Research Around the World

Australian Early Development Census resources

This project is to promote and demonstrate the importance of using the data collected for to inform programming, planning, and development and implementation on Quality Improvement Plans and to assist Kindergartens and other programs to build skills and knowledge of how to use the data to support their programming and planning.

http://www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au/our-work/aedc-project/

They have a whole website dedicated to this project and it even has a link for researchers, specifically for researchers. Not many sites do have a section just for researchers, but I think it’s important for all professionals in the early childhood field to receive information to keep the field going strong and the benefits it has for young children.

http://www.aedc.gov.au/researchers

They have a list of options in the researchers section and the section that I found interesting was the current research projects. On the site there is a list of research projects; all of the projects are on important developmental needs of young children. The researcher project that was the most current is on young children’s health development. It breaks down the various health issues young children can suffer from and learn ways to prevent them from happening.

http://www.health.nsw.gov.au/epidemiology/Publications/2014-CHO-Report.pdf

Some of the current topics that are interesting and I would like to learn more of are: The Health of Children and Young People in NSW: Report of the Chief Health Officer 2014, Associations Between the Early Development Instrument at Age 5, and Reading and Numeracy Skills at Ages 8, 10 and 12: a Prospective Linked Data Study, and Updating Child Social Exclusion (CSE) at Small Area Level in Australia; there are many more interesting projects relating to early childhood education and the field itself.

The new insight I have gained from exploring this website is the importance of children’s health and nutrition, including separation anxiety, and transition to schools for children and adults. These topics are all under the parent resource section on the website. Throughout the article, there are links for more information and other resources on the same topic. I find that children, families, and early childhood professionals care about health and nutrition, child development, and transitions to changes that occur in a child’s life. It’s a nice guide for researchers to know why early childhood professionals partake in various research projects that support and share knowledge on topics relating to early childhood education and the field.

I was impressed with all the resources and professional training's that are offered through the site. It’s a place I would want to go back and look through. There are many resources that I thought were helpful for teachers to use in their classrooms. There are some great guidelines that I could share with the families in my program to help support their knowledge on health and nutrition, especially asthma. The resources explain it in a way many can easily understand what asthma is and how to support those that have it. 

Reference:

Early Childhood Australia. Retrieved from http://earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au/

Research that Benefits Children and Families – Uplifting Stories

Uri Bronfenbrenner stated, “…the only safe way to avoid violating principles of professional ethics is to refrain from doing social research altogether" (Coady, 2010, p. 73).

To think about myself as a researcher that has the ability and knowledge of conducting research on any topic in the early childhood field. Looking at the benefits and positive contributions to young children and their families is in a way, why research is so important to finding the data to support families and children to overcome many struggles and challenges they can face in their lifetime. This could be diseases, disorders, medical conditions, and various disabilities that a child or an adult is diagnosed with and there is no known cure to prevent the decline in a patient or to cure the condition all together (OHRP, 45 CFR 46.406; OHRP, section 406).

The topic I would chose would be attachment. The attachment between parents and their child, what are the benefits of this bond for those children and their families in the long run. The benefits of a strong attachment with their parents, will support their child’s ability of interacting with others and forming bonds with peers, teachers, and other people in their community. Having a strong attachment with family members, helps the child grow and develop learning skills, as ease; with the support from the child’s parents. Children that have a strong attachment with their parent or guardian, the child is able to make attachments with others around them, their able to grow and develop their learning skills by mastering their developmental needs to be successful. Their focus and attention span is strong and they don’t lose focus too easily, they are able to deal with distractions compared to other children.  The contribution that would be made for this topic, based on the research conducted by myself and my colleagues would be the importance of a strong attachment between a parent and child will have the ability to understand others emotions and how to interact and socialize with others in the world around them. The research would involve observation of young children and interviews with their parents; to discover how their relationship with their child is and how they could strengthen the relationship and bond with one another. I would continue to research the topic and see what other researchers, scientists, and other early childhood professionals, have found on the topic to continue to contribute to the topic and the benefits of attachment between a parent and their child.

References

Coady, M. (2010). Ethics in early childhood research. Doing early childhood research: International perspectives on theory and practice (2nd ed., pp. 73 - 84). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services: Office for Human Research Protections (OHRP). (n.d.) Special protections for children as research subjects. HHS.gov. Retrieved on from http://www.hhs.gov/ohrp/policy/populations/children.html.

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services: Office for Human Research Protections (OHRP). (n.d.). Research with children—FAQs. HHS.gov. Retrieved from http://answers.hhs.gov/ohrp/categories/1570.

Your Personal Research Journey

The topic I have chosen for my research simulation is the ways to foster, positive, healthy social-emotional development in toddlers. I chose this topic because a child’s social-emotional development is the key to a child’s understanding and knowledge of the world around them. For the last year, I have been trying my best as a teacher to support a child that have out of control aggressive behavior towards his peers and teachers. I was the child’s primary teacher, in an Early Head Start Program, where I worked very closely with the child and his family. I spoke with the parents on a regular basis and share my concerns of his behavior. I would ask the family if they saw any of the behaviors that the child has been expressing in the program at home. The parents would always tell me no, he doesn't act like that there, and doesn't understand why he does it at school. I had many support meetings with the parents and other early childhood professionals to get the help and support he needs to overcome his emotional state of mind. I did everything I could think of to help this child overcome and deal with his emotions, help himself become self-regulated, and support the child to bond with others to help him feel confident in himself. This is why I chose the topic at hand, because of my personal struggle as a teacher to help this specific child to overcome his fears, anger, frustration, that all seems to stem from his family experiences and environment that plays a roll into his social-emotional development with other children, other adults, and other people within his community.

I took the time to start some research on my topic that I have chosen, but realizing its picking the right wording to search for the topic. I was able to find some resources on my topic, but need to find the correct way to use the terms to find more information regarding my topic. Though I only found about 5 resources regarding my topic, I think I need to do a lot more to find information regarding social-emotional development, when I’m aware of the importance of social-emotional development on young children.

I found the research chart helpful, but a challenge at the same time. I feel like I’m looking at research in a whole in light, because there are steps that brand new to me that I just learning.  There are things that I would never have thought about when starting to research any topic within the early childhood field. I feel there are many steps at completing high-quality research and I’m at the beginning of my journey. There are terms like positivist, interpretivist, postmodern paradigms, I've never heard of before; including the intense process of research as a whole. I’m hoping to understand it and knowing that I’ll have to focus more on understanding what is asked of me for assignments throughout this course to understand the best way to go about research and gain knowledge to quality research in the early childhood field.

I would like to ask my colleagues for advice and suggestions on key terms when research my topic of choice. I would like to hear your thoughts on your own journey of research as well. I think if we help and support one another with resources and the way we each look up information on our specific research topic. I’m willing to share resources when asked and work together to explore the resource together.  By working together and collaborating for an outcome, together we can find all the resources needed to everyone’s topic.

References:

Mac Naughton, G., & Rolfe, S. A. (2010). The research process. Doing Early Childhood Research: International perspectives on theory and practice (2^nd ed., pp. 22 - 43). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.