ESTABLISHING PROFESSIONAL CONTACTS AND EXPANDING RESOURCES

Steps Taken To Establish Professional Contacts:

1. Reviewed Early Childhood professional contacts located on Global Alliance for the Education of Young Children.
2. Selected four regions of the world to explore professional early childhood contacts: Africa, Asia, Europe, and North America.
3. Selected six professional contacts:

a.       Africa (Ghana): Rev Charles Arto-Nunoo; Email (2kdotcom@ghana.com)

b.      Asia (Phillippines): OMEP Phillippines National Committee Center for Early Childhood Care & Development; Email (child_ceccd@yahoo.com)

c.       Europe (Spain): OMEP Comite Nacional Espanol World Association of Early Childhood Educators; Email (jsm@waece.org)

d.      North America ( Cuba): OMEP Comite Nacional Cubano; Email (celep_cuba@yahoo.com)

e.       North America (Haiti): Step by Step Program/ Tipa Tipa; Email (tipatipa@hainet.net)

4. Sent email to six chosen professional contacts

*****Sample Email*****

Good Morning!

My name is Tinisha Weathers and I am a graduate student at Walden University, pursuing my Master’s Degree in Early Childhood Studies with a specialization in Public Policy and Advocacy. I am currently taking a course titled Issues and Trends. Within this course I am required to establish contacts with early childhood professionals around the world with whom I can communicate with on a weekly basis regarding their work, the state of the early childhood field within their country, their concerns, hopes, and dreams for the future of the early childhood field. I have retrieved your information from the Global Alliance for The Education of Young Children website and would like to establish you as a contact to discuss various aspects of the early childhood field within your country. If you are interested in establishing a mutual contact please feel free to respond to this email with your expression of interest.

Thank you in advance for your time and consideration and have a wonderful day!!!

After emailing my six selected professional contacts, I received four error messages advising me that my email was not delivered to the designated email address, one messages advising me that my email is still in the delivery process, and no error message or response from the remaining contact. Should I not receive a response from the two remaining contacts and or receive an error message, I will resort to the World Forum as an alternative.

The organization that I chose to explore is Zero to Three: National Center for Infants, Toddlers, and Families: http://www.zerotothree.org/

I chose this organization due to my recent research experience of this website in my Early Childhood Development course. I found this website to be educational and informational regarding the growth and development of children and I am very interested in exploring the organization in greater depth. I subscribed to the organization’s newsletter to receive monthly updates.

MY SUPPORTS

Factors within my daily environment that are supportive to me include my career, family and friends, monthly planner, and monthly kitchen calendar

           

            My career is an obvious support for me within my daily environment as it is my main source income, enabling me to support myself and my family. My career benefits me financially by providing me with a sufficient salary which enables me to maintain a home and car, living expenses such as food and clothing, day care expense for my 13 month old son, in addition to miscellaneous expenses such as toys and books for my son. In the absence of my career life for me and my family would be extremely difficult and unstable as I would be unable to provide the basic necessities of life and maintain stability.

            Family and friends are supports within my daily environment as they provide emotional and financial support when needed. My sister is by far the most supportive person to me within my family. She is always there to provide an open ear for me to discuss my issues and concerns while offering me encouraging words and advice. She is the only family member that never judges me on the personal decisions I make within my life. In the absence of my sister I would most likely feel emotionally unstable and unsupportive. My true friends also provide emotional support during stressful times within my life. The birth of my son changed the relationships with some of my friends as my time spent with them became limited as a result of my new responsibilities as a mother. Although my priorities changed I have one true friend who remained supportive of my new life style and personal responsibilities.   

            My monthly planner and monthly kitchen calendar are supports within my daily environment as they are very useful resources that allow me to maintain organization. My monthly planner is carried with me everyday in my handbag and used to make a note of due dates for bills, special events, doctor’s appointments, and scheduled days off from work. My monthly kitchen calendar is mostly used to plan my dinner menu from Monday to Friday. On Sunday night I typically create a dinner menu for the entire work week and specifically write on the calendar the selected meal to be prepared for each day. In the absence of my monthly planner and monthly kitchen calendar my life would feel more stressful, chaotic, and unorganized. My weekly schedule is very busy with the management of my career, family, school, and social life; therefore these resources allow me to maintain each aspect of my life in a more efficient manner.

When I think about a specific challenge that I do not currently have, the challenges, and the kinds of supports I would want and need emotionally, practically, and physically; I envision being a paralyzed mother of a 13 month old child as a result a sever car accident.

With this disability I would need emotional, practical, and physically support from family and friends. Emotional support would be beneficial in assisting me in becoming accepting and adjusted to this new life style. When a person become paralyzed they could be left with a sense of hopeless, unwanted dependency on others, and loss of self confidence. Emotional support from family and friends may assist with the processing of these natural feelings. Physical support would be beneficial in assisting with the daily routine and parenting responsibilities. At 13 months children are extremely active and maintain a significant amount of dependency. Although most 13 month old children have the ability of feeding themselves small finger foods and drinking juice or milk from a bottle or sippy cup without assistance; may other aspect of their life require the assistance of an adult such as diaper changes, bathing, feeding of spoon feed foods, and getting them dressed. Physical support from family and friends would help elevate the stress of these responsibilities and or the senses of inadequacy due to difficultly in properly caring for the child. Practical support would be beneficial in assisting with other aspects of everyday life such as showering/bathing, getting dressed, cooking & cleaning, personal errands, and doctor’s appointments. Requesting the help of family and friends provides overall assistance in all aspect of life.