It has been estimated by the National Institute on Drug Abuse that every year 40,000 babies are born to mothers who have used cocaine during their pregnancy. Unfortunately, the outcome is unfair for these children, because the mothers do not take into consideration that they are responsible for another person’s life. These children have various levels of deficiencies in the learning process and in the way that they behave. The levels of deficiencies in children vary in accordance with the mother’s consumption of cocaine. Thereby not only are there defects at birth, but also later on in the developmental years. Women who use cocaine while pregnant cause a great damage to their children during the developmental years; especially in the aspects of cognitive motor and social/ behavioral deficiencies.
Cognitive deficiencies are those that deal with an individual’s thinking and reasoning process. These abilities are seen in the beginning school years, not at birth, but are the subtle characteristics that only through the school environment can be recognized. In a class environment, the deficiencies of a cocaine child are often confused with those of a disruptive child. The underlying truth is: teachers are not able to cope with them on an individual basis and give them more attention.
An initial sign that some children demonstrate is a lack of concentration on virtually every task. Excessive disorganization beyond that of regular children along with being more than just the class nuisance can be characteristics of cocaine-exposed children. While most children are able to stay on task, these children will be easily deterred if given the opportunity. These children tend to exhibit a lack of exploration of the environment which results in less pretend play (Cates, 68). In a study done by Mayes, “when given a box of toys, for example they [spend] less time exploring the new toys than [do] the control children” (Vogel, 39). Another pending issue is that cocaine-exposed children do as well as regular children in settings with no distractions, such as a one-on-one quiet room session. The truth is that in real life there are a plethora of distractions. A study conducted at Wayne State University, in Detroit found “that teachers rated 27 cocaine-exposed 6-year-olds as having significantly more trouble paying attention than 75 non-exposed children (the teachers did not know who was who) (Begley, 1997, 63). Imitative play is a way of learning for toddlers, which drug-exposed children are less likely to demonstrate.
The Cocaine Kids and Dorm Room Dealers are two very different, but yet similar books. Cocaine Kids are about a group of kids, primarily of Hispanic race, with one kid of the Black race. The kids were raised in the inner city of New York. Dorm Room Dealers are about White, middle to upper-middle class college students, who was selling drugs for their status. The purpose of this paper is to prove that there are racial disparities among drug users. There will be examples from the texts that show the different takes on the drug markets and how race plays a factor. There also will be how these experiences shape the kids drug dealing and using. The paper will conclude how all the kids either remained in the drug career or left the drug career.
There are many causes on why a child or teenager may misbehave. There could be issues at home, with family, other kids, peer pressure, and the list goes on. This can affect family, friends and their own lives in a negative way. “Understanding why children engage in bad behavior is critical to curbing it”, illustrates Harvey Karp, M.D, a pediatrician and author of the book and DVD “The Happiest Toddler On The Block”. In that case, there is a lot to be learned about the cause of misbehavior.
Cocaine is a classified ‘Schedule II’ drug, also known as “crack”, and “coke” it is a powerful drug, and addictive stimulant well known as a psychoactive substance. That comes from a plant called coca leaf that has been around since the mid-1800s and throughout the 20th century. “In the mid-1980s, addiction to the drug was seen as exaggerated or dismissed as psychological and not addiction” (Miller, Gold, Smith, 1997, p.62). In the past, cocaine’s original use was for medical purposes as local anesthetic for surgeries. Now its usage is illegal and this drug is immersed into the body through various ways. However,...
Drug and alcohol use in pregnancy poses a threat to the neonate’s development and the obstetric provider has an obligation to screen for substance use. Substance use in pregnancy can place the developing fetus at risk for in-utero opioid dependence, fetal-alcohol syndrome, preterm labor, and other consequences of maternal alcohol, tobacco, and illicit drug use.(6) Within the past three years La Crosse County has seen a marked increase in the amount of heroin use.(7)
“Crack-babies” a media induced phenomena brought about by the climax of public outcry from the results of the 1980’s war on drugs. This term laid the foundation for biased prosecutions which sparked a political crusade during climate of the time. Thus exploiting the public’s fear of children born to substance addicted mother and creating a firestorm of litigation to prosecute pregnant drug addicts. According to Flavin, Paltrow (2010), current evidence points to public stigmas and prejudice as posing a greater danger to both maternal and fetal health than use of the drug itself. Leaving the question as to why addicted women are still publicly reviled for the outcomes of their circumstances. From this abhorrence stems the likelihood that these women would be deterred from seeking prenatal care than to seek help for their addiction; expelling an even greater issue as the concern of health care is then added to the mix. The complex social issues then must be taken into consideration to underscore the need for policymakers to allow for the legal and medical systems to better create programs for these women and allot for rehabilitation instead of punitive solutions.
David, A.G (2013). Cocaine use disorder in adults: Epidemiology, pharmacology, clinical manifestations, medical consequences, and diagnosis. ©2014 UpToDate, Inc.
with gang involvement in a lot cases. Although, the juvenile does the drug out of peer pressure and
Some of the most common words moving around in the psychiatric circle are attention Deficit; hyperactivity; Ritalin; ADD, ADHD. These words are being most commonly discussed by most educators, physicians, psychologists and young parents in the society today. In spite of extensive advancements in technology which has brought new insights into the brain and learning, there is still a lacuna in the field of problems faced by children who are unable to remain focused on the task given to them in the classroom owing to their inability to pay attention.
Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome (NAS) is a group of problems a newborn experiences when exposed to addictive drugs that the mother consumes during pregnancy. NAS is a growing concern in the United States and can have significant adverse effects on newborns. Shortly after birth, the infant can display many physical symptoms of withdrawal. In addition, substance abuse during pregnancy can cause premature birth, low birth weight, seizures, birth defects, Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), and possible long-term cognitive and behavioral problems. The 2010 results from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health: Summary of National Findings reported incidence of substance abuse among pregnant women within the United States....
The use of cocaine in the United States has declined over the last twenty years while the use of crack has increased. Many people avoided the use of crack because of the harmful chemicals used in creating the drug. One of the reasons why crack became popular is because of not needing to inject the drug hence less risks of being infected by the AIDS virus. Carroll (2000) states cocaine is the most powerful stimulant of natural origin. Most users snort or inject the drug to enable a quicker “high.” Cocaine use brings on many health problems. Fatal complications occur from regular use, for example, liver damage, seizures, elevated blood pressure causing stroke, heart failure, or heart attack.
Klitsch M., (2002). Children with prenatal cocaine exposure have elevated risk of cognitive impairments at least until age two. Perspectives on sexual and reproductive health, 1-2.
Today’s classroom looks vastly different than classrooms even a decade ago. Teachers today need to be aware of different impairments and the impact it has on the tools they will be using to aid all of their students ability to reach their full potential. Students with cognitive impairments bring with them a unique set of challenges for the student and teacher to both overcome. Cognitive impairments encompass a vast array of qualifiers which makes accommodating for the student seem more problematic than is the reality. So what qualifies as a cognitive impairment? Dove (2012) highlights “attention, memory, self-regulation, navigation, emotion recognition and management, planning, and sequencing activity” as some cognitive processes that provide hurdles for students with cognition deficiencies. However, as Katsioloudis and Jones (2013) note, other cognitive disabilities include traumatic brain injuries, autism, and learning disabilities among others.
middle of paper ... ... We must educate the adolescents on respectable behavior and consequences of drug seeking behaviors and addiction. Works Cited Wong, W. Ford, K. Pagels, E. McCutcheon, J. Marinelli, M. (2013) Adolescents Are More Vulnerable to Cocaine Addiction: Behavioral and Electrophysiological Evidence.
After interviewing my teenage cousin whom has been in several altercations at home and school, enlightened me on the ways that teenagers in her age group gets involved in drug use. Kids start as young as ten years of age using, selling, and experimenting with drugs. My teenage cousin was expelled from public schools when she started experimenting with drugs. She was surrounded by many challenges when she enrolled in the alternative behavioral school. Many students, whom attend the alternative behavioral school use drugs, sell drugs, are on probation, have been arrested, engage in sexual activity and drink alcohol.
Another tragic and very important issue ate the " Crack Babies". A crack baby is a child born to a mother who was smoking crack during her pregnancy and up until the time of birth. The infant is addicted at birth, suffers withdrawal agonies, and continues to suffer from developmental abnormalities. These tragedies occur at too high a rate no matter how many there are… The 1991 Household Survey data estimated that about 280,000 women of all ages might have used crack at some time during the year.