Learning is Fun and Educational

Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) is meaningful to me because growing up I have a friend that lost a niece to SIDS. I was twelve, when this happen. One morning the police and ambulance were at her house and she came over and told me, when every woke up they found her niece dead.

The United States has the second leading deaths from SIDS with New Zealand being number one. In the 1980’s one and every 250 babies died suddenly, by 1986 SIDS made up 65% of deaths among babies. In 1991 New Zealand initiated the National Cot Death Prevention Programme and had an immediate impact with the following results.

• “The fall in SIDS mortality was dramatic, with a halving of the SIDS mortality rate, within 2 years and this was accompanied by a reduction in total (all causes) post neonatal mortality (1–11 month mortality) showing that the reduction was real. [4]
• “Mortality rates have continued to decline, albeit more gradually and this has been attributed to the reduction in the prevalence of side sleeping position.” (CPI, 2016)

Even though New Zealand has made strides and been successful in lowering infant deaths due to SIDS they still are number one in the nation.

References

CPI (2016) The New Zealand’s National Cot Death Prevention Programme. https://www.centreforpublicimpact.org/case-study/national-sids-prevention-programme/

My personal birth experience is the one I had with my 14-year-old daughter. I went in for a routine prenatal appointment and a sonogram showed the amniotic fluid was low, so they told me I needed to go check in at the hospital. I got checked in and they started to monitor her to see what the next step was. Being that I was 36 weeks they wanted to approach the situation delicately. They induced labor and kept monitoring her to ensure she was okay. Labor lasted over 10 hours, thankfully she was born with no problems.

Birthing Experiences in China

One thing China has focused on is reducing maternal and infant mortality rates. China preferred delivery is in the hospital mainly because home deliveries were considered unsafe, even though patients have said hospitals have a  lack of cleanliness, companionship during labor, pain relief, and opportunity to participate in decision making as poor aspects of care. Most women opt for a cesarean due to the lack of pain medication provided during vaginal birth. Rural and poverty areas are much the same as they are around the world, women do not have accessibility to adequate care.

References

Raven, J., van den Broek, N., Tao, F., Kun, H., & Tolhurst, R. (2015). The quality of childbirth care in China: women’s voices: a qualitative study. BMC pregnancy and childbirth, 15, 113. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12884-015-0545-9

My support system includes my husband and children, colleagues at work, and a close friend. My husband supports me by being a listening ear when I’m frustrated or dealing with things. My older children support me by helping me when I have trouble with the printer, laptop, and software. They all keep the younger children occupied while I work on schoolwork and other important things. Colleagues support me by giving me their time in order to interview them, do observations in their classrooms for school assignments and being a resource when I need help with anything. My close friend also provides a listening ear and helps me anything related to school or business wise.

I don’t think it would be difficult to exist without these supports, it would be a void but not difficult. I am one of those people that believe you should push your way through anything, where there’s a will, there is a way. It will be hard without the support but not impossible. If my husband, children and close friend were gone it would make me strive harder to achieve the goals I set for myself. As for my colleagues, I would miss the support they provide but I don’t think it would be as impactful as the other people in my support system.

Thank you to everyone that read my blog and left comments. This has been an amazing eight weeks with you guys.

Thank you Mary at https://thehipplife.blogspot.com/, your blog was one of the ones I looked forward to reading every week. The use of your life experiences made it relatable.

Thank you Inette at https://inetteandece.home.blog/blog-feed/, your blog was so informative and I learned something new with every blog post I read.

In early learning I feel that a child’s developmental milestones should be the only thing assessed. That is to see if a child is developing within the giving time frame but also take into consideration that children do develop differently. As for older children I feel they should be assessed when they are struggling with something. This should be done only as a measure to see what a type of accommodations and/or aids a child needs to be successfully. At times children are evaluated when the have behavioral problems but sometimes these behavioral problems stem from not being able to lean.

Testing for Intelligence in Other Parts of the World

Finland Student Assessment

“Classroom assessment are divided into two categories: assessment during the course and final assessment. Both are nationally mandated to align with national criteria, but they serve different purposes. Formative assessment within the classroom encourages student growth and self-assessment. The national curriculum specifies the criteria for classroom assessment during the course, and it is the teacher’s responsibility to carry out assessment of students’ conduct and schoolwork along this national criterion. Yearly assessment, based on a variety of student work, provides feedback to students about progress in learning and Mid-Western Educational Researcher • Volume 25, Issues 1/2 36 suggestions for improvement. The high-stakes final assessment of basic education, contained in the National Curriculum, requires student work samples from 2 years and is conducted by the subject teacher. A final type of assessment that is not included in the National Curriculum is the matriculation examination, the only high stakes standardized test taken by students. The matriculation examination is administered upon completion of upper secondary school if the student intends to complete further education. In sum, Finland’s assessment practices result in fewer formal assessments and fewer pressures for teachers merely to prepare students for a narrow examination.” (HENDRICKSON, 2011)

After assessments struggling children aren’t placed in different classrooms based on their ability but are in same classrooms and an additional teacher is present to help them where they’re struggling.

My Concerns

My concerns with evaluating children is sometimes the first choice. I feel every option should be exhausted before making the decision to assess a child.

References

Hendrickson, Kate, Assessment in Finland: A Scholarly Reflection on One Country’s
Use of Formative, Summative, and Evaluative Practices

Click to access v25n1-2-Hendrickson-GRADUATE-STUDENT-SECTION.pdf

Growing up one of my best friends family didn’t have a lot. My mom would gather all my old clothes and shoes and give them to her being that she was a couple years younger than me. Her and her sisters would come over and have dinner with us sometimes and whenever we did something with friends I would always make sure I got enough money for the both of us. I don’t recall this have any effect on her but things like that are things people tend to hide.

China

I read a study about “Factors influencing developmental delay among young children in poor rural China: a latent variable approach”.  The study stated that, “China has the third largest number of disadvantage children. The study showed that the prevalence of suspected developmental delay among children aged 6–35 months was high and inversely related to age in the surveyed areas of poor rural China. To date, only one study has examined developmental delay in rural China, and reported a prevalence of 20.0% in cognitive development and 32.3% in psycho-motor development among children aged 6–12 months. Our study revealed that 35.7% of rural children under 3 years of age had suspected developmental delay and that among children aged 6–12 months, 17%–20% of them had delay in the communication, problem-solving, personal-social and gross motor domains, and nearly 30% had delay in fine motor development.” (BMJ Open, 2018)

What I gathered from the study was children under three affected by poverty had the most developmental delays than any other age group.  What I would like to know is, why do the children in that age range have the most developmental delays?

Immunizations

I chose this public health measure because I work in the early childhood field and for the past few years, I have seen an increase in the number of children that don’t receive vaccinations. Some parents believe that getting their child vaccinated is one of the most important things you can do for them, others beg to differ.  With the rise of vaccine preventable diseases, a lot of early childhood programs are not accepting any kids that aren’t immunized, regardless of obtaining an exemption from immunizations from the state.

Immunizations in India

India has the largest number of births in the world and the largest number of children that aren’t immunized. Some of the challenges to immunization include limited capacities of staff, particularly in poor-performing states and at the field level, and gaps in key areas such as predicting demand, logistics and cold chain management, which result in high wastage rates. India also still lacks a robust system to track vaccine-preventable diseases. Vaccination coverage varies considerably from state to state, with the lowest rates in India’s large central states. Differences in uptake are geographical, regional, rural-urban, poor-rich and gender-related. On average, girls receive fewer immunizations than boys and higher birth order infants have lower vaccination coverage (UNICEF).

Immunization. (n.d.). Retrieved January 19, 2020, from http://unicef.in/whatwedo/3/immunization

When I gave birth to my oldest daughter, I was a frighten 19-year-old giving birth to a premature baby. I had to get a cervical cerclage removed but wasn’t allowed to push or anything due to her being premature. After having the cerclage removed, I was given medicine and placed upside down to slow down labor. They told me this would help to make sure her lungs were strong and the longer she stayed in the better it would be for her. This went on for 22 hours, afterwards I started contracting and pushing but she wouldn’t move. I guess it was due to the medicine. So, they had to use forceps to pull her down enough that I could push her out.

As for birth and impacts on child development I thought giving birth prematurely would result in my daughter having developmental delays, but she hit every target on time. Maybe it was due to me having great prenatal care.

The country I chose to learn about is Germany. Nurse-midwives called Hebamme do all the deliveries that don’t have complications, they deliver 80% of the babies in Germany. Woman rarely delver babies without the aid of medicine there but it’s their choice rather they receive them or not. If a woman needs a cesarean she is put to sleep and must stay in the hospital for up to 10 to 12 days, unlike here the woman is awake during the procedure and is released from the hospital in a few days. During breech birth the baby is delivered by cesarean if it’s the first birth and vaginal if it’s the second on up. Here they are delivered by cesarean regardless on what birth it is.

The Birth System in Germany, Debra L. Luegenbiehl, RN, MSN

https://www.jognn.org/article/S0884-2175(15)32490-4/fulltext