Warm Thanks & Well Wishes

     To all of my peers and professor in our Fundamentals class at Walden University, I send you a collective thank you in appreciation for all that you have done to support and improve my understanding and knowledge in the field of Early Childhood. The communication and feed back both through our discussion boards and Blogs have been both enlightening and informative.
     As I mentioned in this weeks discussion board (I believe it bears repeating) I am so grateful to live in an age were on-line classes are so accessible. I live in a "frontier" county and the nearest University with a Masters program that serves ECE is eight hours away (one way) which would be a bit of a commute. Even if I lived next door to a University I fear that these last four months would not have happened for me due to personal tragic events.
     Children have always been a huge motivator for me. I would like to end this class with a heart felt thank you to all of you. For you have kept me motivated, interested and feeling involved as part of a whole through a very rough time in my life. Being able to get on-line and have contact with people that have such a connection with Early Childhood has allowed me to have a positive place to go and feel renewed. I wish each and everyone of you good will and look forward to continued communication with those I have contact with in future courses.

Best Wishes and Happy Safe Holidays,

Jennifer Pore`

Code of Ethical Conduct

     I have chosen the following Ideals from the NAEYC's Code of Ethical Conduct (NAEYC, 2005) to share with those who will read this Blog. The reasons I have chosen these particular Ideals is because they directly address my work environment. I am taking the opportunity to demonstrate that the Early Childhood profession has many areas of interest all just as important as the other because of course they interweave within each other. I currently work with children and families in behavioral and mental health.

I-2.1--To be familiar with the knowledge base related to working effectively with families and to staying informed through continuing education and training.

I-2.4--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.

I-2.7--To share information about each child's education and development with families and to help them understand and appreciate the current knowledge base of the early childhood profession.

I-2.8--To help families members enhance their understanding of their children and support the continuing development of their skills as parents.

I-2.9--To participate in building support networks for families by providing them with opportunities to interact with program staff, other families, community resources, and professional staff.

     In order to be a benefit to each child we have to know their history as to not cause additional harm. We also have to work with families as in most cases the children are returned to parent, we have to take this opportunity to educate the parent on where the child is at in their emotional and cognitive development and give them the skills they need to be able to take much better care of the child. It is critical to keep in mind that we are only a stopping point in these children's lives (hopefully) and we do not help the children unless we educate the parents as to how better to care and protect their children. 

     I would like to add an additional couple of ideals taken from the Code of Ethics taken from the DEC (Division for Early Childhood, 2009). These two ideals relate to the responsibilities to protect the children and the importance of knowing the law and how it pertains to the child and we can protect, if not done properly we can create a disaster and even put the child in harms way. Most of the children I work with are involved with many agencies, each having their own protocols to adhere to for the child's best interest.

2. We shall honor and respect the rights, knowledge, and skills of the multidisciplinary colleagues with whom we work recognizing their unique contributions to children, families, and the field of early childhood special education.

4. We shall identify and disclose to the appropriate persons using proper communication channels errors or acts of incompetence that compromise children's and families' safety and well being when individual attempts to address concerns are unsuccessful.

Jennifer Pore`

DEC. (2009). Code of Ethics (page 2) Retrieved from http://www.dec-sped.org

NAEYC, (2005). Code of Ethical Conduct (pages 3 &4) Retrieved from http://www.naeyc.org

     

Thought Provoking Quotes

     This week I concentrated on on T.B. Brazeleton MD from the health and well being sector of early childhood and Janet Gonzalez-Mena M.A. from the child care sector of early childhood. The quote that immediately struck me from Gonzalez-Mena was, "The moment I decided to follow instead of lead, I discovered the joys of becoming part of a small child's world." (Gonzalez, NAEYC). i feel that it cuts right to the core that we should be supporting children's curiosities and natural skills not telling them how to feel and act.
     "When we strengthen families, we ultimately, strengthen the community." T.B. Brazeleton MD (Brazelton, 2013). I have read Dr. Brazelton's work for years and am still enthralled with what he has to say and am so respectful of his devotion and work. This quote for me reminds me of how much I have grown in my understanding of early childhood development over the years. I am very proud of who I am constantly growing into. That I have grown from my original passion to protect and nurture into someone who is capable of making changes in people's lives so that they too can join in protecting, nurturing and advocating for the young. I have learned to embrace my passion and have learned how to make good use of my drive and knowledge.

Brazelton Touchpoints Center. (2013). Homepage and Touchpoints video. Retrieved from:

     www.touchpoints.org on November 19, 2013.

 (Gonzalez-Mena, J., NAEYC, 10 x Inspiration Article. (nd).

     NAEYC Teaching Young Children Vol 4 No 5 page 6.

     Retrieved from: www.naeyc.org/tyc/files/tyc/file/V4N5/10X_Inspirations.pdf‎

      on November 20, 2013

Passion for Early Childhood

     One of my dearest friends recently posted this quote, "Every Child is Gifted. They just unwrap their packages at different times." Anonymous. I had saved it because I intend to add it to the quotes wall in my office when I return. I think it is a great reminder that every child has their own gifts and that we need to teach and respond to where each individual child is at not to where we believe they should be.
     I would encourage everyone to read The Four Seasons (Heathers, 1960). This is a Little Golden Book that I read as a child. I read it until I wore out the pages. I loved this book as a child and as an adult in the child development field I realize what a wonderful job the author did of portraying the magic of growing up. A litter of puppies have their first year of adventures through the four seasons and the reader gets to experience all of their changes and discoveries. At first the pups can not all even get up the front steps. In the fall they experience sadness that the flowers have died, but then they learn about how fun the falling leaves are. Winter finds the puppies discovering snow. At the end of the story, the dogs are bounding up the front steps without a care and are so much more knowledgeable.

          This is a photograph of my youngest grandsons art work. Whenever I travel to see my grandchildren I always have paper, pens, pencils, chalk, markers, and crayons available, I love to collect their thoughts and dreams on paper! I love being surrounded by children's art work, it is so inspiring and honest!

Jennifer Pore`

Anonymous Quote

Heathers, A. (1960). The Four Seasons (1st Edition). Western Publishing Co. WI.

                                                                   A Warm Welcome

     I welcome all of my peers and Dr. Kien from my newest class from Walden University: Foundations 6005. I look forward to reading your posts, hearing your points of view and learning from your experiences.

                                                                          Thank You

     I would like to extend a sincere thank you to both my Early Childhood peers and Professor. This week
completes my first class here at Walden. I really have enjoyed reading Blogs and posts from my peers and having the chance to hear your views. I would expect that I will continue to see some of you in future classes and for those where this is our only class together, I wish you well in your future and support you in your advocacy for young children. I would like to leave you with a quote that I recently saw posted on Face Book, "The best teachers are those who show you where to look, but don't tell you what to see." (Trenfor)

Trenfor, A. K. Retrieved from www.social.consciousness.com

The Whole Child

     Even though I see the flaws in standard testing I do believe that it is a necessary evil. I believe that if educators, parents and administration are able to keep in mind that the results are not perfect but a guide of the typical knowledge of the children it would be helpful. Just as with medical testing for example, we need a place to start, a range of typical numbers that will indicate if there is a problem or not. For me, I compare standard testing to the developmental guidelines that we use for children; it should be used as a guideline in conjunction with many other factors and each child viewed as an individual.

     In Italy they have moved away from a number scale testing and each teacher gives a written observation of the students abilities at the end of the year and the board decides whether they move on or not. Personally I think assessments should be designed to accommodate all of the multiple intelligences. I feel that we would have a truer insight on what children really understand. I have included a link to a multiple intelligence quiz that will help a person determine which of the intelligences are their strongest (Assessment).

Assessments: You’re your Strengths, Retrieved from:

      http://www.literacyworks.org/mi/assessment/findyourstrengths.html

                                                                        The Power of Words


     I have been asked to write about an incident from childhood that influenced my life. I have two that I

remember vividly and that still impact my thoughts, decisions and choices. The first account happened

when I was 6 years old. We had family visiting and most of us were in the kitchen, the adults cooking and

visiting. My dad wanted to show off that I could tell time (this was with the old fashioned oven clock) when

he stopped me walking past him and ask me to tell him the time. I was caught off guard and nervous and

read the time wrong. My father yelled at me calling me stupid and made the comment that I couldn't possibly

be his (he was a wiz at math and numbers). I remember being hurt, embarrassed and just plain mortified! I am

56 years old and still have the same physical reaction when I recall the event. My second event occurred

when I was 19 and had just received my first semester grades for college. My father wouldn't help with

collage because he saw no need for a girl to have an education so I worked, saved and took care of getting

 my education on my own. When I announced that I had earned all A's (I really felt I had shown him) his

comment (while looking another direction) was "Anyone can get A's in home-ec." I completed earning my

A.S. without another word to anyone. I was 48 years old when my husband (at the time) lost his temper,

tried to break my neck and left me for dead. He had followed my father's reasoning that there was no need

for me to go to school or feel that I had worth outside of the home. With my children's encouragement

I got a divorce and took myself back to college. I graduated with a second A.S. at the age of 50 and have

continued with my education. I completed my B.S. just this last June and am currently just starting on my

Masters. It took me almost loosing my life literally, before I was able to stand up and see that I had

worth. I had always been an unmovable advocate for infants and children but unable to fight for myself.

I realized that my children had reached an age where they didn't need me to protect them from the world as

much as they needed me to set an example of what they should not take as an adult. Please don't think me

a weak individual, it was much more than two comments from my father that culminated it my low self-

esteem. My example is that these two particular times are still embedded in my memory. Adults need to

know the impact they have on young children with lasting results. Whether intentional or not the effects and

"deficits are lifelong." (Berger, 2012).

     I took some time and read about the AIDS epidemic that has been going on South Africa and it's affects

on the children. As of 2007, "AIDES disease has killed 2.3 million in South Africa leaving roughly 1 million

children without one or both of their parents." (Moore, 2013). This article goes on to explain how most of

the children are being taken care of by other surviving relatives, but that in itself brings in a whole other level

of stress. The article talks about one women that they followed that was raising not only her own children

but those of both of her sisters and a cousin who had all passed from AIDS. The most common

repercussions for these children have been depression, truancy, sexual vulnerability, hunger and abuse."

(Moore, 2013). It appears the country have been so busy and focused on getting the epidemic of the disease

 under control that they have not been able to address the fall out ramifications on the children. Clearly what

is initially being done to lower the risk of harm to the children is getting the epidemic under control, however

the life long and generational repercussions of this event are huge.

Berger, K.S., (2012), The Developing Person Through Childhood (6th, Edition), New York, NY:

     Worth Publishers.

Moore, J., (2013). AIDS: How South Africa is Beating the Epidemic, Retrieved from: 

     www.csmonitor.com/layout/set/print/worldafrica/2013/0623/AIDS-How-South-Africa-is-beating-

     the-epidemic

Jennifer Pore`

 Mental Health of Families

     I work with children and their families every day. The state tells us that we are under servicing the Latino 

population of our county and I thought this might be a good opportunity to try and identify barriers. In

"Counseling in Mexico" (Portal, 2010) it was stated that "Religion and spirituality are sources of great 

strength for much of the population in Mexico." "Mexican psychological counselors will need to integrate 

spiritual aspects into the counseling process." This article also refers to the fact that changes in society and 

the amount of poverty has much to do with the increased needs of the people for mental health 

professionals. With money getting harder to come by the family dynamics are changing as mothers and 

children are needing to join the work force. 

    It is clear to me that we as an agency need to be aware of multiple cultural interactions with our county. 

Not only do we need to be educated and aware of historical cultural differences that need to be respected 

but we need to be aware of additional barriers and concerns that have been created simply by logistics. One 

of the biggest barriers for agency and the public is the language barrier. It is estimated that 25 % of the adult 

Latino population in our county speaks English. We always are looking for a therapist that has dual language 

but as of yet we have not had anyone apply. We are a frontier county and it is hard to draw new families. 

One action that we have implemented is that we see children and their families at the school where they 

already are comfortable with staff and the building. It is one less obstacle for the family to overcome.

Portal, E., Suck, A.T., & Hinkle, J. S. (2010). "Counseling in Mexico: History, Current Identity, and Future 

     Trends" Journal of Counseling & Development Association, Winter 2010. Volume 88.

Part Two of Birth Experience

     Wow! Still learning to maneuver Walden's classroom and realized that I had missed the part about birth experiences in other countries. I looked up birthing practices in the Netherlands and was I surprised! Over half of the births are home births with a midwife attending. All expecting mothers have to pick up a birthing kit which has medical supplies needed for delivery,whether or not they are planning a home or hospital birth doesn't matter ! Even if the birth takes place at the hospital and given there are no complications, most mothers go home with the baby within two hours of delivery! Boy, talk about your no-nonsense attitude, it makes me curious to know what the general attitude towards child raising is.

Netherlands Birth Customs. Retrieved from:
     www.parents.com/pregnancy/giving-birth/vaginal/birthcustoms-around-the-world/?page=2
     on 09.08.2013

Jennifer Pore` Assignment 2 Week 1

Birth Experience Week 1

     All  four of my births were traumatic. Clearly the hardest was my second birth which my son did not survive. I had gestational diabetes during all of my pregnancies which led to many visits to the hospital and many months on bed rest during each pregnancy. With Ezra I had the extra complication of placenta separation and at three months premature (30 years ago) and 1.5 pounds he was not able to survive the delivery. I remember pain, heartache, and disbelief. The experience was made even more traumatic by the fact that I was kept in the maternity wing which was one open wing with eight beds. All of the other women in the wing had their babies with them. My first son Elijah was born healthy at one month early (after two months bed rest) and was an absolute joy! Had I not had the experience of having a healthy child I can tell you I would have never had the heart to try again after loosing Ezra. I did go on to have two more children (both girls) Eleanor was two months premature and Alexis was one month premature.
     I choose to write about my own experience because I know it and I wanted my first post to be genuine. My story also leads into the question posed in class about our thoughts on the impact of the birth on child development. Speaking from my own experience, having lost a child, changed my life and guided my thoughts and behaviors in raising my other children. I had always been a child advocate and had dreamed of being a Kindergarten teacher and mother. From that day forward I have never wished away a day in my life and I consciously appreciate each moment I have with my children. To this day whenever I leave or my child leaves (or before ending a phone conversation) I always tell them how much they are loved. I am also a believer that such hard traumatic entries into this world causes repercussions for the child, both positive and negative. Depending on their inherent personality, resiliency, the ability of the medical team, and how the parents react to the situation I believe sets a real tone for the rest of the child's life.