Child Development 1- Early Childhood Programs

             While reading the first few pages of Child Development by Beck, I found myself nodding my head and grinning. I am a kindergarten teacher, and have always been interested in early childhood. Beck describes this as follows, “Early childhood: from 2 to 6 years. The body becomes longer and leaner, motor skills are refined, and children become more self-controlled and self-sufficient” (p6). As kindergarten students grow from the first day of school until the last day of school, I can literally see the growth in their self sufficiency, motor skills, and their bodies. For example, this year I have a child named Edgar. He came in almost entirely unable to cut with scissors. We were constantly working on helping him grow with these skills. On the last week of school, he was helping other students cut out their projects, as he got done early. This growth in just one child is astounding! Berk also goes on to say, “Make-believe play blossoms, supporting every aspect of psychological development. Thought and language expand at an astounding pace, a sense of morality becomes evident, and children establish ties with peers.” This is exactly what I see in my classroom each day.

            In this week’s discussion board posting, our class discussed over stimulation in children, and how it can cause negative effects. As I was researching this, I started to have some questions about Early learning centers and preschool. Could these possibly be doing harm to children, by overstimulating them? I found an article that talked about this in more depth.  “Second only to the immediate family, early care and education (ECE) settings are the context in which early development unfolds, starting in infancy and continuing through school entry for the vast majority of children in the United States. In 2005, 11.3 million children under the age of 5 were in some child care or early education arrangement while their mothers worked, including 1.9 million infants under the age of 1 (U.S. Bur. Census 2008). (Phillips and Lowenstein, p484) That seems like an incredible number, and that was just in 2005. I can only imagine that number has grown. In our school district, Head Start is a major program that many families are using to provide Early Education. It has gotten bigger and bigger each year. I found some information regarding this program. “Results of the randomized experimental Head Start Impact Study suggest that the program benefits low-income children’s cognitive and social development in the short term but has few longer-term effects(Phillips and Lowerstein, p.493” The study went on to say that children that begin at age 3 instead of age 4 have more significant gains. This was interesting to me. I am curious to see why it makes such a small difference, yet the 4 year olds grow even less than the three year olds. This article did not mention any negative effects, but they weren’t necessarily looking for them either.

            After reading about the growth (or lack thereof) from programs like head start, I started researching more about how a child’s character is developed. I appreciated the “From Research to Practice” on page 15 of our textbook. It discussed social change and some popular information on parenting with early childhood specifically. I found an article that was very interesting and helpful while searching for answers on this topic. However, little information could be found about how teachers influence character. “This is because much more is known about the effects of parenting on child development than is known about the effects of teacher behavior on child development” (Berkoqitz, p59). I’m surprised at the lack of data showing teacher’s role in behavior, especially since we are so involved in these children’s lives.

            One of my favorite theorists, Piaget, said, “…children actively construct knowledge as they manipulate and explore their world. (Berk p20). This is something I believe in fully, and wish I could incorporate into my teaching more than what I already do. It seems like education is swinging more and more in the opposite direction. Our school district seems to be ignoring developmental levels more and more, and it scares me for what is to come. Hopefully, I can gain some more knowledge of how to correctly meet the needs of my students while teaching the subjects my corporation wants me to teach. It might be difficult to do both, but I am determined to do what is best for my students. 

References

Berk, Laura. Child Development,. nineth edition. New York: Allyn and Bacon, 2010.

Berkoqitz, M.W., & Grych ,J. H (2000). Early character development and education.  Early    Education and Development, 11, 56-72. 

Deborah A. Phillips ,  Amy E. Lowenstein. Early Care, Education, and Child Development. Annual Review of Psychology 2011; 62: 483.