Research that Benefits Children and Families

If I possessed the means and the knowledge to conduct research studies about any topic in the early childhood field, it would be autism and special needs children. I have worked in the special education field and have worked with children with very different autism spectrums. I grew to love these children and want to learn more about their condition, so that someday I may go back into the special needs field and be able to understand how they learn.

One of the teachers I worked with at this time had a little girl and she was about 15 months old and she noticed that she wasn’t talking, was showing signs of being sensitive to sound and touch, she didn’t like mom to hug or kiss her and she was would get very upset when their routine was interrupted. This mom had her daughter put through a series of tests and the doctors diagnosed her with autism, after this mom blamed herself for things she ate, working in a school with asbestos and having her child vaccinated. 

We have all heard these stories and we know that none of these can be determined to cause autism, nor can they be ruled out as the cause. I would like to do extensive research and be able to figure out the cause and be able to help these families. If we can’t find the cause then I want to be able to help families deal with what life has given them and be able to reach out to the children.

My Personal Research Journey

For my research simulation I have chosen, how to get parents involved in their child's learning environment. I work in Head Start and a big part of my job is to get parents involved, so naturally I want to learn more. I am currently a teacher and have recently applied for the position of Disabilities/Mental Health Specialist. In previous courses and in my position I have learned how important parent involvement is so now I want to now how to effectively communicate with parents/grandparents/guardians. I know that sometimes it is hard to reach parents and not offend them.

I have found article on the subject but would love to have some input from my colleagues/friends. I would like to hear from some of you about personal experiences and if anyone would like to share any literature with me that would be just grand. 

Resources that I have discovered so far in my quest:

Tyler, V. H. (1993). Teacher attributes and school support structures that promote parent involvement in early childhood education programs. University of South Carolina). ProQuest Dissertations and Theses, , 151 p. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.ezp.waldenulibrary.org/pqcentral/docview/304069694/fulltextPDF/1393118F6914FB42E32/3?accountid=14872. (304069694).

Hilado, A. V. (2010). Understanding the relationship between social resources and levels of parent involvement in illinois early childhood programs: A program-level perspective. Loyola University Chicago). ProQuest Dissertations and Theses, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.ezp.waldenulibrary.org/pqcentral/docview/763008450/abstract/1393118F6914FB42E32/8?accountid=14872 . (763008450).

Final Blog: Issues and Trends

I want to start off by saying thank you to my international contacts for being so understanding and taking time out of their busy schedules to correspond with me. I would also like to thank each one of my course mates for all their posts and feedback on my posts. I have learned so much from each and every one of you.

The three consequences I discovered as as follows:

1. There are the same issues being discussed around the world. Examples: quality care, poverty, issues with standards, etc.
2. Quality care is the number one issue discussed among all that I have been in contact with.
3. There is a need for a better compensation for educators and to provide better opportunities
   
   
   The goal that I would like to see implemented in the early childhood field is to create a universal set of standards.
   
   Again, thank you all for your support and I wish you all the best in your future endeavors.

Catherine

Getting To Know Your International Contacts Part 3

My Australian contact lost her father this week so she was unable to correspond; thoughts and prayers are with her. I did reach Dr. Sahin and posed the following questions to him with his responses below.

What issues regarding quality and early childhood professionals are being discussed where you live and work?

We believe in improving quality through family and community interactions. Children learn at home and at school, or should I say all the time. Keeping families and communities involved helps carry over what they are learning.

What opportunities and/or requirements for professional development exist?

There are many opportunities such as workshops, observations of other classrooms in other schools, mentoring, etc.

What are some of your professional goals?

To improve the quality of early childhood education, to raise awareness about early childhood education in the society, and to conduct national and international level studies to support family programs.

What are some of your professional hopes, dreams, and challenges?

I hope to be able to create awareness about the importance of preschool education nationwide, there are always going to be challenges in anything we do, we just have to keep pushing to make things happen.

I have enjoyed getting answers from my correspondents. It just shows how we can be worlds apart and still have the same goals and the same issues. It was nice to discuss things and see how we handled them either the same or different.

Week 6 Sharing Web Resources

The early childhood organization that I have followed along with this course is the “Children’s Defense Fund”. The outside link that I decided to follow and research is that of NPR News http://www.npr.org/2012/06/11/154761297/why-is-poverty-inequality-growing. Within this link was a transcript entitled “Why Is Poverty, Inequity Growing?” This is a conversation between the host and Peter Edelman, Professor of Law and faculty director of the Center on Poverty, Inequality and Public Policy at Georgetown University.

Professor Edelman speaks of the economy and low wage jobs playing a majority part in poverty. I learned that in the United States there are 103 million people that have incomes below twice the poverty line. I was shocked to learn that this line is $44,000 for a family of four. This puts myself and my family in this category, and that scares me.

When researching the organization “Children’s Defense Fund”, I found what is called “What this State of America’s Children Handbook.” This provides key national information in different areas to better inform and enable people to stand up for the children in their communities. There are charts showing how the children in each state are faring in protecting children. Here is the link for anyone who wishes to research http://www.childrensdefense.org/child-research-data-publications/data/soac-2012-handbook.pdf.

I have learned that we need to educate ourselves as well as the families we work with and ones in our own communities about the challenges that face our children and insist that our nation make better investment choices for their futures. We need to work on making sure that we ensure every child’s chance at thriving and surviving. 

Week 5 Getting to Know Your International Contacts Part 2

I finally reached another international contact. Dr. Volkan Sahin he is Co-Chair ACEI International Outreach Committees as well as, Hacettepe University School of Education, Elementary Education Department,  Early Childhood Education Program.

In corresponding with Dr. Sahin I learned that  Turkey is Its centralized education system. The Turkish Ministry of Education oversees and governs all educational policies, applications and activities throughout the entire country. Public, private or organizational, all schools must follow a centralized curriculum created and administered by the Ministry of National Education.

The following is Dr. Shain’s response to this week’s discussion.

The biggest educational issue Turkey is dealing right know is the new  education system called 4+4+4. It is part of an ongoing education reform and the particular part that causing a lot of debate is the change in elementary school starting age.

You see, in the old system the elementary grade starting age was age 6 (72 months). With this new system any child who is older than 60 months (age 5) can be enrolled to the first grade. This change brings a lot of  issues regarding equity and excellence. (I can’t understand how you can put a five year old in the first grade, just shows how different countries do things differently).

First and foremost, some critics say (and I agree) that enrolling younger children to first grade (particularly alongside with their older peers) will create a lot of problems since the school readiness is a real question with this younger population. To me this is also an equity issue since this academic year two different age groups will compete for their teachers' attention and resources. This reckless implementation will surely increase the classrooms sizes to, even beyond, the limit. This also brings us to the excellence issue. With the increasing numbers of students and changing student population the teachers will have a heck of a time in their classrooms. It will be really hard to keep up with the needs of two different age groups and the quality of education will certainly affected by these changes.
http://www.okuloncesi.hacettepe.edu.tr/index_en.html

My other contact Lynda Matthews has been out of reach this week. I am sure she will respond and when she does I will add to this post.

Sharing Web Resources Week 4

The specific section that chose relevant to my current professional development is the section on poverty. This article states that poverty impairs a child’s emotional, intellectual and physical development, which we have been learning about thought out this course and others. These wind up costing our nation billions of dollars in health care and lost productivity. Below is the hyperlink to this section for anyone that wants to read more.

http://www.childrensdefense.org/child-research-data-publications/state-of-americas-children-2011/intro.html

The resources that made me think about investments differently is that of early childhood programs increasing a child’s chance of avoiding the “prison pipeline”. This is just something I had not thought about in early childhood, something to research and really think about.

http://www.childrensdefense.org/policy-priorities/juvenile-justice/

This website and newsletter show many resources of dealing with the budget and making sure there are funds available. These programs have well-documented economic and societal value. Studies have shown that investments in quality early education can produce a rate of return to society significantly higher than returns to most stock market investments or traditional economic development projects.

http://www.childrensdefense.org/policy-priorities/budget-watch/

I learned that there are many organizations out there working towards helping children and their families. I looked to see if there is a CDF organization in my state, but there isn’t the closest is in Tennessee. I hope to have something like this in my state so that I can be more involved.