Wednesday, December 7, 2011

My Supports

The first support I have in my life is my husband John.  It is because of his support that I am able to pursue a master’s degree at this time.  I work full-time and help my daughter raise her two young children, without the emotional and practical support I receive from John; there is no way I would have the time or energy to do the work required in this program. 

I also have support from coworkers. I have many intelligent, educated people in my agency, that I am able to bounce ideas off and ask questions.  They are always concerned about me and my progress at school.  It is a huge support to have people who believe in your abilities.

I know what it is like to try to go to school while working and raising kids without this support.  Many years ago, I completed an AA degree while working and raising young children. I did not have a supportive husband, or people at work that cared about me. It was incredibly difficult.  I did it, but it took so much energy, both physical and emotional, to just get through the days.

If I imagined that I had a challenge such as a mobility issue, I know that I would need the support of my employer to do my job.  Because I drive to people’s homes every day, and then go into their houses and work with their families, I would need the understanding and acceptance of the families I worked with as well. 

I know that dealing with these types of daily challenges would be emotionally wearing and I would need the emotional support of my family and coworkers.   I work for an amazing agency and I know that if I needed accommodations made, they would find ways to make them.  I am very blessed to have the supportive home and work life that I do.

“Here is the basic rule for winning success. Let's mark it in the mind and remember it. The rule is: Success depends on the support of other people. The only hurdle between you and what you want to be is the support of other people.” David Joseph Schwartz

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

My Connection to Play

Quotes

When children pretend, they’re using their imaginations to move beyond the bounds of reality. A stick can be a magic wand. A sock can be a puppet. A small child can be a superhero.

Fred Rogers
American children’s television host
1928–2003

It is a happy talent to know how to play.


Ralph Waldo Emerson
American writer
1803–1882






The most essential thing for play when I was a child was friends.  When I was a child we played from the time school ended until dinnertime every weeknight.   Weekends consisted of unstructured baseball games at the schoolyard. We rode our bikes everywhere all summer long.


The play equipment we had was huge and dangerous but we were so proud of ourselves when we made it to the top of the tall slide or the cage at the top of the rocket.



We pushes friends as hard as we could on merry go rounds and cheered them on to  jump off high flying swings





       The play I remember in my childhood was largely unsupervised.  At least it felt that way to us.   Large groups of neighborhood children would meet at the school yard and play until dinnertime. There were baseball and kick ball games. We practiced new tricks on the bars and chased each other with tag and hide-and-go-seek.   Very few times do I remember playing inside.  Mostly, I think that was reserved for birthday parties and  wet winter day when you and one or two friends played in your room.  My house had a large covered porch and I remember my brother, myself, and all our friends sitting out there playing on rainy days. We rode bikes all over the neighborhood,  everyone knew the boundaries of the neighborhood and we ran free within these limits.  Because I lived across the street from a school, I played a lot on things like swings and monkey bars.

       Today parents have to be much more vigilant when watching their children.  Play is more often something that is prearranged with play dates. This may have to do with the fact that more often than not, both parents are working and the children go to childcare after school.  Their group of friends may not be from their local neighborhood at all, but where their childcare time is spent.   Outside activities in childhood now are also more organized.  Children join teams for every sport imaginable. They are missing the fun of making the rules as a group.  We would have rules that  handicapped the really good players so that the younger kids had a chance.  We learned to agree as a group, and to look for the fairness in situations.    Much of a child’s play today is electronic.  We didn’t have Nintendo or computers in my childhood.  Today’s  children in my experience, need to be prodded to leave the gadgets at home and just go and explore. 



I love play and I have stayed active throughout my life.  I took my kids to the park and then grabbed a swing myself.  It is important to remember the value of spending a couple hours just letting go. Forgetting those adult responsibilities and just playing. 








Friday, November 11, 2011

Relationship Reflection

I am fortunate to have a great number of positive relationships in my life.  The first I would mention is with my husband John.  We are partners in everything. In this relationship, I have a safe place to share my concerns and fears. We brainstorm and work together to meet our goals.  We are there for each other in good and bad.  He is a cornerstone in my family’s structure.
                                       
The second group of people I want to mention  are my two beautiful Granddaughters.  Being involved in the daily aspects of their lives has been an amazing journey.  It is a tremendous pleasure to help them grow and to spend time with these two wonderful girls.  They fill me up with love and happiness and I know I do the same for them.  Watching my daughter raise her own daughters is an awesome experience.
I have recently had to learn to deal with long-distance relationships with my two sons. Both of whom live over an hour away in opposite directions.  They still call for advice, although not as often anymore as they have both are in relationships with significant others.  Maintaining these close ties is now a little harder as their own family obligations begin to take hold.  I know that we have built a strong bond within our family and that we will always be close no matter how far away we are.

In my work-life, I have mentors who I trust to help me make decisions and teach me.  I enjoy mentoring new teachers and helping them build their own skills.  Many of my friends were people I have worked with.  Currently, there is a group of us that get together weekly for lunch and socialization.  Keeping relationships with friends means taking the time and effort to be there for them, just as they are there for me.  In order to remain sane in a very difficult and sometimes disheartening field, it is important to have people that understand the type of work we do and can offer support

Monday, October 24, 2011

Final Week.

I chose a couple of different quotes about children for this final post.  The first is my Fred Rogers, better known as Mr. Rogers, from the wonderful PBS television show.  Fred Rogers is a personal hero of mine.

"When I was very young, most of my heroes wore capes, flew through the air, or picked up buildings with one arm. They were spectacular and got a lot of attention. But as I grew, my heroes changed, so that now I can honestly say that anyone who does anything to help a child is a hero to me."

Fred Rogers
1928 - 2003

The second quote is about the importance of attachment in children.  Although I have long believed in the importance of bonding between parent and child, the reading in this class have brought me a new level of understanding of that importance.

"Any child can be made into a psychopath through failure of attachment. We know that. We have known it for a long time. We have to change a lot of established patterns or ways we do things - our priorities - so that nothing gets in the way of attachment in the earliest years. The capacities for trust, empathy, and affection are in fact the central core of what it means to be human, and are indispensable for adults to be able to form lasting, mutually satisfying co-operative relationships with others."


I would like to thank all of the students in this group for your wonderful research and posts about the issues in child development.

Jordann, Thank you for your insightful questions and comments.
Kelsy, Thank you for your wonderful comments and personal reflections.

Sunday, October 9, 2011

What kinds of assessments should be complete and why

The reason behind an educational assessment needs to be to  improve the education process, not to determine whether or not the child is meeting the school’s  goals.  If we are assessing to see if children are failing, what are we doing with that information.   Learning is a complex task, that each person accomplishes differently.  As educators, we need to examine how a child thinks, not just what they know. 

                I feel that it is impossible to get a comprehensive picture of a child’s development  through the use of one test or screener.  Educators need to be conducting on-going assessments.  Culture and personal experience is  a large part of learning, assessments need to take into account the experiences of the child.  We want all children to succeed, not just those who fall into the demographics of a  prescribed normative standard.   Looking at the whole child includes their home-life, their beliefs, and attitudes about learning.

                For this assignment, I looked into the school assessment process in Finland.  I found out that their education system is quite different than ours.  All children in Finland receive two years of a high quality government preschool program, before entering kindergarten at age 7.  Kindergarten is strictly to teach kids self regulation and reflection.  There is not an emphasis on academics in preschool.  In Finland they offer no programs for gifted student students.  There is also little in the way of a standardized testing system.

                Finland does assess all  children at age five when they begin their preschool experience.  They use a holistic model that looks at the child’s social development as well as their cognitive development and overall health and maturity.  If children are determined to have a special educational  need they use a similar process to our Individual Education Program, to develop individual lessons to for the child’s needs.   Speech therapists and other special services are brought into the classroom whenever possible.

                One of the differences between the Finish population and that of an American school is the homogenous nature of the Finnish population.  The vast majority of student speak the native language when they enter school.  In the United States, up to 12% of kindergarteners are English learners.  There is also a more equal socioeconomic status among the Finish people.  The school system spends the same amount of dollars per child in every school.  There are no wealthy or impoverished schools.



References:

European Agency for the Development in Special Needs Education. (2009, April). Innovative assessment tools and methods-Finland. Retrieved from http://www.european-agency.org/agency-projects/assessment-in-inclusive-settings/assessment-database-of-key-topics/finland/innovative-assessment-tools-and-methods

Hanson, T. J. (2011). Several lessons to be learned from the  Finnish school system. Retrieved from http://www.openeducation.net/2008/03/10/several-lessons-to-be-learned-from-the-finnish-school-system/


Tuesday, September 27, 2011

How Stress and Crisis Affects Childhood

My parents were both young children during the Great Depression of the 1920s.  My mom was part of a large family, living on a farm in Wisconsin.  All of the kids worked both on their family farm and for neighbors.  It was not an option, there was no complaining about anything, you got up and worked.  The only exception was Sundays when the family attended church before working in the fields. My father was six when his dad died from a railroad accident. My grandmother, then a widow relied on her two sons, 6 and 12 to help provide.  The older son left school and began working full time. My father was left home alone to care for the house and himself. 
This early exposure to financial hardship caused my parents to have a very strong work ethic as well as a need to always have money in the bank.  Both of my parents worked fulltime jobs, even though at this time it was common for the wife to stay home and take care of the house and kids.  They instilled in my brother and I that responsibilities were always the first priority of the day.  We each had bank accounts as very young children and allowances and birthday money was deposited and saved for emergencies.
The resources that were available to families in the depression were limited. There was no government assistance, you found work, or you starved.  Many families left farms and towns in the mid-west and headed west for new job prospects.  Other families banded together, taking in many generations into one home.  Many more children were left in orphanages because the parents could not afford to care for them.   The Great depression was 80 plus years ago and there are not many people around who remember it.  Unfortunately, between the banking, housing, and health care crisis, many Americans are finding themselves in similar situations. 
March 11, 2011 Japan endured a 9.0 earthquake, a tsunami, and a nuclear power plant disaster.  I started to wonder how this is affecting the children in Japan, especially those immediately affected by the disasters.  Because the crisis is new, there was not a lot of information about the long-term effects.  I was impressed with the concern by the Japanese officials for the children’s well being and emotional stability.  In a town that was devastated by the tsunami, a school building survived.  Thirty children remained at the school six days after the event, their parents among those that were missing and presumed dead.  The school officials refused to let reports talk to the children.  They were concerned that it would produce false hope in the children. 
I thought back to the attacks here in the United States on September 11, 2001.  Did we go out of our way to protect the children?  I live on the other side of the country and did not know anyone who was directly affected by the tragedy of 9-11, but I do remember that every channel, even those that normally showed other types of programming, showed the twin towers burning and collapsing for days on end. 
In Japan, people were concerned that the children would be scared and not understand what was happening on the news in regards to the nuclear power plant disaster.  They quickly produced a cartoon that explained the problem in a way that was meaningful and relevant to children. They told the children that the plant was sick with stomach problems and the concern was that it would poop and make a mess that would be difficult to clean-up and would harm the environment around it.
Taking something as devastating as what happened in Japan, and making a cartoon that explains it in a way that is understandable to children, will provide them some emotional security.  Many times it is the unknown that scares children the most and leaves them feeling unsafe. 


Thursday, September 15, 2011

Sudden Infant Death

Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS)  is the condition given by the coroner when no other cause or explanation for the death of a child under the age of one can be found.    SIDS occurs most often to children between the ages of two and four months.  A greater number of deaths happen during the winter months, and the most deaths happen to children under the age of six months. 

Researchers believe that rather that a single cause of SIDS, there are events that place an infant at a  greater risk for  a combination of factors  that may cause death.  The number one factor in SIDS is the infant’s sleep position.  Since 1992  the  experts have advised parents to put their infants to sleep on their backs.  This alone has reduced the number of SIDS cases by 50%.   Sleeping on their back, opens the airway, reducing the chance of  SIDS.

·         Other risk facts include:

·         Exposure to tobacco smoke, even the residue on a caregiver’s clothes. 

·         Low Birth Weight

·         Mother’s age at birth  and/ or  lack of prenatal care

·         Child’s Race.  (African American infants are twice as likely at Caucasian infants to be affected by SIDS and  American Indian and Alaskan Native babies are three times more likely than a white baby to die of SIDS.



The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recommends that parents of young infants always  put their infants to sleep on their backs, even for naps .  Parents need to make sure that all of their caregivers are consistently placing the baby on its back.  A higher number of SIDS deaths occur when a normally back sleeping baby is placed on its stomach for a nap. 

Another recommendation from the  National Institute of Child Health, is about the bed itself.  An infant’s bed should be free of toys, pillows, blankets or crib padding.  Many new parents want to decorate the baby’s crib to match their nursery.  An infant’s sleep area should consist of a firm mattress and sheet.  If the weather dictates using a blanket, the  blanket should be tucked into the sides and bottom of the mattress and only cover the baby about waist high.  This is so keep the baby’s face from becoming covered and re-breathing their expelled air.

Co-sleeping is considered a risk factor of SIDS. If you bring your baby to bed to breast-feed, make sure to return them to their own bed to avoid the baby becoming overheated or turned in a position that may restrict their breathing.

World-wide rates of SIDS have declined dramatically since the ‘Back to Sleep’ campaign began in the U.S. in 1992 and around the world over the following years.  I have included a graph, which indicates the number of SIDS death over the last decades.



FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Graphic trends in PNM and SIDS rates: 1990–2005. aRates were halved to keep comparisons of countries on the same scale; bdata were unavailable at the time of submission for 2005 SIDS rates.
                                               (Hauck & Tanabe, 2008)


While I do not have any personal experience with SIDS, I do work with families and young infants everyday.  I alays try to make new parents aware of the risk factors and help them make  changes that will lower their infant’s risk.


References

American S. I. D. S. Institute. (2009). Reducing the risk of SIDS. Retrieved from http://sids.org/nprevent.htm

Hauck, F. R., & Tanabe, K. O. (2008, September 1). International trends in sudden infant death syndrome: Stabilization of rates require further action. [Electronic version]. Pediatrics, 3.

National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. (Publisher). (2005). Safe sleep for you baby

Sudden Infant Death

Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS)  is the condition given by the coroner when no other cause or explanation for the death of a child under the age of one can be found.    SIDS occurs most often to children between the ages of two and four months.  A greater number of deaths happen during the winter months, and the most deaths happen to children under the age of six months. 

Researchers believe that rather that a single cause of SIDS, there are events that place an infant at a  greater risk for  a combination of factors  that may cause death.  The number one factor in SIDS is the infant’s sleep position.  Since 1992  the  experts have advised parents to put their infants to sleep on their backs.  This alone has reduced the number of SIDS cases by 50%.   Sleeping on their back, opens the airway, reducing the chance of  SIDS.

·         Other risk facts include:

·         Exposure to tobacco smoke, even the residue on a caregiver’s clothes. 

·         Low Birth Weight

·         Mother’s age at birth  and/ or  lack of prenatal care

·         Child’s Race.  (African American infants are twice as likely at Caucasian infants to be affected by SIDS and  American Indian and Alaskan Native babies are three times more likely than a white baby to die of SIDS.



The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recommends that parents of young infants always  put their infants to sleep on their backs, even for naps .  Parents need to make sure that all of their caregivers are consistently placing the baby on its back.  A higher number of SIDS deaths occur when a normally back sleeping baby is placed on its stomach for a nap. 

Another recommendation from the  National Institute of Child Health, is about the bed itself.  An infant’s bed should be free of toys, pillows, blankets or crib padding.  Many new parents want to decorate the baby’s crib to match their nursery.  An infant’s sleep area should consist of a firm mattress and sheet.  If the weather dictates using a blanket, the  blanket should be tucked into the sides and bottom of the mattress and only cover the baby about waist high.  This is so keep the baby’s face from becoming covered and re-breathing their expelled air.

Co-sleeping is considered a risk factor of SIDS. If you bring your baby to bed to breast-feed, make sure to return them to their own bed to avoid the baby becoming overheated or turned in a position that may restrict their breathing.

World-wide rates of SIDS have declined dramatically since the ‘Back to Sleep’ campaign began in the U.S. in 1992 and around the world over the following years.  I have included a graph, which indicates the number of SIDS death over the last decades.

 

(Hauck & Tanabe, 2008)

.

While I do not have any personal experience with SIDS, I do work with families and young infants everyday.  I alays try to make new parents aware of the risk factors and help them make  changes that will lower their infant’s risk.



References

American S. I. D. S. Institute. (2009). Reducing the risk of SIDS. Retrieved from http://sids.org/nprevent.htm

Hauck, F. R., & Tanabe, K. O. (2008, September 1). International trends in sudden infant death syndrome: Stabilization of rates require further action. [Electronic version]. Pediatrics, 3.

National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. (Publisher). (2005). Safe sleep for you baby