Effects of discrimination Essay

Discrimination against children may have a great impact on their self-esteem and self-worth. They may find life very lonely and develop trust issues; this could affect the child throughout their whole life. A child with low self-esteem will often give up on a task earlier than other children or may not want to participate at all because they fear that they won’t be able to achieve it. There are four types of discrimination, these are; Direct: this is where a person is told they are unable to do something because of their colour, race, religion or sex. Indirect: this would be excluding people from taking part by making rules or practices that affect them negatively for example displaying pictures which only include white children and not multicultural children. Institutional: occurs when the policies, systems and procedures in a setting discriminate against a group or groups of people. This happens because the systems and processes were designed without taking into account the diverse needs of groups within the community in relation to their race, disability or gender resulting in some children being treated differently. Individual: where one person views lead to the unfair treatment of another person. Children can be discriminated against because of racism and cultural differences, their gender, abilities or the way they look, for example my child has Nystagmus which is an involuntary eye movement so when he is trying to focus on things his eyes move from side to side, so when he goes to school he may be discriminated against because he maybe need special equipment to help him in his learning so he can achieve everything possible. Parents can be discriminated against because of their age, lifestyles, parent values, education or income, for example they may not look as wealthy as some of the other parents but this doesn’t mean they are any less educated or any less of a good parent. ensure settings are welcoming, non-threatening and fun places to be, where children and their families are valued because of their differences. Stereotyping and discriminating can lead to bullying from a young age that children can then carry on into adulthood. There are many ways in which people could be stereotyped, some of these can include stereotyping against boys and girls, girls are not good at sports; boys shouldn’t play with dolls or dress up. Cultures all Arabs and Muslims are terrorists, all white Americans are obese, lazy and dim witted. Groups of individuals Goths wear black clothes, black makeup, are depressed and hated by society, girls are only concerned about physical appearance, and all blondes are unintelligent. In the Oxford dictionary it stated that the unjust or prejudicial treatment of different categories of people, especially on the grounds of race, age, or sex:victims of racial discrimination. This quote is from http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/discrimination 20th September 2013 Anti-discriminatory means action taken to prevent discrimination against people on the grounds of race, class, gender or disability. Anti-discriminatory practice promotes equality by introducing anti-discrimination policies in the setting As an early years practitioner it is our responsibility to support children to develop ideas of equality, in doing this the children will grow up less likely to be prejudice. Children are not born with these attitudes they learn from adults. You should show positive role models by having books/posters/toys which show different ethnic persuasion/religions/people and books and male and females in equal roles (i.e male nurse/female nurse. Male builder/female builder. Black policeman/white policeman. Disabled teacher/non-disabled teacher Each child is an individual and has different needs but should all be treated equally by making sure that all children are included in activities for example making Christmas cards, if a parents wishes were that their child doesn’t celebrate other religions you must accept their decision and should adapt the activity so that the child can join in, so you could suggest that the child creates a winter scene or snowman card so that they still feel included, valued and have a positive sense of identity. Parents should be made aware of who is who and each staff members job role, a noticeboard with a photo of each member of staff, and their job description would be a good way for parents to become familiar with members of staff. Each child should be assigned a keyworker; parents should be made aware of who their child’s keyworker is, as this is the person the parent would liais e with regarding their child. If their child has any special requirements for example diet requirements, medical needs or any other relevant information in which the setting may need to be made aware of then the keyworker is the person that should be informed of this important information. The keyworker is also the person responsible for monitoring the child’s development and activities the child has participated in. Parents should be invited to support their child by attending parent’s evenings this will enable parents and keyworkers to discuss the child’s learning and development in more detail and for either party to voice any concerns they may be having regarding the child. Another way to involve the parents would be to hold school events, assemblies and sports events.