Exploring Roles in the ECE Community: Local and State Levels

When I think of local, state or communities of practice, four key organizations come to mind. The organizations are : ZERO TO THREE, National Black Child Development Institute, Division for Early Childhood, and CHRIS KIDS. Each organization means so much to me and influences my life professionally and personally.

 • ZERO TO THREE--- ZERO TO THREE's mission is to support the healthy development and well-being of infants, toddlers and their families. This multidisciplinary organization advances its mission by informing, educating, and supporting adults who influence the lives of infants and toddlers (Council for Professional Recognition, 2013). Currently I work every day with this age group and find that this organization provides me with resources to further my knowledge in the field of early childhood education.


 • National Black Child Development Institute (NBCDI) --- NBCDI’s mission is to improve and advance the quality of life for Black children and their families through education and advocacy (NBCDI, 2013). As an African-American early childhood educator, I find it extremely necessary to help strengthen families who look like and reflect my very own. I am not saying that other races are not valuable, because I believe all young children should have a quality early childcare experience. Growing up and still to this day, I have seen how much education or lack of has affected the lives of African-American children and I want to be a part of a group, which has my roots best interest at heart.


 • Division of Early Childhood (DEC)— The DEC is a division of the Council for Exceptional Children, which is an international organization dedicated to improving educational outcomes for individuals with exceptionalities, students with disabilities, and/or those who are gifted (Council for Professional Recognition , 2013). The DEC focuses on the types of students and others who may have or are at risk for developmental delays or disabilities but from birth through age eight. The DEC is an organization that I would rely on in order to collect resources to help families and individuals with behavioral challenges in early childhood education.


 • CHRIS KIDS --- CHRIS KIDS mission is to heal children, strengthen families and build community (CHRIS KIDS, 2013). I found this agency to be a great asset to my community, because it provides children and families with the therapeutic setting to help strengthen broken family relationships and provide support in behavioral challenges.

 In the current job market I am aware that before I feel comfortable to set out on a new career that I want to make sure I am equipped d with the tools to perform a high quality standard of work and also have the knowledge to accurately provide to the families and individuals I may come into contact with. I am also aware that there is still more learning to do about the field, but I feel if I were awarded and opportunity to come into my dream job, that I would show my employer a hard-working, reliable, driven, responsible, and team-spirited attitude. I am capable of succeeding and believe whole-heartedly that experience, education, and skills go hand in hand in composing qualified professionals.

 The following list is jobs in which I am interested in taking on:
 • Therapist --- CHRIS KIDS
 • Care Coordinator--- CHRIS KIDS


 References

 CHRIS KIDS (2013). Retrieved from http://www.chriskids.org/about-chris-kids/about-us

Council for Professional Recognition (2013). Retrieved from http://www.cdacouncil.org/resource-center/early-childhood-organizations

National Black Child Development Institute (2013). Retrieved from http://www.nbcdi.org/who-we-are/who-we-are

 ZERO TO THREE (2013). Retrieved from http://www.zerotothree.org/about-us/

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Reflecting on Learning

As my journey towards completing my master’s degree comes to end, I can sit and reflect on how far I have grown in my understanding of diversity and families. I have become more passionate about bridging the gap than ever before and I hope one day more major advances and resources are made available to families regardless of socioeconomic class, race, ethnicity, religion, age, sexual orientation or varying abilities.  I plan to continue my education in the early childhood field and move one-step closer to influencing the world of all young learners.

I would like to thank all of my colleagues for sharing your ideas and stories, which gave me a glimpse of the wonderful professionals you all are. I can honestly say that we have come a long way and the end is drawing near. I wish you all the very best and good luck in all your future endeavors.

I would like to thank Dr. Nanette Schonleber for being a wonderful and most of all patient teacher.  You have been a joy to learn from these past several weeks and I can say you made me discover my strengths as a student. Thank you from the bottom of my heart and all the best to you and your family.

                            “Good Teachers Teach. Great Teachers Inspire”- Unknown

Impacts on Early Emotional Development

For this week’s blog assignment, I wanted to learn more about West and Central Africa. I decided upon this region because currently in my class I have two families from Nigeria and during high school and undergrad, I knew several people who were also from Nigeria. I would often ask them about their country and I was amazed because they gave me both positive and negative insight on the country. I am happy to complete this assignment, because I get to learn about how the country and/or region as a whole, is influencing child development.

According to the UNICEF website, many things effect a child’s healthy overall development. “Nearly 2 children out of 10 never reach their fifth birthday,” (UNICEF). These items include:

·         Polio immunization

·         Nutrition

·         HIV/AIDS

·         Water and sanitation

·         Gender disparity in primary and secondary education 

·         Child/women sexual violence

·         Maternal and newborn health/death

·         Child exploitation

·         Poverty

In my opinion, all of these adversities affect how children develop emotionally, mentally, and physically.  As a professional, I found the above items extremely alarming and I wondered how I would have been if I were born into this region. I can imagine that often times, these children suffer from losing a limb due to polio and other infectious diseases, dying from mal/under nutrition, loss of a parent or both due to HIV/AIDS, and emotional scars and physical scars from sexual exploitation and sexual violence.  I believe that those children who have lost a parent suffer a great deal; because they may or may not have another family member who can adequately care for them.

After looking over the UNICEF website and the information about West and Central Africa, I wish there was something that can be done to end the situation in West and Central Africa.  As a professional in the education field, it saddens me to see that girls are not allowed to be educated and makes me appreciate the little things and being able to educate all children.   Here below are a few videos that I found helpful in learning about the region of West and Central Africa.

The links to video are as follows:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CE9M2R1nuIo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AmtvcJZKXrw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCPY6n8t-R8

References

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

The Sexualization of Early Childhood

According to the APA Task Force on the Sexualization of Girls (2010), sexualization occurs when:

·         a person’s value comes only from his or her sexual appeal or behavior, to the exclusion of other characteristics

·         a person is held to a standard that equates physical attractiveness (narrowly defined) with being sexy;

·         a person is sexually objectified—that is, made into a thing for others’ sexual use, rather than seen as a person with the capacity for independent action and decision making;

·         sexuality is inappropriately imposed upon a person.

As a professional in the field of early childhood education, I have seen an increase of suggestive sexual messages geared towards young children on today. Growing up I remember being shielded from my family members if something came on television provocative, but today there are sexual images plastered everywhere. There are more dolls/toys showing off girl’s bodies than ever before and suggestive sayings in music and even television programs designed for children. It disturbs me to see how times have changed and makes me weary of what will come next for future generations.

As a child growing up, I can remember only two or three young girls engaging in sex. In recent years, that once small number has nearly quadrupled.  There have been an increase in teenage pregnancies and this is the generation for the new age grandparents, ranging between the ages of 30-40. When I was in college this show, “Teen Mom” aired, and from the very beginning, I was against and still against watching the show. I refused to watch a television program in a sense glorifying teen pregnancy while those teen mothers gain a profit. So many of my classmates just fell in love with the show but deep down I knew how being a teen mom influenced and changed lives. My mother was pregnant with me at age 16 and had both my younger siblings by the time she was 21 years old, and I know how rough and hard it was growing up to a single mother. Although my mother did the best she could there were days that I wondered how life would be if my siblings and I came much later in our mother’s life.

Over the past, few months I have noticed that one of my students insist on kissing the other little girls. The student, in which I am referring to, has two mommies and often speaks on how she does not have a daddy. The other day during circle time, the students were sitting on the mat when the little girl turned, grabbed her friend’s cheeks and began kissing her. I was shocked because it was as if she absolutely knew what she was doing and had no regard. I immediately stepped in and informed the child that although we like our friends that it was not okay to kiss them and that hugs were how we showed our friends we liked them.  The little girl nodded her head showing that she understood but I had to figure out the best possible solution of expressing that to her parents without making them uncomfortable, which was not a hard task.

            My niece is such a joy to be around and we have discovered her love for music. Now I was always the singer in the family but my sisters were the dancers (I have two right feet, not left).  My niece has the complex that all electronic devices are hers and is often times trying to get to the music. One day my sister, my niece and I were in the living room, when my sister began dancing. My niece then climbed off the sofa, bent over, and started shaking her behind. Before I knew it I picked her up and expressed how little girls should not dance like that, but my sister on the other hand did not agree.  She laughed and talked how it was cute but I felt it was inappropriate to allow a child to dance in such a provocative manner.

According to the article, “So sexy so soon: The new sexualized childhood and what parents can do to protect their kids”, authors Levin & Kilbourne concluded the following (2009):

“Both boys and girls are routinely exposed to images of sexual behavior devoid of emotions, attachment, or consequences. They learn that sex is the defining activity in relationships, to the exclusion of love and friendship. They learn that sex is often linked to violence. And they learn to associate physical appearance and buying the right products not only with being sexy but also with being successful as a person.  Such lessons will shape their gender identity, sexual attitudes, and values, and their capacity for relationships, for love and connection that they take into adulthood. While they struggle to make sense of all this, children are robbed of valuable time for age-appropriate developmental tasks, and they may begin to engage in precocious sexual behavior”.

Sexualization can influence and shape gender identity, values and other things, but it is our jobs as adults to show young children the importance of valuing themselves and not relying on others to validate them. I believe if we as adults model good behavior that young children will feed off it and do the same. I also believe that by building confidence that children will step away from what others around them are doing and follow their own lead.

This week has opened my eyes in my awareness of sexualization of early childhood and has shaped how I want to shield young children from these images, even though they are healthy images. I just believe it is important to keep young children pure and innocent and it is my hope that one day the rest of society will do the same. Here below is a link to a video in which I found helpful in exposing sexualization among young children. The link is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWLdSwO_cwo

References

American Psychological Association (2010).  Report of the APA Task Force on the Sexualization of Girls Retrieved from http://www.apa.org/pi/women/programs/girls/report-full.pdf

Levin, D. E., & Kilbourne, J. (2009). [Introduction]. So sexy so soon: The new sexualized childhood and what parents can do to protect their kids (pp. 1-8). New York: Ballantine Books. Retrieved from: http://dianeelevin.com/sosexysosoon/introduction.pdf