Impacts on Early Emotional Development

When viewing the UNICEF website, I chose to look into the area of East Asia and the Pacific.  I chose this area because it includes the Philippine Islands which not only happens to be the homeland of my grandparents, but also recently suffered the devastating effects of Typhoon Haiyan.

When reviewing the website, two specific regions of the area were front and center.  They include the Philippine islands and the country of Myanmar. 

The Philippine islands were hit by Typhoon Haiyan on November 8, 2013 and are still recovering from the disaster. Some of the challenges that children in this area are facing include large-scale displacement, separation from families, damaged infrastructure (including schools), sickness and disease as well as malnutrition (http://www.unicef.org/).  These experiences will have an enormous impact on children’s emotional wellbeing and development as many of them are not even having their basic needs met.  According to Cooper, Masi and Vick (2009) negative early experiences have a tremendous impact on children’s emotional development and mental health.  Many children are suffering from the emotional and psychological impact of the crisis and psychosocial support services have been provided to them (http://www.unicef.org/).  Many steps are being taken to assist the children and families in the Philippines.  A back to school campaign has over 400,000 students back in a classroom; UNICEF and its partners are immunizing people against diseases and restoring access to clean water and sanitation (http://www.unicef.org/).    

Myanmar is another region in East Asia that is experiencing many hardships.  One of the hardships is extremely poor nutrition.  One of Myanmar’s biggest development challenges is the issue of malnutrition.  One third of all children in Myanmar less than 5 years old are stunted due to malnutrition; stunting is responsible for nearly 15% of child deaths each year in Myanmar. (http://www.unicef.org/).  Malnutrition in this are is due to poor hygiene practices, inadequate food and water supply, lack of basic health services and unsuitable feeding practices for young children (http://www.unicef.org/).  These challenges have a huge impact on children’s well being in this area as many of them are suffering and even dying due to malnutrition.  Due to this challenge, children are not developing and they are experiencing stunting.  Stunting is a form of growth failure and is a direct result of poor feeding practices and food quality and typically occurs before birth (http://www.unicef.org/).  Children who suffer from stunting appear to have typical proportions, but are much shorter than their peers who are well-fed (http://www.unicef.org/). 

            Reading information about the challenges faced by children in other areas of the world is always an eye opener for me.  While there are many challenges faced by children and families in the United States, those faced by children in third world nations such as Myanmar are simply shocking.  One challenge I did not go into detail about is Myanmar’s use of child soldiers.  While the government and other agencies are taking steps to release these children “back into civilian life”, they have still suffered a great deal of emotional and psychological trauma that many adults have a very difficult time coping with.  This has influenced me as an early childcare educator because it demonstrates a huge need for adults to be advocates for children’s rights.  I provides a passion and a need for one to do something, to help support those who do not have a voice.

Resources:

Trustees of Columbia University, The. (2010). National Center Center for Children

Children in PovertyPoverty (NCCP). Retrieved

from: http://www.nccp.org/publications/pub_882.html

UNICEF (2011). Retrieved from: http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/index.html