Research that Benefits Children and Families—Uplifting Stories

Option 1:
Share a positive example of the effects of research on children and/or families: Perhaps you can provide real-life examples of research benefits to children and/or families; maybe you are familiar with stories of people who have been positively affected by research; or you came across a published research article concerning children or families which you find exciting and would like to share with your colleagues.

I almost chose option 2 this week, but I have seen the benefits of research first hand with parents of children in my classroom.

When I decided to come back to school I had no clue how much I would grow not only as an educator, but as a person.  I have a first time mother who has been with me since her son was 3 months and I noticed early on that she was having some attachment issues. Morning drop off was becoming a daily headache for me and I dreaded it everyday.  She said goodbye at least 30 times to her son and if he did not cry for her then she would say it again until she got the reaction she wanted.  As you can imagine this made my mornings AWFUL! I had no idea how to broach the subject with her and was starting to feel helpless.

One of my discussions during my Early Childhood Development course was titled "The many faces of attachment", and I saw the light at the end of the tunnel.  I became a sponge and soaked up all the information I could on attachment.  I knew that when the time came for me to have a conversation with this mother I was going to have to present her with facts.  During my conversation I shared several articles and we had a open and honest conversation.  A week later I noticed a huge change in morning drop off.  Instead of spending 30-45 minutes for drop off it got down to 10 minutes and I was just fine with that.  I watched the video  “ Building Adult Capabilities to Improve Child Outcomes: A Theory of Change”, the narrator said “The most important thing children need to thrive is to live in an environment of relationship that begins in their family, but also extends out to include adults who aren’t family members, childcare centers, and other programs” (National Scientific
Council on the Developing Child. (2009).  If it had not been for research on attachment, I would have never known how to handle this situation.  I have now created a research folder in classroom that my parents have access to and it has been really beneficial.

Resources:

Miller, S. (2008). Secure attachment. Published by Ounce of Prevention Fund. Retrieved from http://www.ounceofprevention.org/includes/tiny_mce/plugins/filemanager/files/Secure%20Attachment.pdf

National Scientific Council on the Developing Child. (2009). Excessive stress disrupts the architecture of the developing brain. Working Paper #3. Retrieved from http://developingchild.harvard.edu/library/reports_and_working_papers/working_papers/wp3/

Riley, D. (1996). Helping Form A Secure Attachment.  Retrieved from http://www.nncc.org/Child.Dev/dc25_secure.attach.html

My Personal Research Journey

Last week for our discussion post we had to choose a topic that we wanted to research during this class.  I immediately knew what my topic was going to be.  Then for the application assignment we had to break this topic into three subtopics.  I stared at my computer screen for several minutes because I went blank.   I had no idea what to write and am still having a little difficulty figuring it out.  It has been so long since I had to research on this level.  True in every class I have taken I have had to do some research to get a better understanding, but this is different and this week I have been stressing myself out over this and I can't seem to get a grip on all the thoughts and concepts that are constantly running through my brain.  I had to tell myself to slow down, take a deep breath and work through it.  So that is what I am going to do.

The topic that I am interested in researching is how do infants develop relationships with other infants.  My subtopic is the bond between mother and baby during the first few months.  I work with infants everyday and I am constantly amazed by these little wonders.  I currently have two toddlers in my class, Sam (22months) and Effy (21 months), they have been together in my class since September 2012 and are inseparable.  Sam will be moving to the multiage class in April and I am curious about how this special relationship will be impacted.

This past week I spent a lot of time going through pictures of Sam and Effy from the beginning to see if I could identify when the relationship began to develop.

Final Blog Assignment

We should remember that there is no creativity in the child if there is no creativity in the adult: the competent and creative child exists if there is a competent and creative adult." (Rinaldi, p120, In Dialogue With Reggio Emilia)

We have reached week 8 and the final blog for the Issues and Trends class.  I have gained new knowledge and I am excited about everything I have learned this semester.  The issues and trends we are faced with in the United States are more common then I have believed.  I was not able to make any connections with the international contacts I reached out to.  I learned so much through listening to the podcasts as well as exploring websites.

Throughout this course I have been driven to focus on the quality of a child care system.  All children deserve high quality care, and I now realize that high quality care is not available for all children.

I have also learned of how politics, economics and neuroscience affects early childhood. .  The economist understand the community and what needs the community has, so the politicians can work with this knowledge gained from the economists to know what areas need more financial help.  Politicians work together with neurosciences to better understand malnutrition and a child’s development to better create programs to benefit children. Politicians need to be aware of a child’s development and issues and trends that are affecting the children of their area if they wish to remain in office.

Some other things that I have learned from exploring websites:

•   Intervention during the early years can assist in the healthy development of children cognitively, socially, emotionally and physically.

•    Participation in preschool programs promotes cognitive development in the short term and prepares children to succeed in school.

•   Early childhood programs can reduce educational inequalities.

•   Interventions can raise the status of mothers in the home and community. Interventions reduce gender inequalities.

•   Early interventions generate economic returns and reduce social costs by reducing grade retention, special education placement, juvenile delinquency, and substance abuse.

•   Early childhood development and care in the early years can do much to prevent malnutrition and increase children's chances of survival.

My goal as a Early Childhood profession is to become more involved in the community and help low income families and children receive the best education possible by providing families with resources that will allow families access to high-quality early childhood programs.