CITATION: Scannapieco, M. & Connell-Carrick, K. (2002). Focus on the first years: an eco-developmental assessment of child neglect for children 0 to 3 years of age. Children and Youth Services Review, 24(8), 601-621.

Article presents and discusses child neglect assessment guidelines for children

  • Child neglect accounts for over half of all child maltreatment cases that Child Protective Services receives
  • Physical neglect is the most frequently reported form of child neglect
  • 45% of child fatality cases are the result of neglect
  • Children under age three are the most vulnerable and suffer the most damaging consequences
  • Eco-developmental model for assessing neglect
  • Child maltreatment is explained using based on the interaction of and between the following four levels: Ontogenic, microsystem, exosystem, and macrosystem (each nested within one another)

Ontogenic Development explores childhood histories of abusive parents (developmental history of parents may predispose them to respond abusively to certain situations)

-Issues related to this level include attachment relationship between parent and child since lack of tactile and cognitive stimulation hinders healthy development

Microsystem – the context in which child neglect takes place

-Includes the family system, parent styles, the neglect itself, and the characteristics of both parent and child.

-Within this context maltreatment must be viewed as an interactive process

Macrosystem refers to the entrenchment of the individual, community and family with the larger cultural structure

  • Assessment questions regarding development of 0-6 month year old infants proposed by the authors include

Cognitive – behavioral

  • Does the child imitate adult’s facial expressions?
  • Does the child repeat chance behaviors that produce pleasure for the child?
  • Can the child recognize people and places?
  • Does attention become more flexible with age?
  • Does the child babble by the end of this period?

Socioemotional development

  • Does the child show a range of emotions including happiness, sadness, fear?
  • Does social smiling and laughing emerge?
  • Can the child imitate adult emotional expression during interactions?
  • Does the child begin to distinguish self from others (the emergence of an “I”)?

Physical

  • Does the child have rapid height and weight gain?
  • Can the child hold her/his head up, roll over and reach for objects?
  • Can the child hear sounds, with increasing sensitivity to sounds of own speech with age?
  • Does the child begin to habituate towards fixed stimuli?
  • Is the child sensitive towards motion?

Cognitive – behavioral

  • Does the child have goal-directed and intentional behavior?
  • Can the child find hidden objects?
  • Can the child combine sensory and motor activities?
  • Does the child babble including sounds in the child’s spoken language?
  • Does the child show preverbal gestures, such as pointing?

Socioemotional

  • Does the child show stranger and separation anxiety?
  • Does the child use the caregiver as a secure base?
  • Can the child engage in social referencing?
  • Does the child show definite attachment to caregivers?

Physical

  • Can the child sit alone, crawl and walk?
  • Can the child organize stimuli into meaningful patterns?

**Based on a review of the existing literature