Talking at the World Forum on Early Care and Education in Belfast last week (June 16-19), Stuart Shanker, Distinguished Research Professor of Philosophy and Psychology at York University, Ontario, Canada, said, 'About half of all our kids arrive in school, Grade 1, with serious challenges in self-regulation - 27 per cent have very serious issues and another 25 per cent are muddling through.'
The problem, he said, stems from 'an explosion of babies whose hypersensitivities are so overpowering that the children have to shut down to protect themselves.'
He said such a response prevents a baby from sustaining the brain-building interactions between mother and child that are essential to learning how to self-regulate.
He suggested the underlying causes were stresses within family life, a mother's absence and depression.
'Self-regulation is key for success both physically and mentally,' said Professor Shanker. 'But it is never too late to get a child on a healthy trajectory.'
76 COUNTRIES
The World Forum is a bi-annual conference organised by the US-based World Forum Foundation. This year's sell-out Forum attracted 600 professionals from 76 countries around the world. It also marked the tenth anniversary of the World Forum Foundation and the 20th anniversary of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
A central theme was inclusion. Speaking at the opening ceremony, in what was said to be once 'the most bombed hotel in Europe', Siobhan Fitzpatrick, chief executive of Early Years (formerly NIPPA), explained how investing in early years services had played a critical part in helping unite communities and 'build a more peaceful and inclusive Northern Ireland.
'We were a divided country,' she said. 'We never imagined a time when the leaders of early care and education would come to see what was happening here in Northern Ireland.'
SOLUTIONS AND CHALLENGES
Plenary sessions and more than 50 workshops, with 120 presenters from 60 nations, were held over the four days.
Central themes included early childhood policy, curricula, global trends, outdoor environment, institutionalised children, technology and education for sustainable development.
The international array of delegates attended workshops in search of inspiration and solutions to improving care and education in their own countries and to learn from the progress and often daunting challenges facing others - the State of California looks set to run out of money next month, while Nigeria alone has 1.2 million Aids orphans to care for.
Nursery World plans to feature further articles arising from the conference in future issues.
With thanks to Community Playthings, which sponsored both the World Forum, and Nursery World staff attending the event.
For more information visit www.worldforumfoundation.org
