LSG 710- Assignment 1

Name: Sibongasonke Zulu

Student number: U21646334

Date: 06/04/2025
SECTION 1

Introduction

Adversity in Childhood pose significant effects on all the domains of child development
including physical, emotional, social and cognitive development. By definition, adversity
refers to situations that are difficult or challenging which can cause hardship in one's life
(Ryff, 2014). Adversity includes things such poverty, abuse, neglect or violence. Adversity
affects children in many ways, for instance it affects the way they think, the way they
behave as well as the way they interact with other people. Study by (Ehlert,2013) has
found that these negative effects they may lead to serious long-term problems. Therefore,
this essay summarizes findings from different research on how adversity affects children
development.

Cognitive development

According to Brummelte (2017), adversity tends to affect the way children think, learn and
retain information. It further explains that when children get exposed early to stress the
way their brain develops will be affected, especially to parts that are responsible for
memory retention, as well as attention. In their study, Morgan et al. (2016) they explain
how adversity might affect they way children perform academically. Children who often
experience stress and trauma they often struggle in terms of engaging in their schoolwork,
their marks drop, and they find it difficult to adapt in their learning environments. These
findings shows that early stressor impair cognitive function, and they affect the
educational outcomes.

However, (Brummelte 2017) suggest that children who face such challenges needs to be
supported emotionally and promote resilience to mitigate effects of adversity

Emotional development

Cahill et al. (2020) point outs that adversity in childhood does affect and regulate
emotions. It further discusses that children who is frequently exposed to stress they
struggle to stabilize their emotions which will often results to increased risk of anxiety,
depression and moods disorders. Being exposed to trauma also do have a negative
impact on the brain, where disrupts the brain functioning in terms emotional processing
system where children will fail to regulate their feelings in a healthy way. Garrett (2024)
further adds that children who come across adversity showcases extreme emotional
responses. They tend to have different reactions when something upsets them, some
becomes more aggressive, and they react with anger, or they became frustrated. Others
often isolates them from social situations, where they avoid being around friends and
family. Furthermore, children who is being neglected or experience abuse they tend have
trust issues and they fail to express their emotions properly.

In their study, Ehlert (2014), postulate that children who experience hardship they are at
high risk of suffering from mental health issues such as depression as they grow up. They
will also have low self esteem and feeling hopeless. They further outline that therapy may
help children who experience emotional issues where they may support them in
expressing their emotions.

Social development

Children develop their social skills by interacting with others, but when they experience
adversity, their social interactions become more difficult. These children they come across
problems of making friends and they struggle to trust others or even to communicate with
them. The American Educator (2019) states that children who experience stress or
trauma they behave differently in social situations. Some they feel nervous and becomes
irritated easily. While others tend to act aggressively which will eventually be difficult for
them to form relationships with their friends and their teachers (American Educator 2019)

Garrett (2014) highlights that adversity can lead to being rejected socially. Most of the
children tends to express their stress by acting mischievously which will result them being
punished and excluded from activities. This will make them fail to build healthy
relationships and they may feel isolated.

Physical development

Adversity doesn’t only affect emotional, social and cognitive development, but it does
affect children’s physical health. Stress often weakens immune system which will make
easy for illness to affect children (Slopen, 2014). Long term health complications might
arise from childhood adversity. Nelson et al (2020) state that children who experience
stress in early stages of life has a risk of suffering from chronic disease such as diabetes,
hypertension, heart complications and obesity.

Study by (Slopen, 2014) shows that physical effect of adversity can affect sleep patterns.
Children who experienced trauma they tend to have nightmares, insomnia and disrupted
sleeping patterns. Poor sleeps affect overall health which will results to fatigue and these
children might struggle to concentrate while completing their daily activities. (Racine,
2020).

Conclusion

It Is evident that adversity can have serious negative effects on child development where
they impact their ability to thinking, to regulate their emotions, social skills and physical
health. Furthermore, stress and trauma can influence how brain functions which will make
leaning more difficult. Social interactions may become will results in loneliness as well as
rejection. Physical health may cause long term health issues. Understanding these
implications can help various stakeholders such as parents and teachers to provide
support for children suffering from adversity.

SECTION 2

2.1
 Adversity Checklist
Globally, children experience adversities in their daily lives. South Africa is no exception and is regarded
as a “risk society” (Beck, 2000) as it is one of the most violent countries in the world. Several factors
contribute to its current standing, namely poverty, food insecurity, inequality, child-headed households,
and more. As teachers you are in a unique position to identify childhood adversity, as you work closely
with the children in your classrooms.

In the checklist below, determine the general types of adversities you are aware of in your class. Please
indicate the types of adversities you are aware of with an X.

If you have marked the adversity with an X, please also indicate the severity of the adversity within the
school community.

Type of adversity Mark with an Severity of this adversity? Indicate with

X a number between 1 to 10.
(10 = a significant problem and 1 = slight
problem).
Poverty X 8
Child neglect X 6
Child-headed households
Parental depression X 5
Parental substance abuse X 7
Physical child abuse by parents/caregivers X 4
Verbal abuse by parents/caregivers X 3
Spousal abuse
Divorce
Loss of a caregiver or significant other X 7
Bullying X 8
Sexual abuse
Substance abuse in the community X 9
Violence in the community X 6
HIV/AIDS
Other
Other

Please comment briefly on the types of adversities you perceive as the most prevalent in your class, school
and community:

Based build re on the Checklist the most prevalent adversities are poverty, violence in the
community, substance abuse in the community and bullying. Furthermore, parental
substance abuse, child neglect and verbal abuse are also prevalent. As a caring teacher
I will create resilience by helping learners to build their self-esteem, providing them with
strategies on how they can deal with violence and bullying when they experience it. Lastly,
I aim to create a safe and supportive learning environment for them.
2.2

Self Home School Community

Proactive Hardworking -She has She is Always at
factors and loves supportive always at community
reading books grandparents. library library.
reading Attends
books. church with
-Has a her
healthy grandmother.
relationship
with the
teacher.
Risk -Low self -Poverty Difficult to -she lives in a
Factors esteem. (there’s not concentrate high crime
-She is always enough food) due to socio area
anxious which -Parental economic -Easy
leads to her depression issues. exposure to
losing -House is not Gets bullied. drugs
concentration stable and is - there’s no
overcrowded. safe space

Learner X is an 11-year-old girl in my class. She is a hardworking student who is a

bookworm but struggles with concentration due to bullying and socio-economic
issues. She lives with her grandparents and cousins in a one room shack which is
overcrowded. She often comes to school hungry and with unironed clothes. Her mother
is not part of her life, she left her with her grandparents and even the father is unknown.

2.3 School Counsellor

The school counsellor will talk to learner X alone after school to help her with bullying
she often face. The school counsellor will also provide mechanism on how she can deal
with
bullying and any issue she has. Furthermore, they will also help them on how to address
her anxiety and refer her to psychologist.

Social Worker

The social worker does weekly social visits to learner X family to see the living
arrangements and give her grandparents information about food parcels. They can also
help them to apply for RDP houses or gives materials to extend the house.

Community liaison officer

They can work with the community by dealing with drug loads in order to create a safe
environment for children including her in the neighbourhood.

2.4 Everyday in the morning I will talk to learner X privately to check up on her to see how
she is doing, whether did she east or not. I will also check if she needs anything. I trust
this will her to be comfortable with sharing her issues with me.

I will also help her on how she can deal with stress and being anxious. I will also provide
mechanism on how she can deal with bullying and giver her instructions that if they face
any issues they may come and report to me.

Section 3- CLASS ACTIVITY

Activity title: Standing against bullying and building resilience

Focal area: Bullying

Lesson objectives

Learner will be able to identify type of bullying shown in pictures, come up with strategies
on how deal with bullying and to enhance resilience.

Materials
-Old calendar where they will create poster.

-Markers/crayons

- Scissors and pictures

- Worksheet about types of bullying.

Introduction

I will start this lesson by writing on the board the word bullying and ask Learner what is
bullying to check their prior knowledge. Then I will continue to explain further to them.
Then I will instruct Learners to name and explain type of bullying they know, I’m doing this
to open discussion in class.

Body

Then after discussion, the class will do a role play where they will do awareness in the
school about bullying. Students will be divided into groups of six where they will be
assigned to different type of bullying such as verbal, social or cyber bullying. Each group
will create a poster that they will use on their play which shows that they say no to
particular type of bullying in a resilient manner. The teacher will give learners the pictures
they can use.

Then after they have performed, then there will be discussion on how they can respond
to bullying and how one can get help when they are being bullied and how they can
support one another. And Then worksheet will be given to learners about types of bullying.

Lesson conclusion

I will end this lesson by giving learners their journal books in which they are writing what
did they learn from today’s topic. And I will ask them questions about any misconception
they have.
 WORKSHEET 1
1.Look at the following pictures and name type of
bullying

........................................ ........................................

........................................ ........................................
2. Expalin the following terms
2.1 Cyber bullying 2.2 Social bullying
Resources

Adverse Childhood Experiences: The school board's Role in Building Connections and
Support for Students. 2019. nsba. [Online] Available from:
https://www.vsba.org/images/uploads/Adverse_Childhood_Experiences_2019_-_Co-
brand-VSBA_.pdf

American Educator. Vol. 43, no. 2, Summer 2019. [Online] Available from:
https://www.aft.org/periodical/american-educator/summer-2019

Brummelte, S. 2017. Introduction: early adversity and brain development. Neuroscience,

342, pp.1-3.

Cahill, H., Beadle, S., Farrelly, A., Forster, R. & Smith, K. Building resilience in children
and young people. A Literature review for the Department of Education and Early
Childhood Development. Melbourne: The University of Melbourne. [Online] Available
from:
https://www.education.vic.gov.au/documents/about/department/resiliencelitreview.pdf

Carter, Y. & Crnobori, M. Practical strategies to meet the needs of students dealing with
adversity and toxic stress. Powerpoint Presentation. [Online] Available from:
http://www.alignmentnashville.org/wpcontent/uploads/2017/07/Part-1_-Practical-
Strategies-to-Meet-the-Needs-of-Students-Dealing-withAdversity-and-Toxic-Stress-
Crnobori-Carter_-MNPS-Powerpoint_.pdf

Ehlert, U. (2013). Enduring psychobiological effects of childhood

adversity. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 38(9), 1850-1857.

Garrett, M. 2014. Play-based interventions and resilience in children. International Journal

of Psychology and Counselling, vol.6, no.10, pp.133-137. [Online] Available from:
https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/b9ed/9f3347ce05406bcad9de5449ab8f746193a6.pdf

Maughan, B & McCarthy, G. 1997. Childhood adversities and psychosocial disorders.

British Medical Bulletin, vol. 53, no.1, pp:156-169

Morgan, M., Rochford, S., & Sheehan, A. 2016. Adversity in Childhood – Outcomes, Risk
and Resilience. Centre for Effective Services, Dublin. [Online] Available from:
https://www.lenus.ie/bitstream/handle/10147/620157/Adversity_2016.pdf?sequence=1&i
sAllowed=y

Nelson, C. A., Bhutta, Z. A., Harris, N. B., Danese, A., & Samara, M. (2020). Adversity in
childhood is linked to mental and physical health throughout life. Bmj, 371.

Racine, N., Eirich, R., Dimitropoulos, G., Hartwick, C., & Madigan, S. (2020).
Development of trauma symptoms following adversity in childhood: The moderating role
of protective factors. Child Abuse & Neglect, 101, 104375

Reinke, W.M., Stormont, M., Herman, K.C., Puri, R. & Goel, N. 2011. Supporting
children's mental health in schools: teacher perceptions of needs, roles, and barriers.
School Psychology Quarterly, vol. 26, no.1, pp:1-13.

Ryff, C. D. (2014). Self-realisation and meaning making in the face of adversity: A

eudaimonic approach to human resilience. Journal of psychology in Africa, 24(1), 1-12.

Slopen, N., Koenen, K. C., & Kubzansky, L. D. (2014). Cumulative adversity in childhood
and emergent risk factors for long-term health. The Journal of pediatrics, 164(3), 631-
638.