Sharing Web Resources

I chose the international Canadian Association for Early Childhood Education website (www.cayc.ca/indexjournal.html). After doing more research on this site I was struck by one of their main missions which is, "Young children have the right to learn through play".

Obviously, if you look at the title of my blog I have a huge interest in this topic. They share several articles and research quotes to support this mission. The organization seems to have similar objectives as programs in our country like: policies and programs that effect the development of children, ECH community support, professional development, opportunities for effective collaboration, and recognition of outstanding contributions to the well-being of children.

They also have an interest in promoting family literacy. I have tried to contact someone in regards to their literacy program but have not gotten a response yet. Another thing that I learned while researching this website was that there is a big issue with environmental hazards and the affects on mothers breastmilk. The statement only referred to the over use of plastic and metal products which was starting to show up in mothers milk. They talked about the need for better regulation of these products.

Establishing Professional Contacts

Part 1

I was initially nervous about contacting someone from another country but then I was excited! I think it will be interesting and a great learning experience. The two contacts I chose to e-mail were:
www.ulrike.konrad-ristau@agj.de
www.siobhanf@nippa.org

Part 2
The Resource that I chose to explore is the International Step by Step Association at www.issa.nl/. I am interested in this area because my heritage is from the Netherlands. I hope to learn about their ECH practices, issues and trends.

"My Supports"

To me, the term support  is anything that gives me help in completing a task in the least amount of time, or just help to complete a task at all.  It also means getting emotional support such as affirmation and validation from someone who knows and accepts my good and bad qualities.  I have many supports that would make my life easier but I don't really need them to complete a task.  Some of my support needs are having a car, computer, and monetary support.  My support wants include others to help move heavy items, help with yard work, an alarm clock, calendar, microwave, dishwasher and running water to name a few.  I could not get to work without a car and could not work full time and keep up the daily duties of running a home or taking the children to their extra curricular activities without a car.  Furthermore, without a computer I could not take this class or pay my bills without monetary support.  Without these supports I would have to be at home full time, and the children would not be able to attend their activities.  They would all have to work to help out like children did years ago.      

If I were all of the sudden in an accident that left me paralyzed and in a wheelchair I would need many different kinds of supports depending on whether or not I had the use of my hands.  I would no longer be independent and would need someone who could feed me, change me, bathe me, dress me and take me everywhere I needed to go, like an infant.  Not many of the supports that were important to me before would be helpful now.  The emotional support would still be needed but the practical supports would not be as helpful because I couldn't reach most of them, or have access to them with a wheelchair.  The physical supports would become the greatest help to me because it is the physical mobility that I would have lost.  These supports would include: a wheelchair, ramps, elevators, lifts, and people who could help me with personal needs.  With these supports I would at the very least be able to live, but without them I could not survive (feeding).  These kinds of support would become very critical to my success as opposed to just enhancing my current life.

"My Connections to Play"

          As a child we would spend hours exploring leaves, rocks, sticks , water and clay down at the creek.

           Coming from a family of 8 children there was always someone to play basketball with.

 My father was a wheat farmer so as young children we spent hours playing in the wheat trucks.

This picture reminded me of the times we would play in the driveway and use objects to pretend we had a  house and a neighborhood.  We would drive our tricycles on our made up roads.

PLAY QUOTES

"In childhood there is no distinction between play and work (Almon, 2002)"
"Pretend play requires extended uninterrupted time periods to develop complexity (Berger, 2002)"

HOW PLAY HAS CHANGED:
Forty years ago children used their imaginations more to play.  I lived on a farm and we made our own intertainment with whatever materials we could find in nature and we were able to spend hours without being interrupted.  Today, children have more electronic games and toys that do not allow them to use their imaginations or get as much physical activity, as well as less unstructured play.

We still play with board games, have yoyo's, balls, dolls, jacks, stuffed animals and wheeled vehicles, but the difference today is that we have video games, electronic games and such resulting in less cognitive thinking skills, less imagination and less physical activity.  I hope we can get back to more natural playscapes and reconnect with yesterday.  In the book, Last Child In The Woods Richard Louv states that, "direct exposure to nature is essential for healthy childhood development and for physical and emotional health of children and adults.  Play is just as important for adults as it is for children. 

INTERESTING STATISTIC:
Out of 15,000 school districts surveyed in 1999, 40% were eliminating recess or cutting back on it.  Only three states require recess and 10 recommend it (NYT).  

   

Child Development and Public Health

I chose the topic of SIDS because it seems to be a hot topic and one that is still unresolved.  Since I work one on one with child care providers we try and educate and pass on any new information that comes out on the topic.  We also bring speakers in to speak about it.

I looked at SIDS (also called cot death or crib death) around the world and found that New Zealand had the highest incidence while Asia, the Netherlands, Sweden and Finland have fewer cases.  In the Netherlands in 1971, two pediatricians at a conference presented the benefits of prone sleeping positions for babies.  Mothers then switched from their traditional habit of putting babies to sleep on their backs and by 1986 the cot death rate (which had been very low) had tripled.  Yet it was the Netherlands that started the first 'back to sleep' campaign in 1989, and their Sudden Infant Death rate fell by 40 percent.

In New Zealand some research suggests that the reason for cot death is extremely toxic nerve gases that form a certain fungi that gets into the mattress.  Other researchers dispute this view, however, after they implimented matress wrapping where a thin plastic coating is wrapped around the matress, rates have fallen 48 percent.  In conclusion, it appears that there are many views out there about the causes but nothing definite.  I say if what other countries are doing is working to lower incidence then keep doing it.

When I Think of Child Development.....

The greatest sign of success for a teacher is to be able to say, "The children are now working as if I did not exist."       Montessori

"Free the child's potential, and you will transform him into the world".     Maria Montessori 

"It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men".     Frederick Douglass

Testing for Intelligence?

On the subject of viewing children holistically I believe that tests should cover much more than acedamic skills such as reading and mathematics.  Children have many learning styles and they should all be included in intelligence tests.  If a child learns through hands on experiences and seeing, then expecting that child to listen to instructions without giving concrete handson relationships is not teaching to the whole child and test results will be inaccurate for these children.   

Studies have shown that traditional "IQ" tests work well at predicting academic success but fall short of testing children's "emotional intelligence".  These predictions of success may not only be wrong, but they may create inaccurate expectations for children and their parents.  Psychologist and author Daniel Goleman offers a new concept not only for predicting school success, but future life success.  He suggests that a number of ingredients add up to good "emotional intelligence," including self-control or impulse control, the ability to motivate one's self, persistence, optimism, self-umderstanding, empathy, the art of listening to others.  He feels that children with superior cognitive skills do not always live up to their promise because they do not always possess solid emotional intelligence (Brodkin, A,M. 2010). 

I looked at Europe, specifically Switzerland, to see how children were assessed and found that special agencies in each of the Swiss Cantons were responsible for the investigatory procedures.  The special education needs are mostly identified by medical doctors and early intervention specialists including school psychologists but the final decision is made by the school administrative board.  There is no standard instrument available at this time but orientation on ICF is under discussion. 

I found my research on intelligence testing very informative.  My youngest son has just been tested for the "gifted" program.  Before this assignment I had very little knowledge on the way he was tested, as to whether or not he was tested with the whole child in mind.  I will be a more active participant in his education plan because of this new knowledge I have aquired.

References:
www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/issues/students/earlycld/ea500.htm
Brodkin, Adele.  Scholastic Parents. using your head and your heart 
www.who.int/classifications/icf/en