Testing for Intelligence?

 

I believe each children have their unique talent and  if we have to assess children in one way, I would say it is better to measure all the subject areas, including physical development, music ,art,  personalities and problem solving skills. Academically, it is important to know how much the children know about a subject to help them develop their interest in specify subjects. However, I do not believe a child is not smart if their academic results are not as high as the other children are. They maybe better in other way such as some children maybe an athletic or they are good at music. Moreover, personality should assess too; so that we know what kind of learning style does the child learn the best.

Nowadays, children are exposing to lots of violent in media and environment around them. Therefore, it is also important to assess their mental health as it could help children to release their stress and prevent all these tragedies happen such as shooting in school.

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I grew up in Hong Kong, China, and their education system is little bit different than the US system. In Hong Kong, children from elementary school to high school, they will have at least 4 formal examinations in a year. It happens quarterly, where you will have a week called “examination week” that you go to school just to take the exam for 2 hours or so. They do not have multiple choices, most of the exams are either comprehension, fill in the blanks, or essay questions. Student will get number grade out of 100, and in the report card, you will able to know your ranking in your class and in your grade in every subjects. They do examinations in all subjects including physical education in how many laps you can run in 20 mins, how many sit ups you can do in 3 mins and etc. They even do art and music. I do not really like this system as it may affect a student’s self-esteem if he/she sees their class ranking and overall grade ranking. 

I am not sure if there is any system to assess children’s mental health other than if anyone have concerns, but I strongly think that each child should receive a mental health assessment every year. It will support the child better and benefit to the society if the child is having negative views or stressful to be in the society, classmates, or families.

Consequences of Stress on Children's Development

Noise

I remembered one of the families I worked with had a very bad experience with noise. Little John (pretend name) and his mom who is single live in a small apartment on a busiest street in San Francisco, CA.  The street is famous with the bars, lounge and clubs. Every weekend is like a nightmare for little John and Mom because not only the music may echo to their apartment and the noise that those people who finished partying made are the most annoying stressor in their life. Mom works full time in a restaurant and they are barely having enough money to rent this apartment. Mom stressed to me that poverty is not a stressor to her, but the noise is really making her and her son’s life miserable. Little John sometimes has nightmare about monster chasing him when he was woke up by those noise.

Fortunately, we have a Family Advocate to support families in our program. The FA helped little John’s family found an affordable apartment listed on the housing list form Episcopal Community services –San Francisco. We are very fortunate that San Francisco have all these resources support the low-income families such as housing, emergency housing, food program etc.

When I reflected back to little John’s family, I realized that have people ever pay attention to the resident around the bar and lounge, have you ever think of how the noise we are making after a few drinks could affect to these residency? These questions were also came from a recent news from my home town.

 

 There is a street in Hong Kong closed after 6pm to 6am for citizen to present any kind of street performance like singing, dance etc. It is FREE! Many people and tourist love to come to this street to explore and enjoy the freedom to express self through art. What a nice place for people to express self through art! However, all these noisy became a serious stressor to the residents around this block. There was no voice level control on the street. Many seniors complained that they have a hard time falling asleep, children have a hard time to focus to complete their homework. There was also an incident where an senior injury at home and it took 30 minutes for the ambulance to get through all these traffic that the performance created. A week ago, the city finally restricted the street performance will only open in the weekend. Residents are so happy with this change. These made me reflect on how many time we are having fun and enjoying something while we may be affecting others life?

Reference:

Episcopal Community services –San Francisco : http://www.ecs-sf.org/programs/housing.html

Child Development and Public Health - Breastfeeding

Breastfeeding

Many studies and research found that breastfeeding benefits to both mother and the baby. Even some research said breast milk is the best food for baby! 

Benefits to babies :

1. Protects your baby against disease and infection.
2.  May reduce the risk of childhood obesity.
3. Helps prevent your baby from developing allergies.
4. It's free!

Mothers benefit from breastfeeding

1. Save time– when your baby is hungry, breastfeeding is the fastest and most accessible way to satisfy your baby. You will not need to purchase, measure and mix formula!In addition, you will not need to wash and sterilize bottles!

2. Save $$ – Formula and feeding supplies can cost well over $1,500 each year, depending on how much your baby eats. Breastfed babies are also sick less often, which can lower health care costs.( U.S. Department of Health and Human Services )

3. Help Bonding – Breastfeeding helps develop bond when mother has physical contact with her baby. The skin-to-skin contact can boost the mother’s oxytocin (OKS-ee-TOH-suhn) levels. Oxytocin is a hormone that helps milk flow and can calm the mother..( U.S. Department of Health and Human Services )

4.      Good for Mother’s health – Breastfeeding is linked to a lower risk of these health problems in women: Type 2 diabetes, Breast cancer, Ovarian cancer & Postpartum depression.

5. Mothers miss less work – Breastfeeding mothers miss fewer days from work because their infants are sick less often.

Breastfeeding vs. Taboos

As government and doctors encourage mothers to breastfeed, however, we don’t it rarely see a mother breastfeed in public. I remembered there’s a new a year ago that a mother was breastfeeding in a café, but the owner thinks that was disturbing to his/her customers and then they refused to serve her. The mother tried to talk about her rights of breastfeed and the importance of it, however, the owner still rejected her. This mother is so mad, but instead of arguing with the own, she posted this story in a mother support blog. The next day that mother and a group of mother say in the café to breastfeed. The owners senses the anxiety of the mothers and start to understand the reason of breastfeed. And this time, he didn’t refuse them, instead, he treats the mothers food and drink. Most importantly, he put a sign says “breastfeeding welcome here” in his café.

I am so proud of the mothers in this news that they are able to stand up to fight for their rights. Breastfeeding should not be a taboo in the public. It is the right of women and their babies!

I also noticed that in my hometown, Hong Kong, China, breastfeeding in public is not common in public. Regardless how government and doctor recommend breastfeeding, they suggest women to breastfeed in the women’s lounge or public nursing room. I believe it is because of the cultural difference. People are still very conservative in many ways, especially to women; they are shy and feel breastfeeding in public is rude, indecent or disturbing.  Although there is policy protects the rights of breastfeeding in public, government did not promote breastfeeding in public. 

Reference:

http://www.ccfc.ca.gov/parents/health-center/nutrition/?a=breastfeeding&t=1367450877406#/?a=breastfeeding&gclid=CO6Xlsv_1roCFVRk7AodwE8AUg

http://www.womenshealth.gov/breastfeeding/why-breastfeeding-is-important/index.html

http://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/family-education/article/1150949/issue-breastfeeding-hong-kong

Childbirth In Your Life and Around the World

I was born in Hong Kong, China, in a hospital. I believe the hospital system there was very similar to the current practice in the USA. My mom requested C-section because she wanted my birth date on a specific day because of religious reason. I don’t remember anything about being at the hospital, but I know in my culture has some norms on newborn. Newborn and their mother usually stay home or avoid going out for at least a month from the first day of the baby born. Chinese believe that newborn and mother are weak and still develop their strengths after birth or give birth. Therefore, they try to avoid going out to expose to germs or outdoor. And women try not to have alcohol, cold food or seafood during their pregnancy because they believe that is not good for the fetus.

I have some memory about my baby brother’s birth. He was born in the hospital too. I remembered me and my father went to the hospital to visit my brother. We stand in front of the window and trying to spot where his crib is. I also remembered my Mom told me that she was born at home. It’s very usual back in her days. They didn’t even need a certified physician to assist the procedure. They usually call some experienced woman called “delivery professionals” to help with the delivery.  My mom told me all these “delivery professionals” use are warm water and scissor to cut the umbilical cords.

In Hong Kong, China. I believe newborn stays in the newborn room with other newborn for a week and parents can bring them home after. It’s different than USA where newborn can go home with Mom in a day or so.  

A Note of Thanks and Support

Our first course has coming to the end. I really enjoy everyone's comment and blogs, they are all valuable and some are inspiring. I could feel the passion from each of you.

I particularly like Catherine and Elizabeth's blogs as they both have their personality on each blog!

Catherine's Blog always has something that evoke me to reflect on my experience and how I could do better. Therefore, I really enjoy reading her blog!

I found a lot of commonality in my visions and goals from Elizabeth's Blog  I believe we both value in family engagement as part of the element to child's success as well as believing in lesson plan should be individualized for each child's learning style.

Thank you all for sharing your life experience with me. I believe that we will continue to use expand our blog through the program at Walden! Good Luck to everyone!

Examining Codes of Ethics

It is very fascinating and useful to look at these codes of ethics. I found a lot of that relevant to valuable and me to my career. Here are some significant codes that represent my values and goals on supporting children and families:

NAEYC Code of Ethical Conduct (April, 2005)

I-1.7 – To use assessment information to understand and support children’s development and learning, to support instruction, and to identify children who may need additional services.

I-1.10 – To ensure that each child’s culture, language, ethnicity, and family structure are recognized and valued in the program.

P-2.15-We shall be familiar with and appropriately refer families to community resources and professional support services. After a referral has been made, we shall follow up to ensure that services have been appropriately provided.

Division for Early Childhood’s Code of ethics (August, 2009)

I-4 – We shall identify and disclose to the appropriate persons using proper communication channels

errors or acts of incompetence that compromise children’s and families’ safety and well being

when individual attempts to address concerns are unsuccessful.

II-1--We shall engage in ongoing and systematic reflective inquiry and self-assessment for the purpose of continuous improvement of professional performance and services to young children with disabilities and their families.

III-1-- We shall demonstrate our respect and appreciation for all families’ beliefs, values, customs, languages, and culture relative to their nurturance and support of their children toward achieving meaningful and relevant priorities and outcomes families’ desire for themselves and their children. 

I believe that as an educator, it is very important to use assessment tools to understand how children’s development progress are and to develop individualized plan to support children’s growth. In addition, it is also crucial to support families, as they are the primary support to children. We need to always be cultural sensitive because it will affect our relationship with children and family. 

References

NAEYC. (2005). Code of ethical conduct and statement of commitment. Retrieved from http://www.naeyc.org/files/naeyc/file/positions/PSETH05.pdf

The Division for Early Childhood. (2009). Code of ethics. Retrieved from https://class.waldenu.edu/bbcswebdav/institution/USW1/201420_02/MS_MECS/EDUC_6005/Week%207/Resources/Resources/embedded/dec_codeofethics.pdf

Growing Your Collection of Resources

Resources related to Young Children, Families, and the field of early childhood in San Francisco and California:

 

First 5 ,California
http://www.ccfc.ca.gov/parents/home.aspx
 
Children's Council, San Francisco
http://www.childrenscouncil.org/ 

Support for families, San Francisco
http://www.supportforfamilies.org/index.html

San Francisco Inclusion Network
http://sfinclusion.org/home/ 
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Additional resources from the course I am taking:

The Division for Early Childhood
http://www.dec-sped.org/
National Association for the Education of Young Children
http://www.naeyc.org/

Zero to Three: National Center for Infants, Toddlers, and Families
http://www.zerotothree.org/

WESTED
http://www.wested.org/cs/we/print/docs/we/home.htm

Harvard Education Letter
http://www.hepg.org/hel/topic/85

FPG Child Development Institute
http://www.fpg.unc.edu/

Administration for Children and Families Headstart's National Research Conference
http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/opre/hsrc/

HighScope
http://www.highscope.org/

Children's Defense Fund
http://www.childrensdefense.org/

Center for Child Care Workforce
http://www.ccw.org/

Council for Exceptional Children
http://www.cec.sped.org/

Institute for Women's Policy Research
http://www.iwpr.org/

National Center for Research on Early Childhood Education
http://www.ncrece.org/wordpress/

National Child Care Association
http://www.nccanet.org/

National Institute for Early Education Research
http://nieer.org/

Pre[K]Now
http://www.pewstates.org/projects/pre-k-now-328067

Voices for America's Children
http://www.voices.org/

The Erikson Institute
http://www.erikson.edu/