Blog Week 5

For this week I explored the Global Children’s Initiative website it was very interesting and informative website. I saw a link on a program from Grand Challenges Canada, Saving Brains. When I saw this title it grabbed my attention and I had to read more. This program “seeks to improve outcomes for children living in poverty through interventions that nurture and protect early brain development in the first 1,000 days of a child’s life. The Center on the Developing Child supports a dynamic learning community of Saving Brains grantees to help them advance the impact and scale of their work within global contexts” (Center on the Developing Child, n.d., p. 1). This program is geared to improve early brain and child development in low-and-middle countries. In their programs they are addressing three elements of healthy development, enrichment, health and nutrition, and protection through intervention (Saving Brains, n.d.). Early intervention is imperative to help children learn, develop, and grow to their fullest potential.

A second interesting insight I found on the website was a video, In Brief: Early Childhood Mental Health. This video “explains how improving children’s environments of relationships and experiences early in life can prevent initial difficulties from destabilizing later development and mental health. The 5-minute video provides an overview of establishing l level for life: mental health begins in early childhood, a working paper by the National Scientific Council on the Developing Child” (Center on the Developing Child, n.d., p. 1). Early relationships and experiences are vital in building the architecture of the developing brain. When children do not get the experiences and/or have positive relationships this can have negative impacts on their development and learning. Such as, problems relating to others and impairing their abilities for learning.

This website is full of wonderful resources. I found information about Núcleo Ciência Pela Infância (NCPI). This program “seeks to apply scientific knowledge to inform new strategies that will improve the well-being and life outcomes of vulnerable children in Brazil, while also supporting sustainable social and economic development in the country” (Center on the Developing Child, n.d., p. 1) NCPI works with six other organizations to build a scientific community around early childhood development, translate scientific knowledge for submission to social policy, strengthen leadership in regards to early childhood development, and adapting the center’s existing resources for a Brazilian audience (Center on the Developing Child, n.d.). This sounds like a wonderful program that is trying to take the scientific knowledge about early childhood development and put it into media and print resources for the everyday Brazilian. This helps get the vital information about the importance of early childhood across to everybody.

I had a lot of fun researching this website. I believe I have discovered only the tip of the ice burg of information this website has to offer. I will continue to explore and I am sure I will find more wonderful resources.

Brandie

References

Center on the Developing Child. (n.d.).  Applying the science of early childhood in Brazil. Retrieved from http://developingchild.harvard.edu/activities/global_initiative/applying_the_science_of_early_childhood_in_brazi/

Center on the Developing Child. (n.d.). InBrief: Early Childhood Mental Health. Retrieved from http://developingchild.harvard.edu/resources/multimedia/videos/inbrief_series/inbrief_mental_health/

Center on the Developing Child. (n.d.). Saving brains. Retrieved from http://developingchild.harvard.edu/index.php/activities/global_initiative/saving_brains/

Saving Brains. (n.d.). About. Retrieved from http://www.savingbrainsinnovation.net/about/