Impacts on Early Emotional Development

The area of the world that I chose to learn more about is East Asia and Pacific. Some of the challenges that children are facing in that region are: physical abuse, child mortality (drowning), and child trafficking, and natural disasters. I think all of the challenges listed could have an impact on a child’s emotional well being and development because all of these could cause a lack of development based on emotional trauma. 

The one challenge that I wanted to learn more about is what has been put in place for children that were victims of Typhoon Haiyan. I found that child friendly zones have been created for the young victims during the clean-up efforts. The child friendly zones help the children to take their minds of the tragedy that took place. The Unicef organization realizes that the well-being of children after a tragedy is important. For that reason areas have been established for children to begin the process of mourning and getting on with their lives. Another reason these tents have been set-up is to stop the risk of children in this region from being victims of human trafficking. 

I can't imagine what it must be like to for these children. When children experience episodes of trauma it can affect their educational development and their emotional development. Reading about the areas that have been set up for children did make me feel a little better but my heart aches for the children who have lost loved ones. 

References

 http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/eastasia.html

http://www.unicef.org/eapro/media_21844.html