Research that Benefits Children and Families

I found a really interesting research study called the "Spongebob Study".  This study evaluated preschoolers' attention spans after watching "Spongebob Square Pants" for several minutes.  The study did showed that after watching even just a portion of the show the children had "that the immediate effects of viewing very fast-paced programming could potentially affect how children learn, a conclusion consistent with other research showing a long-term effect of television viewing during early childhood and later attention problems and academic outcomes" (Kyle Snow, Ph.D., n.d.).  The study consisted of 60 children, all Caucasian from middle class families.  The kids were randomly assigned to three different groups, one group watched "Spongebob", another "Caillou", or draw with crayons and markers (Kyle Snow, Ph.D., n.d.).

I really liked this study because  of the reflection parents and educational professionals engage in.  Children's cartoons and t.v. shows today always make me feel uneasy in the sense that it just goes too fast, nothing is developed (in regards to a child's idea of "plot"), and most of the shows are plain ridiculous.  It also reminds us adults to monitor what children watch and take the time to watch the shows with them and to talk about the content afterwards.  

Resource

Snow, Ph. D, Kyle.  (n.d.).  Research news you can use: Dissecting the "Spongebob Study".  

           Retrieved from http://www.naeyc.org/content/research-review-dissecting-%E2%80

           %9Cspongebob-study%E2%80%9D.  

My Personal Research Journey

I have chosen to look at recruiting, training, and retaining high quality teachers in early childhood facilities.  This topic relates closely with my personal and professional life.  Personally, I have struggled with my love of working in the early childhood field solely because of the pay.  I know I can get a higher paying job, but do not want to leave the environment or people I work with.  Professionally, I struggle every day to recruit and retain high quality teachers for my center. 
So far, in this research process, I have learned a great deal.  I am now more attuned at looking closely at the sources I chose for my research and am more aware of the actual research process.  While, I have a lot of background doing research papers and the actual task of "researching" I never really embraced the process.  The chart I completed for this week's assignment helped me narrow down my focus and will be extremely helpful through the rest of this simulation.  I look forward to sharing new insights and suggestions with my colleagues. 

Sharing Web Resources

This week I explored the Take Action portion of the Child Care Aware of America website.  I was nativagated to the Legislative Action Center.  I could view child care standards for all 50 states and there were several links pertaining to every issue we have covered thus far in our programs and this course.  I could also put in my zip code and find the officials in my area, contacts for the media, and election information.  Right now Child Are Aware of America is urging everyone to contact their officials to urge them to cosponsor the Child Care and Development Block Grant of 2013.  

The website has a whole section dedicated to equity and accessibility of child care for children.  The website has a ton of valuable information including stories behind the issues, the reasons why these issues are relevant and what the next step is to reduce or eliminate it.  

I am really excited that they provided direct emails for their Public Policy and Advocacy staff.  I will be contacting their staff to gain more insight on their job and how I can become more involved in my area.

Getting to Know Your International Contacts—Part 2

I have not heard from my contact in London this week and when I did hear back from UNICEF in the Netherlands, I was not happy with their response, so I have reached out to other contacts and hopefully will hear something soon!

For this week, I reviewed Harvard's website, Global Children's Initiative.

Three new insights I gained this week:
- The economic boom and societal gaps currently happening in Brazil.  It is refreshing to know that Brazilian politicians, doctors, educators, etc are coming together and working with international contacts to better their early childhood policies and practices.
-New assessment tools in Zambia, that tract child development in malaria zones while preschool aged children are attending school. 
-Having the knowledge of early childhood development in other countries in conjunction with crisis or emergency situations those children are experiencing, gives me more respect for the early childhood policies and practices in our country. 

Getting to Know International Contacts

I finally was able to make contact with a Nursery Manager in London.  Her name is Lindsey Barrett and has been a manager for Busy Bees child care center for 18 years and has been with Busy Bees since the center opened 20 years ago.  Their center is open for children aged 12 weeks to 5 years old, with 76 children enrolled.  I did not have the chance to directly discuss poverty in her community (I will have a response early next week) but I did do research on poverty levels in London in preparation for our conversation.  Over the last two decades London has seen a rise in poverty levels, particulary in working adults, boroughs are becoming overcrowded and children in Southwark, Enfield, Lambeth and Harrow are more likely to pass away before their first birthday than children born elsewhere in London (http://www.londonspovertyprofile.org.uk/key-facts/).  I learned that Busy Bee child care centers have taken the initiative to "adopt" a charity each year and they spend the year fundraising for the charity.  I think this is a great!  I will update this post once I hear back from Lindsey, she said it has been a really busy week at her center!

Child Care Aware of America

I focused on the organization, Child Care Aware of America.  The link for this organization is www.naccrra.org. 
This organization focuses on bettering our country to better support, educate, and protect all children.  NACCRRA works with national and state level agencies to create public policies and initatives in education.  NACCRRA created a strategic plan to span from 2010-2015, this is the link to read about their plan, http://www.naccrra.org/sites/default/files/default_site_pages/2012/strategic_plan_2010-2015.pdf.  

On their website they have a blog that I subscribed to and this week they focused on the first ever Rally4Babies which was sponsored by ZERO-TO-THREE.  The rally was to bring awareness to the importance of supporting early learning for infants and toddlers and to bring Americans together to recognize the importance of supporting policies that will enhance early learning and development for infants and toddlers.  

I searched through the website to find information that pertained to this week's topics and ideas and found a section on Child Demographics with the most recent report from April 2013.  The fact sheet can be found at http://www.naccrra.org/sites/default/files/default_site_pages/2013/census_bureau_fact_sheet_april_2013.pdf.  The fact sheet is titled "Who's Minding the Kids?" and is based off of the Census Report found at http://www.census.gov/prod/2013pubs/p70-135.pdf.  This report details child care arrangements based on the family structure, the family's work schedule, poverty level, and parent ethnicity.  The report is a great resource, especially for child care agencies and organizations to see the needs of our population.  

Establishing Professional Contacts and Expanding Resources

Part 1

As I have stated many times before, my husband's family is from the Netherlands.  I chose to contact UNICEF in the Netherlands to ask for a professional contact within their organization.  The information team responded fairly quickly to my request and I am now waiting to see if they can put me in direct contact with a professional.  If I am unable to make contact, I will reach out to my father-in-law and see if he can help contact someone in the schools where he used to work. 
The childcare company I work for has several centers internationally and the CEO of my company was kind enough to reach out to her colleagues in the UK and Singapore in order to help me make contact with one of the Directors.  I hope to hear something by Monday or by the end of the week. 

Part 2
For the expanding resources part I decided to look further into NACCRRA.  My husband is a Marine and I take great pride in the opportunities the military has to offer.  My company is involved in NACCRRA and provides reduced tuition for families within the military.  I would like to be more involved in this aspect of public policy and advocacy of military families.  I plan on getting a membership and hopefully becoming more active as an individual in NACCRRA.  I am already a member of NAEYC and receive their publication Young Child.