the emergence of home-visiting as a strategy for the delivery of ECD services in South Africa and a review of the literature on ECD home-visiting, particularly with highly vulnerable, impoverished families. Next a focus group conducted with a small sample of home visitors as part of a multi-faceted community assessment is described. The results are examined within the context of challenges facing this particular part of South Africa and the nation as a whole. RESULTS Four themes emerged as most prominent: (1) encountering the effects of extreme family poverty, (2) identifying high rates and multiple aspects of child maltreatment, (3) encountering scarce resources in high-need areas and (4) finding rewards and maintaining a desire to continue serving challenging populations. CONCLUSION This study provides a unique window on the challenges that ECD home visitors are likely to encounter when working with families living in extreme poverty, the resourcefulness that home visitors often demonstrate and the rewards to be found in this work.Published versio

Growing together: expanding roles for social work practice in early childhood settings

In the United States, interest in early childhood development has grown dramatically over the past two decades and continues to expand. Increasing public support for programs and services that address the needs of young children and their families provides numerous opportunities for social work intervention. This article describes three major early childhood systems—early intervention, Early Head Start, and early care and education—and discusses ways that social workers can strengthen programs within these systems and improve outcomes for participating children and families. Social workers' understanding of and commitment to family-centered practice and cultural competence are highlighted. Opportunities for social workers to become involved in advocating for, developing, and leading high-quality early childhood programs and implications for social work education are also discussed.Accepted manuscrip

Home visitation programs: critical issues and future directions

As support for intervening early in the lives of vulnerable children has risen in the United States in recent years, so has interest in home-visitation programs. Home visitation is increasingly recognized for its potential to foster early child development and competent parenting, as well as to reduce risk for child abuse and neglect and other poor outcomes for vulnerable families. This paper provides a discussion of several aspects of home-visitation programs that warrant further development and evaluation, including the powerful role of context in determining program outcomes, as well as the impact of other factors, including service dosage, levels of family engagement, and characteristics of home visitors. The importance of more accurately understanding and measuring risk and engaging family members beyond the mother–child dyad is also discussed. Recommendations are made for making improvements in all of these areas, in order to strengthen home-visitation programs and produce better outcomes for the children and families they serve. Aspects of Nurse Family Partnership and Early Head Start, two widely replicated and rigorously evaluated programs, are highlighted to demonstrate how the issues discussed here are likely to affect service delivery and program outcomes. The multiple challenges inherent in replicating and evaluating home-visitation programs that are truly responsive to the needs of a wide array of families with young children are examined. This discussion concludes with a call to expand and improve methods for evaluating these programs, and to view home visitation as a component of a comprehensive system of child and family supports, rather than as a stand-alone model of intervention.First author draf

Family poverty, racism, and the pandemic: from crises to opportunity for transformation

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Neglect of young children in South Africa: implications for prevention, identification, and intervention

This paper examines child neglect among young children in South Africa, including the challenges in obtaining information regarding its incidence, the relationship between poverty and neglect, and the ways in which neglect in early life can cause harm. Results from a focus group of home visitors working with families of young children in South Africa illustrate the challenges in identifying and intervening in cases of child neglect. Conclusions and recommendations for addressing this problem are provided.Accepted manuscrip

Serving highly vulnerable families in home-visitation programs

Home-visitation programs for families with young children are growing in popularity in the US. These programs typically seek to prevent child abuse and neglect and/or promote optimal development for infants, toddlers, and/or preschool-age children. This paper focuses on improving the capacity of home-visitation programs to meet the complex needs of highly vulnerable families with young children. Poverty, maternal depression and substance abuse, and domestic violence are noted as factors that place young children at risk for poor outcomes. The challenges of providing home-visitation services to families in which these risk factors are present are discussed. Family engagement, matching services to families’ needs, and staff capabilities are highlighted as areas in which improvements can be made to enhance home-visitation programs’ capacity to serve highly vulnerable families. Recommendations are given for improving the effectiveness of home-visitation programs in serving these families, as well for addressing policy and research issues related to the further development and evaluation of these programs.First author draf

Reconstructing readiness: Young children’s priorities for their early school adjustment

Young children in communities facing socioeconomic disadvantage are increasingly targeted by school readiness interventions. Interventions are stronger if they address stakeholders’ priorities, yet children’s priorities for early school adjustment are rarely accounted for in intervention design including selection of outcome measures. The Children’s Thoughts about School Study (CTSS) examined young children’s accounts of their early school experiences, and their descriptions of what a new school starter would need to know. Mixed-method interviews were conducted with 42 kindergarten children in a socioeconomically deprived suburb of Dublin, Ireland. First, inductive thematic analysis identified 25 priorities across four domains: feeling able and enthusiastic for school; navigating friendships and victimisation; supportive environments with opportunities to play; bridging school and family life. Second, deductive analysis compared children’s priorities at item level against a school readiness outcome battery. Children’s priorities were assigned to three groups: (1) assessed by outcome measures (core academic competencies, aspects of self regulation); (2) partially assessed (self-efficacy, social skills for friendship formation and avoiding victimisation, creative thinking, play); and (3) not assessed by outcome measures (school liking, school environment, family school involvement). This analysis derived from children’s own perspectives suggests that readiness interventions aiming to support early school adjustment would benefit from considering factors children consider salient. It offers recommendations for advancing conceptual frameworks, improving assessment, and identifying new targets for supporting children and schools. In doing so we provide a platform for children’s priorities to be integrated into the policies and practices that shape their early lives

POLICIES AND PRACTICES TO ADDRESS THE NEEDS OF HIGHLY VULNERABLE YOUNG CHILDREN AND THEIR FAMILIES

Although the global movement to support early childhood well-being has resulted in the development and expansion of many programs to support early development and learning, most of these programs fall short of meeting the needs of highly vulnerable young children and their families. This paper discusses the complex, multiple needs of these children and their families and the importance of providing them with the comprehensive, customized services needed to address the many challenges these families face, particularly challenges caused by poverty. It includes an examination of the characteristics of programs and services that appear to hold promise for meeting the needs of these families and improving outcomes for highly vulnerable infants and young children, and why such extra-strength programs and services are scarce. The paper then explores the ways in which social workers can engage at both the practice and the policy level to address inequality and other forms of injustice and ensure that these programs and services are sufficiently available to the young children and families who desperately need them. </jats:p

Policies and practices to address the needs of highly vulnerable young children and their families

Keynote presentation for approximately 700 participantshttps://seci.bgca.org.hk