When I Think of Child Development …

This short poem captures the essence of how I feel as a teacher and foster parent. Feeling and acting this way allows me to nurture a child's development in a positive way.

 

Forever In My Heart

Although I'm not their father
I care for them each day,
I cuddle, sing and read to them
And watch them as they play.
I see each new accomplishment,
I help them grow and learn.
I understand their language,
I listen with concern.
They come to me for comfort,
And I kiss away their tears.
They proudly show their work to me,
I give the loudest cheers!
No, I 'm not their father,
But my role is just as strong.
I nurture them and keep them safe,
Though maybe not for long.
I know someday the time will come,
When we will have to part.
But I know each child I cared for,
Is forever in my heart!

~ Author Unknown ~

Testing for Intelligence?

An academic approach which  involves determining outcomes that can be measured solely on standardized tests is unfair to those children that are not from the same cultural background. Language barriers can impede a child to answer properly on test questions and will receive an overall lower score. It is hard to distinguish what concepts a child has already mastered and which he has not. Assessments like these only prove one thing, who got the test questions right, not who understands the material . I think children should be measured based on their own individual outcomes. A hoslistic approach allows the curriculum to evolve based on children's individual and group abilities and interests.  The assessments take into consideration children current and past knowledge individually.

In  Nicaragua, school aged children are assessed individually. Nicaragua is a republic of South America. Some village schools where poverty is at a high, combine children of all ages (5-17) in one classroom. Here, the idea of a standardized test is irrelevant as it will not do well to assess the many different levels of development. The teachers work with each child when there is time, but mostly just ask pre-set questions to different children. My neighbor, who was raised there, shares that it is up to the parents and teacher to scaffold the individual child. Tests are given to the individual or to small groups of children who have been working on the same material.

Poverty in my life

The stressors that came along with living in those conditions as a child have made me the person I am today. Psychologically, living in these conditions broke me down as well as other members in my family but we had each other to support ourselves. My family was and is united and this was the main factor that helped me cope with the poverty.  

My parents taught me that an education would provide me with the opportunity to have a job that would pay  a decent amount for me to live in better conditions as I had growing up. I value education as it was the able to prepare me for the job I have now and with the help of my sister, we both succeeds and brought our family out of poverty.

While growing up, my parents were never able to buy me new clothes. We would go to yard sales and second hand stores to shop for clothes. I was always embarrassed to go shopping for clothes. Before I was old enough to understand the meaning of poverty, I would resent my parents. I would think that they did not love me because they would not buy me the toys or name brand tennis shoes that I wanted. How I coped with it. I don’t know that it is because I just learned to make the best out of my situation or it’s just that I was lucky to have fallen in love with a certain style of clothing. I now enjoy going to various second hand stores to look for inexpensive used vintage clothing.  I typically dress in the style of the decades of the forties and fifties and I am no longer embarrassed to say where I shop.

The country in the world that I would like to know more about is the United States. I know many families that are struggling through life and trying to end poverty in lives through education as my family succeeded. The factor that hinders these families is that they are undocumented. Healthcare or any government assistance is either limited or not available to these families. In California, a bill known as AB 540 currently allows undocumented students to attend universities if they have attend at least three years of high school in the this country. This is great as I meet many classmates that were able to gain the knowledge and get educated. My parents as theirs taught them that the way out of poverty was to get an education and be able to succeed in a career where they would be financially stable later in life. The problem with these students is that after they received their degrees, they were yet in the same boat or worst than before. Since they do not have a social security number, they are not able to practice their degrees. They cannot get hired. These students did not receive financial aid for their education. The family must pay for all the expensive and go into an even worst level of poverty as they invested in the youth’s future. What the state of California is doing to minimize the harm is to pass more laws that will allow undocumented students to receive financial aid. California is the first state to enact a bill called the “California Dream Act” which allows undocumented students to receive privately funded scholarships to enroll in the states public colleges. A number of other states have considered implementing this law but as a country, I see that many families are unable to break free from poverty generation after generation.

Nutrition/malnutrition

The nutritional gain an infant receives from being breast feed versus by formula in a bottle is evident. Access to clean water can be linked to having a better nutrition and even if an infant does have the proper immunizations, if malnourished, he/she may not enough body reserve to protect itself from even common diseases. The public health measure that impacts children’s development all over this world is malnutrition. If chronic, it hinders brain and body development.

This topic of malnutrition is meaningful to me because both my parents came from an upbringing of poverty and malnutrition. My grandmother told me the hardships she went through as to have two of her children die due to not having the proper nutrition to help them fight off an illness.

More than half of Afghanistan’s children under the age of five do not get enough to eat, leading to developmental problems. They are a still developing nation with war making it harder to find abundance of food to eat. In comparison to the United Sates where the percent of malnourished children is less, sadly parents induce their young to poor food selections like fast food/junk food diets that have poor nutritional value.

This topic has and will continue to impact my work.  Since my family has experienced deaths and the pain associated with the deaths due to malnutrition, I feel I need to inform as many families of the risks they are taking in not providing adequate nutrition to themselves and to their children. I have created a reference and referral folder that I share with families that need support in these areas. An example of this is that I link families with food drive centers and agencies that provide nutritional guidance within the community. Improving the well-being of infants, children and their families has become important public health goal for me.  

Childbirth––In My Life and Around the World

The most wonderful experience I encountered during a birth took place two years ago. My older sister had a baby boy and I became an uncle for the first time. She called me around ten at night and she said that she would be going into labor. She was very calm. I was the person that was to drive her and I was so nervous. She had called our mother along the way to the hospital. Since she took all night, it gave our family time to gather in the lobby. It soon became a family reunion. She was in labor all night and had Jesse a little before noon the following day. During the first three hours of being born, baby Jesse got to meet three of his great grandparents, all of his grandparents, three aunts and uncles, five cousins his dad, mom and me. I felt my family got more unified from this point on as we had all not had welcomed a new addition to our lives for almost four years. Jesse was born in December since then we are all now meeting for the holidays in remembrance of his birth.   

I have several thoughts regarding birth and its impact on child development. I feel that if the baby comes into the world with welcoming arms, this will assist him or her to bond better to others, as their first reaction to others is a welcoming one. I think that from the first moments that the child id born, it reacts to its environment. Birth complications can definitely have an effect on the child’s development where in some instances cause long term handicaps.

My dad was born in the state of Guerrero, Mexico. I had the opportunity to visit this small town last year. It is 15 minutes from the coastline and is about two hours away from the closest city. Babies are born in the same conditions as my father was born in, 53 years ago. No signs of modern medicine have been introduced to this region of the state. Not one family owns a car so to transport someone to get medical checkups is not done. There are no hospitals near by so babies are born within the home. Usually the oldest woman of the home serves as the midwife. In the case of my father, it was his grandmother who assisted his mother. The families are usually composed of more than five siblings. The town is known for its agriculture and farming. Since the land needs to be worked, men are boys are valued more than girls. Men do not partake in the birthing process. When the baby is born, the father goes out to kill a pig or goat to make a feast to welcome the new addition to the family.

In comparing my experience of being apart of my sister giving birth in a hospital and that of how a child coming into the world where my father is from makes me wonder how women and their families in that area cope with the loss of an infant due to no or immediate medical attention? After so many generations, is it part of culture and a part of life?  

3 Ideals from NAEYC’s Code of Ethical Conduct and Statement of Commitment followed by how I relate to each in my profession

I-1.3—To recognize and respect the unique qualities,

abilities, and potential of each child.

~Each child is unique. I respect them by addressing each of them as individuals. In my experience I feel this raise the child’s self esteem and self worth. Most of the foster youth I work with has been either labeled or completely neglected by their care givers. I try and make a difference in their lives by acknowledging that I recognize their good qualities and abilities.

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.

~I believe the most important quality a child care setting has is safety. It does not matter how great a curriculum and program you have, if the children are not in a safe environment to learn, it will be difficult to accomplish much. I have helped many new foster and adoptive parents in creating a safe environment at home for their new toddler or infant. For an example, I have relayed the concepts of age appropriate materials. Many caregivers buy toys because it is what is sold as the most sought out toy of the year by children. Sometimes these toys may not be appropriate because of the small pieces that come with the toy which may cause the child to choke easily. If a child is safe and not thinking of how to survive in a hostile environment, their minds are able to focus on learning.   

I-1.10—To ensure that each child’s culture, language,

ethnicity, and family structure are recognized and

valued in the program.

~We must respect the dignity of families and their culture, language, customs and beliefs. A program should not have the right to impose personal holiday customs and traditions on children and their families. Some family’s cultural beliefs may sometimes prohibit the celebration of dominate-culture holidays. An example is a child whose parents do not support the promulgation of myths such as the Easter Bunny and Santa Clause living in the North Pole with his flying reindeer. A respectful way to include children and their families in the program is to have a policy that is inclusive of their customs and cultures. I would engage the parents in the making of a policy directed to holiday celebrations. Together we would make a policy that honors the ethical foundations of my program as well as the families’ cultural beliefs. This policy can reduce the incidence of a parent who is mad at the teacher for letting his child participate in an Easter egg hunt where a person is dress up as an Easter Bunny.

Parents and I have appropriate back up material ready and procedures teachers can follow in the case parents who definitely do not want their children to participate in certain celebrations. Another solution I have used is to invite parents to share their own family celebrations and traditions so the children are exposed to a wider view of other cultures in a manner appropriate to their developmental level. I remind parents that celebrating a specific holiday is a form of learning about other cultures and could lead to children being able to be acceptant of others with different beliefs. By applying this ideal to my profession, I can resolve and reduce the incidence of a dilemma that would focus on not to single out particular children and make them feel segregated from the group.

Two quotes about passion, motivation, and wisdom

“I had just a built-in passion that it was important to make a real contribution in the world and to fix all the injustices that existed in the world, and I wanted to do that through teaching”~ Louise Derman- Sparks

We as professionals in the early childhood field have an opportunity to shape a child’s life for the better~ Sandy Escobido

Two quotes of two major contributors to the early childhood field

“All of us have to recognize that we owe our children more than we have been giving them”~ Hillary Clinton

“Education is not a problem. Education is an opportunity”~ Lyndon B. Johnson

Poem by Shel Silverstein

My dad gave me a one dollar bill
cause I'm his smartest son
and I swapped it for two shiny quarters,
cause two is more than one!

Then I took the quarters
and traded them to Lou
for three dimes-I guess he don't know,
that three is more two!

Just then, along came old blind Bates
and just cause he can't see
he gave me four nickels for my three dimes,
and four is more than three!

I took the nickels to Hiram Combs
down at the seed-feed store
and the fool gave me five pennies for them,
and five is more than four!

Then I went and showed my dad
and he got red in the cheeks
and closed his eyes and shook his head-
too proud of me to speak!

My favorite children's book

A children’s book I love and that I love to read to children is titled “Goodnight Moon,” by Margaret Wise Brown. My family takes care of foster children ages 0 to 5. We deal will short term cases so we have had many preschool age boys and girls that go under our care yearly. Sadly, they are usually frightened and will not want to sleep the first nights. I read to them as I keep them company the first few nights. From the mini library of books we have, this book is a favorite amongst the children I have cared for so it has become a favorite for me as well. It is not a long reading and leads the reader to invite the children to also interact with them. In the story, objects are introduced. Then they are told good night. I have my children point to objects in their new bedroom and together, we say good night to everything, ending with good night to each other. I feel I gain their confidence.  

Quote

Nothing is more powerful and liberating than knowledge. - William H. Gray 111-

Motivation

Working with children is not a profession, its a passion-Unknown