Week 8 Blog

One of the consequences of learning about the international early childhood field is the ability to know how the professionals in this field in other countries are doing and the strategies they are using in helping the development of the children.

It’s also an opportunity to be able to liaise with other professionals in order to share their experience with us.

The opportunity to know the services that are available for the children in need and some of the ways the professionals in this field could be of help.

A big thank you to all my colleagues for your contribution to my knowledge in this course for sharing your experience. As you continue your studies the Lord will crown your effort with success in Jesus name.

UNESCO

UNESCO advocates for Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) programs that attend to health, nutrition, security and learning and which provide for children’s holistic development. I was able to find some information about access and equity in early childhood education on their website which are some of the issues we have been discussing about in this course and related to my professional goals.

The 1990 Jomtien Declaration for Education for All stated that learning begins at birth. A decade later, the 2000 Dakar Framework for Action reaffirmed the importance of early childhood by including the development of early childhood care and education as the first of its six main goals.

Participating countries committed themselves to “expanding and improving comprehensive early childhood care and education, especially for the most vulnerable and disadvantaged children.” Governments were particularly urged to expand equitable access to quality early childhood services underscoring the importance of instituting policy in favor of the poor.

Countries often promote alternative services for poor children with limited or no access to mainstream early childhood services which can be cost-effective and pedagogically innovative, but often raise concerns about sustainability and quality.  In cases where the government has limited resources, a pro-poor policy can redistribute resources by reducing state support for the more privileged.

Central governments must ensure an equitable distribution of resources among different populations and especially those who live in the most disadvantaged regions. This approach aims to expand access without creating serious regional inequities. However, where there is universal provision for a certain age group while the overall enrollment in other age groups is low, this policy can create inequity.

Privileged children of the target age group benefit from state investment, while poor children of non-target ages receive scant government attention. A policy of universalization with targeting can minimize inequity where governments aim for universal access among the target age group, but simultaneously priorities the poor.

Sharing Wed Resources

On Harlem Children Zone website I opened a section where they have there result and I was able to get some information about some of the issues we've been discussing in this course. This has really opened my eyes to see how one can actually get parents involved in their children's education as early as possible. Early Childhood As researchers confirm that the early-childhood years are key to building a strong foundation for future educational success, HCZ has been bolstering its work with children and families in these critically important first years. Like all of HCZ’s programs, our early childhood programs provide their services free to the public. The Baby College® The Baby College offers a nine-week parenting workshop to expectant parents and those raising a child up to three years old. Among other lessons, the workshops promote reading to children and verbal discipline over corporal punishment. Over the past two years, more than 870 people graduated from The Baby College. The Three Year Old Journey The Three-Year-Old Journey works with parents of children who have won the HCZ Promise Academy charter school lottery. Held on Saturdays over several months, it teaches parents about their child's development, building language skills and parenting skills. GET READY FOR PRE-K The Get Ready for Pre-K program brings in new Gems students before the start of the school year. The six-week summer session runs for extended hours during weekdays like the regular Gems program, helping children acclimate to the new schedule and readying them to start school in the fall. Harlem Gems® Harlem Gems is an all-day pre-kindergarten program that gets children ready to enter kindergarten. Classes have a 4:1 child-to-adult ratio, teach English, Spanish and French, and run from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. HCZ runs three pre-kindergarten sites, serving 200 children. Of the 190 four-year-olds that entered the Harlem Gems in the 2009-2010 school years, 16.5% had a school readiness classification of delayed or very delayed. By the end of the year, there were no students classified as "very delayed" and the percentage of "advanced" had gone from 21.3% to 41.6%, with another 6.8% at "very advanced," up from 2.1%. 99.5% of students attained a school readiness classification of average or above.

Global Children’s Initiative

Early Childhood development Goals- • Building a unified science of health, learning, and behavior to explain the early roots of lifelong Impairments. • Leading the design, implementation, and evaluation of innovative program and practice models that reduce preventable disparities in well-being. • Catalyzing the implementation of effective, science-based public policies through strategic relationships and knowledge transfer. • Preparing future and current leaders to build and leverage knowledge that promotes the healthy development of children and families and brings high returns to all of society. Priority The first priority is to adapt the successful work the Center has conducted in the United States for a broader range of strategically selected audiences, in an effort to energize and reframe the global dialogue around investments in the earliest years of life. To achieve this, they plan to educate the leadership of key international agencies, publish and disseminate papers to establish a strong scientific framework for global work, and conduct systematic communications research to identify the most effective ways to translate the science of child development for global policymakers. The second priority is to generate and apply new knowledge that addresses the health and developmental needs of young children in a variety of settings. Initial projects that are in various stages of planning, fundraising, and implementation. The Center also plans to convene research forums to facilitate collaboration among a wide network of scholars globally to share findings and co-develop publications.Building Broader, More Diverse Leadership Capacity in Research and Policy. It focuses on building a sustainable infrastructure to support the productive engagement of Harvard students and faculty in a diversity of global settings. The second dimension focuses on developing opportunities to provide leadership training for individual researchers, policymakers, and institutions, primarily in the majority world. The article is an eye opener to see what is being done in order to help the workforce and the society as a whole in a diversity of global settings.

The Harlem Children's Zone Project

Harlem Children's Zone operates range of programs in order to help the children have good education in order to help the children and their families live successfully. HCZ also help the society at large for sustainable economy. It is Called "one of the most ambitious social-service experiments of our time," by The New York Times, the Harlem Children's Zone Project is a unique, holistic approach to rebuilding a community so that its children can stay on track through college and go on to the job market.The goal is to create a "tipping point" in the neighborhood so that children are surrounded by an enriching environment of college-oriented peers and supportive adults, a counterweight to "the street" and a toxic popular culture that glorifies misogyny and anti-social behavior. In January 2007, the HCZ Project launched its Phase 3, expanding its comprehensive system of programs to nearly 100 blocks of Central Harlem. President Barack Obama has called for the creation of "Promise Neighborhoods" across the country based on the comprehensive, data-driven approach of the HCZ Project. The HCZ pipeline begins with The Baby College, a series of workshops for parents of children ages 0-3. The pipeline goes on to include best-practice programs for children of every age through college. The network includes in-school, after-school, social-service, health and community-building programs. The pipeline has, in fact, dual pathways: on one track, the children go through their Promise Academy charter schools; while on the other track; we work to support the public schools in the Zone, both during the school day with in-class assistants and with afterschool programs. For children to do well, their families have to do well. And for families to do well, their community must do well. That is why HCZ works to strengthen families as well as empowering them to have a positive impact on their children's development. HCZ also works to reweave the social fabric of Harlem, which has been torn apart by crime, drugs and decades of poverty. The two fundamental principles of The Zone Project are to help kids in a sustained way, starting as early in their lives as possible, and to create a critical mass of adults around them who understand what it takes to help children succeed. The HCZ Project began as a one-block pilot in the 1990s, then following a 10-year business plan, it expanded to 24 blocks, then 60 blocks, then ultimately 97 blocks. The budget for the HCZ Project for fiscal year 2010 is over $48 million, costing an average of $5,000 per child. Like all HCZ programs, those of the HCZ Project are provided to children and families absolutely free of charge, which is made possible by the support of people like you. The project is emphasizing on the importance of laying a strong foundation in early childhood and that show that a range of early interventions can successfully put children on the positive path in order to prevent them from having poor outcome later in life. HCZ website is full of information which makes it, a good resource for professional in this field to get some information on how they are helping children, what they do and how they are including the parents and society as a whole in what they are doing to help the children. It would really go a long way if they could have a program that support families may be in terms of education in order to strengthen them to be able to help their children.

China and Chilhood Poverty

It is quite interesting to know that China’s population is 1/5 of world’s population. The Minimum Living Standards is quite too small to meet basic need like shelter, food, education, health and its only covers 23% of poor urban households. A lot of people find it difficult to pay for their children’s basic school fees. Another insight I gained is that China's transition from a centrally planned to a globalized market economy has helped reduce chronic poverty and disadvantage, but also created new forms of vulnerability and poverty. By 2001 5 per cent of China's population lived below the national poverty line. Rural poverty is estimated to have fallen from 250 million in 1978 to 35 million in 2000 and from 30.7 per cent of the population to 3.7 per cent according to official statistics.

Sharing Web Resources

Harlem Children Zone (http://www.hcz.org/index.php/issues) is the organization that I’m studying. The main project of HCZ is to address the needs of children in need. HCZ believes that the country cannot just rely on programs that save dozens or even hundreds of these children. That is why we created the comprehensive Harlem Children's Project - to address the needs of thousands of children. Today, our organization helps over 10,000 children a year, and talks to other communities about creating like-minded programs at scale to address the needs of their children. What stood out to me is their motto that says “Doing whatever it takes to educate children and strengthen the community”. I think this is very important because children are the future of any society and one should be able to do all it takes to bring up a child because it is actually an investment to bring up a child anyhow we look at it.

The Global Fund for Children

I'm so excited to learn about Issues & Trends in early childhood in this course. I’ve been able to subscribe to The Global Fund for Children because I have not been able to connect with International Early Childhood Professionals. Harlem Children’s Zone is one the organizations that support early childhood. I like the programs they run for both children and parents in order to prepare the children for school. Also to prepare an expectant mother about parenting. They are: The Three Year Old Journey The Three-Year-Old Journey works with parents of children who have won the HCZ Promise Academy charter school lottery. Held on Saturdays over several months, it teaches parents about their child's development, building language skills and parenting skills. GET READY FOR PRE-K The Get Ready for Pre-K program brings in new Gems students before the start of the school year. The six-week summer session runs for extended hours during weekdays like the regular Gems program, helping children acclimate to the new schedule and readying them to start school in the fall. The Baby College® The Baby College offers a nine-week parenting workshop to expectant parents and those raising a child up to three years old. Among other lessons, the workshops promote reading to children and verbal discipline over corporal punishment. Over the past two years, more than 870 people graduated from The Baby College. I hope to be able to gain more insight from this organization for this course. Looking forward to learn more from my instructor and my course mates.

My Support

We all need support in one way or the other. I believe we need one another in order to succeed in life. Personally I do pray every time that God should send the helper of my destiny to me. Nobody is an Island. My greatest support is God. He is always there for me even before I ask for what I need he has already made away even when I think it is not possible. Who I am today wouldn’t have been possible without His support. He says in His word that He will never leave me or forsake me. I appreciate the support of my husband and the love he has for me and my children. He’s always there for me spiritually, emotionally, financially, academically and so on. He’s been a good husband to me and good father to my children. Even though we are both busy he always finds time to help around the house. My mother is also another person I will not forget for her support in my life. She’s a prayerful woman. She is so supportive that she always asks after everybody in my family even my in-laws. Always ask me how far about my studies. He she still buys things for me even though I’m married. I have wonderful siblings that always look after my welfare and that of my family. If any of them sees something that could be of help for me they always go ahead to get it. They are very supportive in prayer. In short, we work together as a team.

My Connections to Play

“You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation.” ― Plato “How would your life be different if...You decided to give freely, love fully, and play feverously? Let today be the day...You free yourself from the conditioned rules that limit your happiness and dilute the beautiful life experience. Have fun. Give - Love - Play!” ― Steve Maraboli, The Power of One There is a great difference in the way children are playing now compare to when I was growing up. Children of nowadays, are mostly limited to indoor and outside play in the playground. During my own time we could climb tree, run around in the community, sit down to listen to riddles and jokes. Many children now are addicted to watching TV and computer games. I hope children would be given more opportunity to explore their environment through play in school, at home and in the society. Play helps to develop social, physical, and cognitive skills a child needs as he grows up. By using materials, interactions with others, and mastery of tasks and skills to progress through levels of play, children develop a sense of control of their environment and a feeling of competence and enjoyment that they can learn. Play provides a natural integration between all the critical brain functions and learning domains that are often missing with discrete teacher instruction. Children’s direct social and individual experiences in nature in early to middle childhood during the “developmental window of opportunity” between the ages of three and twelve years help shape their environmental identity and guide their environmental actions.

Relationship Reflection

A family-school partnership is a way of thinking about forming connections be-tween families and schools. Forming connections means developing an intentional and ongoing relationship between school and family that is designed to enhance children’s learning and to address any obstacles that may impede it. I cherish and value the relationship I have with my husband. He is my head and father of my children. He is somebody that jokes a lot; there is no boring moment around him. He’s always there for us to see how we are doing and to put food on the table for us. My husband is so loving and helpful. He has the grace of God upon his life that when something needs to be fixed or repaired in the house that he always jumps at it. My relationship with my children is also something I cannot joke with. They are bundle of blessings to me. They are very close to me, we play together and they are teaching me how to ride bicycle. They are always careful so that I don’t get injured. My children are so amazing and loving. Children who grow up in stimulating, emotionally supportive, highly verbal, and protective environments where the caretaker teaches and models skill development are usually ready for school. When the child is able to meet expectations, he or she receives praise or a positive feedback in school. This also compliments the caretaker--a child-rearing job well done. The caretaker or parent and school people feel good about each other. The child receives a message from parents that the school program is good. The positive emotional bond between parents and child is extended to the school. The school staff can then serve as parent surrogates. This facilitates learning. James P. Comer

When I think about Child Development

A child-like man is not a man whose development has been arrested; on the contrary, he is a man who has given himself a chance of continuing to develop long after most adults have muffled themselves in the cocoon of middle-aged habit and convention. By Aldous Huxley

The Whole Child

All children deserve the right to develop to their full potential and become contributing members of their community. Children need to be assessed physically, cognitively and emotionally in order to have good transition in school and to lay good foundation for their future. Pertaining to every aspect of the child, including health, nutrition, values, attitudes, beliefs and resulting behaviors. Young children are less likely to succeed in the transition to school if they in frequent fighting like hitting, shouting or any other aggressive behavior. Are unable to pay attention or follow directions, unable to cooperate with others all these would make a child find it difficult in transitioning. Most communities in Canada today maintain an individual-centered and non-integrated approach to family and children's services. In this fragmented model, people receiving services are conceived as individual cases with an array of separate needs, subject to servicing by an array of separate professional service providers. The fragmentation of training and services into increasingly differentiated domains of specialization corresponds to dominant cultural constructions of the child in psychology and education as a collection of ‘domains’ of development, each with distinct proclivities, potential, and needs for different kinds of support. In First Nations communities, practitioners specializing in different domains of child and family health and development are usually located outside of the community, not just administratively, culturally, and socially but, in the case of rural and remote communities, geographically as well. Many administrators of Indigenous communities have expressed frustration with this model in which individual service is based on a specific "need" or "problem," rather than on the functioning of the "whole person." The fragmented model sets up real challenges for contracted specialists from outside the community in "reaching" individuals in the community, while community members have similar difficulties in "finding" the specialists. Professional service practitioners who were interviewed for the current study described how simply finding a community member who has been referred to a service, such as supported child care, screening, diagnosis, treatment or rehabilitation, is often their biggest hurdle. Service delivery ends up depending on the initiative, persistence and resources of both the individual community member and the service provider. ta In countless forums and meetings, Indigenous leaders and community-based practitioners have described how, in a fragmented system that depends on having separate specialists to meet needs that are conceived as separate targets, service memory is lost when professional staff leave the community or are assigned elsewhere. There is an extremely high turnover of professionals serving Indigenous communities, particularly in the northern regions of each province and in the Canadian Arctic. Community based program administrators and external service providers interviewed for the current study explained that when service providers work as a team rather than alone, and in an integrated rather than fragmented way, then the knowledge of the needs, goals and service history of children and families is retained and passed along within a community-based family support team – leading to continuous and better coordinated services.

The effects of a natural disaster on child behavior

A prospective study of children examined both before and after a flood disaster in Bangladesh is used to test the hypothesis that stressful events play a causal role in the development of behavioral disorders in children.

 Six months before the disaster, structured measures of selected behavioral problems were made during an epidemiological study of disability among 2- to 9-year-old children. Five months after the disaster, a representative sample of 162 surviving children was reevaluated. 

 Between the pre- and post-flood assessments, the prevalence of aggressive behavior increased from zero to nearly 10%, and 45 of the 134 children who had bladder control before the flood (34%) developed enuresis. 

 These results help define what may be considered symptoms of post traumatic distress in childhood; they also contribute to mounting evidence of the need to develop and evaluate interventions aimed at ameliorating the behavioral and psychological consequences of children's exposure to extreme and traumatic situations.

Child Development & Public Health

Mental Health&Family

When a parent has a mental illness, there may be times when they can’t give their children the love and care they need. They might find it hard to stick to a routine and do things like cook meals, do the washing or help with homework. Children can get distressed and confused when a parent behaves in ways that are hard to understand.

They may worry that they will get hurt or that their parent will hurt themselves. Mental health of families is meaningful to me because it’s something that affects relationship and that cause distress for the rest of the family. Most times attention is been paid more on the person with mental health more than the rest of the family. Other family members are usually overwhelm with the situation. Children living in households where a parent has a severe mental health problem are more likely to live in poverty - only 24% of adults with long term mental health problem are in paid employment.

There is only one psychiatrist for every 400,000 people in India – one of the lowest ratios anywhere in the world. But even if there were more, marginalised people in India may remain more likely to turn to temples and faith healers than mental health professionals. Mental disorders remain shrouded in social suffering, discrimination and humiliation. Women are often abandoned to institutions with no prospect of returning home. This is both a public health and cultural issue.

The reasons for these attitudes are complex and varied, and are deeply embedded within local cultures. Yet there is not a single text book of psychiatry in India that is based upon local problems including ethnic conflicts, poverty, dowry deaths, farmer suicides, corruption, etc.

As children’s advocates in this field this information will help us in future to provide support and dignity for carers and families.

Sushrut. J, UCL UCL Cultural Consultation Service & International links Reinventing India’sMental Health Care retrieved from http://www.ucl.ac.uk/ccs/International_activities/mental_health_care