Week 5: Getting to Know International Contacts - Part 2

Upon review of Harvard University's Global Children's Initiative website (http://developingchild.harvard.edu/about/what-we-do/global-work/) the following insights were obtained:

- Early experiences and toxic stress can alter the architecture of the brain. Changes can be made later in life to alter the effects of toxic stress during early childhood, but it is easier when children are not exposed to it in the first place.

-Harvard's Global Children's Initiative encompasses a scientific approach to help the most at risk children through targeting at risk populations, testing interventions, analyzing results, researching feedback and adapting interventions.

- Children who are at risk for developing mental health issues or who are experiencing mental health issues early on have the greatest chance for successful treatment when they are acknowledged and identified early. Collective learning communities are one way that the Global Children's Initiative proposes for such identification to occur. These collective communities allow for a distribution of leadership, collective learning across professions and accelerates the potential process of change.

In addition, based on the information shared from the World Forum's Global Leaders for Young Children portion of their website (http://connect.worldforumfoundation.org/global-perspectives/global-leaders-for-young-children/), there is an organization called "Hand to Hand". This organization strives to understand what children's lives are like in other parts of the world. The group hopes that through sharing stories a greater understanding will occur of the values, challenges and even dreams children all over the world have. Their hope is that greater advocacy efforts will result from growing friendships and understanding from the international relationships and exchanges they establish. There are smaller cohort groups of professionals that plan advocacy projects to help bring to light the issues occurring around the world for the purpose of promoting quality early childhood services on a global level.

Sharing Web Resources

Over the past few weeks, I have been studying NAEYC's website (www.NAEYC.org) . I have found their position statements for best practice to be particularly helpful and insightful. Last week I had the opportunity to share what I have learned about evaluating dual language learners with my supervisors. Being a speech therapist, this topic is especially interesting with me and I definitely found ways to improve my practice as well as ways to improve the procedures for the organization that I work for.

For this week's discussions, I found NAEYC's position statement for developmentally appropriate practice (DAP) to be a very helpful source. This source is especially helpful when trying to find ways to justify play, experiential learning, and the need for social and emotional growth during the early years. NAEYC's website provides DAP for children from birth to age eight, and also has DAP practice resources divided into categories for Infant/Toddler, Preschoolers, Kindergarteners, and Early Primary School Age children. The site also offers additional links and resources as references in these areas as well. The DAP position statements can be used to support how economists, neuroscientists and politicians support the early childhood field depending upon how each profession needs to support their point of view.

A recent news release from NAEYC discussed Obama's new Every Child Succeeds Act and highlights it as a win for the realm of early childhood education. With this act, comes a $250 million Preschool Development Grant program which should help fund states and facilitate the creation of more early childhood programs for low income families. The act also transfers authority to states to create accountability systems to ensure and support all young children to help them be more successful in school.

Childhood Poverty Around the World

UNICEF points out that raising awareness and creating policies which help reduce childhood poverty not only helps children have a healthier start to their lives but also helps improve the quality of life for future generations. UNICEF has introduced a new tool for helping to measure the multi-dimensional measurement of poverty. The tool is called Multiple Overlapping Deprivation Analysis (MODA). I chose to explore UNICEF's website and look further into childhood poverty in the country of Uganda. Based on results reported, the following insights were gained:

-Children in urban settings were more likely to experience one deprivation, whereas children from rural settings were most likely to experience at least 3 deprivations.

-Sanitation was a universal deprivation which affected approximately 65% of children along with other deprivations occurring at the same time. The second highest deprivation for children was water falling at approximately 57%.

-Approximately sixteen percent "of all the children who have a mother with no or only primary education are deprived in nutrition, health and water simultaneously, while only 9.1% of all children who have a mother with secondary or higher education are deprived in these three dimensions" (UNICEF, n.d).

UNICEF. (n.d.). Social Inclusion, Policy and Budgeting. Retrieved from: http://www.unicef.org/socialpolicy/index_childpoverty.html