Children Living in Poverty

My emotions were deeply moved when I was listening to World Forum Radio Podcast with Delfena Mitchell from the Liberty Children’s Home in Ladyville, Belize in Central America.  The Liberty Children’s Home is home to 40 children, most between the ages of zero to five-years-old, who have been abused or abandoned.  As she was describing the abuse afflicted on a nine-year-old boy my heart was heavy with sadness.  This little boy was abused for so many years he completely shut down, including using language to communicate.  For one year this little boy did not talk to anyone.  The warm, respectable and nurturing environment provided by the staff at the Liberty Children’s Home supported this little boy to trust adults enough to use his language skills again one day while on a horseback ride with Ms. Mitchell.   With Belize having the number one incident of child abuse in the Caribbean I was curious to know why the Liberty Children’s Home can only accommodate forty children.  After exploring the website I learned there are efforts being made to expand their facilities so they can support the success of additional children.

The staff at Liberty Children’s Home uses the Pikler approach while working with the children.  The Pikler approach was developed to ensure optimal development for institutionalized children.  I enjoyed reading about the Pikler approach, specifically about how the infants/toddlers are “allowed to move naturally and at will and freely and allowed to spontaneously follow their own in-born developmental time-table” (2010, http://pikler.org).  This approach is evident in the work with the nine-year-old little boy; all children are allowed time to heal before they are introduced to the daily routines of academic practices.  Allowing this little boy time to heal in a safe, respectful and nurturing environment allowed him to build trust and eventually open up with Ms. Mitchell.

Childhood Poverty Research: Kyrgyzstan

Economic difficulties have followed Kyrgyzstan since their independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.  Today is it is the second poorest country in Central Asia.  As of statistics from 2001, 47% of the population lived below the government poverty line; 13% of this population were living in extreme poverty.  As for children living in poverty, 41% of children living in urban parts of Kyrgyzstan live in poverty and 51% of the children living in rural areas live in poverty.  Kyrgyzstan had a higher level of health and education before their independence from the Soviet Union; in 2001 14% of the population had no access to health care.  Continued poverty has forced about 24% of children to work on farms, in domestic services, child prostitution and trafficking.  The government has produced the National Poverty Reduction Strategy paper in hopes of reducing poverty.  There are other national and international non-governmental organizations engaged in poverty reduction for children in Kyrgyzstan.

International Step by Step Association

“ISSA advocates policies that ensure that every child regardless of gender, race, religion, nationality or ability has the opportunity to develop to his or her full potential.”   This purpose statement is my attraction to this website.

To join the ISSA it costs $65 per year and many benefits come with the fee.  Opportunities are provided to participate in free on-line trainings.  The training that started in September 2011 includes 12-modules focusing on child-centered education and the framework of ISSA’s Principles for Quality Pedagogy.  The course is available in the English language and the Slovak language.

I found a beautiful list of children’s books available to purchase from the ISSA.  The authors of the book are from different countries like Haiti, Mongolia, Albania and Czech Republic.  The books have a wonderful representation of cultures from around the world and they are all available in 15 different languages.

As I was getting to know the website I came upon the ISSA Pedagogical Standards Observation Form.  I immediately pulled out my Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS) manual to make some comparisons as both tools use teacher/child interaction observations and score according to a provided rating scale.   The ISSA tool rates on seven domains while the CLASS tool rates on ten domains.  The ISSA tool includes a Family Participation domain with indicators that focus on family engagement and making the home-school connection; all ten domains of the CLASS observation focus on supporting child development.   The three key rating scale for the ISSA tool is ‘consistent’, ‘sometimes’, and ‘rarely’.  The CLASS tool includes a rating scale of one to seven; one and two are low scores;  three, four and five are middle scores with six and seven being high scores.  The CLASS tool does not include an interview with the teacher beforehand whereas the ISSA tool does.  The CLASS tool suggests a 20 minute observation and the ISSA tool suggests a 30 minute observation with a 15 minute teacher interview.  The CLASS tool requires an observer to take a test to prove they are reliable CLASS observers and maintaining this certification is $35 annually with testing annually.  The ISSA tool appears to be a user friendly tool and does not require an annual fee or test.

This website will remain on my ‘favorites’ list so I can easily access it to support my continued work with children and families.

Expanding Resources

In the last 9+ years as a Head Start Program Manager and Training/Technical Assistance Specialist I have become very familiar with the resources in the popular web sites such as NAEYC, NHSA, PreK Now and Children's Defense Fund.  I decided to venture out and scan the web sites for early learning resources outside of the United States.  After looking at the Save the Children and the Global Fund for Children websites I decided I wanted to become more familiar with the International Step by Step Association at http://www.issa.nl/.  Initally I was attracted to this website because the work and resources are a collaborative effort of early learning professionals from 30 different countries.  Wow!!  I would love to work with this group of professionals.  As I ventured into the website I saw the document titled, "ISSA Pedagogical Standards for Preschool and Primary Grades".  The standards are for early learning professionals working with age groups from preschool to fourth grade.  I was so excited about finding this document I did not venture any further; I knew this was the website for me to gain valuable resources to not only support me in my role with the Head Start programs but my role as a board member with our NAEYC affiliate group the Northwest Association for the Education of Young Children.

Establishing Professional Contacts

Using NAEYC’s Global Alliance web site I found e-mail addresses for four early learning professionals outside of the United States.  This website helped me to proceed with making the following connections.

 Since Canada is 16 miles from my home I was interested in establishing a relationship with Yvonne Dionne at the Canadian Child Care Federation.  I used the e-mail address posted on the Global Alliance website and it was returned as undeliverable.  I went directly to the Canadian Child Care Federation website and found the e-mail address for Robin McMillan who is the Senior Consultant for the organization.  I am waiting for her response.

I am motivated to establish a professional early learning relationship with Mr. Eric Atmore from the National Early Childhood Development Alliance as a continuation to a previous assignment where I learned about Nairobi’s Community Safety Nets that provide services for the 60,000 street children living there.  The National Early Childhood Development Alliance is located in Clarinch, South Africa.  Using e-mail information found at the Global Alliance website I sent Mr. Atmore an e-mail and waiting for a response.

I have also e-mailed Dr. Betty Chan Po-king from the Pacific Early Childhood Education Research Association in Hong Kong.  Again, from a previous assignment I learned that students are assessed to determine placement in the elite academic programs and I want to learn more about  how or IF the early learning programs implement specific practices to prepare children for memorizing the large amounts of material needed to score high on the assessments. The initial e-mail address found on the Global Alliance website was returned as undeliverable.  I proceeded to acquire another e-mail address directly from the Pacific Early Childhood Education Research Association website.  This one has not been returned and as with my other e-mails, I am waiting a response from Dr. Betty Chan Po-king.