Research that Benefits Children and Families

Option 2:
Imagine that you possess the means and the knowledge to conduct research studies about any topic in the early childhood field. Imagine further that you are not restricted by the reality of the present. Imagine that your study will make a major positive contribution to the well-being of children and/or their families. What topic would you choose? What can you imagine the positive contribution(s) would be?

I would do research on ways to decrease medications for children with behavioral disorders. I selected this topic because I use to be a case manager and one of the children that was on my case was diagnosed with almost every type of behavioral and emotional disorder (as well as her mother). She had to take certain medications in the morning before she was allowed to walk in the school building (she would be out of control if she did not take them.. so the teachers said) but when she did take them.. the mixture of all the meds would make her sleepy resulting her getting sent home for going to sleep during class time. So this was a no win situation for her. I use to wonder if there was other treatment that she could take so that she could interact within the class on a daily basis.
The research I am conducting is ways to treat children with multiple behavioral/emotional disorders without taking the medicine. I would take a group of children and divide them into three groups. One group would remain the same (stay on all the meds they are already on). The other group would be taken off of all meds completely and provided therapy and a mentor during the day. The last group would be given placebo pills just to see if the children are calming down because of his or her mind telling them that they are on the bills this group will receive the same therapy that the middle group is receiving.
In the end I am hoping that my study will allow parents to be able to decrease the amount of pills that their children who have been diagnosed with behavioral disorders will have to take and be able to live normal lives through therapy. Many families have to watch their children take multiple pills just to be able to stay in school. These pills can not be good for their over all health.

My Personal Research Journey

 My chosen research stimulation is Why men tend to shy away from the Early Childhood Field and the impact of more males in the early Childhood Field.

I selected this topic because I really wanted to find out why so many men tend to stay away from early childhood education. Many will teach your higher grades but like to stay away from teaching the early learners. I also selected this topic because my husband came to me one day and said that he would hire a foreman (he owns a construction company) and work with me. I thought he was joking so I did not respond. Later when I sat down and thought about how great the idea sound I went back to him and took him up on his offer. But, now I can not get him to make the switch. He says what so many other males have said, which is "how would I look working in a daycare center?" I said "you will look like  a man working along side his wife in our Childcare center assisting children as they develop in the early years." I try to explain to him that with some many young boys in the early childhood field that they need men working with them instead of so many females.  This most have scared him because he has never brought the issue back up and changes it when I try to bring it up.
My question to you all is should I blend the to together or does this sound like two different topics?

 I do not see anything wrong with this picture. My husband said "of course he will do that, he is older and probably retired."

Final Blog Assignment

Some consequences of learning about the international early childhood field is that I was given chance to learn about life for professional in the early childhood field as well as children in other areas. I was able to see that other places stuggle in this field just like the USA. When I look at some of the issues we have in America I can breath a little easier because after taking this course I see that other countries have a harder struggle than we do. Another consequence is that we as professionals are not in this alone. We have individuals advocating on the behalf of the ealry childhood field all over the world.
I was not able to contact any other professionals in the field but I gained a lot of insight by reading the post of classmates who were able to contact other professionals.
One goal for the field is for all of us early childhood professionals to be able to connect some kind of way and advocate for change together.

Getting to Know Your International Contacts—Part 3

Adolescent girls in the northern Tanzania districts of Shinyanga Rural, Kahama and Micheweni are confronted with poverty, early marriage and pregnancy and an overall low prioritization of education in their communities.

Reading this information is so unfair for the females in this area. I work with the young people at my church and I showed them this because this year we have four children grauduating and two are males and two are females and the weird thing is the boys want to go to college and the females are having to be pushed. The boys had to be pushed to finish high school. One of the boys was pushed all the way from his early years in school.

“presuming competence"

The principle of “presuming competence,” is to  Assume that a child has intellectual ability, provide opportunities to be exposed to learning, assume the child wants to learn and assert him or herself in the world. To not presume competence is to assume that some individuals cannot learn, develop, or participate in the world.  Presuming competence is nothing less than a Hippocratic oath for educators. It is a framework that says, approach each child as wanting to be fully included, wanting acceptance and appreciation, wanting to learn, wanting to be heard, wanting to contribute.  By presuming competence, educators place the burden on themselves to come up with ever more creative, innovative ways for individuals to learn.  The question is no longer who can be included or who can learn, but how can we achieve inclusive education.  We begin by presuming competence.

So many times educators think the exact opposite. They look at a child and assume things that are not there or they might be there but due to the child's environment and we as professionals do not work with them to the level that we need to.

Sharing Web Resources

I went to event tab on The Divison for Early Childhood website. I thought it was very neat that it had a spot to allow outsiders to be able to upload events that they are having for early childhood programs to the site. This is really good because it gives the world a chance to see and participate in local advocating. Also they have a lot going on in the month of April for children and their families.
As I was searching one area of the site I saw where a father was reaching out trying to get his son in an ealry childhood program and was having problems because of his son handicap and everyone giving him "professional" reasons for why they could not enroll him.
There is a new forum that is about to take place for addressing challenging Behavior and it is a National Training that is going to take place.
This website showed me that their is still a lot of inequity that takes place for young children with disabilities and after reading I think it is higher in this area than any other age group.

Getting to Know Your International Contacts—Part 2

One new insight that I got from reading the Harvard website was that the issue with childhood development and growth is a worldwide issue. It’s not just one nation struggling to figure out how to handle childhood poverty, or early childhood programs. I feel that it should be a unified national seminar to take place so that we as a nation can get things right for our young people.   After reading the article on global child development my thoughts are that if we can stop coming up with so many theories and work the ones that are already there to find a answer we might have to progress with early childhood.

After reading the article on the Harvard website National Forum on Early Childhood Policy and Programs I sat and wondered about why investors have to see the payback before they decided whether on not it is beneficial to invest in early childhood programs. I wonder if these investors have children of their own and how important the early childhood years were to them.

(http://developingchild.harvard.edu/initiatives/global_initiative/),

Sharing Web Resources

The website of an organization that I have been studying is http://www.dec-sped.org/, The Division of Early Childhood. The Division for Early Childhood (DEC) is an international membership organization for those who work with or on behalf of young children with disabilities and other special needs.  I have been studying the website because it really touched home with me. I own and operate a child care center and when I first started out I had a lady to call for care for her 5 month son. He had several disabilites. At the time I did not take him, it was not because I was discriminating but due to my lack of knowledge with working with chidren in their early years with disabilities. After finding this site I felt that many children with disabilities probably go through the same thing this little boy went through. And this is probably very stressful for his mother. This website overs parents, and caregivers a place to go to get information or chat with one another for support.
I gained more understanding for how they view ealry childhood and disabilities one of the enew letters for this week was Department Announces New Effort to Strengthen Accountability for Students with Disabilities

Moving from Compliance-Focused Approach to One Driven by Results

March 2, 2012 they stated that with all the funding that is going into these programs children with disabilties should not be treated any differntly or held to lower standards.