What is Long-Term Care?
Individuals need long-term care when a chronic condition, trauma, or illness limits their ability to carry out basic self-care tasks, called activities of daily living (ADLs), (such as bathing, dressing or eating), or instrumental activities of daily living (IADLs) (such as household chores, meal preparation, or managing money). Long-term care often involves the most intimate aspects of people’s lives—what and when they eat, personal hygiene, getting dressed, using the bathroom. Other less severe long-term care needs may involve household tasks such as preparing meals or using the telephone.
A report prepared by the U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging (February, 2000) described long-term care as follows:
It [long-term care] differs from other types of health care in that the goal of long-term care is not to cure an illness, but to allow an individual to attain and maintain an optimal level of functioning….
Long-term care encompasses a wide array of medical, social, personal, and supportive and specialized housing services needed by individuals who have lost some capacity for self-care because of a chronic illness or disabling condition.1
Because long-term care needs and services are wide-ranging and complex, statistics may vary from study to study. Sources for the following information are cited at the conclusion of this Fact Sheet. For additional information, see the Family Caregiver Alliance Fact Sheet on Selected Caregiving Statistics.
Who Needs Long-Term Care?
- An estimated 10 million Americans needed long-term care in 2000.2
- Most but not all persons in need of long-term care are elderly. Approximately 63% are persons aged 65 and older (6.3 million); the remaining 37% are 64 years of age and younger (3.7 million).3
- The lifetime probability of becoming disabled in at least two activities of daily living or of being cognitively impaired is 68% for people age 65 and older.4
- By 2050, the number of individuals using paid long-term care services in any setting (e.g., at home, residential care such as assisted living, or skilled nursing facilities) will likely double from the 13 million using services in 2000, to 27 million people. This estimate is influenced by growth in the population of older people in need of care.5
- Of the older population with long-term care needs in the community, about 30% (1.5 million persons) have substantial long-term care needs (three or more ADL limitations). Of these, about 25% are 85 and older and 70% report they are in fair to poor health.6
40% of the older population with long-term care needs are poor or near poor (with incomes below 150% of the federal poverty level).7
- Between 1984 and 1994, the number of older persons receiving long-term care remained about the same at 5.5 million people, while the prevalence of long-term care use declined from 19.7% to 16.7% of the 65+ population. In comparison, 2.1%, or over 3.3 million, of the population aged 18–64 received long-term care in the community in 1994.8
- While there was a decline in the proportion (i.e., prevalence) of the older population receiving long-term care, the level of disability and cognitive impairment among those who received assistance with daily tasks rose sharply. The proportion receiving help with three to six ADLs increased from 35.4% to 42.9% between 1984 and 1994. The proportion of cognitive impairment among the 65+ population rose from 34% to 40%.9
- The prevalence of cognitive impairment among the older population increased over the past decade, while the prevalence of physical impairment remains unchanged.10
- In 2002, the percentage of older persons with moderate or severe memory impairment ranged from about 5% among persons aged 65–69 to about 32% among persons aged 85 or older.11
- Individuals 85 years and older, the oldest old, are one of the fastest growing segments of the population. In 2005, there are an estimated 5 million people 85+ in the United States.12 This figure is expected to increase to 19.4 million by 2050.13 This means that there could be an increase from 1.6 million to 6.2 million people age 85 or over with severe or moderate memory impairment in 2050.14
Where do People Receive Long-Term Care and from Whom?
Family and Informal Caregivers
Informal caregiver and family caregiver are terms used to refer to unpaid individuals such as family members, partners, friends and neighbors who provide care. These persons can be primary (i.e. the person who spends the most time helping) or secondary caregivers, full time or part time, and can live with the person being cared for or live separately. Formal caregivers are volunteers or paid care providers associated with a service system.15,16
Estimates vary on the number of family and informal caregivers in the U.S., depending on the definitions used for both caregiver and care recipient as well as types of care provided.
- 52 million informal and family caregivers provide care to someone aged 20+ who is ill or disabled.17
- 44.4 million caregivers (or one out of every five households ) are involved in caregiving to persons aged 18 or over.18
- 34 million caregivers provide care for someone aged 50+.19
- 27.3 million family caregivers provide personal assistance to adults (aged 15+) with a disability or chronic illness.20
- 5.8 21 to 7 22 million people (family, friends and neighbors) provide care to a person (65+) who needs assistance with everyday activities.23
- 8.9 million informal caregivers provide care to someone aged 50+ with dementia.24
By the year 2007, the number of caregiving households in the U.S. for persons aged 50+ could reach 39 million.25
- Over three-quarters (78%) of adults living in the community and in need of long-term care depend on family and friends (i.e., informal caregivers) as their only source of help; 14% receive a combination of informal and formal care (i.e., paid help); only 8% used formal care or paid help only.26
- Even among the most severely disabled older persons living in the community, about two-thirds rely solely on family members and other informal help, often resulting in great strain for the family caregivers.27
- The use of informal care as the only type of assistance by older Americans aged 65 and over increased from 57% in 1994 to 66% in 1999. The growth in reliance upon informal care between 1994 and 1999 is accompanied by a decline in the use of a combination of informal and formal care from 36% in 1994 to 26% in 1999.28
- 30% of persons caring for elderly long-term care users were themselves aged 65 or over; another 15% were between the age of 45–54.29
- For the family caregiver forced to give up work to care for a family member or friend, the cost in lost wages and benefits is estimated to be $109 per day.30
Home and Community-Based Care
- Most people—nearly 79%—who need Long-Term Care live at home or in community settings, not in institutions.31
- More than 13.2 million adults (over half younger than 65) living in the community received an average of 31.4 hours of personal assistance per week in 1995.32
- Only 16% of the total hours were paid care (about $32 billion), leaving 84% of hours to be provided (unpaid labor) by informal caregivers.33
- The trend towards community-based services as opposed to nursing home placement was formalized with the Olmstead Decision (July, 1999)—a court case in which the Supreme Court upheld the right of individuals to receive care in the community as opposed to an institution whenever possible.
- The proportion of Americans aged 65 and over with disabilities who rely entirely on formal care for their personal assistance needs has increased to 9% in 1999 from 5% in 1984.34
- Between 2000 and 2002, the number of licensed assisted living and board and care facilities increased from 32,886 to 36,399 nationally, reflecting the trend towards community-based care as opposed to nursing homes.35 Most assisted living facilities, however, are unlicensed.
- Most assisted living facilities (ALFs) discharge residents whose cognitive impairments become moderate or severe or who need help with transfers (e.g. moving from a wheelchair to a bed.) This limits the ability of these populations to find appropriate services outside of nursing homes or other institutions.36
Nursing Home Care
- The risk of nursing home placement increases with age—31% of those who are severely impaired and between the ages of 65 and 70 receive care in a nursing home compared to 61% of those age 85 and older.37
- In 2002, there were 1,458,000 people in nursing homes nationally.38
Older individuals living in nursing homes require and receive greater levels of care and assistance. In 1999, over three-quarters of individuals in nursing homes received assistance with four to six ADLs.39
- Of the population aged 65 and over in 1999, 52% of the nursing home population was aged 85 or older compared to 35% aged 75–84, and 13% aged 65–74.40
- Between 1985 and 1999 the number of adults 65 and older living in nursing homes increased from 1.3 million to 1.5 million. In 1999, almost three-quarters (1.1 million) of these older residents were women.41
Long-Term Care Expenditures
- Estimated public and private spending on long-term care services exceeded $180 billion in 2002. $37.2 billion, or 21%, was paid for out-of-pocket by individuals and families.42
- In 2002, $103.2 billion dollars were spent on nursing home care compared to $36.1 billion dollars for care in the community.43
- In 2000, the estimated economic value of informal (i.e., unpaid) caregiving is more than both community care and nursing home care combined—$257 billion.44
- Despite the trend toward community-based care as opposed to institutionalized care, only 18.2% of long-term care expenditures for the elderly are for community-based care.45
- In 2002, 16.4 billion Medicaid dollars were spent for home and community-based services within long-term care. This figure has increased at a 25% rate annually since 1990.46
- Expenditures for skilled nursing facility (SNF) care are much greater than care provided in other settings. Average expenses per older adult in a skilled nursing facility can be four times greater than average expenditures for that individual receiving paid care in the community.47
- In 2003, Medicaid paid $83.8 billion dollars for long-term care services, roughly one-third of all Medicaid spending. 27.8 billion of these dollars were spent on community-based long-term care services. Home and community-based (HCBS) waivers accounted for roughly two-thirds of community-based long-term care expenditures.48
In 2000, spending for older adults aged 65 or older accounted for 57% of Medicaid dollars, with the remaining 43% spent on those under age 65.49
- 31.9% of the annual estimated home care expenditures were paid for by Medicare in 2003, a little over 18% were paid for out-of-pocket or by private insurance, and approximately 13% were covered by Medicaid.50
- Only 7% of residents receive Medicaid coverage for assisted living.51
- Studies have shown that the delivery of home or community-based long-term care services is a cost-effective alternative to nursing homes. Care in the home or community—not nursing home care—is what most Americans would prefer.52,53
- In 2004, the average daily rate for a private room in a skilled nursing facility was $192 for a private room or $70,080 annually, and $169 or $61,685 annually for a semi-private room. The hourly rate for a home health aide was $18.12.54
- In 2000, annual cost estimates were $13,000 for adult day care and $25,300 for assisted living.55
- Over two-thirds of the current health care dollar goes to treating chronic illness; for older persons the proportion rises to almost 95%.56
- The aging of the population, especially those 85+—the most in need of long-term care—is expected to result in a tripling of long-term care expenditures, projected to climb from $115 billion in 1997 to $346 billion (adjusted for inflation) annually in 2040.57
- Research suggests that if savings rates are not increased and government programs to assist the elderly are not strengthened, many retirees will face serious problems attaining needed health and long-term care services in the future. By 2030, many retirees will not have enough income and assets to cover basic expenditures or any expenses related to a nursing home stay or services from a home health provider.58
- Shorter hospital stays and increased usage of outpatient procedures—changes that have increased the effectiveness of medical care—have shifted responsibility toward unpaid providers of care from paid providers, increasing burdens on family caregivers.59
1 Special Committee on Aging. Developments in Aging: 1997 and 1998, Volume 1, Report 106-229. Washington, DC: United States Senate, 2000.
2 Rogers, S., & H. Komisar. Who needs long-term care? Fact Sheet, Long-Term Care Financing Project. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, 2003.
4 AARP. Beyond 50.2003: A Report to the Nation on Independent Living and Disability, 2003, <http://www.aarp.org/research/health/disabilities/aresearch-import-753.html> (11 Jan 2005).
5 U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and U.S. Department of Labor. The future supply of long-term care workers in relation to the aging baby boom generation: Report to Congress. Washington, DC: Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, (2003). <http:aspe.hhs.gov/daltcp/reports/ltcwork.htm> (20 Jan 2005)
6 The Henry J. Kaiser Foundation. Long-term Care: Medicaid’s role and challenges [Publication #2172]. Washington, DC: Author, 1999.
8 U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The Characteristics of Long-term Care Users. Rockville: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, 2001.
11 Federal Interagency Forum on Aging-Related Statistics. Older Americans 2004: Key indicators of well-being, Federal Interagency Forum on Aging-Related Statistics. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 2004.
12 U.S. Census Bureau. Statistical Abstract of the United States: 2000. Washington, DC: U.S. Census Bureau, 2000, <http://www.census.gov/prod/2004pubs/
04statab/pop.pdf> (11 Jan 2005)
14 The number is extrapolated by applying projected population estimates in 2050 to prevalence estimates of moderate to severe memory impairments in 2002.
15 Fradkin, L.G., and A. Heath. Caregiving of older adults. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, Inc., 1992.
16 McConnell, S., J.A. Riggs. A public policy agenda: Supporting family caregiving, in M. A. Cantor (Ed.) Family Caregiving: Agenda for the Future. San Francisco: American Society on Aging, 1994.
17 Health and Human Services. Informal caregiving: Compassion in action. Washington, DC: Author, 1998. Based on data from the 1987/1988 National Survey of Families and Households (NSFH), 2002.
18 National Alliance for Caregiving and AARP. Caregiving in the U.S. Washington, DC: Author, 2004.
20 Arno, P. S., Well Being of Caregivers: The Economic Issues of Caregivers, in T. McRae (Chair), New Caregiver Research. Symposium conducted at the annual meeting of the American Association of Geriatric Psychiatry. Orlando, FL. Data from 1987/1988 National Survey of Families and Households (NSFH), 2002.
21 Spector, W. D. et al. The characteristics of long-term care users (AHRQ Publication No. 00-0049). Rockville: Agency for Healthcare Research and Policy, 2000.
22 See note 17 above.
23 Both of these reports used data from 1994 National Long-Term Care Survey. The Health and Human Services report also incorporated data from the 1982 National Long-Term Care Survey and the Informal Caregiver Supplement to the 1989 National Long-Term Care Survey.
24 Alzheimer’s Association and National Alliance for Caregiving. Families care: Alzheimer’s caregiving in the United States 2004. Washington, DC: Author, 2004.
25 National Alliance for Caregiving and AARP. Family caregiving in the U.S.: Findings from a national survey. Washington, DC: Author, 1997.
26 Thompson, L. Long-term care: Support for family caregivers [Issue Brief]. Washington, DC: Georgetown University, 2004. Long-Term Care Financing Project.
27 Ibid. Data based on analysis of data from the 1994 and 1995 National Health Interview Surveys on Disability by Health Policy Institute, Georgetown University.
28 See note 11 above.
29 See note 8 above.
30 Stucki, B. R., and J. Mulver. Can aging baby boomers avoid the nursing home? Long-term care Insurance for Aging in Place. Washington, DC: American Council of Life Insurers, 2000.
31 Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. Long-term Care users range in age and most do not live in nursing homes: Research alert. Rockville: Author, 2000.
32 LaPlante, M.P., C. Harrington, and T. Kang. 2002. Estimating paid and unpaid hours of personal assistance services in activities of daily living provided to adults living at home. Home Services Research 327(2), 397-415.
34 See note 11 above.
35 Mollica, R. State Assisted Living Policy: 2002. Portland: National Academy for State Health Policy, 2002.
36 Hawes, R. M., & C.D. Phillips. A National Study of Assisted Living for the Frail Elderly: Results of a national survey of facilities. Beachwood: Myers Research Institute, 1999.
37 Gabrel, C. S. Characteristics of Elderly Nursing Home Current Residents and Discharges: Data from the 1997 National Nursing Home Survey [Advance Data from Vital and Health Statistics; No. 312]. Hyattsville: National Center for Health Statistics, 2000.
38 National Center for Health Statistics. Health, United States, 2004. Hyattsville: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2004.
39 See note 11 above.
40 National Center for Health Statistics. Health, United States, 2000. Hyattsville: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2000.
41 See note 11 above.
42 Komisar, H. & L. Thompson. Who Pays for Long-Term Care? Fact Sheet, Long-Term Care Financing Project. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, 2004.
44 See note 20 above.
45 Doty, P. Cost-effectiveness of Home and Community-based Long-term Care Services. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services: Office of Disability, Aging and Long-Term Care Policy, 2000.
46 O’Brian, E., and R. Elias. Medicaid and long-term care. Washington, DC: Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured, (2004, May) <http://www.kff.org/
PageID=36296> (10 Jan 2004)
47 U.S. General Accounting Office. 2002. Aging Baby Boom Generation Will Increase Demand and Burden on Federal and State budgets [GAO-02-544T]. <http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d02544t.pdf> (10 Jan 2004)
48 Burwell, B., K. Sredl, and S. Eiken. Medicaid long-term care expenditures in FY 2003[Addendum]. Cambridge: The Medstat Group, 2004.
49 See note 45 above.
50 National Association for Home Care. Basic Statistics about Home Care. Washington, DC: Author. Findings based on Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, MSIS, 2004.
51 See note 30 above.
52 Kassner, E. Medicaid and Long-Term Services and Supports for Older People: Fact Sheet. Washington, DC: AARP Public Policy Institute, 2005.
53 Miller, N.A., C. Harrington, E. Goldstein. 2002. Access to community-based long-term care: Medicaid’s role. Journal of Aging and Health Volume 14, No. 1: 138-59.
54 Metlife Market Survey of Nursing Home and Home Care Costs, 2004.
55 See note 30 above.
56 Hoffman, C., D. Rice and H.Y. Sung. 1996. Persons with Chronic Conditions: Their Prevalence and Costs. JAMA 276 (18), 1473-1479.
57 Niefield, M., E. O’Brien, and J. Feder. Long-term care: Medicaid’s role and challenges. Washington, DC: Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured, 1999.
58 VanDerhei, J., and C. Copeland. Can America Afford Tomorrow’s Retirees: Results from the EBRI-ERF retirement security projection model [Issue brief # 263]. Washington DC: Employee Benefit Research Institute, 2003.
59 O’Brian, E., and R. Elias. Medicaid and long-term care. Washington, DC: Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured, 2004. <http://www.kff.org/medicaid/loader.cfm?url=/commonspot/
security/getfile.cfm&PageID=36296> (10 Jan 2004)
Family Caregiver Alliance
785 Market Street, Suite 750
San Francisco, CA 94103
(415) 434-3388 phone
(800) 445-8106 toll free
Web Site: www.caregiver.org
Family Caregiver Alliance (FCA) seeks to improve the quality of life for caregivers through education, services, research and advocacy.
Through its National Center on Caregiving, FCA offers information on current social, public policy and caregiving issues and provides assistance in the development of public and private programs for caregivers.
For residents of the greater San Francisco Bay Area, FCA provides direct family support services for caregivers of those with Alzheimer’s disease, stroke, brain injury, Parkinson’s and other debilitating cognitive disorders that strike adults.
Prepared by Family Caregiver Alliance in cooperation with California’s Caregiver Resource Centers and funded by the California Department of Mental Health. Original reviewed by Robert B. Friedland, Ph.D., Center on an Aging Society, Georgetown University. © 2001 Family Caregiver Alliance. Revised 2005. All rights reserved. FS-SLTC200506
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376th Bombardment Group Archive


The fourth volume covers the period of Governor Johnston's administration, the longest known in the annals of North Carolina.
Governor Gabriel Johnston, the successor of Burrington, was a Scotchman by birth, and received his education in the University of St. Andrews. He also spent a few years in studying medicine, after which, still in early manhood, he was made professor of the oriental languages in St. Andrews. Later still, he removed to London, where he employed himself as a political writer with such effect that he was appointed Governor of North Carolina, Spence Compton, Baron of Wilmington, being his chief patron.
His administration began on the 2d November, 1734, when he took the oaths of office at Brunswick, and continued till his death, which occurred on 17th July, 1752.
Unlike his immediate predecessors, Governor Johnston was neither a profane man nor a drunkard, and he has come down to us with the enviable reputation of having done more to promote the prosperity of the colony than perhaps all the other colonial governors put together.
One of our historians goes so far as to say that he deserved the gratitude of every citizen of North Carolina as a statesman, a scholar and a patriot. Another lauds him as a general benefactor of the province and its special patron of learning, declaring that he was so earnest in his efforts to advance the cause of education that he urged its importance upon every Legislature during his stay here. A still later writer says he was the ablest of all the colonial governors, not less distinguished for his energy and prudence than for his extensive classical and scientific attainments. Chalmers, who lived nearer to his time than any other historian, says “he was a man of sufficient knowledge and prudence, but whose experience degenerated a little into cunning.”
It may well be doubted, however, in view of the facts now presented, whether his enviable reputation has a sure foundation. The fact that his brother was the founder of a distinguished and influential family, and that a noted fort and a prominent county in the State have borne his name, and the further fact that the province grew and thrived greatly during his administration, have doubtless had much to do with creating and perpetuating a favorable public opinion in regard to him. But the fact that a county was named after him proves nothing, unless it be that our ancestors were wise in their day and generation, for every royal Governor, save Burrington, was thus honored, just as in the days of the Proprietary Government, the Lords Proprietors were the recipients of such honors. At the breaking out of the Revolution there were four counties in North Carolina named after Royal Governors, viz: Johnston, Dobbs, Tryon and Martin. Wake county, too, may almost be put in the same list, for it was named after Esther Wake, a sister of Governor Tryon's wife. In the course of time, after the Revolutionary fever had reached its height, Dobbs and Tryon counties disappeared, Glasgow and Lenoir in the east and Lincoln and Rutherford in the west taking their places. Wake county came very near sharing the same fate, but when the proposition was made in the Legislature to change its name, it was replied that the county was named after a woman who was as charming in manner as lovely in person, and with one consent, our gallant ancestors declared the name should remain, and it is to be hoped it will ever remain as a memorial, not only of the beauty and attractions of Esther Wake, but of the gallantry of our forefathers.
Neither does the fact that the province advanced rapidly and steadily during his administration prove anything, if it be remembered that the province had already entered upon and was well on the way in a career of prosperity before he landed upon our shores. And in the matter of his efforts to advance the cause of education, the truth seems to be that in all the years he was Governor of the province, Governor Johnston called the attention of the Legislature to the subject only one time—an effort that, made shortly after his arrival, seems to have exhausted his interest in the subject.
Indeed, so far as now appears, if he had any influence whatever upon the province it was to retard its growth. His intentions doubtless were good, and his motives pure enough, but he was exceedingly arbitrary, not to say unscrupulous, in his methods. In one case, according to his own admission, he sought to procure the passage of a bill he favored by calling the Legislature together at a time and place that would prevent its opponents from being present, and, he significantly adds, “some of the most troublesome leading men were prevailed upon to be absent;” but it was all in vain. At another time, using similar means in behalf of another measure, he was more successful, but the “management,” as he called it, was so glaring that the Crown refused to accept the fruits of it, though much desired and much to its advantage.
At still another time, when he wished to move the seat of government from Brunswick to Newton, the place he afterwards named Wilmington, in honor of his patron, the Earl of Wilmington, his course was equally arbitrary, to call it by no harsher name. There were eight members of the Upper House, four of whom voted against the bill for the removal, and four, including the presiding officer, voted for it. The presiding officer, Chief Justice Smith, claimed the right to give a casting vote, and having done so, that is to say, having voted twice in favor of the bill, declared it had passed, and sent it to the Governor. The Governor, thereupon, formally gave his assent to the bill, and announced that he would regard all bills passed in that way as being legally enacted.
At still another time, when he wished to save Chief Justice Smith from impeachment and trial for malfeasance in office, he induced members of the Legislature to absent themselves, and then a quorum not being present he dissolved the Legislature for want of a quorum and sent the members home.
In spite of all his “management,” however, he seems to have been but little if any more successful in controlling the Legislatures of his day than were his predecessors, and was in favor neither with the people in the province nor the government at home in England. One of his first acts as Governor was to initiate a bitter quarrel with the leading men of the Cape Fear on the subject of the Blank Patents, as they were called, in which he alleged that the grossest fraud had been perpetrated. Later,
Governor Johnston was doubtless well enough versed in the learning of the books, and doubtless, too, he was not unacquainted with the learning so easily to be acquired in London under Walpole's administration, as to the “management” of legislative bodies. It not unfrequently happens, however, that a mere scholar is unfitted to grapple with the practical details of daily life. Especially is a mere theorist unfitted to solve the problems that constantly present themselves in frontier life. Had Johnston been a practical man, he would have seen the importance of answering the queries annually propounded to him by the Board of Trade as to the material condition of the province, its resources and development, and we would not have been left so much to conjecture in that regard. Had he been a man of practical business capacity, he would certainly have collected money enough to pay his own salary and the salary of the other officers of the Government. As it was, when he died his salary was thirteen years in arrears—years during which the province had grown greatly in wealth and population. His salary was £1,000 per annum, and he might have paid himself out of the Quit Renis under his Instructions if he had collected them. Had he been a practical man, he would have counted the cost, to say nothing of the chances of success, before entering upon a quarrel like that with the northern counties, the outcome of which he ought to have known would be confusion and anarchy, if not open insurrection, that he was helpless to suppress. But counting the cost and weighing chances of success, he seemed to think not worth considering. Sharp practice, intrigue, “management,” as he termed it, and the manifold devices of a cunning nature, were much more to his taste. But they availed not
But what better could have been expected from a man who, going from the atmosphere of a Scotch University to that of a London political writer at a time when political writings were characterized by “equal animosity and argument,” was suddenly transplanted to the wilds of America and made Governor not because of his fitness for the place, but as a reward for his vigor or his zeal in the defence of his patron?
In a word, our present knowledge of the condition of the province during his administration does by no means justify the impression that he exerted any influence for good on its destinies. Nor does it increase our respect for him as a man, after bringing about a deplorable state of affairs, to find him complaining to the authorities in England, that without help from there he could not much longer maintain even the semblance of a government, a complaint that he had occasion to make more than once during his administration. Nor does it improve one's regard for his memory to find him abusing, as “wild and barbarous,” the people he could not mould to his will.
It is difficult to believe, too, that a man could have exercised a controlling influence in a province without leaving some record showing the fact. Governor Johnston left no such record. In none of the many papers he wrote during the eighteen years he was Governor is there anything by which we may form an estimate of the population of the province or its material growth. Happily, Burrington and Dobbs left us information by which its condition at the beginning and at the end of Johnston's administration may be known.
Of his quarrel about the Blank Patents, that with the northern counties, that with McCulloh, and those about the currency, the King's Quit Rents, about the Chief Justice, about the removal from Brunswick to Wilmington, the records are full enough, but nowhere do we find a word from him to show the condition of the agricultural, commercial or manufacturing interest of the province, and but once any reference to the great tide of population that was so rapidly filling up the western section of the province. In this regard he was inferior to Burrington, and greatly inferior to both Dobbs and Tryon. It may be that, in the later years of his life,
But, perhaps after all, Governor Johnston's great fault was not that of the individual, but the fault of the age in which he lived, an age that regarded a province simply as a mine, to be worked solely for the profit of its owner, the King. Accordingly, never during his whole administration did he seem to think the colonist subjects had any rights that he, as the King's representative, was bound to respect, and so, when he found upon his arrival in the country that of all of the proprietary statutes only six had been confirmed by the Lords Proprietors, as had been required by a practically dead provision of the law, he proceeded to declare all of the unconfirmed laws to be null and void wherever, in his opinion, trenching upon the King's prerogative. To promote the interest of the King and to magnify his prerogative, seemed to have been the mainspring to every action during his administration. Many masters doubtless have had more discreet servants, but none one more zealous than was Johnston.
In 1735, was run the first or eastern part of the boundary line between North and South Carolina. It began at the mouth of Little River, on the seashore, thirty miles below the mouth of Cape Fear River, and was extended in a northwest direction 64½ miles, to a point two miles northwest of one of the branches of Little Pedee. In 1737, the line was extended in the same direction 22 miles, to a stake in a meadow, erroneously supposed to be at the point of intersection with the 35th parallel of north latitude. The Commissioners on the part of North Carolina were Robert Halton, Eleazer Allen, Mathew Rowan, Edward Moseley and Roger Moore.
In 1738, the act was passed appointing sheriffs in the place of the marshal and his deputies in the province, directing the mode of choosing them and prescribing their duties, and providing that the precincts should be called counties.
In September, 1739, “Dugald McNeal, Col. McAlister and several other Scotch gentlemen,” arrived with three hundred and fifty Scotch people, doubtless in the Cape Fear country, and, in 1740, at the ensuing
Resolved that the Persons mentioned in the said Petition, shall be free from payment of any Publick or County tax for ten years next ensueing their Arrival.
Resolved that towards their subsistance the sum of one thousand pounds be paid out of the Publick money, by his Excellency's warrant to be lodged with Duncan Campbell, Dugald McNeal, Daniel McNeal, Coll. McAlister and Neal McNeal Esqrs to be by them distributed among the several families in the said Petition mentioned.
Resolved that as an encouragement for Protestants to remove from Europe into this Province, to settle themselves in bodys or Townships, That all such as shall so remove into this Province, Provided they exceed forty persons in one body or Company, they shall be exempted from payment of any Publick or County tax for the space of Ten years, next ensueing their Arrival.
Resolved that an address be presented to his Excellency the Governor to desire him to use his Interest, in such manner, as he shall think most proper to obtain an Instruction for giveing encouragement to Protestants from foreign parts, to settle in Townships within this Province, to be set apart for that purpose after the manner, & with such priviledges and advantages, as is practised in South Carolina.
The Lower House concurred with the several resolves of the Upper House save that relating to the thousand pounds, which was held over till the next Assembly for consideration. This was on the 29th February, 1740. Further consideration was shown to the new comers on the next day by the appointment by the Governor and Council of Duncan Campbell, Dugald McNeil, Dan. McNeil, Col. McAlister and Neil McNeil as magistrates for the county of Bladen, being the first Scotch names that appear in the record of magistrates for Bladen county.
Among other charges brought against the Governor was an inordinate fondness for his brother Scotchmen, even Scotch rebels. His partiality
In 1740, England having declared war against Spain, over four hundred men were raised in the Colony, and distributed into four companies for service in the expedition against St. Augustine. Two hundred more could have been easily raised if it had been possible to negotiate bills of exchange so as to get ready money. The troops embarked, some at Cape Fear and some at Edenton. Three of the companies were raised in the northern counties. The Legislature appropriated £1,200 sterling to aid in the expedition. Early in the following year these troops were transported from Florida to Jamaica, and there embarking on board the British fleet, under command of Admiral Vernon, sailed to the harbor of Carthagena, in South America, where they took part in the attack on Fort St. Lazarus.
In 1744, Lord Granville's one-eighth part of Carolina, under the original grants from King Charles, was set off to him by grant from King George, entirely in North Carolina, all that territory lying between the Virginia line on the north and the parallel of 35° 34′ on the south, being thus set off to him. The line ran near or through the old town of Bath, the present towns of Snow Hill and Princeton, along the southern borders of the counties of Chatham, Randolph, Davidson and Rowan, a little below the southern border of Catawba county but not as low down as Lincolnton, and so on west to the Mississippi. In the winter of 1743-'44 the line was run from the coast to the town of Bath, and in the spring of 1746 from Bath to Peter Parker's house, on the west side of Cape Fear River, now the southeast corner of Chatham county. The reason given by the Commissioners for not continuing the line at that
In 1747, several small sloops and barcalonjos crept along the coast from St. Augustine, full of armed men, mostly mulattoes and negroes, their small draught securing them from the attacks of the only ship of war then on our coast. They landed at Ocacock, Core Sound, Bear Inlet and Cape Fear, where they killed several people, burned some ships and small vessels, carried off some negroes and slaughtered a great number of cattle and hogs. These practices were continued all the summer of 1747, and led to the erection of several forts along the coast, one of which, Fort Johnston, still survives.
In 1748, on the 29th September, Samuel Davis, Charles Robinson and Thomas Smith, in behalf of themselves and sundry other inhabitants of the Pedee, exhibited to the Governor and Council a petition setting forth in substance that the inhabitants on the river were some eight hundred to twelve hundred in number, and that the court house of Bladen was about 100 miles from the nearest inhabitant, and the roads at times very bad if not impracticable, and praying that a new county be erected to be called Anson county. The petition was granted and the new county erected, the boundary between it and Bladen being the Little Pedee river, to the head of the main branch of it, and thence a line equi-distant between Haw River and Great Pedee River.
In 1749, on the 11th July, died Colonel Edward Moseley. As has been well said of him,1 : “Of all the men who watched and guarded the tottering footsteps of our infant State, there was not one who, in intellectual ability, in solid and polite learning, in scholarly cultivation and refinement, in courage and endurance, in high Christian morality, in generous consideration for the welfare of others, in all the true merit, in fine, which makes a man among men, could equal Edward Moseley.”
And yet it is to no one of these qualities, nor to all of them, that the great debt of gratitude North Carolina will ever owe to him is due, but to his undying love of free government, and his indomitable maintenance of the rights of the people. Doubtless no man ever more fully realized than he, that eternal vigilance is the price of liberty, nor was there ever upon any watchtower a more faithful sentinel than he. And to him, above all others, should North Carolina erect her first statue, for to him, above all others, is she indebted for stimulating that love of liberty regulated by law, and that hatred of arbitrary government that has ever characterized her people.
In him, arbitrary and oppressive government ever found a bold, prompt and effective opponent. Not a mere brawling demagogue, by any means, but a true patriot, who knew the rights of the people, who knew how to assert them and feared not to do it. Happily for our State, he came to the front in the formative period of her existence, and, so far as her records show, did more than any man ever within her borders to give shape and direction to the character of her people. It was under his lead that the Assembly, in 1716, in a formal resolve, told the Governor and his Council, “that the impressing of the inhabitants or their property under pretence of its being for the public service, without authority from the Assembly, was unwarrantable, and a great infringement of the liberty of the subject.” The man who, at that early day, could formulate that resolve, and the people whose Assembly could fling it in the face of the government, were worthy of each other.
His first appearance upon the records that have come down to us is as a member of the Council in the year 1705, at the meeting at which the county of Bath was divided into three precincts. He was then a house-holder, and the Council met at his house. How long he had been a member of the Council does not appear, this being the first record of that body that has come down to us. From that time to the day of his death he was continuously in the public service, in some high office or employment.
In 1708, he was elected to the Assembly of that year, chosen to decide between the claims of Cary and Glover to the Governorship, and was made Speaker of that body. From that time until 1734, when he became a member of the Council by royal appointment, and as such a
He was also Surveyor General of the Colony, and for near twenty years one of the Commissioners in behalf of North Carolina in her famous controversy with Virginia about their boundary line. He was also one of the commissioners that ran the line between North and South Carolina, Chief Baron of the Exchequer, and Associate Justice of the General Court of the Province. He was also for many years Public Treasurer. Meanwhile, he was also the foremost lawyer in the Province, and an active member of the vestry in his Parish and ever a friend of learning. The list of books he gave to found a Provincial Library in Edenton is still extant. He was also one of the Commissioners that ran the line between Lord Granville's possessions and the King's domain in the province. His last public service was as a member of the commission to revise the laws of the Province.
Surely, it is no mean tribute to his character that while he was so beloved by the people, that he received through life every possible mark of their regard and confidence, he was so respected by the Government, also, that upon all important occasions, when honesty, ability, and courage, were required, and the interests of the Province were to be subserved, it too, called his services into requisition.
The name of Moseley will never be without honor in North Carolina so long as time and gratitude shall live.
In October, 1749, the line between Virginia and North Carolina was extended from Peter's Creek, where it stopped in 1728, to Steep Rock Creek, a distance of 90 miles. William Churton and Daniel Weldon were the commissioners on the part of North Carolina, and Joshua Fry and Peter Jefferson on the part of Virginia. Governor Johnston says “they crossed a large branch of the Mississippi [New River] which runs between the ledges of the mountains, and nobody ever dreamt of before.” It so happens, however, that no record of this survey has been preserved, and we are to-day without evidence, save from tradition, to ascertain the location of our boundary for ninety miles.
In 1750, by a statute of the British Parliament, the old method of computing time was abolished in all the King's dominions and the new style introduced, under which the years began on the 1st of January instead of the 25th of March. In 1752, the day after the 2d of September was counted the 14th of September, eleven days being omitted.
In 1752, appeared the first printed revisal of the Laws of the Province ever published. The revisal was the work principally of Samuel Swann, Edward Moseley, his colleague on the commission, having died before the completion of the work. The printing was done at New Bern by James Davis, who, in 1749, had carried there the first printing press ever in the province. This revisal was known in common talk in the province as “The Yellow Jacket,” from the color of its covers.
Governor Johnston began the Quit Rent quarrel in less than ninety days after his arrival, by seeking to limit the number of places for the collection of quit rents. The importance of the question at issue will be appreciated when it is remembered that the people of the province did not own their lands in fee simple, as is now the case, but were mere tenants of the Crown, holding the lands upon payment of an annual rent per acre. The people contended that unless they agreed upon a different place, the rents were collectable only upon the land upon which they accrued, and were payable in certain products, or “commoditys,” as they were called, at fixed prices. Governor Johnston held that, as the representative of the King, he had a right to fix not only the place of payment, but how it should be made, and the bill then pending was amended in the Upper House so as to reduce the number of places to four. The House of Burgesses refusing to agree to this view of the case, the bill fell through, and thereupon Governor Johnston issued a proclamation directing where the rents should be collected and the prices at which commodities should be received.
Against this proclamation the House of Burgesses on the 26th February, 1735, made the following respectful protest:
“We are very much concerned to see your Excellency's Proclamation commanding us to pay in Sterling Money or in bills at the difference that your Excellency and Council shall be pleased to assess which we
“Wherefore we humbly pray your Excellency would be pleased to Issue out a proclamation directing the Officers who are appointed to Collect the quit rents to proceed in the said Collections according to the Laws and Customs of this Province and that no distress may be made upon his Majesties poor tenants contrary to the same untill a Law shall be passed directing some other method for collecting the said rents more agreeable to his Majesties Instructions and as much as may be for the ease of his Majesties Tenants which we were in hopes would have been done by the Bill We offered this Session and that your Excellency would be pleased to give a further time for the payment of arrears which does not become due by any default of the Tenants refusing to pay those rents but in the officers neglecting to collect the same.”
The protest had no effect, however, and the Governor's officers proceeded to demand the rents as directed in the proclamation, and to distrain for them when not paid. Thereupon ensued what the Governor called “great confusion and disorder.” On the 7th October, 1736, the Legislature having again met, the House of Burgesses presented the following address to the Governor, viz.:
“We the Members of the Lower House of Assembly humbly beg leave to lay before your Excellency the several grievances represented to us by the Committee appointed for that purpose which are in the words following (vizt)
“On reading the Petition of Perquimons, Bertie and other Precincts and also several other informations complaining of the illegal Proceedings and methods of collecting & receiving the Quit rents, it appears to this Committee, that the Collectors or receivers, have compelled the Inhabitants of this Province, who hold their Land by Grants from the late Lords Proprietors, to carry their Quit rents to certain places appointed, tho' such rents were only demandable and payable on the Lands for which they were due, and had by custom time out of mind been received by the Collectors at the People's respective dwelling Houses; and that they
The Governor paying no attention to this respectful address, and his officers continuing to distrain for the rents, the Assembly ordered the officers into custody.
Thereupon, as the record states, “His Excellency being now come to the Upper House, and having sent a message to command the immediate attendance of the House of Burgesses, they not paying obedience thereto, His Excellency was pleased to send another message to them; but they still neglecting to give their attendance, His Excellency then by and with the advice and consent of His Majesty's Council, prorogued the General Assembly to the first day of March next, then to meet at Newbern.”
But putting an end to the Legislature did not reconcile the people to the collection of the quit rents at unlawful places. Some months thereafter, in 1737, at the General Court at Edenton, a man was imprisoned for insulting the marshal in the execution of his office during the sitting of the Court, and the people of Bertie and Edgecombe precincts, hearing that he was imprisoned about his quit rents, rose in arms to the number of 500, and marched within five miles of the town, intending to rescue him by force, in the meantime cursing the King and uttering a great many rebellious speeches. By this time the man had made his peace with the Court, and the crowd learning the truth, dispersed without doing any mischief, threatening, however, “the most cruel usage to such persons as durst come to demand any quit rents of them for the future,” and the Governor goes on to say further, “how to quell them I cannot tell if they should attempt an insurrection against next collection. ∗ ∗ The people seem here to be persuaded that they may do what they please, and that they are below the notice of the King and his ministers, which makes them highly insolent. They never were of any service to the Lords Proprietors, and if something is not speedily done to convince them that his Majesty will not be so used, I am afraid they will be of as little profit to the Crown.”
This state of things continued until 1739, when the Governor, having become convinced that the collection of the quit rents was impossible except in a way satisfactory to the people, a bill was permitted to pass the Legislature to which all parties agreed.
From the Governor's representation regarding this bill, it would seem that it was also passed in part, at least, by “management,” that is to say, in consideration of an abatement of his demands in the matter of Blank Patents set forth in the bill. He seems, too, to have thought he had overreached the Assembly in the prices at which the commodities agreed upon were rated; at least, he represented to the Board of Trade that the rates were fixed so much below their real value that none of them would be offered in payment. A great concession was that the bill contained a provision, whereby the power of fixing the value of paper money was given to a committee consisting of the Governor and Council and the Attorney General and Receiver General on the one side, and an equal number of the House of Burgesses on the other. Another great concession was as to the number of places at which payment might be made, which he said “it could have been wished were fewer in number, but there was no possibility of avoiding it.” The next year, 1740, the Crown disallowed the Act, on the ground that the vesting the power to regulate the price of money “in any person whatsoever, might be of dangerous consequence, and highly prejudicial to the trade of the nation.”
In 1741, an attempt was made to pass a new Quit Rent Law, but although, as the Governor said, “the Assembly was called in the most southern part of the Province on purpose to keep at home the Northern Members who were most numerous and from whom the greatest opposition was expected and some of the most troublesome leading men were prevailed upon to be absent,” he was obliged to prorogue the Legislature without accomplishing anything.
At the next session of the Legislature, 1744, the Committee on Propositions and Grievances reported, on 29th November, the following resolution, in which the House concurred, viz.:
“Resolved by this Committee that no produce of this province being accepted in payment of quit rents of late years nor the current bills at less than 10 for 1 which is equal to sterling money as this from the
On the 4th December the Governor prorogued the Legislature. In April of next year, 1745, the Legislature met again, but neither side was in better temper than when they parted. In his opening address, the Governor reviled the Assembly for having passed no bills at the last session, and informed them that he had “orders from His Majestie and Lord Carteret to insist on their passing a quit rent law.” The Assembly replied that they had “frequently in former Assemblys had under their consideration matters of consequence recommended by his Excellency but had been unhappily prevented from doing anything therein with effect by unexpected dissolutions and prorogations,” and no quit rent law was passed.
In 1746, in June, the Assembly again declared the refusal to receive “commoditys” in payment of quit rents to be a very great grievance. After this session, the northern counties were not represented in the Legislature during Johnston's administration, and in April, 1749, the Governor succeeded in passing a quit rent law, but in the condition the province was from that time to the end of his administration, it could not have accomplished much.
His quarrel with the Albemarle or northern counties and its consequences deserve a more extended notice, if for no other reason, to show into what gross and unpardonable errors historians can fall upon the most important points. When Governor Johnston came to North Carolina, the precincts of Albemarle county sent five members each to the Lower House of the Legislature, while the precincts of Bath, that is to say, the newer precincts, sent only two. Of course, this gave the older counties controlling influence in the Assembly. Doubtless this was not an equitable representation, and ought to have been changed if possible, but in a legal and fair way. The Governor, however, determined to bring about the change in his own peculiar way, that is to say, in a manner neither legal nor fair. So he called a session of the Legislature to meet on the
In the meanwhile the northern counties sent agents to London to represent matters to the authorities there, and after a full investigation, the Crown disallowed the Act, on the ground that it had been improperly and unfairly obtained, and the order of repeal was brought over by Governor Dobbs. The unequal representation being restored, continued until the Provincial Assemblies of the Revolution came into existence, as appears from the records preserved here from that day to this. To these bodies each county sent five delegates, equality of representation doubtless being considered as a necessary preliminary step to united harmonious action, especially in view of the fact that the bulk of population was then in the west. In spite of the records, both here and in London, the historian Williamson, after reciting the main facts in the case,
When Governor Johnston undertook forcibly and fraudulently to deprive the northern counties of the greater part of their representation in the Legislature, he had been Governor of the province for twelve years, and he must have studied the people over whom he ruled those twelve years to but little purpose if he supposed they would submit to a deprivation of their rights, either by force or by fraud. He must have known, too, that if they did not choose to submit, he was utterly without power to compel them to do so; but in spite of everything, and seemingly regardless of consequences, he pursued a policy that resulted in an open defiance of the law, that he dared not even to attempt to punish. Such a state of things probably never existed in any other province for such a length of time—open, bold resistance and defiance of the constituted authorities for eight years, without an attempt even to enforce obedience.
The population of North Carolina at the beginning of Johnston's administration was near 50,000 in all, and at the close it was somewhere about 90,000, that is to say, just about double the number usually given. Of course this great addition was made up from immigration as well as from natural increase. This immigration came in part from adjacent Virginia counties, covering the northern border generally, west of the Chowan. These immigrants simply followed the tributaries of the Chowan and the Roanoke rivers in their search for “bottom land;” other immigrants came from the adjacent South Carolina counties,
On the 15th February, 1751, Governor Johnston wrote to the Board of Trade that inhabitants flocked in daily, mostly from Pennsylvania and other parts of America already overstocked with people, and some directly from Europe. Many thousand people, he said, had then come in, settling mainly in the west, so that they had nearly reached the mountains.
On the 28th June, 1753, President Rowan wrote, that in the year 1746 he was in the territory composing the counties of Anson, Orange and Rowan, and there were then not above one hundred fighting men in all that country; whereas, at the time he wrote, there were at least three thousand, mostly Irish Protestants and Germans, and their numbers were daily increasing. At these figures this new population must have numbered near twenty thousand. In 1776, their settlements had extended beyond the present State limits.
The route that these immigrants from Pennsylvania took to reach their future homes in North Carolina is plainly laid down on the maps of that day. On Jeffreys' map, a copy of which is in the Congressional Library at Washington City, there is plainly laid down a road called “the Great Road from the Yadkin River thro' Virginia to Philadelphia, distant 435 miles.” It ran from Philadelphia through Lancaster and York to Winchester, thence up the Shenandoah Valley, crossing the Fluvanna River at Looney's Ferry, thence to Staunton River and down the river through the Blue Ridge, thence southward, crossing Dan River below the mouth of Mayo River, thence still southward near the Moravian Settlement to the Yadkin River, just above the mouth of Linville Creek and about ten miles above the mouth of Reedy Creek.
Remembering the route General Lee took when he went into Pennsylvania on the memorable Gettysburg campaign, it will be seen that very many of the North Carolina boys, both of German and Scotch-Irish
The following is a brief statement of the condition of the currency of the province during Governor Johnston's administration:
In 1735, by act of Assembly, bills for £40,000 to be exchanged for the bills issued in 1729. Not a legal tender at any rated exchange.
In the same year, bills for £10,000 for the more immediate discharge of the public debts, not issued at any rated exchange, but for the payment of them a poll tax was laid. The rate of exchange in 1739 was 1000 per cent., and there was outstanding about £50,000.
The above seem to have been redeemed by bills for £21,350 issued in 1747, of which £189.13.3 in April, 1749, and £513.12.0 were burned in April, 1750, leaving in circulation £20,646.14.0 proclamation money, equal to £15,485.1.0 sterling money. These bills maintained the value they were issued at as late as 29th September, 1850.
No question seems to have arisen during Johnston's administration as to the right of the House of Burgesses to control the purse strings—about the only trouble that he seems to have avoided. But that the people for eight years refused to recognize, in any way, the authority of the government under which they lived, because they were not represented in its Legislature, is evidence enough that even at that day they were fully inspired with the principles that underlaid the great American revolution, and foreshadowed plainly enough what their course would be in that great struggle.
1 A Study in Colonial History. Hon. George Davis.


A-level Geography/AS OCR Geography/Investigation Paper
Spearman's Rank
This is a concept to find the statistical significance of the correlation between the two variables. First, a null hypothesis needs to be made.
Mann-Whitney U Test
Mann-Whitney U test is a test for difference between 2 data sets. Using a critical values table, the level of confidence in the relationship can be established, and the null hypotheses can be accepted or rejected. There are both advantages and disadvantages which accompany this statistical test for analysis of statistical data. One advantage is that it can compare two data sets that are different sizes. This makes the test much more versatile, and can be applied to a range of different data sets. Secondly, the test is not based on observed values. This means that there are no assumptions made about the distribution of the data. This is particularly useful in geography because most of the data we collect will be either positively or negatively skewed. Finally, Mann-Whitney U uses non-parametric (non-grouped) data. This is an advantage because the trends in the data cannot be generalised, and thus producing a more statistically sound result.
It does however carry some disadvantages with it, one being the fact that it cannot be applied to more than 2 data sets at one time. This is because it is non-parametric data. If the test was done using parametric (grouped) data, you would be able to compare multiple data sets at once. An example of this is the student’s “t” test. This is because parametric data provides a result in proportion to the data, and can therefore be contrasted with many data sets. Also, Mann-Whitney becomes increasingly less effective as the data sets get larger. This reduces its effectiveness because the calculation becomes too long-winded, and it takes a very long time to complete. It also reduces the precision of the result, as with a bigger sample size there is more margin for error.
In conclusion, despite the obvious flaws with the test, it is a very effective way of looking at the differences between 2 pairs of data sets.
Five Sections of Investigation
Pragmatic = essentially safety and accessibility. For example, if a student is carrying out a river investigation they might use pragmatic sampling methods meaning only areas that were easily accessible and did not pose a risk would be studied. It is reliable and practical.
Random = Not as one might assume randomly selecting a site or throwing a quadrat, in order to use random sample methods either a calculator, grid or computer is needed to generate random statistics that have not been influenced by human decision.
Systematic = This type of technique would be used if progressional change over distance or time was being studied. A transect would be measured and data recorded at regular intervals along said transect, so that change over time or distance could be observed. For example, if a student wished to study psammosere succession, a transect might be measured from the sea to the climax environment (woodland) and at every 25m or so measurements would be taken.
Stratified = To be completed by Magneto and River's landmass.
Statistics: Mode
Most = Mode The most frequent Sample number. This is the sample figure which occurs the most times e.g.7,8,9,5,4,3,5,6,7,5,5,5,5,3,5, 5=mode Comes from the French word "la mode" for fashion
Statistics: Median
This is the middle sample when all the samples are placed in arithmetic Order. e.g. 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9 5=median
Statistic: Range
The area which the samples stretch from.
Statistics: Standard Deviation
To describe the data regarding an infiltration rate statistically I would use the mean and the standard deviation as a measure of central tendency and dispersion. These two are always used together.
The mean is simply the sum of all values of x (infiltration rate) divided by n (total number of samples)
The standard deviation is more complicated and requires the use of the formula; where x is the individual infiltration rate and
X bar is the mean of x’s (as above)
This is simply done by listing the value of x on a table, and subtracting x bar from each. In the next column, square the subsequent result.
Then add up all the values of (x-xbar) ² (Σ (x-xbar) ². Divide this by n (100 IN THIS CASE), and then square root the answer.
These methods are the most powerful and sensitive, because they include all the values of all the data. They do not exclude any data. However, the data must be (nearly) normally distributed to use them.
Mode and range mealy state the most numerous value of x and the difference between the smallest and largest which is not very useful, as it ignores most of the data. Interquartile deviation and medium rely on the rank order of the data row do not engage with the size of the values for x, and ignore the extremes of the data set.


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Types of Builds
Millard Fuller used to say that a home is the foundation on which human development occurs. It is also an important, positive step in working on a safer, healthier and more responsible future. Many people struggling to put food on the table, pay bills, purchase school supplies and clothing and maintain transportation to work are not thinking about repairing their homes, even though those homes might be dangerous, literally crumbling around them and their children.
The Fuller Center is an organization devoted to partnership, renewed opportunity and providing a hand up instead of a hand out. The construction and rehabilitation of simple, decent houses are the two basic ways we do this.
The work of The Fuller Center allows the elderly to live out their rest of their days comfortably in their own homes, gives families a fresh start, enables the handicapped to maintain a level of independence in accessible homes and, in some cases, transforms entire neighborhoods.


The Threat of Metabolic Syndrome
Metabolic syndrome is a cluster of risk factors that greatly raises your risk for heart disease, stroke, and type 2 diabetes.
If you have three or more of these factors, you are said to have metabolic syndrome:
A high level of triglycerides, or more than 150 mg/dL
A low level of HDL ("good") cholesterol, or below 40 mg/dL for men or 50 mg/dL for women
Abdominal obesity, or a waist circumference of greater than 40 for men, or greater than 35 for women
High blood pressure, or 130/85 mmHg or greater
High blood sugar that is classified as prediabetes, 100 mg to 125 mg/dL, or diabetes, 126 mg/dL or casual blood sugar greater than 200 mg/dL
According to the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, if you have metabolic syndrome, you are two times more likely to have develop heart disease. Your risk of developing type 2 diabetes is five times greater if you have metabolic syndrome.
Yet there's good news. Lifestyle changes can prevent or reverse some of these risk factors, if you are among the 35 percent of adults who already has metabolic syndrome.
Although you can't change how genes contribute to your risk factors, you can do a lot to lower your risk. Eat a low-fat diet rich in fruits and vegetables, for instance, and most days get 30 minutes of moderate to vigorous exercise that raises your heart rate. Get to and maintain a healthy weight.


New Page Books | 2005-02-15 | ISBN: 1564147959 | 312 pages | PDF | 3,2 MBA handbook of Atlantean information for general readers and specialists alike!
This is an invaluable, one-of-a-kind reference. Unlike most other books on the subject, The Atlantis Encyclopedia offers fewer theories and more facts. Although it does not set out to prove the sunken capital actually existed, The Atlantis Encyclopedia musters so much evidence on its behalf, even skeptics may conclude that there must be at least something factual behind such an enduring, indeed global legend. You’ll learn:
* What was Atlantis? * Where was it located? * How long ago did it flourish? * How was it destroyed? * What became of its survivors? * Have any remains of Atlantis ever been found? * Will Atlantis ever be found? * Did Atlantis have any impact on America?


Is Copy and Paste Programming Really a Problem?
But it’s also a natural way to get stuff done – find something that already works, something that looks close to what you want to do, take a copy and use it as a starting point. Almost everybody has done in at some point. This is because there are times when copy and paste programming is not only convenient, but it might also be the right thing to do.
First of all, let’s be clear what I mean by copy and paste. This is not copying code examples off of the Internet, a practice that comes with its own advantages and problems. By copy and paste I mean when programmers take a shortcut in reuse – when they need to solve a problem that is similar to another problem in the system, they’ll start by taking a copy of existing code and changing what they need to.
Early in design and development, copy and paste programming has no real advantage. The code and design are still plastic, this is your chance to come up with the right set of abstractions, routines and libraries to do what the system needs to do. And there’s not a lot to copy from anyways. It’s late in development when you already have a lot of code in place, and especially when you are maintaining large, long-lived systems, that the copy and paste argument gets much more complicated.
Why Copy and Paste?
Programmers copy and paste because it saves time. First, you have a starting point, code that you know works. All you have to do is figure out what needs to be changed or added. You can focus on the problem you are trying to solve, on what is different, and you only need to understand what you are going to actually use. You are more free to iterate and make changes to fit the problem in front of you – you can cleanup code when you need to, delete code that you don’t need. All of this is important, because you may not know what you will need to keep, what you need to change, and what you don’t need at all until you are deeper into solving the problem.
Copy and paste programming also reduces risk. If you have to go back and change and extend existing code to do what it does today as well as to solve your new problem, you run the risk of breaking something that is already working. It is usually safer and less expensive (in the short term at least) to take a copy and work from there.
What if you are building a new B2B customer interface that will be used by a new set of customers? It probably makes sense to take an existing interface as a starting point, reuse the scaffolding and plumbing and wiring at least and as much of the the business code as makes sense, and then see what you need to change. In the end, there will be common code used by both interfaces (after all, that’s why you are taking a copy), but it could take a while before you know what this code is.
Finding a common design, the right abstractions and variations to support different implementations and to handle exceptions can be difficult and time consuming. You may end up with code that is harder to understand and harder to maintain and change in the future – because the original design didn’t anticipate the different exceptions and extensions, and refactoring can only take you so far. You may need a new design and implementation.
Changing the existing code, refactoring or rewriting some of it to be general-purpose, shared and extendable, will add cost and risk to the work in front of you. You can’t afford to create problems for existing customers and partners just because you want to bring some new customers online. You’ll need to be extra careful, and you’ll have to understand not only the details of what you are trying to do now (the new interface), but all of the details of the existing interface, its behavior and assumptions, so that you can preserve all of it.
It’s naïve to think that all of this behavior will be captured in your automated tests – assuming that you have a good set of automated tests. You’ll need to go back and redo integration testing on the existing interface. Getting customers and partners who may have already spent weeks or months to test the software to retest it is difficult and expensive. They (justifiably) won’t see the need to go through this time and expense because what they have is already working fine.
Copying and pasting now, and making a plan to come back later to refactor or even redesign if necessary towards a common solution, is the right approach here.
When Copy and Paste makes sense
In Making Software’s chapter on “Copy-Paste as a Principled Engineering Tool”, Michael Godfrey and Cory Kapser explore the costs of copy and paste programming, and the cases where copy and paste make sense:
- Forking – purposely creating variants for hardware or platform variation, or for exploratory reasons.
- Templating –some languages don’t support libraries and shared functions well so it may be necessary to copy and paste to share code. Somewhere back in the beginning of time, the first COBOL programmer wrote a complete COBOL program – everybody else after that copied and pasted from each other.
- Customizing – creating temporary workarounds – as long as it is temporary.
practice of “clone and own” to solve problems in big development
organizations. One team takes code from another group and customizes it
or adapts it to their own purposes – now they own their copy. This is a
common approach with open source code that is used as a foundation and
needs to be extended to solve a proprietary problem.
When Copy and Paste becomes a Problem
When to copy and paste, and how much of a problem it will become over time, depends on a few important factors.
First, the quality of what you are copying – how understandable the code is, how stable it is, how many bugs it has in it. You don’t want to start off by inheriting somebody else’s problems.
How many copies have been made. A common rule of thumb from Fowler and Beck`s Refactoring book is “three strikes and you refactor”. This rule comes from recognizing that by making a copy of something that is already working and changing the copy, you’ve created a small maintenance problem. It may not be clear what this maintenance problem is yet or how best to clean it up, because only two cases are not always enough to understand what is common and what is special.
But the more copies that you make, the more of a maintenance problem that you create – the cost of making changes and fixes to multiple copies, and the risk of missing making a change or fix to all of the copies increases. By the time that you make a third copy, you should be able to see patterns – what’s common between the code, and what isn’t. And if you have to do something in three similar but different ways, there is a good chance that there will be a fourth implementation, and a fifth. By the third time, it’s worthwhile to go back and restructure the code and come up with a more general-purpose solution.
How often you have to change the copied code and keep it in sync – particularly, how often you have to change or fix the same code in more than one place.
How well you know the code, do you know that there are clones and where to find them? How long it takes to find the copies, and how sure you are that you found them all. Tools can help with this. Source code analysis tools like clone detectors can help you find copy and paste code – outright copies and code that is not the same but similar (fuzzier matching with fuzzier results). Copied code is often fiddled with over time by different programmers, which makes it harder for tools to find all of the copies. Some programmers recommend leaving comments as markers in the code when you make a copy, highlighting where the copy was taken from, so that a maintenance programmer in the future making a fix will know to look for and check the other code.
Copy and Paste programming doesn’t come for free. But like a lot of other ideas and practices in software development, copy and paste programming isn’t right or wrong. It’s a tool that can be used properly, or abused.
Brian Foote, one of the people who first recognized the Big Ball of Mud problem in software design, says that copy and paste programming is the one form of reuse that programmers actually follow, because it works.
It’s important to recognize this. If we’re going to Copy and Paste, let's do a responsible job of it.
(Note: Opinions expressed in this article and its replies are the opinions of their respective authors and not those of DZone, Inc.)


Sledding has been a winter ritual for generations. Anywhere there's snow and a hillside, you can find people sledding. Your grandparents probably did it, as did your parents, and someday your kids will do it, too. Why? It's tons of fun, and it doesn't require any special skills or equipment other than a sled and a helmet.
But sledding can also cause injuries, some of them pretty serious. To keep yourself safe, follow these tips.
Why Is Sledding Safety Important?
Though it may seem like harmless fun, sledding injuries send tens of thousands of people to hospital emergency rooms each year. More than half of all sledding injuries are head injuries, which can be very serious and even deadly. Sledders are actually more likely to be injured in collisions than skiers or snowboarders.
Choose the Right Hill
When hills get coated with snow, they may all look like great locations for sledding. But not all hills are safe. Choose yours carefully. Here are a few guidelines to follow:
Select a hill that is not too steep and has a long flat area at the bottom for you to glide to a stop.
Avoid hillsides that end near a street or parking lot.
Avoid hillsides that end near ponds, trees, fences or other hazards.
Make sure the hill is free of obstacles such as jumps, bumps, rocks, or trees before you begin sledding.
Choose hills that are snowy rather than icy. If you fall off your sled, icy slopes make for hard landings.
Try to sled during the daytime, when visibility is better. If you go sledding at night, make sure the hillside is well lit and all potential hazards are visible.
Dress for Success
Since sledding involves playing in the snow outdoors during wintertime, chances are it's going to be cold. Frostbite and even hypothermia are potential dangers. So is hitting your head. Be sure to wear the proper clothing to stay warm and safe.
Wear sensible winter clothing — hats, gloves or mittens, snow pants, winter jacket, snow boots — that is waterproof and warm, and change into something dry if your clothes get wet.
Avoid wearing scarves or any clothing that can get caught in a sled and pose a risk of strangulation.
Wear a helmet designed for winter sports. If you don't have a ski or winter sports helmet, at least wear the helmet you use for biking or skateboarding.
The best sleds can be steered by their riders and have brakes to slow them down. Avoid sleds that can't be steered, such as saucers or plastic toboggans, and never use a sled substitute like an inner tube, lunch tray, or cardboard box. Good sleds are relatively cheap to buy and are well worth the extra money.
Follow These Simple Safety Rules
You've got the right kind of sled and a helmet, you're dressed warmly, and you've picked out a perfect hill. You're ready to go. Follow these rules to keep yourself and other sledders safe:
Designate a go-to adult. In the event someone gets injured, you'll want an adult on hand to administer first aid and, if necessary, take the injured sledder to the emergency room.
Always sit face-forward on your sled. Never sled down a hill backwards or while standing, and don't go down the hill face-first, as this greatly increases the risk of a head injury.
Young kids (5 and under) should sled with an adult, and kids under 12 should be actively watched at all times.
Go down the hill one at a time and with only one person per sled (except for adults with young children). Piling more than one person on a sled just means there are more things on the hill that you can collide with.
Never build an artificial jump or obstacle on a sledding hill.
Keep your arms and legs within the sled at all times, and if you fall off the sled, move out of the way. If you find yourself on a sled that won't stop, roll off it and get away from it.
Walk up the side of the hill and leave the middle open for other sledders.
Never ride a sled that is being pulled by a moving vehicle.
While it's unlikely that you'll be injured while sledding, the possibility definitely exists. Just take a little extra time to dress properly and make sure you're following these safety guidelines, and you'll have a better time knowing you have less to worry about. Sledding is supposed to be fun. Stay safe and warm, and you'll ensure that it is!


(En español: Exhalar)
Put one hand on your chest and take a deep breath . . . hold it! Now let the air out. Do you know why your chest seems to get smaller? It's called exhaling. This means you're pushing the air you breathed in out of your body. Your lungs are kind of like balloons, and when you breathe in (inhale), they get bigger. Then when you exhale and let that air back out, they get smaller. That's why your chest goes up and down when you breathe.


Pub. date: 2008 | Online Pub. Date: May 28, 2008 | DOI: 10.4135/9781412963930 | Print ISBN: 9781412941655 | Online ISBN: 9781412963930| Publisher:SAGE Publications, Inc.About this encyclopedia
Immigration, United States
Often described as a nation of immigrants, the United States had a foreign-born population of 12.4 percent in 2005. Before the 19th century, however, people rarely used the term immigrant. Instead, the foreign-born came as settlers, pioneers, slaves, or indentured servants. The Naturalization Act of 1790 first established a centralized process for becoming a citizen, originally open to any free white individual who could demonstrate residence in the country for 2 years. In the mid-19th century, the short-lived Know-No thing movement emerged as a reaction to a surge in immigration, particularly of Irish Catholics after the potato famine of 1845–1851. No national legislation, however, was enacted in response. Immigration was, for the most part, welcomed as a route to national development until the late 19th century. This changed with the passing of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, which barred Chinese from entering the country and excluded those already in ...


About this Base Converter
Base-2 to base-62 are accepted. "A" stands for 10, "Z" for 35, "a" (lower-case) for 36 and "z" (lower-case) for 61. Decimals are supported. This is a custom function because PHP's base_convert() doesn't accept decimals and only goes up to base-36. It's only as precise as PHP is, so don't blindly copy the smallest decimal thinking it will always be correct.
Is there any standard for displaying numbers higher than base-36? I've used lowercase letters to go up to base-62, but I couldn't find if that's what is commonly done. (Then again, I guess nothing is commonly done, since anything beyond base-16 doesn't really have much use, to my knowledge.)
Fun game: Enter your name and supply base-36 (or higher) as the starting base and see what number you get in another base. My first name in base-38 for instance returns EPKCO in base-42.
What's this about?
A base is the system with which numbers are displayed. If we talk about base-n, the system has n characters (including 0) available to display a number. Numbers are represented with digits which are smaller than n. Therefore, 3 in base-3 is 10: because that system doesn't have a "3", it starts over (1, 2, 10, 11, 12, 20, 21, 22, 100, etc.).
The base we usually use is base-10, because we have 10 (when including 0) digits until we start over again (8,9,10). In base-2 (binary), we only have 2 characters, i.e. 0 and 1, until we start over again. Following this example, the binary number 10 is 2 in our (base-10) system.
Does it make sense that a finite fraction ("decimal") is infinite in another base?
It totally does. If you want to convert 645 from base-8 to base-10, you do 6*82 + 4*81 + 5*80 = 421. After the comma you keep on decrementing the exponent, meaning that if you have 21.35 in base-7 you get to its base-10 equivalent by doing 2*71 + 1*70 + 3*7-1 + 5*7-2. 7-1 (= 1/7), however, is 0.142857... in base-10, while it's simply written as 0.1 in base-7.


Russia drills through 4 km of ice to reach ‘mythical’ subglacial lake
A Russian team has succeeded in drilling through four kilometres of ice to the surface of a mythical subglacial Antarctic lake which could hold as yet unknown life forms, reports said Monday.
Lake Vostok is the largest subglacial lake in Antarctica and scientists want to study its eco-system which has been isolated for hundreds of thousands of years under the ice in the hope of finding previously unknown microbiological life forms.
“Because the lower layer was formed 400,000 years ago, from the composition of the gas it is possible to judge the gas composition in the atmosphere 400,000 years ago and during the time that has passed since the formation of the lake,” Sergei Lesenkov, spokesman for the Arctic and Antarctic Scientific Research Institute said.
“From there, it is possible to identify and forecast certain climatic changes in the future. This is very important.” (Photo: AFP/Getty Images)


The factors behind the calving process were not well understood
US researchers have come up with a way to predict the rate at which ice shelves break apart into icebergs.
These sometimes spectacular occurrences, called calving events, are a key step in the process by which climate change drives sea level rise.
Computer models that simulate how ice sheets might behave in a warmer world do not describe the calving process in much detail, Science journal reports.
Until now, the factors controlling this process have not been well understood.
Ice sheets, such as those in Antarctica and Greenland, spread under their own weight and flow off land over the ocean water.
Ice shelves are the thick, floating lips of ice sheets or glaciers that extend out past the coastline.
Timelapse footage of an iceberg breaking away from a glacier in July 2008. The event took approximately 15 minutes (Video: Fahnestock/UNH)
The Ross Ice Shelf in Antarctica floats for as much as 800km (500 miles) over the ocean before the edges begin to break and create icebergs. But other ice shelves may only edge over the water for a few kilometres.
A team led by Richard Alley at Pennsylvania State University, US, analysed factors such as thickness, calving rate and strain rate for 20 different ice shelves.
"The problem of when things break is a really hard problem because there is so much variability," said Professor Alley.
"Anyone who has dropped a coffee cup knows this. Sometimes the coffee cup breaks and sometimes it bounces."
The team's results show that the calving rate of an ice shelf is primarily determined by the rate at which the ice shelf is spreading away from the continent.
The researchers were also able to show that narrower shelves should calve more slowly than wider ones.
Ice cracking off into the ocean from Antarctica and Greenland could play a significant role in future sea level rise.
Floating ice that melts does not of itself contribute to the height of waters (because it has already displaced its volume), but the shelf from which it comes acts as a brake to the land-ice behind. Removal of the shelf will allow glaciers heading to the ocean to accelerate - a phenomenon documented when the Larsen B shelf on the Antarctic Peninsula shattered in spectacular style in 2002. This would speed sea level rise.
The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in its 2007 assessment forecast that seas could rise by 18 to 59 cm (7-23ins) this century. However, in giving those figures, it conceded that ice behaviour was poorly understood.
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The Philippines is blessed with a very high biodiversity, including the plants living in its remaining forest cover. Trees alone comprise about 3500 species. Just to research on a species a day would take about 10 years to finish all of just the trees. Then there are still the shrubs, herbs, ferns etc. Through this blog we hope to introduce you to some important plants in the forest before they completely disappear because of habitat destruction.
Friday, January 13, 2012
Another Katmon in Flower
Dillenia sibuyanensis in flower
Flower is much smaller than a katmon's
Quick Post: I was gifted by Wendy Regalado with a cutting of Dillenia sibuyanensis or katmon-sibuyan. In about 8 months it established itself then grew from 6 inches to about 2 feet. The other day I saw it in flower. It had a smaller flower compared to Dillenia philippinensis, but has an attractive yellow flower. It must be a delight to see a specimen heavily laden with the yellow blooms. For now I have to contented with the single flower, and at least I know my plant will be doing so someday.


During regular check-ups, your doctor will examine your child to see if he or she has any developmental delays. These well-child check-ups are typically scheduled for:
- 9 months
- 18 months
- 24 or 30 months
To look for developmental delays, the doctor will focus on your child’s social skills, language skills, and behavior. Your child's' doctor may talk to and play with your child. You will be asked questions about your child’s development.
This is a good time for you to talk openly to your child's doctor. You may have concerns about how your child is growing and behaving. Tell the doctor if you think your child is not developing normally, or has regressed. It is very important to share these concerns.
Examples of tests that are used to screen for developmental delays include:
- Ages and Stages Questionnaire
- Parents Evaluation of Developmental Status
Your doctor may also give a screening test to check specifically for autism. These screening tools focus on the criteria for diagnosing autism. The criteria are based on the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual. These tests are required for screening use in some states.
One test that is used is called the Checklist for Autism in Toddlers (CHAT). It is for children as young as 18 months. This is when autism is typically diagnosed. Some samples of the types of questions in CHAT include:
- Does your child take interest in other children?
- Does your child ever bring objects over to you to show you something?
- Does your child sometimes stare at nothing or wander with no purpose?
The screening may show that your child has signs of autism. If so, the next step would be to work with a professional who specializes in the condition. This may be a child psychologist. The specialist will do further testing.
It is important to remember that if your child is in the high-risk category, your doctor will screen him or her sooner for developmental delays and autism. Your child is considered high-risk if he or she:
- Had a low birth weight
- Was premature
- Has a sibling with a developmental delay or autism


Bringing a new baby home is one of the most exciting times for parents and grandparents. 9 months of planning and anticipation finally pays off when the new addition arrives safe and sound. However, there may be one person who isn't quite sure what all the fuss is about and what having a new child in the family is going to mean for them. The sibling.
A new brother or sister may be thrilling to most of the family members, but a new baby who is getting all the attention can seem overwhelming to the first child, especially for very young siblings. Their very sense of security can feel threatened, leaving them feeling angry and acting out. So, before the little bundle of joy arrives, it's a good idea to prepare the older child for big changes ahead.
You can do that as early as when mom starts showing. Introduce the idea that mommy is pregnant. Being pregnant means that mom & dad are going to have another child, and that means a little brother or sister is going to be part of the family.
One good tip is to have a calendar on hand and circle the date when the baby is due. Have the older child start marking the days as they go by.
If you have a very young child you can say the baby will arrive in the summer, when the weather gets hot.Or in the fall, when all the leaves start to fall. Give them something they can identify with if they are too young to understand dates.
Once that's established, ask them if they have any questions about having a little brother or sister. Children may be so surprised that they don't have anything to ask right away. But as time goes on, they will have plenty of questions. Give answers that are age appropriate in a language that is easy to understand. Keep your answers simple but inclusive of how a new baby may affect their life. An example might be the baby will cry and may wake you up at night for a while. That's normal behavior for a new baby. We'll all be tired for a little while, but it will get better.
You can also bring out pictures or videos of when they were babies. Children love to hear stories about when they were little. Explain how much you loved them then and now. This little exercise in closeness can also help them understand the importance of babies and what a baby can bring to the family.
As the due date gets closer, try and keep everything as routine as possible. Avoid big transitions such as potty training, changing to a big girl or boy bed, getting rid of the pacifier or binky or anything that may separate the older sibling from the family. If the sibling must undergo some of these changes, start as early as possible so that they don't make a negative association between these changes and the baby.
One unavoidable change that might occur is that mom will be away for a few days when the baby is born. Prepare your child for your absence during the birth of the new baby (how long you will be gone, where your child will stay). If your child is going to stay with someone else for a few days, do a couple of practice stay-overs so they will see that you will come back and bring them home.
For toddlers, you might also consider role-playing with dolls. Let them use the doll to ask questions or talk about their fears or excitement about the baby.
Once the baby is born allow the sibling to come to the hospital and see the baby and that mom is ok. A cute tip is to have a gift from the new baby for the sibling.
Once baby is home, suppress any negative comparisons such as you cried a lot more, or he or she is a lot calmer than you were.
Other things to keep in mind are:
- Don't be alarmed if siblings don't express an interest in the new baby. Sibling relationships have a lifetime to develop.
- Accept that some regression may occur; this is normal. Baby your big-boy/girl for a while, if that's what he/she seems to need.
- Remind visitors to pay attention to your older kids and monitor gift-giving. It can be upsetting for sibling to see all of the presents that the newborn receives, especially when people don''t bring something for them.
- Try not to blame the baby for your new limitations (Mommy can't play with you now because I have to feed the baby or Mommy needs to change the baby, so you need to read to yourself). Blaming new babies for decreased time spent with you can breed sibling resentment. Instead, involve siblings in child-care as helpers.
- Create opportunities for older siblings to be participants and not competitors (e.g., getting a diaper ready, reading the baby a story, pushing the carriage).
- Remind siblings of the things they can do because they are older (e.g., eating food, playing with toys, going to the playground).
- Remember to give siblings private time with you and reinforce the idea that many of the things they are able to help out with (e.g., errand running, meal preparation, etc.), are because of their advanced abilities.
While you are busy with a new baby, developmental changes are still going on with your older child. Kids that are two or under may have difficulty with a new addition because they still have strong needs as well. Stress in the family can make the sibling's adjustment more difficult. So remember to stay calm when you're with the children.
One more thing to be aware of is how rough a sibling may be with a new baby. They really don't understand how delicate the baby is and have to learn what kind of playing or interaction is too rough. They may also hug a little to hard. You'll have to guide them in the correct gentle behaviors. Focus on your older child's positive behaviors towards the new baby such as I like how you gently kiss your little brother or sister.
Having a new baby in the family is difficult, but don't despair. The first few months will be an adjustment for everyone. But before you know it, the new baby will feel like he or she has always been a part of the family.
Source: Bronwyn Charlton, PhD, http://www.everydayhealth.com/kids-health/prepping-your-child-for-a-new-sibling.aspx