When I Think of Child Development

These pictures represent much of what I believe about child development. An adult has provided a safe and stimulating environment and is now letting these children do what they do best. Discover and problem solve together! Blocks is probably my favorite learning center because all areas of development can clearly  be observed. Fine and gross motor skills are challenged and refined with a variety of block types and sizes. Cognitive development of math and science skills such as fractions,patterning, balance and speed are learned. Learning to work together, dealing with frustration as you try to figure out how to get that tower to stand or negotiating with a friend for that last bridge shape block you need to complete your structure shows social/emotional development as well as growth in  language skills. The art of being an early childhood educator is knowing when to scaffold a child's learning and when to just observe with wonder as they learn new skills before our eyes.

Assessment Methods

 Assessment can provide valuable information for educators about a particular child’s skill level. There is a need for some formal standardized assessment but it must be supplemented with teacher observations of the child working within the class setting. Standardized testing gives you just a snapshot of a child’s performance in a setting that is highly stressful for some students. There are many variables in a student’s life that can affect the results of a test given on a particular day.

 In the field of early childhood education, often an overview of a new topic may be given in a large group setting and then reinforced in much smaller groups. Just having the children move to smaller groups of 3-4 children allows for assessment of what was learned during whole group instruction. Reinforcement can take place immediately, as well as, one-on-one instruction if needed.

Also, written observations in each developmental area must be maintained monthly so that anecdotal records of a child’s skills are available. I believe samples of the work from each area should be saved also. The maintaining of these types of records provides teachers with an overview of a child’s development throughout the year and can be an indicator of the need for formal testing when expected developmental milestones are not reached.

A study was published in 2001 entitled Trusting Teacher’s Judgments: A validity study of a curriculum-embedded performance assessment in kindergarten to grade 3. In the study the Work Sampling System, a teacher based assessment with sample collection, was compared to the results of the same student’s scores on the Woodcock-Johnson Psychoeducational Battery-Revised, a standardized test. The results found that the teacher’s judgment was valid and their assessment of children’s learning or special needs were in direct correlation to the results indicated by the standardized test. The teacher’s assessments were conducted as part of the routine instruction with no additional stress to their students.

The International Math and Science Study has been conducted 1995, 1997, 2003 and 2007. It provides information on math and science achievement of United States 4^th and 8^th graders to that of other countries. One of the countries that always scores higher than the US is Japan so I thought I would look at how they assess their students. I was surprised to learn that in Japan they feel a student’s motivation to learn is the most important thing. Teachers use whole class instruction with everyone working at the same pace. Mathematics is presented in terms of concepts rather than calculations, withholding the correct answer, but having the class work as a whole to  come up with as many solutions as possible. It is important to the Japanese that those who do understand help classmates that do not when doing seatwork. In the US we might see that has holding back the advanced students, but in Japan, they see it as a way for those students to cooperate with people of diverse abilities. Learning to interact with others is seen as a form of studying because it is so important in that culture. Tracking and drilling of math skills and facts is not dome until later in junior high when preparing students for high school entrance exams.

Japanese students actually spend more hours studying music, arts & handicrafts, homemaking, physical education, moral education and doing special activities than on math and science. Students participate in activities such as picking flowers and raising rabbits. We may have much to learn from Japan as our system of more time on drilling and testing does not seem to be improving our students understanding of mathematical concepts.

 I am not comfortable with the current focus on standardized test scores in the United States. It has been proven that well trained teachers can evaluate their students learning achievement and needs accurately and effectively without the unnecessary stress and expense of routine standardized tests. We also have something to learn from effective teaching methods of other countries, that rote drilling and teacher lecture are not the most effective ways to instruct school age children.

References

National Center for Educational Statistics. Trends in international mathematics and science study (TIMSS). Retrieved from http://nces.ed.gov/timss/

 Samuel J Meisels, Donna DiPrima Bickel, Julie Nicholson, Yange Xue, & Sally Atkins-Burnett. (2001). Trusting teachers' judgments: A validity study of a curriculum-embedded performance assessment in kindergarten to grade 3. American Educational Research Journal, 38(1), 73.  Retrieved October 15, 2011, from ProQuest Central. (Document ID: 113701421).

Wu, Angela. (1999, January). The Japanese education system: a case study summary and analysis. Research Today. Retrieved from http://www2.ed.gov/pubs/ResearchToday/98-3038.html

Consequences of Stress on Child Development - Corporal Punishment

With my husband’s permission I am sharing part of the story of his childhood.  He was raised by authoritarian parents, where insulting language and physical punishment was the norm. Children opinions were not considered. He and his siblings were often called stupid. Being beaten with hands, as well as, wooden spoons or belts was common. As the boys got older the violence could escalate to actual fist fights with their dad. My husband and his brothers became known as the terrors of the neighborhood often bulling others and getting into fights in school.

Becoming a bully I believe, was actually a coping mechanism for them. My husband was not allowed to express his anger at home or try to defend himself with words so he took it out on others that were defenseless against him. He is not proud of this and has shared his story with our children. Other ways my husband coped was to be very careful not to break the rules and to spend as much time out of the house as possible.

When it came to raising our children, my husband knew he did not want to repeat what his parents had done to him so he said I was in charge of all parenting decisions. Working together I explained my reasons for using more authoritative approach. Teaching him what our children were actually capable of understanding as developmentally. We did not use any type of physical punishment, just lots of redirection and a system of natural and logical consequences.   

My husband has had to do much work to learn to control his anger. He sought counseling and became very involved in his faith and our church.  Inanimate objects are still in danger of being thrown if he is having a particularly tough day.  Most of our friends and his colleges would be shocked to find out that he struggles with self-esteem issues on occasion. Because my husband was strong enough to recognize his emotional challenges and was willing to work on the issues they created, he is a fabulous father with children who turn to him and are willing to discuss anything with him. He has healed some of his relationship with his father; our son was a conduit for that. His father is a completely different man with our son, who spends a part of his summer visiting his grandfather several states away each year.

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A 2008 article published in the Bulletin of the World Health Organization, showed the results of a study conducted in Brazil on the effects of severe physical punishment. The study states that many stressors can affect a child’s mental health and severe physical punishment is one of them. The other main factor was maternal anxiety and depression. The behaviors children in this study exhibited showing external signs of mental health issues were aggression, as well as, vandalism and robbery. Internalized signs were symptoms of depression. The researchers see these as modifiable risk factors and believe intervention and parent education could help parents modify their behavior and adopt healthier parenting techniques.

In doing this research I also found an organization called the Global Initiative to End All Corporal Punishment of Children. There are quotes from children who have participated in research studies around the world. The quotes from some Brazilian children included: from 10-12 year olds “Hitting is useless, it should be talking” & “I think it is very ugly to be beaten” A 13 year old girl said “My father hits for nothing, he hits to see his child cry” and a 14 year old boy “My mother hits me, but not to hurt me, just so that I’ll be a real man when I grow-up”. I found these and other quotes very telling of how children see corporal punishment.

In June 2007, a campaign was launched in Brazil to prohibit corporal punishment by Educate do not Punish, which is a network of institutions that works as a social movement trying to stop all types of corporal punishment.  The have a website where scholarly papers and articles on the effects of corporal punishment can be found. In addition there are manuals for parents. This group establishes trainings for parents and educators.  In 2010,  a Bill was sent by Brazilian President Lula to congress to establish the rights of children to be educated and cared for without the use of corporal punishment.

References

Azevedo, M. A. & Azevedo Guerra, V. N., (2001) Hitting Mania: Domestic corporal punishment of children and adolescents in Brazil, Sao Paulo: IGLU Editoria. Global Initiative to End All Corporal Punishment of Children. Retrieved from http://www.endcorporalpunishment.org/pages/frame.html

Bordin, I. A., Duarte, C. S., Peres, C. A., Nascimento, R., Curto, B. M., & Paula, C.S. (2008, August). Severe physical punishment: risk of mental health problems for poor urban children in Brazil. Bulletin of the World Health Organization. Retrieved from http://www.who.int/bulletin/volumes/87/5/07-043125/en/

Educate do not Punish. Retrieved from http://www.naobataeduque.org.br/site/reforma_legal/brasil.php