How Stress Can Effect Children's Development

     Looking over the list, I feel blessed that I was struggling to make some kind of connection. I have never experienced any of these stressors,  and had a difficult time thinking of anyone I knew that had. There was a family that lived across the street from us as my kids were growing up that lived in a world of chaos, which occasionally resulted in violence. My kids played with their kids because of their similar ages and close proximity. As time went by, they all drifted apart and  we moved out of state, but through Facebook I do have some information on where their lives took them.
     This family had five children within a 7 year span, all "accidents" by the mother's account. The mom and dad were always yelling at each other, slamming doors, and pulling away in their cars in haste. Mom did not work outside the home, Dad jumped from job to job, and relied quite a bit on financial help from his parents. Mom liked her beer and a clean home, to the point of neglecting her children, or yelling at them for making a mess. Meals were never prepared formally; the kids ate cereal, junk food or ate at my house. The parents never made it to any school events, claiming the kids didn't bring home notices. Any after school activities or sports events the children were involved in would require them to ask for rides all the time because no one would remember to pick them up. Before they were old enough to take care of themselves, they were always dirty, with crusted noses and matted hair.
     When the kids were young (my son was 7, daughter 4, their two were 6 and 4,  the youngest ones not born yet) , they were all pretty nice but had severe eczema and asthma. They would constantly scratch, sometimes to bleeding, and cry. I always felt these conditions were exacerbated by stress, because they worsened when Dad disappeared for days at a time, or lost yet another job and the fighting at home increased. As the years went on, they became rude and demanding, as well as disrespectful.  My oldest daughter recently recalled a time she got in trouble with me because she took on some of these characteristics when she returned home after a full day at their house. The youngest child, who started playing with my daughter when they were toddlers, was the worst of all. She ran around bouncing off the walls and being very aggressive to my daughter. My daughter, also naturally aggressive, fought back, which initially caused a lot of tension in my house when they were together. I started only letting them play at my home and tried to monitor the behavior. The girl learned what was acceptable behavior when she was with us, but reverted right back to disrespectful and violent when home with her siblings. They were always punching, kicking and scratching each other.
     Every one of those five children struggled in school.  Only two of the five have graduated and gone on to college, both of them due to their sports abilities. Two others' psychosocial development was marked by drug and alcohol use, piercings, shoplifting, truancy from school, and obesity. The last girl is graduating high school this year, but I have not heard any news about college.In my opinion, the stressors they all experienced were not compensated for; they all received what was happening in different ways and reacted
individually.
. Mpumalanga is just above Swaziland, below Kruger National Park

   The issue of disease in South Africa interested me because of my personal connection to a member of the Peace Corps who is working for the prevention of HIV/AIDS through education and action. She has been telling me what life is like for children in Mpumalanga, a region that has the second highest rate of the disease in South Africa. Many children are orphaned, and cared for by grandparents or other family members.
An extensive study on the effects of education and possible solutions in this particular area of South Africa was done in 2007 by Sonto Tryphina Dlamini. The following table lists common situations and their effects which are obvious detriments to children's normal development. The study I read also included complications of educators themselves missing work due to illness, causing classrooms to be as full as 50 to 100 children (DLAMINI, 2007), thereby making an real education of these children close to impossible.

Table 2.4: HIV/AIDS: Consequences for education (Boler & Carroll, 2003:5)
CONSEQUENCES FOR EDUCATION ORPHANS AND VULNERABLE
CHILDREN: ISSUES
Poverty
• Drop out of education due to unaffordable school fees;
• Stigmatised because of inadequate uniform and learning materials; and
• Low attention span due to hunger.
Stigma
• Social exclusion: marginalisation of children affected by HIV/AIDS;
• Negative learning environment;
• Barriers to participation.
Trauma
• Special educational needs; and
• Difficulty to concentrate and learn
• Low motivation for learning due to depression and anxiety
Bereavement
• Silence surrounding death in many countries may lead to emotional
problems, which in turn are likely to impact on learning.
Lack of family support
• Low educational expectations of orphans;
• Lower prioritisation of orphans’education over other children within the household
• Lack of homework support or household encouragement of education.
 Working children
• Tiredness during classes;
• Erratic school attendance; and
• Lower learning achievement.
 Adult roles
• Increased responsibilities at home reduce the amount of time available for education;
• Education becomes less relevant; and
• Problems with respect and discipline in the classroom as young people become adults prematurely
 and consequently, expect to be treated as such.

The work of the Peace Corps is to reduce HIV infection, stigma and discrimination, and gender-based violence.  They address prevention and care, especially that of women, orphans, and vulnerable children.

References:

Dlamini, Sonto Triphina. Study on the Impact of HIV/AIDS  on the Didatic Situation at Schools in Mpumalanga,  Retreived from:http://libserv5.tut.ac.za:7780/pls/eres/wpg_docload.download_file?p_filename=F1982178366/DlaminiST.pdf

BOLER, T. & CARROLL, K. 2003. HIV AIDS & education: Addressing the educational needs of orphans and vulnerable children. London: Action Aid International and Save the children Fund.