Saturday, March 8, 2014

Establishing Professional Contacts and Expanding Resources


I have attempted contact with two professionals from Germany and Singapore.  I chose Germany because it is the birthplace of kindergarten and Singapore because it intrigued me.  Unfortunately, I have not heard back from anyone yet.  I am going to try again and wait a couple more days.  If I do not hear back from anyone, I will be working on the alternate assignment. 
            When looking through the selection of early childhood organizations, Early Childhood Australia caught my eye because it is an advocacy organization.  Being a part of NAEYC, I was interested to learn more about another country’s advocacy organization.  I was blown away by their website.  Early Childhood Australia mirrors NAEYC in several ways.  Both are advocates for children birth through 8 years.  Both websites contains information for their members, an online store for materials, position statements, information on their publications, etc.  Upon further review of Early Childhood Australia, their website went into further details about children, child development, and developmentally appropriate practices.  I would recommend it as a great resource for families as well as for providers.  It has great tips and ideas for both to use at home and in classrooms.  My favorite part is that the website has a link to information about SIDS.  I read through it and it suggests everything we do in North Carolina to prevent SIDS.  This is a great resource for new parents that are not always educated on SIDS and ways to prevent it.  I remember when I had my son I was not given information except to place him on his back.  I have heard other stories from parents, ones in our field, that were never given information.  I think it is very important that parents, especially new ones, understand SIDS, the dangers, and ways to help prevent it.  What do you think?  Overall, I recommend that everyone visit this website. It has great quick read resources about children.  It includes curriculum, behaviors, children’s rights, play in early childhood, etc.  I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.  Everything that I read is what we advocate for and know in America.  I am going to continue to look through it for additional resources to use in my job.  The website is:  http://www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au/

2 comments:

  1. I have no really thought anything about other countries educational system before I started to attend classes here at Walden. Sometimes I feel so sheltered when looked up information about other countries, but I also want to learn more about the educational systems of the world because I do not know hardly enough! I am going to take some time next week to look at your website, I have some families that i work with who might be very interested in the information on SIDS. Thank you for sharing!

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  2. I agree that learning about SIDS is very important for every family. We have what they call the back to sleep campaign that is supposed to be taught to new families while still in the hospital. We did not learn that when we brought our daughter home although they missed having us watch the discharge video. We did have to take an infant car seat safety class as well as first aid and CPR. I think we were the exception though since our daughter was a preemie and these were things we had to do in the NICU before she left the hospital with us.

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