Thriving as the purpose of Education

Group Submission Type: Formal Panel Session

Proposal

The severe adversity experienced by millions of children in the developing world leads to failure to thrive associated with cognitive deficits, emotional management problems, and social impairment. Failure to thrive is defined as a child not growing at a predetermined rate as measured by a growth chart and while organic failure to thrive is most often caused by malnutrition however nonorganic failure to thrive can be caused by a range of severe adverse experiences.
Dream a Dream a Dream, a not for profit based in India, works with young people coming from adversity and empowers them with life skills via its After Schools Life Skills programme where children participate in semi-structured enrichment sessions involving sports or creative arts activities at the low-cost or free school that they attended as students. These sessions take place during school time and run once per week for 2–3 hours each session where each child attends 25 weekly sessions as part of the normal school curriculum. Children can choose a sport or creative arts program in which to participate.
Dream a Dream along with researchers Dr Dave Pearson and Dr Fiona Kennedy and Dr Katherine Newman Taylor assessed the impact of this programme that was designed to facilitate developmental skills among young people who experienced adversities in an early age. A pragmatic randomized controlled trial was conducted involving, 909 children (aged 8–15 years) from Dream a Dream’s After School Life Skills programme. The Life Skills Assessment Scale (LSAS) was used to assess the children’s life skills before and after taking part in the program. The LSAS is a five-item, observer-rated, standardized scale designed to assess the life skills of disadvantaged children in the developing world and each of the five LSAS items assess wider dimensions of life skills which include a) Interacting with others, b) Overcoming difficulties and solving problems, c) Taking initiative, d) Managing conflict and e) Understanding and following instructions. Children who took part in the program showed significant increases in life skills following participation, compared to a control group. These children, because of their socioeconomic status, are vulnerable to the cognitive, emotional, and social development delays associated with early adversity, and have minimal access to statutory services. Such delays can cause long-term if not lifelong deficits in the skills needed to function effectively in everyday life. The results in our study indicate that low-budget programs using nonprofessionally trained facilitators can ameliorate such delays. Highly trained professionals and large budgets may not be required to attenuate the devastating effects of severe poverty and adversity that blight the development of millions of children.
The panel will focus on the study which ably demonstrates the impact of simple, low-budget programs on cognitive, emotional, and social life skills that are typically delayed by severe adversity. The findings have clear implications for children in other adverse environments, such as conflict zones and settlements for displaced children resulting from war, natural disasters, and emergency events.

Sub Unit

• South Asia SIG

Chair

• Suchetha Bhat, Dream a Dream

Individual Presentations

• Thriving in adversity: Do life skills programs work for developing world children? A pragmatic randomized controlled trial - Fiona Kennedy, Dream a Dream

• The Life Skills Assessment Scale: Measuring Life Skills of Disadvantaged Children in the Developing world - David Pearson, Dream a Dream

• The Life Skills Assessment Scale: Norms for young people aged 17–19 and 20–22 years - Katherine Newman-Taylor, Dream a Dream

• Thriving in adversity: Do brief milieu interventions work for young adults in the developing world? A pragmatic randomized controlled trial - Suchetha Bhat, Dream a Dream