IMPACTS ON EARLY EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT: EAST ASIA AND PACIFIC REGION

I chose the East Asia and Pacific region part of the world as a place I long to visit one day. Reading about this region would better prepare me for what to see when I get to the region. As an educator my interest is always on the educational aspect of different regions of the world, to learn about the educational well being of the children. I further chose this region to learn about the social, emotional, and cognitive development of the children and to gain insight into any impact of their socio-emotional development.

UNICEF works in more than 190 countries and territories to help children survive and thrive, from early childhood through adolescence. On the contrary, the challenges children face in the East Asia and the Pacific, part of the world was very heart wrenching to read about. The melancholic stories of parents asked to leave their children with disability die because they could not afford money for expensive surgery brought tears to my eyes. It was interesting to learn that like all children, those with disabilities have many abilities, but are often excluded from society by discrimination and lack of support, leaving them among the most invisible and vulnerable children in the world. For many children with disabilities, the exclusion begins in the first days of life with their birth going unregistered. Lacking official recognition, they are cut off from the social services and legal protections that are crucial to their survival and prospects (UNICEF, 2013). Their marginalization only increases with discrimination and undoubtedly this could have a very big negative impact on the children. These children definitely would grow up with no sense of self-worth, hopelessness, and they would feel like they do not belong anywhere (Derman-Sparks& Edwards, 2010). Consequently, these children would not be able to develop autonomy and independence as they are able , as well as confidence and pride in their competence.  The children seem to be blamed in a way for their disability; which   indeed is a horrible and insensitive scenario to read about. 

According to UNICEF, (2013) report, millions of children work to support their families, although child labor is unacceptable when it is carried out by children who are too young and who should be in school. In addition, there are many children who are doing work unsuitable for anyone under 18.  In countries such as Cambodia, Vietnam, Korea, Mongolia, Thailand, cases of children with  severe malnutrition were reported. In Myanmar, an estimated 2.5 million (35.1 per cent) of children under five are stunted as a resulted of long term malnutrition and 8 per cent are wasted as a result of acute malnutrition (UNICEF, 2008). Another emotional and social blow to children is the practice of early marriages in Malaysia where parents consent to child marriages out of economic necessity. The adults view such early marriages as a way to provide male guardianship for their daughters, protect them from sexual assault or avoid pregnancy outside marriage. As indicated, child marriage is a practice that robs children of their childhood, their rights and their dignity; and   child marriage, further inhibits a child’s basic rights to health, education and security, is out rightly condemned by the United Nations as well (UNICEF, 2008). Other challenges mentioned were those of inadequate clean water for drinking, horrible sanitary and hygienic conditions children have to live with everyday in the countries of East Asia Pacific region.

Children who are hungry due to malnutrition would not be able to focus in school. Also insanitary conditions, poor drinking water supplies would culminate in poor health and sickness and eventually death for some of these children. Such impoverished living conditions definitely lowers one’s self esteem and confidence.

The insight I gained from  reading about what other children  faced indifferent parts of the world; only made me to be appreciative of what we have that is always taken for granted. I grew up poor, but a happy child trekking ten miles each day to school barefooted and it enabled me to build a strong resilience that I have today. But to say it was fun growing up poor would be a lie. I felt awful because I know the impact and repercussion of the scenarios described in the article about children in the East Asia Pacific region. Healthy social-emotional development for infants and toddlers unfolds in an interpersonal context, namely that of positive ongoing relationships with familiar, nurturing adults and that seemed to be lacking in some of the countries in the region. Children are viewed like objects and they have to work to contribute to the house hold income, which is indicative of lack of cherished play time for children who live in poverty. That is unfair to them and it reminded me of Martin Luther king’s saying that “injustice any where is a threat to justice everywhere”. As educators we are constantly called to be advocate for the plight of children and to be the voice of the voiceless because invisibility erases identity and experiences; as result, children internalize that they are unimportant and do not fit in a stratified modern society (Derman-Sparks & Edwards, 2010).

 Hopefully, someone from East Asia and Pacific would read this and feel devastated as I feel now. However, collectively we can do something to change one country at a time. We can partner and share ideas of how children should be made visible and respected in the society developing a professional social network with these countries.  It may take time to reach these remote countries but one day, it is our wish that all children of the world should demonstrate self awareness, confidence and pride, have access to school, and develop positive social identities and in the long run break the vicious circle of poverty in their own lives and in the wider society.

References

Derman-Sparks, L., & Edwards, J. O. (2010). Anti-bias education for young children and

    ourselves.  Washington, DC: National Association for the Education of Young Children

    (NAEYC).

 UNICEF (2011). East Asia and the Pacific region: Retrieved from:  http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/index.html