Unfortunately I still have not heard from my international contacts, so for this week I researched Harvard University's " Global Children's Initiative" website. The Global Children's Initiative focuses on three main objectives:
* To reframe public discourse about the early childhood period by educating high-level decision makers about the common underlying science of learning, behavior, and health(DevelopingChild.Harvard.edu)
* To support innovative, multidisciplinary research and demonstration projects in selected countries or regions to expand global understanding of how healthy development happens, how it can be derailed, and how to get it back on track (DevelopingChild.Harvard.edu)
* To build leadership capacity in child development research and policy among individuals and institutions in low and middle class countries in order to increase the number and influence of diverse perspectives that are contributing to the global movement on behalf of young children (DevelopingChild.Harvard.edu)
The Global Children's Initiative has begun to collect information and build a portfolio in three specific domains: early childhood development, mental health, and children in crisis situations. (DevelopingChild.Harvard.edu)
As part of the the Global Children's Initiative, the Center in Brazil is launching Nucleo Clencia Pela Infancia, which in collaboration with local efforts is aimed at using the science of children's health and development to guide stronger policies and larger investments to benefit young children and families in Brazil. Together these organizations will build a scientific agenda and community of scholars centered around early childhood development, synthesize and translate scientific knowledge for application to social policy, strengthen leadership around early childhood development, and adapt the Center's existing print and multimedia resources for a Brazilian audience. (DevelopingChild.Harvard.edu)
In Zambia, the Zambian Ministry of Education, the Examination council of Zambia, UNICEF, and the Developing child at Harvard University launched the Early Childhood Development project (ZECDP) in 2009, which is a collaborative effort to measure the effects of ongoing anti-malaria initiative on children's development in Zambia. In order to measure the full effectiveness of the program, the ZECDP created a comprehensive instrument for assessing children's physical, social-emotional, and cognitive development before and throughout the school careers. After two rounds of collecting data, 1,686 children in 2004 were assessed between July and December 2010 with a follow up in 2011 of 1,250 children and another planned follow up for June-August 2012. The early stages of this project demonstrate that ongoing child assessments are possible within standard population based household surveys. The collaborators of this project hope that the outcome of the collected data will not only improve understanding of child development but also help to understand interventions towards improved outcomes in the rapidly changing world. (DevelopingChild.Harvard.edu)
In Chile, a collaborative project called " A Good Start" or Un Buen Comienzo (UBC), was created to improve early childhood education through teacher professional development. The purpose of this project is to improve the quality of education offered to four to six year olds particularly in language development. Other goals of the project were to intervene in critical health issues, improve school attendance, contribute to better social emotional development of children, and involve families in their children's education. This project received funding from the Center of the Developing Child and is an example of the integrated child development work designed by the Center's mission. The project began in 2007 with only four demonstration sites will eventually grow to reach 60 schools. The project will take part in collecting data from 60 sixty schools and be the first longitudial evaluation in early education in Latin America and will place Chile at the forefront of demonstrating the impact of high-quality early education. (DevelopingChild.Harvard.edu)
Reference:
Harvard University's "Global Children's Initiative" website. http://developingchild.harvard.edu/initiatives/global_initiative/
A Good Start sounds like an interesting project encompassing some critical components; family, health, language, and school attendance. Teacher professional development is critical to child outcomes and to have a project that is supporting these efforts and is growing is in dyer need especially in a second world country. And what great news that science is helping to guide policy and invest in young children and their wellness! So great to finally read this in print, the field of early childhood has known this for some time now, just glad to finally have a greater audience on board.
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