Child Poverty

An infographic from the Washington Post using UNICEF data on child poverty across 35 nations.

Childhood Adversity and Adult Brain Function

My attention was drawn to the Neuroscience 2012 conference, held in New Orleans this week, 13th-17th October, by a report in the Guardian newspaper 16 October 2012, summarising some of the presentations for the lay reader. One presentation from Eric Pakulak, University of Oregon, found that children from poorer homes grew into adults with poorer working memory adverse conditions in childhood. Work by Pakulak on the mechanism involved in this has been used to devise teaching interventions which can help to improve bahaviour and cognition of school pupils.
I include a link to the abstracts section of the Conference website for further information.

Children's experiences of care and destitution

Two documents have been published recently giving voice to the experiences of children and young people. The first, from the Children's Society focuses on refugee children and families in the UK and their experiences of destitution. Pinter, I. (2012). I don't feel human. Children's Society.
 The OFSTED (2012). Children's care monitor 2011 has also been published reporting the views of looked after children on the state of social care in England.

Picture poverty

The Our Lives exhibition, commissioned by Save The Children, illustrates the lives of UK children living in poverty, though photographs, film and interviews with the families who took part. Some of the material is available to view via the Save the Children Website. A shocking 1 in 5 children in Scotland, 1 in 3 in Wales and 1 in 4 in South West England are living in poverty. Save The Children is fronting a campaign for the UK government to give more childcare suport to low and middle income earners and so lift children out of poverty.