Knowing Your International Contacts - Part 2

 

In review of Global Child Initiative website I learnt that healthy child development should be viewed as the foundation of economic prosperity, strong communities and a just society. Secondly is educating stakeholders on science of early childhood. Recently a course was organised by center on the developing child for 50 Brazilian politicians, policy makers, public managers and civil society leaders. It is aimed at helping them acquire common knowledge on the importance of early years so that they will be able to apply that knowledge into practice to close the gap between what we know and what we do. This is a good way to educate stakeholders of any country to influence their decision on policies of early years. It is important they have the current knowledge as a guide.

Another insight I will like to share is importance of positive interaction in a developing brain which is called “Serve and Return Interaction”.  This is one of the most essential experiences in shaping the architecture of the developing brain. Young babies naturally reach out for interaction through babbling, facial expressions and gestures and adults respond with the same kind of vocalizing and gesturing. This back and forth process is fundamental to the wiring of the brain especially in the earliest years (www.developing child.harvard.edu). Click on the following video to learn about early experiences and toxic stress effect.  

 

Another critical reason to invest more funds in ealy childhood to give adequate care for all children irrespective of their level of income, race and circumstances.

From Early Childhood Australia website, one issue that is related to excellence and equity is “the National Quality Standard”(NQS). NQS has been developed based on the core ideas of The Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF)(Belonging, Being and Becoming). This requires educators to show evidence of their practice and philosophies in line with the NQS. It outlines each of the seven areas of NQS to include;

1.      Quality area1 Educational program and practice

2.      Quality area 2 Children’s health and safety

3.      Quality area 3 Physical environment.

4.      Quality area 4 Staffing arrangements.

5.      Quality area 5 Relationships with children.

6.      Quality area 6 Collaboration partnerships with families and communities.

7.      Quality area 7 Leadership and services.

This is expected to be used across the early childhood setting in Australia. It is a good initiative that encourages excellence and it has all the components of an effective program.  

Lastly, I got an email from Dr Margaret Sims, a professor of early childhood carrying out a study on“professionalization of early childhood”. She requested that I circulate the questionnaire to our colleagues. You may participate in the questionnaire by clicking on this link: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey =dG5Tdj RSaDE0a jhkME4tNlF 5QUltcFE 6MQ#gid=0



reference

http://developingchild.harvard.edu/activities/global_initiative/

http://www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au/