Module 2 Assignment 4

The advocacy message I would like to send is one that empathizes the importance and severity of education geared toward the development of children’ brains. Familes and teachers do not always realize how crucial the first few years in a child’s life are, when it comes to the development of the brain.

According to Zero To Three (2014a), the first three years of life are a period of incredible growth in all areas of a baby's development. A newborn's brain is about 25 percent of its approximate adult weight. But by age 3, it has grown dramatically by producing billions of cells and hundreds of trillions of connections, or synapses, between these cells.

Simply because of this, there are many reasons why understanding brain development is critical to understanding how important children’s earliest experiences are to their overall well-being. Understanding this may help us learn how experiences truly affect children. It may also help us learn when experiences affect children. Knowledge of these two examples could help us in aiding us to prevent damage that could potentially occur, as well as understanding patterns that could help us in interventions for the children (The Urban Child Institute, 2015).

Waiting until a child is in school is too late to begin to educate parents on the importance of brain development because of the obvious development that has already taken place. I do feel, however, that early childhood teachers should be educated on this and that kindergarten and first grade teachers should attend training and be given information on this topic since they’re the teachers who work with them early on in their academic lives. If teachers and daycare providers are not educated on this, then they cannot truly understand the importance level and how it will help them with educating, as well as understanding their students.

            A related advocacy message I would like to address is the importance that parents play in the role of not only brain development, but teaching their children the importance of empathy. This is character trait that is taught by parents and also has to do with brains and learning things when children are young.

This topic is of importance to me because I have seen the lack of participation from parents in the 10 years that I have been teaching. I would love for parents to make more of an effort in partnering with me, the person who spends more than 8 hours a day with their child, to improve their learning and self-efficacy.

 

 

The Urban Child Institute. (2015). Baby’s brain begins now: Conception to age 3. Retrieved

from http://www.urbanchildinstitute.org/why-0-3/baby-and-brain

Zero to Three. (2014a). Brain development. Retrieved from http://www.zerotothree.org/child- 

           development/brain-development/

 

Assignment 1 Module 4

After reading the blogs of a few of my colleagues, I found that there are many who share my views on education, empathy and attachment. I am looking forward to working with them in the future.

 

Some questions I have after reading the posts are:

 1.) Why are not all teachers instilling values in their students? Do they not realize that they're not necessarily receiving this at home? Many children do not learn empathy at home and it becomes another one of our responsibilities to do this, and we should see that we do.

2.) What can educators do, if anything, to help others not view us as simply “babysitters”? This seems to be a stereotype that doesn’t go away.

3.) What can teachers do to help parents understand the importance of forming a bond with their children? I know that, sadly enough, some parents do not care, but more do. We need to do something to help raise awareness of attachment.

 

These are the topics I would like to probe further in the future and some resources that will allow for this are as follows:

 

Ainsworth, M., Blehar, M., Waters, E., & Wass, S. (1978).Patterns of attachment: A

psychological study of the strange situation. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.1980-50809-000.

 

Bernier, A., Carlson, S. M., Deschênes, M., & Matte-Gagné, C. (2012). Social factors in the

development of early executive functioning: A closer look at the caregiving environment. Developmental Science, 15(1), 12–24.

Allen, J. P., Hauser, S. T., & Borman-Spurrell, E. (1996). Attachment theory as a framework for

understanding sequelae of severe adolescent psychopathology: An 11-year follow-up

study. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 64, 254-263.

 

ATTACHMENT DISORDER DISMISSED TOO LIGHTLY. (2004, Jan 13). Pittsburgh Post –

Gazette Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/390956327?accounti

 

Behrman, D. (2012, Feb 15). Society: 'where do we go for help?': Families of disruptive children

with attachment disorder are finding that support for the condition is in short supply. The Guardian Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/921457558?accountid=14872

 

Bowlby, J. (1977). The making and breaking of affectional bonds. British

Journal of Psychiatry, 130, 201-210, 421-431.

 

Fonagy, P., Steele, H. & Steel, M. (1991). Maternal representations of attachment during

pregnancy predict the organization of infant-mother attachment past one year of age. Child Development, 62(5), 891-905.

 

Gingras, J.L., Mitchell, E.A., & Grattan, K.E. (2005). Fetal homologue of infant crying. Archives

of Diseases of Childhood (Fetal Neonatal Ed.), 90(5), 415-418.

 

Sallenbach, W.B. (1993). The intelligent prenate: Paradigms in prenatal learning and bonding. In

T. Blum (Ed.), Prenatal perception, learning, and bonding: Learning and bonding (p. 61). Hong Kong: Leonardo.

 

Spitz, R.A. (1945). Hospitalism—An Inquiry Into the Genesis of Psychiatric Conditions in Early

Childhood. Psychoanalytic Study of the Child, 1, 53-74.

 

 

TAYLOR, J; et al. Common Genetic and Nonshared Environmental Factors Contribute to the

 

I can keep in touch with my colleagues through email, as well as Skype and phone calls. It’s important to keep in touch with those who share your vision because we all need people in our corner who understand us and share the same goals. That is motivation to continue and complete our Scholar of Change.

If we work together and support one another, we will be more likely to complete and accomplish our goals. We could even help one another with our change views and expand it to more than 1 state. That would be an amazing feat, and hopefully, accomplishment.