Observing and Interacting with Professionals, Children, and Families in an Early Childhood Setting

I observed at a preschool early childhood program in the Centralia City Schools.  This early childhood program is located within the kindergarten center and is one of two programs that the school system offers.  It is a half-day program with approximately twelve children in each session for a total of forty-eight children receiving special needs services. 

The program that I observed in has a lead teacher and three aides.  There is boy with spinibifida and a girl with autism who have private aides.  The other aide takes care of the needs for the other ten children.   In addition to teaching these children they are also potty training them without a private bathroom in their room. 

I spoke with the lead teacher and asked her if she believed that the amount of special need children in the program has increased over the years and she said that they have definitely had an increase in the number of children that have entered the program.  She said that the children are referred through Birth to Three, Head Start, and a community screening that is done every spring.  There are two special need early childhood classes and when the child enters the program they stay with the same teacher until they go into kindergarten.  She indicated that it was exciting to witness the child develop and grow while they were in her class.  She is a definite advocate for inclusion in the classroom.

I have observed in this class before this semester and I was pleased to see that she follows the same routine every day.  By this I mean they do the same sort of activity daily at the same time.  I spoke with the main aide and she said that they rotate toys on a daily basis in some instances and on a weekly basis in other instances.  They usually start with free play but this is very controlled free play, the aide has manipulatives out for the children to play with individually, then they have a circle time, art project and free play associated with the weekly theme, snack, book time and music.  The children definitely know what to expect next daily.  I believe this routine is very important for all children but especially for a special needs child. 

During the art and free play time each aide works with the children on some sort of individual activity such as sorting from smallest to largest and records their progress on a chart, thus they have a daily evaluation of the child’s development in various areas.  There are usually four activity centers with teacher directed activities going on at the same time.  I thought this was a great way to constantly assess the child’s development and it seemed to be fairly easy and without a lot of paperwork.  When it comes time to assess the child’s development they have a lot of data and input for the child’s IEP.  This method also provides them with a time line for the child’s development since daily sheets have the date posted on them.

One thing that I observed was that the teacher checked their backpacks as soon as they arrived.  I asked her why she checked them and she said that she had sent homework home with them the day before and she was checking to see if it was completed and returned.  If they returned it completed they got to take something out of the treasure chest.  I thought that this was a really good idea for getting them into the habit of doing homework.

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Insights gained from your interviews regarding current advocacy efforts and needs in your area of interest within the field of early childhood.

My area of interest within the field of early childhood is a child’s social/emotional development.  I spoke to a speech therapist, one who has been in the field for nineteen years, and she indicated that she works mainly with children who have special needs and they tend to be behind other children in the classroom socially/emotionally.  She works for the Birth to Three program.  She also said that it is very important to determine their age socially/emotionally since they are special needs children.  She believed that it would be easier to determine a child’s social/emotional development with a child without special needs.  Since she is a speech therapist, she focuses on their speech and trying to improve it but she also works with them in relationship to playing with toys and following her directions and by this she can determine their social/emotional age. 

The other professional who I spoke to is an early childhood teacher for four-year old children with special needs.  She works for the city school system and her classroom is in the kindergarten center.  I discussed with her that I wanted to do my research paper on the social/emotional development of early childhood children and she thought that I would be able to find a lot of information concerning this topic.  She also indicated that it is very important for the teacher to know where the child is social/emotional in their development.  She told me to observe the children and after they leave for the day we would talk about which ones I felt were not at the social/emotional level of development that they needed to be at.  After we discussed each child (ten total), we agreed on all but one of them.  I thought that the child was further along than the teacher did.

How these interviews may have influenced your decision about which area of interest and topics to choose for your research paper.

After interviewing both professionals, I felt more confident in my choice for the research paper.  Social/emotional development is not anything new however; it has come to the front burner in the past five years and is a topic that few teachers or parents know a lot about.  Knowing their child’s social/emotional development and how to move that child to the next level of development is essential to help prepare a child for kindergarten.  

Which area of interest you are thinking of focusing on for your paper as well as the related three specific topics.

The area of interest that I am thinking of focusing on for my paper is social/emotional development.  Some of the related topics to this would include:  how to identify where the child is in their social/emotional development and how to help move that child to the next level of development; questioning why preschool should not be set up as kindergarten; and what children need to be ready for learning and kindergarten. 

The last item knowing what children need to be ready for learning and kindergarten I have discussed at length with kindergarten teachers and they all told me the same thing, they want children who are confident, trusting, and able to control their emotions.  They can teach their students the alphabet, numbers, to read, etc. but they cannot teach twenty some students how to control their emotions and sit still in class.

Social Emotional Development

The topic that I have chosen is social emotional development.  Many times a child is not ready to attend kindergarten because they are social emotionally not ready for the structure that kindergarten demands.  As early childhood educators we must recognize the importance of preparing the children in our care for kindergarten.  Many directors and teachers do not recognize the importance of the social emotional development of a child.  As a director as well as a teacher, when I am confronted with a behavior problem I first look at the child's social emotional age instead of their age.  Parents, teachers, and directors need to be educated to look at the social emotional age of the child.

Social Emotional development of the child is one of the most important and misunderstood developments that teachers and parents deal with in regard to their developing child.

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This is the first time that I have tried a blog so I hope this is right.