Looking at the Whole Child

Assessment Here and Abroad

To view a child holistically it is important to understand what assessment is.  It isn’t just a standardized test, rather assessment is a process where information is collected, synthesized and interpreted.  This information is then used to drive instruction and special needs services.  A holistic assessment would gather information through observation, parent interviews, and analysis of work samples (Epstein, Schwelnhart, Debuin-Parechi, Robin, 2004).  Assessment is an important aspect of education of children.  It should be used to support children, teachers, and programs.  It is important that before selecting an instrument for use with a given set of children, assessors should be able to explain why that specific measure is being used and what the purpose of the assessment is (Epstein, Schwelnhart, Debuin-Parechi, Robin).

Resources

Epstein, A. & Schwelnhart, L. & DeBuin-Parechi, A. & Robin, K. (2004). Preschool Policy Matters. National Institute for Early Education Research. High/Scope. New Brunswick, NJ 08901.  Retrieved from http://nieer.org/resources/policybriefs/7.pdf

Stress and Children

My Experience in Poverty

As a child I went through what many families today are going though with the current economy.  When my parents were married I enjoyed a comfortable life.  We had a nice house, plenty of food, great toys, etc.  Then, when my parents divorced and my mom and dad both lost their jobs our lifestyle dramatically changed.  It started by losing our house, our car, and from there things got worse.  My mother was left to care for my sister and I while my father left the state to work.  She did her best, but at first she didn't know what to do.  My sister was just born and I was just starting school.  She couldn't afford daycare and work, so she had to find local resources to help her out.  She did her best and this experience made me the person I am today.  My sister was too young to realize the drastic change in lifestyle, but my world came crashing down.  Especially when we began eating the cheap food from the fantastic food my chef parents had always provided for us.  I learned about managing little money at an early age, and I also learned to be independent.  This time was very stressful for my mom, and I learned to take care of myself so I wouldn't add any stress to her plate.  My mother's family helped out a lot, and we received financial assistance for most of my elementary school career.  My sister struggled to make it through elementary school, and when she entered Jr. high she received a large amount of support from my dad's pension and life insurance.  The two different lives my sister and I lived under the same roof made us two very different adults.  I learned independence and she learned dependence.  I had six years of stability before she was born, and that stability provided me with the coping techniques I needed to get out of poverty.

Poverty in Canada

Canada has weathered the world financial troubles relatively well.  The came out of the recession strong, and their economy continues to flourish.  However, "when it comes to child poverty, it ranks 22nd-worst out of the 31 countries in the OECD, a rich-country grouping. More than 3m Canadians (or one in ten) are poor; and 610,000 of them are children"  (The Economist, 2010, p. 1). My providential governments have launched poverty-reduction programmes.  The focus of many is to help people back into work.  One providence, Newfoundland, has been successful and cut the poverty rate in half.  In 2010 a House of Commons committee urged the federal government to adopt a national strategy. "The response of Stephen Harper’s Conservative administration was that the best long-term strategy to fight poverty is “the sustained employment of Canadians” (The Economist, 2010, p. 1). 

Resources

The Economist (2010) Mean streets the persistence of poverty amid plenty. Retrieved from http://www.economist.com/node/17581844

Public Health: Child Nutrition

My Thoughts on Nutrition

After having my own child; nutrition has become very important to me.  I also work for Head Start, and part of our program is promoting good nutrition.  I have saw the effects of poor nutrition on how children interact in the classroom, and regularly help families to become more aware of what they feed their children.

 

Child Nutrition Programs in Chile

The child nutrition programs in Chile are among the best in the world.  The program is administered by the government and implemented by privite contractors.  Chile's child nutrition programs have improved the nutrition in the nation and has increased school participation rate to nearly 100 percent.  This program is not only for school aged children, but also serve infants and toddlers in government run free child care centers.  Government support and public-private partnerships are credited with the programs' success (Winch, 2009)

"We realized education is the base of everything. So by having students with better nutrition, we will assure that students perform better. That is why the school feeding program is so central to us."  -Ramón Solís Cácares—Chief of the School Feeding Department, JUNAEB (Winch, 2009, p. 12).

How This Will Impact my Future Work

Proper nutrition is important for all children, and in the future I will work to provide more information on proper nutrition as well as ways to provide nutritious food for families in poverty. 

References

Winch, R. (2009). International Approaches to School Feeding: Country Experiences from Mali, Chile, and India. Global Child Nutrition. Retrieved From http://www.gcnf.org/library/International-Approaches-to-School-Feeding.pdf

Birth Around the World

When doing research for this blog assignment I cam across a website about birth customs around the world.  The first experience it describes the an american woman who gives bith in the Netherlands.  She described the experience as good, and outlined the many differences between there and the United States.  She stated that only about half of the women chose to go to the hospital for delivery, and that when pregnant women were referred to midwives.  Each woman is given a kit for a home birth, and even in the hospital it is less invasive and women are seldom given epidurals.  This is such a different experience from what I had.  My experience was stressful, but the medical staff was alway respectful of my wishes, and did what was best for me and my daughter.  The attitude of the Netherlands seems to be a more natural one, whereas it seems in the United States it has become more of a medical procedure than a natural experience in the development of life. 

This website also offers other experiences from around the world. 
http://www.parents.com/pregnancy/giving-birth/vaginal/birth-customs-around-the-world/?page=1

Birth Story

Brylee 10-16-2008

My daughter was born two weeks late after a healthy uneventful pregnancy, I can't say the same about the delivery.  After my NST (non stress test) on Monday my midwife scheduled for me to be induced on the two week late date which was that Thursday.  On Wednesday I tidied up everything at work and prepared for the sub, went home and decided I didn't want to cook dinner the night before I was to have a baby.  So, we went to Chili's and I enjoyed a delicious meal of steak fajitas, and to complete the meal my water broke.  From dinner I drove to the Hospital laughing all the way!  From triage I headed to the room where I would deliver.  My water had broken 12 hours before I was scheduled to be induced.  It took a couple of hours before contractions began, and then many more hours before they would produce any progress.  However, by 6 a.m. Thursday morning I was too exhausted to go any further, so I conceded and requested an epidural.  The epidural was scary, but incredible!  I was finally able to get some rest.  Then at 7a.m. I awoke to alarms, lights, and all the staff in my room.  They had lost my daughter's heart beat, and couldn't reach my midwife or the on-call doctor in the practice.  The doctor who was available prepared me for a c-section, and at the last moment my midwife and ob walked in.  After assessing the situation the OB was able to find the heartbeat and decided to give her time to rebound from the tachycardia.  After several hours of watching the heart-rate monitor the doctor suggested Pitocin to help both her and me.  At hour 23 I got the news I had progressed far enough to begin pushing, by 26 she was born at 8:32 p.m.!  She was immediately taken to the examining table in the room and the NICU staff and her pediatrician worked to clear the meconium from her airways.  After what seemed like forever I heard her first cry.  The nurses cleaned her up, let me hold her, and took her to the NICU for further monitoring.  She had swallowed a significant amount of meconium, and needed to recieve 7 days of antibiotics to ensure she didn't contract pneumonia.  This was the best and worst day of our lives!  She is now a healthy three year old preschooler!

Early Childhood Code of Ethics

Ideals of Particular Importance to Me

NAEYC
I-4.2—To promote cooperation among professionals and agencies and interdisciplinary collaboration
among professions concerned with addressing issues in the health, education, and well-being of young
children, their families, and their early childhood educators.

My Input: Education in general is all about community and sharing, and in early childhood this is just as true.  More than ever I see the importance of cooperating and collaborating with colleagues and community to provide the highest quality care.

I-2.4—To listen to families, acknowledge and build upon their strengths and competencies, and learn from
families as we support them in their task of nurturing children.

My Input: This is so important to quality early childhood care!  Parents are their child's first and most important and teachers, so it is important we work with families to provide the best care for children.

 DEC
3. We shall strive for the highest level of personal and professional competence by seeking and
using new evidence based information to improve our practices while also responding openly to
the suggestions of others.

My Input:  This is the basis for my decision to begin my master's degree at Walden University.  It is important for me as an educator to continue to dig deeper and learn more about the current research in the field.

Early Childhood Resources

My Early Childhood Resources

• Early Childhood Research and Practice
  Introducing the Project Approach and Use of Visual Representation to Early Childhood Education in Bhutan (Volume 13 Number 1) http://ecrp.uiuc.edu/v13n1/brooks.html 
• This article has background information on the teachers in Bhutan, and then described how the Project Approach was implemented with pictures of student work
• National Head Start Association
• http://www.nhsa.org/
• This website is the official National Head Start Association.  It has several articles on early childhood, links to early chilhood websites, current findings and accomplishments in the field, and resources for community support.
• Conscious Discipline
• http://consciousdiscipline.com/about/research_papers.asp
• This website has several resources for early childhood behavior management, and this link specifically has several research papers on Conscious Discipline.

EDUC 6005: Class Resources

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/74759/CRS-CW-6060772/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://main.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
  

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://worldforumfoundation.org/wf/wp/about-us
  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.
  Note: Explore the resources in Parts 3 and 4 in preparation for this week’s Application assignment.

Selected Early Childhood Organizations

• National Association for the Education of Young Children
  http://www.naeyc.org/
  
• The Division for Early Childhood
  http://www.dec-sped.org/
  
• Zero to Three: National Center for Infants, Toddlers, and Families
  http://www.zerotothree.org/
  
• WESTED
  http://www.wested.org/cs/we/print/docs/we/home.htm
  
• Harvard Education Letter
  http://www.hepg.org/hel/topic/85
  
• FPG Child Development Institute
  http://www.fpg.unc.edu/main/about.cfm
  
• Administration for Children and Families Headstart’s National Research Conference
  http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/opre/hsrc/
  
• HighScope
  http://www.highscope.org/
  
• Children’s Defense Fund
  http://www.childrensdefense.org/
  
• Center for Child Care Workforce
  http://www.ccw.org/
  
• Council for Exceptional Children
  http://www.cec.sped.org//AM/Template.cfm?Section=Home
  
• Institute for Women’s Policy Research
  http://www.iwpr.org/index.cfm
  
• National Center for Research on Early Childhood Education
  http://www.ncrece.org/wordpress/
  
• National Child Care Association
  http://www.nccanet.org/
  
• National Institute for Early Education Research
  http://nieer.org/
  
• Pre[K]Now
  http://www.preknow.org/
  
• Voices for America’s Children
  http://www.voices.org/
  
• The Erikson Institute
  http://www.erikson.edu/

Selected Professional Journals Available in the Walden Library

• YC Young Children
• Childhood
• Journal of Child & Family Studies
• Child Study Journal
• Multicultural Education
• Early Childhood Education Journal
• Journal of Early Childhood Research
• International Journal of Early Childhood
• Early Childhood Research Quarterly
• Developmental Psychology
• Social Studies
• Maternal & Child Health Journal
• International Journal of Early Years Education