Research that benefits children and families

Unfortunately I have not had the chance to be involved in any early childhood research studies, nor do I know of anyone that has. I can be sure this will change in the near future. Although I did come across a study involving both children and their parents I found interesting and wanted to share with you all.

This study completed by Rachel Brown and Jane Ogden (2004) focused on children’s eating attitudes and behaviors and whether or not their parents have influence on their eating, specifically regarding snack foods. Trying to get young children to try new things and eat healthy has always been a challenge in my opinion. Proper nutrition and healthy eating habits has always been something our child care center has worked on throughout the school and with the families. Our company has even hired a nutritionist to help us and work with families that may need some guidance. With that being said, this study really caught my attention.

The study involved 112 parent/child pairs. Each pair filled out matched questionnaires which described eating motivations, snack intake, and body dissatisfaction. Additional items involving attempts to control food intake and using food as a tool to control behavior were completed by the parents.  What was revealed after the study was parents who tried harder to control their child’s dietary habits had higher intakes of both healthy and unhealthy food, while parents that used food to control their child’s behavior reported high body dissatisfaction. Brown and Ogden (2004) conclude by saying “a positive parental role model may be a better method for improving a child’s diet than attempts at dietary control.”

It is so important for parents to realize the importance of positive role modeling for their children. They pick up a lot from the adults around them, mainly parents and caregivers. Healthy nutrition is so important for the healthy development of all children. I enjoyed this study because it combined two topics that I find very important in the lives of children, nutrition and parental involvement.  

http://her.oxfordjournals.org/content/19/3/261.full

Personal Research Journey

There are many topics in early childhood that I would love to research further in order to expand my knowledge base. So when it came to picking only one topic to focus on during these upcoming weeks, coming to a decision was a challenge for me. I chose the topic of assessments in early childhood. Assessments are crucial for the educational success of children. It is so important for educators to realize the reality of assessments inside the classroom and why they are so important. Breaking this topic into three subtopics was hard because there are so many things you can focus on regarding assessments, such as the methods used, the correct tools to chose, and how often do you assess. What I eventually came up with was the uses of assessments in early childhood programs, the challenges educators face when assessing young children, and the importance of involving parents in the assessment process.

I am a huge advocate in parent involvement for the success of a child. I have worked in many different areas of early childhood such as curriculum supervisor, teacher and director, and in all my positions I have worked to involve parents in the classroom. I have observed such a positive reaction from students when they see their moms and dads actively engaged in their education. So with choosing a topic to focus on throughout this course, learning more about parent involvement in the assessment process stood out to me the most. Even though I have observed positive results from parent involvement in the classroom in general, involvement at the assessment level is something that is unfamiliar to me.

Right now I have reservations about myself and researching. This is something I am not too familiar with but am very interested in someday mastering. I know properly learning how to research will help me in my future journey in early childhood, although I have to admit it is a bit scary to me. In my mind there are many places throughout the research process where it can go wrong for me.  I want to be successful and am hoping that I will learn a lot from my colleagues throughout the next few weeks.

 Is there anyone else that has reservations or is it just me?
Does anyone prefer one search engine over another when looking for articles?...sometimes I have trouble when using Walden Library instead of just a google search.
Any good advice for handling the research process for the first time?

Reflecting on Established Relationships

I honestly didn’t think I would enjoy this course as much as I have. I was never one on doing a lot of research, although this course has shed a new light on research for me. I thoroughly enjoyed surfing the many websites over the weeks as well as reading the very informative articles listed for our resources. I have learned so much more about the issues EC professionals face around the world. To my surprise they are struggling with the same issues around the world that we are here in the U.S.. Although I was not able to make contact on the global level with any EC professionals, the resources I was able to have access to are so valuable to me. I have become knowledgeable during this course of how others, not related to education, have become involved in advocating for early education and their impact in the field. I feel I have grown in my knowledge of early education, focusing more on worldly issues. Sometimes I feel I am so immersed in my work as a Director and running my school, I don’t get the chance to be aware and read up on certain issue that impact the early childhood field as a whole. I now have been introduced to such amazing resources and websites that I know will help me tremendously in the future.

Recently, I have been thinking more about my career in the early childhood field and where I want to wind up in the future. I have had the opportunity to persue many roles in early childhood trying to figure out what role would be the best fit for me. I have thoroughly enjoyed this course and hate to see it come to an end. Maybe that is a sign for me on a professional level. My goal moving forward is to keep up on my research and set time during the week to do so. I want to keep up on the websites I have been visiting and join more newsletters to gain access to even more information. This course has shown me that I don’t just want to focus on what is going on here in the U.S., but to keep abreast of what is going on globally in the world of early childhood. The knowledge I have gained will only help in improving my center for the children and families that I am blessed to see on a daily basis, as well as improve my own personal growth as an EC professional.

I thank all my classmates for the wonderful information that you have shared throughout this course and helping to make this a wonderful path towards gaining my Masters. I wish everyone the best of luck on your journeys!