PARENTING PLANS IN TERMS OF THE CHILDREN’S ACT: SERVING THE BEST INTERESTS OF THE PARENT OR THE CHILD?

The Children’s Act 38 of 2005 provides the legal basis for the reshaping of the exercise of parental responsibilities and rights. In previous case law the custody of a child was assigned to the parent who had been the primary caretaker during the subsistence of the marriage relationship, although the overriding factor remained the best interests of the child. This model has proved to be insufficient in order to promote the need for a child to be brought up in a stable family environment or, where this is not possible, in an environment that is as close as possible to a caring family environment; including the child’s right to maintain close contact with both parents. Facing this shortfall, the legislature adopted a “parenting-plan” model in terms of the Children’s Act, which attempts to help parents to set aside their differences and work out a plan which is in their child’s best interests. The parenting plan further attempts to help parents in exercising their parental responsibilities and rights over their children. The purpose of this article is to analyse this legal solution in an effort to ascertain whether it really promotes the best interests of the child, namely, promoting his/her right of growing up in a close relationship with both parents.

MOTHER’S FIRST EXPERIENCE IN ASSISTING CHILDREN WITH ACUTE LYMPHOBLASTIC LEUKEMIA WHO IS UNDERGOING CHEMOTHERAPY

Introduction. Acute Limfoblastic Leukemia (ALL) is a malignant disease which mostly found in children. The main treatment of ALL is chemotherapy for a long time, so it affects their mother life as the primary caretaker. This research aimed to explore, understand, and give the meaning of mother’s fi rst experience in assisting children with ALL that was undergoing chemotherapy: the induction phase. Method. This research was a qualitative research by using phenomenological. Six participants were taken by using purposive sampling that participated in interview. In-depthinterviews and fi eld note were used to collect data. The result of the interview was transcribed verbatimly and analyzed by Collaizi method. Results. There was six main themes that found in this research including:1) undergoing emotional response, 2) undergoing physical impaired, 3) seeking information, 4) undergoing a spiritual experience, 5) undergoingan economic burden, and 6) the importance of support. Discussion. It suggests that nurses provided nursing care to mother that assisting the children in chemotherapy at the fi rst time like giving intervention concerned emotional problem, physical, and spiritual. It also gives earlier information for mother about chemotherapy.Keywords: mother’s fi rst experiences, chemotherapy, induction phase, acute lymphoblastic leukemia’s children

Risk Factors of Early Childhood Caries among Young Children in Hong Kong: A Cross-Sectional Study

Objective: Early childhood caries (ECC) was prevalent in Hong Kong. Children with ECC risk should be identified early for prevention. This study aimed to identify common risk factors of ECC in Hong Kong 3-year-old children. Study design: Sample size calculation showed at least 6,321 of 3-year-old children should be invited in this study. A consent form and a questionnaire enquiring the children's oral health behaviours and social-economic background were distributed to their parents. Children with parental consent were examined by a trained dentist. Caries status was recorded in dmft index. Chi-square test and logistic regression analysis were performed to identify the risk factors of ECC. Results: A total of 5,167 children from the 6,331 children invited were examined. Among them, 1,130 children (22%) had ECC (dmft>0). Logistic regression analysis found age of starting tooth brushing, snack-intake frequency, dental visit experience, birthplace, family monthly income, primary caretaker, and mother's education level were factors associated with ECC of the children. Conclusions: Children who started tooth brushing later, had higher snack-intake frequency, were not born in Hong Kong, and whose family monthly income was lower, mother's education level was lower, primary caretaker was not domestic helper, had a statistically significant higher chance of having ECC.

Emotional arousal in the making of cultural selves

The highly variable selves that ethnographers have documented cross-culturally all build upon the universal human self described by neurobiologists. The link between cultural selfhood and this neurally-based self is emotional arousal. Arousal heightens the effect of synaptic plasticity, insuring that clusters of strong associations, or cognitive schemas, result from many fewer repetitions of the arousing experience. There are identifiable types of such predictably arousing experiences cross-culturally, many occurring early in life. While susceptible to individual variation, these are typically based in kinds of experience widespread in groups. Culturally elaborated, these shared experiences result in distinctive cultural selves. The argument is illustrated at length with one of these types, disciplinary childrearing practices. Early attachment, cultural psychodynamic defenses, and several other shared, culturally variable experiences that are predictably emotionally arousing are also considered: unintended consequences of childrearing; separation from primary caretaker(s); trauma of all kinds; rituals such as initiation rites or religious conversion; and cultural idealizations of occasions, institutions, or roles.

The relation between order of acquisition, segmental frequency and function: the case of word-initial consonants in Dutch

ABSTRACTThe impact of input frequency (IF) and functional load (FL) of segments in the ambient language on the acquisition order of word-initial consonants is investigated. Several definitions of IF/FL are compared and implemented. The impact of IF/FL and their components are computed using a longitudinal corpus of interactions between thirty Dutch-speaking children (age range: 0 ; 6–2 ; 0) and their primary caretaker(s). The corpus study reveals significant correlations between IF/FL and acquisition order. The highest predictive values are found for the token frequency of segments, and for FL computed on minimally different word types in child-directed speech. Although IF and FL significantly correlate, they do have a different impact on the order of acquisition of word-initial consonants. When the impact of IF is partialed out, FL still has a significant correlation with acquisition order. The reverse is not true, suggesting that the acquisition of word-initial consonants is mainly influenced by their discriminating function.

IVF-Conceiving Fathers' Experiences of Early Parenthood

This study explored the experiences of fathers during early parenthood, with a particular focus on relationships with their partners, their children and the impact of infertility treatment. Eight fathers who had a child conceived through in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) participated in in-depth interviews and responses were analysed using Modified Analytic Induction. Findings indicated that in the first year of their child's life fathers deferred primary caretaking to their partners, as they perceived them as more able to meet the needs of the child at that developmental stage. However, as the child grew older, and fathers could interact more they came to view themselves as the friend or playmate of the child, a role they experienced as highly rewarding. Reasons that may have accounted for deferring the primary caretaker role in the first year included low self-efficacy beliefs about their ability to care for a newborn infant, perceived partner criticism of their parenting abilities, and the complementary parenting roles adopted in their family. Findings also revealed that fathers experienced relationship concerns due to increased parenting responsibilities limiting the time and energy they had to engage in companionate activities with their partners. Fathers in this research explicitly reported that the difficulties associated with conception and IVF treatment had no impact on early parenthood.