Issues of poverty

I contacted two of my colleagues working in the same school as I do. Both of them work in the same division in Early Childhood Learning Center. One teacher is from Israel and the other teacher comes from France. They travel a lot around the world, and they have been teaching in early childhood field for couple years already, though in different countries. The Israeli teacher has been teaching in the school for eight years and the French teacher has just started her journey in China last year. 

When we discussed issues of poverty, they provided me with lots of information and insights. They believe that poverty would affect children's overall development. they also shared some of their personal experiences about poverty. one teacher remembered that when she was in grade two, there were three children coming from very poor families. Their clothes seemed never washed and they lived in a house where there was no proper bathroom/shower. Children seemed to keep distance from them no matter how hard teachers supported them, trying to break the ice between them and other children. She believed this experience could have very bad influence on these three children's emotional development, and being a teacher, she has always been keeping in mind her own experience about this and trying her best to support children in poverty.

By talking and discussing with the early childhood professionals, I have gained new information and learned new knowledge about poverty. If children from poverty live in areas with low economic status, they may not have the same opportunities to be exposed to the same amount of knowledge as other children. The parents from poverty may need to work longer hours to support the whole families, which leave them no time to spend with their children. This in tuns affects children's emotional and social development as children may feel unsecured inside them, thus having difficulties coping with separation anxiety. Moreover, children from poverty may have slower language/cognitive development as they may not have accessed to libraries and/or computers as other children have, therefore they may have lower vocabulary abilities. Poverty could also cause malnutrition as children may not get enough nutrition they need for their healthy growth.