Assessing Children

I feel children should be assessed because there are many benefits to a child being assessed. Assessments provide us with information to help us determine where a child stands in his or her development. This information can be used to put together activities that can help the child’s progress and it also helps educators see the child’s strengths and weakness. Not only does it help with children’s development but it also helps teachers in their teaching practice. These assessments can benefit teacher by helping them evaluate their own teaching skills.

Children in Italian schools are tested on average about one test per subject per term, which goes towards the continual assessment of their performance, but does not count all that much. GCSE-type, make-or-break exams, from the age of 13 to 18 Italian students enjoy a long exam holiday, all the way up to the maturita exam which they take at the end of liceo, the senior schools in the Italian system. The continual assessments can be rigorous, and if students at the top high schools score less than six out of 10 in two or more subjects they run a serious risk of having to take the year again.

The Impact of Domestic Violence on Child Development

The Impact of Domestic Violence on Child Development

Every year it there is an estimated 3.3 to 10 million children being exposed to domestic violence in their homes. The effects of domestic violence can lead to behavioral problems, developmental issues or even relationships. Children exposed to domestic violence have been found to be four times more likely to develop internalizing or externalizing behavior problems than children who are not exposed to violence. I remember a close friend of mine was shot and killed by her fiancé who then took his own life with the two children in the house. The children were emotionally damaged for a few years because they could not get the brutal image of their mother and father lying dead in their home from the minds. At the funeral I could hear one them crying and asking “why did daddy do that to mommy?” I heart want almost burst as I cried heavily, not only for the loss of a friend but for the children who had to endure this pain. It is always sad to see a child lose their parents but when it is a situation where one parent kills another it is ten times worse.

Domestic violence is a global problem of enormous proportions. The first study was done to estimate the numbers of children who are exposed to domestic violence globally. The data is from the United Nations Secretary-General’s Study on Violence Against Children (forthcoming, 2006), which reviewed existing studies that measure violence in the home in various countries.

Domestic violence can happen anywhere but certain factors seem to increase. One study in Canada found that women who lived with heavy drinkers were five times more likely to be assaulted by their partners than those who lived with non-drinkers.

The single best predictor of children becoming either perpetrators or victims of domestic violence later in life is whether or not they grow up in a home where there is domestic violence. Studies from different countries show of abuse are higher among women whose husbands were abused as children or who saw their mothers being abused. The cycle must stop.