Strengthen the Bonds of Collaborative Learning

Learning from my colleagues in Trinidad and Tobago showed me that even though we might be on different continents as early childhood professionals we are still struggling with the same issues.  It makes me realize that the issues we are dealing with in Oklahoma are really global issues.  That helps me better grasp the fact that these issues are hard and they don’t have simple solutions.  They are struggling with quality services for 3 to 5 year olds and dealing with transitions from preschool to public school.  They are also grappling with creating partnerships, which is one of the same issues happening here in the United States nationally.  The US is attempting to help states create partnerships between child care, Head Start, and Public School. 

            The similarities in professional goals between me and my colleague Dominique are fascinating to me.  His goals are to develop a professional cadre of childhood practitioners and to create new curricula that meet the needs of the practitioners.  We are both committed to the professional development of teachers.  It is also very important to both of us to cultivate relationships with other professionals.  Again understanding this has expanded my thoughts to be more global versus just thinking about my state or my country.

            Developing these connections has broadened my perspective.  I thought that I was very aware of other countries because my husband Jairo is originally from Venezuela so that has helped me to be more global in my thinking, but this experience has helped to realize that I was still thinking very shallow and narrow about early childhood.  It was if I knew those other places existed, but they were not impacting me personally.

            My goal is one that I share in common with my colleague Dominique from Trinidad and Tobago universal access to early childhood educations holds the key to equity in the education system as more young children are better prepared to benefit from high quality programs.

Getting to Know Your International Contacts--Part 3

My contact Dominique Eustace from Trinidad and Tobago provided the following responses to our questions of the week.  He provided me a response on Thursday of this week on his last day before leaving for the Christmas Holiday.

1.      What issues regarding quality and early childhood professionals are being discussed where you live and work?

·         The link between good training and quality practice in ECCE.

·         The development of quality early childhood environments (building new schools that meet the needs of all children)

 

2.      What opportunities and/or requirements for professional development exist?

·         UWI

o   Bachelor of Education (B.E.D.) – Early Childhood Care and Education

o   Certificate in Early Childhood Care and Development

o   Postgraduate Diploma in Education

o   MEd (with concentration in Curriculum)

o   MPhil and PhD degrees in Education

·         SERVOL

o   Skill Training Programme in Day Care/Pre School

o   SERVOL built a Regional Training and Resource Centre to train teachers, field officers and administrators for an expanded Early Child Care and Education (ECCE) Programme.

·         UWI-FDCRC

o   Early Childhood Care and Development Programme

·         UWI - Open campus

o   Certificate & Diploma Early Childhood Development and Family Studies

o   BEd Early Childhood Development and Family Studies

o   BEd Educational Leadership & Management

o   Certificate in Early Childhood Care and Education – Teacher

o   Certificate in Early Childhood Care and Education - Administrator

o   Certificate in Child Care

·         Caribbean Nazarene College

o   School Education with emphasis in Early Childhood Care and Education

3.      What are some of your professional goals?

·         To develop a professional cadre of early childhood practitioners

·         To create new curricula for the Caribbean that speaks to our culture and national and regional goals

·         To create a site that would allow for the development of a statistical unit for the Caribbean region

 

4.      What are some of your professional hopes, dreams, and challenges?

·         To assist in the professional development of our staff at the UWI-FDCRC

·         Sourcing funding

·         Not having timely and adequate data across the region to assist current research

Sharing Web Resources

Continuing my journey through the Child Care Aware America® website I found they are connected to many public policy and advocacy groups through links and posted resources.  They are either to support parents in selecting quality child care or to support providers of early childhood in the improvement of their quality.  Additionally, they provide a plethora of resources and links to provide support for an early childhood advocate.  The exploration of this website has provided me so much information and for an early childhood education public policy junkie it seems as if I have hit the mother load.  Before this class I primarily used NAEYC and National Women's Law Center so this has been very enlightening.

The section of the website that I explored this week was the Parent section.  One of the resources that I found very interesting was the "Family Decision Making Tool" to be used when deciding whether or not to return to work.  This tool provides some insight into all the different things that must be considered when making this decision.  I thought this was a great resource for family planning on having children.  They provide a plethora of resource for parents about how to select quality child care and also where and how to find quality programs.  They provide a very detailed and comprehensive resource section for parents.  They have teamed up with Parents magazine I think in a effort to ensure that parents are familiar that the resources they have are being utilized to the fullest.

I receive the newsletter "Capitol Connection" and the December 3 newsletter was about the need for increased funding and the direct link to this need with the continued battle about the fiscal cliff.  There was a link inside the newsletter that takes the reader to a NBCNews.com story about about rope-a-dope and that Speaker Boehner and House Majority Leader Cantor were discussing the fact that the proposal from the White House was not a serious offer.  The newsletter also provided information from both sides the Republican as well as the Democratic side on the fiscal cliff solution.  Both the newsletter as well as the links away from the newsletter shared that at this point in time we are not any closer to a solution and that cooperation is not being used to develop a solution.

The contents of newsletter is directly related to our coursework topic this week in that we have been talking about quality, affordability, and availability.  This website fully examines these three challenges from both the perspective of the provider, but also the parent.  The content of the website is very complimentary of the content of the course and very relevant.

The exploration of this website coupled with the information reviewed this week solidifies for me that idea that early childhood is a very political issue and when the country is in fiscal crisis early childhood is also in fiscal crisis.  This proves the need for more strong early childhood advocate working at all levels, local, state and federal because our children's lives and the quality of their lives depend on us.

Getting to Know Your International Contacts—Part 2

Excellence and Equity in ECCE in Trinidad and Tobago

 

 

 

I learned so much from my newest contact this week Dominique Eustace with the Ministry of Education in Trinidad and Tobago.  Regarding equity Dominique reported that the Ministry of Education recognizes that universal access to early childhood care and education (ECCE) holds the key to equity in the education system as more young children are better prepared to benefit from formal schooling.  The Ministry has implemented a comprehensive plan that expands access and ensures the provision of high quality early childhood education and services in quality facilities designed, built and administered to international standards.  He went on to state that there are approximately 1,154 early childhood centers in Trinidad and Tobago, 750 of which are registered with the Ministry of Education.  The current Ministry of Education has highlighted the importance of building a partnership with private institutions in achieving Universal ECCE by 2015.

With regard to excellence Dominique reported that quality care and education hold the key to transforming children into healthy adults.  The National ECCE Centre Survey conducted during 2004-2005 found that many ECCE centers operate under unsatisfactory conditions both in terms of physical facilities and the teaching and learning experiences.  The survey also found that the qualifications of the majority of EC teachers were below the new standards set by the Ministry of Education in keeping with international requirements.  As part of the Vision 2020 agenda, the government embarked on a mission to put new policies in place to ensure quality standards in all early childhood environments.  One such mandated policy requires upgrades in the qualification of EC teachers and administrators.  In doing this teachers were provided materials needed for effective teaching.

Some of my follow up questions for Dominique are to find out exactly what these new mandated qualifications are for teachers and directors.  What kind of training they are providing for the teachers to help them become more effective.  I was amazed at the amount of information he provided me with just one simple question.  Additionally, I am beginning to see Dominique and Patrick as true colleagues and will use these contacts in my work and I am fortunate that this class forced me to step out of my comfort zone and reach out to international partners. 

Reference

Eustace (personal communication, November 29, 2012) excellence and equity in ECCE in Trinidad and Tobago.





Sharing Web Resources

On November 14, 2012 Child Care Aware® announced that they have joined forces with Parents magazine to focus on the national child care crisis.  They stated that parents are having difficulties finding affordable, quality care together are asking readers to write to member of
Congress to support protections for children attending child care.

I think that Child Care Aware® is looking for partnerships that support their mission, but are not the typical advocacy partnership.  The safeguards they are seeking would increase requirements for most all states basic licensing requirements and these safeguards can be costly.  I personally agree with the safeguards that they are seeking, but in our state we just did public hearings on our revised licensing requirements and some of the items such as increasing initial training to 40 hours would not pass in our state the way the system is currently set up where states set their standards.  So some of the items that they are pushing for in their package to Congress could become controversial to the child care industry as a whole.

This information is very political and coupled with the information we have read about making the investment in early childhood it is critical that we provide high quality care.  The safeguards that they are seeking will increase the health and safety for young children thus increasing the quality of care.  I think that going to parents is the key to getting the word out and engaging them in a magazine that they regularly read is genius because they already have a trust in the brand.

Reading the public policy blog Child Care Aware® has opened my eyes to begin thinking about early childhood through the lens of the parent.  While I have always known that parents are key partners in working in this field Child Care Aware® does a very good job at keeping that parent focus and writing for the parent viewpoint versus the early childhood professional viewpoint.  I feel that I have read information that I already knew, but seeing it through a different lens strengthens the information.  Reading about Child Care Development Block Grant (CCDBG) through the lens of the parent is very different from the lens that I typically use so I think it is making me a better early childhood public policy fanatic!

Getting to Know Internation Contacts

My international contact is Patrick Makokoro from Zimbabwe.  Patrick is the Director at Nhaka Foundation, a non profit that is implementing a program that is increasing access to early education especially for orphans and vulnerable children. Early Childhood Development centers serve as an
entry point to the community for OVC and HIV/AIDS initiatives. The focus population consists of families containing orphans and vulnerable children in economically deprived rural areas with a high prevalence of HIV/AIDS.

The following questions were this weeks exchange of information between Patrick and I:

How are you involved in early childhood work in your country?

I am the founder and promoter of the Zimbabwe Network of Early Childhood Actors. Through this platform we are bringing together all the organizations especially the grassroots organizations working in ECD to make sure that their voices are projected and that there is access to resources both at a
Network and organizational level. In fact, I am just now coming from the successful hosting of our inaugural national conference! This has come as a culmination of my role as a Global Leader and also my work in ECD in Zimbabwe for the past 5 years.

What impact does your work have on the early childhood community where you live?

The impact is huge. I actually live in the peri urban areas where the prevalence rate of HIV/AIDS is very high and therefore families rarely make conscious choices of ensuring that orphans are sent to preschool. As a person who promotes access to early learning for children the community's
perception and awareness on the importance of ECD has been increased. More children are now accessing quality learning preschools and this has been a huge impact felt in the whole community.

What is your greatest challenge in your early childhood work?

The greatest challenge we have has been the resources. There is such a lot of work that needs to be done in the communities in order to increase access to early childhood programs. The preschool buildings are old and worn down and as such require renovation, there are no play materials, the teachers need to be retrained in order to increase quality education amongst the many
challenges. These require either financial or material resources and my job has been made even tougher by the global financial crisis. Some of the other down level challenges we have been handling through appreciative inquiry and other strength based approaches to community development.

This week with the study of poverty and my personal quest to learn about the local poverty in my community and beginning my exchanges with Patrick has caused me to really reflect on poverty and its over all impact on the lives of children and families.  This has been a very inspiring and soul searching week for me personally.

Sharing Web Resources

The Organization I chose to learn more about is Child Care Aware® of America.  The focus of this organization is be our nations leading voice for child care.  They work with local and state Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies to ensure that families have access to quality and affordable child care.  They also are leaders in developing and advocating for child care policies.  The website is as follows:  http://www.naccrra.org/

In the public policy section of thier website they provide information for advocates on the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) as well as develop a policy agenda.  They have an action center and your can sign up for their weekly newsletter titled, "Capitol Connection:  Weekly Update!".  They also provide training for child advocates and host a national policy conference each year in the spring.

In this weeks Capitol Connection they provided resouces for parents and professional regarding recovery and relief from Hurricane Sandy.  The provided information on Voting for Children and Families and how to locate your polling place.  They were also utilizing social media by providing updates for both Twitter and Facebook that stated "I Voted for Children and Families".  Additionally, they provided information about Race to the Top District Application deadline extensions.  Each week they host a lunch & learn webinar to provide training for early childhood advocates.  This weeks lunch & learn was titled, "The New Face of Hill".  This webinar is on Thursday and I am planning on attending.  I will keep you posted!

Establishing Professional Contacts and Expanding Resources

In my quest to expand my circle of early childhood professional contact to include international professionals I have emailed three organizations to make contact, but at this time have not heard back from them.  Additionally, I also emailed Roger Neugebauer with Child Care Exchange.  Roger and his wife Bonnie coordinate the World Forum so I asked him to assist me in making some international connections.  Roger has already emailed me back and copied on an email to some of his contacts.  I am hopeful that I will successfully will create my international connection.

The website I chose to explore is Child Care Aware of America formerly National Association of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies.  I chose them because they provide a great voice to the early childhood community.  Additionally, they have recently gone through a re-branding process and they have updated and changed much of their information so I wanted to explore this website.  They completely re-designed their website and it full of resources and divided into three different categories early care providers, parents, and advocates.

I look forward to learning from my new international early childhood colleagues as well as learning from my classmates new connections as well.

My Daily Supports

My Daily Supports

When I first stop to think about my daily supports the first person that comes to mind is my wonderful husband Jairo.  He is the greatest support and has been a great supporter of me going back to get my Master's degree. 

The next support would be my children Jordan, Lauren and Hunter.  Hunter is the only one that still lives with us to see on daily basis, but the girls are in college and I either talk or text them daily.  They are my everything.

My parents are alwasy there for me and I talk to my mother daily on the phone at least once if not more than once per day.  She is my greatest cheerleader and best friend.

Without these people I would not be near the person I am today.

At work I have a great support system within our Leadership Team at my office.  We have to support each other because in an office with 35 people there is always some type of drama going on and with out my fellow Leadership Team colleagues I would feel alone on an island.

My relationship with God provides the foundation for which all these other relationships are built and provide the opportunity to beat or survive any challenge that comes before me.

My Connection to Play

Play to me means outside and exploration.  I grew up on a farm in western Oklahoma and I spent hours outside playing in the dirt making mud pies and my other favorite was playing school with all of my dolls.  The following quotes I think are instrumental in my believes about play in my own personal life.

I like nonsense, it wakes up the brain cells. Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living, It's a way of looking at life through the wrong end of a telescope. Which is what I do, And that enables you to laugh at life's realities.

Dr. Seuss
US author & illustrator (1904 - 1991)

You have brains in your head.
You have feet in your shoes.
You can steer yourself
any direction you choose.
You're on your own.
And you know what you know.
And YOU are the one who'll decide where to go....

Dr. Seuss, Oh! The Places You'll Go!
US author & illustrator (1904 - 1991)

I have included pictures of the books that I loved to read and use to play school with my dolls and some good old fashion dirt to represent my play in making mud pies with the picture of the old tin dish set.  This dish set looks exactly like the set I had a child.  Great memories.

My parents always allowed me to play and dream of all the possibilities that would come to life over the course of my lifetime.  I was a very independent child and have grown to be an independent adult.  Play was critical for me to figure out what I wanted in my life.  I wanted to help people as a teacher, but what I did not know was I wanted to help many teachers of young children.  Play is still an important part of my life and I am a firm believer that play is a necessary task in everyone's life.  Play opens the door for exploration and opens the mind to be creative.  My parents allowed me to explore and play all day everyday. 

I think one of the greatest issues for children today is that they are not allowed to play outside because of parental fear of danger in our neighborhoods.  I think it is crtical in today's society that we afford children the opportunity to learn to play in safe settings.  Child care centers are the perfect place for children to have the ability to explore, dream and think about the possibilities.  I have worked to create an environment in my home where my children played, explored and dreamed.  It is amazing to me that today as 22, 20, and 18 year olds they still have dreams and play still plays a major role in their lives as young adults.  If we teach children to play they will play for LIFE!!!

 

Relationship Reflection

My best friend Dawn

 Relations are extremely important to me and I have a variety of friends from a variety of diffent facets of my life.  My best friend Dawn is very important to me and she means the world to me, she is like a sister to me.  I lost my sister 12 years ago and while no one could replace my sister Dawn feels like a sister.  My children call her Auntie Dawn and her children call me Aunt Jill.  She is extremely important to me.

College Friends

College Friends

 My husband Jairo and I met while working at a Mexican food restaurant 24 years ago and of the people working there at that time there are 9 couples that got married and all are still married over 20 years later.  We have remained friends with several of these couples over the years.  The challenges we have faced in maintaining these realtionships include we all have children of various ages and get busy in our daily lives so it takes special care to maintain these long term relationships.  I am proud that we have worked to keep these friendships alive and well.  Both pictures of college friends are couples from our work at Bobo's the Mexican food restrautant. 

The next picture of me and my middle child and baby daughter Lauren is us taking a picture of ourselves while looking at the ceiling at Graceland.  One of the things the characteristics of our relationship is that we always have lots of fun.  My husband and I worked hard to do lots of fun things with our children.  We are a fun group!

My and my daughter Lauren

Me and my friends from the Missouri Registry

My mom, me, my cousins Teresa and Joe and my mom's twin sister Aunt Jerry.

My Sister Jan

My friend Lezley and me

My best friend Kelly and me getting our Thunder on!!!

My Momtana Registry Friends

My dad, my son Hunter, my mom and me

Me and my son Hunter

My friend Denise from the Missouri Registry has become one of my very best friends and we started out really just being collegues that do the same type of work in different states.  We served on the National Registry Alliance board together, but our parternship has grown and strengthened into a personal friendship type of relationship.  This picture was taken last fall at the OKState vs Missouri game in Missouri.  My husband, my son and I went and stayed with Denise and attended the football game together. 

The next couple of pictures are of my family my mom is a twin and me and Aunt Jerry's children are really close and spend all holidays together.  We are a constant support system for each other.  Then there is a picture of my sister from 1999 about 11 months before she passed away.  I have worked really hard to keep her spirit alive for my children.  Aunt Jan meant the world to them, but they were 5, 7 and 9 when she passed away so they have distant memories of her and it is important to me to keep her alive for them.  It has been a challenge just because they were so young when she passed away, but it is very important for me and my family.

This is a picture of my friend Lezley and I at the football game from today.  We have been friends for about 8 years.  She is my best friend from Blanchard the town that I live in and my Blanchard relationships seem very different from the rest of my relationships.  In Blanchard I am just a mom, but all other relationships I am a mom and I have an identiy associated with my work as an early childhood professional.  





This picture was from this summer when the OKC Thunder was playing in the NBA Finals.  We dressed up at work to support our team.  Kelly is one of my best friends and she is a jewel.  We have a lot in common our kids are similar in age and we are at similar places in our lives.  She is already an empty nester, but she is my one friend that understands both of my worlds the one that I am mother of three children and she understands my passion for my work as an early childhood professional.

Me and my oldest daughter Jordan

My Montana Registry friends are a group of ladies that do similar work that I do for the state of Oklahoma in the state of Montana.  We have become distant friends because of our common interests in Registry work.  I am excited to get to see these ladies this coming week at The National Registry Alliance conference in Panama City Beach, Florida.

My daughters Jordan and Lauren



My husband Jairo and I

I am finishing up with the most critical relationships in my life and they are my family.  My parents, my husband and my children.  This is my sons senior year in high school and he is playing football, which is a very important part of our lives.  We are huge football fans for both high school football and college football.  I am so proud of him and you can tell by looking at the picture that my parents are too.  They live over an hour away from us, but they are so dedicated to my children that they rarely miss any of my kids important games, programs, or just come to show them support for whatever they need. 













My daughters are Gamma Phi Beta's at Oklahoma State University and Gamma Phi is very important to my family because my sister was a Gamma Phi so that is connection she and the girls have so that is part of the legacy she leaves for our family.


Lastly, my husband of 22 years Jairo is extremely important to me.  We are very fortunate that both of us have parents that have been married 40 plus years so they have been great role models for us and that they have shown us that marriage is hard work and you have to be committed to each other.  I am hopeful that we have been the same type of role model for our children.

The committment to my personal relationship have been key to the foundation for the realtionships I have developed as an early childhood professional.  I am public policy fanatic just as my blog states and our my work in early childhood has been the foundation for my public policy efforts.  Just like we have read about all week relationships between teacher and the family is critical as a foundation for high quality.  As a public policy advocate I have worked to seek funding for high quality early childhood programs and high quality relationships lies at the foundation.

When I think of Child Development

When I think of child development and how children learn the following quotes come to mind for me:

From there to here, from here to there, funny things everywhere--Dr. Seuss

I like nonsense, it wakes up the brain cells.  Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living.--Dr. Seuss

A person's a person, no matter how small.--Dr. Seuss

http://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/61105.Dr_Seuss

Do not to where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.--Ralph Waldo Emerson

http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/r/ralph_waldo_emerson_3.html

To Test or Not to Test

To test or not to test that is the question.  Society says testing is important, but personally I think we would focus on the whole child and meeting the needs of children we would need to test far less.  Standardized tests focuses just one aspect of the child it does not test all aspects of the child.  All children have different strengths and a standardized test is not going to tell the entire story about a child.  My daughter Lauren is not a good standardized test taker, but she is an amazing creative writer.  Unfortunately, there is not a standardized test available that would have ever discovered that quality.

The country I chose to write about is Venezuela and their school system basically two tracks they have a college bound or vocation bound education track and it begins in middle school.  My husband reported that he remembers going into fifth grade and making the decision that he was going the college bound track so from fifth grade on he took primarily math and science coursework with a limited number of humanities.  That was so surprising to me that as young as fifth grade you are making decisions about your future.  I would guess that probably is truly based on the your parents goals for your future instead of the child.

I think that instead of getting children ready for tests it is more important for schools to get ready for children.  I also think that schools need to be focusing on meeting the individual needs of the child no matter the age.  If teachers focused on meeting the individual needs of children our children would be accomplishing amazing things.

Consequences of Stress on Child Development

Early in our marriage my husband went back to college to change careers and at the time we had our oldest daughter Jordan, but shortly after moving back to Stillwater for him to return to school I found out I was pregnant with our second children daughter Lauren.  We were extremely poor at the time and we survived on the food items we received from the Women, Infants and Child (WIC) food program.  Our daughters were so young they don't remember that time in our lives so I don't think it effected their development.  My parents provided a strong support system for us.  They provided so many things that our children that our girls never knew that we were poor.  We were so poor at the time we did not even have a telephone so if my parents needed to get in touch with us they called the family that lived a couple door down and they would come get us.  That almost does not seem real now.  I have worked in Head Start for many years so I have seen first hand where poverty impacts children and sometimes their development if they don't have proper nutrition or adequate housing.  We were poor, but we were fortunate that we did not experience life changing poverty.

I was reading in the Kids Count Oklahoma website and almost 16% of Oklahoma's children live in poverty according to 2010 data collection (The Anne E. Casey Foundation, 2012).  This percentage has grown every year for the last four years.  This is a continual problem for children in child care in the state of Oklahoma. 

I think some of the resources available to children and families in poverty include WIC, Food Stamps, Head Start, Early Head Start and Medicaid.  We were able to access part of these programs for our family and they made a big difference in our children's lives.  My middle child Lauren had lost of medical issues as a child and has continued to have medical issues throughout her life, but having Medicaid so that we could take care her to the doctor when we needed to was such a relief.  We are very fortunate now we both have great jobs and are not in need of these services, but because of our past it has made me a true advocate for children and families in poverty.  Most of them are not living in poverty because that is the life they want they are there because of an unfortunate circumstance.  Many people are just one chronic medical issue away from poverty. 

I chose to look again to Venezuela since that is the country of origin for my husband.  He still has most of his family still living there so we are well aware that the country is struggling with poverty.  I was able to find an article about a music program that they have implemented to bring the joy of playing musical instruments to children in poverty.  The article even stated that the government has put 64 million dollars into the program and that Chavez, the President is a supporter of the program (Walkin, 2012).  These programs are operated in the schools after school so it is a way of protecting the children by keeping them off of the streets.  The program serves pre-K through sixth grade. 

Poverty is everywhere and it is our duty and responsibility to ensure that we have programs and support families in poverty.  I think that programs like Head Start and Early Head Start are amazing because they provide a quality environment for the children grow and development so that their economic situation does not impact their development. Additionally, they also provide a parent component so that parents can learn how to better themselves as well.

References:

The Anne E. Casey Foundation.  (2012).  Data center kids count.  Retrieved from:  http://datacenter.kidscount.org/data/bystate/stateprofile.aspx?state=OK&loc=38

Walkin, D. J. (2012, February 15).  Fighting Poverty, Armed with Violins.  The New York Times.  Retrieved from: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/16/arts/music/el-sistema-venezuelas-plan-to-help-children-through-music.html?pagewanted=all

Child Development and Public Health

The public health topic I chose is Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) because it amazes me with all the research there is out there about SIDS that parents are still buying bumper pads for infant cribs.  According to the American Academy of Pediatrics parents should keep soft objects, loose bedding, or any objects that could increase the risk of entrapment, suffocation, or strangulation out of a crib (American Academy of Pediatrics, 2011).  If parents are not going to stop purchasing bumper pads I do think that it is critical and ethical for manufactures to stop making bumper pads because if they are a part of the "bedding set" parents are going to keep purchasing them.  This one of my personal pet peeves that by saving money and purchasing the bumper pad you may in fact be saving your babies life.  Additionally, putting the baby on their back to go to sleep for the first year of life again is a potential life saving measure for your baby.  Even with all the public awareness these two simple tasks are still not being taken by a great number of people and unfortunately we are still seeing many infants die due to SIDS.

In Australia there is new research that states by breastfeeding for the first six months exclusively and then continue to breastfeed until age one reduces the risk of SIDS by nearly half (Hofman, 2012).  This is just another way of protecting our babies with breastfeeding reducing their risk of SIDS as well as many other potential illnesses.

I think for me finding a way to educate new parents about the risk of SIDS should become a task for all early childhood professionals because we have access to the most current research to share with parents.  I also provide printout about the bedding, back to sleep and now I will also include information about breastfeeding as well in all of the baby shower gifts I give so it is my own little attempt to change the world one new parent at a time. 

American Academy of Pediatrics.  (2011, December 28).  Reducing the risk of SIDS.  Retrieved from http://www.healthychildren.org/english/ages-stages/baby/sleep/pages/Preventing-SIDS.aspx?nfstatus=401&nftoken=00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000&nfstatusdescription=ERROR%3a+No+local+token

Hofman, H. (2012, May 16).  Global Post.  Breastfeeding halves risk of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).  Retrieved from http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/asia-pacific/120516/breastfeeding-halves-risk-of-sudden-infant-death-sydrome-s

Childbirth in My Life and Around the World

Personal Childbirth Experience

The childbirth experience I am going to share is that of my daughter Lauren primarily because it was so scary.  The reason it was scary was because when they broke my water the doctor informed us that she had a bowel movement and that it would cause complications at the time of delivery.  They wanted to make sure that she did not inhale the meconium into her lungs.  There were pediatricians on hand to take care of her once I delivered.  My husband had removed the tape from our video recorder and put it in the trash can because he thought she was dead, but fortunately she was not we joke now that she was to stubbon to let a little meconium aspiration come between her and experiencing life.  If you are wondering she is still stubborn today as a 20 year old.  I was fortunate to have many doctors available that morning to make sure that I we were both taken care of and everyone survived.  We were lucky because she did not have any long term impact from this, but in some cases there is brain damage and permanent lung damage.

One of the reasons meconium apiration syndrom occurs is because the placenta is drying up because the mother has gone to far past her due date.  I wanted to have a my daughter naturally so we held off another week before scheduling a cesarean.  The cesaren was scheduled for 6:30 January 24 and  she was born naturally at 6:35 January 24.  

Child birth is a very tramatic process for both the child and the mother, it amazes me that child birth does not impact child development more often.  I wanted to ensure that my baby was fully developed and having a cesarean early caused me concern that what if the baby is not ready.  Cesarens are becoming very common in the United States and if they are medically necessary then I think that they are fine, but so many people are choosing to do them because they can schedule it to fit into thier own schedule with disregard for is the baby really ready and fully developed.

Childbirth in Venezuela

I chose to learn more about child birth in Venezuela because my husband is orginally form Venezula and the majority of his family still reside there.  When I first asked him where he was born he looked at me like I was crazy and responded a hospital of course.  I said, "well I was just wondering I don't think we ever talked about it before."  He responded that even his mother was born in a hospital, but his dad was born at home.  He dad is 71 year old.  So from my peronal interview I thought well Venezula and the United States seem very similar, but I wanted to learn more.

In one article I read it mentioned that cesarean rate had increased by 22% from 2002 to 2009 (Devereux, 2010).  The article went on to share that many doctors were encouraging cesarean's because they are quicker and they can schedule them during office hours and make more money (Devereux, 2010).  I thought is was interesting that in Venezuela just like in the United States there is a movement toward cesaren delivery and I think they are for similar reasons.  While the health care in Venezuela is very behind the United States generally in regards to child birth they have a lot of similarity.  I also talked with my neice because she just had a baby about six months ago and he doctor wanted her to have a cesarean, but she chose to do have a natural delivery.

While I don't think doctors in either country are disregarding the baby's development when scheduling cesarean births I do think that development can be compromised if the baby is not ready and the delivery takes place.

This was a very interesting comparison and great to reflect on my own person birthing expereinces.  I have three children and all three experiences were extremely different.  It was hard to chose, but near death experience of the baby won out.


Devereux, C. (2010, June 17).  Why so many c-sections in Venezuela?  Retrieved from Globalpost website: http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/venezuela/100615/childbirth-cesarean

A Note of Thanks and Support

Dear Colleagues,

I has been a wonderful experience getting to know you all over our blogging.  I was very nervous about blogging and you all made it very fun and easy.  I appreciate your support and wish you all continued support with your blog.  I am hopeful that we will be in additional classes together, but I will stay connected to your blogs because you all will always have a special place in my professional journey as my group that helped me get started.  Getting started with anything is always the hardest and I thank you all for your support of me during this class.

Sincerely,
Jill

NAEYC Code of Ethics

NAEYC Code of Ethics--As a person that does presentations on the Code of Ethics at first thought I was immediately thought well of course P1.1--Above all, we shall not harm children.  We shall not participate in practices that are emotionally damaging, phyiscally harmful, disrespectful, degrading, dangerous, exploitative, or intimidating to children.  This prinicple has precedence over all others in this Code (NAEYC, 2005) means the most to me and has the most impact because as an early childhod professional we have to be committed and passionate that first and formost we believe in protecting young children.

The next thought was I-1.1--To be familiar witht he knowledge base of early childhood care and education and to stay informed through continuing education and training (NAEYC, 2005).  Every week we have reflected in some what the valued of staying informed and seeking more education.  We are living this ideal simply because we are on this quest for more education.

The third and final ideal that I will share in this posting is I-3B.1--To assist the program in providing the highest quality of service (NAEYC, 2005).  This ideal is why I am in the early childhood field and why I am seeking more education and why I want to be a strong early childhood advocate because I believe all children should have the opportunity to attend a program that is providing the highest quality of service.  I have dedicated my lifes work to assisting centers and homes in seeking the ultimate in quality for the children and families that they serve.

NAEYC. (2005, April).  Code of ethical conduct and statement of commitment.  Retrieved May 26, 2010, from http://www.naeyc.org/files/naeyc/file/positions/PESETH05.pdf

Early Childhood Resources

Position Statements and Influential Practices

• NAEYC. (2009). Developmentally appropriate practice in early childhood programs serving children from birth through age 8. Retrieved May 26, 2010, from http://www.naeyc.org/files/naeyc/file/positions/dap
  
• NAEYC. (2009). Where we stand on child abuse prevention. Retrieved May 26, 2010, from http://www.naeyc.org/files/naeyc/file/positions/ChildAbuseStand.pdf
  
• NAEYC. (2009). Where we stand on school readiness. Retrieved May 26, 2010, from http://www.naeyc.org/files/naeyc/file/positions/Readiness.pdf
  
• NAEYC. (2009). Where we stand on responding to linguistic and cultural diversity. Retrieved May 26, 2010, from http://www.naeyc.org/files/naeyc/file/positions/diversity.pdf
  
• NAEYC. (2003). Early childhood curriculum, assessment, and program evaluation: Building an effective, accountable system in programs for children birth through age 8. Retrieved May 26, 2010, from http://www.naeyc.org/files/naeyc/file/positions/pscape.pdf
  
• NAEYC. (2009, April). Early childhood inclusion: A summary. Retrieved May 26, 2010, from http://www.naeyc.org/files/naeyc/file/positions/DEC_NAEYC_ECSummary_A.pdf
  
• Zero to Three: National Center for Infants, Toddlers, and Families. (2010). Infant-toddler policy agenda. Retrieved May 26, 2010, from http://main.zerotothree.org/site/PageServer?pagename=ter_pub_infanttodller
  
• FPG Child Development Institute. (2006, September). Evidence-based practice empowers early childhood professionals and families. (FPG Snapshot, No. 33). Retrieved May 26, 2010, from http://www.fpg.unc.edu/~snapshots/snap33.pdf
   

Part 2: Global Support for Children's Rights and Well-Being

• Article: UNICEF (n.d.). Fact sheet: A summary of the rights under the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Retrieved May 26, 2010, from http://www.unicef.org/crc/files/Rights_overview.pdf
  
• Websites:
  
• • World Forum Foundation
    http://worldforumfoundation.org/wf/wp/about-us
    This link connects you to the mission statement of this organization. Make sure to watch the media segment on this webpage
    
  • World Organization for Early Childhood Education
    http://www.omep-usnc.org/
    Read about OMEP's mission.
    
  • Association for Childhood Education International
    http://acei.org/
    Click on "Mission/Vision" and "Guiding Principles and Beliefs" and read these statements.

Part 3: Selected Early Childhood Organizations

• National Association for the Education of Young Children
  http://www.naeyc.org/
  
• The Division for Early Childhood
  http://www.dec-sped.org/
  
• Zero to Three: National Center for Infants, Toddlers, and Families
  http://www.zerotothree.org/
  
• WESTED
  http://www.wested.org/cs/we/print/docs/we/home.htm
  
• Harvard Education Letter
  http://www.hepg.org/hel/topic/85
  
• FPG Child Development Institute
  http://www.fpg.unc.edu/main/about.cfm
  
• Administration for Children and Families Headstart's National Research Conference
  http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/opre/hsrc/
  
• HighScope
  http://www.highscope.org/
  
• Children's Defense Fund
  http://www.childrensdefense.org/
  
• Center for Child Care Workforce
  http://www.ccw.org/
  
• Council for Exceptional Children
  http://www.cec.sped.org//AM/Template.cfm?Section=Home
  
• Institute for Women's Policy Research
  http://www.iwpr.org/
  
• National Center for Research on Early Childhood Education
  http://www.ncrece.org/wordpress/
  
• National Child Care Association
  http://www.nccanet.org/
  
• National Institute for Early Education Research
  http://nieer.org/
  
• Pre[K]Now
  http://www.preknow.org/
  
• Voices for America's Children
  http://www.voices.org/
  
• The Erikson Institute
  http://www.erikson.edu/

Additional Website Resources for Early Childhood Professionals

National Women's Law Center
http://www.nwlc.org

National Family Child Care Home Association
http://www.nafcc.org

National Association of Child Care Resource & Referral Agencies
http://www.naccrra.org