Getting Ready

My plan is to connect with early childhood educators on a global level by connecting with them through social media. I looked up a few websites that I think will help me with them journey as well. The website that I found to be the most helpful was: http://theglobalclassroomproject.wordpress.com/2013/05/05/connecting-collaborating-in-early-childhood-may-globalclassroom-chat/. This website gave me information about how to connect directly with early educators around the world. There is a space on their website that had ‘chat times’ listed where early childhood educators can collaborate and discuss different issues in the early childhood field. At first I had a lot of difficulty trying to find people to connect with, but I believe this website and these scheduled chat times will be a good way for mean to connect with my colleagues on a global level. The two other organizations I have chosen to contact are http://globalearlyed.wordpress.com/ and http://www.unicefusa.org/. Although I have had a little more difficulty contacting these organizations, I believe that I am off to a positive start with this process.

My Supports

Relationships- I am supported through relationships in my life. Both by relationships that I choose, as well as relationships that happen by circumstance. My friends and family are supportive of me and help me with decision making and encourage me through different opportunities in my life. My professors and colleagues support me through my journey in the Early Childhood field. There are a lot of things to be learned from colleagues and people who have a lot of experience in the field. The longer I work in the field the more I learn in the field. Without these relationships, I would lack a sense of community and support.

My Job- My job supports me financially to be able to live. It helps me pay the bills and buy things that I need or want. My job also helps support what I am learning in school. Because I work as a nanny for a young child, I am able to put into practice all of the things that I am learning.Without my job, I would not be able to financially support myself.

My Connections to Play

Quotes about Play:

“You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation." -Plato 

 “Play is often talked about as if it were a relief from serious learning. But for children play is serious learning. Play is really the work of childhood.” -  Fred Rogers

I often played games in my sandbox. I could play house, become a chef, build a small town. I even had a worm farm in my sandbox.

My brothers and I when I was 7 years old.

I also played with dolls a lot as a young child. I was able to act out any story I wanted to. 


Play was an integral part of my learning as a young child. Whenever my mother tells stories about me as a child, she always mentions how imaginative I was. I remember using my imagination to create any story. My mother supported my imaginative play by providing me with resources to use while playing. I had toys, but she would sometimes let me use other things as well. For instance, even still today, I remember a time when I wanted to play hairdresser and she let me fill a squirt body with water so that I could 'do my dolls hair'. This is one way that she supported me through my play.

I think play is similar and different today with young children than it was when I was a child. I believe that children definitely still learn from play when given genuine opportunities, but I think that it is different for children today because children live in a different time. They have different kinds of technology and most of them have more access to technology. I remember being a child and having to earn t.v. time and even then it was mostly earning one show. I know a lot of children today who have unlimited access to video games, television, IPods, IPads and that is just to name a few. Although I am not saying every child lives like this but some do. There are many great benefits to technology and so many things that we gain from it. But I think when it comes to young children, we do them a disservice by exposing them to it too much and not giving them the opportunity to have genuine, uninterrupted play time.

I think play has played an important role in my life from the time I was a young child to today. Over the course of my life, I have come to find t that my learning style includes visual, auditory and tactile learning. Through learning this, I have come to find that tactile really can be a form of play for me as an adult. Sometimes learning things by being hands on means playing. Through field work and different experiences, I have learned this.

Relationship Reflection

Relationships are important to me, because over the years I've come to realize that life is not meant to be lived alone and we are supposed to have people in our lives. Whether it be a professional life or a personal life, we are going to come into contact with different people. Some relationships we choose others we come into contact by circumstance. We do not choose the family we are born into, but one day if we choose to start a family, we do choose that family. I have also come to learn in my life that the only thing we can control is our own actions. It is inevitable that people are going to hurt us, but you need to decide who is important enough to stay. I saw a quote recently that said, "You don't lose friends in life, you simply find out who the real ones are." I have built a better relationship with my older brother, his wife and my nephew over the past year, I have a blossoming relationship with my current boyfriend, one of my best friend's Blair has been a major support in my life, I have a strong attachment to the little boy that I nanny for and I have a strong relationship with a former coworker who has become a sort of mother role in my life. These relationships are defining the current stage that I am at in my life.

My brother, his wife Julia and my Nephew Garrett, have become major part of my life. My family structure has shifted over the years and as some relationships have become less strong in my life, my relationship with my brother has gotten stronger. I think partially it is through the birth of his first son. I was able to be there for him and he was able to be there for me. Although we were not always close when we were younger, our relationship has definitely grown stronger.

I have had a lot of issues in my life regarding relationships with boys. After being hurt so many times, I came close to giving up all together. Although my current boyfriend and I do not have a perfect relationship by any means, I have really learned to trust again and to put aside my insecurities, even though it can be difficult.

 My relationship with my friend Blair is one that has really grown over the past few years. We have known each other for a while, but we have recently gotten closer. Blair is such a good listener and I think one things that has really helped our relationship to grow stronger is the fact that we can relate to one another in many ways. She has fears and insecurities when it comes to relationships in her own life, this has given us common ground to build our relationship on. We know that no matter what we can depend on one another.

 I currently work as a nanny for a little boy named Hank, he will be 2 in August. I have learned so much working for his family. Both about child development and also just about who I am in general. I used to work in a child care center and I became his teacher when he was four months old. Working with him from such an early age we definitely developed a strong attachment. I spend a lot of time with him and we have had some greats times and some rough times. Throughout all of it, I have been blessed to have the opportunity to be his nanny.

Veronica is a former coworker I met while working in child care. Although she has children that are my age and is a bit older than me, we have a lot in common and always got along very well. Even now, that I do not work at the child care center anymore, we keep in touch and she has become like a second mom to me. She is always there if I need advice or just someone to listen.

I think the older I get, the more I learn about relationships. I have some relationships that have hurt me and some that have helped me. It really just depends on the circumstances. Throughout it all though I have learned that I am a strong person and I need to be who I am regard less of how others treat me. It doesn't matter if you are the juiciest peach in the whole world, there are some people out there who simply do not prefer peaches. But just because people do not like, you does not mean that relationships are not important, you need to find your unique purpose and do it!

When I think of Child Development

“If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales.”
― Albert Einstein

 “Children begin by loving their parents; as they grow older they judge them; sometimes they forgive them.”
― Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray 

I would like to personally thank my colleagues who, in this course, have given me a broader view on different subjects and topics. I have felt enlightened through the discussion boards to new ideas and different opinions. It has reminded me of the importance of peer interactions and what can be learned from others. Thank you again and I wish you all the best in your future educational careers!

Amy 

Testing for Intelligences?

•  I think the 'whole child' should be assessed. From the physical aspects to the cognitive aspects. I believe that the whole child should be assessed so that teacher can better benefit the child. If a child is delayed developmentally in any particular way, the teacher can modify activities and materials to better benefit the child.
• School Assessment in China:
  
 School-based assessment, as we know it, does not occur in the People' s Republic of China. Assessment procedures, prilf'lllrily achievement tests, are usedfor placement pur poses in select schools. Some psychological testing is done with young children to detect learning disabilities. Several psychologi- cal tests are available, but theyare not widely used. Research in the areas of intellectual, personality, clinical, and achievemeni assessment is reviewed in this paper. Given the lack of psychological services for schools, the role of teachers in the evaluation process is discussed with respect to educational philosophy in the People' s Republic of China. The impact of recent events in China on the educational system is also discussed.

Another aspect of this is children who are born in China and adopted in Americans families:

The Parent Rating Scale of the Behavior Assessment Scale for Children (PRS-BASC) was used to examine the behavior of 45 Chinese adoptees. In all but one case, results from the 9 BASC-PRS scales ranged in the average, or normal, range. Thus, as a group, no deviations from normal behavior were revealed. However, the variability of ratings for several scales--Hyperactivity, Aggression, Conduct Problems, and Attention Problems--indicated a greater potential for at-risk behavior. Age of adoption from China was not a significant influence on parents' perceptions of adoptees' behavior. However, older adoptees were more likely to be rated hyperactive or aggressive than younger children, while younger adoptees were more likely to exhibit withdrawal.

• Concerns related to assessing young children: One of my concerns about testing and assessing young children is the assessments set a tone for the rest of their school career. I think there are benefits to assessing young children.I believe that assessing young children is necessary in some ways, but should be used with caution is some circumstances, as it could become too much of a focus for early childhood educators. Adults should take care to be sensitive to the needs of all children when assessing young children, while also taking into consideration the circumstances of a child's life while assessing. 
• Sources:
  
  LaVoie, J. (1990). School based assessment in people's republic of china . University of Nebraska at Omaha,

Consequences of Stress on Children's Development

There are many different stressors a child may experience in early childhood. Stressors vary and the effect that one stressor may have on a child may be completely different than it may have on another child. Some common stressors may include, but are not limited to:

-War

- Poverty 

-Racism 

-Natural disaster 

-Isolation 

-Hunger 

-Noise 

-Chaos 

-Disease 

-Environmental pollution 

-Violence 

Stressor on me as a young child: One stressor that I experienced growing up was having a sibling with special needs. Although cognitively he was typical, physically he had many birth defects. It caused a lot of stress on my family and me as a 4 year old child. A lot changed when my younger brother was born and some things took adjusting, while other things just changed all together. The main thing that changed for me was the time my parents were able to spend with me. My younger brother Nathan needed to go to many different Doctor's appointment and required multiple surgeries. I sometimes went with my mother, but other times I would stay with a friend or a family member while my mom went with Nathan. Looking at who I am today and looking back to the stress put on my family. I realize that I struggle with some things as a result of Nathan's health problems, but mostly it made me a better person and taught me many things. Below is a photo of my brothers. I am sitting to the left, my younger brother Nathan is in the middle and my older brother Mark is on the right. The top photo is from 1994 and the bottom photo is from 2013. 

Stressor on young children in another country:

China's one-child family policy has had a great effect on the lives of nearly a quarter of the world's population for a quarter of a century. When the policy was introduced in 1979, the Chinese government claimed that it was a short-term measure and that the goal was to move toward a voluntary small-family culture. In this article, we examine to what extent this goal has been achieved and the implications for the future of the policy. First we explain why the policy was introduced and how it is now implemented. We also examine the consequences of the policy in regard to population growth, the ratio between men and women, and the ratio between adult children and dependent elderly parents. Finally, we examine the relevance of the policy in contemporary China and whether the time has come for the policy to be relaxed.


In 1979, the Chinese government embarked on an ambitious program of market reform following the economic stagnation of the Cultural Revolution. At the time, China was home to a quarter of the world's people, who were occupying just 7 percent of world's arable land. Two thirds of the population were under the age of 30 years, and the baby boomers of the 1950s and 1960s were entering their reproductive years. The government saw strict population containment as essential to economic reform and to an improvement in living standards. So the one-child family policy was introduced.
The policy consists of a set of regulations governing the approved size of Chinese families. These regulations include restrictions on family size, late marriage and childbearing, and the spacing of children (in cases in which second children are permitted). The State Family Planning Bureau sets the overall targets and policy direction. Family-planning committees at provincial and county levels devise local strategies for implementation. Despite its name, the one-child rule applies to a minority of the population; for urban residents and government employees, the policy is strictly enforced, with few exceptions. The exceptions include families in which the first child has a disability or both parents work in high-risk occupations (such as mining) or are themselves from one-child families (in some areas).
In rural areas, where approximately 70 percent of the people live, a second child is generally allowed after five years, but this provision sometimes applies only if the first child is a girl — a clear acknowledgment of the traditional preference for boys. A third child is allowed among some ethnic minorities and in remote, underpopulated areas. The policy is underpinned by a system of rewards and penalties, which are largely meted out at the discretion of local officials and hence vary widely. They include economic incentives for compliance and substantial fines, confiscation of belongings, and dismissal from work for noncompliance.

I think it the one child policy in China is a stressor on young children because it is something in their world that they have no control over. It is especially stressful on the second and third children born into these families. 


Sources: 

Hesketh, T., & Xing, Z. W. (2005). The effect of china's one-child family policy after 25 years. The New England Journal of Medicine.