Reflection on Professional Learning Growth

3 Consequences of being a part of a collaborative community

·         I was able to learn from the experiences that my colleagues were willing to share.

·         We were able to bounce ideas off of one another about potential options that will strengthen the field. 

·         It was good to be able to talk to others that can relate to my professional goals and be as passionate about them as I am

I plan on using this experience to help me collaborate with other professionals in the field.  I will use the ideas, thoughts, and remember the opinions of my classmates when I am making critical decisions that affect children, families, and other EC professionals. 

 

 

My Hypothetical Family Situation

Hello I will soon be the mother of a child with Asperger’s syndrome.  Asperger’s Syndrome is a form of autistic disorder.  Some of the signs are with social interaction.  Instead of playing with the cars the child will organize it and arrange them by color.  They avoid eye contact, don’t like change in their routine, lack empathy, and socially withdrawn just to name a few.    

 

My husband and I are excited to adopt this three year old boy and we love so much already.  My husband’s occupation is an Athletic Director for a Division II College and I am a professor at community college.  We are a household where our socioeconomic status is upper middle class.  This will be our only child which means we can fully concentrate on the needs of this child.  We are blessed to be able to access the financial resources needed to get this child the best care and access to the best preschools like yours organization.

 

We only have close friends who live around us.  All our family lives out of state.  So we are looking for support from teachers and school administration to gain knowledge on what we can do to control our child’s disorder. We feel that early learning and development will be a huge benefit to our child in the long run.     

http://www.asperger-advice.com/asperger-syndrome-and-children.html  

Have I given a complete picture of my family, or are there details missing that I should include in order to complete the assignment successfully? If so, what are your suggestions?

Is this situation realistic?

Are there any specific websites I should be reviewing with regard to learning about quality services and programs for my child and family in this hypothetical family situation?

Does anyone have any thoughts, based on my specific family situation, that will affect the early childhood system I am creating?

 
Thanks for the feedback!!!

Public Policy

Public policy is a major aspect of early education and have contributed a lot to the field.  In the past advocates and policy has changed the Head Start program from being a 8 week program to a full time full day program.  I have learned that the resources have been a great asset to the program, however, there still isn't enough to service every child who qualifies for the program.  Changing the program to a full time program is has shown how the time increase has had great positive impacts on young children and also bettered their families.  This strategy has proven the importance of preschool and early childhood education. 

The part that bothers me the most is that even though there is research that proves early childhood has great positive impacts there still seems to be resistance with getting proper funding.  Everyone wants to early education to be high quality and be accessible to every young child but politicians and other people who can provide more resources to the field seem not to want to.  This make frustrated and a little sad because the littlest increase in resources can make huge differences in the field, young children, their families, and the community.