Early childhood assessment

Measuring and assessing children, especially young children, is a highly controversial topic. School boards and governments are calling for accountability in education and often use standardized testing to achieve this. Most standardized tests are not a good assessment of skills that don't fall under the academic heading. Looking at a child holistically means that all areas of development be looked at. Howard Gardner has developed nine intelligences (Berger, 2012). Each child is stronger in some and weaker in others. Most children excel in one specific intelligence. Assessment should include all the intelligences so that a well rounded snapshot of the child can be developed.

In the UK, the public education system has implemented an assessment called the Early Years Foundation Stage profile. This profile is a checklist that focusses on three main areas of development; communication and language, physical development, and personal, social and emotional development. This system relies heavily on observation and recording the observations. It appears to give a broad range of information to teachers and parents about a child's development.

References

Berger, K.S. (2012). The developing person through childhood (6th ed.). New York, NY: Worth
       Publishers.

The Foundation Years. (2012) Statutory framework for the early years foundation stage (EYFS) 2012.
       Retrieved from http://www.foundationyears.org.uk/early-years-foundation-stage-2012/

Divorce

I have been very lucky in my life as have my family and friends. We have not had to deal with any major stressors in our early lives. Recently though, my sister has finally decided to divorce her husband. My nephew is 7 years old and is dealing with the breakup of his parents marriage. The back story for this is important. My sister and her husband were on the point of splitting up 8 years ago according to my mother. Then they got pregnant. They were living in Mexico at the time. My brother-in-law is Mexican. My nephew was born there. He was a difficult baby and developed an intolerance to lactose in breast milk. Before he was 1 year old, the family moved to Canada. My sister went to work and her husband stayed home with my nephew. All of these factors put stress on the marriage as did the personalities of the people involved. My nephew reacted to the stress in the house. He was a difficult eater and learned early to play his parents against one another. Now that his parents have been apart for almost two years, his emotional turmoil has eased somewhat. He still has to deal with parents who do not work together very well but he is visibly less stressed. Research has shown that staying together for the sake of the children causes more harm than good. If the marriage is going to break up, then sooner is better.

Air pollution is a global problem and is proven to contribute to health problems. In young children air pollutants can also cause changes in behaviour. Beijing, China is one the worst offenders when it comes to air quality. In January, Beijing has had 20 days of hazardous levels of pollution. The government has recently called for stricter controls for emissions to come into effect in 2017. They have also required domestic oil refiners to upgrade. These measures should help future generations.

References

Bloomberg News, (2013,  Feb 7).  Eye-stinging Beijing air risks lifelong harm to babies. Retrieved from http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-02-06/eye-stinging-beijing-air-risks-lifelong-harm-to-babies.html

Li, J. (2006). For the sake of the kids: divorce and children's behavior problems. Conference Papers - American Sociological Association