Child Development & Public Health

      A health topic I think should be added to the list is poverty.  Poverty is a topic and issue that impacts children’s physical, mental, and emotional health.  Poverty could well be the precursor to many other areas of concerns listed for this assignment.  This topic is meaningful to me in that I believe poverty is an unnecessary evil in my ideal world.  It would take an extra forty hours a week, some extra sleep, and a book deal to describe my ideal world, so I’ll stick to the blog! 

     Across the board, poverty has been shown to negatively influence child health and development associated with increased neonatal and post neonatal mortality rates, greater risks of injuries resulting from accidents or physical abuse/neglect, higher risk for asthma, and lower developmental scores in a range of tests (Aber, Conley, and Li, 1997).  I believe poverty affects availability of immunizations, proper nutrition, access to healthy water, and the mental health of mothers, fathers, and families in general.  “Despite the extensive literature available that addresses the relationship between poverty and child health and development, as yet there is no consensus on how poverty should be operationalized to reflect it’s dynamic nature” (Aber, Conley, and Li, 1997).  Poverty as an instigator of malnutrition, poor health, and un-stimulating environments for many children under the age of five in developing countries like south Asia and sub-Saharan Africa detrimentally affect their cognitive, motor and social-emotional development (Gratham-McGregor, Cheung, Cueto, Glewwe, Richter, and Strupp,  2007).  “These disadvantaged children are likely to do poorly in school, and subsequently have low incomes, high fertility, and provide poor care for their children, thus contributing to the intergenerational transmission of poverty (Gratham-McGregor, Cheung, Cueto, Glewwe, Richter, and Strupp,  2007).  It seems a vicious cycle.

     This information, though a long time personal belief helps me increase how effective I am at my job.  It gives me insight into the needs of children and families that attend the preschool where I work.  Because of this information I make an extra effort to provide and make available public resources to all the families I work with, even additional help when asked for.  My program director door is always open for families and staff!

     In the future, who knows?  I would love to provide free preschool in a much needed area in the United States, and they are everywhere.  Ideally, a program funded by a world organization so that this type of preschool could be provided everywhere needed would be awesome.  More awesome…the program would provide healthcare, and….oh on and on and on.  Well, I can dream and work towards that at any rate.  Maybe not in my lifetime, but I can definitely be a spark in the early childhood field.


Aber, J. Bennett, N., Conley, D.,and Li,J. (1997). The effects of poverty on child health and development.Annual Review of Public Health, 18, 463-83. Retrieved from http://files.nyu.nyu.edu/dcbb/public/pdf/annual_review_aber_etal.pdf


Berger, K. S. (2009). The developing person through childhood (5th ed.). New York, NY: Worth Publishers.


Grantham, S., Cheung, Y., Cueto, S., Glewwe, P., Richter, L., and Strupp, B. (2007). Developmental potential in the first 5 years for children in developing countries. The Lancet, 369(9555), 60-70. Retrieved from http://thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(07)60032-4/fulltext?version on March 10, 2012