Children's Rights and Development

This assignment delves into the crucial topic of children's rights within the context of urban development. It examines how social factors influence children's well-being and development in cities, emphasizing their right to participate in decisions affecting their lives. The assignment draws upon scholarly sources and research to analyze various aspects of children's experiences in urban environments, including access to education, healthcare, and safe spaces.

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1. Wells, K., 2015. Childhood in a global perspective. John Wiley & Sons.
The author has majored in many topics regarding the development and well-being of children.
The author has throughout the piece emphasized the importance of parents in shaping the future
of the children since it is them who design the environment in which children leave in. The
arguments of Wells have been given a global perspective whereby all aspects of the changing
world have been observed about the rapid changing notion of childhood. The main approach
applied was that of history background and comparative measurements. The author has focused
on several issues that kids are currently involved with something was once not as common. More
so, the social aspects of children have also been given priority in several chapters of the book.
The author has been able to explore on how racism, social classes, and gender have been
affecting children directly or indirectly. Throughout the book, the author makes a point that
globalization has had a very big role to play in the redefining of childhood. The growing menace
of organized crime and war have also been highlighted in the book where they have been viewed
at how the impact the lives of kids. Being the second edition, immigration and trafficking have
also been mentioned as the additional chapters.
2. James, A. and Prout, A. eds., 2015. Constructing and reconstructing childhood:
Contemporary issues in the sociological study of childhood. Routledge.
This publication addresses issues related to the psychology of children and how the society has
been having different definitions of childhood depending on the environment of the subject. The
rhetoric of who a kid is has been used as the subject content development in the entire book. The
authors have been keen to note about how the past few years kids have been profiled and given
that center stage. However, the worry that James and Prout have is that as the society has been

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profile kids in a “good” way, an error has been developed whereby children have been misplaced
in the society. They highlight at how the 21st century has been a period where all wheels driving
the society like education, medication, law and even policy development have placed kids at the
center stage but at the same time destroying the understanding and meaning of childhood. The
main themes that the authors have focused on is that childhood forms part of social construction
that gives people room to understand the early life of all people. In addition, this part of life
cannot be separated with gender, race or class because it is in the equation of social analysis. The
authors have also placed the importance of environment and children themselves in defining
their adult lives.
3. Lindsey, L.L., 2015. Gender roles: A sociological perspective. Routledge.
The authors of the book have magnified the problematic issues that are facing the society due to
lack of understanding on the roles of each gender. There are myths and misconceptions that the
society has been having and accepting regarding gender. The challenges that come up with such
myths are the reason why the authors came up with “Gender Roles.” They have come up with
arguments and well-elaborated theories that help in defiling these myths. The concepts that have
been used in the book are from a neutral perspective therefore not gender biased, and more so,
the authors have been able to identify a clear line between the roles of each gender in the society.
In coming up with their points of view for the development of the content, the authors have been
able to conduct a thorough survey of the modern gender roles. The concepts that they have been
able to come up with in the book are not only from a survey in the US but also in other parts of
the world. The gender issues that have been addressed have been discussed and analyzed in a

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sociological perspective. In making the arguments more understandable, the authors have been
able to use other disciplines like biology, psychology and history facts, and theories.
4. Bock, A.M., Gallaway, K.C. and Hund, A.M., 2015. Specifying links between
executive functioning and theory of mind during middle childhood: Cognitive
flexibility predicts social understanding. Journal of Cognition and
Development, 16(3), pp.509-521.
The results of the study by the authors as displayed by the book were able to highlight the
existence of the theory of the mind in conjunction with the executive cognitive functioning. The
working of an individual’s memory and the flexibility of the operation of the mind was found to
be increasing with age. The development was found to be at pick mostly in the middle childhood.
The authors emphasized on the fact that the mind behavior and thoughts of every individual was
determined by the executive functionality. By their findings, the authors were able to prove right
the controversy that the executive function is heavily influenced by inhibition, flexibility and the
working memory as the key determinants. The authors also asserted that the theory of the mind
has a bearing with executive functioning since the two foster the development of the other.
Despite these findings however, the authors have also been able to make it clear in the book that
executive functioning alone is not enough for the development of theory of the mind
understanding. Despite the speculative nature of the research the author developed with an
elaborated finding that spatial working of the memory improves with age. The middle childhood
mainly the age of 7 was seen as the age after which such development should be expected.

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5. Goldscheider, F., Bernhardt, E. and Lappegård, T., 2015. The gender revolution: A
framework for understanding changing family and demographic
behavior. Population and Development Review, 41(2), pp.207-239.
The authors have focused their study on the recent changes that have been vivid in the second
demographic transition (SDT). They have been able to settle more on the fact and possibility the
current changes that are observed in the family. They argue that the reversed roles that are
increasingly observed have a bearing the future definition of a family. More so, the article has
settled more into finding answers to family questions like the reason behind the decreased
fertility rate despite the continued low turnout of women in the labor force. The article also looks
at the theoretical foundations of the family and relates it to the changes that are currently
observed. Though some of these new developments have a positive bearing, the article has been
able to compare both positive and negative outcomes of the change and gave highlights on how
they will impact the future. The first half of the gender revolution (which impacts the family) has
seen the reduced ratio of men to women in the labor force. This led to the weakening of the
family structure initially structure with evidenced produced that working wives had less stable
families compared to their unemployed counterparts. These changes have led automatically made
men to take charge of home development.
6. Bartlett, S., Hart, R., Satterthwaite, D., de la Barra, X. and Missair, A., 2016.Cities
for children: children's rights, poverty and urban management. Routledge.
The authors have used the first chapters of the publication to highlight the challenges that face
city dwellers. The authors have been keen enough to focus mainly on children and adolescents.
They have been able to make it clear that these challenges are mainly have an impact in

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undermining the rights of the young ones. Owing to such challenges, the authorities of such
urban areas are tasked with an additional job of ensuring that he rights of these individuals are
adhered to. In most cases however, the authors have mentioned that these demands are not met
since much effort is laid on other matters affecting the entire demography and not a single group
of people. The authors have been able to provide possible solutions in the middle chapters. Such
solutions to the violation of these rights include areas like schooling, juvenile system, housing
and health facilities. The book serves as a guideline to urban authorities towards solving the
challenges facing not only the children but the entire society. In the ending chapters, the authors
suggest policies, practice and structures that can be adopted by the local governments in tackling
the issues facing them. It identifies urban authorities to be on the fore front of making things
right.
7. Hart, R.A., 2013. Children's participation: The theory and practice of involving young
citizens in community development and environmental care. Routledge.
The author of the book has used ideologies from different previous authors in regard with the
same concept in ensuring the book is composed of diversified contexts. The over view of the
book is authoritative something that makes it more informative. In the book, he author has
emphasized on the right of children being adhered to. In the publication, “A Hand Book of
Children and Young People’s Participation” identifies the most important role of children in the
society as being given an opportunity in participation. The author highlights at the growth of
acceptance in children in participation in most countries globally be it developed or developing
countries. They key areas that have been emphasized in the book for the participation of kids
include decision making and development of policies. This development has its origin in the
family set up and has eventually trickled down to the society level. Throughout the book, the

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authors have laid down debates and a variety of concepts that have been used as a way of
allowing for the participation of children in key matters affecting them. To conclude the
publication, the authors identify children’s participation as a way of improving the theoretical
understanding which will challenge practice. These factors eventually promote the realization of
rights of children.
8. Reynaert, D., Bouverne-de-Bie, M. and Vandevelde, S., 2009. A review of children’s
rights literature since the adoption of the United Nations Convention on the Rights
of the Child. Childhood, 16(4), pp.518-534.
The authors have focused more on the literature works that have been published after the 1989
when UNCRC was adopted. The authors make it clear that most of the academic work that they
are aiming at were produced post this Convection. The point to the fact that one cannot talk of
children’s rights without talking of the Convection since it is through it that all the rights of
children are formulated. However, through a discourse analysis, the authors were able to settle
on three key themes that seem to be the core of most of these publications. Participation and
autonomy appears to be one of the themes. Participation is one of the current things that have
never been given any considerations prior to the convention. The debate between parents’ rights
and children’s rights is another predominant theme that cannot be ignored. There is still that
boundary that is yet to be established on whose rights come first in such a situation. These three
these are somewhat coincidentally coincide with the contents of the UNCRC. The authors used
the “educationalization” approach to analyze them and in conclusion came to agree that
“educationalization” which is predominate in Europe with definitely be the key area of study and
research in future years to come.

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9. Alderson, P., 2008. Young Children's Rights: Exploring Beliefs. Jessica Kingsley
Publishers.
The author’s core aim is to give a thorough review on the rights of children. Though this is a
question that has already been answered by several authors before, her main motive is focusing
on young children within the age bracket of birth to eight years old. She insists that those who
fall under this bracket fall victim of their rights being overlocked and they will have none to talk
on their behalf since more that 90% of those violating these rights are those tasked with
protecting them. She goes ahead to critically scrutinize how the UN Convention on the Rights of
Children protects this special category of young ones. Within the book the relationship between
rights, participation, provisions and protection are also given an insight. Her concerns are
however raised in that as people are yearning to keep up with these rights and freedoms of
children, they have ended up being overprotective of them. The overprotection that faces
children has ended up denying them the opportunity to explore in themselves when it comes to
creativity and personal development. In this new edition, the author has been able to incorporate
the relevance of this convection to current issues. In the end she gives a solution of restoring this
balance which is by redefining the communication between children and adults.
10. Brookhart, S.M., 2001. Successful students' formative and summative uses of
assessment information. Assessment in Education: Principles, Policy & Practice, 8(2),
pp.153-169.
The book provides a direct and comprehensive approach towards assessment. Though the study
was done for high school, it is still practical for other levels of learning as the author puts it. The

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author emphasizes on the effort of the learners in making this approach viable since most of the
activities conducted are student based. Among many things that need to be undertaken include
structured interviews in the form of questions and also filled in questionnaires. More so, the
authors emphasizes on the importance of in class assignments as a determinant of the students’
levels of understanding. The author states that in his study which involved Anatomy and English
students, most of them had a positive attitude towards such assessments. To top up on this, the
author focuses on the formative and summative aspects of learning that are beneficial. The
examples of the summative approaches discussed include coming up with judgements regarding
the content learned in class. On the other hand, the formative approaches included self-
monitoring and assignment completion. The author gives a strong conclusion in that the
approach will only bring out a successful student in the presence of a good tutor. In addition, the
student needs to be self-motivated towards achieving success.
11. Early Child Development in Social Context: A Chartbook, 2004. [pdf]. Available
through: < http://www.commonwealthfund.org/usr_doc/ChildDevChartbk.pdf>.
[Accessed on 28th November 2016].
The article emphasizes on identifying manner in which child development is impacted by
social contexts. It is argued that maximum of emotional, intellectual, physical and social
development of kids occurs during early childhood. As per the evaluation, the study found that
kindergartners who stay with their mother and father are emotionally strong. However, the one
who are taken care of by single parent have less control on their emotions. Further, income level
and educational background of family is also found to impact children development. The study
brought forward the fact that kids who belong to lower income group find difficulty to adjust in
social gathering. Further, the kids of qualified parents do gain proficiency in reading and

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expressing their thoughts. It is also seen that white students can easily use complex sentence
structure as compared to black ones. As per the study, it can be said that during early childhood
kids are impacted by list of factors as follows: culture, family background, color, educational &
income level and emotional strength of parents. It is therefore essential for parents to ensure the
utmost care for their kids during their early childhood period.
12. Mikami, Y. A., 2010. Social context influences on children’s peer relationships.
[Online]. Available through: < http://www.apa.org/science/about/psa/2010/09/social-
context.aspx>. [Accessed on 28th November 2016].
In this article, Mikami tried to explore reasons why some of the kids find difficult to adjust
into peer groups. It is observed by Mikami that some of children are left-out while others enjoy
their friends’ company. The article brings forth fact that parents play a vital role in making their
kids socially acceptable. It is through creation of opportunities or platform in the form of social
gatherings, networking and so on that parents can develop social interaction skills among their
kids. Further, acceptance on part of teachers is necessary to develop sound children’s peer
relationship. At schools, students’ preferences are highly dependent on desires of teachers.
Therefore, teachers should treat every student on an equivalent scale so as to develop sense of
belongingness among them. The study also throws light on issues that form part of peer
relationships among children at early age. Further, the Mikami suggested that peer problems
among children can be resolved through support of parents, teachers and counsellors.

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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Alderson, P., 2008. Young Children's Rights: Exploring Beliefs. Jessica Kingsley Publishers.
Bartlett, S., Hart, R., Satterthwaite, D., de la Barra, X. and Missair, A., 2016.Cities for children:
children's rights, poverty and urban management. Routledge.
Bock, A.M., Gallaway, K.C. and Hund, A.M., 2015. Specifying links between executive
functioning and theory of mind during middle childhood: Cognitive flexibility predicts
social understanding. Journal of Cognition and Development. 16(3). pp.509-521.
Brookhart, S.M., 2001. Successful students' formative and summative uses of assessment
information. Assessment in Education: Principles, Policy & Practice. 8(2). pp.153-169.
Goldscheider, F., Bernhardt, E. and Lappegård, T., 2015. The gender revolution: A framework
for understanding changing family and demographic behavior. Population and
Development Review. 41(2). pp.207-239.
Hart, R.A., 2013. Children's participation: The theory and practice of involving young citizens in
community development and environmental care. Routledge.
James, A. and Prout, A. eds., 2015. Constructing and reconstructing childhood: Contemporary
issues in the sociological study of childhood. Routledge.
Lindsey, L.L., 2015. Gender roles: A sociological perspective. Routledge.
Reynaert, D., Bouverne-de-Bie, M. and Vandevelde, S., 2009. A review of children’s rights
literature since the adoption of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the
Child. Childhood. 16(4). pp.518-534.
Wells, K., 2015. Childhood in a global perspective. John Wiley & Sons.
Online
Early Child Development in Social Context: A Chartbook, 2004. [pdf]. Available through: <
http://www.commonwealthfund.org/usr_doc/ChildDevChartbk.pdf>. [Accessed on 28th
November 2016].
Mikami, Y. A., 2010. Social context influences on children’s peer relationships. [Online].
Available through: < http://www.apa.org/science/about/psa/2010/09/social-
context.aspx>. [Accessed on 28th November 2016].