My international contact have shared a
lot about his work on early intervention for children with mental
health issues. From what I have learnt, Dr Amar have mentioned that
currently there is poor system to recognize and offer routine early
intervention programs on a regular basis. Schools and teachers are
not equipped well enough to identify and refer student and the
parents to specialists in the hospital to do the early interventions.
The schools are also not equipped and offer special programs which
targets these students. The school program is standard across all
levels. He finds this a bit concerning as this clearly an issue of
excellence and equity in early childhood education.
I had also browsed through the Harvard
University’s “Global Children’s Initiative” website
(http://developingchild.harvard.edu/about/what-we-do/global-work/)
just to broaden my knowledge. I
have
learnt 3 insights from it and they are:-
- “ Lowered stress tolerance and heightened stress reactivity in adulthood can negatively impact key parental capacities such as emotional attentiveness, distress tolerance, decision-making, and sensitivity to children’s cues. Because children's emotional health is closely related to the environments in which they live, in some cases, the best intervention strategy for young children with serious behavioral or emotional problems is to focus directly on the needs of those who care for them”
- “No specific population group can be exclusively targeted for intervention in the early childhood years, either by income, ethnicity, family risk factors or other traditional risk factors. Vulnerability cut across all groups”.
- Studies done on cell biology, neuroscience and birth have revealed that our knowledge on early years has expanded tremendously.
I will try this again. I just wrote you a response and I do not know where it went. Oh well..
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading the information from your international contact and his work with young children with mental health issues. It is sad to learn school and teachers are not equipped well enough to identify and refer students and parents to specialists or that schools are not equipped to offer programs to target these students either. The educational system in the US may not be perfect, but at least we are lucky enough to be able to give help and guidance to such students here.
I also enjoyed reading your information from the Harvard website. It will always amaze me how stress from adults affects children. It is too bad many adults do not realize or admit this sad fact. I also find it sad that, "no specific population group can be exclusively targeted for intervention in the early childhood years" and "vulnerability cuts across all groups". I am glad to learn with all the studies we have learned our knowledge of the early childhood years has expanded a great deal. I hope this continues to happen for many years to come as well!