Research Around the World

Information I have gained while viewing the Harvard website is that Harvard has a global commitment to global work that represents an acknowledgement of moral responsibility to meet the needs of all children and a critical investment in the roots of economic productivity, positive health outcomes, and strong civil society in all nations, from the poorest to the most affluent. One essential, cross-cutting aspect of the Center’s approach is the commitment to work collaboratively across disciplines and institutions, drawing together the best and most creative expertise available to achieve the Initiative’s goals.

Harvard’s Global Children’s Initiative seeks to advance the Center's core mission globally by implementing research, public engagement and leadership development in child health and development that is grounded in science and engages researchers, public leaders, practitioners, and students from a wide range of institutions around the world.

The Global Children’s Initiative has begun to build activities in three domains. The three domains include areas in early childhood development, child mental health and children in crisis and conflict situations. Each of these domains is guided by faculty working group that facilitate cross-disciplinary collaboration; design and implement new projects; and engage additional faculty, students, and collaborators beyond the Harvard community.

Other countries being helped by the Harvard Global works include Zambian Early Childhood Development Project. The Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University launched the Zambian Early Childhood Development Project (ZECDP) in 2009, a collaborative effort to measure the effects of an ongoing anti-malaria initiative on children’s development in Zambia and addresses the knowledge gaps of the Zambian children.

Brazil is another country being assisted by Harvard’s Global work with Applying the Science of Early Childhood in Brazil. In collaboration with local experts, this project aims to use the science of child health and development to guide stronger policies and larger investments to benefit young children and their families in Brazil.

This project represents an opportunity for the Center to work with Brazilian scholars, policymakers, and civil society leaders to adapt the Center’s programmatic model for the local context in order to catalyze more effective policies and programs that will, foster a more prosperous, sustainable, and equitable society.

Together, these organizations will engage in activities that build a scientific agenda and community of scholars around early childhood development. It’s really great to see that Harvard is assisting these international countries with issues that will help make sure children are receiving the education and medical attention they need.

~Getting to Know Your International Contacts~

I have been successful in receiving correspondence back from an International Early Childhood Professional.

I chose to research issues related to the childhood poverty in India. India has the world’s largest number of poor people in a single country.  India’s accomplishments have been made in its health care and education programs. There are more elementary school-aged children attending school now than in previous years. 

India has implemented government programs to reduce poverty in its country.  Over the last decade India has made efforts to alleviate poverty through increase economic growth, including liberalization of the economy, targeted programs, land and tenancy reforms, empowerment based approaches and the provision of basic services.

These programs aim to improve the quality of life and cater to the special needs of desperate parts of its population, such as children, women, disabled and older people through organized and sustainable development.

“Early Exposure to literacy in Education”

If I had a choice to choose any topic related to the early childhood field for research it would be the impact of the early exposure to literacy in education. The positive contribution for exposure to early literacy would be children having a vocabulary of 20,000 words by the time they enter preschool.  The development of literacy skills through early experiences is linked to children’s later success in learning to read and language development. This would also motivate children in their other studies.

 

“So please, oh PLEASE, we beg, we pray, go throw your TV set away, And in its place you can install, a lovely bookshelf on the wall.” — Roald Dahl, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Research Journey

 

Personal Research Journey

The topic I chose to research related to early childhood education is Language Development.  I would like to identify ways of fostering language development in young children. Determine if listening and understanding help a child’s language development in a positive way and if relationships between parents and children influence their language development?  In being an early childhood educator it’s important to understand children and their families. By understand child language development and to build knowledge that can improve outcomes for children and their families. Speaking and communicating develops there increasing abilities to understand and use language to communicate information, experiences, ideas, feelings, opinions, needs and questions. Parents have a positive influence on their child’s development. The quality of the parent child relationship is more important than any single parenting practice or skill. The articles from this week will help me validate information that is accurate and not accurate. I will utilize this information when doing my research.

~What are the Consequences~

(International Early Childhood)

One consequence of learning about the international early childhood field is that I have discovered that the American education system has just as many problems as some international educational programs/systems. The second thing that I learned is that the early childhood education system in most countries is in development while other countries do not even recognize early childhood education as a necessity. Finally I learned that issues such as poverty and malnutrition along with uneducated parents can impact a child’s ability to learn.



One goal for the field of early childhood education should be to continue to develop new ways to reach children and their families all over the world. Also continue to assists with the needs of the families so parents will be able to provide the best care for there children at home.

 

~South Asia...My Connection~

~South Asia...My International Connection~

The region I chose was South Asia. The reason I chose South Asia is with all the fighting going on in that region I wanted to know where they stood on implementing early childhood education.  Some of the challenges this region faces are support young children, their families and communities, in all the areas where the child is growing physically, emotionally, socially and intellectually. The funding for the early childhood education is another problem this region faces. Expanding quality early childhood education, particularly to the most marginalized, therefore could help promote equity and inclusion in education and society in general. There are over forty-two million children that are not going children that are going to school the education are unsatisfactory.  Children are not receiving proper medical treatment that is needed like immunizations against polio and measles. There are many that do not get the proper nourishment they need and are malnourished.

The first eight years of a child’s life is a critical period when incredible growth and development occur. Exposure to a quality early childhood education is crucial because it helps with tremendous brain development that lays the foundation for latter learning. The growing evidence that children who have participated in high quality early childhood education programs exhibit considerable gains in social, educational, health and intellectual spheres than those who have not participated (UNICEF, 2012).

South Asia is home to more than a third of the world’s children who lack a basic education.  As an early childhood professional I think South Asia is lacking in many areas for the children of that region to have a productive environment for them to be successful.  In reviewing the information from the website I think about how we stress to the families we serve about our children’s health. We stress that if the child is healthy they we be able and eager to learn. By taking a look at South Asia I am very thankful for the programs and services that are available for our children and their families to take advantage of in the United States. In the United States our children have the opportunity to receive free medical treatment and not be impaired by the childhood diseases they are faced with in other regions of the world. UNICEF is a great organization that tries to bring some of the same opportunities our children have in the United States to other regions of the world.

Sharing Web Resources

~Sharing Web Resources~

Through exploring the Children’s Defense Fund website I have discovered a section called Policy priorities.  This section has information dealing with budget watch, children’s health, welfare, ending child poverty, elementary and secondary education, juvenile justice, projects for children in need, advocate and family resources.

In the early childhood education and care section issues addressed were the advantages of early childhood education, new data is out concerning early childhood education and care, increasing access to full-day kindergarten which is a strategy for boosting learning achievement gaps for children, and the President’s budget for fiscal year 2013 in early childhood education. 

The Children’s Defense Fund has Information concerning issues that are important to children in the 21st century; there are new common core standards that set high expectations for every child including kindergarteners. We need to prepare all of our children to compete in this global economy but for millions of children in the United States there is a missing half-step in their early learning years. Full–day kindergarten boosts children’s cognitive learning, creative problem-solving skills, and social competence.

Insight gained from the website about issues and trends concerning early childhood education include the President’s 2013 fiscal year budget proposal that would increase Head Start funding by $85 million over fiscal year 2012 funding levels. This would allow 962,000 children to participate in Head Start. These funds would also support the implementation of new regulations to strengthen the program by requiring low-performing grantees to compete for continued funding.

Provide an $825 million dollar increase in the Child Care and Development Block Grant which offers subsidized child care dollars to families who need it. These funds would include a $300 million investment for a new child care quality initiative that states would use to improve the services that children receive in child care settings by investing directly in programs and teachers. This increase would also ensure that more than 70,000 additional low-income children would be eligible to receive services.

Support programs that benefit families with infants and toddlers by providing a $20 million increase to Part C of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, the section that provides grants for infants and toddlers with special needs.

Provide a $50 million increase to evidence-based early childhood home visiting programs to improve health and developmental outcomes for families in at-risk communities.

Provide a third round of Early Learning Challenge Grants to help states improve their early care and education systems through a portion of the $850 million investment in Race to the top funding.

This increase in the budget would give children and families the opportunity to be aware and have accessibility to attend these early childhood education programs and be successful know and in the future.

 

 

~Getting to Know Your International Contacts~

Some of the current international research topics on the Early Childhood Australia website were: Learning and teaching through play, respecting diversity: articulating early childhood practice, partnerships: working together in early childhood settings and the early years learning framework essential reading for the national quality standard.

Insights and facts gained from the Early Childhood Australia is that Australia’s largest providers of early learning services are working together to meet national standards and raise the quality of early learning Australia so all children get the best possible start in life. Early childhood Australia is supporting best practices in prioritizing education and outcomes for children in childcare by making it accessible and affordable for families while continuing to prepare children to lead in healthy, happy lives into the future.

The early childhood Australia’s website provides a code of ethics, Australasian Journal of Early Childhood, Every child magazine, Research that is in practice, Everyday learning series, voice newsletter and supporting best practice resource just to name a few. I really enjoyed being enlightened by the information I read on the website.