My Hypothetical Family Situation

 

**This is not a true story**

 

My husband and I are expecting our first child, a boy.  Spina bifinda runs in my husband’s family so we made sure to get a full panel of testing done to ease our worried minds.  We had our amniocentesis test and it was determined that our child will be born with Down Syndrome.  We are nervous and do not know much about Down Syndrome, so we have begun researching daily, absorbing all of the information we can so we are as prepared as we can be to welcome our baby boy.  According to BabyCenter.com, “DS is a chromosomal anomaly that occurs in about 1 out every 700 births…an inexplicable error in cell development results in 47 chromosomes (rather than the usual 46), and the extra gene material slightly changes the orderly development of the body and brain.”

 

My husband and I both work full time, I as an early childhood Center Director, and he is an electrical engineer.  We are comfortable financially, there’s enough money to pay the bills and extra each month for our varying interests and hobbies.  We own our home in a rural area and have been fortunate to not have been affected by economic downfalls like the rest of country.  As of right now, our growing family has not been impacted by current Sociocultural or politics/policy contexts. 

 

With this news, we have some decisions to make.  We currently live several hours from our families and have not established a close connection with other people that we could entrust with our new bundle of joy.  Fortunately, our jobs would allow us to move easily to be closer to friends and family, but at this point in my pregnancy would it be a smart decision to move?  The baby could come to work with me everyday, my teachers are trained to work with children with exceptionalities, but the idea of mixing my work with my personal life leaves me uneasy.  My husband travels weekly and I have a long commute to work everyday, this is another consideration we have to keep in mind. 

 

I am lucky to have a wealth of early childhood services available at my fingertips.  My company has an Inclusion Services team, designed to help families and early childhood providers with accommodating children with special needs in the classroom setting.  There is also support groups available that we can join that would give us a sense of community, understanding, and socialization for our child.  I read a beautiful story, written by a mother whose child has Down Syndrome.  It was raw, honest, had me in tears the whole time I read it, but in the end made me so excited to start this beautiful journey.  Kelle Hampton has an amazing blog with resources to help parents with their own personal journey. 

 

I am sure wherever we go that we will make the right choices for schools to help our baby grow and learn, with caring dedicated individuals that are educated life long learners that want to do what is best for my child day in and day out. 

 

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?

Resources

Baby Center.  (n.d.) Retrieved from http://www.babycenter.com/0_amniocentesis_327.bc

Kelle Hampton (January 2010).  Enjoying the small things; Nella Cordelia: A birth story.  http://www.kellehampton.com/2010/01/nella-cordelia-birth-story.html

The Political Will to Improve Early Childhood Systems

A strategy that I have discovered as I worked on the assignments in this course, particularly this week, that is currently being used by advocates and organizations to influence the political will toward improving early childhood systems in order to foster the well-being of young children and their families, is the involvement of parents/families in paving the way for policy changes.  Bringing in personal stories and the help of families is the best way to make a lasting impression on policy makers and political figures.  Solid and feasible evidence is the most effective way to make people listen.  Making meaningful and personal connections with families and children is the most appealing aspect of the work to me.  I am an emotional person with a need to connect with others on a deeper level, making these connections with families and sharing their stories is what I live for in my line of work.  To use their experiences as proof as to why early childhood education and care are so crucial is what motivates me everyday. 

Parent, Family, and Community Engagement

I had the opportunity this week to watch some parent stories in relation to Head Start programs and what they did for their families.  The first video I viewed was an interview with father Zachary James, he had eight children go through the Head Start program.  Not only was the program beneficial for his children but it also inspired Zachary to go back to school to get his GED.  Before he had gotten his diploma, he was unable to read a children's book to his own kids.  Mr. James' story was definitely inspirational for me to work harder to improve the family engagement at my center.  Professionals in the field often only focus on the benefits family engagement has on the kids, but we do not realize how wonderful it is for the parents and families also.  This father went on to finish the education he stopped and now as he said, has higher expectations and standards for his own children and values the importance of swallowing one's pride and ask for help if needed. 

Another mom, Eva, expressed how Head Start taught her to make every moment a teachable moment when she is with her son.  They play games like peek-a-boo, but use letters to fuel the game.  Like Mr. James, Head Start helped Eva prepare for her GED and now she is getting ready to start her CDA so she is better prepared to be a "teacher" for her children. 

Involvement opportunities also give parents the chance to see what your program is all about.  Parents can see it is more than just child care, their children are growing, learning, and developing into productive members of society.  Parents may also become motivated to continue their education so that they can be better parents and role models for their children. 

Resource
Early Childhood Learning and Knowledge Center (2010).  National Head Start Association 37th Annual Parent Conference.  Retrieved from http://eclkc.ohs.acf.hhs.gov/hslc/hs/about/stories/pfs.

Quality Programs for All Children

From my perspective, the current public opinion in the United States with regard to the value and importance of early care and education for young children and families is divided.  Within my own center families either recognize the importance of socialization, learning and curriculum, and structure for young children, but on the other hand families think of early care as a glorified babysitting service for working parents.  In talking with others about early care and education, the public still do not know the difference between a daycare and an early learning center.  Even some educators that have their children in care do not look at the teachers as educated professionals and more often than not parents are surprised to know that the teachers actually have degrees in education and are state certified.  The seemingly sudden push in political platforms and in state and federal budget reforms to increase funding for early education programs shows the importance of investing in our youngest citizens.

I hope in the next five years that the public will as a whole realize just how essential and critical early education and care is for children.  I hope the idea of daycare is reformed.  Once everyone, most importantly parents, realize that early childhood education is beneficial for their children, we will see a change in ECE strands of service, systems, policies, and advocacy.  We are already seeing the influence in policies and advocacy, but there's a lot more work to be done.  I hope that with this increase of knowledge more children and families will have access to affordable child care, resources, and less children will be able to slip through the cracks, so to speak.

What Resonates With You About Early Childhood Public Policy and Advocacy?

I chose to major in Public Policy and Advocacy because families and children are not aware of all of the resources available to them.  There are a lot of flaws in the educational and justice systems that are put into place to help families and their children, but more often than not those systems fail.  I want to be apart of the movement to improve these systems and be a voice for those that need the most help.  Becoming an advocate is essential in the early childhood field because our youngest citizens need the most help.  They will go up to either be productive members of society or they will end up deteriorating the fabric of our countries unless they are put on the right path.  I started out advocating and working towards this major many years ago as a volunteer for the Special Olympics and now as a mentor for Big Brothers Big Sisters.
I hope to learn the following about public policy and advocacy:
1.  How to become more involved in the political bodies in the community and the steps needed to start making a change. 
2.  Systems or strategies to improve the livelihood and quality of education and care for children and their families
3.  How to start campaigns to make changes to laws and policies at the local, state, and federal levels

The Adjourning Phase

I have a really hard time working in groups.  I usually pull the weight, do all of the work because others don't and often times it seems as though I always care more than the rest of the group.  The last center I was at before I was promoted and transferred was really hard to leave.  We had created a collaborative, high-performing group, that consisted of working together, mutual trust and respect.  As a group, we knew what we needed to do everyday, we ebbed and flowed together almost seamlessly, were always willing to help each other out, and if there were problems, we were able to work through them.  It was a rare work atmosphere to experience, one that I hope everyday to have at my present center.  When I left, it wasn't goodbye, it was a see you later.  I knew that even though I was leaving, the group would continue to flourish and prosper, ebbing and flowing like they usually had. 
I imagine when I adjourn from the colleagues I have had the pleasure of working with while attaining my master's degree, I will leave with a feeling of being apart of something great, the feeling that others had similar experiences as I did and we were able to come out better educational professionals than we had begun as.  This stage is important because it is a shared success, with its ups and downs, highs and lows.  It is a celebration, not a tearful sad goodbye.  We know that we worked towards a common goal and made it, despite our individual personal stresses and roadblocks, we did it and we did it together.

Communication Perspectives

This week when I and three of my family and friends evaluated my communication and listening styles I was more surprised at how each person viewed my verbal aggressiveness level.  My friend was on par with the results I personally got, but my mother and husband each evaluate me right above or below where I had seen myself.  My husband sees me as being more verbally aggressive in stressful or upsetting situations with people I do not know and my mother saw me being low.  I think it was a moment of "ohhhhhh, noooo..." when my husband and I talked about how I responded to people I didn't know in not so ideal situations.  I have "seen the light" and know that I need to be more aware of how I react to strangers when upset and what I say. 

Two insights I gained this week about communication came from the resources and my professional life.  You can be an extremely effective communicator in your face to face interactions but in this time, you need to be just as effective virtually.  People tend to be more lax in their virtual interactions and do not see the importance even in just sending an email of communicating effectively.  I also gained insight in perceptions of self and others.  The way you perceive yourself and present yourself in professional situations greatly influences the perceptions of others.