Establishing Professional Contracts

In trying to contract two professional educators outside of the United States was hard for me. I sent out two letters to brasilia@unicef.org  and cario@unicef.org informing them of the school I attend and the interest in meeting two professionals outside of the United States. My goal is to grow and understand the issues and trends explored in another country besides the United States. After waiting two full days, I decided to take the alternate assignment in part one. In selecting one of the early childhood settings, I chose to read each episode of the individual. I decided to choose someone who interest intrigued me, who shared similar values and the steps he or she took to become an advocate. I chose Delfena Mitchell program, Liberty Children's home, because I am interested in the way she is able to receive children and what precautions she takes in order to break the ice with children and nurture them. I also chose TJ Skalski program, called the Mother Earth's Children's Charter School (MECCS) because she relates to my story in so many ways, however I never left the United States. Her passion and ambition to provide and build children's dreams similar to what I want to do.

My question and concerns for this assignment is "What is the most challenging thing that happened thus far in regards to getting information from early childhood professionals in other countries you have? Can we choose an early childhood professionals from the World Forum episodes as a contact to get to them and their passion of work for our assignments?

My Supports

My mother has always instilled in me and my siblings how important education is. My father has always told me to do my best and never let anyone bring me down. My siblings have always been supportive in whatever I do. My husband has for the last 14 years of being together (married for 5 years) has always told me to go above and beyond my dreams. Without the love, guidance and support of my family and friends, there is no telling where I maybe. If my parents were not here, I would reflect on all the memories they have instilled in me for the last 32 years of my life.

The only challenge I have is not living up to the expectations my family and my friends have set for me.

My Connections to Play

Quotes:

Play energizes us and enlivens us. It eases our burdens. It renews our natural sense of optimism and opens us up to new possibilities.

Stuart Brown, MD
Contemporary American psychiatrist                                                

Creative people are curious, flexible, persistent, and independent with a tremendous spirit of adventure and a love of play.

Henri MatisseFrench painter                                                                       

Retrieved from:www.thestrong.org/about-play/play-quotes

Retrieved pictures from www.picturesof.net/search_term_pages/children_playing.h...

Playing is a much needed activity in early childhood, because it helps prepare a child for school. When a child is engaged in hands on activities, they learn to refine their listening and reasoning skills. They are able to learn through touch, sight and sound.

As a child, I remember playing teacher, being a cook, policeman, doctor, decorator, singing songs, making sand castles, collecting sea shells, ran races and playing family games with my family. Each time we played it was about exploring and learning. We learned how to solve problems, expand our vocabulary, share, negotiate, and enjoy each other’s company. With my friends, I played with as well as the coaches at school, promoted play. It gave us a chance to unwind, relax, and laugh with one another as well as keeping us physically fit. Unlike today, parents are not promoting play at home. Playing is done at school or by playing video games, googling on the internet and watching television. Whatever happened to playing outside until the street lights came on? By children playing video games, watching television and googling on the internet are not worried about weight. Instead obesity is becoming a common problem among our children today when it states that they need more physical development.

As a child, I had an urge to learn new things through exploration as an adult I still learn by exploring.

Chid Obesity

Child obesity is a serious medical condition that affects children and adolescents. It occurs when a child is well above the normal weight for his or her age and height. Child obesity is particularly troubling because the extra pounds often start children on the path to health problems that were once confined to adults, such as diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol. Child obesity can also lead to poor self-esteem and depression. Diabetes is something that is apparent on both sides of my family; both parents have it. With me having young nieces and nephews who struggle with weight, I decided to do research to see how other kids compare.

Nationally, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Council indicate that obesity rates have quintupled among 6-11-year-olds and tripled among teens and children ages 2 to 5. Many schools and child care centers are heeding the medical and government warnings about overweight children and changing the type of food being served and the amount of rigorous exercise planned on a daily basis.

An investigation of the pediatric population of Pescara province, Italy, in 2001 - 2002 academic school year concluded that the obesity problem is urgent. In both Italy and the United Kingdom there are nearly twice as many boys aged 5 to 17 who are obese than in Germany or the Czech Republic. Coupling the lack of physical activity with the prevalence of junk food, excess sugar and fats in the diet, one can expect this trend to produce an even larger segment of the world population having Type 2 Diabetes.

30 per cent of British five- to nine-year-olds are overweight or obese and this is expected to rise to 36 per cent by 2011, shows the Datamonitor report. Italy currently has a higher number of overweight children than the US, although the US leads in obesity figures. By 2011 however, the UK, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands will have almost caught up with the rate of obese children in the US (16 per cent).

Another study done showed that the actual number of children of elementary school age (6–11 years), estimated that there are 383,000 obese children in Italy; 105,000 in the north, 63,000 in the centre and 215,000 in the south. In terms of childhood health outcomes associated with obesity, the estimated numbers of prevalent cases of selected cardiovascular and metabolic diseases and conditions among obese elementary school children in Italy are also high. There would be approximately 100,000 children between the ages of 6 and 11 with hypertension and with high cholesterol (3% of the entire school age population), more than 150,000 with hyperinsulinemia (4.6%), 45 000 with glucose intolerance, more than 125,000 with hepatic statuses, and nearly 5,700 with type 2 diabetes (0.2%).The estimated number of children affected with each health problem was double for southern Italy compared with northern Italy despite the slightly larger population of children in the north.

There are more than 380,000 obese children in Italy, with a disproportionate burden in southern Italy. Providing the type of comprehensive care recommended to clinically treat obesity, which includes family involvement, a developmentally appropriate approach, behaviour modification, dietary changes, and increased physical activity etc. The estimated number of obese children in the south is double that of the north is of particular concern in an area with a chronic shortage of funds and long waiting lists for specialist services.

After doing this research, learning more about child obesity has had a tremendous impact on me. It has made me more aware of this trend that seems to be happening globally. I never thought Italy, which is one of the worlds most notable fashion place and famous diets, would have an issue with child obesity. In my future work, I plan to instil in my students the importance of eating and maintaining a healthy lifestyle. I will let them know how this may affect their everyday activities including their school work.

Sources:

·         Gallus S, Colombo P, Scarpino V, Zuccaro P, Negri E, Apolone G, La Vecchia C. Overweight and obesity in Italian adults 2004, and an overview of trends since 1983. Eur J Clin Nutr 2006; 60: 1174–1179.

·         www.nutraingredients.com

·         News.com.au

Children Quote

The Audubon Nature Preschool
"Children are born naturalists. They explore the world with all of their senses, experiment in the environment, and communicate their discoveries to those around them."
Retreived from
www.audubonnaturalist.org/default.asp?page=548

Intelligence

When considering a commitment to viewing young children holistically, there should be several things used to measure and assess them.  Measuring children’s physical, social, emotional, cognitive and language skills are necessary when using a holistically approach to measure children. These measurements will help align and foster shared accountability outcomes across diverse constituencies in a community. The outcome from the data collected will have a positive effect. The effect will hopefully result in improved conditions for the children.  Measuring children physically will help to show how they may react to various activities. This can also show how they may interact with other children socially. The way children interact with other children physically and socially may have a tremendous impact on their emotional well being.  Measuring children’s cognitive and language skills are very important as well.  Through measuring children’s cognitive skills, a person is measuring their mental processes of perception, memory, judgment, and reasoning, as contrasted with emotional and volitional processes. Language skills will measure the children’s communication of thoughts and feelings through a system of arbitrary signals, such as voice sounds, gestures, or written symbols. 

In Canada, children are measured and assessed using an early development instrument, EDI. An EDI is a 104- item questionnaire given to and filled out by Kindergarten teachers on each student in their classrooms. It is generally given during the spring of the school year. The questionnaire requires approximately 20 minutes per student to complete. The teachers are generally given a stipend or release time for EDI related activities. The EDI measures five developmental areas of children in kindergarten. These areas are 1) physical health and well being, 2) emotional maturity, 3) social competence, 4) language and cognitive development and 5) communication skills and general knowledge. The EDI identifies the percentage of children who are vulnerable by developmental domain and compares this information by target communities such as cities, and school districts. Generally the outcomes of the EDI’s are positive which results in increased community awareness of the importance of childhood development as well as changes to early childhood policies and strategies of funding.

Retrieved from www.earlyyearsinstitute.org/data/EDI%20Fact%20Sheet.pdf

Child Poverty

Every human being should have the opportunity to make a better life for themselves. Unfortunately, too many children in the world today grow up without this chance, because they are denied their basic right to attend school. A way to end world poverty as we know it requires everyone to empower themselves to make positive choices and provide for themselves and their families. Mexico is the largest country in the world to deal with child poverty. Reasons for child poverty are individual condition, geography and political economy. To certain circumstances and characteristics of poor people in Mexico they lack the skills, intelligence, health and education to make them. Due to the lack of the communication and transportation, the government is unable to provide the country with potable water, affordable food, primary health care, and education because of the geographic. The economy itself is not accurate because the government doesn’t carry out enough policies to encourage successful development, therefore they cannot repay nor do loans.

As a child my husband dealt with poverty. My husband was raised with four younger siblings, making him the oldest with a single parent mother. My husband and his family grew up in a poor house with no heat and barely enough light in order to survive. His mother was on welfare getting about $600.00 a month raising five children on her own. As a child, my husband wore the same clothes at least twice each week, but didn’t take anything for granted including life. By the age of 11, he decided to work on a farm in order to help his mother. As he got older he found out that money was the key to everything (housing, clothes, food, shoes, etc.) By the age of 21, my husband mother died. My husband took it upon himself to raise his siblings. He went to school and worked 2 jobs to provide them a better life. To this day all four siblings graduated from high school. My husband passion, motivation and wisdom only made him stronger. Dealing with poverty he learned to appreciate life, because he knew his greatness would come if he believes.

Retrieved from www.eslbee.com/causes_of_poverty_in_mexico.htm

Retrieved from www.nationmaster.com/graph/eco_chi_pov-economy-child-po...