Early Childhood Ideas

SIDS

2009-11-04T19:43:00.004-06:00

Hello everyone!

Today I attended the Raising Riley Community meeting. It was very interesting, particularly some information I learned about the 3 main factors that Contribute to SIDS: Environmental factors, an infants' (particularly under 6 months of age) not yet reliable autonomic system (temperature regulation, heart beats, etc.), and, there is now a little research that says that infants who die form SIDS all seem to have a small defect in their brain stem that affects a babies natural instincts in an emergency-for example, the reflex to scream when they are in danger (now as I understand it, this was only one study....so keep that in mind).

Which means that when normal babies would start suffocating, get too hot, or get stuck and scream, these babies might not be able to.

This is the first time that I have every heard evidence that SIDS is actually a syndrome and not just a term to label unexplained infant deaths. But since you can't tell if the baby has the defect until after it has died (at the moment anyway), everyone still just has to follow all the recommendations for reducing the risk of SIDS because that is all we can do for now.

The main things to remember are:

-ALWAYS lay babies on their backs to sleep (when they can turn over on their own, that is fine to let them, but still lay them on their backs, then they can roll if the want). (Also remember that when they are awake and supervised, it is important to give babies time on their tummies to work those muscles to lift their head and torso. In the field of Early Childhood Education and Development this is aptly named "tummy time").
-The MAIN things are, don't put ANYTHING in the crib with the baby (no pillows, no blankets or quilts, no devices to stop them form rolling around, no "bumpers", no stuffed animals, NOTHING) except one thin sheet tucked in on three sides and only up to the baby's chest level (or better yet, they say, just put them in warm jamies or a sleeper if it is cold and have nothign in the crib at all).
-Have a firm mattress that fits tightly into the crib and a tight fitting sheet on it.
-Don't over dress the baby for the weather (they can get too hot fast and can't do anything about it. Keep the baby's room between 68 and 72 degrees and having circulating air in the room is good (a ceiling fan or an area fan not blowing directly on the baby)
-Don't swaddle the baby past 3 months and only swaddle to mid chest and loosely enough that their temperature can be regulated. No hats inside, babies do a lot of their temperature regulating through their head and when it is covered, they can't regulate.
-Don't smoke in the house where the baby is, and wear outer clothes if you go smoke outside so you can "take off" the smoke smell when you come in and hold the baby.
-Now they are saying, also, sleep with the baby in your room but NOT in your bed.

If you want to know more you can check out this site.

A critique of "Why We Banned Legos"

2008-03-17T00:45:00.002-05:00

My bother found this article, called "Why We Banned Lego's", and sent it to me. It is a case study on a group of teacher's intervention on what they saw as a serious problem in their classroom.

One of the main problems with this whole article can be found in the title. "Why we Banned Lego's. "
The article talks about the children naturally developing a capitalist game and the teachers finding this alarming and feeling the need to teach socialist values. They talk about the problems of some people holding more power than others.

You read the article and be the judge. I have a lot of various issues with it, but one issue is that while they are trying to teach the ideals of equal power, they are exhibiting absolute power (banning something) simply because they are the adults. Does being bigger or having lived longer in itself give you the right to take something away from someone else, or tell them that their game isn't valid? Think about it. How is that any more just?

Here are two of the several points that the teachers were proud of the children for "coming up with" on their own(though it is pretty clear that they are just repeating the teacher's values, not really generating these ideas on their own):

-Shared power is a valued goal:

"Before, it was the older kids who had the power because they used Lego's most. Little kids have more rights now than they used to and older kids have half the rights."

(People who are more successful should have rights taken away??? Is that what we are saying? People who use something more shouldn't be able to use it as much just because they use it more?)

-Moderation and equal access to resources are things to strive for:

"We should have equal houses. They should be standard sizes.... We should all just have the same number of pieces, like 15 or 28 pieces."

(Regardless of interest of the child, type of building, etc? What if a child wanted to build a smaller building? Is that OK? )

Communist ideals?

KDHE Guidelines

2007-08-26T15:46:00.000-05:00

The Kansas Department of Education recently released early childhood guidleines which Kansas voulenteered to comply with to go along with other childhood standards wich are now required. My professor, Bronwyn Fees, was on the committe for drafting them. We got a glimps of a draft last Spring, and now they are officially out. What is odd is that some esctions are still missing.

Check them out at the KSDE website.

Toy recalls

2007-08-26T15:18:00.000-05:00

Heard about the massive toy recall by Mattel? I first heard about it on NPR, and then was e-mailed by my major professor, Ann Murray, about it. THe problem, as I see it, is that everything is made in China (I'm not just saying that, all of the toys that were recalled were made in China...and almost all the toys that are recalled in the US form ANY company are made in china. China doesn't have the standards that we have, but the companies that they sell them to in America do have standards. So if they aren't careful about checking the products they are having made for them, then dangerous toys get sold in the US market.

So Mattel is in BIG trouble. They appologized, but, from what I heard Mattel's president on NPR say, he is confident no one will loose faith in them because they are a house hold name. (He didn't sound that appologetic...much more defensive than appologetic).

In the e-mail Ann Murray sent (a forward from ExchangeEveryDay, a listserve for subscribers to Exchange Magazine, a child care magazine) there was a link to a list of considerations before buying a toy. Take a look. On the web page on the top right corner is a PDF version in a much better checklist format. Good for printing out to take with you whne you shop for toys for your classroom or home.

Baby Einstein Hype

2007-08-10T02:54:00.001-05:00

So, you may have recently seen something in the news about the new research that came out saying videos like Baby Einstein and such are harmful to children. One of my professors sent me and my colleagues a link to a summary of the article. Then my professor's husband (another professor in Human Ecology, sent us a PDF of that article. (Pardon the lack of APA citation formatting).

Frederick J. Zimmerman, PhD; Dimitri A. Christakis, MD, MPH; Andrew N. Meltzoff, PhD. Television and DVD/Video Viewing in Children Younger Than 2 Years.
PEDIATR ADOLESC MED/VOL 161, MAY 2007

He also commented that, "Of course, Ann and I already wrote about this :)," and gave us a word document of their article on the topic. Below is the citation (no link unfortunately) to their article.

John P. Murray and Ann D. Murray. M. Haith & J. Benson (Eds.). Encyclopedia of Infant and Early Childhood Development. Oxford: Elsevier Publishers, 2008

If the media would have gotten a hold of their article before the other, my professor and her husband might have become famous!!!

Just a side not in case you read the first article, I'll tell you a little about my professors article, too, since you can't read it: Dr. Murray and Dr. Murray's paper is a bit more positive. It says that shows like Sesame Street and Mister Rodgers Neighborhood have positive effects for preschool-aged and older children, and that while things like baby Einstein can have negative effects, with strong parent intervention, they may not (but the general idea remains that TV under the age of 2 is unnecessary and may be harmful).

Play Therapy

2007-08-08T03:40:00.000-05:00

I just spent 3 days at a Play Therapy training here in Manhattan (KS). It was put on by Denise Filley of the KC Play Therapy Institute. Although a lot of seems very psychoanalytical (which is NOT my theoretical basis), I think it is a very good area to study if you work with kids at all. Unfortunately, becoming a registered play therapist is only an option if you have a licence and a graduate degree in a mental health profession right now. Denise discussed the possibility of some day adding some sort of credential for Educators, but that may be way off (I would be happy to colaborate on that project!). Anyone is welcome to go to the trainings and even to complete the certificate program. However, the most you can ever do with that is to say that you have done it, but did not receive the certificate.

Look into it!