Getting to Know Your International Contacts—Part 1

There are an estimated 1.03 billion citizens in India as of 2001; 260.2 million people living in there are in poverty as of 1999-2000. India is home to the majority of poor people in South Asia, and deprivation is considered an epidemic, especially in rural areas, people do not have enough food to eat and not enough productive land to grow enough food to live on. Of the people living in poverty in India, an estimated 400 million of the population are between 0-18 years of age. Almost half of all children under the age of five are malnourished and 34% of newborns are significantly underweight, due to malnourishment. (CHIP, 2003)

Infant mortality is a problem that many different organizations have been working in for decades. The positive thing that has come from the intervention of these organizations is the infant mortality rate has declined from 80 per 1000 live births in 1990 to 69 in 2000. (CHIP, 2003) Having the child mortality rate go down is a positive in many ways but the one problem is that the children raised in poor areas of India are continuing the cycle.

Another thing I learned about the conditions in India is the fact that children do not have the proper schooling opportunities they need to change the vicious cycle of supporting themselves and their families. The enrolment of primary school-aged children rose from 68 percent in 1992/1993 to 82 percent at the end of the decade. However, India still accounts for 20 per cent of the world's out-of-school children. It has the largest numbers of working children in the world, with nearly a third of children below 16 years working (CHIP, 2003).

Sharing Web Resources

http://www.cec.sped.org/

The Council for Exceptional Children (CEC) is the largest international professional organization dedicated to improving the educational success of individuals with disabilities and/or gifts and talents. CEC advocates for appropriate governmental policies, sets professional standards, provides professional development, advocates for individuals with exceptionalities, and helps professionals obtain conditions and resources necessary for effective professional practice

CEC

Population Served
All aspects of the education and development of students with disabilities and/or those who are gifted.

I learned that there are more resources out there that are intended to help teachers find hoe to help teach students.

A Note of Professional Thanks

I wanted to thank all of you in the class for a delightful time. I really liked the professionalism and support from all of you. This class went by so fast, I learned so much about my classmates, their opinions on children, and how to teach early childhood learners.

When I Think of Child Developmen

It is easier to build strong children
than to repair broken men.
Frederick Douglas 1818 - 1895

Retrieved From: http://www.spiritual-quotes-to-live-by.com/quotes-about-children.html



Consequences of Stress on Children’s Development

Growing up, my father was diagnosed with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and dealing with his particular issues was difficult on my entire family. My dad would wake up in the middle of the night with nightmares and cold sweats. When I was around, five or six, I realized that, my dad had a problem but I had no idea what it might have been. My mother told me that being around large groups of people disturbed my dad so we did not go to large events. There are many people suffering from PTSD and now that the solders coming home from the most recent conflict have awareness of the problem and it can be dealt with sooner. When my dad came home from Viet Nam, there was not any kind of treatment available to him because there was not any kind of diagnoses back then.  While growing up my family just kept moving forward, understood my dad’s limitations, and dealt with them as they came.

According to the article Iraqi Children Suffer from PTSD, children living in the Iraq area suffer from PTSD just as much as the soldiers returning to America do. Dr. Haider Maliki, a psychiatrist, “claims that about 15 percent of Iraqi children show signs of PTSD. However, according to Maliki, many families do not seek help fearing humiliation or dishonor” (Dulcinea Staff, 2008). According to the article, new clinics are opening to help deal with the PTSD problem. Children in Iraq are just as important and need the same help that is offered everywhere else.

Dulcinea Staff. (2008, August 26). Iraqi children suffer from PTSD. Retrieved from http://www.findingdulcinea.com/news/international/Aug-08/Iraqi-Children-Suffer-From-PTSD.html

Child Development and Public Health

Drinking water is an important part of growing up. Having water readily available to drink and bathe is necessary to insure bacteria will not spread from person to person. I live in a community that has plenty of well water available, city water is available in the small town but the majority of the people use well water. Having well water is nice but there are setbacks. Using well water does not give children the fluoride, provided in the water from the city, but there are not as many chemicals added to it. Not having fluoride in the well means, you must add it to the daily regimen. Not having running water available to clean with or drink can be harmful as well.

When looking around the world I stumbled on the Iraq drinking water situation. Without purified water, the drinking water is not fit for human consumption. Having the same water used for sewer and drinking has created many separate problems. One major problem is the sewer water is in open, manmade ponds, that are drying up and the water is not running through any kind of filtration system. Not having the running water drinkable results in people using bottled water, this creates more solid waste to discard. The landfills are filling up and the water sources are drying up. There are water filters out there that can fix and help many of the problems, but the expense is too high for the country to afford.  “Waterborne diseases like diarrhea — the most prolific killer of children under 5 — are on the increase. In some areas, it's up as much as 70 percent over last year,” says the CBS Evening News. The United States has spent over 5.5 billion dollars so far to remedy the situation in Iraq. There must be something done soon to stop the problem.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/08/03/eveningnews/main3132093.shtml

Child Development and Public Health

Topic for blog week 2 Dr.Meyers

Breastfeeding,

            Breastfeeding has been studied intensively over the years to find the significance in whether it helps more than formula. The findings say, yes. Babies that are breastfed are introduced to cells, hormones, and antibodies that protect them from illness, such as necrotizing, enterocolitis, lower respiratory infections, asthma, obesity, and type 2 diabetes. A mother’s breast milk is unique to the baby’s needs and has the same cells that the mother has and there is less chance of rejection to the milk. Formula has a cow milk base and is more difficult for human babies to digest.

            Another reason researchers recommend breastfeeding babies is because, it help with the bonding period. Physical contact between the mother and the infant has been known to calm both the mother and the baby do to the warmth of the two bodies touching.

When relating this information to me, I tend to agree with the process and any chance to help the baby’s immune system. Healthy babies are a good thing. Healthy babies will help keep the cost of medical down and without high medical costs; there can be more money spent on research to enhance the well-being of the baby’s other needs.

Other countries throughout the world have been breastfeeding for generations because there may not be other forms of formula and substances available. The cost of producing formula for breastfeeding is high and in a country that does not have a lot of money for research, the only way to feed the young is to breastfeed. In Africa, over 95% of mothers’ breastfeed, the problem with this is that the health conditions are poor and the mother cannot get enough nurturance to keep herself healthy. Some mothers in Africa will breastfeed their children up to the age of four or five to ensure the child gets food. When a community does not have enough food to go around some cultures will feed only the women and they will share the breastfeeding responsibilities between themselves. This is that one mother may end up feeding three different babies and it is culturally acceptable. This is one way to ensure the children live, and keeps the population thriving.

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

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11943640