Exploring Early Childhood Websites and Public Policy

Over the last several weeks I have been exploring Zero to Three: The National Center for Infants, Toddlers and Families website (www.zerotothree.org). Most recently, I had the opportunity to explore more of the Public Policy section of this site, and also received their From Baby to Big Kid e-newsletter. This newsletter was more relevant to me personally, so I opted to discuss my exploration of the Public Policy section in more detail.

The Public Policy section was most relevant professionally, because the e-newsletter is tailored to the specific age of my son. I was able to learn more about President Obama's plan to improve early learning experiences, especially for infants.  Funding for the Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting Technical Assistance program (MIECHV) was recently approved by the U.S. House of Representatives, maintaining its current funding levels until March 2015 if it is also approved by the U.S. Senate by Monday. This program is very important because it gives support to services that assist families and provide services that will improve maternal and newborn health, prevent child injuries, abuse, neglect, and maltreatment, improve school readiness and achievement, reduce crime and domestic violence, improve family economic self sufficiency, and coordinate referrals for other community resources or supports.

This information supports what we have been discussing in class this week, when politicians, economists and scientists support early childhood education, and circumstances improve to allow for increased funding and improvements in quality programming that will impact our nation's children in a positive way for many years to come.

International Contacts

For this week's post, I was unable to establish contact with any international early childhood professionals, despite numerous attempts to email several people. Therefore, it became necessary for me to view the podcasts from the World Forum website (www.worldforumfoundation.org). I was able to access two different podcasts (video, not radio), by different presenters on different topics.

The first podcast I viewed was presented by Dr. Susan Linn, leader of the Working Group on World Play, and she presented on the importance of creative play in early childhood. During this podcast, she presented several ideas we learned about in previous courses, including the benefits of creative play (foundation of creativity, problem solving, learning cooperation, self regulation, self control, etc). She also presented the idea that despite the fact that children are born with an innate capacity for play, as a society we do everything possible to prevent children from playing. I completely agree with her, because this includes the academic demands we place on children, decreased recess, increased extracurricular activities, and all for what? In her podcast, she says "Each child's play is like fingerprints: No child's play is like another's, if they're really given the opportunity." From this we know that children express themselves through play, and if we take the time to listen and observe, we can gain some valuable insights into their lives that will help us help them learn anything they need to learn.

The second podcast I viewed was presented by two global leaders from the United Arab Emirates: Dr. Tariq Kashmiri and Samia Kazi. They presented a very engaging session about leadership, and how the future of the world depends on the quality of experiences children have in their earliest years. I was surprised to learn that across seventy two countries, regardless of how developed the country is, we all have three things in common when it comes to challenges of early childhood education: 1- lack of awareness about how important early childhood education and experiences are, 2- lack of funding for early childhood education, and 3- a shortage of qualified early childhood teachers. These presenters also reiterated that high quality education is not based on aesthetics or expensive toys, it is based in high quality relationships, interactions, and taking advantage of "now-moments", or moments in which children are ready to learn something specific. I have also heard these moments referred to as teachable moments.

For the second part of this assignment, I was unable to access the Childhood Poverty Research and Policy Centre's page (http://www.childhoodpoverty.org). Instead, I explored the Save the Children website (www.savethechildren.org), and learned about poverty in Guatemala. While I was vaguely aware that Guatemala is a poor country, I was surprised to learn how poor. Guatemala has the highest rates of child malnutrition for children less than five years old (in all of Latin America), with national rates at approximately 49%, but local areas as high as 78%. I learned that Save the Children's efforts to promote early childhood development through training for parents and teachers, targeting school health and nutrition, and promoting learner centered environments has benefitted approximately one hundred and ten thousand children. In a population of over 14 million this may not seem like a lot, but this is amazing because it gives these children and families opportunities that were previously unreachable, and contributes to the overall well being of children and families in Guatemala, so they can give back to their communities as they attain success and improve the situations of others.

Resources
www.savethechildren.org
www.worldforumfoundation.org/media-and-resources/wofo-tv

Sharing Web Resources

As you may have read last week, I am exploring the website of Zero to Three (www.zerotothree.org). This organization's focus is to provide parents, professionals and policymakers with the knowledge on how to nurture early childhood development. Their mission is to promote the health and development of infants and toddlers, setting children on a course for lifelong discovery.

As part of my exploration, I was able to subscribe to their free e-newsletter From Baby to Big Kid. This is a newsletter geared toward parents, designed to teach parents scientifically based information about how children learn and grow, month to month, from birth to age three. It is tailored specifically to the general developmental age of your child (you enter your child's birthday when you register). While I have not received a copy of this newsletter yet, because of it is published on the first of each month, I can share that this newsletter includes general information about child development, articles about common child rearing issues and challenges, activities that promote bonding and learning between parent/caregiver and child and research on child development and how parents can apply it to their daily lives.

Since I have not received a newsletter, I tried to obtain more information about Zero to Three's other publication, the Zero to Three Journal. This journal is costly to subscribe to, and I was hoping that Walden University had a subscription for us to use, but alas, it does not. I was able to preview the current issue (blurred, so you can't read it very well), and found that this journal addresses topics such as well child care, brain development, safe environments, the importance of reading to infants and young children, and the Maternal, Infant and Early Childhood Home Visiting Program.

Another source of information Zero to Three provides on its website a series of twelve podcasts for parents and families, featuring an interview with an expert and how to apply current research to daily interactions with your infant or toddler. Focuses include coping with crying, sleep issues, emotional development, nutrition, self esteem, the development of self control, nurturing healthy brain development, the influence of television and other media on young children, the role of grandparents, the influence of fathers, partnering with your child's caregiver, and encouraging parents to reflect on their family history and how it influences the way we choose to raise our children. I can't wait to be able to have time to sit and view these podcasts! As a parent and educator of three year olds, these really caught my attention, both as personal resources and resources to pass on to the parents of children in my class!

There are other resources to explore on this website, such as a section on public policy, but I ran out of time to explore it!

A search of the website for "changing demographics and diversity" produces a wealth of information regarding different types of families, including the different pathways to parenthood. It also includes exploring cultural differences to communication, television viewing, and points to consider when observing children psychosocially. Unfortunately, to view the articles in their entirety, you have to be a subscriber to the Zero to Three Journal.  I wonder if I send a request to the Walden University Library, perhaps a subscription could be purchased for Walden University student use?

Establishing Professional Contacts and Expanding Resources

This week for our course assignment we had to establish contact with at least two early childhood professionals outside the United States. We also had to explore at least one early childhood website that was unfamiliar to us.

I attempted to contact early childhood professionals from Canada and Argentina. I emailed both of them and am waiting to receive a reply. Hopefully I will receive one soon. I chose these countries because I have family ties to both of them. My grandmother grew up in Canada and my husband and his family are from Argentina, so I would like to know more about early care and education in these areas of the world. That being said, I know there are parts of Canada that do not speak English, and hope that the language barrier does not become a factor here. I am also nervous about contacting a representative from Argentina for the same reason. Perhaps if I don't hear anything from the Argentina representative I can have my husband help me translate my email to Spanish and get results that way. I am very excited about learning more about the issues and trends in early childhood in other parts of the world.

For the second part of this assignment, I chose to explore the zero to three website (www.zerotothree.org). I chose this site because I am the proud parent of a nine month old boy, and found its content both interesting professionally and personally. I was also looking for resources to share with my husband, as he is exploring his new role as stay at home dad, and spends the day with our son.  I was surprised to learn about all of the resources they had to offer both parents and professionals and look forward to exploring this site more and receiving its free e-newsletters. I hope to learn from the professionals I contacted above if their countries have similar resources and advocate as strongly for their young children as this organization does.

I am interested to learn about what my colleagues can share about their experiences, and look forward to exchanging information over the next eight weeks.