Thanks

Thanks to all  my colleagues that took the time to read and comment to my posts.  I wish you all success in your future courses and career.

Marta Laos

Child Developmental Milestones

Child Developmental Milestones

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oxe3-ijvZDs

Assessing Children

Assessing children:

The most popular way in USA to assess children is through standardized testing.  Nowadays standardized tests are used more to determine the effectiveness of the school staff than the children testing.  In several occasions, there is profit behind the results of a standardized test.  For example in Florida if a school is graded " A"  that school gets a very nice and substantial bonus that it is split between the school staff.  Also, the school gets more resources than other schools.  Usually the schools that are graded “A” are the schools in the middle and high class neighborhoods.  The children that attend those schools are children that have been exposed to many experiences in life.  Parents  can afford computers and technology and can pay for private tutoring sessions.  Many of the children in these neighborhoods have parents whose level of education is high. They typically have stay home mothers who can be more involve in the child’s education.  If you take the same staff and put it in a low income neighborhood… do you think that the results will be the same in the standardized test?    This is the reason why I do not agree with standardized tests.  Assessing children should be an individualized process.  Every child is unique and should be given the opportunity to show his strengths in a unique way and  not in a standardized test.  I also believe that every child has different ways of learning, but, unfortunately, because of these tests many teachers are left, with the only option, to teach to take the test.  I will suggest that we assess children by their strengths and not as they are all the same.

Standardized testing is also done in Puerto Rico.  The no child left behind act law of 2001 that attempts to close the gap between white, middle class children, and minority and low income children, is also enforced in the island.  Standardized tests in Puerto Rico are designed to meet the needs of USA continental children which are not necessary the needs of Puerto Rican children.  Puerto Rican children are the majority Spanish speakers and of Latin American culture.  These standardized tests are failing in Puerto Rico because the tests do not meet the needs of the children in the Puerto Rican schools. The majorities are from low income families, and they are not meeting the needs of children with disabilities.

Resources:

http://www.kon.org/urc/v9/medina-rodriguez.html

Child Poverty in Latin America and the Caribbean

In Latin America and the Caribbean, 45% of children are affected by at least one moderate to severe deprivation, which means that almost 81 million people under the age of 18 suffer from child poverty. For instance, in Bolivia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Peru, over two thirds of children suffer from poverty; in Chile, Costa Rica and Uruguay, fewer than one in four children live in poverty. Some of the areas that children are being deprived in these countries are nutrition, access to drinking water, connection to sanitation services, quality of housing and the number of people per room, school attendance and access to information and communication media. I have been to Peru and one of the things that most saddened me the most was to see children on the streets selling candies, water bottles, scarfs, hats, etc. or offering you a tour of the area just for one sol (.30 American cents) also children panhandling, and all this happening during school hours.

Reference:
ECLA-UNICEF study. (2008-2009). Child Poverty Affects almost 81 Million Children in Latin America and the Caribbean. Retrieved from:http://www.eclac.org/cgi-bin/getProd.asp?xml=/prensa/noticias/comunicados/0/43460/P43460.xml&xsl=/prensa/tpl/p6f.xsl&base=/tpl/top-bottom.

Divorce

The stressor that affected my life when I was growing up was my parents’ divorce. My parents got a divorce when I was 12 years old. Before my parents divorced, I had been a responsible student, and I had excellent grades. When my mother filed for divorce she took me, and my siblings out of the school we were attending, move out of the house, and left the city we were living. I remember how dramatic that was for me. I was crying when my mother picked me up at school, and I cried all the way to my grandparents’ house. I left my school, my friends and my father, and I felt that I was leaving a part of me behind. In that new stage of my life, I took the role of my mother’s helper. I helped with house duties and to take care of my 3 siblings. My mother relied on me for many things and gave me many responsibilities. As a student, I never went back to be the responsible student that I was. I became rebellious, irresponsible, and my grades went down. I started skipping school and hanging out with the wrong people. I was very resentful at my father and the life I was forced to live. I made new friends in my new town, but I was never again able to create attachments with them. I lost trust in people, and I only believed and relied in what I can do myself. At the age of 16, I became a mother and everything change again. I turned to my mother for support, and she did not fail me. We bonded again and developed a wonderful mother-daughter relationship. I decided to do well in school again, I finished high school went on to college and graduated. When I look at my past, I can identify why I do things the way I do them now. I became an independent and self-sufficient woman at a very young age. I still do not trust a lot of people and I have a hard time opening up to friends. I was able to forgive my parents for everything that I went through with their divorce, but certainly there are things that I cannot change now.

CHILDHOOD OBESITY

One of the current public health issues affecting children that most concerns me is childhood obesity.  Obesity in our country has become an epidemic, but it is even scary to me that obesity is now presenting in children as young as infants.  The lifestyle of families in United States is causing entire families to be overweight.  American families most of the time skip breakfast, have a very light and quick lunch, and it is not until dinner time that some of the families get to sit down and enjoy a pleasant meal.  Due to this by the time families are sitting to eat dinner they are so hungry and tired that they tend to over eat.  In addition to these many families are buying their dinner meals from fast food restaurant which triple the calories and fats.  Also, children are not participating in physical activities in a daily basis. Also, some of the states and counties due to funding cuts have removed Physical Education classes from their requisite courses.  Children are spending hundreds of hours a year in front of the T.V., computers, and video games.  As a consequence of all these facts, American children are becoming sick and developing serious diseases as diabetes, heart problems, high blood pressure, etc.   This situation is very sad; children are the future of our country and we all need to make an effort to fight the obesity epidemic in the country.  Families need to be educated on this topic and nutrition.  Parents need to learn to cook healthy meals.  Also, parents need to be more involved in the education of their children and encourage them to participate in physical activities at least for 60 minutes a day.  The best way to do this is setting up an example for the children.  As early childhood educators, there is a lot we can do; we can start educating the parents about health and nutrition, introduce healthy choices during breakfast, lunch and snack and making sure that, in our curriculum and lesson plans, we allowed 60 minutes of physical activity.  The 60 minutes of physical activity do not have to be all in once it can be done throughout the day.

Childhood Obesity is not only a problem of United States.  In Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean is now a growing concern.  In the last 50 years, food availability has increased in Latin America and the Caribbean, making a wider range of food easily accessible. Unfortunately, some of this food has very poor nutritional value (high in fat and sugar). Also, recently childhood obesity has been recognized in Europe.  More than ever we have to emphasize in educating children and families of all races and ethnicities on this global health problem.

Childhood Obesity Resources:

http://student.purduecal.edu/~lu65/Researches/Childhood%20Obesity.pdf

http://aspe.hhs.gov/health/reports/child_obesity/

http://journals.cambridge.org/download.php?file=%2FPHN%2FPHN4_1a%2FS1368980001000179a.pdf&code=09d8e7c5723605c3e6bbfbf916a408e1

http://tc.iaea.org/tcweb/news_archive/childhood_obesity/default.asp