Week 6: Sharing Web Resources

The web resource that I have been exploring is www.NAEYC.org.

A new area of the site which I explored was the "Publications" section. This section can be accessed on the home page through a drop down menu. The following options can be found there:

-Young Children, which is a journal free to access with a NAEYC membership

-Teaching Young Children, which is publication available for free

-Early Childhood Research Quarterly -this a quarterly journal sponsored by NAEYC which can be accessed for free

-Voices of Practitioners-This is free to access and offers advice and experience from many professionals working in the field.

-Online store-This offers a connection to publications, books and materials available for purchase



Under the "Affiliates" link on the top of the website, there are links to local affiliates for the NAEYC all across the United States. When I clicked on the state of Pennsylvania, I was able to find local chapters of "PennAEYC". Under this link there was an option to explore regarding "Raising and Finding Quality Care" in Pennsylvania. Links to accredited programs within local communities are provided. NAEYC goes on to state the following benefits to being involved with their accredited programs:

-Helps to build a stronger team of teachers, administrators, and families working together to improve quality for children.

-Improved standards for the overall program.

-Recognition through NAEYC, including program listing on the NAEYC website in the' Program Search' section.

-Announcement of program’s accreditation in the NAEYC Early Learning News weekly newsletter to programs, members, media, and others.

-Use of NAEYC accredited logo for marketing purposes attracts more families to enroll their children in programs.

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.