Research that benefits children and families

Unfortunately I have not had the chance to be involved in any early childhood research studies, nor do I know of anyone that has. I can be sure this will change in the near future. Although I did come across a study involving both children and their parents I found interesting and wanted to share with you all.

This study completed by Rachel Brown and Jane Ogden (2004) focused on children’s eating attitudes and behaviors and whether or not their parents have influence on their eating, specifically regarding snack foods. Trying to get young children to try new things and eat healthy has always been a challenge in my opinion. Proper nutrition and healthy eating habits has always been something our child care center has worked on throughout the school and with the families. Our company has even hired a nutritionist to help us and work with families that may need some guidance. With that being said, this study really caught my attention.

The study involved 112 parent/child pairs. Each pair filled out matched questionnaires which described eating motivations, snack intake, and body dissatisfaction. Additional items involving attempts to control food intake and using food as a tool to control behavior were completed by the parents.  What was revealed after the study was parents who tried harder to control their child’s dietary habits had higher intakes of both healthy and unhealthy food, while parents that used food to control their child’s behavior reported high body dissatisfaction. Brown and Ogden (2004) conclude by saying “a positive parental role model may be a better method for improving a child’s diet than attempts at dietary control.”

It is so important for parents to realize the importance of positive role modeling for their children. They pick up a lot from the adults around them, mainly parents and caregivers. Healthy nutrition is so important for the healthy development of all children. I enjoyed this study because it combined two topics that I find very important in the lives of children, nutrition and parental involvement.  

http://her.oxfordjournals.org/content/19/3/261.full

Personal Research Journey

There are many topics in early childhood that I would love to research further in order to expand my knowledge base. So when it came to picking only one topic to focus on during these upcoming weeks, coming to a decision was a challenge for me. I chose the topic of assessments in early childhood. Assessments are crucial for the educational success of children. It is so important for educators to realize the reality of assessments inside the classroom and why they are so important. Breaking this topic into three subtopics was hard because there are so many things you can focus on regarding assessments, such as the methods used, the correct tools to chose, and how often do you assess. What I eventually came up with was the uses of assessments in early childhood programs, the challenges educators face when assessing young children, and the importance of involving parents in the assessment process.

I am a huge advocate in parent involvement for the success of a child. I have worked in many different areas of early childhood such as curriculum supervisor, teacher and director, and in all my positions I have worked to involve parents in the classroom. I have observed such a positive reaction from students when they see their moms and dads actively engaged in their education. So with choosing a topic to focus on throughout this course, learning more about parent involvement in the assessment process stood out to me the most. Even though I have observed positive results from parent involvement in the classroom in general, involvement at the assessment level is something that is unfamiliar to me.

Right now I have reservations about myself and researching. This is something I am not too familiar with but am very interested in someday mastering. I know properly learning how to research will help me in my future journey in early childhood, although I have to admit it is a bit scary to me. In my mind there are many places throughout the research process where it can go wrong for me.  I want to be successful and am hoping that I will learn a lot from my colleagues throughout the next few weeks.

 Is there anyone else that has reservations or is it just me?
Does anyone prefer one search engine over another when looking for articles?...sometimes I have trouble when using Walden Library instead of just a google search.
Any good advice for handling the research process for the first time?

Reflecting on Established Relationships

I honestly didn’t think I would enjoy this course as much as I have. I was never one on doing a lot of research, although this course has shed a new light on research for me. I thoroughly enjoyed surfing the many websites over the weeks as well as reading the very informative articles listed for our resources. I have learned so much more about the issues EC professionals face around the world. To my surprise they are struggling with the same issues around the world that we are here in the U.S.. Although I was not able to make contact on the global level with any EC professionals, the resources I was able to have access to are so valuable to me. I have become knowledgeable during this course of how others, not related to education, have become involved in advocating for early education and their impact in the field. I feel I have grown in my knowledge of early education, focusing more on worldly issues. Sometimes I feel I am so immersed in my work as a Director and running my school, I don’t get the chance to be aware and read up on certain issue that impact the early childhood field as a whole. I now have been introduced to such amazing resources and websites that I know will help me tremendously in the future.

Recently, I have been thinking more about my career in the early childhood field and where I want to wind up in the future. I have had the opportunity to persue many roles in early childhood trying to figure out what role would be the best fit for me. I have thoroughly enjoyed this course and hate to see it come to an end. Maybe that is a sign for me on a professional level. My goal moving forward is to keep up on my research and set time during the week to do so. I want to keep up on the websites I have been visiting and join more newsletters to gain access to even more information. This course has shown me that I don’t just want to focus on what is going on here in the U.S., but to keep abreast of what is going on globally in the world of early childhood. The knowledge I have gained will only help in improving my center for the children and families that I am blessed to see on a daily basis, as well as improve my own personal growth as an EC professional.

I thank all my classmates for the wonderful information that you have shared throughout this course and helping to make this a wonderful path towards gaining my Masters. I wish everyone the best of luck on your journeys!

Getting to Know Your International Contacts—Part 3

In researching UNESCO’s “Early Childhood Care and Education” webpage I came upon an article by John Bennet (2004) regarding curriculum in early childhood education and it’s importance. It sparked my interest in reading about how other countries are focusing their attention on early childhood curriculum.  John Bennet in his article cited a statement by OCED (2001) saying national or provincial ministries in many countries have chosen to issue short guidelines about early childhood programming, addressed as much to parents and local administrators as to the educators. Essentially, these guidelines or curricular frameworks establish the value base and programme standards on which early childhood services in the country are to be founded (Bennet 2004). Bennet (2004) states that the aim is to encourage a shared sense of purpose between parents and early childhood centres; to promote social and cultural values important for society; to ensure a certain unity of standards; and to inform and facilitate communication between staff, parents and children. Due to new understandings of society, young children and their learning, their has been a reluctance to fixing detailed cognitive goals and content (Bennet 2004). Countries are very respectful of diversity and wish for this framework to build bridges between ethnic and social groups. I enjoyed reading this article because it gave me an insight as to how other countries find the need for early childhood curriculum and how they have chosen to set one up.

Another article on the website that caught my attention was written by Peter Moss (2004) on basic structures and education in the early childhood workforce in developed countries. It was interesting to see the structure of the early childhood workforce in other countries and the history of the educational systems. Two ‘core’ professions have emerged in countries which have gone furthest in integrating early childhood services (Moss 2004). Both work with children ranging from birth to age five, and both undertake a full range of tasks including education and care. One is the early childhood teacher working with children under and over 3 years; by contrast, teachers in divided systems typically only work with children from 3 years upward in schools (Moss 2004). The other is the pedagogue, a profession working with the theory and practice of pedagogy (Moss 2004). Moss quoted a statement by Moss and Petrie (2002) regarding pedagogue, “The pedagogue sets out to address the whole child, the child with body, mind, emotions, creativity, history and social identity.” The workforce in early childhood services in all countries must respond to two related developments: the divide between care and education is breaking down; and the professional role is becoming more complex, with growing recognition of the importance of working with parents and other services and of the competence of young children as learners (Moss 2004). It was interesting to see how different countries split their early childhood workforce like this and what each one, teacher and pedagogue, in a sense used for.

Under the Coordination and integration portion of UNESCO there is a write up on the study on the integration of ECCE (early childhood care and education) within education. This caught my attention because I haven’t really read up on this specific topic before. ECCE usually incorporates two different tradition, care and education. The former was often developed as welfare measures for working-class children who needed care while their parents were at work; the latter as kindergarten or pre-primary education, providing middle-class or all children with enriched educational activities prior to formal schooling (UNESCO 2014). Definitely not how we view early childhood today. This division between care and education has strongly influenced the organization and conceptualization of ECCE, and resulted in split systems’ discontinuities and inequalities between childcare and early education sectors due to differences in access, availability, resourcing and quality (UNESCO 2014). Caring and Learning Together: A Cross-National Study on the Integration of Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) within Education, a UNESCO study on ECCE governance, focuses on examining the policy of integrating ECCE within the education systems, which is being adopted by an increasing amount of countries. This UNESCO study offers a rare assessment of the policy of integrating care and early education services within education, and provides key policy insights and recommendations on the subject (UNESCO 2014).

One of my ongoing goals as an educator has been to progress and increase my knowledge in the field of early childhood, although, recently I felt my goal should stretch to knowledge of the EC field in other countries. I have always focused my attention on the U.S., I haven’t opened up my research and education worldwide until starting my Master’s courses. UNESCO has given me much insight into how other countries portray EC and the division of education in some countries.

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

Moss, Peter. (2004). The Early Childhood Workforce in ‘Developed’ Countries: Basic Structures and Education. UNESCO Policy Brief on Early Childhood. October 2004.  Retrieved from: http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/ 0013/001374/137402e.pdf

Bennett, John. (2004). Curriculum in Early Childhood Education and Care. UNESCO Policy Brief on Early Childhood. September 2004. Retrieved from: http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0013/001374/137401e.pdf

Sharing Web Resources- Week 6

With speaking and reading about what the President and our government can do in terms of grants and policies in making early education a priority, I focused my search on the Public Policy link on Zero to Three website. Topics under Public Policy that can be explored are: infant-toddler policy issues, building early childhood systems, federal policy, state & community policy, action center, policy toolkit and webinars & conference calls. When clicking on the federal policy portion you can learn about the federal policy agenda, resources, updates, and a federal policy baby blog. The baby blog keeps you updated on important policy developments impacting babies, toddlers, families and EC professionals. You can also review the state baby facts and see how infants, toddlers, and their families are managing across the U.S.. The action center provides access to resources in advocacy. Advocacy alerts, calendar, federal & state advocacy tools, as well as a place to meet other advocates can be found in the action center.


One of the links I haven’t clicked on yet until this week was the Rally for Babies link. This page speaks about The Strong Start Act. It speaks about supporting the Early Learning Bipartisan Bill and it acknowledging learning needs of babies and toddlers, what’s in the bill, what is in it for babies, why start with babies, and how the media is rallying for them. It is a great page with a wealth of information regarding the need for seeing children as a priority. You are also able to read the Senate and House version of the Strong Start for America’s Children Act. While looking further into the page I came across a section that speaks about the business organizations and their investments into early childhood.

I keep gaining so much more information each day while researching websites and reading articles. Zero to Three seems to provide so much information on mostly all topics that have been spoken about during this class. The reoccurring theme lately in my readings have been the interest by policy makers and businesses in the importance of early education. Our schools need the proper funding in transforming their programs into the quality that is needed in offering our children a proper early education. Our children need to be on the same level when entering Kindergarten and start shrinking the gaps.

http://www.zerotothree.org

Global Children's Initiative & Maysoun Chehab Podcast

In an effort to build an international approach when it comes to child health and development in the early years of their life, the Global Children’s Initiative has been launched as the focus point of the Center on the Developing Child’s agenda. The Center’s commitment to global work represents both 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 (Global Children’s Initiative). In order to meet the Global Children’s Initiative goals they have the commitment of working together with the most creative and the best expertise out there. There are 3 strategic areas that the global program will focus on: reframing the discourse around child health and development, supporting innovative, multi-disciplinary research and demonstration projects, and building leadership capacity in child development research and policy (Global Children’s Initiative). Within all these areas the program sets their sights high on educating all on the healthy development of young children. Guided by these strategies the Initiative has built a portfolio of activities in the following domains: early childhood development, child mental health, and children in crisis and conflict situations (Global Children’s Initiative). As part of its Global Children’s Initiative, the Center launched Núcleo Ciência Pela Infância, which is the first programmatic effort outside the United States. 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 (Global Children’s Initiative). Ultimately the Initiative works to help young children and educate parents and communities on how to improve early childhood development, child mental health, and children in crisis and conflict situations. They are bringing awareness to issues and trends in other parts of the world as well as helping to educate and train others in the early childhood field so they are well prepared to educate these young children.

With little evidence  available on early childhood development in sub-Saharan Africa, the Zambian Ministry of Education, the Examination Council of Zambia, UNICEF, the University of Zambia, and 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 (Global Children’s Initiative).  A collaborative project in Santiago, Chile called Un Buen Comienzo (A Good Start), has been set up to improve early childhood education through teacher professional development (Global Children’s Initiative). These are all examples of the Center’s work on improving and educating others on the importance of child development around the world.

One of the podcasts I listened to that interested me was by Maysoun Chelab, a Regional Early Childhood Care and Development Program Coordinator at the Arab Resource Collective (ARC) based in Beirut, Lebanon. She works with practitioners, policy makers and the community to raise awareness of child rights and EC care and development as well as trains EC caregivers on best practices. They countries that they cover are Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, Iraq, Sudan, Jordan and Yeman. One of the most rewarding projects she has worked on was a psychosocial support project put together after the war on Lebanon in 2006. Many children as well as their families were affected by this war which left 126 school destroyed. With parents, families and children needing support after the war, she trained parents and teachers on the range of emotional reactions they would see by the children. Her target was the mothers, fathers, and teachers because if they could not support themselves they would not be able to support the children. The training lasted 6 days involving many coping techniques and strategies. Afterwards it made the parents and teachers more comfortable to go back into the field and work with the children.


Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University. (2010). Global children's initiative. Retrieved from http://developingchild.harvard.edu/index.php/activities/global_initiative/

Link to the podcast of Maysoun Chehab:  http://www.worldforumfoundation.org/wf/radio.php

Sharing Web Resources

I wanted to share a topic that I came across on Zero to Three website that was something I wasn’t aware of, maybe because it hasn’t been offered to the states I have currently lived in or because with my research I have not came across it yet. With that said, I learned about the Early Learning Challenge grant program initiated in 2011. This is a joint effort put forth by the U.S. Department of Education and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The ELC was set forth to improve early learning development for young children. It does so by supporting states’ efforts to: increase the number of children with high needs, birth to five, in hight-quality early childhood setting; and build comprehensive early childhood systems (Zero to Three 2013). So far 14 states have received four year grants, ranging in amounts from $20 to $70 million dollars. What I think is great about the ELC is that is was purposely designed to require collaboration within and between state agencies, local organizations and families. Collaboration with families is such an important part of early childhood.

The ELC asks states to develop plans that address the following priorities:
1. Promoting school readiness for children with high needs (this is the absolute priority)
2. Including all early learning and development programs in the tiered quality rating and improvement system
3. Understanding the status of children’s learning and development at kindergarten entry
4. Sustaining program effects in the early elementary grades
5. Encouraging private-sector support

I tried my best to search the website to find information on how economists, neuroscientists or politicians support the early childhood field but was unable to come across anything. But I was happy to see that the ELC grant was put into effect and is helping states little by little improve the quality of early childhood programs and young children themselves.

In our second discussion this week talking about the importance of play, I became interested in the resources Zero to Three had on their website that provides support to parents and educators on play. Providing research and facts to parents especially on the importance of play is crucial for them to realize that this is really a huge part of their development in all aspects. With parents not having the time these days to participate in play with their children I was happy to see Zero to Three providing tips and questions on play for parents to read. Playtime ideas, tips for choosing toys, making the most of playtime and the development of play skills are just a few topics Zero to Three has listed for further investigation for parents and educators. They also have a section for parents to write in with questions about issues or concerns they have regarding their children either at home or at school dealing with play. Some parents may have the same questions and can get answers from other parents writing in.

With so many resources on an enormous amount of topics regarding the care and education of young children, I haven’t really come across anything I would find controversial. To be honest everything I read has made me think about issues in new ways because it gives me so much more information on early childhood.