"My Connections to Play"

QUOTES

Children need the freedom and time to play.  Play is not a luxury.  Play is a necessity.

-Kay Redfield Jamison

 Play allows you to gain personal growth, social skills, cognitive skills, physical skills, and it enhances children’s creativity.  When I was not able to play outside it really made me sad.  It was just as much a part of me as eating and sleeping was.

 Play gives children a chance to practice what they are learning

-Fred Rogers

 Play gave me the opportunity to practice cooking and caring for my dolls.  This was important to me because my mother cooked for me and she nurtured and cared for me.  I mimicked my mother whenever I could while I was involved in play.

PICTURES

 

 

Playing with dolls was one of my favorite play times when I was in nursery school.  Taking care of my baby was very important to me because my mother nurtured and took good care of me.  Feeding was the most important play time for me.  I loved feeding my baby while she was sitting in my arms.

I always had someone with me outside and encouraging me to explore, but to be safe. I was the kid who was not afraid of picking up bugs, snakes or anything else and either trying to keep it or chasing the other kids around the yard with it in my hand.

SUPPORT

 When I was young teachers and parents supported play.  I can remember how my teacher would sit with us and pretend to eat what we had cooked on the stove.  She would move from one center to the other participating and interacting with the children as they played.  It appeared to me that the teacher enjoyed seeing us smile, interacting, and playing.  My mother also took time out to take me to the park often.  It was a joy to meet new friends at the park.  Some are still my friends today.  The swings and the merry-go-rounds were my favorite.  It was always a thrill to sit down on the merry-go-round while an adult pushed us around until we begged to get off.  There was so much parental engagement in play time when I was younger.  This was really great for us because we got to exercise, socialize, and grow up as healthy children. 

DIFFERENCES IN PLAY TODAY

 As I reflect back on play when I was in nursery school and preschool I get a good feeling that brings a smile to my face.  My experiences were great.  I can remember the various centers that we were able to play at that contributed greatly to my cognitive, social, and emotional skills.  For example when we played with the blocks we learned to count, recognized shapes, our alphabets, and the list goes on.  We learned how to socialize and interact with others, we learned what emotions were and we formed lasting relationships with other students and the teachers.  When we played on the playground we got a chance to exercise which allowed us healthy development.

Now play is not prayed upon.  In fact, a lot of parents are not even familiar with the different types of play and how it contributes to their child’s cognitive, social, emotional, and healthy development.  They are not educators so they don’t know what is involved in play.  Stands and benchmarks that most states develop clearly identify what is expected of students at the end of each grade including preschool (Geist, Baum, 2005).  Even in nurseries they have a curriculum that has been developed to identify what students should be taught.  So the play that we had has been chopped down greatly.  Students still have play but the time is so limited.  We played it seems forever.  It appears that no one is concerned about what is best for the child anymore.  Everything that teachers do is about getting the subject introduced and staying on target with what they have to introduce next.  Sometimes students are left behind because they have not mastered the concept.  Teachers still have to move on.  So my question is how we can say that No Child is Left Behind when in fact they are.  I sincerely hope that we can advocate making others see how important play is in child care centers, nursery schools, preschool, and school. 

Why?  Because children do learn a significant amount from each other while they are playing and they form relationships lasting relationships that allows us to have better schools, and communities.  As we advocate I hope that others will recognize that play is needed and reinstate it to its norm.  That means play inside the class and recess as well.  The difference in my play then and the play now has taken a drastic change.  I played with dolls, doll houses, and cooked on play stoves.  Children today play with electronic games.  Most have IPOD’s, IPhones, and IPads at an early age.  This to me isolates them from most real social interactions.  Although they can face time people it just seems that the one on one contact in the classroom worked better for me.

THOUGHTS OF PLAY

I feel the role of play in my life was very instrumental in me becoming the passionate, caring, and intelligent person that I am today.  Play allowed me the opportunity to learn, share, care, and have a healthy lifestyle.  Play also allowed me the opportunity to form relationships with people whom I still interact with today.  It allowed me the opportunity to mimic my mother in cooking and caring for others which I think is really important.  It enhanced my cognitive skills by allowing me to learn colors, numbers, geometric shapes, and measurements by playing with the sand.  Play also allowed me the opportunity understand others emotions when they were not happy.  Throughout my childhood play in school was the one thing that taught me how to share.  Because I was an only child it was very hard for me to share with others.  In spite of my mother’s teaching me to share it was still a difficult task until I observed others sharing during play at school.  Being able to be creative and having your imagination working overtime was another positive impact of play during my childhood

References

Geist, E., & Baum, A. (2005). Yeah, But's that keep teachers from embracing an active curriculum. Young Children, 60(4), 28-36.   Retrieved from the Walden Library using the ProQuest Central databaseRetrieved from http://www.thestrong.org/about-play/play-quotes

Retrieved from https://www.google.com/search?

Relationship Reflection

        Relationships are important to me because I know that we need others to survive.  Without my mother, cousin, teachers, Godmother, and others in my life I would be a loner.  I can't imagine never interacting with these people.  They are my reason for succeeding in life.  Without these people in my life helping me to set goals, supplying my needs, and encouraging me I would not be able to reach my full potential.  I have gained trust in all of these people and because of this we spend a lot of quality time together.

       My mother and I have the most important relationship in my life.  She has been the driving force in my life since I was born.  She has instilled good morals and values in me.  Her positive attitude and her commitment in assisting in me being the best that I can be is the most influential and positive role model that I need.  Because of her love, support, dedication, and her commitment to serve at all of my school plays, programs, classroom activities, and athletic functions, she will always be my best friend and partner. 

        My cousin Abe and I have a close bond.  We established our relationship when I was in the seventh grade.  He has always given me encouraging words, and has passed on his positive attitude to me.  He has assisted me with homework assignments, and supported me at every event that I was a part of.  He also encouraged me to start my studies at Walden University.  Because of his time, love, support, and encouragement I am now on my third course at Walden University.  I wanted to sit out for a year after I received my BS but he insisted that I continue my educational journey and so I did.

        My Godmother whom I call Momma Carter and I have a relationship that is just as close as my biological mother.  She is the one that stressed reading at an early age.  She always took me to the public library to check out books to read.  Our relationship is wonderful because she always gave me the push I needed to read my books.  Because she pushed me so much I received the reading award which was a  pin that I still have to this day.  I often take it out of my drawer in look at it.  It was the best accomplishment for me as a first grader.  She showed me love, support, and she gave me so much of her time.  She is another positive factor in my life.

        Some of the challenges to developing and maintaining relationships came when I was in the eleventh grade.  The time my mother spent with me had to be adjusted when my brother was born.  This was a big adjustment for me because for seventeen year I had all of her attention.  Now I had to share it with my baby brother.  I was so used to having my mother all to myself.  She assured me that she loved us both equally and I soon adjusted but it was a challenge for me.  The other challenge for me was the communication that I had with my cousin was cut short when he went to law school.  He was always my listening ear.  I could talk to him and he would listen before he analyzed the situation.  That has also been resolved because he is out of Law School and is now the Assistant District Attorney for my hometown.  We talk often and so our relationship is still standing.

       I see love, trust, support, kindness, and encouragement as some of the special characteristics that has made our relationships partnerships.  All of these characteristics have enabled me to develop to my fullest potential.  My success is because of the relationships/partnerships that I developed with my mother, cousin and Godmother. 

        My experiences with relationships will impact my work as an educator in a positive way because I know that as an educator I must be able to communicate well with others, be kind, show love and concern, and be very encouraging.  I must be willing to give more of my time to assist my students and their parents so that we can form positive relationships.  I will do my best to build positive relationships with my students and their parents because I know that it is the key to social and academic success of the children (Rudasill, K., Rimm-Kaufman, S. 2008).  When we all work together collaborative the results are always in the favor of the students which is academic success.



Reference

Rusasill, K., & Rimm-Kaufman, S. (2008). Teacher-child relationship quality: The roles of child's temperament and teacher-child interactions.  Early Childhood Research Quarterly. 24(2). 107-129 Retrieved from the Walden Library using the ProQuest Central database.

When I think of Child Development..... & To give thanks for the supports...

When I think of Child Development? It is full of life and fluidity.

"Youth is happy because it has the ability to see beauty.  Anyone who keeps the ability to see beauty never grows old." ~ Franz Kakfa

I chose this quote because I always felt that children are always carefree. They are curious and do not carry grudge against anyone who is different from them. Children change constantly. Children grow in every aspect of child development.

Thank you for your tremendous support in last 8 weeks of class. I greatly appreciated all of your inputs and will carry them with me for rest of my life.

Thank you and Best Wishes to everyone!!!

Wk 6 Testing for Intelligence?

In my judgment, all children should be assessed or measured especially in a school setting. Without an assessment or some type of assessment tool, how can a childhood professional know the needs of the child or how can the needs of each child be met. Each child should be assesses at the beginning, in themiddle and the end of each school year, so that each child is able to receive the proper resources needed to meed their needs, especially if the child is in need of extra or special resources. All children should be provided the proper resources outside the classroom, jsut as well as inside the classroom. The regular teacher and the outside teacher and /or resources can and should work together to help each and every child reach his or her best potential.

I choose to look at Ugandan, due to the fact of having a child from that country in my classroom and I taught her brother two years ago. I found a study that was conducted on a cohort of 89 healthy children (45 females) aged 5 to 12 were follwed over 24 months and had cognitive tests measuring visual spatial processing memory, attention and spatial learning administered at a baseline, 6 months and 24 months. Nutritional status, child's education level, maternal education, socioeconomic status and quality of the home environment were also measured at baseline. A multivariate longitudinal model was then used to identity predictors of cognition over the 24 months.
RESULTS: A higher child's education level was assessed with better memory (p=0.03), attention (p=0.005) and spatial learning scores over the 24 months (p=0.05); higher nutrition scores predicted better visual spatial processing (p=0.0002) and spatial learning scores (p=0.0008) and a higher home environment score predicted a better memory score (p=0.03).
CONCLUSION: Cognition in Ugandan children is predicted by child's education, nutritional status and the home environment, community intervention to improve cognition may be effective if they target multiple socioeconomic variables.

References:
Bangirana,P., John C.C., Idro, R., Opoka, R.O., Byarugaba, J. et al. 2009. Socioeconomic: Predictors of Cognition in Ugandan Children. Implications for Community Interventions, PLoS ONE 4 (11): e7898. doi:10.1371/journal.pone. 0007898

War

The stressor that I chose was the effects of war on children’s development.  Here’s a story I would like to share with you . . .  

My best friend (Linda) was stressed when her father was serving in the war.  Linda was very dependent on the care, empathy and attention that her father gave her.  Her attachments were disrupted when her father was drafted to serve as a solider.  When we were in the second grade, her mom came to the school around ten o’clock to take her home.  With Linda being my best friend, as soon as I made it home, I asked my mom to call her mom to see why she came to the school to pickup Linda early.  I felt that something was badly wrong.  When mom called, Linda’s mom told her the news, that her husband had been killed.  As I can remember, I started to cry and so did my mom.  We rushed over to Linda’s house to be with them.  From that day forward, Linda was never the same.  Linda experienced anxiety, and in some cases panic when she would think about her father.  When I would spend the night with her, she would have nightmares and could not sleep soundly. She would also complain of headaches and stomachaches daily.     

I chose the region of Afghanistan to focus on the effects of war on children. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is high due to family violence caused by high levels of stress stemming from the war.  Other issues stemming from war is  displacement, lack of food, interruption of school, intrusive thoughts, flashbacks, nightmares, avoidance behaviors, mental disorders and increased levels of arousal.  More common side affects of PTSD include guilt, depression, anxiety, poor appetite, difficulty concentrating, difficulty relaxing, aggressive outbursts, poor interactions, fear of darkness, and strong effect on emotional development.  I also read that there are 35,000 street children due to hidden mines, 7 out of 10 children have lost parents and 72% have lost relatives since the war began (Dev Psychopathol. 2001).  I found much more information on bio-behavior consequences of war on children’s mental health, growth and development at http://www.inernetandpsychiatry.com/. 

As I furthered my research, I found several groups that help to minimize harm to children. 

Ø  The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) is the most widely ratified human rights treaty and obliges States to take positive measures to ensure the protection of children’s rights both in peace and in war.

Ø  Peacemakers must buffer children from the potentially negative consequences of the peace process while respecting their evolving capacities and their right to guided participation.

Ø  Save the Children is an internationally active Non-Governmental Organization that enforces children's rights, provides relief and helps support children in developing countries.  It was established in the United Kingdom in 1919 in order to improve the lives of children through better education, health care, and economic opportunities, as well as providing emergency aid in natural disasters, war, and other conflicts.

There is no doubt that the war has a tremendous impact on the biosocial, cognitive and psychosocial development of the children, their attitudes toward society, their relationship with others and their outlook on life in general.  A war affects children in so many different ways.  To me, I now realize that the greatest effect that war has on a child is when their father or mother are killed. 

Here’s a quote that I thought you all would enjoy . . .

“The best way to protect children from wars is to prevent them from happening in the first place”
-- Free The Children

References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Save_the_Children

http://www.ecdgroup.com/docs/lib_005823920.pdf

http://medind.nic.in/maa/t08/i1/maat08i1p65.pdf

http://www.law.harvard.edu/students/orgs/hrj/iss12/cohn.shtml

Child Development and Public Health

Immunization is meaningful to me because vaccines are among the safest medical products available and can prevent the suffering and costs associated with infectious diseases. It’s not only important to stay healthy to protect yourself, but also to protect your children, your grandchildren, coworkers, and the older people in your life, too. Without, immunization, I would have to miss work leaving those unable to care for themselves and depend on me in everyday life. Vaccinations from birth through adulthood provide a lifetime of protection against many diseases and infections. During the 20th century, many infectious diseases-that killed thousands of people each year-were either eliminated or controlled by immunizations in the United States.

Unlike some countries, immunization is not mandatory, in Canada; it cannot be made mandatory because of the Canadian Constitution. Only three provinces have legislation or regulations under their health-protection acts to require proof of immunization for school entrance. Requiring proof of immunization for school entrance serves two main purposes. First, parents who have forgotten to have their children properly immunized will be reminded and can rectify the situation. Second, parents who do not wish to have their children immunized must actively refuse and sign documents attesting to that fact. In some provinces and territories, the public health-care system administers immunization programs; infants and children receive their vaccinations at public-health clinics. In other provinces and territories, vaccinations are primarily given by private physicians who order vaccines from local public-health units.

This information has a great impact on my future work because an unvaccinated person is a threat to people. Diseases do not stop at the borders. People can bring vaccine preventable diseases into our country and spread them to people who are not vaccinated. Our society depends on everyone working together to ensure that all of us can be safe. One of the ways we can play our part is to make sure that your family gets the right shots at the right time. Shots may hurt a…little, but the disease they can prevent can hurt a lot more.

My Personal Birth Experience

A personal birthing experience for me was the birth of my son. This was my first child. I remember lying in the hospital bed having contractions. Everything was going fine. In the final stage of labor, I begin to bleed heavy. I was in a lot of pain. I was nervous and afraid. Doctors and nurses came with different types of machines and equipment. The doctors were able to see and monitor my baby. My baby was stuck in a transverse position. The baby’s side was trying to come instead of the baby’s head for delivery. My baby was stuck! Thank God I was in a clinical setting. The doctor said the baby had to be delivered by cesarean section. My blood pressure was very high and my body was going into shock. I was taken to the Operating Room for emergency surgery. I was scared and concerned about the baby’s health. After the baby was born and I came out of recovery, I had no interest in my baby. I was in a lot of pain. I did not want to see or hold my child. I only wanted something for the pain and was tired and sleepy. Later that day, I noticed a change in my appetite. These were signs and symptoms of postpartum depression. I feel that first time births should be done in a clinical setting because, I never had any complications doing my pregnancy or delivery until the baby was ready to be born.

If I had not been in the hospital, I probably could have died and my baby also. In Netherlands delivery at home attended by a registered midwife or nurse has been the norm for quite a while. Deliveries are considered a natural part of life. The United States is medicalized. Netherlands has one of the lowest infant mortality rates of the world. Netherlands has a large network of certified midwifes, who guide almost all pregnancies. Only when serious problems occur during pregnancy or delivery an obstetrician is involved. The family doctor is almost never involved in pregnancies / deliveries. Like the United States, women do have checkups every month. Your blood pressure is measured, your weight, and they feel your belly: first the size of the uterus, later the position of the baby. The only difference with a delivery at home is that you use a labor room in a hospital. In the United States, a delivery room is also available.