Final Blog: Issues and Trends, EDUC 6162

Three consequences of learning about the international early childhood field:
1. I am more aware of issues that others face that live in other parts of the world.
2. I am even more appreciative for what I have.
3. Learning about the international field of early childhood made me reflect on my professional and personal life.

One goal for the field related to international awareness of issues and trends and the spirit of collegial relations:
1. To learn all you can about different issues, culture, from around the world and apply that information to your professional and personal life.
2. To be advocates for issues that you feel passionate about.

Getting to know your international contacts part 3

I have learned three new things about issues related to international early childhood education.
"The first eight years of a child’s life are decisive for human development. Yet statistics on early childhood in Africa are appalling.

• Less than 12% of African children currently have access to Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) services.
• 12,000 African children die every day under conditions that could have been avoided – the equivalent of a Boeing 747 crashing every hour.
• Of the 76% of children entering primary school each year, 38% have experienced moderate or severe malnutrition impacting on their psychomotor and cognitive development" (UNESCO).

These ideas relate to my future goals of being a director of a child care center and teaching other teachers at a community college. The idea about children not having access to early childhood education can be changed if directors, teachers, and professors would be advocates for changing policies and help to advocate for new program funding. More funding of programs may allow more children to have access to education. The second idea relates to my future goals by being advocates for early childhood. Informing parents and the community about different topics that they need information on. If families are informed about services and given information they need, then they may have the help they need to better themselves. The third idea relates to my professional goals by teaching other teachers about poverty and the effects it has on people. The future teachers would be better able to understand what some of the children and families maybe going through that they work with.
References
UNESCO's "Early Childhood Care and Education" website http://unesco.org/new/en/education/themes/strengthening-education-systems/early-childhood/

Sharing Web Resources Week 6

1. I have been exploring the zero to three website. I followed an outside link under the maltreatment section. It lead me to The National Child Traumatic Stress Network. The website told about different types of trauma and gave resources.
2. I researched the area of care and education under the zero to three website. Under this section, it gave childcare and told what to look for in chilcare, transition to childcare. It also mentioned care from family, friends, and neighbors. The section I explored more in depth was on school readiness interactive birth to 3. This was a tool that was designed to support children's early learning. It give age based information about how children develop four skills that are important for school readiness. These included language, litteracy skills, self confidence, and self control. This part let you choose an age group and read about how to develop school readiness skills, how parents and caregivers can nurture and support school readiness skills, and also gave videos, activities, and answered frequently asked questions.
3. I think I signed up to recieve the zero to three newsletter but have not recieved the newsletter yet.
4. The website added to my information about equity and excellence. The website mentioned under the care and education tab that all childcare arrangements can lead to high quality, individualized, responsive, stimulating experiences that occur within the context of strong relationships imbedded in every day routines. I feel that although all realtionships have the potentional to be high quality, not all realtionships are posible of high quality care. The main thing that came to my mind was in care settings that the children were being mistreated or exposed to trauma.
5. Other insights I had this week: If a child is interested and involved in an activity, the child is learning. Activities that push children to read and write words don't help their development or make them do better in school. Can make children feel like failures when they are pushed to do something they don't enjoy or that is beyond their skills.
Refernces:
www.zerotothree.org

Getting to Know your international contacts part 2

 

I watched a video from the World Forum Foundation this week called “The Leaders of Tomorrow”. This video helped give me different insights from around the world. The video talked about leaders and the qualities of a leader. Leaders need to be credible, honest, intelligent, expressive, and forward looking. The video mentioned that by the age of six, it is too late for interventions. I found this interesting. I also learned that around the world, there are many common areas of need. These areas include lack of awareness, funding, and quality teachers. These fit in with the issues of equity and excellence. In Tanzia, Nigeria, and Haiti, children are still struggling to get their basic needs met. They are dealing with malnutrition, polluted air, and water.  I also learned that in China, Korea that children are losing time to play because the focus is on the academics (World Forum Foundation, 2011). This is not any different than what we are facing in the United States.

I reviewed the Harvard University’s website this week. I started by looking at the different programs that the organization was involved in. I reviewed the information on the Good Start Project in Santiago, Chile. The program focused on language development, health topics, and socioemotional areas of development. I then found an article that I found very interesting information. The article was accessible under the Zambian early childhood project. The Zambian project focuses on anti-malaria initiative. I learned that Malaria still does not have a cure. I knew years ago that there was not a cure but I thought there would be by now. In Zambia, the leading cause of death is Malaria. HIV is the other cause of death in Zambia. The country of Zambia determines if a child is healthy by whether or not their growth is stunted. “Where you are at age 6, before you enter school, predicts so many things in your life, and yet we have no way of comparing one country to another” (Gunther Fink, 2011).

References

Harvard University’s Global Children’s Initiative. (2014). Creating a new measure of child development. Retrieved from http://developingchild.harvard.edu/index.php/faculty_and_staff/faculty/faculty_spotlights/faculty_spotlight_fink/

World Forum Foundation. (2011). The leaders of tomorrow. http://worldforumfoundation.org/media-and-resources/wofo-tv/

 

 

Sharing Web Resources

I chose to look at the area of brain and development on the zero to three website. I then chose to look at the topic of challenging behaviors. Teaching in a classroom of 16 four year olds, all the children have different personalities. This year I ended up with a difficult group that is full of many different challenging behaviors. They have made progress, but they still have a long way to go socially yet. I read a journal article about aggression.

A controversial topic in the article that I read about aggression talked about spanking. Spanking is a controversial topic. Some people believe that children learn from spankings and others are against spanking. The article I read was against spanking. " Avoid spanking.  Think about the very real disadvantages of physical punishment for your child. Children often arouse anger in adults when they provoke, tease, behave stubbornly, or attack others. If your practice is to hit or physically punish your child in some other way for such behavior, you need to think very carefully about what he learns from that" (Zero to Three, 2012).

Economists, neuroscientists, and politicians support the early childhood field. In the website under the policy section, it mentioned that "Given growing awareness about the needs of very young children stemming from neuroscience and child development research, child welfare agencies have a long way to go in aligning policies and practices to ensure that the unique needs of infants and toddlers are met" (Zero to three, 2012). This shows that neuroscientists does research in the early childhood field. I would also say that they help with grants, form policy, and provide resources by browsing the topics under the policy section.

I gained new insights about issues and trends in the early childhood field from reading about aggression in children. I learned that aggression is a part of healthy development in children. The second year is when a child becomes aware of being angry and can behave intentionally.

References

Zero to Three. (2012). Changing the course for infants and toddlers: A survey of state child welfare policies and initiatives. Retrieved from http://www.zerotothree.org/policy/changing-the-course-for-infants-and-toddlers.html

Zero to Three. (2012). Helping young children channel their aggression. Retrieved from http://www.zerotothree.org/child-development/social-emotional-development/helping-young-children-channel-their-aggression.html

Getting to Know Your International Contacts Part 1

I had trouble getting the links to work for the World Forum Podcasts and the Childhood Poverty website. I chose to do the alternative assignment because I have not received any responses to any contacts I have sent. I chose to view a video from the World Forum website on poverty. I also listened to a podcast from Global Fund for Children.

The video I watched was Poverty and Children by Sakeena Yacoobi. Sakeena Yacoobi works with the World Forum Organization. She works with the children and families in a refugee camp in Afghanistan. The program provides services for the families that will enable them to be more knowledgeable about their life and help them make better choices for their families. She mentioned providing the services under tents, with each tent having a different service. These include health care, education, life skills, etc. She mentioned that families in Afghanistan had no electricity, water, limited work and schools. I learned the extent that some families will go to just to provide food for the family. I knew poverty was bad but I never thought about families going to the extent of the family that she mentioned. She told of a family that sold their child for 2 bags of wheat so that the rest of the family could eat. This really hit hard about the reality of some families in poverty.

The Podcast I listened to was Philanthropy by Victoria Dunning. Victoria is the vice president for programs at the Global Fund for Children. I learned from the podcast about what the program does. The program provides financial grants to community based organizations  that can become international organizations. She mentioned that children need to succeed: learning, safe place, healthy mind and body, enterprise (life and workplace skills). I have also learned about the education that some parents give their child without knowing what the school really does. The podcast mentioned children going to school to recite songs that they learn for money. They have a master that they give the money. If the master considers the money not enough, the master will beat the child. This left me wondering how parents could not know about the education they are sending their child too. Also in Bolivia and Nepal, if parents are sent to jail then the child is also sent to jail too.

References
Yacoobi, S. (2011). Poverty and Children. World Forum. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=UIt2NNrK3UE
Dunning, V. (2012, June 5). Philanthropy Chat: Global fund for children. Retrieved from http://grantspace.org/Multimedia/Podcasts/Philanthropy-Chat-Global-Fund-for-Children-2012-06-05

Sharing Web Resources

Zero to three
http://www.zerotothree.org
The organization provides information for families, professionals, and policy makers on children ages birth to three years of age. 

I chose the current issue of national paid family and medical leave insurance program. The article discussed the benefits to having paid medical leave.

"Time at home with newborns, infants, and toddlers gives parents the time they need to breastfeed, attend well-child medical visits, and ensure that their children receive all necessary immunizations. Studies show that paid family leave yields higher rates and longer periods of breastfeeding, which reduces the rates of childhood infections.

 Parental time off facilitates the early detection of potential developmental delays at a time when problems can be most effectively addressed and interventions identified to minimize them" (Zero to three, 2013, p. 2). Family leave time would benefit workers, families, and businesses.

"Provide eligible employees with up to 12 weeks of paid leave for their own serious illness; the serious illness of a child, parent, or spouse (including a domestic partner); the birth or adoption of a child; the injury of a family member who is in the military; or exigencies arising from a service member’s deployment" (Zero to three, 2013, p.2).

"The Need:

Public policies that promote time for parents and caregivers to care for and bond with their very young children, without jeopardizing the ability to pay for basic necessities" (Zero to three, 2013, p. 1).
I have learned that different areas provide leave to employees with pay. In Russia, I learned they allow paid leave. In the center I work at, three months can be taken but it is without pay.
References
Zero to Three. 2013. The child development case for a national paid family and medical leave insurance program: the family leave act. Retrieved from  http://www.zerotothree.org/public-policy/pdf/pfl-fact-sheet-final.pdf