Global Children's Initiative

For the blog assignment this week I am taking a look at the Harvard University website on “Global Children’s Initiatives”. Early childhood around the world can look very different than it does in America. Recent years in America our focus has been on standards and school readiness. After reading about the “Global Children’s Initiatives” I am able to see that this is not always the focus in other countries. Children and crisis is one of these topics. For example in Haiti and Chile post-earthquake child status is something that is being looked at closer (Harvard University, 2014). Child mental health is being looked at more closely in China and child maltreatment is being looked at more closely in three of the Caribbean nations (Harvard University, 2014). As you can see each country has something that is a primary focus. As we talked about in past discussions it is important to take care of a child’s well-being in order to provide the best education for a child. From the information from the Harvard website one can see the various ways this can look in each individual country. When these needs are addressed or met a child will be more likely to thrive in their education.

References

Harvard University. (2014). Center on the Developing Child. Retrieved from Global Children's Initiatives: http://developingchild.harvard.edu/index.php/activities/global_initiative/

Week 4 Sharing Web Resources

I have been studying the zero to three website. Based on our discussions this week I decided to take a closer look at the public policy tab on this website. Zero to Three is a research based resource for federal and state policy makers (Zero to Three, 2014).  The policy center is there to promote “good health, strong families, and positive early learning experiences for all infants and toddlers” (Zero to Three, 2014). In the fiscal year of 2014 there is a grant availbale to EHS programs to expand partnerships with child care centers in the community (Zero to Three, 2014). This is an example of efforts policy makers are making to expand quality early childhood programs in communities.  

When I browsed the website this week I found a section on discipline. One of the recommendations for parents was to comfort their babies whenever they cry. I feel this can be a controversial topic, because the way one comforts their child or how long they let their child cry for varies by culture. I believe that what the website is offering is simply recommendations, but some cultures may disagree with the suggestions for discipline. I found that many topics on the website such as this can be considered controversial based on culture. Each culture has a different perspective on child rearing and the website is promoting child rearing techniques for child care centers rather than individual cultures.

References

Zero to Three. (2014). Public Policy. Retrieved from Zero to Three: http://www.zerotothree.org/public-policy/

Poverty in Vanuatu

For this week’s assignment I have gathered my information from the UNICEF website. I have chosen to take a closer look at child poverty in Vanuatu which consists of 65 inhabited islands (UNICEF, 2012). By using the basic needs poverty line, seventeen percent of children are living in poverty in Vanuatu (UNICEF, 2012). The number of people living in a home and the amount of education the adults had in the home impacted whether or not a child was living in poverty (UNICEF, 2012). Due to the poverty level in Vanuatu I was surprised to learn that they also needed to look at deprivation (UNICEF, 2012). Deprivation is similar to poverty in the matter that it looks at the child’s shelter, sanitation, drinking water supply, health, food, education, and information (ex. telephone) (UNICEF, 2012). During a study in 2007 deprivation appeared to be more of a problem than poverty (UNICEF, 2012). There are broad policies in Vanuatu that are in place to promote child well-being, but due to the island location it is difficult to provide adequate resources to those who need it (UNICEF, 2012).

By studying poverty in Vanuatu this week I have learned that poverty will look different in each part of the world. This is because each location has different struggles. As you can see the biggest struggle with improving poverty in Vanuatu is the island location, because they are surrounded by 700,000 square kilometers of ocean (UNICEF, 2012).  I am interested to see what these challenges are for other locations around the world.

References

UNICEF. (2012). Global study on child poverty and disparities. Suva, Figi Islands: United Nations Children's Fund Pacific.

Sharing Web Resources

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I chose to study the zero to three website. This is the link to the website:

http://www.zerotothree.org/

I will not receive my first newsletter until the first of the month. For this assignment I will be gathering my information specifically form the zero to three website. As I looked closely at the website I found the issue of money. Often times in the society today a parent is looking to provide a better life for their child than what they might have had. On the zero to three website there is a chart titled “Juggling Jobs and Babies-the Challenges of Young Working Families” (National Center for Infants, Toddlers and Families, 2012). Below is the chart from the website. The chart shows the issue of families losing the quality time spent with their child (National Center for Infants, Toddlers and Families, 2012). The issue here is that families are unable to make enough money to provide for their family (National Center for Infants, Toddlers and Families, 2012). Work sites according to this chart do not appear to provide a high percentage of paid time off to new parents (National Center for Infants, Toddlers and Families, 2012). Finally, the chart shows the percentage that is taken out of a parent’s income to pay for child care (National Center for Infants, Toddlers and Families, 2012). I believe this issue can stem into other issues. For instance a parent who is struggling to pay for child care and making ends meet is most likely a stressed out parent. My question is what is the effect of this stress the parent has on the child?

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(National Center for Infants, Toddlers and Families, 2012).

References

National Center for Infants, Toddlers and Families. (2012). Working Families Infographic. Retrieved from Zero to Three: http://www.zerotothree.org/public-policy/working-families-infographic.html

Establishing Professional Contacts and Expanding Resources

Part 1:

This week I have e-mailed many early childhood professionals around the world to try and touch base with someone to begin communicating about the project for this class. I am disappointed to say I have not received any responses to my e-mails. I e-mailed all of them explaining that I am a graduate school student looking to expand my professional contacts and I explained to them the assignment for this course.  Some of the e-mails I sent were sent back to me as they were no longer valid e-mail addresses. For this assignment I believe I will need to use the alternative resources, unless I receive a response during this week.

Part 2:

I have chosen to study the zero to three website. There are two newsletters for this site, but I was only able to access the “Baby to Big Kid” newsletter. I will try and access the other newsletter again this week, because it looked as if it was temporarily inactive. The zero to three website is broken up into six sections; home page, behavior and development, maltreatment, care and education, public policy, and about us. Each section is broken down more specifically and contains a lot of information about each topic. I am excited to gain knowledge from this website and use it as a resource for the future weeks in this course.

My Supports

Support in my opinion is anything that helps you accomplish your daily tasks. When I first think about the supports I have in my life I think of transportation. I think about the use of my legs and my vehicle. My legs and my vehicle get me to places that I need to be. I then begin to think about the support I need to know where I need to be each day and how to get there on time. In this case I need my phone. My phone serves as a clock, alarm clock, a calendar, and a place where I can store notes. When I don’t have my phone, for instance at work, I use a clock on the wall and sticky notes. I also have a computer at work where I input a lot of documentation into each day. I find my family and friends to be supports to me. They are always there to share my thoughts and feelings with and for me they help to keep me mentally healthy. All of these supports benefit me to complete my daily tasks to the best of my ability. They help me with timeliness, reflection, organization and movement. If I did not have just one of these supports life would become much more difficult. For example if I did not have an alarm clock I might not be on time to work in the morning. If I did not have sticky notes at work I would become forgetful and unable to complete some of my tasks. It is very concerning though how much my phone is a support to me it serves as many different purposes. I did not mention before, but it is also a means of communication. Without my phone to communicate I would not be able stay in touch with family and friends or schedule appointments as often as I do. My phone saves me time in my day.

I believe I could find other ways to manage without all of these supports, but a challenging one to imagine not having would be the use of my legs. Not having the use of my legs would change my thought process for getting from place to place drastically. Without the use of my legs I would not be able to walk up stairs, drive a vehicle, or simply move to any location I choose. If I did not have legs a wheelchair, elevators, ramps, and public transportation would be vital supports for me. If these supports were not available I would not have a sufficient means of transportation. It would make each daily task more difficult and I may not be able to do everything I needed/wanted to do.  

As you can see by reflecting upon my daily experiences there are many different people and things I depend upon to accomplish my daily tasks and experiences. If one support were taken away my outlook would change dramatically. What support would be the most difficult for you to go without?

My Connections to Play

“Play gives children a chance to practice what they are learning.”

-Mr. Rogers

“We are never more fully alive, more completely ourselves, or more deeply engrossed in anything than when we are playing.”

-Charles Schaefer

When I was a child I remember being surrounded by all kinds of toys, but the three pictures I posted were my favorite! I was very fortunate as a child to have many adults to support my play. My parents were my biggest supporters. My mother was a stay at home mom and spent her days with my brother, sister and I. She took us to the playground and library and spent time playing at home with us. My father, even though he worked full time, always found time to play with us. I can remember whenever he came home from work my brother, sister, and I would run over to him and ask him to play with us. He always joined in our play no matter how long of a day or how tired he was.

Today as I visit families at their homes and have families join in play in my classroom I am disappointed by the interactions. I find a lot of the time in the home there is a piece of technology the child is using or the parent is not joining in with their child’s play. From my own personal observations play has been centered around technology or a parent wanting their child to know their 1,2,3’s or A,B,C’s. I hope to see play at home to go back to the way it was when I was a child. A child’s playroom is one of the greatest learning environments! (I know mine was!)

            Throughout my life play was an opportunity for me to express myself. It ranged from acting out school and playing teacher, to dressing up my dolls, to making up a new game with my brother and sister. As I learn about play now as an adult I see the vital importance of the early experiences of play and why the play in my childhood was so important!