Emotional Impacts on Early Emotional Development: The Middle East and Northern Africa Region

I chose to study UNICEF’s reporting and efforts in the Middle East and Northern African region. This is a region from which many of our school’s students and their families have immigrated, so I felt it would be useful to have a better working knowledge of their background. The Middle East and Northern African (MENA) region has seen mass destruction and a large refugee crisis as the result of extensive conflict for years. For instance, families in Gaza whose homes have been destroyed are living in the school buildings. Children whose school are still being used for education report not feeling safe as their schools have been attacked and their friends or family have been injured (UNICEF, 2015). In Iraq and across Syria, the case for schools is similar with multiple families sharing classrooms as shelters. Additionally, UNICEF (2015) reports in Syria roughly 25% of schools are unusable because of the shelters, damage, or destruction, and for many children who can go to school they have to cross conflict zones to get there. 

Childhood trauma increases as the places these children get attacked leaving family members separated as they wait for a chance to flee the conflict zone. For children, the developmental impact is greatest, as they fall behind physically, emotionally, and academically from time spent injured without medical care, without access to one parent or after the death of a parent, and time spent with no schooling (Al-Qassab, 2018). Once they are able to escape the conflict, children continue to be impacted as their families struggle to re-enroll them in school without official documents, or into schools that do not accept their academic progress without accepted educational standards.

In spite of these family’s circumstances, UNICEF (2015) reports one of parent’s top priorities and the children’s top desires is to be in school learning. Despite what some in the west would consider devastating situations, these families are resilient moving to a new place to start over, or staying and rebuilding their lives amid destruction and physical disabilities. Children in the MENA region who have experienced these traumas are still determined to go to school even though many can have psychological repercussions. Berger (2016) describes how children’s brain development is altered with the consistent introduction of stress hormones, and the negative impact to the child’s emotional well-being as they grow. For these children, we must be cognizant they may have additional struggles adjusting to school with speech and language delays, physical or psychological disabilities, and the stress of losing a parent (Al-Qassab, 2018). In their region, where schools are in session and children report not feeling safe, their brain may have difficulty building the strong neuro pathways for learning while also processing the environment where additional attacks could happen.

As I researched this area, the thought occurred to me that we are so privileged in this country and we do not even realize it. Last week was our first week back to school, and there was a discussion between the teachers and maintenance staff as to just how many times a week we would prefer our classrooms be cleaned. We are so concerned with children learning to walk in the halls correctly, where to store our supplies for the year, and how tidy the school looks. These seem trivial compared to the teachers in the MENA region who teach in overcrowded classrooms with damaged walls if they have a school to teach in at all. I was influenced by this research in two ways. First, as I learned about the circumstances I have a deeper appreciation for the families in my school, and will use this knowledge to follow up with them about how I can better support their child’s learning. Second, I need to be much more concerned about our children’s emotional well-being and how their circumstances shape especially behaviors in the classroom. Some children will act out in response to stress while others may shut down, not participating when they are overwhelmed or stressed (Derman-Sparks and Edwards, 2010). The more I know about their background, potential traumas whether here or abroad, the better I can support them to succeed.

References

Al-Qassab, L. (2018). Bearing the brunt of war: Narjis copes with life after injury. Retrieved from https://www.unicef.org/mena/stories/bearing-brunt-war.

Berger, K. S. (2016). The developing person through childhood (7th ed.). New York, NY: Worth Publishers.

Derman-Sparks, L., & Olsen Edwards, J. (2010). Anti-bias education for young children and ourselves. Washington, D.C.: National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC).

UNICEF Middle East and North Africa. (2015). Education under fire: How conflict in the middle east is depriving children of their schooling. Retrieved from https://www.unicef.org/mena/reports/education-under-fire.