Getting to Know Your International Contacts—Part 2

From the Harvard website, I was able to have a clear understanding that the center was founded in 2006 with the notion that the extent to which a society expands opportunities early in life for all children to achieve their full potential and engage in responsible and productive citizenship is a reflection of the vitality and sustainability of such society.  Being able to do many things at the same time, filter distractions, and switch gears is likened to an air traffic control system at a busy airport while handling the arrivals and departures of many planes on multiple runways (Building the Brain).  All these are done in the brain with a mechanism called executive function helping us to focus on series of information at the same time (Harvard, Global).  A section on the website called IN BRIEF talks briefly on various issues of cencern to children development, their families and the society.  One of the articles, The Foundations of Lifelong Health, says a healthy child development is the foundation of a vital and productive society with a prosperous and sustainable future (Harvard, In Brief, The Foundations). 

 

According to one of the In Brief articles, Early Childhood Program Effectiveness, in order to ensure that children have a solid foundatio for a productive future that will positivily impact the society, there is need to create and implement effective early childhoold programs and policies that will include all the children (Harvard, In Brief, Early Childhood).  On the policy implications, the article stated that to achieve program success and equal participation of all children, development  and retention of a skilled early childhood workforce that is adequately compensated is paramount.  This is important because it will affect the quality of implementation which is key.  The article also says that a multi-strategy approach will ensure healthy future for all children as no single program can meet the diverse developmental needs of all children (Harvard, In Brief, Early Childhood).                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

References

Building the Brain’s “Air Traffic Control” System: How Early Experiences Shape the Development of Executive Function

  http://developingchild.harvard.edu/index.php/resources/reports_and_working_papers/working_papers/wp11/

Harvard University.  “Global Children’s Initiative” website http://developingchild.harvard.edu/initiatives/global_initiative/

Harvard University.  “In Brief, Early Childhood Program effectiveness” website

www.developingchild.harvard.edu

Harvard University.  “In Brief, The Foundations of Lifelong Health” website http://developingchild.harvard.edu/initiatives/global_initiative/

Sharing Web Resources

The specific sections that seem particularly relevant to my current professional development of new voices supporting early care and education are “Behavior & Development” and “Care & Education” sections. These two sections highlight the submission of the new voices.  Behavior & Development section talks about Brain Development, Early Childhood Mental Health, Early Development, Health & Nutrition, Play, School Readiness and so on.  Early Care and Education section talks about Child Care, Family, Friend & Neighbor Care, and School Readiness Interactive.

The resources on the website that made me think about an issue in new ways is “School Readiness Interactive” from birth to 3.  The resource is an interactive learning tool to assist parents and caregivers in encouraging early learning for their young children.  The tools used are: information about the development of school readiness skills and support needed from adults; video clips showing children learning the skills; and interactive activities between parents and children providing fun to children’s school readiness skills.  The video clips actually made me see the practical aspect of helping young children develop skills and how easy it is for mothers, especially, to miss this aspect of their child’s life.

The information from the website that adds to my understanding of how economists, neuroscientists, or politicians support the early childhood field with the issue of high-quality early learning opportunities for children during their first five years is that of Play.  The article states that a lot of learning happens during playtime of looking, lifting, dropping, bouncing, knocking down, and more.  The article also states that the true work of childhood is play, and when adults join in such play, the child learns love and gain the confidence needed to build loving and supportive relationships in life.

I gained some new insights about issues and trends in the early childhood field while exploring the website some of which are as follows; Promoting social emotional development is said to be as important as the child’s brain and physical development, and that the desire to connect with others motivates a child to learn. I also learnt that how much and how well a child learns, and the quality of the relationships built with others depends largely on the child’s sense of who he/she is in the world. Therefore, those who the child comes in contact with early in life need to help the child build a positive notion and image about self.

Getting to Know Your International Contacts—Part 1

I am yet to establish contact with either of my conversation partners and the podcast participant, however, as soon as I am able to establish contact with either of them I will not hesitate to share with the class because I would have been so thrilled.

From the podcast, I realized that episode 10 that was the latest about two weeks ago is still the latest.  I am having the notion that the episodes are seldom changed.  Episode 10 is by Susan Lyon.  Susan, in her statement, stated that she had been an educator since age 22 teaching children having disabilities and emotional parlance.  She got fascinated by a young child’s idea of the word “city” and began to carefully consider the ideas that occupy children’s heart.  She has since worked on many projects aim on improving the living conditions of children.  She is the Director of the Innovative Teacher Project in San Francisco. This project involves a network of schools interested in the in-depth approach  to children.  Both public and private schools are participating and it started in 1994.  Currently, she is working on a rehab of a San Francisco structure into the first Italian immersion preschool. 

From the website, I read about childhood poverty in India.  India’s population is second only to China’s with an estimated 1.03 billion citizens in 2001 while about 260.2 million people live in poverty as at 1999 – 2000.  An estimated 400 million of the population are children between 0-18 years.  These children are living under very hard conditions as almost half of all children under age five are malnourished and 34 percent of new born babies are under significantly underweight.  There is a decrease in infant mortality from 80 per 1000 live births in 1990 to 69 in 2000; and enrolment of primary school-aged children rose from 68percent in 1992/1993 to 82 percent by the end of the decade; this is an indication of important achievements in health and education sectors.  However, India still has the largest numbers of working children in the world, with about one third of the children below 16 years of age.  In all of these, female children are seriously impacted as a result of stark inequalities in child wellbeing based on gender, class and caste.

The disadvantaged cycle continues over and over again as it starts at birth, continues through childhood to motherhood and to the next generation while it is also reflecting in the inferior health and educational status of women, the high maternal mortality rate, the neglected of the girl child and subsequent higher participation in the child labor force.  This shows that female children are less valued than their male counterpart and this could be damaging to a nation as mothers stay longer with children (male and female) than fathers.

Childhood Poverty Research and Policy Centre’s page (http://www.childhoodpoverty.org/)

Sharing Web Resources

The name and link for the organization I selected are: Zero To Three: National Center for Infants, Toddlers, and Families http://www.zerotothree.org/

The organization is focuses on encouraging the growth and development of infants and toddlers including their general physical condition.  It is a source of information, support and training for the professionals, policymakers, and parents in improving the lives of the young ones.  

A current issue is about making it a year full of play.  This encourages the play aspect of children’s lives.  It supplies information according to ages of children, please check Year of Play in order to know more.

A current issue from the newsletter under Behavior & Development – Health & Nutrition is on the tips on health and nutrition. For example, healthy eating habits for young children offers information on: feeding skills for the first three years; how feeding tenderly cares for the body, heart and mind of the young children; knowing what an individual child really needs; how meal and snack times give chances to help the infants and toddlers know a lot of things like - learning healthy eating habits, feeling important and loved, etc.  There is also a chart on the ages and stages of children in relation to feeding and what adults can do to assist where necessary.

In relation to the topic of the week - Issues and Trends: Changing Demographics and Diversity – from the public policy, I found the article on early language and literacy development quite relevant.  It focuses on how development in positive early language and literacy can give children a window to the world and the absence affects the brain’s architecture which makes children lag behind. I also found a submission in conversation with the experts by Stefanie Powers on the findings providing useful insight into how professionals can better support parents and other caregivers in their efforts to nurture healthy development.  Some of the important discoveries include – a) parenting practices are influenced by one’s own upbringing, that is, often, we tend to pattern the training of our children to the type of upbringing we had; b) grandparents are vital sources of support and information, for example, grandparents at times serve as baby sitters and custodian of family culture; c) fathers and mothers experience parenting differently, that is, the combination of the two different types of upbringing to produce another type of upbringing in the children. To this effect, there is a five point policy recommendation in order to increase literacy skills for all children.

There is also a research submission that literacy is about communication and that children achieve competency in school readiness skills when they begin to experience and master all the domains of development, that is, cognitive, social, emotional, and physical development.  However, in gaining the experience, there is a pointer to the significant adults – families and other caregivers – in the child’s life.  Where there is family movement from one geographical area to another, the rate at which the communication gap is bridged depends absolutely on the level of interaction between the early childhood professionals, the communities and the new family.

Reference

Kupcha-Szrom, J. (2011).  A window to the World. “Early Language And Literacy Development.”  From Zero to Three Policy Center February 2011 http://www.zerotothree.org/public-policy/infant-toddler-policy-issues/positive-early-learning.html

 
Zero To Three: National Center for Infants, Toddlers, and Families http://www.zerotothree.org/