My Supports

When I hear the word support I think of numerous definitions. Support means to bear or hold up; serve as a foundation for, to sustain or withstand without giving way; serve as a prop for, to undergo or endure, especially with patience or submission; tolerate, or to sustain under trial or affliction, to maintain by supplying with things necessary to existence; provide for, to uphold by aid, countenance, one's vote, etc.; back; second, to maintain or advocate. 

There are numerous things that I come in contact with that support me whether it be family or things around the house that support me.

My study room supports me in helping me remember what my goals are for my life. Here in my study room I have a vision board that have different clippings or images and scriptures about the things that I want to do and the direction I want my life to go. It also has a calendar posted that have due dates listed everywhere to help keep me on track with my assignments and tests.

My grandma and godmom are a part of my emotional and financial supports. My grandmother makes sure that I am financially ok and that everything that I need is taken care of. My godmother is very emotionally supportive - she makes sure that she is always there for me whenever I may need her to listen or to just give me advice. 

Church and prayer is a part of my spiritual support. I was brought up in a church going family so therefore I do believe in God and everything about Him. When I attend church on Sundays I feel so much better about starting the upcoming week I also feel 100% refreshed and relaxed. Whenever I run into trouble that my god mom or grandmother cannot fix I always turn to God and prayer and He will see me through whatever the situation may be. 

My supports are a big deal to me and I absolutely wouldn't know what to do if they were gone. The benefits of my supports are that they help keep me sane and not to stress out about things that are not of major importance. It would be very difficult for me to go on in life without my grandma and godmother but I am sure that I would learn how to cope and to go on in life without them because that is what they would want me to do. I definitely couldn't go on without my God- that's just silliness.

My Connections to Play

"Play is our brain's favorite way of 

learning - Diane Ackerman"

"When children pretend, they're using

 their imaginations to move beyond the bounds of reality. A stick can be a magic wand. A sock can be a puppet. A small child can be a superhero. -Fred Rogers"

When I was a child play was highly encouraged. Whenever all of my cousins and other family members were over to the house the kids already knew that we couldn't stay in the house we were always told to go outside and play with the other children and to be back before dinner time or sometimes we would just go into the backyard and play. From what I can remember play was always a part of my education life, personal life and all other aspects of my life when growing up. 

Play is definitely different today then how it was when I was growing up - when growing up most of our play took place outside at the park, in the backyard or on the front porch with children from the neighborhood or family members. Children today consider play to be playing with their iPad/iPod/iPhone, Playstation 4, Wii or WiiU, Xbox or spending time surfing the internet. As a child I had no idea what a cellphone was or any of the gaming systems that are out now - children today do not understand the quality of playing outside instead they want to consume their time with technology - I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of children do not know how to ride a bike, play hopscotch, hide and seek, double dutch/jump-rope and other fun outside games.

Relationship Reflection

Relationships are very important to me and to everyday life. A relationship is a connection, association or involvement with others that you care about and that care for you as well or it could be a professional relationship where you guys work solely with the business to become successful.

I have more than several positive relationships currently in my life:

1. My grandmother MeMe
2. My god mother Yolanda
3. My uncle GG
4. My close girl friends Destini and Ashley

My grandmother is my heart there is not a thing that I wouldn't do for her because she has done so much for me and she is still there whenever I need her help financially or just some advice for things that are going on in my life. My grandmother is loving and she motivates me to accomplish all of my dreams no matter the amount of time that it will take because the time will pass anyway. My grandmother loves me unconditionally.

My god mother is the bomb dot com. Yolanda is so sweet and near to my heart, I can come to her about any and everything and she will listen to me and give her own personal opinion - she is very honest with me she doesn't just tell me things that she thinks I want to hear but the things that I NEED to hear and most importantly she never judges me based on the things that I have done or the mistakes that I may have made. She is my spiritual queen and we can always relate on things that may be going on in our lives. I just love her to pieces.

My uncle GG is a great man. He has always been there for me since I was born - he is like my dad. He is not really the lovey dovey mushy type he is the type where he just wants to fix the issue so if I am sad he wants to know what the problem is and what he can do to fix it. He is funny and playful so whenever he is around its all laughs and good times.

My close friends Destini and Ashley are awesome! They are my sisters day in and day out - even though we don't talk everyday or see each other as often as we used to I know that we are all here for each other whenever one of us is in need of advice or anything. I have been knowing these lovely ladies for the past 10 years and they have never done anything to betray my trust and love. I love them! 

Destini and I                                                                           Ashley and I

I value all of the close and positive relationships that I have with the people that were named above and I love them all very much and glad that they are in my life.

Final Blog - Consequences of learning about International Early Childhood Field

1st Consequence
There were many consequences that was present throughout this course that I learned about while researching different topics relating to the early childhood field in different countries. For one, there is always going to be big differences in different countries versus the United States, the way that their children are taught may be weird to us and they can think the same way about us as well. Quality is always going to be a concern when selecting appropriate daycare/learning centers for our children or for others.

2nd Consequence
Equity. Equity is a huge issue that needs to be addressed and resolved really quickly before it gets terribly out of hand. Every child and teacher or I should just say every individual should be treated with equal respect and courtesy as others. A child should not have to suffer inequity just because they are of a different race or because of what their culture, religion or political stance may be. A female teacher should not be held to different standards just because she is a female versus a male.

3rd Consequence
Poverty. Poverty is going to forever be a big issue world wide no matter what city, state or country you are in. It is very sad to see children that come from poverty in school not getting the correct nourishment, supplies or support that they may need to become a successful person in life and not repeat the cycle of being basically poor and living from shelter to shelter or low-income neighborhoods.

Goal
My main goal in life is to be an inspiration to everyone that I cross paths with. I want to also create my own non-profit organization that will assist in helping families of low-income with find proper housing, making sure that their children have all of their health related issues under control, find a proper job for the parents and help with any other resources that the family may need. I just want to continue to do what God has called me to do and that is to be an assistance and inspiration to parents and children around the world or just around my community.

Getting to Know Your International Contacts - Part 3

Access and Equity

Central governments must ensure an equitable distribution of resources among different populations and especially those who live in the most disadvantaged regions. I think that this is a good suggestion that should take place all over the United States because 9 times out of 10 families who live in disadvantaged areas are not able to buy the supplies that they may need in order to be successful. 

Quality

Early childhood education and care poses a dilemma for curriculum designers. On the one hand, there is the need to guide the personnel in early childhood centres, especially when they have low certification and little training. A  curriculum helps to ensure that staff cover important learning areas, adopt a common pedagogical approach and reach for a certain level of quality across age groups and regions of a country. A curriculum can also be a focus for further training. I believe that no matter what level of education that you are trying to pursue they all have a standard or accelerated curriculum - the curriculum helps teachers stay on track on what they should be teaching the children and what they should be learning.

Coordination and Integration

Coordination issues include coherent regulation, funding and staffing schemes and a common vision of care and education. Effective coordination must exist among sectors at both national and local level, and also between public and private establishments. 

Early childhood care and education is often the concern of several government sectors and usually these are education, social affairs and health. The multi-faceted nature of early childhood care and education gives rise to the challenge of effectively coordinating provision of policy development and implementation across the different sectors.

References:

http://www.unesco.org/new/en/education/themes/strengthening-education-systems/early-childhood/

Rally4Babies and other information from ZERO TO THREE

As I continue to read the different newsletters from Zero To Three I become more and more impressed with the organization and what they stand for. On December 10, 2014 advocates at the ZERO TO THREE NTI and across the country Rallied for Babies to increase early learning investments that start at birth. Rally4Babies was part of a Twitter storm, hosted by NWLC, ZERO TO THREE, and MomsRising, in support of the White House Summit on Early Education. I also loved that the organization joined with the Strong Start Coalition for a tweet storm on September 10, 2014 to remind Congress that learning happens from the start, and so should our investments in children.

Another interesting topic that was brought up in the newsletter was how interactive media is used with children and what type of values does it bring. The use of interactive screen media such as smart phones and tablets by young children is increasing rapidly. Interactive media is typically used in schools for educational value, TV shows such as Sesame Street or Blue's Clues can promote early academic skills in preschool-aged children, children <30 months cannot learn from television and videos as they do from real-life interactions. Interactive media allow for contingent responses to children's actions and thus may facilitate more retention of taught material. According to the newsletter research suggests that interactive media such as learn-to-read apps and electronic books (e-books) may increase early literacy.

Newsletter also states how mothers speak less clearly to infants than they do to adults. Infants learn language at an incredible speed, and one of the first steps in this voyage is learning the basic sound units of their native languages. It is widely thought that caregivers facilitate this task by hyperarticulating when speaking to their infants. People tend to have a distinctive way of talking to babies and small children: We speak more slowly, using a sing-song voice, and tend to use cutesy words like "tummy". While we might be inclined to think that this kind of "baby talk" is easier for children to understand, new research suggest that mothers may actually speak less clearly to their infants than they do adults.

Resources:

Cristia, A. (2015, January 27). Mothers' "Baby Talk" Is Less Clear Than Their Adult Speech. Retrieved from Association For Psychological Science: http://www.psychologicalscience.org/index.php/news/releases/mothers-baby-talk-is-less-clear-than-their-adult-speech.html

Jenny S. Radesky, M., Schumacher, J., & Zuckerman, B. (2014, December 29). Mobile and Interactie Media Use by Young Children: The Good, the Bad, and the Unknown. Retrieved from Pediatrics: http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/135/1/1

THREE, Z. T. (2014, December 14). ZERO TO THREE Rally4Babies. Retrieved from https://storify.com/ZEROTOTHREE/rally4babies

Early Childhood Systems around the Globe

I decided to read and review the Global Children's Initiative website to discover new ideas and see how systems from around the globe operate. 

Grand Challenges Canada has a program called Saving Brains that promote the creation of interventions that nurture and protect the early brain development of children living in poverty. The Center on the Developing Child supports a dynamic learning community of Saving Brains grantees to help them advance the impact and scale of their work within global contexts. I was impressed to learn that the program works to enhance the collective impact of the Saving Brains program by:

• Articulating a common theory for action based on scientific knowledge and practical experience;

• Developing shared metrics and evaluation frameworks for interventions;

• Fostering an ongoing learning community to accelerate innovation through sharing lessons and results; and 

• Encouraging policy translation through cross-sectional leadership development

I find it interesting and very nice that the people in Canada can come together and create a program that not only helps children in a low-income home but also give them a chance to prove that they are not a product of their community or household.
There is a program held in North America called "The Frontiers of Innovation" which it is an initiative that is committed to driving transformative change for young children whose needs are not currently being met. Adverse experiences can derail children's healthy development, creating learning, behavior and health challenges that place heavy burdens at the individual, family, community and national levels. This program works to drive the design of intervention strategies grounded in scientific research that produce breakthrough outcomes for children facing adversity. I believe this is absolutely wonderful and if the program was available in my community I would definitely promote for my children to join the program and get other families involved so we could make a difference in many children's lives. I also agree with the belief that we must build the capabilities of adults caregivers in order to achieve significant outcomes for children. 
Another interesting program I came across while reading and researching this website is the network for children with mental health issues. The network is focused on four clusters of problems/disorders that account for the majority of child clinical referrals:

• anxiety and anxiety disorders;

• depression and depressive disorders;

• ADHD and related problems; and 

• conduct problems ranging form early childhood disobedience to adolescent delinquency and violence.

I love programs that are for helping children with mental disorders because the child is going through things that are out of their control and if a child doesn't have the proper care and support he/she needs the child can suffer a great deal and can become a problem child at home and in school. 


References:“Global Children’s Initiative” http://developingchild.harvard.edu/initiatives/global_initiative/

Sharing Web Resources

• What specific section(s) or information seemed particularly relevant to your current professional development?

The section regarding Child Care seems very relevant to my current professional development. More infants and toddler than ever are spending some portion of their day with adults other than their parents - either a relative, neighbor, babysitter or child care professional. As a professional it is always good to know what parents are looking for in a daycare and its employees and ways that a parent can prepare their baby or toddler for the transition to child care. 

• Which ideas/statements/resources, either on the website or in an e-newsletter, did you find controversial or made you think about an issue in new ways?

There was a statement made stating that the early years of life is filled with joy, excitement, learning and growth. But for most babies that is the case but as for others it is not. Some children are exposed to maltreatment and the rates of child maltreatment are highest for the youngest children, with children most at risk in the earliest weeks and months of life. And in some other case children can be subject to trauma. Trauma can be defined as experiencing or witnessing an event that cause or threatens injury or death. Child maltreatment and other interpersonal violence 2 can be a source of trauma. 

• What information does the website or the e-newsletter contain that adds to your understanding of how economists, neuroscientists, or politicians support the early childhood field?

There is a section that helps me understand how neuroscientists relate to the early childhood field. Brain development is vital during the first three years of life -during this time there is incredible growth in all areas of a baby's development. A newborns brain is about 25 percent of its approximate adult weight. But by age 3, it has grown dramatically by producing billions of cells and hundreds of trillions of connections, or synapses, between these cells.

• What other new insights about issues and trends in the early childhood field did you gain from exploring the website or e-newsletter?

I have gained the sense of knowing how important it is for a child to connect with it's parent(s) to encourage a healthy childhood mental health. Responsive relationships with consistent primary caregiver help build positive attachments that support healthy social-emotional development. These relationships form the foundation of mental health for infants, toddlers and preschoolers. 

Poverty in Jamaica

I decided to review poverty in Jamaica. The three major things that stood out to me in the article was that the population as a whole was growing at an annual rate of 0.5% in 2005, having declined steadily from an annual rate of 1% in 1997. The population growth rate has been moderated by migration, but that rate too has been declining. From a high for the last decade of 23,900 in 2001, the number of migrants fell to 17,200 in 2005. The main flows have been to North America - USA and Canada - and to a lesser extent the UK. I think the main reason for the decrease in population is for one people could be moving to different countries where they have a better chance of surviving and not living in poverty - better life for the family as a whole.

Jamaica is classified as a country of medium human development according to its Human Development Index. It is in the top half of this group, ranking 101st of the 177 ranked countries. Life expectancy at birth was 72.2 years, but the literacy levels for the population 15 years old and over of 79.9% was among the lowest of the Anglophone Caribbean countries.

The most widely used definition of child poverty is that of UNICEF: "Children living in poverty experience deprivation of the material, spiritual and emotional resources needed to survive, develop and thrive, leaving them unable to enjoy their rights, achieve their full potential or participate as full and equal members of society." There are material items that children and families need to live above the poverty line such as income, food, education and health. Spiritual things are stimuli, meaningfulness, expectations, role models and peer relationships. Emotional things would be love, trust, feelings of acceptance, inclusion and lack of abuse.

References:

Child Poverty and Disparities in Jamaica. (n.d.). Retrieved from UNICEF Social Inclusion, Policy and Budgeting: http://www.unicef.org/socialpolicy/files/Jamaica_Child_Poverty_and_Disparity.pdf

Zero to Three Newsletter

I chose to follow the organization "Zero to Three" http://www.zerotothree.org/.
Zero to Three is a national, nonprofit organization that provides parents, professionals and policymakers the knowledge and know-how to nurture early development. Their mission is to ensure that all babies and toddlers have a strong start in life. I decided to subscribe to the organization's newsletter list and received my first newsletter on  Thursday, January 15th. This newsletter addressed many different topics such as 

• what to expect during your child's development between the ages of three to six months and things that parents can do to support learning and growing, 
• common experiences parents have at this age (three to six months)
• what it's like for baby... babies are developing trust in you as they come to count on you to meet their needs
• research shows how babies sense and react to their parents stress
• how to choose quality child care and,
• activities that nurture a baby's development and connection to you 

I found the topic that discusses what it's like for the baby to be pretty interesting. I am a new aunt but not new to infants so I find myself more dedicated and emotionally connected to my niece - she is two months old and I think it is pretty cool to get a look at what she is thinking. The article stated that when a baby cries and hear their mother's or anyone that sounds familiar voice talking back to them that lets them know that help is on the way especially if they are crying because they are hungry. At three months a baby can figure out that hunger pains are connected to food, and that their source of food is .... you! The baby then uses their communication skills (crying) to "tell" you that he/she is ready to eat - this is an important thinking skill that the baby is developing.

Establishing Professional Contacts and Expanding Resources

While trying to establish a connection with professionals from outside of the United States I have noticed that I am having a difficult time reaching someone with a valid email address - I sent out 4 emails and received all error messages back from the system stating that the email address was incorrect or couldn't be found. So I decided to send out 4 more emails and I am still waiting on responses from those individuals.

I do think by Tuesday if I haven't received an email back from the professionals that I have reached out to then I am going to have to go with the Alternative to Part 1 of this blog assignment.

For Part 2 of the blog assignment I decided to study "Zero to Three" website. Zero to Three is a national, nonprofit organization that provides parents, professionals and policymakers the knowledge and know-how to nurture early development. Their mission is to ensure that all babies and toddlers have a strong start in life. I did register to receive weekly newsletters from this organizations which should be really interesting and helpful this semester.