Getting to Know Your International Contacts—Part 2

For this week, my focus was on Centre for developing child, Harvard University as well as reading and listening to the podcast.  The Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University was founded in 2006 on the belief that the vitality and sustainability of any society depend on the extent to which it expands opportunities early in life for all children to achieve their full potential and engage in responsible and productive citizenship. They viewed healthy child development as the foundation of economic prosperity, strong communities, and a just society, and their mission is to advance that vision by using science to enhance child well-being through innovations in policy and practice. (Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University, 2010).while exploring the Harvard university website, I was exposed to several information that are quite informative, educative and insightful.

The first insight that caught my attention is the issue of Executive functioning, based on research, this is an important skill needed develop early in life which is vital for lifelong survival.  Being able to focus, hold, and work with information in mind, filter distractions, and switch gears is like having an air traffic control system at a busy airport to manage the arrivals and departures of dozens of planes on multiple runways. In the brain, this air traffic control mechanism is called executive functioning, a group of skills that helps us to focus on multiple streams of information at the same time, and revise plans as necessary. Acquiring the early building blocks of these skills is one of the most important and challenging tasks of the early childhood years, and having the right support and experiences through middle childhood, adolescence, and into early adult life is essential for the successful development of these capacities. Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University. (2010) For more detail, watch this-http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efCq_vHUMqs&feature=player_embedded,reteived from http://developingchild.harvard.edu/resources/multimedia/videos/inbrief_series/inbrief_executive_function/

The second issue I found insightful Global children initiative which aims at integrating international approach to child survival, health, and development in the earliest years of life, The Center’s commitment to global work represents both an acknowledgement of moral responsibility to meet the needs of all children and a critical investment in the roots of economic productivity, positive health outcomes, and strong civil society in all nations, from the poorest to the most affluent. One essential, cross-cutting aspect of the Center’s approach is its commitment to work collaboratively across disciplines and institutions, drawing together the best and most creative expertise available to achieve the Initiative’s goals.The global activities  includes Un Buen Comienzo (UBC), “A Good Start,” i a collaborative project in Santiago, Chile, to improve early childhood education through teacher professional development. The idea is to improve the quality of educational offerings for four-to-six-year-olds, particularly in the area of language development. This project is also designed to intervene in critical health areas that improve school attendance as well as socio-emotional development, and it seeks to involve the children's families in their education.( Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University,2010).Read more.

 Also the Zambian early childhood development project, which is to address the knowledge gap of the impact of childhood experiences and to ensure equity and excellence in programs in  sub-Saharan, the Zambian Ministry of Education, the Examination Council of Zambia, UNICEF, the University of Zambia, and the Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University launched the Zambian Early Childhood Development Project (ZECDP) in 2009, a collaborative effort to measure the effects of an ongoing anti-malaria initiative on children’s development in Zambia, through a new comprehensive instrument for assessing children’s physical, socio-emotional, and cognitive development before and throughout their schooling careers. Read more
As part of its Global Children’s Initiative, the Center is launching Núcleo Ciência Pela Infância, its first major programmatic effort outside the United States. In collaboration with local experts, this project aims to use the science of child health and development to guide stronger policies and larger investments to benefit young children and their families in Brazil. Read more

The third issue I found insightful is on their student, education and leadership forum- The Center’s Education and Leadership Development (ELD) agenda is a full suite of formal and informal opportunities committed to enhancing the growth of the next generation during the critical early stages of their intellectual development. They also focused on building the capacity of career professionals to translate research into policy and action. They engage both current and future leaders in constructive dialogue to expose them to new paradigms and theories in order to guide their understanding of how to leverage this new knowledge on behalf of vulnerable children and their families. (Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University,2010) Read more

The information that I found insightful from the podcast was on Maysoun Chehab ,the Regional Early Childhood Care and Development Program Coordinator at the Arab Resource Collective (ARC), not-for-profit non-governmental organization based in Beirut, Lebanon. It picked my interest because of her effort at ensuring children get the opportunity to learn despite psychological challenges as a result of war or conflict, her effort at ensuring the children and family got the necessary support they need to face these adversity, Her target of supporting the families and teachers first proved highly effective in Lebanon after he war that left many children and families devastated. Parents and teachers were trained about range of emotional and social reactions behaviors young children would have in post conflict situations, it was a 6days training and  which eventually gave them more coping techniques, and better prepared and confident to help these children

                                                            References
Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University. (2010), retrieved from http://developingchild.harvard.edu/

World forum radio,(2011), retrieved from http://worldforumfoundation.org/wf/wp/current-work/world-forum-radio/