My Supports

Supports are important to all aspects of one’s life. We all have supports of some kind in our lives. I have several supports in my life at this time, which are significant to my life. One of the most important supports that I have in my life are my family. My parents live near me and are able to help me by watching my daughters for me when needed. This is an essential thing as a single mom. I am currently caring for my elderly grandma who has dementia. I have someone that comes in occasionally to help with certain things that I cannot do. This is an essential support for me to provide quality care for my grandma. My children’s occupational, physical and speech therapists are great supports for caring for my children. I also, have supports that are objects that are necessary in order for my elderly grandma to stay at home. These supports are important, because without them it would be near impossible for me to care for my grandma at home. It would be difficult to live without the supports that I have form my children and from my family but not impossible. I would have a harder time helping my children to overcome the delays that they have without the support of their different therapists. It would be difficult for me to do anything that requires me not having my children with me without their support. The biggest impact that these supports would have on my life if they were gone is that I would not be able to do much because of the care I need to provide for my grandma.

The challenge that I chose to imagine is one of my children come down with a serious illness. One of the supports that I would need is doctors that specialize in the illness that she has. The special equipment would be a necessary support in order to provide for her. One of the supports that I would want to have around me is my family. Their support would be an important aspect to my own mental health as well as my strength. The benefits of these supports is that my family would be there to help me through the situation. The doctors would be very positive for the outcome of the challenge to be positive. I need so many things that I would not know what to do with if I did not have the doctors support and knowledge.  The supports that I have listed would be essential for a positive outcome in this challenge that I chose. I would not be able to work through the challenge without the supports that I have talked about. 

Childhood Connections to lay

“Children learn as they play. Most importantly, in play children learn how to learn.”  Fred Donaldson

“A child’s play is not simply a reproduction of what he has experienced, but a creative reworking of the impressions he has acquired.” Vygotsky

“Play is often talked about as if it were a relief from serious learning. But for children, play is serious learning. Play is really the work of childhood.” Fred Rogers

 

         

As a child, we were encouraged to be outside to play.

Play was an essential part of our days as a child. We were always outside riding bikes or doing something. My parents encouraged me to create and be imaginative. My mom would provide my sister and I with things that helped to build our imagination and encouraged us to be creative. We were always given the space that we needed to explore and learn about the world around us. My parents provided us with developmentally appropriate things to play with.

I believe that there are definitely differences between play now and when I was a child.  For one thing back when I was a kid we were able to have more freedoms than kids today have. We could go outside, walk to a friend’s house, and not worry about what might happen. We were allowed to play and interact with the things around us. We needed less push to go outside. It has gotten to a point where parents have to make their kids get out and play. The toys we had were a lot less technical than the ones are today. Play is so important in a child’s development. I believe that it is also important for adults to play when they can. 

Relationship Reflection

Relationships are important to me, because they are in every aspect of my life. Relationships have an impact on every aspect of my life, which makes them important to me. I have family relationships, friend relationships, and professional relationships. For me the most important relationships that I have are with my children. I currently have positive relationships with my children, my parents and sister, my close friends.

My relationship with my children is positive, because it is beneficial to all of us. My children have gained a consistent positive connection and bond that has given them security during their growing up. My children make me want to strive to provide them with the best experiences possible, which is positive because I want to succeed for them. Together we give each other the strength to be the best we can be. The relationship with my parents and sister is positive, because we are able to provide support and encouragement to each other . The relationship with my close friends is positive, because it is supportive and strong in trust and understanding.
One of the challenges that I have discovered overtime with regards to developing and maintaining relationships is consistency and distance. When friends or family move away it is hard to maintain the relationship, because it requires more work from both parties. When one person moves they both tend to drift apart. I have discovered that in many cases it is hard to find friends that are willing to share the work that it requires to maintain a strong relationship. Another insight that I have gained from my experiences over time is that a strong relationship is one where you know that the other person will be there for you when you are having challenges.
My experiences with relationships has taught me that it is extremely important to support the people you are in a relationship with. My experiences have impacted my work as an early childhood professional, by teaching me the importance of respect and understanding. I am able to respect each families differences and try to understand what the child needs to succeed. My experiences have also taught me that it is extremely important to make sure that no child or family feel as if they are not important to me as a professional.

Note of Professional Thanks

I would like to thank all of my class mates for their positive comments and encouragement. This class has been interesting and challenging in many ways that I have found frustrating. I have enjoyed reading everyone's blogs and discussions. I have found everyone's comments to be encouraging and positive.

 I want to thank Jewel and Leanitra for all of the wonderful information that they shared. Jewel I found your posts to be very informative. Thank you for sharing about your life with us. Leanitra I was inspired by all of your posts, thank you for sharing them with us.
Thank you to all my classmates, and good luck on all your future endeavors.

When I Think of Child Development

You can teach a student a lesson for a day; but if you can teach him to learn by creating curiosity, he will continue the process as long as he lives.      

                                                                   Clay P. Bedford

It shouldn’t matter how slowly some children learn as long as we are encouraging them not to stop.  

                                                                  Robert John Meehan

There needs to be a lot more emphasis on what a child can do instead of what he cannot do.

                                                                     Dr. Temple Grandin

I chose these three quotes, because they represent my thoughts on children and their learning. We need to give children a chance to succeed regardless of any challenges that it seems they have.

Testing for Intelligence

When looking at the child as a whole it is important that we take into consideration all areas of development as well as the child’s culture. There are so many things that we need to consider when we are talking about children as a whole. I think that when we are considering children as a whole we need to consider the things that make them who they are. One of the things that I think should be assessed when discussing the child as a whole is responses to everyday things that mean something to the child. When assessing a child’s ability it is always about generic things that usually have no significance to the child. In order to get a true idea of a child as a whole we need to look at more than just what is occurring in a controlled situation. How does the child handle stress or challenges in everyday life? These are the things that we should be using to assess the child as a whole being, instead of individual pieces.

The way children are assessed and when, vary greatly from country to country. In researching when children are assessed in another country I chose to research Germany. In Germany children start formal education at the ages of 4-5, by five all children are to be enrolled in school. There is a push to postpone formal testing until the children are seven because the results are more accurate that way. As of 2013, a child’s first assessment in school was at age five when they start formal education.

One of the thinks that it is important to recognize and take into consideration is the fact that not all children can do well on assessments when asked to answer questions. This is something that I believe all professionals need to take into consideration when assessing children. 

Consequences of Stress on Children's Development

As a child, I was exposed to many different types of stressors, but none of the ones that were listed. The one that I am going to talk about is violence. My mom was exposed to violence from her father and others that she was around. My Grandfather was a very abusive man that took all of his issues out on my mom. My mom is a very strong person that coped with the ordeal by keeping to herself and avoiding the situations to the best of her abilities. She spent a lot of time with her grandparents whenever possible. She moved out of her parent’s home as soon as she could. As an adult, she spoke with a counselor to help her deal with the things that happened to her. My mom is a very strong woman that went through a lot as a child and has come out the other side as an amazing person that gives her time to help others whenever she can.

There are stressors that exist in all countries and it is hard to illuminate all of them. The thing that has always stuck out for me is that only certain countries bring attention to the lack of food or to the poverty that exists. The reality is that all countries have children that are living in poverty and that are hungry. Why is it that we only focus on the countries with extreme issues? There needs to be more attention given to all countries. I have not picked one country because I think that someone needs to bring attention to the bigger picture. There are so many children all over the world that need more food or that need more finances, but we do not here about that. In some countries, one of the stressors that lead to poverty is war and lack of availability. In many countries, the biggest issue is getting food to the people that need it. My concern is those that live in developed countries that should have access to food and or jobs to provide for their families and they do not. What about those families that live in developed countries? We never hear about those children that need support or help. I think that as a society we need to take the time to look at tall the children that are living in poverty and going hungry not just those in certain areas of the world.

Child Development and Public Health

This week we were to choose a public health topic. I chose nutrition/malnutrition for my topic. I have seen the effects that nutrition can have on children. I worked as the Health Advocate Coordinator for a family center for several years. During this time, I collaborated with Cooking Matters and Share Our Strengths to provide opportunities for children to learn about healthy eating in a way that was affordable. This topic is meaningful to me, because my nieces have lived in a situation with their parents where they never received proper nutrition and they did not know when their next meal would be. When I was younger, I had another set of family members that lived in that type of situation. My oldest daughter struggles to gain weight and is considered underweight. While she is provided proper nutrition, she is still struggling to gain or maintain her weight. These facts have made the topic of nutrition/malnutrition meaningful to me.

As I researched the nutrition and malnutrition in different parts of the world, I concluded that the basic dietary/nutritional guidelines are very similar. Most of the countries have something similar to our food pyramid or my plate. I researched the nutrition in Denmark and discovered that the nutrition guidelines are very similar to ours. I learned that, as with our country water is a very important aspect of proper nutrition. One of the things that I really liked hearing was that even in other countries the main cause of malnutrition is due to poor food and nutrition intake. This problem exists everywhere. One of the ways that everything that I have learned is going to influence my future work is to make me surer that I am going to encourage and demonstrate proper nutrition and food intake with everyone I work with.

Childbirth in My Life and Around the World

There are many different customs and traditions connected to childbirth in all countries, even the USA. Of all the people that I know, there are many different child-birthing experiences. I honestly do not believe that any of the stories that I have heard or have experienced are the same. I have chosen to share the experience that I had with my first daughter. She was right on time, even though she wanted to come early. I chose to have her at the hospital with an OBGYN. I was having contractions for three weeks before she came. I had both of my girls without pain medicine. I am very allergic to antibiotics and needed to find ways to ensure that I would not need one during delivery. My daughter actually came very quickly once I was given Pitocin.  My daughter was born with meconium in her fluid and a dislocated jaw, because she had been sucking on her lip and swallowing while in utero. She was very healthy and passed all of her tests, so they did not put her in NICU (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit). She was able to stay with me. I chose this story because it is an example of a child that was born with complications that could have been problematic. In this case, it was not a major problem and did not affect her development in anyway, but that is not always the case. My youngest daughter had no noticeable birth complications and she had some challenges that have been contributed to birth trauma, but no one can figure out what that trauma was. In the example I shared, my daughter did not suffer any developmental challenges from having meconium in her fluid at birth. She actually is extremely bright and advanced for her age.

I believe that a child’s birth can have the potential to present both positives and negatives to a child’s development. Each child is an individual from day one, and it is important to remember that even when talking about infants. I think that there are many things that can occur during birth that can have the potential to affect a child’s development.

One of the things that I have found while researching births in other countries is that most of them do not use epidurals. In most other countries, epidurals are not as common as they are in the United States. The one thing that I found interesting is how caesarian sections (C-sections) are becoming more common in other countries. Another interesting thing about other countries is that there is a bigger push for a more natural birthing experience. In most of the countries that I researched, they were more likely to use a doula or midwife than a doctor. In the Netherlands and Germany, midwives are typically used over doctors. I found this to be interesting.

A Note of Thanks

I would like to take a minute to thank Dr. Dart and all members of this class for reading and commenting on my blog. Your comments have been insightful, and helpful in my professional development. I would like to wish you all good luck on your future endeavors.

Examining Codes of Ethics

The ideals in the Codes of Ethics for the NAEYC and DEC that are meaningful to me are:

1)    PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND PREPARATION is critical to providing the most effective services for young children with disabilities and their families. Professional development is viewed and valued as an ongoing process guided by high standards and competencies for professional performance and practice. Professionals acquire the knowledge, skills, and dispositions to work with a variety of young children with disabilities and their families within natural and inclusive environments promoting children’s overall growth, development and learning, and enhancing family quality of life. Finally, professionals continually should seek and interpret evidence based information for planning and implementing individually appropriate learning environments linked to ongoing assessment and collaboration with parents and professional team members.    (DEC, 2000)
   
     This ideal is important to me because it provides the basis for professional development to ensure that children with disabilities get the services they need. This is significant to my professional life because working with young children requires you to be a life long learner.


2)     —To listen to families, acknowledge and build upon their strengths and competencies, and learn from families as we support them in their task of nurturing children.  (NAEYC, 2005)

      This ideal is important to me, because as a parent I want professionals working with me and my child that are able to listen and learn from what I have to tell them and acknowledge my knowledge about my child. I chose this ideal because as a parent I have been in many situations where the professional was not interested in helping build on what I knew. This is significant to my professional life, because I do not ever want to make parents feel the way that I have.


3)    To recognize and respect the unique qualities, abilities, and potential of each child.    (NAEYC, 2005)

        This ideal is important to me, because children are unique individuals and should be treated as such. This ideal helps encourage the recognition of children as individuals and that they needed to be treated as such. This is significant to my professional life, because I try to treat each child equal but as the individual that they are.



References

NAEYC. (2005, April). Code of ethical conduct and statement of commitment. Retrieved May 26, 2010, from http://www.naeyc.org/files/naeyc/file/positions/PSETH05.pdf.

The Division for Early Childhood (DEC). (2000, August). Code of ethics. Retrieved May 26, 2010, from http://www.dec-sped.org/.

Growing My Resources

All of my online course resources are listed to the right, and the professional journals are listed on the left.

The resources that I chose for this week are:

State by State Resources for Families
       http://childcareaware.org/node/1405

Early Childhood Research and Practice
       http://www.ecrp.uiuc.edu/index.html


American Academy of Pediatrics
      https://www.aap.org/en-us/Pages/Default.aspx

Words of Inspiration and Motivation

Stanley Greenspan, MD

“For many years, the behavioral model – which did help some children fit into school and home life – was the only model. Today, with the insights we now have into the way the nervous system develops and the way children acquire their core abilities, deeper change and greater opportunities to lead rich full lives are possible for children with ASD. When practitioners build a healthy developmental foundation, children may also overcome symptoms.”

“Yet in spite of this expanding approach, practitioners still tend to focus on symptoms and on only a few of the underlying processing differences. Even though emerging evidence favors a dynamic model, the vast majority of children with ASD have access only to older, static approaches that deal insufficiently with each child’s unique developmental profile and potential for growth. Despite their limited success, many of these approaches have remained unchanged for many years.”

 Greenspan, S. & Wieder, S. (2009). Engaging autism: Using the floortime approach to help children relate, communicate, and think. Da Capo Press.

Ann Turnbull, Ed.D.

“Families who successfully meet the challenge of a child with a disability have much to teach us, not only about what works, so that we may provide support to those who are struggling, but also about our own attitudes toward people with disabilities.”

Summers, Jean Ann, Behr, Shirley K., Turnbull, Ann P. (1988). Positive                                               Adaptation and Coping Strengths of Families who have Children with                                                   Disabilities. Brooks Publishing.




Louise Derman-Sparks
"I've seen the wonderful impact that using what I call an anti bias approach not just on children but on the teacher's who have to kind of figure out who they are and understand their own selves and uncover their own discomforts and misinformation. "
Laureate Education, Inc. (2010). The passion for early childhood. Baltimore: Author.

Personal Childhood Web

   The people that nurtured and cared about me as a child:

                                   My mom (left) and Bev (right)

   1.      My mom – She was a caring and loving person. My mom was always trying to help someone in the community. She influenced my life as a child because she was always supportive and encouraging. She would help me when I needed it and let me learn and experience at the same time. My mom is the type of person that was always interested in improving people’s lives including her children’s. My mom was always there for me when I needed her. I knew that if I needed her I only had to ask and she would do what she could. From my mom, I learned to care about others and my community. She continues to influence my life as an adult, because I try to help those that need it as she does. She is one of the reasons that I chose to go into early childhood and have worked with children. I saw the positive impact that one can have on children when they care about them, and I want to do the same thing.

                                              my mom and dad

   2.      My dad – He is the person that you could rely on to fix things. He worked through a lot of my childhood, but I knew that he was doing it for us. He taught me about work ethic. I learned a lot about being responsible for the choices you make from my dad. I knew that my father cared about me, because he was there if I needed him. When I was sick or hurt he was one of the first there checking on me and doing what he could. I felt special, because I knew if I really needed him, he would be there. His influence has continued to influence my life because I follow the example he set for me where work and life is concerned. I follow through with the commitments that I make. I try to show strong integrity and do what I say I will. These things come from the influence that he was for me as a child.

3.     My friends’ mom (Bev) – She was a kind and caring person that was a very important part of my life. She was always there for me if I need her. She was an inspiration to me, because she went through a lot when I was a child growing up and she persevered through it even when it was hard for her. She was an example of a strong person even though she did not always see that herself. She managed to raise her three children on her own, and they all grew up to be amazing people. That is what I look at today and hope that I am able to have that success with my children while on my own. She showed that she cared by being a positive influence and encouraging me when I needed it. I always knew that if I need something I could ask her for help. She was an inspiration then and now.

   4.      My sixth grade math teacher (Mrs. D) – She had a kind spirit and was always looking for the best in her students. There was an area of math that I struggled at and she encouraged me and did not make me feel like less because I was struggling. She was encouraging and positive and made me want to do better. I felt important to her because she made me feel like I could succeed, and I did. Her influence encouraged me to become better at math and showed me that there are teachers that care about their students. She continues to influence me today because she is the reason that I want to work with children. She showed me that by caring, you can make a difference, and that is what I want to do.

   5.      My Great Aunt (Leona) – She was very caring and understanding. She was always there for me and supportive in the things I did. She taught me a lot about being independent and taking care of your family. She showed me that she cared by doing what she could to help me learn about life and being a female. She influenced me as a child by showing me how a woman could be independent and run a business on her own. She is continuing to influence me today because thanks to her I learned that a woman could do anything they put their mind too while still being a lady. To this day, I believe that her influence is a big part of the independence and strength that I show at my profession.

My Favorite Children's Books

I couldn't choose between these two books so I decided to share both. Two of my favorite children's books are The Kissing Hand by Audrey Penn and Stellaluna by Janell Cannon.

The Kissing Hand is one of my favorite children's books, because it tells the story of the love between a mom and her child. During the story the child learns that a mom's love is always with him/her. This story is a great way to help children cope with the changes that occur when they start school. It has helped my daughter with her separation anxiety.

Stellaluna is the story of a bat that gets adopted by a family of birds. This is one of my favorite children's books because it shows how a family's love should be. In this story the mother bird takes in a baby bat and raises her with the rest of her family. This is a great depiction of the breadth of a mother's love and that not all families are typical.

Especially Meaningful Quotes

There are many quotes that are especially meaningful to me. I have chosen a couple to share with you. These quotes represent the importance of believing in yourself, as well as the importance of the adults in a child's life.

"Every student can learn just not on the same day, or in the same way."  
                                                                                               unknown

"If you believe in yourself anything is possible."
                                                             unknown

"To the world you may be one person but to one person you may be the world."
                                                                                                     Dr. Seuss

"The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination."
                                                                                  Albert Einstein

Introduction

I am a single mother of two young girls. I have worked in the early childhood field and with children for many years. I was a professional nanny for many years. I have worked in preschools and day cares. Most recently I became an early intervention assistant and worked the health advocate coordinator for a family center. My job was to create and implement programs that taught and encouraged health and wellness in children. I am currently the primary caregiver of my elderly grandma who has dementia. I am still using my early childhood knowledge by working with my children who both have different developmental delays. I currently home school both of my girls.

Pictures of my family and I

Me with my beautiful girls.

My beautiful girls!!

Krystal Ulrich