"My Connections to Play."

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

Kay Redfield Jamison: Contemporary American professor of psychiatry

A child who does not play is not a child, but the man who does not play has lost forever the child who lived in him.

Pablo Neruda

As a child I enjoyed playing. Back then play to me was so much more exciting and more meaningful because we created most of it. We had toys we played with that were bought but I had for fun with the toys we created on our own. As a child my parents encouraged us to play more outside because we were not allowed to play in the house. Even in school we had more time for recess than children do now. I can remember how Mr. Carter would take us to a big field on his mother’s land and lets us play baseball during the week. I also remember on the weekends our church would allow us to participate in different activities at the park or the local gym. I had video games as a child but I preferred to play outside.

Play today for children is so much different from when I was a child. You don’t see as many children outside playing as you did when I was a child. Video games, computers, and the lack of parental encouragement are some reasons I believe play has changed.

Playing as a young child helped me define who I was and what I was good at doing. It helped me build positive relationships, gain respect for others, and how to interact with others in a positive way. I also encouraged my children to play when they were younger so they could experience what I did. My children are totally different from me when I was a child I remember playing outside beyond elementary years but they act as if they are allergic to being outside. The older they got the less time they had for outside play. They love to dance, sing, and technology, but outside play is very important in how they develop. But I now have the luxury of engaging in play with my nephews who love to play especially outside.

Relationship Reflection

     Healthy relationships are an important component of health and wellbeing. There is tons of evidence that strong relationships contribute to a healthy, happy, and long life. Relationships are designed to help fulfill important needs. They also require you to give something that someone may be lacking or longing for. Relationships are also important because they can have a long lasting effect on others. No one person can deal with all situations alone. We will face some difficult situations in life and the relationships we have with others can help us deal with them much easier than ding it alone.

   There are so many people who I rely on and have built strong relationships with. All these people help me in different ways and have made life so much easier for me.  My mother has always had a positive effect on my life. Because I was a teenage mom she helped and supported me so that I was able to be a better mom to my children and also be able to finish school. My family is the strongest support system I have. Not Just my immediate family but my entire family the Davis Family. Although we may not see each other regularly, and we may fuss and fight, we have a bond that can never be broken. My church Family has instilled in me certain values that have taken me a long way in this life. Because of this we are able to change the lives of so many people within our community. We are actively involved in outreach services that require us to work closely together which has strengthened our relationships beyond just going to church. This is what makes these relationships also partnerships. The relationship I have with my children is like no other. We are far from being perfect but what we have taught each other over the years we stay with us for a life time.

With any relationship there are challenges. These challenges come in many forms. So many people are not aware of the positive attributes that relationships bring. This unawareness can cause unnecessary strain. Jealously is one thing that can be a challenge in developing relationship. Bias opinions can also present challenges in building strong relationships.

  These relationships impact my work as an effective early childhood professional because I am familiar with how they can have a positive impact on a person’s life. They also help me to help others who may not understand why they are important. The most important thing is me knowing the affect these relationships had on my life and how they helped me to become successful. Without these relationships I may not have been able to accomplish so many things. This is also true for young children; they will need as much support as they can get to be successful. We should not take that for granted by allowing different challenges to prevent children from building positive relationships.

 

When I Think of Child Development

Do not train a child to learn by force or harshness; but direct them to it by what amuses their minds, so that you may be better able to discover with accuracy the peculiar bent of the genius of each.

Plato, Greek philosopher.

Testing for Intelligence

Viewing children holistically will require you to be totally committed to measuring and testing every aspect of development related to their growth. In order to do this and obtain the most accurate results you have to take in consideration every aspect of the child. There are so many things that will need to be considered when viewing children holistically. When creating standards for children they should not be based on what we think is best for everyone, but based on the individual. The state requires that all children take the same standardized test not taking into consideration their individual needs. One test should not be the determining factor of a child’s future academic success. No child learns or develop the exact same as another. There are also other factors related to development that needs to be considered. A child cannot be accurately assessed if you do not take assess every aspect of development and take in consideration how they are developing. While student assessment does not seem to be going away anytime soon, we must be cautious of how these instruments can be used. If used correctly, research suggests that they can point educators in the right direction with respect to student needs. However, if used as a weapon in international and national educational warfare, researchers also warn that such instruments might yield mass destruction.

US researchers have revealed that student assessment do not match in any two countries. In England, schools provide multiple measures of performance that serve multiple purposes. Schools assess student progress through both a national examination and teacher-made tests when students reach the ages of seven, eleven, fourteen, and sixteen. These exams are primarily used to measure the effectiveness of the schools in delivering the national curriculum. All schools must follow nationally prescribed content and pedagogic methods and set targets for individual pupil learning. Gipps, Clarke, and McCallum (1998) assert that this system places too little emphasis on assessment of learning and too much on assessment for learning.

 

Gipps, C., Clarke, S., & McCallum, B. 1998, April. The role of teachers in national assessment in

England. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research

Association, San Diego, California (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 419

836).

Consequences of Stress on Children's Development

Many years ago in my home town we had a chemical plant Woolfolk that was started operation in 1920 during WWII that manufactured different pesticides.  Fort Valley is a small community in Ga. And we had to travel in the area of this plant to get to places we needed to go. This plant was in operation for many years. My grandfather, father and several other family members worked in this plant. It was also located on the same street where my family went to church.

In the early 1980’s  after people in the community that died had arsenic in their system an inspection was done on the plant and revealed that arsenic and other chemicals had seeped into the ground and ground water. Several people in the community became ill and homes and surrounding businesses destroyed due to the EPA’s findings. People in the community became concern about their safety and any health issues that may occur from the contamination. The entire community was under stress wondering what and how much damage the plant had caused and if our community was even safe.

Africa is a country that I would definitely like to learn more about, because of the number of plants they have. Because of the number of plants in Africa could this be part of why so much sickness and disease occurs in this country. Chemical companies are making efforts to reduce the effects of chemical plants globally.

http://www.grida.no/publications/et/ep3/page/2617.aspx

http://www.epa.gov/superfund/programs/recycle/live/casestudy_woolfolk.html

http://www.epa.gov/region4/superfund/sites/npl/georgia/wolchemga.html

Child Development and Public Health

SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome) the quiet killer is a topic of importance to me because I had a dear friend who had twins who died a week apart from SIDS. I also believe that we can change the number of death and reduce the risk related to SIDS by educating parents, family members, and childcare providers. Research has shown that babies who are placed on their backs to sleep are less likely to die from SIDS. Always place your baby on his/her back to sleep unless health issues diagnosed by a physician prevent you from doing so. Breastfeeding, Smoke-free environments, keeping your baby close, temperature, and regular doctor visits are factors that can lower the risk of SIDS.

 

    In Maori, New Zealand, SIDS has been the leading cause of preventable death.  According to a 2005 survey, these mothers had poor knowledge of SIDS prevention, they also had a higher rate of maternal smoking, stop breastfeeding to early, and shared beds with their infants. Health promotion has become more difficult because of poor socioeconomic conditions and the mothers lack adequate access to health care.

 

Tipene-Leach, D., Hutchison, L., Tangiora, A., Rea, C., White, R., Stewart, A., & Mitchell, E. (2010). SIDS-related knowledge and infant care practices among maori mothers. The New Zealand Medical Journal (Online), 123(1326), 88-96. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/1034261563?accountid=14872

Childbirth In Your Life and Around the World

I chose this experience because I would like to share my personal birth experience. In June of 1990 I gave birth to my son by emergency c-section. This was the second of five experiences. I could remember being excited throughout my pregnancy and waiting on his arrival. After months of prenatal care and doctor’s visit on my 34 week visit to the doctor I was asked if I could feel him moving and how often he was moving because he appeared lazy on the ultrasound. I told the doctor that I mostly felt him move at night and he informed me that this was not normal. So I was scheduled to have a more in depth ultrasound and follow up with the doctor following the ultrasound. The ultra sound required me to lay flat on my back for over an hour. When I arrived at the doctor’s office the doctor told me that something was wrong and that I was being admitted in the hospital for further testing. After being admitted, hooked up to the fetal monitor and before any test could be run, the nurse asked if I realized that I was having contractions. I was not aware that I was in labor. She proceeded to call the doctor to see what he wanted to do.  They did not stop the contractions and my labor continued. After careful watch on the monitor from the staff and my mom, the doctor informed me I would have to have an emergency C-section because my contraction would cause his heart rate to go up and because he was hydrocephalic it could cause intensive damage. Because I was put to sleep for the operation I can’t remember much about the birth and what happened afterwards. I also did not see him because he was placed in the NICU. I do remember waking up and my mother standing over me smiling. Not knowing at that time that she was told by the doctor’s not to tell me that my baby was not suppose to live through the night. The next day I was able to go see him in the NICU, I was told he was not eating or responding to the nurses. So one of the nurses placed him in my arms and I gave him his bottle and he did exceptionally well. So every feeding I was allowed to go feed him trying to hide my emotions and be strong for him despite what the doctors were saying. After three days I was released and had to leave him at the hospital because they had no place for mothers to stay. This was very hard for me so I chose not to go see him before I left after getting and trying to heal from the surgery my grandmother would not allow me out the house so my family took turns at the hospital while I continued to heal. After a few days He was moved to the children’s hospital and I was able to stay overnight with him. I was there for a few days and was made to go home and get some rest and finish recovering by his pediatrician. He told me I was not any good to him if I was not getting any rest and not taking care of myself. Coming up to his second week in the hospital he had major surgery where they placed a shunt in his head to drain fluid off his brain to keep his head from swelling any larger. My son is now 22 years old.

I want other parents to know and understand the importance of the bond that a child has with their parents even before birth. Children sense all types of emotions. For a long time I could not understand why my child would not do certain things when he was first born, but now I understand when I our bond was broken after I gave birth and did not see him for a while he was missing something important. We had been attached to each other for 35 weeks and that bond was broken during his birth, but after we were able to reconnect things began to turn around.