Research Around the World

The website I have chosen for this blog assignment is the Early Childhood Australia site. I have found approximately 57 current international research topic on the Early Childhood page in support of this assignment.  While on the websites I have topics such as: mental health, education and families’ health and well-being. 

I have learn since visiting this Early Childhood Australia website that there various links of resources for parents, educators and professionals. There is also a portion on this website that is called kidsmatter is setup different part of the region, which is geared to collaborative partnerships between people who possess a wealth of knowledge and passion about early childhood.  

Here are some more topic and description of current issue relating to early childhood: 

The Technical Assistance Center on Social Emotional Intervention for Young Children (TACSEI) promotes evidence based practices that improve the social-emotional outcomes for young children with additional needs and develops free resources to support ECEC services, schools, families, community services and policy makers apply these best practices in the work that they do.

Mental Health and Wellbeing in Australia provides information on the Australian Government’s role and contributions to mental health reform activities in Australia. The site is maintained by the Australian Government agencies with responsibility for implementing these reforms.

Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF) has been developed collaboratively by the Australian and State and Territory Governments and describes the principles, practice and outcomes essential to support and enhance young children’s learning from birth to five years of age, and their transition to school. The EYLF is part of the Council of Australian Government’s (COAG) reform agenda for early childhood education and care and is a key component of the Australian Government’s National Quality Framework for early childhood education and care.

Australian Childhood Foundation is a national organization aimed at protecting children and preventing abuse and violence. A range of useful resources for families including information in a range of languages is available.

Other information that I found was noteworthy was the Early Childhood Learning Hub. The learning hub are modules that include video and written resources to help educators gain practical understanding of standards, frameworks and research about quality practice.

 

References: 

(2014). Early Childhood Australia: a voice for young children,
  
     Professional learning hub. Retrieved from http://

   

    www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au/learning-hub/professional-learning/

 

A research contribution that benefit children and their families

Option 2:

            The topic that I feel will make a positive contribution to the well-being of children and/ or their families are the need to receive high quality education. It is so important that all children have the opportunity to receive the best education there is to offer. In order to uphold the “No Child Left Behind Act” children must be provided with a rich learning environment that is well- balance in academics, a curriculum that support developmentally practices, age appropriate activities and the opportunity to play while they are learning. Learning starts early on in a child’s life. In fact: The first three years of life are periods where tremendous grow is taking place in all areas of a child’s developmental domain. The brain is growing tremendously making learning possible for children. As an educator, it is good to scaffold children learning as well as meeting their developmental needs.

            It is essential to advocate for children and their family’s rights to receive a better education. Everyone needs to be involved in the process to collaborate as one voice and purpose of trying to get funding to support high quality education for all children.  As an educator as well as a parent; I would call on the community, government officials, local school board councils and various organizations in support of better education to provide the funding needed to get learning materials, educational programs, new texts books and qualified teachers to help educate young children. 

My Personal Research Journey

The topic I have chosen is language development. I have chosen this topic for several reasons. 1. I work at a center where so many children are receiving services because of a speech delay. 2. I work with children and families who are second language learners. 3. reason for choosing language development is because I am using the bilingual emergent approach within my classroom in order to speak both English and Spanish language to children and their family.

Language development is a very important skill, in which a child will use to communicate in order to express their needs and thoughts. As an educator it is so important to help children enhance their language development by providing them with age appropriate activities that will allow them to learn new words and communicate well. For example: providing daily reading of short story, asking the children open-ended question, using music as a mean of communication, one on one communication between the teacher/child and supporting group discussion (peer to peer communicate). 

I remember when my daughter was about the age of two years old had to receive a tracheotomy due to a sudden illness, where she was not getting the proper oxygen to her brain. After receiving the tracheotomy my daughter was moving her lips to talk, but not one sound came from her mouth. I was told by doctor if my daughter would cover the hole of the trach with her finger then sound will come from her mouth. My daughter got smart by using her chin to communicate her needs and thoughts with a clear sound. For about three years that’s how my daughter communicated with me and others her life. At first, it was a challenging and scary experience for both my daughter and I, but over the years it got better especially when we was able to communicate again. It felt and sound good to hear her voice after weeks of silence. In school my daughter also receives speech therapy as well to enhance her language development. I am currently working in a classroom where children have an IEP and receiving speech therapy once a week. In conjunction with the speech therapy it is my duty to provide weekly lesson plan that will meet the child’s individual need. 

I am not sure just of yet where I am going with research topic on language development with the subtopics of strategies use to promote healthy language development in young children, the advantage of speaking in the child’s home language and the importance of an on-going positive communication between the teacher, children and their families.  So, if someone has any suggested resources or knowledge about the language development please feels free to share it.