In reviewing Harvard University's Global Children Initiative website, I found new insights that I am very excited about.
1) CHILD AND FAMILY MENTAL HEALTH - This project focused on anxiety and anxiety disorders, depression, ADHD, and all kinds of conduct problems in children including adolescent delinquency and violence. I found this to be very important as it should be a top priority to educators and parents all over the world. So much is known about children's development, yet we see time and time again children struggling with these mental issues that affect their entire lives.
2) RELATED RESOURCES SECTION - This section of the website provides non-English videos which are translated into Spanish and Portuguese and they are informative videos about the core concepts in Early Childhood Development which is also a great resource around the globe for people who are visual learners, and especially for those who do not know how to read. I failed to realize how important it is to have videos available to parents who cannot read. How can we expect them to know what's appropriate for their child by just giving them a pamphlet? These videos are full of information and it would be great if they were translated in more languages.
3) "UN BUEN COMIENZO", A Good Start - This was launched in Chile and it's a professional development educational program for teachers to improve the quality of early childhood education and health (including socio-emotional development) in this Country. We know that programs like this are a great success and it's great that it's being implemented in Chile. I hope to see this type of initiative to be taken all over the world, especially in poorer countries where there are so many children lacking health and educational well-being.
I think it's important to understand the issue of health and well-being in all children. If we understand it, we can work toward getting programs started globally that will make a difference in all children's lives. There has been great advancement, however, we have a ways to go. It's taking classes like these that open our eyes to the problems in early childhood education and the resources and hope that there is to create a better tomorrow for ALL children.
References
http://developingchild.harvard.edu/initiatives/global_initiative
When children are faced with mental health, it is vital that both parents and teachers get the best services possible for the child. The child should receive the appropriate help so that he or she will know how to deal with their mental health issue in the home and school environment. Children will tend to display misconduct behavior when he or she as a mental health problem. Therefore, with the proper help the child will possibly be able to function correctly in the classroom with his or her classmates.
ReplyDeleteHi Jeannette, I enjoyed reading your post. It is a really good resource to have information on mental health concerns, videos, and information in other languages. CSEFEL and Zero to Three websites are also very good resources for information on mental health, social-emotional, and many other areas of development too. I have accessed both of these on several occasions. I also agree with your thoughts on our classes being some very eye opening experiences and resources. Once again I enjoyed reading your post. Cindy Ferguson
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