click on the link below to receive information about Why it is necessary to Strengthen Adult Capabilities to Improve Children's Outcomes.......

http://developingchild.harvard.edu/resources/building-adult-capabilities-to-improve-child-outcomes-a-theory-of-change/ 

A Preschool Scenario To Reflect On:

Consequences of Stress of Children’s Development

The consequences of a 4-year old preschool boy is clearly observed by the center administrator and other professionals who intervened to help him adjust in the classroom. This example is from a series of classroom observations and interventions made to help him become more accepting and accountable for his teacher’s directions; structured routines in the classroom and his daily interactions towards his peers as he is displaying daily anger and oppositional behaviors towards his teachers and others in the classroom:

-         -  the child often ignores his female teacher’s request to wash his hands after using the toilet. he says “I want to play ______ (in a preferred center)” and walks towards the classroom by himself. he falls onto the floor and uses his shoe or an object he randomly picks-up and kicks the nearby steel radiator. he often hits/punches/kicks his teachers when they try to intervene – his mother or center administrator is called many times throughout the day to intervene. in addition, his mother refuses to allow a free observation, family review and referral be made by a qualified, credentialed team early intervention professionals to help the child adjust and comply with center/classroom  rules. 

-         - the child falls onto the floor, refusing to wash his hands before and after playing in the sandbox at center time. he often hits/punches/kicks his teachers when they try to intervene – his parent or center administrator is called throughout the day to intervene — his mother continues to refuse to allow a free observation, family review and referral be made by a qualified, credentialed team early intervention professionals to help the child adjust and comply with center/classroom rules

-          - the child spontaneously slapped another peer in the face when she took a toy out of his hand without asking and she suffered a significant bruise on her face – his mother was called into the office to discuss his current need for early intervention services – both his mother and father agreed and this request for early intervention services which was immediately made by his teachers on his behalf.

Early Intervention Results called for:

-         -  his teachers to be trained on setting a daily warm environment with predictable routines and praise for all the children in the classroom to follow

-         -  both parents to work together and set-up an acceptable a daily routine that reinforces daily predictable structured routines, rewards and caring, respectable interactions with others

-         - both parents to take turns spending daily extended time with the child, especially at pick-up and drop-off times of the day where teachers have the opportunity to deliver face-to-face daily reports on his behavior(s) thatt will ultimately make him more accountable for his actions during the day and allow the opportunity to be rewarded by his parents for actively displaying positive behaviors.

Summary of Results

It seems once the child was given ample opportunities for: 1) more quality time with both his parents; 2) a better system of positive feedback to be set in place; 3) more structured, predictable routines to be put in place and followed at home and at school and 4) more opportunities for him to be more accountable and be more verbally expressive at home and at school, he began to flourish and so far, this child is more accepting of daily routines, transitions in school and his peer interactions. Additionally, he is beginning to use his words more instead of hurting others.

Child Immunization: A World-Wide Public Health Intervention

Click here to view child vaccines required for Infants and Children up to age 6
http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/parents/downloads/parent-ver-sch-0-6yrs.pdf

Since before the 15^th century, contagious diseases such as, smallpox, measles, chickenpox, scarlet fever, whooping cough, the bubonic plague, typhus, malaria, influenza and pneumonia have caused millions of human deaths around the world.  Thirty percent of all children in Europe died before reaching their 15^th birthday during the 15^th century and close to ninety percent of the native Indians\ population died of infectious diseases in America during the 17^th century.. Some diseases such as, measles, smallpox, yellow fever and polio however, were practically wiped out in the modern developed countriess by the 20^th century after  Louis Pasteur made the first  vaccination in the lab (online, public) that primed the body’s immune system to resist infectious disease (Berger). Many of these vaccines, considered basic child immunizations, are saving millions of  infants and children's lives up to age 6 in modern developed countries and thanks to increased access to vaccines, in undeveloped countries, more lives are being saved (online, public). 

Globally, the CDC Global Immunization Strategic Framework for example, is committed to working with global partners toward achieving the following six goals in disease, disability and death prevention around the world for 2011-2015:

Goal 1: Control, eliminate, or eradicate targeted vaccine-preventable disease (VPD), disability and death globally

Goal 2: Strengthen capacity and enhance performance of health systems to sustainably deliver routine immunization services

Goal 3: Strengthen VPD health information and surveillance systems to enhance decision-making capacity for immunization programs

Goal 4: Increase the appropriate development, introduction, and use of new and underutilized vaccines—pneumococcal, rotavirus, meningococcal group A conjugate vaccine, hepatitis B vaccine birth dose, rubella, cholera, typhoid, malaria, yellow fever to prevent global diseases

Goal 5: Promote synergies between immunization and other public health interventions to strengthen health systems and contribute to decreased maternal and child mortality

Goal 6: Build and strengthen partnerships that maximize coordination and synergy in meeting immunization goals (online, global).

            In closing, I believe this life-saving, vaccine prevention approach to eliminating world-wide disease, disability and death could have far-reaching benefits as it could spur global partnerships among nations. It could save billions of lives around the world; increase intellectual property that could solve world-wide problems which could ultimately make the world a better place to live; it extends more educational opportunities to others around the world and to the extent that we care for our children, speaks to our respect for humanity.     

References:

Berger, K. S. (2016). The Developing Person through Childhood (7th ed.). New York, NY: Worth Publishers, pp137-169.

Online Websites:
global              retrieved from

http://www.cdc.gov/globalhealth/immunization/docs/gid-strat-framewk.pdf 

public              retrieved from

http://www.publichealth.org/public-awareness/understanding-vaccines/

During pregnancy, I attended routine monthly check-ups. In the hospital: my husband witnessed two childbirths in the delivery room; I received local anesthesia as I delivered 2 healthy bright-eyed babies--5 1/2years apart; we bonded together as a family before we took our babies home and when we arrived home, we were determined to provide our children with love, nurture and as much education as we could possibly afford.

Britain for example, practiced two different types of child rearing methods during the eighteenth century (Smith, 2006):

• Like Americans, Rousseau and the Romantic poets--Blake, Coleridge and Wordsworth urged parents/educators to think of children as being endowed with a naturally goodness and a precious innocence that will eventually be lost after reaching adulthood therefore, children should be reared like many of their country's rich population--with love, nurture and education.   

• John Wesley and Hannah More however, urged parents/teachers to think of children as bringing a corrupt nature and evil disposition to the world which need to have their spirit's broken so that it can eventually become more subject to the will of God. 

I believe life's miracle of birth changes us all for the better because our bodies want to make babies (Web Video). This birthing process also changes the normal mathmatical equation from
1 + 1 = 2 to 1 + 1 = 3+ and with the onset of  Head Start and Early Head Start programs in America, I believe that Rousseau and the Romantics are correct, infants and young children should experience many loving, nurturing relationships for their successful developmental growth.

References

Smidt, S. (2006). The Developing Child in the 21st century: A global perspective on child development. New York, NY: Routledge, Children and Childhoods, pp1-16.

Web Video Above: PBS NOVA: Life's Greatest Miracle
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/body/life-greatest-miracle.html