Week Two

6-month old Arturo experienced the world through the lens of his mother’s struggles. One small town for a few months, then on to another one to follow the work. His mother would always find someone to look after him, someone she would meet in a new town. Often, she found herself at homeless shelters, and others often were able to help her as she went to work. During one of her stays at a shelter, she spoke with another woman from Mexico who agreed to look after Arturo for the day. The woman proved untrustworthy, however, when she left Arturo sleeping for two hours to go to “hang out” with friends across town. She came back high on drugs, and while she was gone, Arturo had woken up and was crying. It was about this time that Arturo’s mother returned, just as the Department of Social Services (DSS) Child Protective Services arrived.   

1) What is migrant labor? What are the lives of people who do such labor typically like? (Hint: Check out JMU’s Migrant Education Program through IIHHS)

2) What are the major developmental milestones for a 6-month old? Given her migrant status, is Arturo’s mother likely to visit a pediatrician? What are the risks associated with a lack of early primary medical care? Is Arturo likely to receive immunizations? Why or why not? Use data on this population to support your answer. What are the risks if he does not?

3) What are the risks for Arturo in being given over to the care of relative strangers for periods of time?

4) Assess the extent to which Arturo is likely to have a secure attachment pattern with his mother given the significant disruptions in their lives. At six months of age, how is Arturo likely to respond to strangers?

5) Use information from “The Baby’s Brain” to outline Arturo’s approximate neurological development. Given the uncertainty and instability in this family’s life, evaluate the relative influence of “nurture” on Arturo’s development at this point.

DECISION POINT

* Write a dialogue of the conversation as it might have taken place between the Child Protective Services worker (from DSS), the mother, and the woman from Mexico who left the child. If you are CPS, do you remove the child from her mother and place the child in foster care? Why or why not?

Week One

Living in Oaxaca was hard. Up in the morning, work in the fields or the local multinational factory for 32 cents a day, sleep, and then up to do it again. She had to find another way. The latest trade agreement meant that the local businesses that were the lifeblood of her small town just faded away. It almost seemed to happen overnight, and now there was next to nothing left. Surely nothing for her. She made a plan to make her way to the border – she had heard that crossing was harder now, but she had to try. She heard there were coyotes for hire, and that, if you found a good one, you could get across. If you found a bad one, well . . . she knew well the saying hay muchos huesos en el desierto – there are many bones in the desert. She was ready to take the risk.

She kept having strange and unknown feelings in the morning, like she was going to get sick. She didn’t know why. Probably that multinational water she had been drinking. She didn’t think anything of it when she started her journey to el Norte.

By the time she reached a small town just south of the border, the morning feelings were getting worse. The women in Oaxaca would know what to do, would know what this sickness was. But they were miles away. She pressed on. She was unaware of the tiny child slowly taking shape in her belly.

     1) Provide demographic information regarding the number of individuals who enter the United States each year unlawfully from ALL parts of the U.S. (South of the border, North of the border, and those who are smuggled into the US in other ways). Where are they from? Why do they come?

2) What is a coyote? What are the risks associated with such individuals?

3) What are the threats to typical development that are present in the prenatal stage?