My Role as an Advocate

The thing that motivated me to start advocating for young children was I saw young children were encountering so many issues that I felt were unfair to them.  For example, obesity.  I feel young children should never have to encounter child obesity and all the health, emotional, physical, and social ramifications that come with it.  I understand child obesity is a nationwide problem but to I take it as we also need to look at the local and micro levels because that will kick start the change that will influence a change on the nationwide level or macro level.   This is way it is important to pay attention and foster efforts at the micro level.  It takes passion, communication skills and strong skills in the ability to collaborate with others.  For state leaders they need resources.  Some resources they need are advocates to keep them in the know, business leaders for financial resources, economics with help with the budget, and other EC professionals so they can have the current trends in early education and care.  Some advice I would give people who want to be in leadership roles are listen to those around you.  They will keep you up to date on current issues. Also have a team a trusted advisors who can help you come up with proper solutions.  Then I would say trust your own instincts and fuel the passion for change.   

Personal Advocacy Reflection

I'll tell my story.  My family and I fell on hard times.  We lost our jobs and was having a hard to getting new jobs.  It was frustrating, tiring, and exhausting.  So one day, when we had nothing to eat, I went to local food bank I had heard about from a friend.  While I was sitting there waiting with my children, one of the family advocates called me into her office.  She took the time to talk to me but the thing that stood out was that she asked me how I was doing.  I had been so wrapped up in my current situation that I didn't have to time to think about how I was feeling and process anything.  All I could do was cry.  She gave me a hug and talked to me about numerous options I could do to better my family's situation.  Long story cut short, her conversation is what fueled me to go back to school and get my master's degree.  It was the best decision I have ever made. 

Becoming a Advocate

Hello everyone.  I am so excited for this course and I am ready to learn from others perspectives on advocacy too.  It is my professional goal to be a child advocate and work closely with children and families in my community.  I really want to make difference and I know that will gain the most knowledge when I learn from others.  Plus it takes to a team to bring about change.  I want to thank you in advance for helping me a better advocate.

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.      

Parent and Family Involvement

Parent and family involvement is very important.  After listening to the Parent and Family stories it has strengthened my opinion on the manner.  Professional I feel that all parents and families are key to strengthening a young child's developmental process and academic success.  I am a teacher of a preschool class and I have seen how parents who are involved have a great influence on their children.  I have troubled children do a complete 180 once the parents and I came together and formulate a plan.  This was also true with what I heard on through the stories.  In my personal life I a mother of four and I have one child who went through the Head Start program.  He was a child who seemed to be developing certain challenges and those challenges were eliminated once he was placed in the program and my husband and I became more involved.  There was consistency for him and was able to learn and grow through the partnership between his teachers and myself. 

 I understand that some parents are not able to involved as much as they would like to be because of outside factors.  Things that work and time are most common factors that hinder parents from being more involved.  However, it is my opinion that even busy parents can find some time to get engage in their children's education.  This is just my opinion.  I think that even participating once or twice a year in person and constantly through emails and electronic devices can make a big difference.