What I Have Learned

The hope that i have for working with children and families who come from diverse backgrounds is to be able to see each individual for who they are oppose to who I would expect them to be.  It is important to look beyond the stereotypes placed on each individual and/or group in order to help their needs.  

A goal I would love to set and see happen is for the early childhood field related to issues of diversity, equity, and social justice work towards eliminating bias and provide support for all children and families regardless of their background. Also, with me doing this will  help to the families reach their goals  and the goals that we think is needed as well. 

I would like to say thanks to all my colleagues for such great support throughout this course. But most if all, I would like to say thanks to Dr. Thomason for all the great feedback you have shown to each one of us throughout this course. There was noway i could have did it without your encouraging words and your positive feedback.  I wish everyone the best as you continue your journey.

Impact on Early Emotional Development

Impacts on Early Emotional Development

 I love learning about child development in other parts of the world. My region of focus was Latin America; I am particularly interested in this part of the world and have some background knowledge of it. Because of this, I chose to look at this region of the world for this week’s blog entry.

According to UNICEF’s Latin American Regional Office, there are many challenges that children in Latin America may face. These include economic disparities, social exclusion, malnutrition, violence, HIV/AIDS, and emergencies (UNICEF, n.d.).  All of these factors play a role in a child’s emotional well-being and can impact his/her development.

One of the biggest challenges that this region faces is that “Latin America and the Caribbean is considered the most unequal region in the world” (UNICEF, n.d.); this means that there are many economic disparities, many children and families living in poverty, and many people unable to access services. Economic disparities are linked to poverty and malnutrition, factors that affect children in all areas of development, physical, cognitive, and social-emotional. Not having enough to eat, young children working to help support their families, and lack of basic necessities all take a toll on a child’s emotional well-being as they add extra stresses to both the family and child. Stress not only negatively impacts a child’s emotional development and can take a toll on their emotional, cognitive, and physical well-being.

Latin America and the Caribbean are very culturally diverse with indigenous people and people of African descent. However, children and families from these groups may face social exclusion, higher rates of poverty, and lack of services (UNICEF, n.d.). As we have been learning, culture is a large part of a young child’s identity. Social exclusion and racism create cultural discontinuity, unequal access to services, and ultimately, negatively impact a child’s emotional well-being and healthy identity development.

The Caribbean has the 2nd highest prevalence of AIDS in the world, after sub-Saharan Africa” (UNICEF, n.d.); which means that many children are more likely have a close family member or parent with HIV/AIDS or may even have it themselves. This would greatly impact a child’s well-being; having a disease with no cure would definitely be a traumatic experience and I would imagine would be very scary to a young child. If a child or family member has HIV/AIDS, they not only may face social exclusion but may not be able to receive adequate medication or treatment. I imagine that this would be very straining to a family and could affect the relationships and stability within the family; again greatly impacting a child’s emotional development.

The high rates of violence in the region can add extra stress to a young child living here as well. Living in fear or witnessing violent acts are traumatic experiences that greatly affect a young child’s emotional development.  Fear and lack of stability make it hard to create the safe and loving environment that helps foster a young child’s healthy development.

Lastly, many natural disasters occur in the region of Latin America and the Caribbean. Natural disasters may include hurricanes, floods, and earthquakes and the results can include homelessness, injuries, illnesses, and deaths (UNICEF, n.d.). Again, this can greatly impact a young child’s emotional well-being and development as these are frightening, life-changing, traumatic experiences. Even if the natural disaster is smaller-scale and the child is not displaced or orphaned, schooling or services may be interrupted or may be harder to access.

im in poverty” in this region

Some statistics about this region according to UNICEF’s Regional Office for Latin 

-“52 million people do not have access to sufficient food” in this region

-“As one of the most culturally diverse regions in the world, there are 40-50 million indigenous and 150 million Afro-descendants living here, close to half of which are under 18 years of age“

-In Latin America and the Caribbean, “nearly 85,000 children die annually as a result of violence in the home, violence affects over 6 million children and adolescents”

-“Region wide, 83% of children reach the fifth grade…Children from poor families are six times less likely to receive full primary education compared to wealthy families”

(UNICEF, n.d.)

References:

UNICEF. n.d. UNICEF Oficina Regional para América Latina y el Caribe. UNICEF. Retrieved from: http://www.unicef.org/lac/english_4842.htm

The Sexualization of Early Childhood

When we speak of early childhood education, Sexualization does not come to our thoughts. However, when we speak of sexualization we often think of intimate relationships between two adults.In the early childhood field, we need to be able to understand what is being considered whenever Sexualization is being mentioned. The things children hear and see while they are young are more than likely have an impact on them as an adult.

One example how children are exposed to sexualization is by the clothes children are wearing now. Skinny jeans and heels. I cannot believe that little children are wearing heels now. Another example is at Halloween the costumes that are available for the children to wear.  A lot of the costumes they have now reveal too much for children.

Finally, have seen too many children imititate what they have seen others do or what they have heard.After learning about sexualization in early childhood, I have become more aware of how sexualization relates to children. The impacts that improper exposure to sexualization can have a negative impact on the children as they grow older. In my opinion, it's very important for children to have an adult they can trust to tell them more about sexualization and some of the issues that are related to it.

Center on the Developing Child

After reading the article Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University, the global program focused on three strategic areas:  it talked about how they plan to energize and reframe the global dialogue around child health beginning in the earliest years of life.  They also plan to educate the key international agencies leadership by establishing a stronger framework for global work and conduct systematic communications to help identify a better way to translate the science for global policymakers of child development.

The article also talked about how they plan to generate new ideas that will help to address the health development needs of young children in several different ways and to focus on both individuals and institutions—in low- and middle-income countries to increase the number and influence of diverse voices and perspectives that are contributing to the growing global movement on behalf of young children.: The Center has begun to build a portfolio of different activities into three domains: early childhood development, child mental health, and children in crisis and conflict situations. Each domain is guided by a group of faculty who are working to facilitate continuing cross-disciplinary collaboration, design and implement new projects beyond the Harvard community.

I really enjoyed reading this particular article.

Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University, (2010). Global Children’s initiative. Retrieved from http://developingchild Harvard edu/initiatives/global initiative

Consequences of Poverty

Unfortunately, I still have not been contacted with anyone as of yet, so I used more time to research on some of the consequences of poverty.

Over and over again research has shown that children living in poverty suffer in a multitude of ways. Childhood poverty is associated with higher rates of academic failure, grade retention, school drop-outs, teen parenthood and smoking and illegal drug use. Children growing up in poverty are more likely to have employment difficulties as adults. Research also shows that these outcomes are preventable. Findings from the Abecedarian Project—a 30-year old project at the Child Development Institute— demonstrate that intensive early childhood educational intervention can have lasting positive effects for children raised in poverty. What’s more, the program resulted in decreased government spending. Yet children living in poverty today do not have access to this type of initiative.

These are some of the things that happen to children who are living in Poverty:

Children raised in poverty:

• Have poorer academic achievement outcomes than other children.

• Are less likely to attend college. While 88 percent of affluent students attend college, only 36 percent of raised in poverty do so.

• Are more likely to become a teen parent.

• Are more likely to smoke and use illegal drugs.

• Are more likely to be unemployed.

• Poverty during early childhood is correlated with lower adult income.
• Childhood poverty causes lasting effects on the brain and on the way DNA is expressed.
• Because early childhood is so important, researchers advise policies to address these problems should focus on the youngest children.

Existing Research on Early Educational Programs for Poor Children

Numerous early childhood programs have been created over the years to attempt to redress the negative consequences of poverty. Below is a brief summary of research on some of these efforts.

Head Start Research in the early nineties which seemed to show that Head Start had no lasting impact on poor children’s school performance received much attention, despite significant problems with the study’s methodology. A more recent study which met standard research protocols showed that after participating in Head Start for a year, children had some improvement in language and pre-reading outcomes and access to health care; and no significant effect for math.

I have to agree with them on how they say that Head Start children had some major improvement in language and etc. I am a Head Start teacher, and the program has all type of Mental Health Specialists to come in to evaluate children who may be suffering with some type of mental behavioral disorder, or even if the child has an IEP.

Just from reading the little information I did read, I was able to understand some of the ways children suffer from different things who are living in poverty. We will never know some of the things that children suffer from who are living in poverty until we do a research on them.

References:

news.discovery.com/.../poverty-children-income-adults.html

Poverty in Russia

Poverty in Russia

I visited the website Poverty in Russia. Government changes have been difficult for many people in Russia. Reduced social assistance has been one of the results of democracy on Russians.

Since the Soviet Union broke apart in 1991, the transition has been difficult for many Russians. It has been an enormous adjustment that they were not prepared for. Many poor people frequently express the view that they were better off under communism.

With the sudden shift to a market economy and privatization of public enterprises, tons of industries collapsed. This led to more unemployment, lost or reduced social assistance and wage arrears for many. Some are offered “payment in kind” but this is obviously not a preferred payment method because it doesn’t give people what they need.

The proportion of poverty in Russia ranges between 19 and 49% depending on who is doing the study and what data they are using.

• Studies indicate only 8% of social assistance reaches the poorest tenth of the population and one fifth of poor households receive nothing at all. Government cutbacks have cut into maternity benefits as well. In 1991 maternity benefits accounted for 77.3% of the total amount of funds but by 2003, it was only 32.4%.

Russians describe normal life

Almost half of the people participating in "Russian’s Voices of the Poor" study said they were not poor in childhood. Participants express what they consider a “normal life” and that is characterized by what they had under communism. In Teikovo, a participant defined a normal life as “having a regular job with a good, regular salary, and the possibility to buy food, new clothes, and medicine.” Another said, “A good life is when you drink coffee every morning, butter your bread and buy sugar to make your life sweet.”

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• Corruption and organized crime has also escalated along with the new government. Numerous participants describe how they are sometimes tempted to break laws out of desperation..

When families face increased financial hardships, alcoholism and divorce tend to increase. Frustration at being idle can lead some to drink more, which increases the conflict in the home adding further stress to families. Sometimes women become the main breadwinners and that can be humiliating to men who have traditionally provided for their families.

• Divorced women often have the added burden of becoming the sole provider to their family. They are frequently stuck accepting low paying and/or demeaning jobs. This is an unfortunate occurrence all over the world and not just in Russia. Most employers are no longer providing schools and daycare centers for children in Russia. This leaves single parents struggling more than they did before.

I found this to be very interested on how divorced women are the sole provider to their families. Here in the United States, men are the sole provider and the majority of the men are out working on the job to provide for their families.

Suggested Changes in Russia

• Legal action needs to be taken against those who are not paying fair wages.

• Better social assistance programs need to be implemented for children and the elderly in Russia. This would help ensure that they received proper food, health care, education, childcare and housing.

Professionally, this has given me a clearer view on how I look at things here in the United States with our children compared to how the Russian women are are struggling each day to be the sole provider to their families. I know now that I should be thankful that I am not in that situation.

 Sources: (Study, The Russian Federation: Struggling Against the Tide, Alexey Levinson, Olga Stouchevskaya, Oxana Bocharova, Anton Lerner) (Child Poverty in Russia, UNICEF, Dr.Lilia Ovcharova, Daria Popova)

 Poverty in Russia: Russians Struggle to Adjust to Western Ideal of Democracy | Suite101.com http://sandrawilliams.suite101.com/poverty_in_russia-a30321#ixzz1YvxSO43a

Sharing Web Resources

I chose National Association for Early Childhood Teachers Educators so that I can learn how to promote and support teacher research and in stressing the importance of research on children.

The National Association of Early Childhood Teacher Educators (NAECTE) in conjunction with the Editorial Board of the Journal of Early Childhood Teacher Education (JECTE) invites applications for the next editor of The Journal of Early Childhood Teacher Education. The appointment will be for a period of four years with the possibility of subsequent renewals. It is anticipated that the new editor will begin assuming editorship responsibilities immediately after the NAECTE Governing Board approves the appointment in June 2012. Individuals or teams can apply in configurations that include a single editor, an editor with an associate editor, or co-editors.

PURPOSE OF THE NAECTE FOUNDATION

The NAECTE Foundation is a 501(c) tax-exempt organization that raises funds for the benefit of early childhood teacher educators and the children and communities they serve.  The goals of the NAECTE Foundation are:

• Advocacy of NAECTE goals;
• Promotion and support of research projects related to Early Childhood Teacher Education; and
• Provision of scholarships for early childhood teacher education students.

FOUNDATION AWARDS

One of the goals of the NAECTE Foundation is to promote and support research projects related to early childhood teacher education.  Through NAECTE conferences and publications, many NAECTE members have developed their capacities as researchers. As an extra incentive and added recognition, the NAECTE Foundation offers a monetary award to encourage early childhood teacher educators to conduct research that will have relevance for policy and advocacy in the area of early childhood teacher education.