This website is dedicated to researching women, children and families in various countries providing seminars and information on their research. It is dedicated to building Early childhood development and leadership in Africa. It's goal is to bring training opportunities through web based seminar and a community of learners with other countries. Their mission statement is "to further develop African ECD leadership capacity as a key strategy in support of child, family and community well-being and broader social and economic development."
Their specific focus of research seems to be to bring further understanding of issues with children, families, and women to African countries to improve their quality of life.
Reference:
http://www.ecdvu.org/ssa/about.php
Sunday, October 9, 2011
Saturday, September 24, 2011
The Incredible Years
I am currently a parent educator who uses the Incredible Years Curriculum for parents who have children ages 3-6 and 6-12. The curriculum has been researched and proven to help reduce misbehaviors, increase positive relationships between parents and their children and promote children's social, emotion and academic development. This curriculum is based on a pyramid whose base consists of parents playing and giving special attention to their children to increase problem solving, self esteem and attachment. Also using praise and encouragement and rewards to increase social skills, motivation and thinking skills. Using these strategies liberally will in turn decrease the amount of ignoring, setting limits and using consequences that parents will have to do. These techniques have been been implemented in other cultures as well as other countries and proven to work across the board. After going through the program for 15 weeks and utilizing the strategies, parents have come back and expressed how well the strategies are working for their children and how their lives are so much better because of using the techniques.
We had one set of parents who took the class who had separated because they were having so many issues with their children. They were not communicating nor were they on the same page with how to handle the misbehaviors their children were exhibiting. By the end of the class they discussed how they learned to communicate better amongst themselves and better strategies for dealing with their children. they were working on putting their marriage back together and they expressed their gratitude for the techniques and strategies we gave them in the class! That was such a heart felt moment for me because it was my first time teaching the curriculum! Stories like that keep me motivated for implementing evidence and research based programs and conduct research myself.
We had one set of parents who took the class who had separated because they were having so many issues with their children. They were not communicating nor were they on the same page with how to handle the misbehaviors their children were exhibiting. By the end of the class they discussed how they learned to communicate better amongst themselves and better strategies for dealing with their children. they were working on putting their marriage back together and they expressed their gratitude for the techniques and strategies we gave them in the class! That was such a heart felt moment for me because it was my first time teaching the curriculum! Stories like that keep me motivated for implementing evidence and research based programs and conduct research myself.
Sunday, September 18, 2011
My Personal Research Journey
I chose to research how the parenting practices of low income families contribute to the social emotional development of young children. I wanted to know if their lack of parenting skills hindered their children's social emotional development. Being a former early childhood educator and now a parent educator, I have been involved with families whose children have been diagnosed with behavioral problems and considered at risk due to poverty. I have observed how the parents interact with their children and how the children interact in the classroom. These children have delays in their cognitive, language and their social emotional development and it seemed more that their parents lack of skills and resources contributed to their delays than their being a special need with these children. I wanted to know how much the parenting styles contributed to this delay.
I am not sure if my research topic is too specific or if I should be more specific because I am having difficulty finding sufficient information to begin my study. If there is any advice anyone has that can help me make the topic more specific or know of any other resources it would be a big help.
I am not sure if my research topic is too specific or if I should be more specific because I am having difficulty finding sufficient information to begin my study. If there is any advice anyone has that can help me make the topic more specific or know of any other resources it would be a big help.
Monday, August 22, 2011
Final Blog for 6162
I did not get in touch with my international contact, but I had a chance to examine different websites to discover other issues and strategies that people are using around the world to help bring quality care to the field of early childhood. The Harlem Children's Zone is making phenomenal strides in breaking the cycle of poverty with the addressing the needs of the whole child, the needs of the family and community. They have made significant efforts to recruit families from the neighborhoods to get and keep them involved in their child's education from beginning to end.
From learning about the HCZ I am more determine to implement this type of community service in my area. I plan to learn more in depth actions that need to be taken for the children and families in my community. By studying the issues in early childhood, I will better understand how to apply what I have learned to my community. Exploring these websites also renewed my passion for giving children and families quality early experiences to help them break the cycle of poverty. It is important these families understand how to address issues of their child's development, how to advocate for their child and how they are the main support for their child's education and growth.
It is essential to the fight on poverty that parents still feel that they have some contributing qualities in society. They have to feel that they are being heard so that they understand the importance of their involvement and partnership with the community and their child's education.
From learning about the HCZ I am more determine to implement this type of community service in my area. I plan to learn more in depth actions that need to be taken for the children and families in my community. By studying the issues in early childhood, I will better understand how to apply what I have learned to my community. Exploring these websites also renewed my passion for giving children and families quality early experiences to help them break the cycle of poverty. It is important these families understand how to address issues of their child's development, how to advocate for their child and how they are the main support for their child's education and growth.
It is essential to the fight on poverty that parents still feel that they have some contributing qualities in society. They have to feel that they are being heard so that they understand the importance of their involvement and partnership with the community and their child's education.
Sunday, August 14, 2011
UNESCO
While viewing the UNESCO website, a few things caught my attention when thinking of my goals.
"High quality childcare, particularly for children from disadvantaged backgrounds, promotes motivation, confidence, good cognitive and linguistic development and school readiness." High quality care is always in the forefront of my professional and personal goals. It is what drives me to continue my education and take my career to the highest plateau possible. In Singapore, childcare centers fall under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Education (MOE) and Ministry of Community Development and Sports (MCDS). These two entities came together in 1999 to collaborate on guidelines for childcare setting and preschool settings. The childcare centers there cater to children from 2 months to 6 years of age from the hours of 7am to 7pm. This is very impressive for the needs of the families they serve. This gives parents more opportunities to work and more flexibility of care. In the late 1990s, the MCDS was given the tasked to improve the quality of the preschools as well as with teacher training, and the MOE already had the task of improving early education this brought about the collaboration of the two groups.
Brazil has a proposal in place for mandatory funding from local governments to fund preschool for children. The Fund for Development of Primary Education and Teacher Development (FUNDEF) helped improve enrollment of children in their preschool programs from 92% in 1996 to 96% in 2000. Because the FUNDEF had such great encouragement of raising enrollment, policymakers saw a chance to propose a Congressional Bill. Funding is very important to early education programs. With the right funding preschools can be accessible and affordable to all those who need care.
http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0013/001374/137413e.pdf
"High quality childcare, particularly for children from disadvantaged backgrounds, promotes motivation, confidence, good cognitive and linguistic development and school readiness." High quality care is always in the forefront of my professional and personal goals. It is what drives me to continue my education and take my career to the highest plateau possible. In Singapore, childcare centers fall under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Education (MOE) and Ministry of Community Development and Sports (MCDS). These two entities came together in 1999 to collaborate on guidelines for childcare setting and preschool settings. The childcare centers there cater to children from 2 months to 6 years of age from the hours of 7am to 7pm. This is very impressive for the needs of the families they serve. This gives parents more opportunities to work and more flexibility of care. In the late 1990s, the MCDS was given the tasked to improve the quality of the preschools as well as with teacher training, and the MOE already had the task of improving early education this brought about the collaboration of the two groups.
Brazil has a proposal in place for mandatory funding from local governments to fund preschool for children. The Fund for Development of Primary Education and Teacher Development (FUNDEF) helped improve enrollment of children in their preschool programs from 92% in 1996 to 96% in 2000. Because the FUNDEF had such great encouragement of raising enrollment, policymakers saw a chance to propose a Congressional Bill. Funding is very important to early education programs. With the right funding preschools can be accessible and affordable to all those who need care.
http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0013/001374/137413e.pdf
Sunday, August 7, 2011
Extended Resources
Looking at the Harlem Children's Zone website has lead to more information about the program. Most of the links lead to more specific information about HCZ. The one I found very informative were the links that lead to the CNN videos on Geoffrey Canada's push to show policymakers and the government how important their movement is. These videos deal with how their program is moving forward and involving those that want to invest in Harlem Children Zone.
The website offers an abundance of statistics and results of the children and families they serve participating in their program. The Harlem Children Zone actively recruits families to participate in their program. These programs involve teaching parents best practices for interacting with children from 0-3 years old and the programs that serve the children this age. It has charter schools, from K-12, middle and high school after school programs, and support for students who are most often the first in their families to attend college.
This program is taking an innovative approach to serving families of children from poverty stricken backgrounds in the Harlem area to break the cycle of poverty. They set out to catch the children at birth by teaching parents and continuing with the child's education in early care all the way through college. The program's goal is to strengthen the community and families and raise children to be successful members of the work force and society.
The website offers an abundance of statistics and results of the children and families they serve participating in their program. The Harlem Children Zone actively recruits families to participate in their program. These programs involve teaching parents best practices for interacting with children from 0-3 years old and the programs that serve the children this age. It has charter schools, from K-12, middle and high school after school programs, and support for students who are most often the first in their families to attend college.
This program is taking an innovative approach to serving families of children from poverty stricken backgrounds in the Harlem area to break the cycle of poverty. They set out to catch the children at birth by teaching parents and continuing with the child's education in early care all the way through college. The program's goal is to strengthen the community and families and raise children to be successful members of the work force and society.
Sunday, July 31, 2011
Science Based Framework for Early Childhood Policy
I visited the Harvard University's "Global Children's Initiative." In it I discovered an article on the neuroscience of child development. This article can be found at http://developingchild.harvard.edu/resources/reports_and_working_papers/policy_framework/. It was interesting to see their research on how children's brain development is impacted even before the child is born especially if the mother is from a poverty stricken background. This is why it is so important for these children to have meaningful early educational experiences. Children's skills start out with the bare minimum. As they experience their environment and are responded to by the people in their lives, their skills are expanded upon and connections are made in the brain that build other skills. So the more positive and fulfilling their experiences are, the more these "circuits" connect and build on to other more complex skills.
This article also discusses how stress effects the brain and development. The body is wired to normally react to stress by releasing stress hormones and have elevated heart rates. After the stress or threat is over these levels are supposed to even out. It becomes a problem for children when they are constantly facing stress on a regular basis and these hormone levels stay high. The constant release of these hormones negatively impacts the development of a child's brain. They are constantly in protect mode which influences how the child learns, develops and behaves.
By focusing on three particular areas that help children by strengthening their family environment. One area of focus is health and nutrition. By educating families about their children's health and promoting healthy eating, this area serves to combat obesity and ensure that children are getting the essentials they need to concentrate and focus while they are in school. They also provide prenatal services and health services that ensure that the fetus is developing properly. Another area is home visiting programs. These programs are where professionals go into the home and provide support for mothers who are transitioning into the home after having a baby. This gives them the extra support that they may need while coping with the stress of having a baby. The third area provides support for sources of toxic stress such as mental health issues,substance abuse problems, or parents at risk for child maltreatment. These parents are given strategies for normal child behaviors and strategies to deal with misbehaviors in nonviolent ways.
This article also discusses how stress effects the brain and development. The body is wired to normally react to stress by releasing stress hormones and have elevated heart rates. After the stress or threat is over these levels are supposed to even out. It becomes a problem for children when they are constantly facing stress on a regular basis and these hormone levels stay high. The constant release of these hormones negatively impacts the development of a child's brain. They are constantly in protect mode which influences how the child learns, develops and behaves.
By focusing on three particular areas that help children by strengthening their family environment. One area of focus is health and nutrition. By educating families about their children's health and promoting healthy eating, this area serves to combat obesity and ensure that children are getting the essentials they need to concentrate and focus while they are in school. They also provide prenatal services and health services that ensure that the fetus is developing properly. Another area is home visiting programs. These programs are where professionals go into the home and provide support for mothers who are transitioning into the home after having a baby. This gives them the extra support that they may need while coping with the stress of having a baby. The third area provides support for sources of toxic stress such as mental health issues,substance abuse problems, or parents at risk for child maltreatment. These parents are given strategies for normal child behaviors and strategies to deal with misbehaviors in nonviolent ways.
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