I am the director of a child care facility in Euclid Ohio (kiddiecityeuclid.org). Because my site meets the requirements for this class I have chosen to do my internship there. I feel that this will give me a good opportunity to apply what I am learning at my place of employment and be able to implement the research I am doing in advocacy situations that I am already involved in.
When I started this process I felt that there were so many things that can be advocated for in the field...funding, worthy wages, special education, early childhood mental health, parent involvement, DAP (especially in K-3), health initiatives, the list can be endless.
I interviewed two people who I work closely with at my center, Sally McClintock, a licensed social worker who works for a program called daycare plus through the Positive Education Program and Donna Sudar, a preschool co-op director and Vice President of the Euclid City Schools School Board.
Both had a lot of insight and opinions and they helped me focus my topic for advocacy.
Sally felt that early childhood mental health is a crucial area to be an advocate. In this area she felt that there should be advocacy for parent involvement and improving environments; building a sense of community in classrooms and building better communities to live in. If children had more connections in life many early childhood mental health issues could be eliminated. Sally also felt that there needs to be more of a focus on social emotional development and less of a focus on academics. The academics will fall into place if a child's social and emotional needs are met. Some advocacy efforts in Sally's area of expertise are training on trauma informed care and conscious discipline as well as initiatives through the department of mental health to do DECA studies on children to see how they are rating in mental health issues.
This last statement goes well with what Donna Sudar felt was the biggest issue that needs more advocacy, DAP. She feels that DAP for young children is lost sight of in the standards. She thinks there should be more efforts through NAEYC in controlling politicians to show that current expectations are out of line with DAP. Other areas that Donna felt could use advocacy are parent support and education and parent involvement. She feels as educators we need to realize that children cannot fit into a mold. We have to meet each child's individual needs and also look at the individual needs of each family we work with. An advocacy effort Donna is involved in is PTA Kindergarten backpacks. These packs are sent home to every child registered to start Kindergarten in the Euclid City Schools. They include developmentally appropriate activities that the parents can do with their children over the summer to help them get ready for Kindergarten. The thought process with these packs is to increase DAP and parent involvement. She also is an advocate to not have children enter Kindergarten early. Many parents want their child tested into Kindergarten at the age of 4. Because most children are not socially and emotionally ready at the age of 4 she encourages families and centers in the area to not push children to enter Kindergarten early.
I am also a Director of a Preschool. It is really important to me that I use my experiences here at Kendall at work. I really like the idea of doing a research paper on mental health in the early childhood education setting. I think to often people try to fit all children into a single mold and this is unfair to those children that have developmental issues or some form of mental health issue. We as professionals need to be able to identify those children and work with other professionals to identify and come up with ways to help them be successful.
ReplyDeleteI live in Illinois and our children cannot start school until they are five, there is a September 1st cut off day for Kindergarten and the public schools strictly follow that rule. I agree that we need to focus on social/emotional development first and the academics secondarily especially in preschool. At my preschool we work hard to make sure our students are ready for Kindergarten but we feel that sometimes what is expected of them is too much. It seems each year the standards keep getting higher and higher. Myself and my staff have often wondered when it will end. I fear that our children will lose the ability to be "kids".
Good luck with your paper. I would love to read it when you are done.
Debbi thank you for the feedback. I am a little nervous about writing such a detailed paper on this but it is an area I feel needs advocacy. I would be happy to share it with you when I am finished.
ReplyDeleteI think you have picked a wonderful topic. I teach 4K in a Lutheran school and I have parents who try to enroll their child in my class even though they have not met the Sept. 1st deadline. They feel because we are a private school it is OK. These parents are also surprised when I recommend retaining them for social and emotional reasons. Would you also include a check list for parents to use for emotional development?
ReplyDeleteJennifer after reading your comment on my blog, and now reading yours I agree that our areas of interest are intertwined. mental health in the early childhood settings is an area that is definitely in need of advocacy. Children are being pushed too early to be ready for school. I have seen many parents an administrators/directors of daycares lobbying for academics and calling it school readiness. if only part of the child is ready, then actually none is ready.what I mean is if the whole child isn't ready for school, then actually none of the child is ready for school.If a child can read at the age of 3, but lacks social skills or isn't emotionally ready for the long school day, then she is she ready for school? That is where our areas of interest cross paths. mental health in the early childhood setting is an amazing topic!years ago, I meant a mental health consultant.I discussed with her advocacy and her work with families and children. I was so impressed. I aspired to be just like her. It still is an issue I am interested in, and would love to read your paper too when you're finished if that's okay.
ReplyDeleteJennifer mental health is a great deal in the early childhood education field. This is the prime time to help children that really need it. I know a child that shouldbe getting services every Tuesday but it is more like twice a month. I have spoke with the parents about it several times but there is no concern on their behalf. I have worked with this particular child and see the improvements. Everyone always asked," What did you do"? The reply I give them is always the same. I would tell them time, modification, and language.
ReplyDelete