"My Connections to Play"

"Play is the beginning of knowledge” & “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy” are two quotes that I feel summarized what play represented in my childhood. 

We played these games as a child growing up, and there was a lot of support from family and friends.  Families in the neighbors developed good relationships among each other, therefore, children were able to communicate effectively and play well together. 

There is a big different today how children play.  They have games, television, and computers, instead of reading books, writing or use their imaginations. Children now days say that they’re bored.  As a child found things to do to keep us engaged learning, playing and solving problems. Most children aren’t able to engage into combined activities.   Therefore, professionals must have a curriculum for young children to play together and assist each other in collaborative activities.  Developing language and literacy skills begins at birth through everyday loving interactions, sharing books, telling stories, singing songs, and talking to one another (ZERO TO THREE, 2012)

 ZERO TO THREE: Early Language and Literacy. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.zerotothree.org/child-development/early-language-literacy/

"Relationship Reflection"

A positive parent-child relationship helps a child feel good about them and become successful in life.  Communicating with your children is a crucial factor for making a connection active.  A child-teacher relationship is necessary as well, seeing that this will be one of the first relationships a child will have outside their family. 

It is essential to me to have a positive relationship with my children.  Trust is another factor to having a respectable relationship.  In fact, parent-teacher relationship can provide children with the support to strengthen their learning.  Parents and teachers communicating help build the foundation for children education.  As a result, this creates a positive atmosphere for parents to become involved in their child’s education.  Parent involvement ensures growth for both parent and child to learn how to help their child’s overcome any problems that may occur. 

The way professionals interact with families and their child create a balance and provides a realistic view of a positive way building trusting.  The more parent involvement benefits children, increase learning, and a positive attitude toward education.  As professional, it is without a doubt their responsibility to improve a child’s academic achievement in developing and maintaining each relationship.  Therefore, it is important for teachers to use developmentally and individually appropriate strategies that take into consideration children’s differing needs, interests, styles, and abilities.

Reference

CSEFEL: Center on the Social and Emotional Foundations for ... (n.d.). Retrieved from             http://csefel.vanderbilt.edu/resources/wwb/wwb12.html

Getting to Know Your International Contacts—Part 3

Early childhood is properly for children learning.  Early childhood learning helps the developmental process of the brain.  Children learn to become secure with their caregivers and explore the world around them.  A child needs a positive person in their lives that care and respond with sensitivity to their needs.  As well as, children becoming comfortable with interacting with children, also support each other’s needs with a warm response. 

  

The early childhood education programs are planned to prepare young children for a diversity of occupations in adulthood.  Learning skills and develop opportunities to advance as well as gain the overall competencies necessary for adulthood.  Early childhood educations compromise a child the opportunity start with a solid beginning in their developmental stages of life.  

I have gained several insights from this week reading and websites.   We must learn more about how children develop and grow in order to provide the correct stages of physical, cognitive, social and emotional development.  UNESCO advocates for Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) programmes that attend to health, nutrition, security and learning and which provide for children’s holistic development.

Early Childhood Care and Education

Reference

http://www.unesco.org/new/en/education/themes/strengthening-education-systems/early-childhood/ 

Getting to Know Your International Contacts—Part 2

The knowledge of a child’s development shows that the foundation of their mental health which is assembled early in life, as early experiences including the child’s relationships with parents, caregivers, teachers, and peers help form the structural design of developing the brain.  Being able to focus and work with information in a child’s mind, distractions can control coordination to manage information as they grow.  In the brain self-regulation of a group of skills and experiences, begin to advance in early childhood and continue to progress through the early adult years.  Acquiring the early building blocks of these skills is one of the most important and challenging tasks of the early childhood years, and having the right support and experiences through middle childhood, adolescence, and into early adult life is essential for the successful development of these capacities.

Reference

“Building the Brain’s ‘Air Traffic Control’ System: How Early Experiences Shape the Development of Executive Function” and the Working Paper series from the Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University.

www.developingchild.harvard.edu/resources/

Getting to Know Your International Contacts—Part 1

A new report by the United Nations Children's Fund, on the well-being of children in 35 developed nations, turned up some alarming statistics about child poverty. More than one in five American children fall below a relative poverty line, which UNICEF defines as living in a household that earns less than half of the national median (Fisher, 2013).  However, resources for professional growth help relieve some of the suffering.  For instance, providing different programs to reduce children living in unsafe poverty and more likely to live in poverty as grown-ups. 

ODI’s Growth, Poverty and Inequality Programme are a multi-disciplinary team working on one of the core issues of development policy and practice (Lenhardt, 2013).  The objective of this advantage is to develop a European viewpoint on upgrading issues in the international arena, on the basis of knowledge excellence, advance and constructing of common ground between the European research community and policy-makers.

The study based on the ODI development progress workshop was developed over years:  income vs non-income poverty, qualitative vs quantitative, absolute. Development progress tried to define the whats, whos, and hows of the alternative future.  There were a mixed group of individuals with different backgrounds in the sector of the whats, whos, and hows list.  Their mission is to communicate difficult ideas in the simplest way from end to end with the use of visual stimulus.  These actions aren’t picture-perfect; nevertheless they can stimulate their actions when able to see exactly how far away we are from our ideal world (Measuring up the post, 2015).

Reference

U.S. Ranks 34th out of 35 Countries on Child Poverty Levels ... (n.d.). Retrieved from http://economichardship.org

Growth, Poverty and Inequality | Overseas Development ... (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.odi.org.uk/programmes/growth-poverty-inequality

Measuring up the post-2015 debates: more voices, more tough ... (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.developmentprogress.org/blog/2013/12/06/

Blog Assignment: Sharing Web Resources

Blog Assignment: Sharing Web Resources.  From the Streets to the Classroom (and the Stage)

 By The Global Fund for Children on April 23rd, 2013

 Region: East and Southeast Asia, Featured, Success Stories

This organizations main object is to help grantee achievements with their vision to become sustainable, and reach even more children in need.  Also, support of given money to increase a stronger organization that provides critical services to vulnerable children. As well as supporting partners through management assistance, networking opportunities to strengthen services. 

I found issues and trends such as children dropping out of school at an early age, and never being able to see the inside of a classroom.  As a result, of these different programs this may ensure that children will attend school to learn instead of going to work, receiving the childhood they deserve.

Reference 

https://www.globalfundforchildren.org/category/featured/

Blog Assignment: Getting Ready—E stablishing Professional Contacts and Expanding Resources

Part 1, "Establishing Professional Contacts,"

The World Forum websites were not accessible, as a result, the two establishing professional contacts websites I chose are:

The Global Fund for Children: An organization which provides capital to communities worldwide to improve the lives of children.

http://www.globalfundforchildren.org/

&

Save the Children: A U.S. based non-profit organization working on behalf of children worldwide.

http://www.savethechildren.org/site/c.8rKLIXMGIpI4E/b.6115947/k.8D6E/Official_Site.htm

Part 2, "Expanding Resources,"

Both foundations were established to offer professional help children with and without families to make a difference in their lives.  These foundations promote programs, such as providing healthy well-being programs to educate children and their families in need for help with financial challenges.  Also, make available nutritious programs to provide their family with the right selection of foods to avoid malnutrition.