When I Think of Child Development

When I hear clever quotes about children, I think of how they see the world!

 

"That great cathedral space, which was childhood".
Virginia Wolf,

 

"The only thing more vast than the universe is a child's imagination".
Robert Safian,

"The most beautiful view in the world- life through the eyes of a child".
Kendra Dew,

Freed, M., & Safian, R. D. (1999). The magic of children: A celebration of life. Love, &

     Happiness. Physicians’ Press.

I thank each of my colleagues for all your encouragement through your questions, and comments. I enjoyed each of your post and learning from each of you. I pray your success on your journey to make all your goals come through as we strive to change what we can in the world for a better life for children.

Keep respectfully loving children and their families!

Your colleague, Darlene Thomas

British School Assessment

England the British School Assessment System

     As a substitute teacher I see many things students deal with and go through in a day of education, and many of those things are not so exciting. For example, during state testing season many students get very frantic and concerned. When a student doesn’t do so well on testing it tends to take pieces of confidence away each time. In Texas, students are tested several times within each school year and are also given an exit exam for each grade starting in grade 3. This causes teachers to spend way too much time teaching to the state test. I feel that if students are taught the basics and are made strong in them, than they can take any test. This has always been my personal philosophy concerning testing. Students should be assessed at the beginning of the school year in order to see what level they are on and then once again towards to end of each school year. This testing should be an in house test, not one for the state. State testing should be given only once per school year at the very end of the year and whether a child passes to the next grade should not be riding on passing the state test. With this type of policy students can work stress free and keep a focus on mastering their skills and really learning needed material.

     I researched the school assessment system for the British, because I have many British friends, I have always been interested in the culture, and it is no longer uncommon to see a British person in your neighborhood stores, and they are on the television shows and news casting more often than in years before. With so much connection, but no one ever talks about how the British daily function is carried out.

     According to the department of Education UK, the education system is divided into sections. The early years, ages 3-4, the Primary Education 4-11, Secondary Education ages 11-18, and Tertiary Education age 18+. The Early years, which is also called Foundation Stage is age 5. The Key Stage 1 (KS1) task and testing during year two which is usually age 7. Key Stage 2 (KS2) National curriculum test in English & Mathematics taken at the end of year 6 usually age 11. Key Stage 3 (KS3) teacher assessment & judgments at the end of KS3 usually age 14. As an educational assessment, a phonics screening check of phonics decoding is done. The assessment tests consist of 40 words and half of these words are real words and the other half are non-words. Year 1 children will read these words to a teacher from 4-9 minutes per student. The students are introduced to the test during the reception years up to the end of year 2 when the first test is taken.  As they see it, a high quality phonics understanding will give children a solid base on which to build as they progress through their educational experiences. Their beliefs are that when students have mastered the phonics skills it is expected that they will develop a love for reading. The check assessment is designed to confirm whether the students have grasped the full essentials of phonics decoding for good reading skills. Their policy is that any student who does not pass the phonics assessments will be tutored discreetly as to not cause attention or embarrassment to the students. The children are worked with until they have mastered the skills needed for reading success and future school success. Parents are trained in order to come in and help with the after school tutoring, or work-shop sessions. Stage 2 curriculum test of English, Mathematics, and science to test student’s knowledge and understanding are taken at the end of year 6 by age 11. The teacher’s assessment and judgments are reported to the Standards Testing Agency (STA) and parents. It seems that the children are respectfully and diligently worked with until they have gained complete strength in the basics for a solid foundation.

Consequences of Stress on Children's Development

 

Consequences of Stress on Children’s Development

     Sadly, some young children experience tragic life altering events that stems from adult problems. This unnecessary stress can cause unhealthy and delayed development for the child.

This problem hits close home for me because I am an example of this type of unfortunate stress on a young child. My stress was chaos, and this is one reason why I don’t like to talk about my childhood as I mentioned in an earlier assignment. Many events and details I just don’t remember, but I recall having three brothers and a big sister and we lived with our Mom and Dad. One day I realized that they were gone and my Dad was gone before them. It was just me and my Mom and I don’t know for how long, but before I knew it I was gone from my mother, but I was with my Dad and brothers in Michigan. Our older sister was in La, with our grandmother. I never understood what happened and to this day I am still not sure. After my mother died in late summer 2009, my Mom’s youngest sister told me a little of what happened. She told me that our father had taken us from our mother. When my brothers were taken I screamed, kicked and cried so much they thought that I was having a seizure, and our Mom cried and pleaded not to take the children and my Mom fell to the ground, and my aunt said that she was never the same after that. I was not taken that day he came back for me in one maybe two years after that I am not sure. After studying this course, I learned that from a stressor such as what I experienced as a child, my limbic system could have been damaged. This would cause learning and memory dysfunctions, and developing major depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (Berger, 2012). This could be an explanation as to why my learning is slower than others and my memory isn’t too strong, or why I’m sometimes antsy. I have always had to work a little harder than others, but I claim only good and positive things and thoughts about my abilities. I don’t know how I coped with this experience maybe because I chose to put it for back in my memory which is why I don’t remember the incident, and I’m sure my family loved me through the rest of it. My father is a wonderful person who looked after us well. He may have been advised incorrectly because I was also informed that he did not act alone. My father only wanted the best for each of his children, and I understand that, but sometimes the decisions that are made for the child may not be the best for that child and can cause the child more damage than the possible danger the adults are trying to shield the child from.

     Poverty, racism, isolation, noise, disease, hunger, violence, and so many other stressors is what many young children experience daily right here in the United States. We don’t have to look at other countries to find these problems and unfortunate circumstances they are lived out before our eyes. This is some children’s reality, so I want to know more about the children in my country. How do I help these children? They are the reason I am an educator. I want to help in every way I can. Some of the children right in our schools that we teach daily try to save some of their lunch for later in order to have something to eat at home. These problems can cause unhealthy development in the children’s biosocial, cognitive, and psychosocial well-being. Maybe this is the main cause of students who are not making the grade and are not graduating which is a huge problem in our country and the fight has been on for years to find a solution. Maybe this is one of the open doors to how young teens drop out of school and join gangs continuing the life of violence they grew up seeing everyday a form of scaffolding because this is what they have to model (Berger, 2012). With such a problem, how could anyone not understand the importance and the urgency of need for early childhood education? Feed the Children Corporation, Early Childhood Education, and Head Start are a few tools to aid this problem that pelage us all, but are they fully supported? Is there more we could do to help the children because they aren’t the only persons affected by this destroyer?    

 

References

Berger, K. S. (2012). The developing person through childhood. (6^th Edition). New York NY.

     Worth publishers

Public Health/ Nutrition/ Malnutrition

I'm sorry colleagues, I forgot to give you all the references from my report yesterday.

                                                          References

Garifuna.com

Spraggett, D., & Johnstone, J. (2001). Window on the world; Garifuna, Authentic books, Lion

     Hudson Pic, Three's Company, London.

Public Health Nutrition/ Malnutrition

Darlene Thomas

WK2 Blog Assignment

Public Health

I chose to explore Nutrition and Malnutrition of the Garifuna people. I chose this topic because I hate to see children with-out enough food to eat, and some with-out any food at all. I have a book by the name of Windows on the World which is filled with information on all the countries, their people, and culture and their living conditions. This is a group of people rarely talked about, and their story is very interesting. The Garifuna people are located in South America along the Atlantic coast of Belize, Honduras, and Guatemala, and Nicaragua. They are people with poor sanitary conditions and lacking clinical establishments for better health. 78% of the children aged 12 and under suffers from malnutrition, and sadly, 3children out of 10 of them will die before reaching age 2. In my future work, I will always be open to having my students write letters to young students who live in other countries as we study the countries and develop pen-pal friendships.    

Birthing Experiences

Darlene Thomas

WK1 Blog Assignment

I was not surprised to learn that 100% of births in the US are performed in Hospitals of Clinics, and I was not surprised to learn that most births in other countries are performed at home.

I have a friend whose husband is from Kenya and I learned that a woman gives birth sitting completely upright and squatting. The women informed me that this is natural and better for the woman in labor and better for the baby because the baby will naturally slide and drop down with less pressure and pushing, and less pressure on the blood vessels. I can appreciate this because when I was having my third son who’s now 10 years old, I wanted to set up with urgency and the nurses kept telling me no and I kept insisting until she helped my husband sit me upright and the moment they did our baby was on his way and I has not in pain.

As for postpartum, it is very sad that some new mothers experience this. It is a very real condition that is very disturbing I know from experience, because I went through it with my last two sons. I will always be supportive of anyone going through this condition I feels like it would never go away.      

Thank You For your support!

To my colleagues, to each of you individually, I have enjoyed learning from each of you and learning with you. Each week I look forward to hearing from you. It often excites me when someone has chosen to write about the same person or topic that I have. I would read it with anticipation to see which of the points you chose to highlight and it is always different from the points I chose to highlight and in return, we learn from each other.

Some of you are already in your professional field and some like me are still waiting for the chance to be hired into our field so we can apply our learned knowledge, respect and care towards educating young children. Whatever position you all presently hold or will hold in the future I wish you great success in you endeavors.

I thank you for taking the time to render helpful and encouraging words and advice to me in comments to my assignments. It has been my pleasure to have been among such an impressive group of professionals. May all your dreams and wishes come true. Take care and keep respectfully loving young children and their families.

Your colleague, Darlene Thomas   

Darlene Thomas

Week 7 Blog

 

NAEYC, & DEC Codes of Ethics

NAEYC Code of Ethics:

Section I Ethical Responsibilities to Children

I- 1.3: To recognize and respect the unique qualities, abilities, and potential of each child.

By practicing this policy we are respecting each child as he/ or she is, and this respects their family and culture.

I- 1.5: To create and maintain safe and healthy settings that foster children’s social, emotional, cognitive, and physical development and that respect their dignity and their contributions.

By practicing this code of ethic, we present ourselves as open, loving, fair, and caring professional educators that will aid in the proper and full development of young children.

Section III Ethical Responsibilities to Colleagues

I- 3A.2: To share resources with co-workers, collaborating to ensure that the best possible early childhood care and education program is provided.

By practicing this code of ethic educators can create a (PLC) Professional Learning Community where we can learn from each other in order to better prepare our curriculum in ways that are best for teaching all children.

DEC Codes of Ethics:

I Professional Practice

Professional and Interpersonal Behavior:

4. We shall serve as advocates for children with disabilities and their families and for the professionals who serve them by supporting both policy and programmatic decisions that enhance the quality of their lives.

With this respect, we can ensure equal treatment and learning privileges with inclusion practices.

II Professional Development and Preparation

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

This code of ethics is very important to me and I am glad to see its existence because I have had experiences of less than equal and kind treatment from colleagues in the educational work force. When considering jobs this is one of my first concerns. We can’t be the best educational example for young children if we can’t treat and accept our colleagues.

Enhancement of Children’s and Families’ Quality of Lives

3. We shall recognize and respect the dignity, diversity, and autonomy of the families and children we serve.

By practicing this code of ethic, we are respecting each child and their family culture that is represented.

 

References

 NAEYC. (2005, April). Code of Ethical conduct and statement of commitment. Retrieved

     May 26, 2010, from http://www.naeyc.org/files/naeyc/files/positions/PSETH05.pdf.

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

     From http://www.dec-sped.org/ .

    

Course Resources

Sorry everyone, I forgot to add the URL to the resources that I posted earlier.

The first one was a book and it is clear, but the quotes and the media video can be retrieved at
http://www.miamiuniversity.com  go under speakers & topics there are many seminars of encouraging topics and speakers on the subject of Child Development.

High school student speaker Nikhil Goyal, of whom delivered the quotes, can be accessed by a link from High Scope: http://www.highscope.org/inspiringeducatorestoinspirechildren . Please see the original post for a full explanation of the above mentioned sites.

Course Resources

Early Childhood Resources,

I recommend a glance at a book entitled Real Boys by Dr. William Pollack, a researcher of Harvard Medical School. Real Boys is an in dept look at the differences in how boys learn differently from girls. Because boys seem to get into more trouble than girls, and seem to get lower grades and be less interested in reading, a study devoted to raising awareness to the idea that boys learn different from girls. Real Boys is a New York Times Bestseller.

This weeks study lead me to discover several Early Childhood Seminar media videos from Miami University. There are many wonderful speakers from the field presenting, but two stands out for me. Nikhil Goyal, a high school student presented on the idea of school importance,etc. He quoted Tony Gaskins, "If you don't build your dreams someone else will hire you to build theirs." He also quoted a phrase that he found many older people say; "I wish I had the courage to live the life true to myself and not the life others expected of me." Didn't Steve Jobs say something similar?

Another Early Childhood Education media video from Miami University, was presented by Debora Wisneski entitled, "We're not fighting! we're Saving!": Understanding Early Childhood Education.
Her title and subject was inspired from one of her male pre-K students, She could not understand why this student always jumped around pretending to be a super hero, so she decided to ask him why does he always fight, and his response was, "We're not fighting, we're saving" because he promised to always save the girls at school should a bad guy come. 

Darlene Thomas

Wk4 Blog Assignment

Quotes and Excerpts

 

Marian Wright Edelman

“The measure of our worth was in our heads and hearts, not outside in our possessions or on our backs: being poor is no excuse for not achieving”.

“There is no free lunch, don’t feel entitled to anything you don’t sweat and struggle for”.

“Take parenting and family life seriously and insist that those you work for and who represent you do”.

 

Lillian G. Katz

During her travels abroad, Lillian Katz witnessed 40 young children sitting still and very quiet during a performance and concluded. “The more we confidently and optimistically address children, the more likely they are to respond in a desirable way which in turn strengthens the adult’s confidence”; on the other hand, “The more tentatively the adult addresses the child, the less likely he or she will respond in the way desired, leading to less confidence in the adult”.

A visit to the Caribbean Island, “fifty-three 6 and 7 year olds were working on the morning task punctuating sentences and addition problems, every child was working, some more proficiently than others, but there were no children under desk, at the pencil sharpener, or pinching and annoying others, or in no way being rowdy or inattentive: which can be expected with a very large group”. “How can this be”? Dr. Katz answer was “maybe it’s because in their country, no teacher is criticized in the presence of children”.

 

 

Quotes from two Early Childhood professionals concerning their passion for their work with and for young students:

 

Louise Derman-Sparks, Pacific Oak Emeritus College CA:

 “All children were taught in ways that will help them grow, and supporting children learning and understanding the differences in each other, and that, children can see the social status that comes with race and economics”.

 

Sandy Escobido, Deputy Field director, Preschool Advocacy CA.

“My personal story gives me passion, I have the opportunity to shape the child, stay motivated to help parents to advocate for their children”.

My Childhood Web

My Childhood Web

This is my Mom Grace (pink) top, and her twin sister Faith at their brother's church in Louisiana
It is hard to talk about my childhood. I lost my Mom July 2010.

This is my Dad, my Sister, and our youngest sons. After our Mom's funiral, sorry this is only pic I have.

This is my Dad, and two of my three brothers. Reggie & Kerry and Gerry is below.

My brother Gerry.