Series Archive

The Rights of the Child

A series by Katherine Covell, Ph.D.

Dr. Covell explores the rights of children across the spectrum of development and the many ways government policies can have an impact on children and their rights. Children’s rights include the right to play and rest, the right to privacy, and protection from cruel or harmful punishment, harmful drugs and the drug trade, and sexual exploitation. In addition, the age at which children may choose to practice a religion, consent to medical procedures, or willingly engage in sexual activity are aspects of children’s rights. Children’s rights can guide policy changes, but these decisions should be informed by evidence from research that reveals how rights, at each stage, are central to healthy child development.

Canada has ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child which legally obliges us to implement legislation to protect the rights of our children. Yet, as Dr. Covell shows, Canada has a long way to go towards the goal of ensuring our public policies promote healthier children.

Dr. Katherine Covell is a developmental psychologist and a professor at Cape Breton University. She is co-founder and executive director of the Children’s Rights Centre there.

Executive Function

A series by Philip David Zelazo, Ph.D.

How do we learn to think? How does an easily distracted baby become an adult who can evaluate a problem, make a plan to solve it, and carry out the plan? Executive function – the conscious control of what we think and do – takes years to develop fully and affects many different facets of children’s mental development, from their understanding of other people’s points of view to their ability to focus on a task. If executive function goes awry, it may result in disorders such as autism and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.

In this series, Dr. Philip Zelazo takes an in-depth look at how executive function develops in infancy, childhood, and adolescence; disorders of executive function; and how to foster its development.

Dr. Zelazo is a professor of psychology at the University of Toronto, where he holds the Canada Research Chair in Developmental Neuroscience.

Attachment

A series by Susan Goldberg, Ph.D.

Attachment theory looks at the parent-child bond from the child’s perspective: How safe and secure does the child feel? How much trust can he put in his world? The answers to these questions can affect how he views the world for the rest of his life. Research in the field of attachment suggests that a child’s sense of safety and security is as important to emotional and social well-being as actual safety is to physical well-being.

This six-part series explores patterns of attachment, the implications of attachment across the child’s life, and the various influences on attachment.

Dr. Susan Goldberg was an internationally recognized researcher in the area of attachment. Over the course of her long career at The Hospital for Sick Children, she published numerous articles and books in this field. In 2005, she was the recipient of the prestigious Bowlby-Ainsworth Award, given by the New York Consortium and the Center for Mental Health Promotion to recognize founders and singular contributors to the Bowlby-Ainsworth tradition of attachment theory. She was cited for advancing attachment study and children’s health and as a generous mentor to colleagues and students alike.

Dr. Goldberg died on June 14, 2005.