When I think of research...

I feel like I gained a lot of new insights in research, especially research in regard to young children. If nothing I think this course gave me a good opportunity to learn about the terms of research. It also gave me a better understanding of different ways to make a research design. One of the biggest things that gave me a new perspective was the idea of gaining consent for children working with research.

I would also like to thank each and everyone of you for your collaboration through the discussion boards and the different ways you have supported me. It was wonderful getting to know some of you better and I wish you all the best with your future studies!

Research Around the World

Early Childhood Australia

http://www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au/

One of the things I was most interested to see on this website was a link on the menu bar to the left of the screen that was entitled 'code of ethics'. I am familiar with the NAEYC  code of ethics and I have worked with that on a number of occasions in school and in my personal work at a child care center. I was pleased to see that in Early Childhood in Australia there is also a code of ethics that they stick to. Under another link entitled 'catalog', there were a lot of different subtopic options that I was able to explore. Most of them are also current trends in the United States. For the most part they are things I am familiar with and have worked my personally. A few of these include language and literacy, health and wellness, children's books and creative art among others. Another noteworthy thing I found on the website was a publication of a magazine called 'Every Child'. This was interesting to me because it was very similar to the publication that NAEYC has called Young Child .

Research that Benefits Children and Families

I know that research can be very beneficial for young children and families. As an early childhood educator, research has played a major role in my work with young children as well. There have been different times in my own experiences where I have been able to turn to research to help me in a situation with young children. I have particularly seen research in practice with young children in two ways: how children develop musically and working with children who are living in poverty.

I recently took a music training course to become a registered teacher for a company called Music Together LLC. Although I have a Bachelor's Degree in Early Childhood Studies, throughout all of my coursework we only just briefly touched on children and music. My eyes were opened to a whole new area of development in young children when I learned about how they develop musically. Attached here is a link to some information about how they research and develop their program: http://www.musictogether.com/ResearchAndDevelopment. I was fascinated by the research they have conducted in order to implement a program that would support young children's music development. The reason I found out about this company is because I attend these classes with the little boy I nanny for. I have seen how powerful Music Together has been in his overall development as well.

The other area that I have seen research in action and the benefit of it to young children is looking at young children living in poverty. For my student teaching I worked in a Head Start program. Here is a link to some research done by Head Start: http://www.nhsa.org/research. I saw this research put into action at the program where I was placed. I learned about how they utilized, not only research about young children and how they develop in general, but also about how young children living in poverty effects their development. This helped the teacher understand how to be sensitive to children and families living with this, as well as, helped teacher create an environment that was safe and helped support the children's development regardless of how things were in their home life. I think the research that was conducted with the children living in poverty was a benefit to them because it helped the teachers become more understanding of the children and the families and also helped them support the development of the child as well.

Your Personal Research Journey

Originally, when I responded to the Discussion Board assignment I stated that my early childhood topic interest was in learning more about job opportunities working in the early childhood field and how to better advocate for young children. Although I am still interested in learning more about those topics, I believe the more specific topic I am interested in researching in regard to early childhood development is language development. I believe three subtopics that are of interest to me in relation to this topic are how a child learning sign language as a young infant effects their language development, the benefits of speaking motherese to a young infant effect their language development and whether or not an early exposure to music effects language development in any way. 

I would like to research and learn more about how a young infant learning sign language effects their verbal language development because of my personal experiences with this topic. I currently work as a private nanny. The little boy I nanny for is now two years old. I worked on sign language with him quite a bit and he picked it up fairly quickly. His verbal language has developed the same way. I am curious to see if there is any research that has been conducted about any sort of correlation regarding learning signing language and verbal language. On a personal level I have a young nephew who also learned sign language he is eighteen months old and is just learning to use oral language I am interested to see how his oral language continues to develop. 

The benefits associated with speaking motherese (the simplified and repetitive type of speech, with exaggerated intonation and rhythm, often used by adults when speaking to babies) to a young infant and the effect it can have on the child’s language development is also a topic I am interested in researching. In my personal life interacting with young infants, as well as my professional work in an infant classes at a child care center, I have used motherese when speaking to the young infants. The little bit I do know about speaking motherese to young infants is helpful, but I am curious to learn more about it and to gain a better understanding of the benefits of it and when it is appropriate and not appropriate to use with infants.

The third and final subtopic I am interested in researching more about is whether or not an early exposure to music effects language development. I am interested in this because personally I know that music helps children learn other things. In my professional work I am being trained to teach music classes for a company called Music Together. This has spurred my curiosity and interest to learn more about whether or not music can effect a child’s oral language development.

 

Above is a picture of the little boy I nanny for and myself. I think I am most curious to research and learn more about language development because of my personal experience with it and the effect I have seen of these things I would like to research have on young children including the child I have taken care of.