Reflecting on Child Development

“Accept the children the way we accept trees—with gratitude, because they are a blessing—but do not have expectations or desires. You don’t expect trees to change, you love them as they are.” 
― Isabel Allende

I love this quote because it discusses the unconditional love we should have for children.


I would like to give a note of thanks to Mirla Aquino Fajardo  and Super Mami blog pages. Both blog pages shared some valuable information about child development. Keep up the good work and continued effort in the course.

Assessing Young Children

     Through my personal experience as an educator, I feel it is important to have assessments for children's cognitive, socioemotional, physical (gross and fine motor) development that are developmentally appropriate. I think if we start looking at assessments not as a test , but more as a measurement of glows or grows  for the child , we can help our youth develop more positively. We can develop planful activities to help strengthen their grows into glows.

    I chose to reflect on assessments in South Africa. From my research I find that assessments in school have been hard to come by because two reasons ,according to Amod & Heafield, "this is firstly due to the historical misuse of assessment instruments for the purpose of exclusionary practices and the perpetuation of an inequitable education system.  Secondly children in this country exist within extremely diverse socio-cultural and economic structures and this contributes towards significant emotional and developmental differences between young children." Amod & Heafield also state, "although there is still a place for the assessment of individual learners to determine the types of support structures that may be needed,  government expenditure on education is more suitably spent on upgrading facilities, reducing class sizes and improving teacher training. This will provide all learners with a better chance of reaching their full potential. "

Reference

 

Z. Amod, D. Heafield (2012). "Assessing Young Children in South Africa." Psychological Assessment in South Africa: Research and Applications.

Racism

When I was around 9-10 years old I grew up in a predominately White American neighborhood. The school I went to reflected the same thing. In fact, I was the only Black American in my classroom. I can remember one day a young White American boy in my neighborhood called me the n word. I really had never heard the word before nor been called one. I told my mom and she reassured me that I am more than that word and to just remain confident in the skin I was in. At school, I began to notice that I was the only one like me, so I decided to 'act out' and become the class clown. This was the only way I felt would make me feel comfortable in the situation I was in. I didn't stay in that area for too long, in fact, I think we moved to another town not long after these incidents happened. To get through these issues, I would think back to my mom's words of encouragement and eventually developed a positive attitude about myself. Also I learned to not let people's words label me.

Racism in Europe against blacks is growing. People with dark-skin or that are African American descent are becoming more targeted with violent hate crimes because of their race. To minimize the hate crimes in the area organizations, such as, Black European Women's Council, are working to get the legislation to create anti-discrimination laws. Also more public awareness campaigns and funds for those we have been victims to racism have been effective to help eliminate racism.

Nutrition!!!

I chose nutrition as my public health topic because eating a healthy meal is very important in a child's development. A child's body needs food for energy and to help the brain process and learn. I chose to look at nutrition in Africa. In Africa, the need for food is high and this is due to lack of agriculture and shortages on water supply. It has been a consistent problem to make sure children are supplied with nutritious meals each day. Emergency food supplies are given to vulnerable and orphaned children, but support is always needed through donations to the Aid for Africa, African SOLUTIONS TO AFRICAN PROBLEMS (ASAP), and any other charitable organizations. Seeing the area I work in, I do have some families that don't have much money, but through USDA, we can serve our children nutritious meals for breakfast, lunch, and snack. This will provide them with healthy meals needed to help function in a school day.

Jamaican Childbirthing Traditions and Rituals

For the most part, child birthing is becoming more like that of Western societies. However, some parts of Jamaica still obtain the child birthing and rituals of African ancestry. This includes using midwives or nanas for the delivery of the baby at home. The placenta and navel cord would be buried and tree planted which symbolizes the connection to the land and a mark of pride for that child as they grow up. Bible's are placed near the child and mom and child are to stay inside the home after delivery for sometime. This experience is much different than my own. My child was born at a hospital with medical assistance. Also afterbirth was not kept and buried. Seems as if there is more of a spiritual and land connection with Jamaica's childbirth rituals and traditions.

Becoming a 1st Time Mommy!!!

The birth of my son Kingston was truly a remarkable, unbelievable experience. His birth was totally unexpected because he was supposed to come October 17th, but my gift was given a little earlier on September 30th, 2011. My doctor called me early that Friday morning to come in and have my vitals checked at the local hospital. So I went and after testing, I was told your having your son today. So not ready, but longing to meet my little one, I was admitted into the hospital. Now because I was facing hypertension and at risk of the child and myself, a few hours later I was rushed back for a C-section. I can remember the doctor and voices around me saying "is this her first pregnancy" and "she's doing so good." Only one sign of pain and that was the tug of him getting yanked out of me and a cry. I was a mom!!! Birthing a child can impact a child's development because we have to go to measure to make sure the child is birthed in a safe and healthy way. If the birthing experience is done in a poor manner it can put the child and mom at risk.

DEC Code of Ethics

The following codes of ethics are meaning to me as an early childhood professional. They help define who I am as a PK teacher and my roles and responsibilities I have for the children and families I serve. They help shape me into the ever changing professional, educator,advocate, and mentor I am today.

We shall support professionals new to the field by mentoring them in the practice of evidence and ethically based services.

We shall use individually appropriate assessment strategies including multiple sources of information such as observations, interviews with significant caregivers, formal and informal assessments to determine child ren’s  learning styles, strengths, and challenges.

 We shall build relationships with individual children and families while individualizing the curricula and learning environments to facilitate young children’s development and learning.

References

The Division for Early Childhood. (2000, August). Code of ethics. Retrieved May 26, 2010, from

http://www.dec-sped.org/