Safe Research

I read a research paper called The Family Origins of Empathic Concern, which was a 26-year Longitudinal study.   Subjects of this study were 5 year olds.  Their mothers were interviewed about their parenting behavior and those of their spouses.  These interviews were transcribed and then rated for a variety of specific maternal and paternal behaviors.  The analysis of maternal styles yielded 6 dimensions, warmth, strictness, restricts sexuality, inhibits aggression, tolerates dependency and role satisfaction.  There was also an analysis of mother’s management techniques, use of physical punishment and use of praise.  The analysis of paternal ratings yielded  3 dimensions, involvement in child care, firmness in discipline and warmth (Koestner, Weinberger & Franz, 1990).  There were 379 subjects followed. 

This paper’s hypothesis was that the development of empathy is most likely to occur in a family environment that satisfies the child’s own emotional needs and discourages excessive self-concern, encourages the child to experience and express a broad range of emotions and provides opportunities for the child to observe and interact with others who encourage emotional sensitivity and responsiveness.  The 379 subjects were followed through surveys,  interviews and personality tests.

The results indicated that there is a relatively strong association between early parenting experiences and adult empathic concern.  It was found that children whose fathers were very involved in their care and whose mothers were tolerant of dependency were most likely to report high levels of empathic concern at age 31 (Koestner, Weinberger & Franz, 1990).  Parental affection was excluded as a predictor of a child’s development of empathy.  The results suggest that parenting behaviors in early childhood can have a lasting impact on the course of personality development.  This study is important because it shows the importance of family on child development.  The results of this study can be impacting on parenting techniques and what parents can learn about being a source to their child’s development.   This type of research seems not to propose greater than minimal risk to the participants as their parents were the ones interviewed and they were interviewed and or tested during a 26 year long period and the benefits of this research is extremely impacting the early childhood field.

Reference:

Koestner, R., Weinberger & Franz, C. (1990).  The Family Origins of Empathic Concern:  A 26 year Longitudinal Study The American Psychological Association Vol. 58, No 4 709-717

Reasons for my Topic

My topic for my simulation is empathy.  The questions I would like to answer is when does empathy present itself in young children and Is prosocial behavior inherent or is it learned from older children and adults.  This topic is important to me because prosocial behavior in children is the foundation to their learning.  If children are unable to cooperate and trust the people they are around learning is impossible. 

I would like to know when children are capable of empathy and or prosocial behavior  and if it is inherent or something that must be cultivated in a child.  As an early head start teacher I work with very young children and behavior is a major issue in the classroom.   I would like to have realistic expectations of the children in my class and this information would be helpful to me.  It is my position if prosocial behavior has to be cultivated, I would like to know this so that I can work on helping children to learn prosocial behavior.  Knowing the age sets my expectations.  I have read in a previous course that children begin to exhibit empathy at the age of  4 years old, but read a research paper that found that 18 month olds exhibit empathy.  The research document also examined monkeys and they too are capable to altruistic behavior.  I personally have witnessed very young children exhibit behavior that I would consider empathetic.   I would like clarity as to when I could have expectations of a child being capable to prosocial behavior/empathy.

I think obtaining knowledge in this area would be beneficial to Early Childhood field because it would  shed light on how children learn and develop, which is key to knowing how to teach them.

My Supports

There are many factors that help support me in my daily environment namely my husband he not only makes sure I get up in the morning when the alarm goes off, but he is a friend and confidant to me.  I can talk to him about anything that is going on in my life.  He also serves as a chauffeur to me because I let my driving license go because I am tired of driving.  He also manages the household and chores since he is not working at this time, which is a major help to me.  My husband is someone that I bounce ideas on and he also reads my school work for me before I submit it. My mother also is a major support to me in that I can talk to her about anything and everything that is going on in my life.  She always offers wisdom and humor to some of my situations. My colleagues at wok are a source of support to me also they are also people I can bounce ideas off and get positive reinforcements from and helpful criticism.  I love the job because I work with true professionals. I don’t know what I would do without these three major support systems in my life.  Due to my writing this assignment I can see how I have taken them for granted because they have always been there for me.  If I did not have them my life would be very lonely and might not be able to accomplish the things that I am in my life, mainly returning to college.  They are the source of inspiration to me and help keep me motivated. 

 The support that I would like to have is my husband having a good job.  I would quit my job and focus on completing my degree.  This support would alleviate my having to contribute financially to the household and allow me more time to spend completing my assignments.  My husband would be happy with this arrangement and so would I. 

My Connection to Play

“Play is important because it is the way in which children are able to use and reflect on their experiences, to represent their ideas and to ask and answer the questions that preoccupy them”.  Sandra Schmidt

“Play helps children weave together all the elements of life as they experience it”.  Joan Almon

I don’t have pictures, but I have vivid memories of playing with a cash register and money made out of newspaper when my two brothers and I would play store for hours in our home.  I also remember playing house and having baby dolls and a blanket which I used to put the dolls to sleep with.  I remember playing outdoors until it got dark or it was time for dinner.  The children in the neighborhood would play hot peas and butter and we would play punch ball.  I remember how major these two games were; every kid in the neighborhood would play and we had so much fun.  I also remember that the park in our neighborhood did not have a basketball hoop so the boys would use the monkey bars as a hoop and play basketball for hours.

The adults that were in my life when I was younger bought toys that supported my play experiences.  The toys back then were not computerized, but could be used to develop a child’s imagination. My parents would also give us empty containers, newspaper and pennies to use for our time playing store. My mother would always encourage my brothers and me to go play.  She may have done so to get us out of her hair, but she always said “go play”.  Another example of support was the adults did not involve themselves in our play.  It was a time of exploration, decision making on our part and learning.  My brothers and I would work through our differences during our play time without adult interference.

Outside of the children in my class the only other children I have the real opportunity to see interact are my step-grandchildren.  When they come to my house they have their own room.  I have some games and legos that they might play with, but they don’t really play with these things.  I have observed them playing for hours on their handheld computer game devices.  Occasionally the youngest will ask for paper and draw, but they don’t participate in imaginary play or dramatic play like my brothers and I did.  These children spend a great deal of time also watching TV.  When I was a child we had specific times of the day we were allowed to watch TV and the shows we watched were monitored.  Play today, from what I have observed is very different.  My step-grandchildren are not allowed to play outdoors unless my husband is outside with them.   So they don’t have the time of exploration I had when I was young.  What I see as the problem for children today is the threat of bodily harm if they are allowed to play outdoors unsupervised and the invention of computer games.  My hopes for children of today is to have what I had when I was a child and that is to have hours of unsupervised play.

The role of play in my childhood helped me become creative, independent, physically agile and cooperative with my playmates.  I think the hours of unsupervised time of play that I experienced as a child help me to be less stressed by the demands that school/academics played in my life.  I think having the opportunity to play helped me become a better student in school as a child and an adult, because I was able to be a child when I was a child.

Relationship Reflection

Relationships/Partnerships are important to me because it is a way to gather information about the children in the program.  Information that I gather helps me plan and strategize my lesson plans and teaching style with each child.  I recently had a conversation with the mother of Andriana, who is speech delayed.  I told her that Andriana speech has not improved over the last two months since her meeting with Babies Can’t Wait.  Babies Can’t Wait is an organization that handles children with a speech deficit.  I wanted to talk to her because Babies Can’t Wait told the mother to give Andriana a couple of months to see if she improved.  Andriana’s mother enlightened me to the fact that at home Andriana was using her words more they were better able to understand what she was saying.  Her progress at home was a surprise to me and my co-teacher.  The two of us now had to figure out how to get Andriana to use her language in the classroom.  This conversation was very important to this child’s development and success and created a challenge for me as a teacher.

 I have several professional relationships with people in different functions in Early Childhood Education.  My relationships with the family advocates proves to be one of the most important relationships that I have.  The family advocates work very closely with the families.  They provide me with important information about the children in my program and I also provide them with information.  My relationship with the Director and Executive Director serves me well in that they provide information about things that are happening in the agency and events and activities that are in the planning mode for the families.

I am challenged with maintaining a partnership with a few of my families.  Mainly because they do not drop-off or pick-up their children so we do not make contact with each other daily.  What I do to stay in contact with them is periodically call and let them know how their children are doing and advise if there are any problems.

Each of these relationships helps me be a better teacher.  Information is powerful especially when you are teaching.  I think I am helpful to the professionals  that  I have a relationship with in that I bring suggestions, knowledge and encouragement to the table.

Thank you

I just would like to thank everyone in group 2 for their blogs.  I have learned a great deal in this course and some of what I learned I learned from you.  I would like to especially thank Gwen Phelps and Cassie Massaker I definitely visited your sites, sometimes I commented other times I just read.
I wish everyone the best in their future endeavors.


 "When we deal with children we are not merely one person.  We are at least three people.  We are parents of our children...we are children of our parents...we are adults with our own interests and needs.  Often these three people within us do not agree and may have different ideas...about what should or shouldn't be done."  -Magda Gerber

Testing for Intelligence

In early childhood children should be assessed based on the interplay of domains.  They should be assessed cognitively, socially, gross and fine motor skills because these are the areas that we concentrate on when we teach them.  Each of these areas should be tested.  Each overlap as children develop.

Average scores on intelligence tests are rising substantially and consistently, all over the world.  These gains have been going on for the better part of a century.  These increases are called the Flynn Effect.  The rate of gain on standard broad-spectrum IQ tests amount to three IQ points per decade and it is even higher on certain specialized measures. (Neisser,  1997).   Many factors have influenced these gains in IQ tests such as child-rearing practices.  Parents everywhere are now interested in their children’s cognitive development and are probably doing more to encourage it than they did in the past.  Children are spending hours watching shows such as Sesame Street and other educational programs.  Better health and nutrition is a factor over the years, there has been a marked improvement in worldwide nutrition.  This means better nourished brains would allow individuals to perform better.   Increase of education, longer formal schooling years and an increase in culture-free IQ tests.  Visual and technical environment has increased.  Video games and computers each successive generation has been exposed to far richer optical displays than the one before.

Reference:

Neisser, Ulric (September-October 1997).  Rising Scores on Intelligence Tests  retrieved from  http://www.americanscientist.org/issues/num2/rising-scores-on-intelligence-test/1

Sandhu, Inderbir  (2002-2011).  Decline and Increase in IQ Scores   retrieved from:  http://www.brainy-child.com/exper/iq-score.shtml