Research that Benefits Children and Families—Uplifting Stories

Research has so many positive benefits on children and families. Without research, it would be difficult to understand the inner workings of data that we come across and how it affects our daily lives. I came across an article that discussed the grandparents role in childcare, and how having grandparents go through a parenting course to learn different parenting styles will help with anxiety, depression, stress, and relationships between the grandparent-parent and child. The reason for this particular research is because a lot of parents use grandparents as a form of childcare, but the grandparent-child relationship was more relaxed, hence making the parent-child relationship more taxing and stressful on both the parents and child. With that in mind, enrolling and following both grandparents and parents on a 6-month basis to see how effective the new parenting styles were that the grandparents learned, and how well it worked. The results found that the parent-child relationship was less stressful, the child’s behavior improved, as well as less anxiety between parent-child, as well as parent-grandparent. The same rang true for the grandparents who cared for the children; their levels of depression, anxiety, stress, and intense behavior from the child had decreased.

I think that this is such a great way to display the benefits of research on children and families because this study shows how important it is to have a balance of parenting styles between grandparents and parents, as well as teaching new and different parenting styles to help keep parenting styles between parents and grandparents cohesive. Grandparents can sometimes interfere with the parenting of the parents, thus making parenting children harder and more difficult, not to mention, confusing for the child. This helps others find that much needed balance, and help with keeping families together.

Reference:

Kirby, J. N., & Sanders, M. R. (2013). Using a Behavioural Family Intervention to Produce a Three-Generational Benefit on Family Outcomes: A Case Report. Behaviour Change, 30(4), 249-261. doi:10.1017/bec.2013.24

Personal Research Journey

I chose to do more research on preschool assessments; more particularly, how effective are children/preschool assessments and what measures seem the most important to a child’s overall development. I also want to know how families view them and what their understanding of these assessments are and how they feel it helps them with nurturing their child’s overall growth and development. I have been doing assessments for years, and it took me awhile to really understand them. With that being said, I always wondered how parents felt about them, and did they understand them as well. Every child develops differently, and every assessment is different, depending on the program and school. I think the main focus is to see what is measured in an assessment over time, and how what is measured can be helpful and beneficial to teachers, as well as parents to continue to nurture a child's overall development.

This simulation process is different but very interesting because it is helping me to really sit down and draw out information and ideas about a topic I did not know how to approach for years. I am nervous, but excited to know more about the topic I chose. I like that we are learning about how to look and find certain things that make our research articles authentic and credible. The chart helped me to know where to look for important pieces of information without having to waste precious and valuable time. I think that the Walden Library is a great place to get peer-reviewed research papers, articles, and journal entries. If there is any insights you all may have, please feel free to share, and as I continue to embark on this journey, any other things I see that may help, I will definitely let you all know. I hope that so far, so good for everyone!

Final Blog Assignment

I was really excited to learn about the international early childhood field. With that being said, the consequences of learning about the international early childhood field that could and may affect my personal and professional development is that for one, international early childhood field needs more awareness and attention than the US early childhood field. The issues are more sensitive internationally, and more emphasis needs to be made on the trends and issues that are going on internationally. Secondly, with the scope of the US and international issues and trends in early childhood education, the scope is much bigger than anticipated, and more people need to be involved to advocate the needs for children and their families. Lastly, it makes me appreciate my own educational experiences, which is a positive, but as a consequence, I may not truly be able to understand the strife on children and families going through the struggle, both In the US and internationally. Even though I have been a witness to the issues and trends presented in the course, I have not personally gone through it, so it makes me feel somewhat inadequate to make pure assumptions or opinions. When I looked into poverty this week, I have had family members in my extended family, as well as close friends go through the struggle of poverty, and not being able to afford the quality education for their children, and I empathize as well as sympathize and can understand it from a research and an associative view, but not to the point where I can understand it as an individual that has gone through it. Personal assumptions and biases can be a consequence in my personal development, but I can change that.

One main goal for the field in relation to international awareness of the issues and trends is to make sure to I volunteer in a country where I can help, and then bring back what I have experienced, witnessed, and learned to others in the field, and try to make sure I present the information in a way that brings awareness, humbles me even more, as well as touch one EC professional. I also want to bring the awareness to my classroom, and incorporate what I have learned to show the children what a gift education is.

Getting to Know Your International Contacts—Part 3

I have not heard anything from my international contact as of yet, but we still have one more week. When i visited the website http://www.unesco.org/new/en/education, I studied what the mission of the organization is and how what I have gained from the website coincide with my goals as a professional. The mission has four points, but the points that stuck out to me were:

• provide international leadership to create learning societies with educational opportunities for all populations.
• provide expertise and foster partnerships to strengthen national educational leadership and the capacity of countries to offer quality education for all.

• work as an intellectual leader, an honest broker and clearing house for ideas, propelling both countries and the international community to accelerate progress towards these goals.

These points are basically how I feel about being an educator. I want to make sure I can do all that I can to provide education and leadership to all children, regardless of race, social economic status.
All families deserve to get access to quality education, and this organization is committed to helping reach this goal on a global level.

Another insight that grabbed my attention was the UNESCO holds an annual conference in a location around the world to bring awareness to making sure that quality education is given to all children around the world. This is such a great way to spread awareness to others in such a dramatic way. The Conference will be held in Japan this year in November.

The last insight that was important to me was the fact that they have global networks in the Caribbeans, Africa, Asia and Pacific, and Latin America. The global networks have leaders speak on topics like AIDS awareness, to green-jobs and inclusive education in Brazil.

Reference:
 http://www.unesco.org/new/en/education/worldwide/

Sharing Web Resources

After exploring the National Black Child Development Institute’s website, I started to look more into the resources and articles. There has not been any newsletters sent out as of yet, but I did find articles with different headings, such as health, policy and advocacy, early care and education, family engagement and literacy.  I looked into the policy and advocacy resources, as well as early care and education. I chose these to links because I wanted to find out if they discussed the issues for the week of equity of education in regards access and availability. These resources gave me a better understanding of the need for excellence in early care and education because it advocating for the awareness of these issues of affordability and access to children and their families. When I explored the policy and advocacy, the article discusses how policies are being put into place to make sure that children and their families are getting help to afford quality education by including subsidies given for families are financially challenged. The article also goes into detail on the benefits of having quality and affordable child care is beneficial not only to the families as a whole, but on the developing child. The main insight I have gained is the global awareness that nationally accredited groups are making available to the masses to explain the need for advocacy. I love the fact that more and more individuals are trying to aid in the advocacy for children and their families to stay healthy not just physically, but mentally and educationally. The realization is that it takes a village to help nurture and educate the children of society, and we as a society have to join forces to make sure that the equity of education is available, accessible, and affordable to all children and families, regardless of socio-economic status.

Resources:

http://www.nbcdi.org/resources-page/from-nbcdi

Getting to Know Your International Contacts—Part 2

I have not heard from my resources outside of the U.S. as of yet, but I am still hopeful. I did go to http://developingchild.harvard.edu/initiatives/global_initiative/ website to listen to some videos and conversations about educating young children. While I was researching different videos, I found a video that truly struck me as important. The name of the video was Building Adult Capabilities to Improve Child Outcomes:
A Theory of Change.  One insight that I gathered from this was that when thinking of a child and the most important years of learning, which is between birth and 5, if a child misses the proper developmental needs that should be met from parents and caregivers, the brain has the ability to develop flexibility and plasticity to learn skills to the age of 30. It is amazing that even if children do not gain the skills needed due to toxic stressors early in life that they can still learn how to cope and important analytical skills later in life up to the age of 30.  Another insight is the fact that in order to be stable and great role models for children, parents and caregivers have to be able to have the necessary skills to maintain order, how to plan, have executive functioning and self-regulation, as well as being able to work in teams are all essential skills that adults need to have in order to be stable enough to teach and mentor children. When we have those skill sets, we can run a well-regulated home and school environment. What is also so interesting is that the Harvard website understands that in order to be effective in teaching, there needs to be a certain level of commitment by the professionals who educate children. Educators and parents may need coaching, mentoring, and training to be able to execute skills that are necessary to our youth. When it comes to equity and excellence, we as educators are accountable in how we teach children in our care, and we have to make sure that we are fair and uphold the best educational practices.

Resources:

http://developingchild.harvard.edu/initiatives/global_initiative/

Sharing Web Resources

The website that I have been researching and exploring thus far is the National Black Child Development Institute. What seems to be relevant to my current professional development is the information on education in general, the layout of their policy on teaching black children, early childhood education issues and trends, family engagement, as well as the health and well-being of the children.

What I felt was very interesting when it pertains to families and family togetherness is the issue of absentee parents. On the NBCDI, “ the U.S. Census Buera reports that one-third of American children are growing up without their birth father. The last 50 years show that the number of children who live in a two-parent home has decreased by 22 points, and the number of babies born to unwed mothers has increased from 5% to 40%.” (NBCDI, 2014)  That is a issue all over, but especially in the black communities, and I am glad that NBCDI is making sure to bring awareness when thinking of the well-being and education for African American children.  Even though this is article is in the ‘who we are’ section on the website on the issues and policies they deal with, it is very relevant to my professional development. The newsletter has not come out thus far for the 2014 calendar year, but I am still keeping a lookout for the newsletter.

There are some great things this site has to offer. You can be a student, regular, or join the organization on behalf of another group for $40 or less. It is a great way to get involved for a small price, which is a great insight for me as an educator and advocate.

Reference:

The National Black Child Development Institute. (2014) Retrieved from http://www.nbcdi.org/ .