Impacts on Early Emotional Development

 Week 7- 15 August 2020

For this blogpost I will be looking into East Asia and Pacific. This region is enjoying growth in their economies as a result of innovation and widespread use of technology. Sadly, this positive growth also contributes to increasing levels of inequities. The successful individuals in Asia are those who have been supported from birth with good nutrition and access to quality education which has contributed to them being able to have good jobs. UNICEF in East Asia and Pacific have put forward 3 regional headlines that encompasses the ways they plan to partner with local organisations within the region (UNICEF, 2011).

Firstly, by focusing on the early years of a child's life. This includes maternal and infant care, positive parenting, quality early years education. Secondly, UNICEF is paying attention to creating safe and sustainable environments with plans to address urban inequities; water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH), and also access to justice. It is quite sad that this region experiences severe natural disasters as well as effects of climate change. Lastly, UNICEF is looking into contributing towards adolescent education and learning, child marriage and teen pregnancy, as well as safe and responsible use of information and communication. This is because this region has about 60 per cent of the worlds youths and harnessing their potentials, creativity and skills will be beneficial to the region and the world as they explore the ideals of responsible global citizenship (UNICEF, 2011).

Some children in this region, for example Indonesia are experiencing malnourishment as a result of overburdened health facilities and disrupted food supply chains and income loss. This has worsened due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic(UNICEF, 2011).

A professional reflection for me is to buttress the point that tourism curriculum should be discouraged because only the highlights are celebrated and not the struggles of a region or people. The East and Pacific is home to a lot of beautiful beaches and resorts that are visited yearly by tourists whose visits add pressure to the existing problems of their climate and other resources that are used up in creating the pleasant experiences for them when they visit. Unfortunately the revenue obtained are distributed in ways that would be beneficial to the citizens which has led to obvious inequities. A way to support the people of East Asia and Pacific is to shop locally thereby ensuring that families are impacted positively and their families are supported.

Reference

UNICEF (2011). Retrieved from: http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/

The Sexualization of Early Childhood

 Week 6 Blog Assignment- 8 August, 2020

The authors of the book 'So sexy so soon' Diane Levin and Jean Kilbourne expressed how children are exposed to contents that exploit their childhood. Bearing in mind that they are exposed to materials in the media, toys, commercials which sexualises them and impede their healthy sexual development. From the review of the book, the authors concluded that all types of media are not beneficial to children since they capture the attention of children in a negative way (Levin and Kilbourne, 2009). 

The way children are sexualised can be seen in their clothing. There are children sizes to styles that are meant for adults such as pairs of shorts that are really short, tops that reveal their belly buttons, etc. Another example is the sale of makeup products that re marketed as child safe even though it is clear that the use of makeup would make them appear older. Lastly, children see the attention that is now placed on physical features and appearance which makes them feel self-conscious about theirs.

These exposures affect children's development because they become desensitised to what is considered normal for children because most times, the media sensationalise products in a manner that it because acceptable. For teenagers, they learn about sex education from the media which means they get false information that could affect them in adulthood (Levin and Kilbourne, 2009). 

Parents and teachers should establish a line of communication with children so that discussions can be had in relation to sexual messages seen in the media. From reading about sexualization of children, I think it is a problem that needs to be addressed by everyone including parents, teachers, regulatory bodies and marketers of products for children. The fight for commercial free childhood should be realised and there should be policies that regulate how things are exposed to children. Furthermore, there should be parental control placed on their electronic devices and also advert-free applications can be used in order to avoid any form of exposure.

Reference

Levin, D.E., & Kilbourne, J. (2009). [Introduction]. So sexy so soon: The new sexualized childhood and what parents can do to protect their kids (pp. 1-8). New York: Ballantine Books. Retrieved from: http://dianeelevin.com/sosexysosoon/introduction.pdf

Evaluating Impacts on Professional Practice

Week 5 Assignment 2- 1st August 2020

Gender stereotyping and sexism is an -ism that I have experienced all my life and it was only a few years ago that I was able to concisely label what my experiences had been. In my culture, the females are expected to be domestic, agreeable, in charge of the children regardless of the fact that they may not be nurturing, etc while the males are not subjected to such demands. Meanwhile, anything out of the ordinary was considered not feminine. Family members have perpetuated this bias which has affected the way I discuss certain issues with them because they are stuck on gender stereotyping.

I have also noticed that at my children's school, the school principal seem to always contact me when they need to pass certain messages across. An example would be them always calling me whenever my children do not feel well in school or if they need some personal items, etc and never their father. Even though I am happy that they were considerate in reaching out to me, they never asked us who should be contacted first in case of situations like that but rather assumed that as the mother, I would be in a better position to handle it.

With working with children, a consequence I might expect for them based on the -ism I have experienced is that I plan to make my classroom as gender neutral as possible. This would be evident in the chores and activities in the classroom, because eliminating the restrictions and demands placed on any gender, I hope would help them in their self-discovery and hopefully steer them in the right direction towards autonomy. As for families, I plan to ask clearly from both parents who should be contacted first if there is any information about their child that needs to be passed across. This would not only ensure that I am not gender stereotyping them but that I am also respectful to whatever arrangements they have in their household.

Observing Communication

Week 3 Assignment 2- 18th July 2020

Communication is the means by which a person is able to pass information in a manner that it is easily understood by the receiver and a feedback is sent to the original sender. It can be verbal with the use of words, signs and symbols or non-verbal with the use of body language, cues et cetera (O'Hair, Wiemann, Mullin and Teven, 2018).

For this observation, I visited a neighbourhood park that is usually frequented by young children. I saw a young lady come in with 2 children and she appears to be their nanny. I would assume the older child is 4 years old, while the little girl is about 2 years old. The boy went away to climb on the one of the structures while the little girl stayed back in the stroller. I noticed that the nanny asked the girl if she wanted to get off the stroller and she nodded to the affirmative. After 3 minutes, the nanny began eating the snack she came with, she offered the little girl some of it and the child nodded in the affirmative once more.

The nanny took time to ask the little girl direct questions on what she wanted rather than make presumptions on what she would want. This respected the little girl as she was acknowledged and her opinions mattered. This was a sign of good communication between the both of them (Kovach and Da Ros-Voselos, 2011). However, I did not see much interaction between the nanny and the older boy which was a little disappointing.

In the course of the 30 minutes I observed them, I noticed that she was on her phone for the last 15 minutes. I feel that this was not beneficial to the children because she was not able to pay attention to what the boy was doing, and maybe could have praised him for any new skill he may have mastered.

Although she made connections with the girl earlier in the observation, I do not think she tried her best with the boy. He may have felt alone and not motivated to keep trying new things because he knew that his nanny was not paying enough attention to notice them.

When I am with children, I always keep my mind focused on whatever we are engaged in. I try to make the children know that I am interested in whatever they are saying or doing. This gives them room to explore their imaginations and creativity because they know that I am there to support and also participate (Stephenson, 2009). I also engage in teacher talk because it is beneficial in supporting the language skills of children in whatever context they are being used. An insight to this week's resources is that children express themselves more with when they initiate the conversation rather than when responding to teachers (Dangel and Durden, 2010). Henceforth, I plan to allow children lead the conversation on things that interest them and then I'll join in and offer support when necessary.

Reference

Dangel, J. R., & Durden, T. R. (2010). The Nature of Teacher Talk during Small Group Activities. YC: Young Children, 65(1), 74–81.

Kovach, B., & Da Ros-Voseles, D. (2011). Communicating with Babies. YC: Young Children, 66(2), 48–50.

O'Hair, D., Wiemann, M., Mullin, D. I., & Teven, J. (2018). Real communication: An introduction (4th. ed). New York: Bedford/St. Martin's

Stephenson, A. (2009). Stepping Back to Listen to Jeff: Conversations with a 2-Year-Old. YC: Young Children, 64(2), 90–95.

Creating Affirming Environments

Week 2 Assignment- 11th July 2020

When opening a family child care home, it is imperative to create an environment that affirms to the identity and realities of the families and their children. Intense attention would be placed on the staff and professionals contracted to work there, in ensuring that they are focused on anti-bias education. This is so that all families that walk through the door would know that their children would be taken care of in a respectful and inclusive manner.

At my centre, there would be intentional progress towards achieving the anti-bias education goals which would ensure that children are given the room to explore their identities, acknowledge differences and diversity in others, learn the language to express themselves when they see any form of discrimination against them or others and finally have the courage to advocate against all forms of discrimination (Derman-Sparks and Edwards, 2010).

There would be materials that represent all the families within the centre in a manner that celebrates their identities and also validates each child's self-identity. When children are constantly surrounded by this that do not represent them, they start to feel like they are not important enough which could negatively impact them in the long run (Derman-Sparks and Edwards, 2010).

Like Adriano Castillo, there would be a place where children can self-regulate and develop their social-emotional skill with as much help with a professional which would be useful to them as they interact with other children within the program. Another idea to emulate would be to create a welcoming environment so that parents feel free to share information (verbally or written down) about their children with the staff so that there can be context to how a child behaves and interact with other children through out the day (Laureate Education, 2011).

In conclusion, diversity and inclusion should be embraced from a young age, because in the long run the skills that children develop would be helpful in how they deal would conflict and other people that have opposing ideas from them (Derman-Sparks and Edwards, 2010).

Reference

Derman-Sparks, L., & Edwards, J. O. (2010). Anti-bias education for young children and ourselves. National Association for the Education of Young Children. Washington, DC:  NAEYC.

Laureate Education, Inc. (2011). Strategies for working with diverse children: Welcome to an anti-bias learning community. Baltimore, MD: Author