Health in Early Education 

WEEK 3 CONTENT REVIEW

Course Text:

• Safety, Nutrition, and Health in Early Education (5th ed.)
• • Chapter 5, “Emergency Response Procedures for Early Childhood Education Environments” (pp. 180−188)
  • Chapter 11, “Prevention of Illness in Early Childhood Education Environments Through Infection Control” (pp. 423−456)
  • Chapter 12, “Promoting Wellness through Supportive Health Care” (pp. 459−489)
  • Chapter 13, “Providing for Special Health Care Needs” (pp. 493−518)

Note: Peruse the following Web sites and online articles. You will need to refer to these resources when completing your Discussion and Application Assignment.

Web Sites:

• American Red Cross: Prepare for Emergencies with American Red Cross First Aid, CPR and Automated External Defibrillator (AED) Courses
  http://www.redcross.org/take-a-class/Learn-About-Our-Programs
  (Includes descriptions of training in American Red Cross First Aid and CPR)
• American Heart Association: CPR and Emergency Cardiovascular Care
  http://www.heart.org/HEARTORG/CPRAndECC/CPR_UCM_001118_SubHomePage.jsp
  (Includes listings for courses on CPR and emergency cardiovascular care, including Heartsaver Pediatric First Aid, which was designed specifically to meet the needs of childcare workers)

Online Reading List for Discussion Assignment (you will choose only ONE area of interest; see Discussion for further instructions):

• Asthma and/or Allergies
• • Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America
    http://www.asthmaandallergies.org/
  • Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America. (n.d.). Asthma-friendly child care: A checklist for parents and providers. Retrieved February 2, 2009, from http://www.asthmaandallergies.org
  • Used by permisson of the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America, New England Chapter. www.asthmaandallergies.org
• Diabetes
• • Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation International. (2008, November). Type 1 diabetes (juvenile diabetes) facts [Fact sheet]. Retrieved from http://jdrf.org/about-jdrf/fact-sheets/type-1-diabetes-facts/
  • American Diabetes Association. (2003). Care of children with diabetes in the school and day care setting [Position statement]. Retrieved from http://care.diabetesjournals.org/content/26/suppl_1/s131.full
• HIV/AIDS
• • American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Pediatric AIDS. (2000). Education of children with human immunodeficiency virus infection [Policy statement]. Pediatrics, 105(6), 1358–1360. Retrieved from http://aappolicy.aappublications.org/cgi/content/full/pediatrics;105/6/1358
    Reproduced with permission of the American Academy of Pediatrics in the format Scan via Copyright Clearance Center.
  • Dunn, A. (2004, July). HIV/AIDS: What about very young children? Findings. Retrieved from http://www.asksource.info/pdf/30879_findings02-hiv-ecd_2004.pdf
• Seizure Disorders
• • Mauro, T. (n.d.). Preparing the school for your child with a seizure disorder. Retrieved November 18, 2008, from About.com: http://specialchildren.about.com/od/seizuresandepilepsy/a/SDschool.htm
  • Epilepsy.com: Guide for Teachers and Parents
    http://nichcy.org/disability/specific/epilepsy

Optional Resources

Web Sites:

• American Academy of Pediatrics: Articles Published by Early Education and Child Care Colleagues
  http://www.aap.org/en-us/Pages/Default.aspx
• Keep Kids Healthy.com: CPR and Kids
  http://www.keepkidshealthy.com/welcome/firstaid/cpr_kids.html
• Learn CPR: You Can Do It!
  http://depts.washington.edu/learncpr/
• NICHCY: Epilepsy
  http://www.nichcy.org/disabilities/specific/pages/epilepsy.aspx

Articles:

• Gupta, R. S., Shuman, S., Taveras, E. M., Kulldorff, M., & Finkelstein, J. A. (2005). Opportunities for health promotion education in child care. Pediatrics, 116(4), e499−e505. Retrieved fromhttp://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/116/4/e499.full.pdf
• Copeland, K. A., Duggan, A. K., & Shope, T. R. (2005). Knowledge and beliefs about guidelines for exclusion of ill children from child care. Ambulatory Pediatrics, 5(6), 365−371. Retrieved from
  http://auth.waldenulibrary.org/ezpws.exe?url=http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=940385041&sid=1&Fmt=6&clientId=70192&RQT=309&VName=PQD
• Massachusetts Department of Early Education and Care. (n.d.). A guide to developing sample health care policies: For licensed group child care and school-age programs. Retrieved November 15, 2008, fromhttp://www.eec.state.ma.us/docs1/forms_techasst/technical_assistance/health_care_policies.pdf
  Directions:

  • Respond to each item. Each response should be concise and between two and three paragraphs in length.
  • Use MS Word to write your responses, and submit your answers to all three questions in one Word document.
  • Copy and paste each question within the document, so that your Instructor can see which question you are responding to.

  1. Without proper precautions, early childhood settings can be prone to the spread of infectious diseases. Review the information in your text on the transmission of infectious diseases (pp. 425–435 and 461–472). Briefly explain the four ways infectious diseases can be spread, giving an example of each. Then identify sanitary practices that can prevent the spread of illness for each of these four methods of transmission.

  2. Review your course text readings on role modeling, especially pages 392–396, and explain why adults should model good health behaviors for children. Describe three different health behaviors you might model for children and their families. For each, describe at least one step you could take to help children, and possibly their families, adopt these behaviors.

  3. Early childhood professionals are not expected to diagnose serious illnesses; however, they should be able to identify symptoms that may indicate infectious diseases common in young children. Imagine, for example, that a 3-year-old arrives at school in the morning with a runny nose. The mucus is clear, and he has no other obvious symptoms except for a slight cough. Because his symptoms are mild, his teacher decides to allow him to stay at school, but she continues to observe him closely throughout the day to see if his condition worsens. Review Tables 12-1 through 12-4 (pp. 464–471) in your text and identify possible illnesses this child might have. Describe the symptoms you would look for if you were his teacher. Under what conditions would you contact a family member and/or emergency medical personnel?