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The one section I find particularly relevant to my current professional development is the New Report on Early Childhood Education and Care Includes a Case Study on ISSA. The article has to do with children who are at a greater risk of poverty. During the past twenty years, child poverty has increased significantly in most European countries, with younger children facing a higher risk of relative poverty than any other group. Children particularly exposed to the risk of poverty include those from large, low-income families; households with a migrant background; Roma children; street children and those who are exposed to a series of social risks such as homelessness, violence and trafficking.

The impact of poverty on early development and education can be severe. Children born into severe poverty are disproportionately exposed to factors that impede their psycho-motor development, socio-emotional growth and cognitive processes (Shore, 1997, Fraser Mustard, 2002, McCain et al. 2011). Their socio-emotional development can be undermined when in the first years of life they experience high stress on a daily basis: (Greenspan & Shanker, 2004, Shanker 2011). A recent longitudinal study from Sweden on the 1950 birth cohort (Bäckmann & Nillson, 2010) identifies long-lasting periods of poverty in childhood as being most detrimental for future educational and social achievement. When linked with deprived or neglectful family backgrounds and poorly educated parents, poverty becomes the single greatest barrier to educational achievement.

This really makes me think long and hard about the issues relating to poverty and that it is more severe than we may think. There really needs to be a change and effective public policies to make work pay for low-income parents and to provide high-quality early care and learning experiences for their children can make a difference. Investments in the most vulnerable children are also critical.

Economist, neuroscientist, and politicians support the early childhood field by working to make changes in legislation to ensure that children from disadvantaged backgrounds. There are many initiatives for children at risk are taking place all over Europe. A first concern is that several independent agencies consider that current efforts in Europe to combat child poverty and to improve access for at-risk children to early childhood services remain very inadequate. They are also working to identify weaknesses in country commitment to reducing child poverty and provide many country examples of disregard for social issues and children’s well-being.

The insights I gained is that poverty is a real issue that needs to be addressed and changes put in place. Poverty is the state for the majority of the world’s people and nations. Why is this? Is it enough to blame poor people for their own predicament? Have they been lazy, made poor decisions, and been solely responsible for their plight? What about their governments? Have they pursued policies that actually harm successful development? Such causes of poverty and inequality are no doubt real. But deeper and more global causes of poverty are often less discussed.

Resources:

New Report on Early Childhood Education and Care Includes a Case Study on ISSA, (2013). Retrieved from: http://www.issa.nl/sites/default/files/ecec-report_en.pdf

Shore, R. (1997), What have we learned? In: SHORE, R., Rethinking the brain: New insights into early development, 15-55. New York: Families and Work Institute

Mustard, J. Fraser (2002) “Early Child Development and the Brain – the Base for Health, Learning and Behavior Through Life” in Investing in Our Children’s Future: From Early Child Development to Human Development Mary Eming Young ed. Washington DC: World Bank

McCain, M. et al., 2011 Early years study 3, Toronto, McCain Family Foundation

Greenspan, S. I., and Shanker, S. (2004) G. The First Idea: how symbols, language, and intelligence evolved from our primate ancestors to modern humans, Cambridge, MA, Da Capo Press.

Shanker, S. (2011) Lectures given at RECI Roundtables in Bucharest and Belgrade, London, Open Society Foundation.

Bäckmann O. and Nillson A. (2010), “Pathways to Social Exclusion - A Life-Course Study” in European Sociological Review