The story that came to mind of me is our Conscious Discipline that we have been studying with Becky Bailey. This is an alternative form of discipline that has been researched and it is making positive impact on children. This form of discipline puts the focus on the child and the child's feelings. One of our children was a real problem in the classroom. He was real defiant and violent. We began implementing this Conscious Discipline at the beginning of the school year. The teacher and assistant are using all the techniques and even shared them with his mom so she could implement them as well at home. This boy has made a complete turnaround! This is almost the end of the school year and it has made a difference in his life. This is one positive effect that I can see from their research. I am not as involved in the Conscious Discipline as the teaching staff is, but I am eager to get more familiar with it. Has anyone ever heard of it before? Does anyone live in Florida, because I believe that is where it is based?
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Friday, May 13, 2011
Your Personal Research Journey
I chose to take a closer look at developmental concerns and delays in early childhood children. It was not easy to simply pick one topic because I have such a wide variety of topic interests and need for further growth. However, I narrowed it down to the one I felt currently impacted me the most.
The topic of developmental delays was of great interest to me for several reasons. One was personal. I have a relative who was not diagnosed with a reading disorder until eighth grade. He missed out on valuable instruction and opportunities simply because he got overlooked. By the time it was finally discovered (because his parents got fed up with trying to go through the school system they took him to an outside agency for testing) it was almost too late. He's never really been able to bounce back or learn to adjust and the impact on his life has been fairly substantial. I know his parents have that "if only it was picked up on sooner" mindset, and who can blame them? As early childhood educators it is so important for us to watch out for potential problems, delays, or concerns and relay that important information to parents which is my professional interest in this topic. I think sometimes I tend to work the extremes. Either every little thing is a potential problem or everything is developmental and children will “get it eventually”. I want to be more knowledgeable about developmental concerns and delays so parents don’t have to wake up in 10 years going “if only they had caught this sooner”. This topic can be sensitive to discuss with parents as often times the early childhood teacher is the first set of non familial eyes and ears on the child. We could potentially be the first one to suggest there is something "not right" about their child so it's important to know what to discuss with parents and how to approach the sensitive subject. I also want to work on collaborating better with special education teachers so I'm not devoting all of my time to the few special education students and neglecting my others (which I tend to do now). Unfortunately for me (and my students) I only had one special education class in college, and it was not the greatest learning tool. With the amount of students coming into my classroom with developmental delays and concerns I realized my deep lack of understanding and vowed to fix this as soon as possible!
I think thus far, I’ve learned so much about the research process. Perhaps the biggest thing I discovered so far is how to design the research. This is such an important step and one that takes careful and deliberate planning. One small mistake should have huge implications for the validity of the study. Who would think something as simple as how many students to study could be a make or break decision? Design the study is one important building block in the process, but one I know little about implementing. I’ve never actually conducted a formal research project so my fear lies in setting it all up correctly! Research is so time consuming I would not want to be at the conclusion and realize my work is not valid due to a design failure.
What are your thoughts and/or opinions on my topic? Do you have any input that you think would help me out either with this study or in this class? I’d love to hear from you if you do!
The topic of developmental delays was of great interest to me for several reasons. One was personal. I have a relative who was not diagnosed with a reading disorder until eighth grade. He missed out on valuable instruction and opportunities simply because he got overlooked. By the time it was finally discovered (because his parents got fed up with trying to go through the school system they took him to an outside agency for testing) it was almost too late. He's never really been able to bounce back or learn to adjust and the impact on his life has been fairly substantial. I know his parents have that "if only it was picked up on sooner" mindset, and who can blame them? As early childhood educators it is so important for us to watch out for potential problems, delays, or concerns and relay that important information to parents which is my professional interest in this topic. I think sometimes I tend to work the extremes. Either every little thing is a potential problem or everything is developmental and children will “get it eventually”. I want to be more knowledgeable about developmental concerns and delays so parents don’t have to wake up in 10 years going “if only they had caught this sooner”. This topic can be sensitive to discuss with parents as often times the early childhood teacher is the first set of non familial eyes and ears on the child. We could potentially be the first one to suggest there is something "not right" about their child so it's important to know what to discuss with parents and how to approach the sensitive subject. I also want to work on collaborating better with special education teachers so I'm not devoting all of my time to the few special education students and neglecting my others (which I tend to do now). Unfortunately for me (and my students) I only had one special education class in college, and it was not the greatest learning tool. With the amount of students coming into my classroom with developmental delays and concerns I realized my deep lack of understanding and vowed to fix this as soon as possible!
I think thus far, I’ve learned so much about the research process. Perhaps the biggest thing I discovered so far is how to design the research. This is such an important step and one that takes careful and deliberate planning. One small mistake should have huge implications for the validity of the study. Who would think something as simple as how many students to study could be a make or break decision? Design the study is one important building block in the process, but one I know little about implementing. I’ve never actually conducted a formal research project so my fear lies in setting it all up correctly! Research is so time consuming I would not want to be at the conclusion and realize my work is not valid due to a design failure.
What are your thoughts and/or opinions on my topic? Do you have any input that you think would help me out either with this study or in this class? I’d love to hear from you if you do!
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