Bridge Action Plan

Bridging The Gap Between Girls & Boys in Education 

Recently, the research on gender differences has concentrated on the low achievement of boys, in schools, in comparison with girls. My partner, Maysam, and I have designed a Bridge Action Plan that may explain the plan of balancing out of achievements between boys and girls.

Click the following link to check our bridge action plan:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=124E8LLo6AW3HHzeLkZ68w_9tSthDJ524 

Hope it will be helpful ❕

Daycare Center for Children

Daycare Center for Children

By: Nassima Najmeddine

Abstract

More and more women are working and completing their education nowadays, especially mothers. But, where’s the problem? In fact, child-mother separation due to mothers’ employment or education process is an international issue that has multitudinous negative impacts on the child’s mental, physical, social, and psychological development. In addition to these impacts, children will be deprived from their mothers’ breast milk which is highly essential for their growth. In an effort to solve this important issue, the following research proposal has been created. In this proposal, researchers are looking for the causes, effects, and solution for child-mother separation problem. Thus, the proposed solution is to open a child daycare center at Lebanese International University. The first step was exploring people’s point of view toward the idea through a Google Form survey. Then, the plan, requirements, and budget for opening the center were set to be approved by the academic director of the university.

Introduction

We propose a solution to a major problem that is spreading nowadays in our societies: increasing number of working mothers and mothers completing their education after marriage have led to separation of the children from their mothers during the most important period of their lives when they need a lot of care, attention, and safety. In order to solve this problem, providing space at the Lebanese International University- Kheyara Campus is requested to open a daycare center for children of age one month to three years old. Opening a daycare center and preparing it costs about $ 40,000 including all requirements. Daycare refers to the supervision, care, and education offered for children kept in the center while their mothers are at work or university. Hence, daycare centers are of great importance for both children and parents. For mothers, the availability of daycare centers offers them a chance to stay at their jobs or to complete their education. In addition, many benefits for children come with early childhood learning offered by daycare centers including mental, social, and emotional development. Ristic said that in the daycare center, children are prepared to enter the kindergarten. Also, they learn to depend on their selves and to respect their friends and teachers. (Ristic, 2016)

Problem

Child-Mother separation due to education and employment and its impact on children.

During the first three years in the child’s life, the child’s brain develops more and faster than any other time as Anthony Lake said: “children’s brains can form 1,000 neural connections every second. A three-year-old’s brain is twice as active as that of an adult and the connections their brain makes are the building blocks of their future”. (Lake, 2017). However, children and mothers nowadays are facing the problem of Infant-Mother separation during this core period.
“Recent statistics show that 75% of mothers work full time in the first year of their child’s life” (Pelcovitz, 2013).

Causes of child mother separation:

Recently, more mothers of young children have entered the labor market. (Huerta, 2011). (Refer to figure1, page 25). However, the increased participation of mothers in the work place has led to a major problem: Child-Mother separation. Moreover, in Lebanon, most jobs offer maternity leave only for two months after giving birth which forces mothers to return back to their jobs when their children are still newborns. In addition to working mothers, the number of college student mothers is increasing. However, trying to balance education and motherhood is too difficult and may lead to the same consequences of mother work.

Effects of the problem:
Negative consequences of child-mother separation, due to employment or education, appear in children. Due to early maternal employment, youngsters are deprived from continuity in child care, time and attention. (Huerta, 2011). Hamilton stated that several behavioral disorders are linked to full-time work of mothers that starts before the first birthday of their children. Such behavioral problems including anxiety, stress, isolation and acts of violence may continue with the child in adolescent years. Also, it was indicated that child cognitive scores of kids whose mothers work full-time are less than that of kids whose mothers doesn’t work at all. Moreover, mother’s stress due to full-time work directly influences children’s ability to concentrate and listen. (Pelcovitz, 2013/ Hamilton, 2014). In case of mother’s education, combination between studying and caregiving to children is hard, thus it pushes many student mothers to dropout. In addition, another effect that comes with the separation of infants from their mothers is related to breastfeeding. Mother employment or education will reduce the chance of breastfeeding prolongation which has great benefits on both mothers and children. Short periods of breastfeeding or formula feeding for children may cause lack in nutrition, immune deficiency, as well as it has very small impact on child’s IQ. Furthermore, non-breastfeeding mothers may be at increased risk of breast and ovarian cancer, non-insulin dependent diabetes, and postnatal depression, in addition to weaker mother-infant bond. (Huerta, 2011).

Plan

Balancing between parenting and employment/education is very hard. Thus, an on-campus daycare center will solve the problem of the child-mother separation. Constructing a childcare center at LIU-Khiara campus is a beneficial plan because undergraduate student-mothers will finish their education, working women will not lose their work, and their children will acquire plenty of useful skills and become socially active. Following this, opening this daycare center requires four rooms and one bath room in block C-ground floor. The center can handle up to 40 children of three groups from birth to 3 years old. Following this, the rooms will be divided as such (as the Child Care Aware of America, 2018 recommends):

•  Infants room (birth to 1 year) needs 1:3 staff-child ratio.
•  Young toddlers room (1-2 years) needs 1:5 staff-child ratio.
•  Older toddler room (2-3 years) requires 1:8 staff-child ratio. (Refer to figure 2 page 25).

In addition, we have a bathroom and an eating room. Furthermore, the number of staff needed for 40 children is 13 including the manager, supervisor, teachers, baby sitters, cookers and cleaners. Also, additional staff is required: “You must have enough qualified providers to be able to replace your regular providers when they are unavailable during breaks or meal times or are absent due to illness or vacation” (Child Care Aware of America, 2018). Another step in the plan is the announcement about the center through advertisement, brochures, or announcement on LIU system.

Qualifications

In order to reduce the effects of child-mother separation and gain mothers’ trust, many qualifications for care providers are needed.

Staff qualifications

•  The manager: minimum 3 years of experience in working as a head of childcare center.
•  The supervisor: a psychologist (able to catch child’s problems as well as monitoring caregivers’ relations with children).
• Caregivers: (1) Teachers: minimum 22 years old, holding a degree in kindergarten teaching or minimum 3 years of experience in in this category. (2) Babysitters: minimum age is 25 years, with experience in caring for infants and toddlers.

Moreover, initial training for teachers and babysitters regarding health, safety and development of young children is essential, as well as a Child Development Associate (CDA) credential is required as recommended by the Child Care Aware of America.

Survey
A survey filled out by 44 people supported the idea of opening on-campus daycare center with percentage 93.2% (Refer to page 14 to see the whole survey).

Budget

Cost of equipment
Because rooms are available in the campus, the budget will only include the cost of the equipment needed to prepare each room. The total cost to start this daycare center is about $40,000. According to Pardee, the cost of good quality equipment is divided as such: (Pardee, 2005): (1) Infant (8 infants) room’s furniture consisting of cots, diaper changing table, soft toys, and strollers: $8500. (2) Young toddlers (10 toddlers) room’s furniture including diaper changing table, educative and musical toys, soft balls along with beds, pillows and sponge chairs: $10500. (3) Older toddlers or preschoolers (20 preschooler) room’s furniture including chairs, tables, painting boards, educating and coloring books, and sand and water toys: $14000. (4) Eating room supplies such as refrigerator, blender…: $2000. In addition to colorful painting of the rooms, televisions, carpets, brochures for advertising…:$2000- $3000.

Tuition fees/child
For infants: $ 250/child – For toddlers: $ 200/child – For Preschoolers: $ 150.

Conclusion

Opening a child daycare center has enormous dividends for children, mothers, and university. The center will prepare the children socially, mentally, and psychologically for the kindergarten, allow mothers to work/learn and feel the motherhood simultaneously, and increase the university’s profits and quality. Following this, your approval on the proposal will be appreciated. Many thanks for your response. Looking forward to discuss this proposal with you anytime you prefer and answer any questions you may have. You may contact me at nassima.9.6@hotmail.com

References

• Pelcovitz, D. (2013, January 3). The impact of working mothers on child development. Retrieved (July 13, 2018) from https://www.ou.org/life/parenting/impact-working-mothers-child-development-empirical-research-david-pelcovitz/

• Hamilton, A. (2010, October 14). The kids are all right: few negative associations with moms' return to work soon after having children. Retrieved (July 13, 2018) from http://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2010/10/working-mothers.aspx

• Huerta, M. (2011, September 6). Early maternal employment and child development in five OECD countries. OECD social, employment and migration working papers, No. 118, OECD Publishing. Retrieved (July 13, 2018) from https://www.oecd.org/els/family/48822253.pdf

•  Lake, A. (2017, January 14). The First 1,000 Days of a child's life are the most important to their development - and our economic success. Retrieved (July 16, 2018) from https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2017/01/the-first-1-000-days-of-a-childs-life-are-the-most-important-to-their-development-and-our-economic-success/

• Ristic, M. (2016, January 17). Six reasons why preschool is good for your child. Retrieved (July 16, 2018) from https://novakdjokovicfoundation.org/6-reasons-why-preschool-is-good-for-your-child/

•  Child Care Aware Organization of America (2018). Staffing needs. Retrieved (July 16, 2018) from http://childcareaware.org/providers/planning-for-success/staffing-needs/

•  Pardee, M. (2005, June). Cost of equipment. Furnishing early childhood facilities. Page 26 Retrieved (July 21, 2018) from http://www.lisc.org/media/filer_public/de/b0/deb03f6a-804e-4a0a-8a70-44a99f55c6a3/2005_cick_guide_vol3_equipping.pdf

Planning the Transition to Employment

♡ All of us pass through a transition state from school to post-secondary education. During this transition, the student tend to find a work and get employed. The beauty of transition is that we have all the resources, agencies, organisations, and challenges.

♡ Transition is about possibilities. This is the time we should learn and explore by:
• starting with end in mind i.e. set a goal to reach
• Developing plan to get there through education and activities.

One should have high expectations and no limitations. For instance, a person shouldn't limit his challenges and abilities to one task; instead, he should explore and increase his limitations to do 6-7 tasks.

♡ If we really want to change the trajectory and criteria of employment, transition is the chance to do that. To start moving so that  employment  is the outcome, all students must be sure that all of them have the same opportunity to be accepted.

♡ Shifting from a "cooperating" model to a "collaborating" model of professional practice is a must for supporting transitions.

•  Where a small inter-professional team commits to working collectively to build and support a set of teaching and learning practices that produce effective transitions..
AND..
• Where each student is actively and consistently engaged in activities that build and support their sense of competence in making successful transitions ...


In addition, regarding collaboration as collective effort, five elements are needed to create and sustain success:

• A common agenda
• Mutually reinforcing activities
•  Continuous communication
• Shared measures of success
• A support structure

♡ Self-determination requires self-efficacy, where self-efficacy is the "sense of being capable" of actually doing what is expected of you. Self-determination differs between students where many young adults don't believe in themselves.  Here, the role of the educator is to support and enhance each student's experience of being capable of doing what is needed to make successful transitions. These are valuable strategies to follow:

1. "Modeling" what is expected
2. Providing "role-playing" activities
3. Providing "elaborated feedback" on their performance

♡ Person-centered planning is a process-oriented approach to empowering students disabilities. It focuses on the individual and their needs by putting them in charge of defining the direction for their lives and making their own choices. Thus, we must be conscious since we're building a person for a whole life.

♡ Positive  Personal Profile (PPP):
It's a method of "take inventory" of all youth traits that will be relevant to job search, employability, job matching, and long-term career development. We use it to collect information from variety of sources - such as interviews, assessments, and discussions. It can be used for :

• Developing resumes
•  Preparing for interviews
•  Developing goals for an individualized education plan
•  Determining further assessments or work experiences
• Determining which businesses to approach
• Developing "features" to "benefits"

Anybody can work. But, let's don't look at the disabilities. Let's look at talents, skills, and what a person can do. To achieve this way of thinking, you should take into consideration these few questions:

• What does student like and dislike?
•  What are their skills and interests?
•  How do they learn best?
• What supports are helpful?
• What assets do they bring?
• What opportunities do they have to prepare for and practice work?
•  What are their work environment preferences?
• What do they need to make connections to employers?

Moreover, work based learning leads to integrated employment. Thus, as much as the student's experiences increase during school - such as school-based enterprises and summer and after school employment- the chance of being accepted increases. These experiences promote awareness and exploration to become well-prepared for employment.

♡ There's something called "customized employment" in which jobs tasks are modified to suit both employer and employee. Employers always want to ear from us that we represent ..
•  Motivated candidates who are excited about working
• Our candidates have skills sets that add value to their workforce.
• We can assist with business solutions that improve the company's productivity and/or workflow.

Now, you're  employed. What if you have gaps?
Bridge  any gaps with training, supports, and accommodations through:

• Instructional strategies
• Natural supports and cues
• Technology
• Environmental modifications
• Compensatory strategies
• Employer negotiations

And Don't Forget to:

• Promote a work ethic
• Teach self-determination
• Include workplace culture - Teach work & work-related skills
• Open doors that enable youth to experience/practice what is expected of them in adult world

Finally, the last important rule: avoid using "yes, but.." since it represents negative bias. Instead, use "yes, and..".

Note: Here's  a useful tool for applying to jobs "ITAP" which refers to Implementing Transition Action Plan. You can fill the job application here: https://www.internationaltaphouse.com/application

Wish you have benefited from this Webinar ☺

Thank you for reading ❤'