Teaching acceptance through Television

There’s a new kid on the block on Sesame Street and her name is Julia. Why did this make news? Because this would mark the first character with autism on the supremely successful TV show that has been running for over 35 years now. Jeanette Betancourt, Sesame Workshop’s Senior Vice President of U.S. social impact, told Aljazeera that it took three years of research and consultations with experts from institutions such as the Yale Child Study Center to bring Julia to life.  So why is this such a big deal? Well, a recent study by the National Bureau of Economic Research suggests that the TV show has had its fair share of positive impact on the youngest minds in the country. “It is the largest and least-costly early childhood intervention intervention that’s ever been implemented in the United States,” said Phillip Levine, an economics professor at Wellesley College who co-authored the paper.

Preschool and Privilege

 

A recent NPR article on the role that parental flexibility plays on school enrollment gave me a lot to think about. My colleague Caitlin has described in detail in her blog post, the effects of inadequate maternity and paternity leave and the benefits of the role that both parents can play in the development of a child, especially in the first few years of his or her life. In an article posted by Huffington post, one can see that the disparity that exists between countries that provide paid leave for mothers and fathers is astounding. The USA joins Papua New Guinea and Swaziland as countries that do not mandate paid maternity leave. This means that large groups of new mothers and fathers, especially where both parents are working are scrambling for help and the quality of that help will depend highly on economic status and family lifestyles.

Another Bottom Line: School Readiness

 

Zee news, one of India’s major media outlets, recently published an article examining West Bengal’s and UNICEF’s joint early childhood education initiative, Sishu Aloy, aimed at setting up 160,000 ECD centres throughout the state. Just this past Friday (Nov. 27th), 1,000 ECD centres were inaugurated and heralded as a significant step for boosting the school readiness of pre-primary students.

Forest Kindergartens Are Not Left Behind

 

Last week, California’s PBS affiliate published an article, Forest Kindergartens Push Back Against Academic Focus For Young Kids, examining a burgeoning outdoor movement for pre-primary education. Forest kindergartens are held outdoors, in nature, and promote student-led inquiry and learning. For example, students are encouraged to explore the nearby woods and streams, build structures using branches, and draw scenes of their surrounding environment. Particularly, all these activities (and many more) are promoted to emphasize two core tenets: learning by doing and connection with the natural world.

Advice From Whom?

Infant mortality is defined as the relationship between the number of infant deaths under the age of one in a specific year out of 1,000 live births in that same year. A recent article written for NPR entitled, “To Save The Lives Of Babies and Mothers, Ask For Advice From Peru” highlights the fact that in Peru in 1995, 43 out of every 1,000 infants died before turning one. Now in 2015, that rate has been dramatically lowered to only 13 out of every 1,000 births.

Pre-K: Is it worth it?

In his Sunday op-ed piece for the New York Times, Does Pre-K Make Any Difference, David Kirp peeks in on the debate between supporters and critics of universal preschool programs. Kirp’s interest with this topic is spurred by a recently released Vanderbilt University longitudinal study on the effects of Tennessee’s state-subsidized pre-school program. Seemingly a win for pre-k critics, this randomized control trial produced no evidence that participating 3rd graders improved cognitively from attending pre-school.

On your mark, Get set.. Wait another year?

The results of a study titled “The Gift of Time? School starting Age and Mental Health” published by the National Bureau of Economic Research, states that delayed entry into Kindergarten by at least a year, would significantly help improve their academic and social skills! This paper which was co-authored by a professor from the Stanford Graduate School of Education, Thomas Dee and Hans Henrik Sieversten of the Danish National Center For Social Research, was quoted saying:  “We found that delaying kindergarten for one year reduced inattention and hyperactivity by 73 percent for an average child by the age 11 and it virtually eliminated the probability that an average child at that age would have an ‘abnormal,’ or higher-than-normal rating for the inattentive-hyperactive behavioral measure.”

Singapore joins the Big League

Singapore enters a new and exciting arena as it announces a learning and training platform for early childhood educators. First of its kind in Singapore,  as reported by ChannelNewsAsia, it will also allow teachers to track their development, give feedback and to ask questions, increasing individual knowledge and also increasing collaboration of teachers from all over the country.

Set up by the Early Childhood Development Agency (ECDA) which is the regulatory authority for the Early Childhood sector in Singapore, this three year professional development (PD) program, will serve as an avenue for ECD educators to really deepen their understanding of running pre primary and primary education centers in Singapore.

Let Mothers Be Mothers

An article recently published in Huffington Post Parents and presented by the Fisher-Price company examines what mothers around the globe feel is most important for their children. The article serves to build upon the international Moms’ Hopes & Wishes study conducted over four weeks through February and March 2015 by Illuminas Global on behalf of the company, which spanned seven countries to survey prenatal and postnatal mothers about what they wish for their young children’s futures.