The purpose of the study is to study child differentiations in their relation to educational growth; to emphasize a greater need, on the part of today's teachers, for constant study of the atypical child in order to determine his developmental needs; to emphasize the importance and desirability of utilizing the talents of the highly endowed pupil; to consider current educational practices in their relation to the added capabilities of superior children; and to emphasize the importance of developing whatever desirable social qualities the mentally retarded child may possess.

This dissertation profiles the needs of abandoned or orphaned, HIV affected or infected children living in a South African institution. The purpose of my research is to identify the needs of the children; then identify how the staff within the institution perceive that they provide for these needs; and lastly look at what Music Therapy as a discipline can offer the children in regards to the needs identified. Interviews with fulltime and part-time staff members suggest that the needs of the children relate mainly to a lack of individual attention. Inconsistent quality of care and limited opportunities for forming attachments to specific caregivers were identified foremost as resulting in difficulties with forming and maintaining relationships and social functioning with peer members and staff members, in the institutional social cultural context. The therapeutic relationship offered to the children in Music therapy sessions offers opportunities to address the individual and social needs identified. / Dissertation (MMus (Music Therapy))--University of Pretoria, 2006. / Music / unrestricted

This student-centered analysis of caring in three academically promising, low-income public high schools in Texas used an instrumental case study design (Stake, 1998) to investigate students' perceptions and experiences of receiving care in high school. The analysis also examined the teacher and administrator practices that contributed to students' experience of receiving care, and considered the resources that supported the adults' caring practice at the three schools. Archival data consisting of open-ended interviews with students, teachers, administrators, and school staff were analyzed qualitatively. Results suggest that caring should be evaluated in context. In the high school context students experience care through having their teachers' and administrators’ help and support with academics. Results also suggest that students experience caring through teacher and administrator behaviors and attitudes that respond to their developmental needs. That is, they experience care when adults at school establish a style and pattern of interaction similar to "authoritative parenting" (Baumrind, 1987). Recognition from adults in the school is very important for high school students, and especially salient for low-income and minority adolescents who often receive negative and discriminatory feedback from the community. / text

This paper deals with the impact of prematurely canceled foster care on a deve-lopment of a child. It gives an overview of the system of care of endangered children in the Czech Republic. It also presents the current legislation which is the basis of the surrogate family care in the Czech Republic. In 2013, an amendment of the Social and Legal Protection of Children law came into force, which the legislators built up on the experi-ence with professional foster care in Slovakia. Its goal is to reduce the number of chil-dren in children's institutions. The paper further includes a thorough analysis of develo-pmental needs of a child. Foster parents have to accept the fact, that they decided to take in a child with an unfulfilled attachment bond. Premature cancellation of foster care can bear witness to the fact that a foster family cannot create an attachment bond to the child and does not provide a sufficient amount of support for its development. The pa-per takes into consideration the dangers the juveniles are challenged with as a result of an unsuccessful foster care. Based on the interviews with many directors of children's homes in the South Bohemian region, negative impact of the canceled foster care on children has been noted. New questions suitable for further research in this region have emerged out of the interviews. Host care is one of the possibilities to provide children with a family educational model in children's home. The directors agree that it is the first-rate personality of a foster parent that is crucial for a first-rate foster care, i.e. a foster parent who can open her- or himself to the child and grant him or her his or her own family affectionate environment. The problem of unsuccessful foster care can be minimized only by genuine acceptance of a child and unconditional love for him or her.

All adolescents are vulnerable to get involved in risky sexual behavior but the adolescent in a children’s home is more vulnerable due to excessive pressure from the peer group, dysfunctional family involvement and the high occurrence of sexual abuse. A high number of children in children’s homes were exposed to serious trauma before being admitted to a children’s home and this influences their view of the world and the frame of reference through which problems and challenges are approached. In the children’s home sex education form part of lifeskills programmes that are presented by the social workers. Lifeskills programmes are usually presented to groups and sex education includes information on reproduction and sexually transmitted diseases. The sex education programmes presented by the children’s home and schools do not seem to change the adolescent’s attitude and behavior in terms of sexual aspects. It is necessary to take the adolescent’s needs in terms of sex education into consideration since the adolescent’s search for independence also creates a need to be able to have input in decisions that influences her life. The goal of this research project was to determine the needs of adolescent girls in a children’s home regarding sex education. To achieve this goal a thorough literature study was performed with regard to the developmental needs of adolescents and specifically the developmental needs of adolescents in a children’s home. An investigation was also done on the history of sex education in South Africa and the need for sex education today. The current programmes and sources regarding sex education in South Africa were investigated and information was obtained on the sex education of the child in the children’s home. The researcher attempted to fill the gaps in the literature regarding the needs of adolescents regarding sex education by means of an empirical study. Qualitative information collection techniques were used, namely semi-structured interviews. The empirical study took the form of one-on-one interviews with the assistance of a semi-structured interview schedule with 11 adolescent girls in a children’s home. The respondents were selected by using purposive sampling. The collective case study was utilised as the research strategy since the study focused on understanding a specific social issue (sex education) in a specific population (adolescent girls in the Abraham Kriel Maria Kloppers Children’s Home). Through this the researcher came to the conclusion that adolescent girls in a children’s home have many needs regarding sex education and these needs were identified. Recommendations were made with reference to the conclusions formed that would enable professionals to develop programmes on sex education that are based on the needs of adolescent girls in a children’s home. / Dissertation (MSD (Play Therapy))--University of Pretoria, 2006. / Social Work and Criminology / MSD (Play Therapy) / unrestricted