Creating a sensory-supportive environment

2020 ◽  
pp. 47-55
Author(s):  
Joy Beaney
Author(s):  
Angela M. Kurth ◽  
Darcia Narvaez

Like every animal, human offspring evolved to fit into their communities, but social fittedness for mammals requires a supportive early nest that fosters socio-emotional intelligence, self-regulation, and sympathy. Within a supportive environment, children naturally develop orientations that facilitate prosocial behaviours within the community. We use the evolved developmental niche (EDN), apparent in 95% of human history as small-band hunter-gatherers, for a baseline representative of human evolution. In these societies, children grow into cooperative, agile moral actors. We compare the EDN with five modern approaches to young child group care and make suggestions to early caregivers on how to provide, in the modern world, what children evolved to need.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Marino Maemura ◽  
Hiroaki Taketsuru ◽  
Yuki Nakajima ◽  
Ruiqi Shao ◽  
Ayaka Kakihara ◽  
...  

AbstractIn multicellular organisms, oocytes and sperm undergo fusion during fertilization and the resulting zygote gives rise to a new individual. The ability of zygotes to produce a fully formed individual from a single cell when placed in a supportive environment is known as totipotency. Given that totipotent cells are the source of all multicellular organisms, a better understanding of totipotency may have a wide-ranging impact on biology. The precise delineation of totipotent cells in mammals has remained elusive, however, although zygotes and single blastomeres of embryos at the two-cell stage have been thought to be the only totipotent cells in mice. We now show that a single blastomere of two- or four-cell mouse embryos can give rise to a fertile adult when placed in a uterus, even though blastomere isolation disturbs the transcriptome of derived embryos. Single blastomeres isolated from embryos at the eight-cell or morula stages and cultured in vitro manifested pronounced defects in the formation of epiblast and primitive endoderm by the inner cell mass and in the development of blastocysts, respectively. Our results thus indicate that totipotency of mouse zygotes extends to single blastomeres of embryos at the four-cell stage.


2021 ◽  
Vol 36 (7-8) ◽  
pp. 2959-2985
Author(s):  
Barbara L. Zust ◽  
Breanna Flicek Opdahl ◽  
Katie Siebert Moses ◽  
Courtney Noecker Schubert ◽  
Jessica Timmerman

Religious beliefs play a significant role in the lives of victims of domestic violence. Victims find strength in their faith and would rather endure the violence at all costs to keep a family or a marriage together, than to compromise their faith by leaving. This 10 –year study explored the climate of support for victims of domestic violence among Christian clergy and church members between 2005 and 2015. Using a convenience sample, surveys were sent out to congregations in the Upper Midwest in 2005 and 2015. The survey included demographics; two items measuring perception of domestic violence in the congregation and community; six Likert Scale items regarding agreement with statements concerning leaving an abusive marriage; four “Yes–No” items regarding the impact of faith in leaving, support of the congregation, community resources, and clergy as counselors. The clergy’s survey had the same questions plus open-ended questions about their skills in counseling victims, their congregation’s support for victims, community resources, and beliefs that could impact a victim’s choice in leaving. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, simple frequencies, and bivariate correlations. Narrative data were analyzed using content analysis. The results of this study indicated that change is slow. Members want their clergy to become more educated in counseling and in speaking about domestic violence from the pulpit. Clergy felt comfortable in making referrals for professional counseling, while the majority of members would prefer counseling with their pastor if they were in a violent relationship. Both clergy and members want to create a safe and supportive environment for victims/survivors of violent relationships. Findings from this study exemplify the need for pastors to remove the silence about domestic violence in their congregations and address the misunderstood social religious beliefs that may bind a victim to the violence.


2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 639-639
Author(s):  
Karen Roberto ◽  
Brandy Renee McCann ◽  
Tina Savla ◽  
Emily Hoyt ◽  
Rosemary Blieszner ◽  
...  

Abstract Most family caregivers provide appropriate care and a supportive environment for their older relatives with dementia (PwD), yet the stress and strain associated with caregiving can trigger potentially harmful responses. Although much has been written about dealing with memory problems, researchers know less about how caregivers cope with difficult behaviors such as hallucinations, violent outbursts, or refusing food, medicine, or bathing. Interviews with 30 relatives providing care to community-dwelling PwD in rural Virginia revealed that caregivers typically used four behavior management strategies: reasoning with PwD; redirecting PwD’s attention; forceful actions, such as shouting at PwD; and withdrawing from interactions. Forceful management strategies and withdrawing from interactions were usually employed after reasoning and redirection failed to elicit desired behavior. Understanding whether caregivers’ expectations of PwD’s capacities are realistic, and why and when caregivers use various behavior management strategies, can help service providers develop appropriate educational interventions for frustrated caregivers.


Author(s):  
Lei Wu ◽  
Yunong Huang ◽  
Qiang Chen ◽  
Yu Shi

Abstract Field placements provide social work students with opportunities to learn to handle ethical difficulties in a professional manner. In many developed countries, field staff are generally employed to supervise social work students’ field placements. ‘Code of Ethics’ and other ethics documents have also been developed to guide students’ professional activities. However, there is a lack of field staff, ‘Code of Ethics’ and other ethics documents in China, which may lead to ethical difficulties amongst students during their field placements. Based on the interviews of twenty-four social work students who completed field placements in 2016 at a university in China, this research revealed that students encountered many ethical difficulties in field placements. They tried to handle the difficulties in the beginning, but gradually adapted to the difficulties passively due to the lack of support. Most students also reported that they adhered to social work values and ethics in field placements and learned from field placements. The findings suggested that social work profession associations, Departments or Schools of Social Work, social work agencies and social work academia in China need to collaborate to create a more professional and supportive environment for students’ field placements.


SAGE Open ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 215824402110326
Author(s):  
Waheed Hammad ◽  
Wajeha Al-Ani

The purpose of this article is to explore the perceptions of faculty members regarding research capacity building in the field of Education. It particularly seeks to identify the challenges and opportunities associated with this practice from the perspectives of these members. The study adopted a qualitative research design, using focus group interviews to collect data from a sample of faculty members in the College of Education at a national university in Oman. The results revealed the existence of some challenges that hampered educational research, including time constraints, the lack of a collaborative research culture, the lack of research training, and the absence of a clear research agenda. The analysis also identified a number of capacity building opportunities such as a research-supportive environment, the availability of research funding, and the role of research groups. The study concludes with some recommendations to improve educational research capacity both in Oman and in the Arab region in general.


2016 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 215-248 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francis Barchi ◽  
Guosheng Deng ◽  
Chien-Chung Huang ◽  
Carolyn Isles ◽  
Juliann Vikse

Growing income inequality has created excessive barriers to social mobility for the poor. Charitable giving by the wealthy can reduce the societal effects of the income gap by reinvestment in public goods such as education. We apply the cipp model to investigate the role of philanthropy in advancing educational opportunities in the United States and China, using historical and contemporary cases of individual philanthropists. The findings suggest that the cases reviewed in this study created mechanisms by which to contribute to social development in their respective countries. Government policies play a key role in philanthropic development, particularly in China. It is important to continue to foster a supportive environment for the sector to grow, which may include expanding tax incentives, emphasizing performance-based funding, and eliminating administrative barriers. In short, educational philanthropy holds great promise for reducing opportunity gaps and economic inequality, by providing the key to success for future generations.


2021 ◽  
Vol 42 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. S97-S98
Author(s):  
Trudy Boulter ◽  
Nichole F Mayer ◽  
Kerry Mikolaj ◽  
Tim Schuetz

Abstract Introduction Our Burn Camps program has a suite of well-established residential programs. In 2020 we were forced to pivot to a virtual platform. Our goal was to uphold our mission; “to provide children who have sustained a burn injury and their families healing opportunities by offering inspiration, rehabilitation and shared experiences in a safe, nurturing and supportive environment.” Our theme “Always Together” utilized the following program pillars: creating community, growth, inspire, dream and hope. Methods Recruitment Campers/Counselors: The 2018–2020 campers were contacted providing virtual camp logistics and application information. Our best counselors returned as our 2020 staff. We built the same cabin groups as 2019. Staffing Camp leadership team and 2 Psychologists Platform The conference center provided ZOOM access for planning meetings and staff training. Four Zoom accounts were used to manage 8 cabin groups. Application A new online application was developed including the following questions: Coping with the pandemic, current social justice issues and access to technology. Schedule The schedule included 4 live meetings per day for 5 days. We included the anchors of camp: morning exercise, crafts, talent show, banquet, and play day. “Camp in a Box”: 125 boxes were designed and sent to campers, staff and donors. Boxes included envelopes for each day of the week, with content specific for each cabin. Results We had 62 campers registered for camp and 35 staff from across the country. Our “Camp in a Box” was successfully sent to 62 campers, 35 staff and 25 donors. We had four Zoom accounts. Each account was managed by a member of the leadership team. There was one primary Zoom account that hosted the large group activities for consistency. Each live activity that was offered was attended by 40–70 participants. Our Zoom calls were a mix of live and prerecorded videos. Counselors filled out a staff survey at the end of each evening allowing the leadership team feedback about the day’s activities and any camper concerns. Conclusions During a time when connection is so important, our community rose to the challenge and supported our campers. We were able to show that burn camp lives inside each of us no matter the location. Our campers and their families were engaged throughout the week and grateful for the opportunity. We learned a lot about running a virtual program and hope to use these concepts even when the pandemic is over.


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