Perspectives on Child Development: Susan Miller Case Study Analysis

This essay examines the case of Susan Miller, a six-year-old girl facing various challenges within her family environment. The essay explores the key factors influencing her physical, social, and emotional development, including her parents' substance abuse, domestic issues, and lack of resources. It highlights the negative impact of these factors on Susan's wellbeing, including learning and physical disabilities. The essay also discusses the importance of safeguarding children and proposes interventions, such as the Every Child Matters program, to improve Susan's situation and ensure her access to a safe and supportive environment. The analysis emphasizes the need for early intervention and the critical role of positive care in fostering healthy development.

Running head: PRIMARY EDUCATION
PRIMARY EDUCATION
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author’s Note:

1PRIMARY EDUCATION
Human development can be defined as a process that involves enlarging freedom and
opportunities of people and improving their well-being. There are various human
development theories that help in understanding the concept in a vivid manner which include
Behaviourism theory, Maturationist theory, Cognitive Development Theory, Psychoanalytic
Theory, Ecological System Theory, Erickson’s Psychosocial theory and Biopsychosocial
theory (Weiss, 2017). The development of children needs to be focused upon the aspects of
physical, social and emotional and various factors are found to influence the development of
children with respect to these aspects. The aim of the essay focuses on a given case study to
assess the key factors, which influence children’s physical, social and emotional development
and its impact on the development of physical, social and emotional wellbeing of the
children. The aspects of safeguarding the children need to be incorporated that will help in
mitigating the present issues that hinder the normal functioning of the child.
The case scenario involves a six-year-old girl, Susan Miller, who lives with her
parent, younger sister and two stepsiblings. It was observed that her mother, Claire, was 30
years old, do not work and has learning disabilities, which led to a struggle with mental
health. She is suffering from alcohol and drug abuse. Her parent, Darren, was 45 years old
and had children service at an early age. He does not have regular employment, has a bad
temper that poses a threat of domestic abuse. Thus, it can be clearly stating that the family
pose harm to the physical and mental wellbeing of children. They do not have much
interaction with the society that limits the opportunity of the social development of the child.
Morales et al. (2016) opined that maternal depression in the family as well, parental
substance abuse, family violence, parent incarceration and poverty are the major risk factors
posed by the family. These factors can be identified from the case study that indicates it
affects the child’s social and emotional. In addition, the environmental risk factors such as
living in an unhealthy community are one of the factors that indicate to a low-quality

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childcare setting and points out that there is a lack of resources in the house (Masarik and
Conger, 2017). From the interview, it was found that the dinner served to the children were
unhealthy, that is only sweets, and in some instances, they do not have anything and go to
bed. This is a concerning factor that affects Susan’s physical development. According to
Miller et al. (2016), a proper and healthy diet is one of the fundamental need of the child in
order to grow. Lack of a healthy and nutritional diet will have serious implication on her
physical wellbeing as well as mental disability.
Susan was found to have learning and mild physical disabilities; however, she makes
an effort in order to earn praise and assurance from her teacher. This indicates that she was
continually trying to cope by with her disabilities; however, there is a lack of support. As per
the opinion of Choi (2019), substance abuse among children is one of the challenging issues
that leads to various complications in life and tends to have a negative impact on the quality
of life. As found in the case study, Susan was not chosen to include in any group in school as
the children have compliant that she was smelly. It can be stated that she is being forced to
have alcohol or she has it by chance due to some reason. This has a detrimental impact on her
life, as substance abuse is one of the public health issues that has killed millions of life all
over the world. According to Bradley (2019), a home is a safe place where children find
themselves more safe and happy than any other place. However, this was not in Susan’s Case
as she stated she loved being to school as she was well fed in school and that there is a lack of
food at her home. The loud noise evokes a feeling of fear in her that she hears at night and
she feels uncomfortable that lead to sleep-less night. This had a negative impact on her
emotional development and have a serious medical health issue. According to the study of
Ino et al. (2018), the child develops and grow at a rapid rate in the first five years. The focus
of areas of development includes the motor, communication, cognitive, social and emotional.
The social and emotional development indicates that the children acknowledge their

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existence, feeling and way of interaction. Radesky et al. (2016) opined that positive, social
and emotional development is vital in life as these aspects affect the self-confidence,
empathy, ability to establish a relationship and sense of value and importance to other. In the
case study, Susan was found to have a moderate level of social and emotional development
that has been continuously supported by her teacher who despite her shortcomings, help her
to grow and develop at an optimal level. It was stated the teacher was kind and looks after
Susan and offer the food that she does not get at home. In addition to the teacher, there are
other people surrounding her development phase, such as caregiver Chloe and Jenny, who
were found to have a negative impact on her. In one of the incident, Susan fell down in the
garden; however, the caregiver was busy with her boyfriend and after many hours, her parent
rescued her. The children learn to adopt traits and characteristic from the people surrounding
them and from the incident, it can be opined that the caregivers do not have a positive impact
on Susan’s physical, social or emotional development and it hampers the safety issue. In
order to nurture the physical, social and emotional development of the child, it is important to
look that he or she is engaged in a quality interaction on a daily basis based on the age
(Helpmegrowmn.org 2020). The interaction includes being nurturing and affectionate to
other, help the child to enjoy life and establish a relationship with classmates, providing
responsive care and allowing them to engage in new skills and assess the child’s development
level. As stated in Susan’s case, she had intellectual and physical disabilities; however,
attention was not given by her parent to identify and treat them at an early age. There was a
lack of evidence showed that the parents were engaged in any manner with the children, as
they were more intimidated due to their own issues. Thus, it clearly opined that there was no
one who was concerned about the safety, security and welfare of Susan, which was a
concerning matter.

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As per the opinion of Peden et al. (2019), safeguarding is a measure of protection to
the health, human rights and wellbeing of individuals. A child is stated to be at risk because
of abuse, harm or risk irrespective of age, gender or religion. Thus, there are legislation and
guidance that are used for protecting the children from ill-treatment or impairment of health
and development. This is done in order to ensure the child’s growth and development occur
in an optimal environment that is stated to be safe and offering effective care. In accordance
to the given case, it can be confirmed that the house where Susan and other children lives are
not safe for them and the people that are responsible for providing care and support are not
appropriate. There is a high risk that they are subjected to domestic abuse that hampers their
wellbeing to a large extent. Thus, the program that can be outlined with regard to the case
was the Every Child Matter that is based on the Children Act 2004 (Kagoro 2020). The aim
of the program was to improve the outcome of five critical areas such as health, being safe,
achieving and enjoying, contributing in a positive manner and thus, achieving economic
wellbeing. The above stated areas were a lack in the case of Susan and thus, she directly falls
the provision of this act. Therefore, it can be noted that intervention from the Child
Protection Agency from the areas where Susan lives is required for ensuring optimal and
positive growth environment for her and the other children.
From the essay, it can be concluded by stating that Susan is child protagonist in the
case study who had been suffering from neglect as well as there is a possibility of substance
abuse that is being subjective in her case. Due to these factors, there is a gap in physical,
social and emotional wellbeing and development of the child. She had stated various
evidence could be used for providing neglect on behalf of her parents as well as the
caregivers who were appointed to take care and thus, legal implications on these stakeholders
can be taken. The Child Protection Act or the provision of the Every Child Matter program
can be taken into consideration while addressing the issue reported in the case. Thus, the area

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of development was found to be neglected in a significant manner by all the caregivers lead
to ineffective care and support. Thus, the child requires a positive care home that will offer
her all the aspects required to have ideal physical, social and emotional development.
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