Reflecting on Learning

One hope that I have when working with children and their families from diverse backgrounds is that they will be treated equally by everyone. Every individual should be afforded the same opportunities as others. One goal I would like to see in the early childhood field regarding diversity, equity, and social justice is that every child and their families would receive the same fair and equal treatment at all times. As an early childhood professional I would not let bias views, discrimination, race, sexual identity, gender or varying abilities hinder me from creating a nurturing environment that produces successful outcomes for all children and their families.

I would like to thank Dr. Myers and my co-learners for the feedback they have provided me with during the Strategies for Working with Diverse Children course. I appreciate the insight and ideas you have shared during this period. My wish for you as a co-learner is to fulfill your desires in life and on your professional journey.

Impacts on Early Emotional Development

The region I chose to explore was South Asia. The reason I chose South Asia is with all the fighting going on in that region I wanted to know where they stood on implementing early childhood education.  Some of the challenges this region faces are support young children, their families and communities, in all the areas where the child is growing physically, emotionally, socially and intellectually. The funding for the early childhood education is another problem this region faces. Expanding quality early childhood education, particularly to the most marginalized, therefore could help promote equity and inclusion in education and society in general. There are over forty-two million children that are not going children that are going to school the education are unsatisfactory.  Children are not receiving proper medical treatment that is needed like immunizations against polio and measles. There are many that do not get the proper nourishment they need and are malnourish.

The first eight years of a child’s life is a critical period when incredible growth and development occur. Exposure to a quality early childhood education is crucial because it helps with tremendous brain development that lays the foundation for latter learning. The growing evidence that children who have participated in high quality early childhood education programs exhibit considerable gains in social, educational, health and intellectual spheres than those who have not participated (UNICEF, 2012).

South Asia is home to more than a third of the world’s children who lack a basic education.  As an early childhood professional I think South Asia is lacking in many areas for the children of that region to have a productive environment for them to be successful.  In reviewing the information from the website I think about how we stress to the families we serve about our children’s health. We stress that if the child is healthy they we be able and eager to learn. By taking a look at South Asia I am very thankful for the programs and services that are available for our children and their families to take advantage of in the United States. In the United States our children have the opportunity to receive free medical treatment and not be impaired by the childhood diseases they are faced with in other regions of the world. UNICEF is a great organization that tries to bring some of the same opportunities our children have in the United States to other regions of the world.

 

http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/index.html.

The Sexualization of Early Childhood

“There is growing evidence that premature exposure to adult sexual images and values has a negative impact on the psychological development of children, particularly on self-esteem, body image and understanding of sexuality and relationships (Manocha, 2010). As an educator and parent I think the early childhood years should be spent providing a foundation that would be effective in our children being ready and successful in school. They should not be worried about how they look or learning about sexualization they are babies.

I have encountered young children who have been exposed to sexualization in the early childhood classroom. Once I had a student that used words that referred to parts of a women’s body that children should not use. He would tell the girls to come and sit on his private area. Another incident was a student that loved to play with stuffed animals in the quite area. From time to time I would catch her lying on top of the stuffed animals.   Last year I had a student that would wrap her legs around the pole of the swing and tell others this is what you do in the club.

Sexualization may contribute in girls defining their self-worth and popularity in terms of sexual attraction and their body structure, with a negative impact on self-esteem. I would try to provide school based literacy programs that have a positive effect on body images. I would supervise children’s media exposure and make sure it is age appropriate.

The topic of sexualization in the early childhood field has informed me about what’s going on with young children. Before reading the article ”So Sexy So Soon” I really did not know that young children knew the vocabulary and meaning of different sexual terms that were used in the article. I will be careful to what I expose my children to through television, books and other media sources. So I can prevent the exposure of sexualization in my early childhood setting. Television has the potential to generate both positive and negative effects, and many studies have looked at the impact of television on society, particularly on children (Pediatric, 2003).

 

 

References

 

Manocha,R. (2010). The impact on children of sexualisation in the media.

Pediatric Child Health. (2003). Impact of media use on children and youth: May-Jun; 8(5): 301–306.

Evaluating Impacts on Professional Practice

As individuals our values, beliefs, religion and culture are different. The consequences I might expect for the children and families for whom I serve would be language barriers and communicating effectively with families. Culturalism would be an “ism” I might expect consequences in with the children and families I serve from experience. What I believe may be different from what they believe. So as an early childhood professional I will need to be sensitive and non-judgmental towards their views. One year I served a family whose religion did not observe holidays and birthdays. During orientation we talked about the different activities we would have during the year. So this child and their family would be included and would participate we renamed some of the activities. The Easter egg hunt was called a scavenger hunt and Mardi Gras parade was called the shoebox float parade. If the child was not able to participate we would send home the same treat bag as the other children received but it would be up to the parent to give it to the child.

Two years ago I had the opportunity to serve a Spanish child and their family. I felt bad because I only knew a few words in Spanish and did not understand any that were spoken to me. The first time I met the parents the only thing the mother did was smile and nod her head. So I didn’t know if they understood what I was saying or not. During that time I felt like I was not in a position to help the child nor their family because I could not communicate effectively with them. To try and understand I would use the Spanish dictionary, google for phrases and translate newsletters in Spanish for the family to understand what was going on in the classroom. After several months passed the district hired a translator. I felt comfortable knowing there was someone to translate for the family and I if there were concerns or activities going on in the class. The translator was able to attend conferences to keep the family abreast of what the child was learning. We also implemented Spanish into our curriculum with months, days of the week, numbers and color words. Our learning environment was labeled in English and Spanish too. These are consequences I might face while working with children and their families.