The Outcome of Child Neglect Research Assignment Paper

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Child Neglect
Child neglect refers to the inefficient care given to children and the chronic failure by parents to meeting a child’s basic needs. In 2006, the Department for Education and Skills (United Kingdom) defined neglect as the persistent inability to meet the physical and psychological needs of a child that may lead to serious health or developmental impairmentCITATION Dep06 \p 22 \l 1033 (Department for Education and Skills 22). Child neglect, therefore, encompasses the inability of a child's caretaker to meet a child's emotional, physical, educational and medical needsCITATION Chi12 \p ,website \l 1033 (Child Welfare Information Gateway, website). To support a child’s long term growth, parent should provide short term comfort in order to avoid neglect.
Neglect is mostly discovered through an ongoing and consistent pattern whereby there is inadequate care for children. This pattern can be easily observed by individuals who are in proximity to the child. Mostly, more clear indicators include poor observance of hygiene, uncontrolled weight gain, poor healthcare and even frequent absences from school.
There are significant ways in which parents can neglect their children. They include physical, education or emotional. Physical neglect involves a child’s caretaker not availing necessities to a child which include the adequate provision of food, shelter and clothing. The failure of providing basic needs may lead to a child’s physical well-being, psychological growth and development being endangered. Physical neglect can also include the abandoning of a child, inadequate child supervision, rejection and failure to provide security and emotional needs. This kind of neglect can cause malnutrition, physical harm such as cuts and bruises or injuries due to no supervision, low self-esteem for a lifetime and also serious illnessCITATION Tur05 \p 198 \l 1033 (Turney 198).
Neglect in the educational development can be seen when a parent or caregiver fails to enrol a child within the mandatory school age bracket in a school. It is also a failure to provide appropriate homeschooling or even avail access to specialised educational training for a child, which can lead a child to be deeply engaged in chronic truancy. Educational neglect also leads to the failure of a child to acquiring the basic life skills, dropping out of school or a consistent exhibition of disruptive behaviour by a child. Therefore, the neglect on the educational basis of a child can be threatening to the physical and emotional health, the psychological growth and development of a child especially if they require special educational needs which are not availed.
Emotional neglect involves the engagement of extreme adult abuse in the presence of a child. An instance is when spouses engage in violence in the presence of a child, allowing a child to abuse drugs and consume alcohol, failure to give the necessary psychological care and also to withhold affection from a child. Parents ignoring a child, which is seen as a failure to respond to the need essential to a child's stimulation, n...