Getting to know Your International Contacts - Part 3

a)    New Policy Videos

 This is a sections found in the ZERO TO THREE website that provides the  access to short policy and advocacy videos that can be used to create awareness of the various ways you can become involved in becoming an advocate for the continuing services of the various early childhood programs. Videos between 3 and 5 minutes long, such as Babies and the Budget, which explains how important the existence of quality childcare is for all the working parents in our country. It also mentions the impact that would come with the cut of these services, and the need to increase programs for all those families that are waiting for an opportunity to enroll their child in a program. Another video is titled “Stop the cuts! Babies can’t wait” and “Total Budget Amount Matters”, these two videos provide valuable information in regards to budgets granted to education since 2007 as well as the possible cuts that are seen to occur in 2011. Cuts in funding that will affect millions of families and children today.

b)    Coming Together Around Military Families

ZERO TO THREE is a proud supporter of military families working to increase awareness and collaboration throughout the military community so that parents and professionals can more effectively care for very young children and their families.

On April 12, 2011 the ZERO TO THREE joined forces with Lady Michelle Obama and Dr. Jill Biden to support service members and their families by educating citizens, businesses, and nonprofits about the challenges that military families face and by encouraging them to take action. Supporting military families, strengthens the resilience of young children and families across all military service by increasing awareness and collaboration throughout the military community.

      c)    School Readiness Interactive

I also was able to find that the ZERO TO THREE Web contains an exclusive interactive learning tool designed to help parents and caregivers encourage their young children's early learning.
This Tool Includes

·         Core information about how children develop school readiness skills and how parents and care givers can nature and support these skills in young children.

·         Video clips that show children learning these skills through everyday interactions with their parents.

·         Parent-child activities which provide fun ideas for helping children develop school readiness skills.

·         Frequently asked questions that offer answers to common questions about learning.

Among many of my professional goals and dreams as a professional in the field of Early Childhood Education. Being an advocate, and providing the resources and knowledge for all those interested in making a change for the better of children and families.

Sharing Web Resources

As I follow some of the outside links to"ZERO TO THREE: National Center for Infants, Toddlers, and Families" website http://www.zerotothree.org/about-us/ , I found some links to Early Head Start for Family Child Care Project, this project is design to implement and evaluate a replicable framework that supports a partnership between Early Head Start and family child care. This project will increase quality for low-income children in family child care homes by implementing comprehensive services that include health and social services

What I was able to find, is a list of their goals in order to improve the service of low income families and their children. Such as “Higher quality care for low-income children in family child care homes, Coordinated comprehensive services for families,  Support to increase capacity for family child care providers and Strong partnerships that support coordinated service delivery in communities”. I also was able to find a list of all the participants of this program, these programs serve more than 3,000 children, of which more than 500 are served through family child care.

This website also provides valuable information regarding online courses to child care providers, child care licensing staff and parents on quality infant and toddler care. Courses include Professional Development for Infant and Toddler Caregivers, Infant and Toddler Training for Child Care Licensing Staff and Infant and Toddler Care Training for Parents and Families. Most courses are free of charge.

As I explored the various resources available from the Zero to Three programs, I realized that there is a lot of information and resources available for parents. Resources that many of our families ignore, due to the lack of information and limited exposure of these, providing information to our parents is so important, especially if they do not have the language or resources to obtain it.

Getting to Know Your International Contacts—Part 2

After reviewing the Harvard University’s “Global Children’s Initiative” website (http://developingchild.harvard.edu/initiatives/global_initiative/, a was able to obtain many information in regards to early childhood issues that I ignored as well as have the opportunity to explore this wonderful website.

One important insight that I learned is the mission that the Center on the Developing Child has. It believes that all society depends on the amount of positive experiences providing to children as soon as they are born. These experiences will help them develop at their fullest, as well as to become responsible and productive adults and members of our society. They strongly believe that a healthy child development is that foundation of a countries economic prosperity as well as society. Among the things they are committed is to prepare current and future leaders to make science-based policy decisions, create an understanding on how to reduce preventable disparities in well being, creating and conducting effective science-based policies.

A second insight I gained was on the effects chemicals have in the development of fetus. Toxic substances have the capacity to disrupt the development of all of the body’s organ system. The nature and severity of the disruption depend upon the type of substance, the level and duration of exposure, and most important on the timing during the developing process (Harvard University). These toxins can weaken the structure of the brain resulting in permanent impairments that can impact the child’s learning, behavior, and health. Currently each year between 2000 to 3000 new chemicals are brought the United States, and only 43% chemicals are tested for human toxicity, and only 7% have been evaluated for their potential effects on development.

The last insight I gained was on a community psychologist Hirokazu Yoshkawa, his expertise revolves around improving the lives of children and families. He is a professor of education from Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE) and a Center-affiliated faculty member. As a member of the National Forum on Early Childhood Policy and Programs, he co-leads the team that is building the nation’s most comprehensive database of early childhood program evaluation studies. Yoshikawa also studies early childhood development internationally, conducting a project on the development of young children and adolescents in Nanjing, China, as well as evaluating a program for young children in Santiago, Chile known as Un Buen Comienzo (UBC). He has been conducting research in early childhood development since the early 1990s, well before his arrival at Harvard in 2006. His job is good example of what many of us could do and promote all around the world, improving early childhood services is a growing interest in many countries of the world.

Sharing Web Resources

The specific section that seemed particularly relevant as it reinforces current issue that we are discussing in regards to the importance of supporting children and their families, in order to ensure a better future adults and member of our society. This section titled "Infant-Toddler Policy Agenda",  promotes good health, strong families and positive early learning experiences. It starts with an overview of the importance of focusing our attention on babies, why it is critical such as its impact on brain development and its impact on language, cognition, social emotional and physical development. This section also shares insights from investigations done by leading economist Dr. James Heckman, Nobel Laureate and Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago. These investigations lead to the value of investing in early childhood programs, as soon as possible, because for every dollar invested you can expect savings up to $3.78 to $17.07. Apart from these savings you will have reduced crime, abuse, neglect, and welfare dependency while increasing educational performance and job training, what will eventually lead to higher income and a more productive workforce.

After hearing this information again and again, it has made me see how important our role really is as advocates for the children and their families. I have always valued the work that as early childhood professionals we do with the children and the families we serve, but I never actually stopped to think in the enormous impact that we have on these children and how we support parents in providing their children with the foundations of early learning. I also see how important the need of advocating for these programs in order for them to continue and improve their services by advocating for those that can't speak, and finding others that can join and support our mission,by presenting this to policy makers and other government representatives.

As, I learn more about the work 0 to 3 programs and their services among infants, toddlers and their families. I am able to understand the how valuable and necesary their sercice is among our children, according to the state efforts to expand or enhance access to Early Head Start services, a Federal Early Head Start program was created to help reduce the disparities caused by poverty by supporting the healthy development of expectant mothers and low income infants and toddlers. However, less than 3 percent of babies and toddlers who are eligible for Early Head Start are currently receiving services, because of the limited funds supporting this program.

Getting to Know Your International Contacts - Part 1

INDIA

I had the opportunity to review the website of the Childhood Poverty Research and Policy Center's page: http://www.childhoodpoverty.org/ and was able to obtain valuable information regarding "India", and its struggles with poverty among its children. Among the many insights that I was able to obtain is that India is the second country with the highest level of poverty in the nation. Despite the efforts that the government has done to reduce the levels of poverty, by increasing economic growth, increasing provision of basic services, land and tendency reforms and many other interventions the numbers continue to be high. The sad part of this is that those that lack of access to assets, skill and low levels of health and education are the least to benefit from these interventions.

Among the many disadvantages poor people face, health is one of many things that is strongly affected. Rahasthan, which is Indian's largest state, women and children suffer the lack of proper heath care, which brings the spread of communicable diseases such as HIV/AIDS, malnutrition, and maternal and perinatal illnesses. It is estimated that around 62 million children under the age of five are malnourished and 34 percent of newborns are underweight. All problems arising due to the growing population, industrialization, and a globalizing economy.

Another significant insight regarding India, is that it accounts for 20% of the worlds out-of-school children as well as having the largest number of working children in the world, being a third of the children below 16 years of age. A common disadvantage that exist among children from India and their access to education is the discrimination towards girls, gender discrimination is still very common in this country. Despite the fact that more girls are currently enrolled in schools, you can still observe a higher attendance of boys then girls in schools, they tend to be less exposed to the outside world and there is a great emphasis on domestic skills.

Sharing Web Resouces

As I explore the "ZERO TO THREE: National Center for Infants, Toddlers, and Families" website http://www.zerotothree.org/about-us/ , I have l learing many things that I ignored from this organizations. It is not only focusses on providing informtion, training and support to parents and professionals in the field of education, but it also makes sure to provide the same information to policy makers in regards to the importance health and development has in the development of infants and toddlers.

This organization focuses on the importanct of those early experiences, in the development of a child. Experiences that can either have a possitive effect or a negative depending of the type of experience offered by the parent or caregiver.The website also offeres wonderful videos that demonstrate a variety of different issues that encourage learing, promote self esteem, language, gross, social emotional development as well as many other developmental areas. These videos are no more than 10 minutes long, but are full of valuable information that parents, professionals and policy makers can easy assess and lear from. This week I had the opportunity to view two of these videos, one was “Why Experiences Matter”, about the importance of early experiences in the child’s life and how parents and caregivers are the main providers of these experiences that help share a child concept of value, and appreaciation of life. The second one was tittled “A Window to the World”, this video demonstrates how  Language and Literacy  development contribute to a child’s success throughout life. How caregivers and professionals in the field can promote literacy and language as well as  its present and long term benefits.

Something that caught my attention from this website, is the variety of resources it can provide to the families, professionals and policy makers. Issues such as Behavior Development, Maltreatment, Care and Education and many more. All impontant factor to know when it comes to working  with children. I also loved the idea that they offer a free newsletter every month that shows how children learn and grow each month from birth to age 3. This newsletter offers stradegies parents can tailor to their unique family situation and to the needs of their child.

 

Establishing Professional Contacts and Expanding Resources

After reviewing various early childhood organization websites, I selected to studyThe website : ZERO TO THREE: National Center for Infants, Toddlers, and Families. This website provides valuable information that can benefit professionals in the field of early childhood education as well as parents.

 http://www.zerotothree.org/about-us/ 
                             
I have always been very interested in learning more in regards to infants and toddles. My experiences in the field of early childhood has been mainly with the preschool age children. I want to be able to provide parents with valuable information that will guide and help them in regards to the importance of their child's first years of life.