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Responding to disaster (available free online) |
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The tsunami tragedy in Asia has brought children and families into sharp focus over the past few weeks. The continuing devastation caused by the tsunami has reminded the world of the vulnerability of humanity and especially the needs of children and the families and others who care for them.
Child-focused organisations quickly set up websites to help families and professionals deal with distressed children in countries far away from the devastation. Parents and others were concerned about how to provide comfort, reassurance and stability for children whose closest encounters with the disaster were on TV. The horrors experienced by the millions involved in the disaster were almost too awful to comprehend.
The many international organisations involved in relief efforts for children and families— such as CARE, the Red Cross, Save the Children and UNICEF—sprang into action. Just as quickly, bogus organisations appeared on the Internet to scam money from unsuspecting donors. Worst of all were reports of the child traffickers who attempted and probably succeeded in abducting dislocated and orphaned children for sale into slavery and prostitution. Our history shows that special consideration must be given to child protection in relief efforts or children suffer.
Rebuilding schools and early childhood centres will be a massive effort and one where Australia’s experience and proximity to the region will be invaluable. This has already started with organisations like the Australian Council for Educational Research taking a leading role.
Unfortunately, disasters like the tsunami strike all too frequently, although fortunately not on such a huge scale. Local and family tragedies such as accidents, bushfires and floods can be just as frightening and powerful in the micro-worlds of children. Just after the tsunami, the huge rain and snow storms in California caused considerable destruction and death. The TV images of people buried in mud slides, rushing water and debris, and cars being swept away were frightening. From the TV images alone, it was difficult to comprehend the scale of a disaster.
Today, images of disaster cases are streamed into our homes 24-hours a day and differentiating between them—without an adult knowledge of the world—is difficult.
Young children should not be watching news unsupervised. They need help to interpret images. Parents and caregivers should watch children’s reactions and talk about the events with them. Some parents don’t let children watch any news at home. The danger in this is that they will see news reports somewhere and this is likely to be really frightening without any previous experience in how to interpret them and without parent guidance and support.
A somewhat comforting thought is that young children’s view of the world is less rigid than ours. While disasters such as the twin towers, the Bali bombings and the tsunami shake our view of what the world should be, children’s views are more plastic and not so well formed. They can be more open to alternatives. Frightening as these disasters are, they do happen, and regularly. Wars, natural disasters, death and destruction happen around the world on a daily basis. Global communications have brought them all to our homes. A less comforting view is that children might become desensitised to such horror and destruction given the daily diet of world-wide horror.
The National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) is probably the best starting point for information on helping children deal with disasters. Good publications are:
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Discussing the news with 3- to 7-year-olds: What to do?
- Helping children cope with violence
- What happened to the world: Helping children cope in turbulent times
- When disaster strikes: Helping young children cope
These are available at the NAEYC website: www.naeyc.edu.
Similarly, resource material to help children through a tragedy can be found on the Child and Youth Health website, located at: www.cyh.com.
On the local front, the introduction of the promised 30 per cent child care rebate has been welcomed by many, but there is a sting in the tail. It now seems that the 30 per cent will come as a tax refund after tax returns have been submitted, not as a reduction in weekly fees. So children might well have left child care before parents see any money. Capping the rebate at $4,000 a year per child came as a shock, especially for parents using expensive full-time care in capital cities. With full-time child care fees starting at $16,000 + per year, $4,000 a year or two down the track won’t be much help.
Less well understood, is that the 30 per cent child care rebate doesn’t apply to families whose children attend preschool or kindergartens. So many parents, especially those who work part-time and use preschools for child care and early education, are still paying huge fees with no possibility of fee relief.
There is also the concern that the rebate will cause child care fees to rise and that it will not be indexed. The 30 per cent rebate is aimed at reducing child care costs for families. Lower costs usually result in increased demand. But because child care supply is limited, the supplier can charge a higher price to meet demand. So child care fees may well rise.
Tempering this demand is a trend for families to seek other child care options. While centre-based child care is scarce and many are concerned about its quality, families and especially more affluent families can access other options. More affluent families can afford for mothers to ‘stay-at-home’ or work part-time. They tend to have more flexible and family-friendly work places and they can afford a combination of nannies, preschools and early learning centres to meet child care needs.
As I’ve mentioned previously, our two-tiered early childhood care and education system is problematic. We’re in danger of developing welfare-oriented child care where quality is limited by what can be paid for by government fee subsidies and a second, independent early education system run by not-for-profit organisations or attached to private schools. Nationally, most preschools charge substantial fees. More affluent families can afford to by-pass child care centres and use only the educationally-oriented preschools and kindergartens.
We already have a care/education dichotomy that is enshrined in policy, funding and regulation. The danger is that current funding policies will further divide care and education services.
World-wide, every report on early childhood education and care highlights that quality is costly. Qualified early childhood educators are expensive to train and employ. Yet quality depends first and foremost on the capacity of staff and their ability to structure rich, elaborated interactions and learning environments for children.
As we move into another new year, it will be interesting to monitor developments in the early childhood field. Nationally and in each state and territory, there are various reviews and initiatives underway. Later this year, the Early Childhood Australia conference in Brisbane will bring together early childhood care and education leaders from around the country and the world.
Throughout the year Every Child reports on movements in early childhood education and raises the issues that confront and challenge those who work with young children and their families. In this issue, our articles on tackling childhood obesity, childhood wellbeing, managing challenging behaviours, mental illness and fathering are all both topical and important.
As always, we welcome your input so please phone or email us with your comments, suggestions and story ideas.
Alison Elliott
Editor
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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 28 September 2005 )
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