It was nearing the end of this week that I got an email from one of my international contacts,the Early Childhood Commission of Jamaica. Dr Joan Reid the director of the commission, informed me that she has passed on my name and email address to a colleague of hers who will be in touch with me soon.(Reid, Early Childhood Commission). I did not get the name of my partner as yet but I look forward to the conversations that we will have. I will be sharing what I am learning, the insights and challenges as we progress over the next few weeks.
I have been waiting for a response from my connection in Sweden and also a possible connection from Belize. I will share as soon as I know what is happening. Later in the coming week, if I do not connect with the second person by then, I will email a friend in Europe with whom I have already spoken.
In the meantime, I have researched on the issue of poverty and its effects on early childhood in Jamaica. I found a very interesting report on an academic publication that is a 20-year follow-up to an early childhood stimulation program. This was a randomized intervention carried out one hour per week by Jamaican community health workers. They would administer psychosocial stimulation to developmentally delayed toddlers who were living in poverty. This was carried out over a 2-year period where the mothers were taught about the benefits of playing and interacting with their children, to help in developing their cognitive and personality skills. The authors (Chang-Lopez, Girtler, Grantham-McGregor, Heckman, Pinto, Vermeerch, Walker & Zanolini, July 2013) re-interviewed the participants 20 years later and found positive results. You may find the article at; http://www.povertyactionlab.org/publication/labor-market-returns-early-childhood-stimulation-20-year-follow-experimental-intervention. I will be discussing more about this project with my partner and share more from what I will learn from time to time.
Reference
Reid, Joan.Re: Early Childhood professional connection. Retrieved from email message to Sherron McFarlane. May 21, 2014.
Hi Sherron,
ReplyDeleteSorry to hear that you haven't heard back from your other three contacts. I had to e-mail my contacts a few times in order for them to respond back to me. It took a while for my contacts to respond back to me, and that might have happened because they missed my e-mails.
Best of luck,
Elizabeth
Hello Sherron
ReplyDeleteWell I am glad you received a response. Jamaica is beautiful but I was sure the poverty is still there. I am going to read your story you talked about in your blog. I wonder if the stimulation is for all children regardless of income level and how is it tested.Interesting Blog!
Sherron,
ReplyDeleteThank you for presenting this very interesting study in Jamaica. This is yet further evidence that regardless of the situation early in life, children benefit from play and positive interactions from the people that are close to them. The basic elements of play and positive relationships far outweigh any negative challenges and have a long term positive outcome.
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ReplyDeleteIf anyone is trying to see the study mentioned in this post,please copy and paste this link in your browser, thanks.
Deletehttp://www.povertyactionlab.org/publication/labor-market-returns-early-childhood-stimulation-20-year-follow-experimental-interventio