I am truly delighted any time I
have the chance to browse Harvard’s Center on the Developing Child site (2017).
I am in love with their straight forward scientific approach to telling people
how it is when it comes to early childhood necessities and the results if those
necessities are not met. Browsing the site this week I looked once again at
their “Collective Change” section. It is there that they share the programs
they are collaborating on around the world. Previously, I have loved their
video briefs explaining topics such as toxic stress, serve and return, and
brain architecture. While looking at their programs more closely I found that
two collaborations in Canada have resulted in awesome illustrated explanations
for educating the masses on why all this science matters. Here are the two I am
speaking of. You will not regret watching! The first video provided a brief
insight into the reality of inequities when it explained that one third of the
world’s childhood population is considered stunted developmentally either
mentally or physically; as well as one third of the world’s childhood population
might never reach their full potential. These children must be missing (essential)
opportunities that the other two thirds have access too.
Moving on I took a look at the
pilot program in Washington State. I have not ascertained whether Harvard has
pilot programs functioning in other areas of the US, but I certainly hope so.
Part of the program in Washington was studying the use of organized play and
mindfulness practice with children ages 1-5 who had experienced some toxic
stress. The explanation can be found through the site I have shared below. One
of the most interesting revelations was that while implementing the
intervention idea, one classroom had better results that the others. When they
inquired about why, they discovered the teacher had made a few important
choices different from her colleagues. Mostly, she had provided consistency;
playing the same game every day for a week before trying a new one, as well as
incorporating the same mindfulness practice every day. This provided a
consistent schedule of play and emotional support, while other classrooms
implemented the two strategies on an alternating daily schedule. This made me
realize the importance of testing ideas before implementing policies. While the
idea of playing games will certainly teach important skills over time, executed
in this consistent manner the benefits were reaped sooner. That means that
inside of the same program there was inequality within how the teachers
executed this program. Yet, over all this particular location was providing a
specific support for a specific need to support equity. Sadly, inequity exists
where care providers are untrained on necessities for proper development. I
love that Harvard’s work includes educating parents and teachers on how they
can improve for the betterment of our children.
Interestingly, like the above
program, most of the programs in progress with Harvard’s Center on the
Developing Child are small scale pilots (2017). These programs are making an
amazing impact on these (relatively small) groups of children, parents,
families through home visiting, parent education, teacher trainings, and
program initiatives. That means all the rest of the area children are not yet
experiencing these positive impacts. The exception seems to be their
collaboration with Brazil, where every year over forty top-level policy makers
attend a workshop at Harvard to build on their learning about the science of
Early Childhood. This is an amazing country-wide approach. I can only hope
their country continues to see the benefits of their efforts. Also that our own
country will see the important work our own Universities are doing to support
children and families around the world, and the need for support that provides both
excellence and equity in our own country.
References:
Center
on the Developing Child. (2017). Center on the Developing Child. Harvard
University. Retrieved from: https://developingchild.harvard.edu/
I loved your picture on the first of your blog. I truly defines the differences in equality and equity. I think more education systems should try for equity and not equality. They say a picture is worth a thousand words and that picture did more to define the problems than any number of articles that I have read on equality.
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