My thoughts on Child Development

During my research for a favorite quote about children is difficult because I can’t recall a favorite quote about children. There are so many quotes I have read and heard in the past and have such passion and meaning behind them that I wish I could pull from every one and post a variety of them, however I can recall a quote  by Jean Marc Itard. He displayed his motivation for child development when he stated from his article “Begin with the nature of the child and his interests.”(Lieberman, L (1982) working with children the focus has always been the child. Part of my philosophy is to find out what interest the child and work on ways the child can learn based on what the child enjoys. From this course I have learned from the readings and observations of children. The observations of children opened my eyes to their world. My focus changed from the child, to the child’s domains of development to trying to achieve a better understanding of “the child’s world” and factors as to finding levels of where they stand in development. Even in my own work environment I try to find out the interests of the children in our program and work with them. Many times I find activities run smoother when the environment is child-centered and children respond well when they are involved in learning that is fun for them and now activities that are closer to their physical, social and emotional development. Finding a balance at this time is difficult. I also try to find out what interest children with special needs. However, it is not an easy task. A relationship must be built between caregiver and child. Caregivers must set time aside to observe a child in order to want to encourage or help them. These skills I will most likely take with me as I move throughout my career. I’m delighted to have experienced and learned more about child development through a different perspective.  I believe I will continue to develop a passion for this field as my knowledge of children grows. I just wanted to set some time aside to send my professional Thanks! to all of my colleagues. I greatly appreciate all of the shared efforts, personal insights, stories, and positive comments throughout this course. I also want to thank each one of you who found interest in the course assignments including discussion and featured blog posts that I posted. I found other colleagues post rather exciting to read than my own. And to Dr. Kien thank you for feedback and your constant efforts to instill in me as well as my colleagues proper ways to complete assignments. (I still struggle with it) It has been a pleasure to be in an online environment to not only meet people but communicate with those in this profession that share similar passions for young children in the field of early childhood. I hope to keep in contact with most of you as I try to stay on this path of learning. I was also excited to read familiar names of colleagues that shared the previous class with me hope to see everyone in future courses.I wish for everyone to continue to stay encouraged and motivated in our field of study.

Lieberman, L. M. (1982). Itard: The Great Problem Solver. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 15(9), Retrieved from EBSCOhost.

Teacher: “Today’s surprise a POP QUIZ!” Student’s response: “Aw man, Why?!”

                I’m going to be honest, as a child growing up and attending the different levels of school, college, entrance exams certification exams, proficiency, aptitude and skills test or whatever testing it might be whenever I heard my teacher, professor, recruiter, doctor or driver’s test administrator say “Test is on this day, short quiz on that day, pop quiz, pregnancy, and even blood testing I responded with terror and nervousness. My world feels like it is coming to an end when it comes to testing. I have test anxiety especially if testing has a time limit. No doubt about it every time there is some sort of testing involved I always ask myself “Why does everything I want to do involve testing? I also ask myself “am I intelligent? If I fail does that make me stupid?” Most of the time no matter how much time I spend preparing for a test majority of the time I choke and fail them. Out of the different types of testing I listed throughout my life I have failed more than half of them at least twice.

I favor and prefer child portfolios, verbal, written, social expression and hands on work from child’s perspective that is proof of a child’s progression. I know firsthand how difficult it was for me to pass my high school proficiency test I failed it two times I cried. I was so upset to know that to graduate high school passing the test was a standard. “You need to pass your test for your diploma” Even though I passed all my classes with high grades and was a top student and worked my way to graduating with honors I had difficulty passing the test. No joke I needed a tutor’s help to pass. I believe testing is better measured through experience especially if the child is a visual learner. Growing up I developed my own system that still helps me a little today with testing and assignments. I have to see the work, and then attempt to do the work hands on and then wait for results. It’s almost like a routine.

            I understand standardized testing and what the different tests are supposed to measure however yes, I agree that this type of testing does not consider the entire child. I lean more towards the variety of learning styles human beings have in the multiple intelligence theory by Howard Gardner. I think early childhood professionals can learn from different approaches to measuring the mind of children using this theory as a foundation. Every child has a different learning style and when early childhood professionals use this tool it can encourage positive learning. For example say a child has a musical ability or is considered to have “musical intelligence” businessballs.com (2011) but is having difficulty reading and writing a clue in encouraging reading and writing for the child maybe the early childhood educator providing an opportunity for the child to sing the alphabet with flash cards to begin recognizing letters or finding musical instruments that represent almost every letter of the alphabet. I believe it is using the intelligence in the child’s favor to encourage a meaningful learning experience.

During my research to find how other school age children are tested or measured by intelligence I came across the International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology by Sternberg (2002) and some of the research testing done around the world and found an instance where these young boys from Brazil that lived in the streets are “the same children who are able to do the mathematics needed to run their street business are often little able or unable to do school mathematics”(Sternberg, paragraph 2, 2002).  Further into the article it expressed how children from different countries differ in intelligence depending on the culture they live. I also considered from the article that most of the intelligence testing done around the world for school age children is compared to that of what the article calls “Western Patterns of Schooling” (Sternberg, paragraph 9, 2002) and that it depends on the ways of their society. In this case parents are more concerned more on how their children are developing skills to be successful working on the farm fields than the skills learned and taught in school.

Reference

Link:  Retrieved 12/10/11 http://www.businessballs.com/howardgardnermultipleintelligences.htm

Link: Retrieved: 12/10/11

 http://orpc.iaccp.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=74%3Arobert-j-sternberg&catid=23%3Achapter&Itemid=2

Experiencing Stress as a Military Family child

Experiencing Stress as a child

            Earlier this year on June 27, 2011 in the small city of Minot ND there was a massive flood effecting most of the school buildings within the town. Below is a link to their website with additional links to pictures and video on the town’s dedication to rebuilding the city. Within 15 miles away from the city is a military base. Not all military families live on base; a majority of the families had houses within the small city of Minot. So many people and military families were affected by the flooding. Within the city of Minot there was a need of shelter, clean water to use for drinking and eating, and a need for children to learn. The flooding affected the military base too. Even the water was not safe to drink or use because it was contaminated from the flooding within the city. Working on the base at one of the child care facilities there was a base wide order to boil the water before drinking or using it to prepare meals for the youth. The contaminated water affected the water lines. At the time I worked with children as young as 5 years old. This happened to be summer vacation for most of the youth. Their stresses began with just transitioning from the child development center to a School Age Program, making the transitioning from maybe staying at home to beginning kindergarten and starting to make connections of having more choices at the program or what’s sort of normal for children of military families are dual service families (meaning mom and dad are both in the military) and handling a situation where one parent or both parents getting deployed.  If these transitioning situations wasn’t enough what added to this was the realization that some of the children that lived in a house in town lost their homes and all of their belongings. I saw a major change in the behaviors of these children in frustration such as:  being clingy, defiant, destructive, some sad, unhappy and uncontrollable. I believe this is partly because when flooding happens it is an event that even adults have no control over, I knew it was a very tough time for them and their behaviors became a difficult time for the parents and caregivers. These children would ask questions such as “Why did my house get flooded?” and other children that lived on base would ask “What does flooding mean?”   I housed one of my co-workers who lost his house. He slept in my 4 year old daughter’s room.  She was asking questions about why he was staying with us and I did my best to explain it to her why. This was a difficult time for everyone here and because of the flooding school started later. Even now some of these families are still struggling, winter is here and these families are living in trailers, hotel rooms, staying with other family friends’ houses that are located miles away from town. I even witness families that made a choice of not staying in the state and decided to move away to other place. I also know a family that flew their children to a relative’s house to stay for w while because the children could not stay with the military parent because they lost their house in the flood and one parent were being deployed.  

            Nearly after the flooding the children participated in a “Masters of Disasters” Program” That taught the kids what to do in case a natural disaster happens where they live for example: fire safety, storm and tornado safety tips and how to prepare a disaster survival kit. On the other side of the program as a caregiver looking after the kids during the summer program the only thing that we could do in this situation was to provide fun activities for the children at the program so they would have a mindset that when they attend our program they feel safe and know this is a place where they can play.

            When participating in researching on natural disasters for children living in china and japan I came across a slide show from the Roland Catellier Disasters Relief Foundation titled “We’ve got a New Project” written and posted around the same day flooding was happening in the city of Minot. They are in the process of rebuilding their small town as well. I found similarities within Minot and China/Japan, with water shortages, floor plans for new homes, and ideas for placement for children attending schools.

Links:

The first two  link is to the flooding rebuilding of the city of Minot

http://www.minotdailynews.com/page/content.detail/id/556140/Flooding-makes-victims-of-Minot-schools.html?nav=5642

Before the flooding and after the flooding pictures of Minot

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/need-to-know/environment/minot-nd-flood/10252/

The last link is to Disaster Reflief Foundations and pictures and information on disasters in china and japan.

http://disaster-relief-shelters.org/

Breastfeeding

It is said that breastfeeding immediately after birth is the best way for a newborn to get enough nutrition for the infant’s brain and body. This topic became so important to me while I was pregnant with my child and I was determined to breastfeed my child immediately after having her, however on the day she was born and the week after  she did not latch. I became frustrated because I had to result in bottle feeding her formula the first two days and (it may have been part of post-partum depression kicking in) but I cried. I knew she was getting nutrition from another source but I wanted her nutrition to come from my milk because it contains many nutrients that formula does not have. Thinking back from attending the parenting classes and watching the videos of mothers breastfeeding their babies and reading pamphlet after pamphlet on the “Benefits of Breastfeeding” I just cried because I felt the bonding between mother and child was not going to happen. The one way I kind of still “breastfed” her, was pumping the milk and bottle feeding it to her. It eased the pain of knowing she was getting her nutrition from me one way or another.  The nurses told me to keep trying. Then finally a breakthrough! After two weeks of trying she finally latched. I was so happy I couldn’t believe it.  The downside of this situation is that I had to do a mixed feeding (formula and breast milk) for a while because of the timing and amount of milk she would drink and how much I would produce.

                I decided to research breastfeeding in the country of the Philippines and found a link to explain a change in “pro-breastfeeding laws” in the countries government. I was unaware that midwifes created an alliance to communicate around the world about child nutrition.

Retrieved November 6, 2011

http://midwiferytoday.com/international/Philippines.asp

     Here is another link to unicef.org listing data on the benefits of breastfeeding in the Philippines and other tabs explaining breast feeding benefits.

Retrieved November 12, 2011

http://www.unicef.org/philippines/children/breastfeeding_2.html

This information impact my future work by maybe giving mothers an “intervention” should their newborn not latch right away.  To encourage them to keep trying until they see progress.  (Of course the choice is up to the mother) Breast feeding is important for a developing child.  As a new mother breastfeeding at first looked easy and I assumed my baby would latch right away. I know that day I felt I was the only mother that experienced this situation but should I decided to have another child I’m prepared and I would hope to prepare those who may experience the same situation.

Childbirth: Different Point of View

                The only birth I can explain from personal experience is my daughters. She was born on a military base at a hospital. I was also born on a military base but at the time the “hospital” was not really considered a “hospital” but a clinic. For the purpose of this week’s topic on childbirth (not to sound self-centered) I want to talk about my own

 I was sort of confused as to why the place I was born at was considered a clinic and not a hospital so I called my parents to figure out what exactly happened because I was born premature. According to my dad I was born two months early. The Air Force base I was born at did not have a premature ward so as soon as I was born (he said I was about 3 pounds 3 ounces) the clinic placed me on a helicopter and flew me to the nearest military base that has premature ward. The nearest base was an Army base. My dad explained the doctors said my hemoglobin levels were low and needed blood. He said I was not brought home until I reached five pounds. All along this conversation I wondered “Why was I born so early?” I kept thinking there must have been something that may have triggered my mom going into preterm labor. According to my mom hours before she had me she was having pains in her teeth. My mom kept saying to me (talking to me in her belly) “You are not coming today!”  “Repeating it over and over” says my dad. Then my dad said the doctors did not want to give my mom anything for her teeth pains because she was pregnant. My mom said she was having contractions and the doctors injected her with something to stop the contractions. “Obviously it didn’t work because you were born within the hour” says my dad. He also explained that as I was flown to the nearest base toward the preemie ward my mom had to stay at the clinic so that they could work on her teeth.

 My mom claims I’m  a stubborn child for  not listening to her and coming out  anyway but according to my view and the readings from this week I believe at the time of my birth my mom was stressed and in pain. Not just from being pregnant with me but with other pains in her body such as from the pain in her teeth. I don’t know what the doctors injected my mom with. Whether it was to stop or induce labor pains all I know is I am alive today to share this story with everyone.

I was not surprised to read that the united States have almost 100% in births that take place in a controlled environment partly because I was born in the united states in a controlled environment then moved to the next controlled environment so that I could survive. I chose my birth as an example to show some of the other factors that may contribute to child development. Such as changes in the mothers health conditions.  According to my knowledge my mom never smoked or had an alcoholic addiction. I believe at the time of my birth my parents concern was if I was going to be healthy. I don’t think they were any other concerns at the time.

I chose the Philippines as the other country to find out how births happen there.  Below is a link to Midwifery Today which is an article, a short story of a mother going to a place to have her child for free.

http://www.midwiferytoday.com/articles/philippinesnight.asp

                In a sense there is one similarity between the United States births and the Philippine births. mine was at a controlled environment. I would consider the mother in the story having her child in a controlled environment also because she went to a place where women have children most of the time. The midwives knew what they are doing and had the right tools. . I came to a conclusion from this comparison is that if a mother thinks the place to go to have her child (home, hospital, a provided no birth fee clinic) and she determines the place has the right tools and the right people by her side she can very well make that choice. Although child births sometimes do happen unexpectedly hopefully the goal is to have a healthy child(ren).

Time for a Short Brain Break! As this course comes to an end.

I just wanted to set some time aside to send my professional thanks to all of my colleagues. I greatly appreciate all of the shared efforts, personal insights, stories, and positive comments throughout this course. I also want to thank each one of you who found interest in the course assignments including discussion and featured blog posts that I posted. I found other colleagues post rather exciting than to read my own. And to Dr. Longo thank you for positively guiding this course with your positive feedback and your help with clarifying some of the assignments. I really felt a connection with each one of my colleagues just by learning about each of you throughout the entire course. It has been a pleasure to be in an online environment to not only meet people but communicate with those in this profession that share similar passions for young children in the field of early childhood. I hope to keep in contact with most of you as I try to stay on this path of learning. I wish for everyone to continue to stay encouraged and motivated in our field of study.

Meaningful Ideals towards Early Childhood Education

When reviewing the ideals contained in the NAEYC and DEC code of standards I chose three from each Code of Ethics documents and will organize, then briefly explain how they are meaningful to me and pertain to my professional life. 

The first group of ideals reflects meaningful ideals towards children:

NAEYC-:

1.3—to recognize and respect the unique qualities, abilities, and potential of each child

 (NAEYC. 2005)

DEC:   1. we shall demonstrate in our behavior and language respect and appreciation for the unique value and human potential of each child. (The Division for Early Childhood. 2000)

            I believe it is important to respect each child and value their development. Professionally if I’m listening to a child not only considering but recognizing their unique qualities then, I’m encouraging the child in his or her unique qualities and developed a positive relationship with the child.  Personally If I attempt to have meaningful experiences with each individual child and these experiences are positive and pleasant most of the time it is definitely meaningful for all of us.

The second group of ideals reflects meaningful ideals towards families:

NAEYC: I-2.1—to be familiar with the knowledge base related to working effectively with families and to stay informed through continuing education and training.

 (NAEYC. 2005)

DEC:   We shall demonstrate our respect and appreciation for all families’ beliefs, values, customs, languages, and culture relative to their nurturance and support of their children toward achieving meaningful and relevant priorities and outcomes families’ desire for themselves and their children. (The Division for Early Childhood. 2000)

                Working with children is important but I also think that families and children are two parts that in respects to their needs are one in the same.  To work effectively with families we must respect and appreciate them as well as their values, beliefs, customs etc. Professionally if we develop a relationship within these respects and there is a reciprocal relationship. Again experiences will become meaningful for families as well as for caregivers. Personally if children and families are among top priority rather than money and material possessions we develop a relationship that is based upon passion for the children and the families we support. Ultimately we learn so much from each other.

The third group of ideals reflects meaningful ideals towards employees and program activities:

NAEYC- I-4.2—To promote cooperation among professionals and agencies and interdisciplinary collaboration among professions concerned with addressing issues in the health, education, and well-being of young children, their families, and their early childhood educators. (NAEYC. 2005)

DEC- We shall demonstrate the highest standards of personal integrity, truthfulness, and honesty in all our professional activities in order to inspire the trust and confidence of the children and families and of those with whom we work.

 (The Division for Early Childhood. 2000)

            Personally and professionally working with others with integrity and honesty is an essential part for building not only a foundation for any type of relationship: with people, children, families, co-workers, mentors, supervisors and managers but also building bridges with other professionals not in the field of early childhood. Without these foundational elements it is unstable and bridges are not likely to cross. Communication, collaboration and cooperation are important with any relationship in a community and programing.

            Overall I wanted to point out ideals reflective of Children, Families, and Programing. It seems everything is intertwined in a web of the Early Childhood Education field.

• NAEYC. (2005, April). Code of ethical conduct and statement of commitment. Retrieved May 26, 2010, fromhttp://www.naeyc.org/files/naeyc/file/positions/PSETH05.pdf
•  The Division for Early Childhood. (2000, August). Code of ethics. Retrieved May 26, 2010, fromhttp://www.dec-sped.org/

Course Resources to the field of Early Childhood/ Some Additional resources

Three Additional Resources related to the field of early Childhood.

Please click on the links below and explore the additional resources I found enjoy! I figured it would be easier to list the additional resources first before the resources directly from our course sight.  (I chose pink letters to honor breast cancer awareness month.)

1.      Early Childhood Today Magazine Articles link

http://teacher.scholastic.com/products/ect/

I found this website and it caught my interest because I was unaware that Early Childhood had another magazine besides the YC Young Children and the NAEYC organizations

From the Early Childhood Today Magazine Resources link they included the

2.      National Association of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies

This also includes links for military families and information on child care for the specific military branches.

http://www.naccrra.org/index.php

3.       Link to a parenting information website

An interesting website for parents and guardians with great links and sections divided for almost all ages of children.

http://www.parentsconnect.com/parenting-your-kids/parenting-kids/

Resources from week 5 directly from the Walden University Course Learning Resources week 5

Media “The Resources for Early Childhood”
Five early childhood professionals discuss their preferred and trusted resources.

• NAEYC. (2009). Developmentally appropriate practice in early childhood programs serving children from birth through age 8. Retrieved May 26, 2010, from http://www.naeyc.org/files/naeyc/file/positions/dap
• NAEYC. (2009). Where we stand on child abuse prevention. Retrieved May 26, 2010, from http://www.naeyc.org/files/naeyc/file/positions/ChildAbuseStand.pdf
• NAEYC. (2009). Where we stand on school readiness. Retrieved May 26, 2010, from http://www.naeyc.org/files/naeyc/file/positions/Readiness.pdf
• NAEYC. (2009). Where we stand on responding to linguistic and cultural diversity. Retrieved May 26, 2010, from http://www.naeyc.org/files/naeyc/file/positions/diversity.pdf
• NAEYC. (2003). Early childhood curriculum, assessment, and program evaluation: Building an effective, accountable system in programs for children birth through age 8. Retrieved May 26, 2010, from http://www.naeyc.org/files/naeyc/file/positions/pscape.pdf
• NAEYC. (2009, April). Early childhood inclusion: A summary. Retrieved May 26, 2010, from http://www.naeyc.org/files/naeyc/file/positions/DEC_NAEYC_ECSummary_A.pdf
• Zero to Three: National Center for Infants, Toddlers, and Families. (2010). Infant-toddler policy agenda. Retrieved May 26, 2010, from http://main.zerotothree.org/site/PageServer?pagename=ter_pub_infanttodller
• FPG Child Development Institute. (2006, September). Evidence-based practice empowers early childhood professionals and families. (FPG Snapshot, No. 33). Retrieved May 26, 2010, from http://www.fpg.unc.edu/~snapshots/snap33.pdf
  
  Note: The following article can be found in the Walden University Library databases.
• Turnbull, A., Zuna, N., Hong, J. Y., Hu, X., Kyzar, K., Obremski, S., et al.  (2010). Knowledge-to-action guides. Teaching Exceptional Children, 42(3), 42–53.
  Use the Academic Search Complete database, and search using the article's title. 

Global Support for Children’s Rights and Well-Being

• Article: UNICEF (n.d.). Fact sheet: A summary of the rights under the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Retrieved May 26, 2010, from http://www.unicef.org/crc/files/Rights_overview.pdf
   
• Websites:
• World Forum Foundation http://worldforumfoundation.org/wf/wp/about-us
  This link connects you to the mission statement of this organization. Make sure to watch the video on this webpage 
• World Organization for Early Childhood Education http://www.omep-usnc.org/
  Read about OMEP’s mission.  
• Association for Childhood Education Internationalhttp://acei.org/about/
  Click on “Mission/Vision” and “Guiding Principles and Beliefs” and read these statements.

 Selected Early Childhood Organizations

• National Association for the Education of Young Childrenhttp://www.naeyc.org/
• The Division for Early Childhoodhttp://www.dec-sped.org/
• Zero to Three: National Center for Infants, Toddlers, and Familieshttp://www.zerotothree.org/
• WESTEDhttp://www.wested.org/cs/we/print/docs/we/home.htm
• Harvard Education Letterhttp://www.hepg.org/hel/topic/85
• FPG Child Development Institutehttp://www.fpg.unc.edu/main/about.cfm
• Administration for Children and Families Headstart’s National Research Conferencehttp://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/opre/hsrc/
• HighScope http://www.highscope.org/ 
• Children’s Defense Fund http://www.childrensdefense.org/
• Center for Child Care Workforce http://www.ccw.org/
• Council for Exceptional Children http://www.cec.sped.org//AM/Template.cfm?Section=Home
• Institute for Women’s Policy Research http://www.iwpr.org/index.cfm
• National Center for Research on Early Childhood Education http://www.ncrece.org/wordpress/
• National Child Care Association http://www.nccanet.org/
• National Institute for Early Education Research http://nieer.org/
• Pre[K]Now http://www.preknow.org/
• Voices for America’s Children http://www.voices.org/
• The Erikson Institute http://www.erikson.edu/
   

 Selected Professional Journals Available in the Walden Library

Tip: Use the A-to-Z e-journal list to search for specific journal titles. (Go to “How Do I...?” select “Tips for Specific Formats and Resources,” and then “e-journals” to find this search interface.) 

• YC Young Children
• Childhood
• Journal of Child & Family Studies
• Child Study Journal
• Multicultural Education
• Early Childhood Education Journal
• Journal of Early Childhood Research
• International Journal of Early Childhood
• Early Childhood Research Quarterly
• Developmental Psychology
• Social Studies
• Maternal & Child Health Journal
• International Journal of Early Years Education

I was not sure if it was ok to directly post resources from the website on to the blog post and hopefully it looks familiar to everyone in class.

Words of Inspiration and Motivation (Ms. jay)

I can relate to Jean Marc Itard’s motivation when he stated from his article “Begin with the nature of the child and his interests.”(Lieberman, L (1982) working with children the focus has always been the child. Part of my philosophy is to find out what interest the child and work on ways the child can learn based on what the child enjoys. Even in my own work environment I try to find out the interests of the children in our program and work with them. Many times I find activities run smoother when the environment is child-centered and children respond well when they are involved in learning that is fun for them. I also try to find out interest of children even with special needs. However, it is not an easy task. A relationship must be built between caregiver and child. I saw the passion of Jean Marc Itard within the statement at the end of the article “Education must be in harmony with the dynamic nature of life.” Lieberman, L. (1982) I agree, even as adults if I am participating in something that is fun I feel at peace and less stressed.

            With Deborah J. Leong she expresses her passion for children and learning through play.   An article “Speak out: Why Children Need Play” (Bodrova, E. and Leong, D.) implies educators that value children learning through play need to show passionately the effectiveness of play towards others and the links of play towards children’s learning and development. She continues to stand firm on how play is important to the lives of young children. She stated, “Early childhood classrooms provide a unique setting to foster the kind of dramatic play that will lead to cognitive and social maturity.”  (Bodrova, E. and Leong, D.) When I think about this statement it just makes sense. I picture myself as a child and thought my social interactions then ties into many social interactions that happen today. I not only learned it through play but also the adult influences in my life. My parents for example teaching the social and cultural norms of the family and still to this day what sticks to me is “use your manners!” and “Be polite” These are social interactions that we learn as children. Even today when I observe children they mimic their parents when they are involved in dramatic play. Pretending to feed a baby doll, setting up chairs and pretend driving to a pretend store. I even observed an older child showing a younger child how to play a game of tag.

The professionals in the video (Multimedia “The Passion for Early Childhood) inspired me and drove my motivation toward this field: each individual shared their passion and motivation, each individual expressed care for the next generation, and each individual had similar goals towards caring for children and their families and wanting to make a difference in their communities.  The speakers not only affirmed my passion but I gained motivation just from listening to each experience. When Mrs. Louise Derman Sparks stated, “Children help teachers figure out who they are…” (Multimedia “The Passion for Early Childhood) I thought about my job and I am thinking that they are directly learning from me but I am actually learning from them without realizing it. Children have the ability to motivate me sometimes with their honesty and character. Children continue to provide that drive in this field because every child is different. They make working exciting; other times not so much, especially when an unexpected situation happens to a child. I gained a bit of wisdom from is Ms. Renatla M. Cooper when she explained her experience of a child she had in her program whose father had lymphoma and passed away. She learned about supporting “what’s best for the child and what was not best for her.” (“The Passion for Early Childhood”) Often times some educators teach without care or for money matters. Mr. Cooper made it clear that if we care about young children we should take ourselves out of the equation and look at what is next for the child.

 I found quotes from each educator that I researched and listened to informational and inspiring towards different areas in my personal and professional life. Children’s interest learning development and the importance of play in my professional life, then opportunities to learn about myself from children and how they matter a little more in my personal life.

 Leong, D (2011) Why Children Need Play .Early Childhood Today http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=10595 Retrieved (27, September 2011)

Lieberman, L. M. (1982). Itard: The Great Problem Solver. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 15(9), Retrieved from EBSCOhost.

(2011, September 12) Multimedia: “The Passion for Early Childhood” Message posted to    EDUC-6005-1 Retrieved from Walden University Learning resources Week 2.