Considerations and Reflections

"What we remember from childhood we remember forever - permanent ghosts, stamped, inked, imprinted, eternally seen."  ~Cynthia Ozick

This statement is so true and realistic, children forever remember their part of history, no matter what it is. We as educators must make a special moment for a child and teach them something positive for them to take in the adult world. They will forever remember.


To Susana and Evita and poem for commenting on my page:

"You must be sick of seeing me
All this time--five days a week.
I'll just cut to the chase and say
thanks for everything, Teach!"

Testing for intelligence

A child's success is measured by the test scores on the paper. A child recognizes 2+2=4 but what happens when that child has had a bad day and thinks it's 5 because of being not focused. Home environment, stress levels all play a major factor in a child's academic testing. It is true in other countries environments play key but we must think of a child's developmental stage. A child who us 7 who grows up in a two family home maybe focused than a same 7 year old who has to care for a 4 year old and a 6 month old because mom is on drugs. They may not be as focused. 



"China education is the largest education system in the world. There are more than 30 million students enrolled in China’s higher education institutions. Investment in education accounts for about 4% of total GDP in China. In 1986, the Chinese government passed a compulsory education law, making nine years of education mandatory for all Chinese children."



Throughout compulsory education, students are required to take end-of-term examinations and tests or check-ups at the end of each semester, school year of before graduation. In primary schools, the Chinese language and mathematics are the required examination subjects for graduation, while the other subjects are checkup subjects. In secondary schools, the graduation examination subjects are determined within the scope of the general subjects taught in the graduating class set by the state, while the students' performance in other subjects are only checked up.

References http://www.chinaeducenter.com/en/cedu/psedu.php

Consequences of Stress on Children’s Development

Racism

Racism has been here forever, can we ever give an exact date when it has started. There is an issue of racism including color, religion, sex, abnormality. We can never really know when it hits us but it does in every shape and form.

I can tell you a story of how color affect a country, In the the country of my parents Haiti. There is heavy racism between light skin and dark skin. When I was younger I didn't understand it because my mother said likely light skin people were rich and dark ones were considered poor. It did not matter if you were educated, in some parts of Haiti if you are dark skin, some parents would forbid their daughters or sons from marrying them because they would feel that child would grow up and be ridiculed.

As I am older, I have seen the effects because my mother is using bleaching cream. Also my aunt is a different tone of black and as it shows that the everlasting effects of thinking being dark skinned is considered ugly and light skin is pretty.

Africa

Africa and their issues on poverty and education is something that interest me very much.
On the Unicef site http://www.unicef.org/mdg/poverty.html there is a pleather of information regarding poverty and education.

"More than 30 per cent of children in developing countries – about 600 million – live on less than US $1 a day.
Every 3.6 seconds one person dies of starvation. Usually it is a child under the age of 5.

Poverty hits children hardest. While a severe lack of goods and services hurts every human, it is most threatening to children’s rights: survival, health and nutrition, education, participation, and protection from harm and exploitation. It creates an environment that is damaging to children’s development in every way – mental, physical, emotional and spiritual. " (unicef 2011)

There are trying to fix this by

-Building national capacities for primary health care.

"Some 13 per cent of children ages 7 to 18 years in developing countries have never attended school. This rate is 32 per cent among girls in sub-Saharan Africa (27 per cent of boys) and 33 per cent of rural children in the Middle East and North Africa.
-To that end, UNICEF works in 158 countries, calling on development agencies, governments, donors and communities to step up efforts on behalf of education for all children, and then coordinating those efforts." (Unicef 2011)

Breastfeeding

Breast-feeding interested me because of the discussion from week one. Breast feeding is a bonding mechanism from a mother to a child. The mother is continuing the bonding process where the child receives milk in which the mother produces. It cost efficient, prevents disease and promotes health.

I learned in Africa that Breastfeeding is very normal. As women they are free to walk around and breast feed their children. In some studies it showed mothers who worked did not have time to breastfeed, but in poor areas the mother was adequately able to breast feed.

There was an interesting study I wanted to share with everyone. It was a study
Explore why women initiate breastfeeding early or late, who gives advice about initiation and what food or fluids are given when initiation is late.

Two facts that stood out to me where:

Beliefs about ‘first milk’ were mixed. A belief that it was harmful sometimes resulted in delayed feeding as women waited for the ‘good’ milk to come, however, some women squeezed the milk out and fed on day one.

Other reasons for late initiation were that the baby did not cry (indicating it was not hungry) or because the mother or baby needed rest after a long or difficult birth.

My work is impacted by the way, I need to be more cultural aware that breastfeeding is accepted in some families and some may not and that is okay. I know that maybe if the child is lacking some bonding with the mother, that I may not impose my views of maybe suggesting breastfeeding.

 Reference:http://www.countdown2015mnch.org/2005conference/alldocs/Tawiah.ppt

Birth Development

I never had a personal birthing experience except for my own. My mother told me I was one month early and I could not wait to come out. She had a pretty easy pregnancy, she didn’t throw up and she only had one craving during birth and that was strawberries, hence the birthmark on my bootie : ). She stated she went to all her prenatal appointments, took her vitamins and she was prepared for me to come out. I will never remember that event but she did let me know that I cried for a few minutes and that was it.

My thoughts on child development is one sentence..”Without Life, Life Can Not Move On.”

Birth in the US vs Third World Country

US	Third World
Prenatal Care	No Prenatal Care
Prenatal Vitamins	No Prenatal Vitamins
Sterile Instruments	No Sterile Instruments
Family Support	Family Support (Some countries do not allow it)
Days off work	Some mothers are to work the very next day
After Care	No After Care if a Child is Disfigured they may be killed.

Code of Ethics

"We shall provide services and supports to children and families in a fair and equitable mannerwhile respecting families’ culture, race, language, socioeconomic status, marital status, and sexual orientation."

DEC Code of Ethics 

This plays a big part to my professional and personal life. Services should be applied to every household that have children. A child who doesn't speak English should recieve services from a educator who is giving those same services to a child who can speak English. Money, culture and even sexual orintation of a parent should never play a part in giving a child good quality education.

"We shall involve the family in significant decisions affecting their child."

Naeyc Code of Ethical Conduct 

Involving the family is always an important and meaningful thing for me. Families sometime just don't care, don't have the time, or just not knowledgeable in the school system. We must include them if it means phone calls, letters, showing up at the door.



"We shall use research designs and analyses in an appropriate manner by providing a clear

rationale for each. We shall provide enough information about the methodologies we use so that others can replicate the work."

DEC Code of Ethics

Research is important but I must state that allowing to test children from more areas and stop foucsing on one area so we can get better understanding from each child's preception.

 

Course Resources

Part 1: Position Statements and Influential Practices

• NAEYC. (2009). Developmentally appropriate practice in early childhood programs serving children from birth through age 8. Retrieved May 26, 2010, from http://sylvan.live.ecollege.com/ec/courses/63694/CRS-CW-5364588/educ6005_readings/naeyc_dap_position_statement.pdf
• NAEYC. (2009). Where we stand on child abuse prevention. Retrieved May 26, 2010, from http://www.naeyc.org/files/naeyc/file/positions/ChildAbuseStand.pdf
• NAEYC. (2009). Where we stand on school readiness. Retrieved May 26, 2010, from http://www.naeyc.org/files/naeyc/file/positions/Readiness.pdf
• NAEYC. (2009). Where we stand on responding to linguistic and cultural diversity. Retrieved May 26, 2010, from http://www.naeyc.org/files/naeyc/file/positions/diversity.pdf
• NAEYC. (2003). Early childhood curriculum, assessment, and program evaluation: Building an effective, accountable system in programs for children birth through age 8. Retrieved May 26, 2010, from http://www.naeyc.org/files/naeyc/file/positions/pscape.pdf
• NAEYC. (2009, April). Early childhood inclusion: A summary. Retrieved May 26, 2010, from http://www.naeyc.org/files/naeyc/file/positions/DEC_NAEYC_ECSummary_A.pdf
• Zero to Three: National Center for Infants, Toddlers, and Families. (2010). Infant-toddler policy agenda. Retrieved May 26, 2010, from http://www.zerotothree.org/site/PageServer?pagename=ter_pub_infanttodller
• FPG Child Development Institute. (2006, September). Evidence-based practice empowers early childhood professionals and families. (FPG Snapshot, No. 33). Retrieved May 26, 2010, from http://www.fpg.unc.edu/~snapshots/snap33.pdf
  
  Note: The following article can be found in the Walden University Library databases.
• Turnbull, A., Zuna, N., Hong, J. Y., Hu, X., Kyzar, K., Obremski, S., et al.  (2010). Knowledge-to-action guides. Teaching Exceptional Children, 42(3), 42–53.
  Use the Academic Search Complete database, and search using the article's title. 

Part 2: Global Support for Children’s Rights and Well-Being

• Article: UNICEF (n.d.). Fact sheet: A summary of the rights under the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Retrieved May 26, 2010, from http://www.unicef.org/crc/files/Rights_overview.pdf
   
• Websites:
  • World Forum Foundation
    http://www.worldforumfoundation.org/wf/about.php
    This link connects you to the mission statement of this organization. Make sure to watch the video on this webpage 
  • World Organization for Early Childhood Education
    http://www.omep-usnc.org/
    Read about OMEP’s mission. 
  • Association for Childhood Education International
    http://acei.org/about/
    Click on “Mission/Vision” and “Guiding Principles and Beliefs” and read these statements.

Additional Resources

National Network for Childcare

http://www.nncc.org/

Caring for Our Children

The National Resource Center for Health and Safety in Child Care and Early Education publishes Caring for Our Children: National Health and Safety Performance Standards: Guidelines for Out-of-Home Child Care, 2^nd Edition 

 http://nrc.uchsc.edu/CFOC/ 

Early Childhood

http://www.earlychildhood.com/