Book Review: Meeting the Needs of Students and Families from Poverty

Meeting the Needs of Students and Families from Poverty

A Handbook for School and Mental Health Professionals

By: Tania N. Thomas-Presswood & Donald Presswood

 Abstract

Poverty affects far more than just a child's home life.  Poverty has a profound effect on the child’s schooling as well. Meeting the Needs of Students and Families from Poverty provides an understanding of poverty and its consequences on children’s development.  Throughout the text, the author addresses the challenges of poverty and includes evidence-based strategies and interventions which encourage best practice for school and mental health professionals working with families in poverty.

Meeting the Needs of Students and Families from Poverty

Meeting the Needs of Students and Families from Poverty was written by Tania N. Thomas-Presswood and Donald Presswood and published in 2008.  In 1989 Dr. Thomas-Presswood received her doctoral degree in Clinical and School Psychology from Hofstra University and has had postgraduate training in school neuropsychology. Besides working as full time faculty, Dr. Thomas-Presswood works as a school psychologist in Virginia.  Dr. Donald Presswood earned his Ph.D. in Special Education Administration in 1998 from the University of Texas at Austin. Since 2002 Dr. Presswood has been working as a school principal at Washington D.C. In addition to their academic training both have numerous years’ experience working in public school systems. Their ability to work with diverse school populations provides them the interest and ability to address the questions about how poverty affects emotional, physical, and cognitive development.  They provide a framework for school and mental health professionals in an extensive overview of poverty’s impact on development, as well as providing evidence-based strategies and interventions that work. 

Overview of Poverty

The authors bring forth the question; what is poverty and set out to outline the fundamentals of poverty.  They secure the importance of their book by pointing out how studies of the United States economy indicate that poverty is a problem and is likely to become more of a problem in the future.  The authors highlight the preconceived beliefs about people who live in poverty as being lazy, refuse to work, and are irresponsible.  Yet later make a point that these preconceived beliefs have no bearing on defining someone from poverty; poverty is much more complex than that.   The authors explain how the poverty line is determined in the United States and discuss how this outdated system is not in line with how Americans live today.  They shape the more complex issues in their book by discussing the framework of poverty.  The framework, well defined, looks in depth at ones perception of poverty, defines socioeconomic status and the impact on poverty.  Furthermore, they point out that the framework of poverty is built around ones race and ethnicity, education, gender, age, geography, timing and terms, and just living in poverty. It is this framework not laziness, the refusal to work, or just being irresponsible that hinder social mobility in the United States and profoundly effects the emotional, physical, and cognitive development of children.

Poverty’s Impact on Development

Research in various fields of study such as pediatric medicine, infant and early childhood neuropsychology, sociology, and developmental psychology are presented in the book.  They offer evidence of the effect of environmental factors on the cognitive, emotional, behavioral, and physical development of children as a result of brain research related to the culture of poverty.  The typical causes of developmental delay of the brain include the deficits brought about by the cultural of poverty.  The deficits of cultural poverty is built around insufficient prenatal care, malnutrition, low birth weight, lack of stimulation, lead poisoning, and living in asthma-inducing and dangerous environments.   Along with the aid of graphics, and their supportive research citations, the authors point out the critical and sensitive developmental periods of the brain prenatally and after birth.  Of interest, the first four growth spurts of the brain show an alignment with the four stages described by Piaget as a part of the process of cognitive development.  The four stages include: sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational and formal operational. The authors lay out a thorough understanding of how biological and environmental factors can potentially operate together at these critical developmental stages.  

Living in poverty increases the exposure to environmental risk factors and interferes negatively with children’s cognitive and behavioral development. The book addresses the social and psychological factors of parents and children living in poverty and discusses the profound effect on their mental health status.  The book delivers an overview of these factors related to teenage mothers, drug and alcohol abuse, HIV/AIDS, neighborhood context, homelessness, support systems, and immigration.  Through supportive research in these areas, the authors point out that the overreaching effects of depression in parents is more likely to cause them disengagement and insensitivity towards their children.  There also seems to be a higher risk for hostile parenting strategies and child maltreatment in families of poverty. Attentional problems, cognitive difficulties and uncommon brain function continue to grow with the child as a result of these overreaching effects of poverty.  The persistently heightened social-emotional difficulties during childhood may extend into adulthood, increasing the chances of educational failure, psychiatric disorder, criminality and/or suicide.   The book provides supportive and protective factors, such as extended family or clergy, that foster resilient outcomes for families in poverty.  The authors admit more research efforts are necessary to understand the lives of children exposed to ongoing risk factors.  

Evidence-Based Strategies

Children living in an environment characterized by poverty are more likely to be identified with educational needs that require special education services than children from more economically stable backgrounds.  Due to this, the book promotes the development of a Conceptual Framework for the Psychological Assessment of Children Living in Poverty. The conceptual framework provides a critical analysis on how issues of poverty affect children’s performance in school.  It takes into account, through research, the wide spectrum of living in poverty and the risk factors involved  which have influence on the child’s life functioning.  The conceptual framework has bases on the perspective model of Gibbs and Huang’s where the authors believe this model, with some adaptations, is applicable to the unique experiences of children living in poverty.  Based on theory, Gibbs and Huang’s three perspectives in the assessment of culturally diverse children include the developmental, ecological, and cross-cultural mental health perspectives which are grounded in the conceptual framework and provide the theoretical foundation of the Comprehensive Individualized Assessment System.  A strong focus is placed on scientific based intervention strategies; the assessment model proposed represents a mixture of perspectives which respects diversity in many forms.  Multiple sources and multiple methods are utilized when gathering information about children and families in poverty.  Interpreting this data from these various perspectives provides a comprehensive study of the child and the family.  The overarching goal of this model is to establish an assessment template for understanding and interpreting children/s functioning on various levels and linking these results to interventions.  Provided in the book is a Risk Factor Checklist and a Protective Factors Checklist.    

The authors point out that children from low-income homes in need of high-quality preschool programs are the least likely to obtain them.  They are unable to afford the cost, or are unaware of the characteristics of high-quality programs.  The book divulges critical features of quality preschools and concludes with longitudinal studies of preschool programs that have “fleshed out” best practices.  Children who receive a healthy start through early intervention and quality preschool programs have shown strong academic and social adjustment in school. Although, for early elementary schooling, the authors point out how children of poverty and ethnically diverse children, are consistently overrepresented in special education categories.  They emphasize that overrepresentation is a sign that these children may not be receiving an appropriate education and they may not be provided with equal access to general education.  In short, our educational systems are not addressing their specific needs. Through research studies the authors play on the critical role of reading and mathematics achievement for the primary grades.  They looked at the research in reading, which consistently supports a number of factors considered critical to effective reading instruction.  This has led to scientific based instruction which is founded on phonemic awareness, fluency, reading comprehension and vocabulary instruction.  By including the language arts in math instruction, in an effort to build on the foundational knowledge of mathematics, promotes higher-order reasoning abilities and an appreciation for math and its application in life.  The authors are proponents of diverse instructional strategies and make a connection to The Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development Advisory Panel on Improving Student Achievement (ASCD).  The ASCD identify good instruction as engaging, relevant, multicultural, and is inclusive of children’s learning modalities.  Identified as evident based strategies, methodologies that promote cooperative learning, direct instruction, one-on-one tutoring and peer tutoring, computer-assisted instruction, and culturally responsive linguistically appropriate pedagogy and parental involvement is discussed in the book. 

Interventions that Work

The authors point out low-income communities often exhibit problems with school climate and these problems are associated with difficulties in students’ achievement and socialization. Research in the area of resilience has been successful in translating negative risk factors into positive action that would strengthen the development of children.  The book links resiliency to behavioral strategies for improving children’s adjustment and achievement in schools. A prescribed focus on school climate, working effectively with parents, and reviewing the schools implication for professional development and educational policy making can contribute to children’s resiliency.    For the classroom the book broadly describes a well-organized and well managed learning environment which is paramount to the development of a resilient classroom community.  The book delivers best practices that promote parental involvement with an overview of school safety and achievable teacher expectations for students.  The book covers quality instruction, pleasant working and learning conditions, teachers’ morale and strong leadership.  Effective schools are aware of these factors which promote resiliency and seek out their strength and weaknesses in these areas.  They provide staff and faculty training which strengthen their schools.  The authors bring fourth references which support their belief and provide the literature which assist schools in the improvement of children resiliency.  For it is their belief, schools and their teachers have the power to contribute substantially to the emotional adjustment and well-being of children living in poverty when they provide an atmosphere that fosters resiliency. 

Meeting the Needs of Students and Families from Poverty a Handbook for School and Mental Health Professionals is thoroughly researched, and well-compiled.  The authors have based their work on numerous references, 31 pages to be exact which contribution to the understanding of poverty and its consequences when working with children and families of poverty.  The authors’ main ideas are ordered topically and written formally which adds to the understanding for the intended audience. As a guide the handbook provides evidence-based strategies and interventions that work. Although, the book would be much more powerful if the authors were to include real life examples from communities of poverty and included lists of resources available for further support within certain content areas being addressed in the book. If this were to be added to the handbook there would be a better understanding of the topics covered for those preparing to enter the profession and for those new to the profession. The book serves as an excellent reference for school and mental health professionals. 

 Reference

Thomas-Presswood T.N., Presswood D. (2008). Meeting the needs of students and families from poverty; A handbook for school and mental health professionals. Baltimore: Paul H. Brooks Publishing Co.