Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Interviews



I interviewed two Early Childhood Professionals, a child care director and a preschool teacher, to complete my first blog journal. I gained great insights regarding current advocacy efforts and needs for social-emotional development in the field of early childhood. A few of these current advocacy efforts include: family support programs, early intervention programs, early screenings, and high quality child care programs. All these programs serve as advocates by providing services to families and young children that will help promote healthy social-emotional development. 

According to the two professionals I interviewed, the most predominant need in social-emotional development is high quality teachers. The child care director explained that there is “an increasing need for highly trained early childhood teachers who know how to support children’s social-emotional development”. In addition, the preschool teacher explained that there’s also “a need to educate families about the critical role that social-emotional development plays in their children’s lives”. 

These interviews positively influenced my decision to focus on the area of social-emotional development for my research paper. The professionals I interviewed gave me a more in depth look by giving me their perspectives and experiences in this area. Through my conversations with these professionals, I was able to narrow down on three topics for my research paper.
My three topics are:
1.
How do teachers and parents influence children’s social-emotional development?
2. The benefits that high quality centers have on social-emotional development.
3. The factors that impede proper social-emotional development.   

I have a couple of questions for my colleagues regarding my area of interest:
1.What are your thoughts on social-emotional development?
2. If you are currently working with children or have children of your own, how do you support their development in this area?

5 comments:

  1. Hello Tatiana,
    The two people you interviewed were good choices I believe.I too work at a daycare and we are having the same problem getting good quality teachers. This is a problem for my center because they do not pay well and there not benefits for us. Working in a daycare in rewarding but the ratio is not right to me, the pay is ridiculous and the work is really hard if you do not have the support of your director and owners. Some days I come home so tired I have to try to focus to do homework and spend quality time with my children and husband. Thank yo for sharing

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  2. Early detection and intervention of social and emotional problems can have a long-term impact on the developing child in major areas. The development of emotional self-control and social ability in the early years plays a significant role in determining the way children think, learn, react to obstacles, and develop relationships throughout their lives. When children are young, the adults around them (parents, other adult caregivers, preschool teachers) are the most important influences on their social and emotional development.It is so important that this development is met because children as well as adults need to adjust to society and if this development does not happen they will not have much of a future I do feel and believe that there are great teachers who can make this happen but not all of them have the patience this is a process not only for them but for us as educators as well nice post.

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  3. I noticed you stated that you learned from the two professionals that you interviewed, that the biggest need in social emotional development is high quality teachers. As a teacher, I have to wonder what role does the parents of the children play as well as the program serving the children. Many say it takes a village to raise a child, I agree. The level of social emotional development can't be the responsibility of only the teachers. Most of social emotional development in my view starts in the womb,based on nutrition and in the home of the child.

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  4. Hi Tatiana,

    Let me begin by saying that I enjoyed your post. One of the comments from your post that I found most interesting was the statement from the the child care director stating “ [there is] an increasing need for highly trained early childhood teachers who know how to support children’s social-emotional development” My first thought was "What does this professional mean by "highly trained?" as there seems to be differing criteria from school to school. I could not agree more that families do need available education to help them realize how important it is that social-emotional development plays an important role in their children’s lives. This is very apparent with my students that have had preschool exposure or siblings vs. students that have not had preschool or are is an only child. The difficult question is "What would be an effective way to communicate this to parents?" I believe children begin to develop social skills very early in life. This means it is important to have them exposed socially to others (i.e. family, friends, children) as young as possible and continue to support those interactions throughout early development. As a parent, it is even more important not to shelter or deprive our kids from these new experiences that help them to grow.

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  5. Many families have great difficulty allow their children to talk to a social worker or counselor. So many of our young children come from single parent families, young mothers, children who have been rejected by their birth parents that we really do need highly qualified teachers, social workers etc. to work with these children.

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