week 8 blog assignment

I find this particularly intriguing because as an early childhood educator, I have often said that I help raise peoples children. In doing this, I feel like a major influence in their lives and I also have many differences in how I feel they should be raised in comparison to the parents. I do not feel that parents are always positive influences in children's lives, and although I believe that they do have their own network, we are here to guide them as well as their children Unfortunately  many parents have other obligations, and the child ends up in our care for more time then they are home and awake. 


With the second part of this assignment, I am unsure of if I am supposed to post to my two colleagues here, or on their blogs as well, the way it is written seems to me that I am to post them here, and then additionally post 2 comments on our week 8 blog.

Each and every one of you who has interacted in our class has had an impact on my views and thinking about child development and about my masters degree in general. I am sure we will meet in a class again soon. A special thank you to Lydia O. and Lorren T. for producing quality discussions and excellent commentary. Congratulations to everyone on finishing this course!

wk 7 blog assignment

no assignment this week. we're almost done!

WK 6 Blog Assignment

I believe in order to view the "whole child" we must take into account age, developmental expectations and where the child's abilities are. Their personality and their morals are also factors  The family situation economically, structurally, their support system and their culture and beliefs are also key. These components provide a well rounded ideal of who a child is and what they may be capable of, rather than simple standardized testing.

In Canada, I found a program, High Five,  which has aspired to improve development through sports and recreation. They use a standardized test which is administered by trained practitioners. It seems that their standardized testing is similar to the US.

"HIGH FIVE is a program of Parks and Recreation Ontario (PRO) designed to improve developmental outcomes for children participating in recreation and sport. The program assists recreation and sport providers to ensure a high level of quality in their programs, and to help parents make informed choices about programs for theirchildren.

The High Five Quest (Quality Experience Scanning Tool) has been developed as an in-house assessmentprocess administered by the service provider. Along with training, there are detailed guidelines included in the package to help practitioners use the tools correctly. The Quest is an integral part of the Using the High Five Quest Training Workshop. It is available only to those who have completed the training." (High Five, 1999, p1)

High five: Reaching across ontario. (1999). Journal CAHPERD, 65(2), 40-41. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/214326524?accountid=14872; http://sfxhosted.exlibrisgroup.com/waldenu?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:journal&genre=article&sid=ProQ:ProQ%3Afamilyhealth&atitle=High+Five%3A+reaching+across+Ontario&title=Journal+CAHPERD&issn=12012319&date=1999-07-01&volume=65&issue=2&spage=40&au=&isbn=&jtitle=Journal+CAHPERD&btitle=

WK 5 Blog Assignment

No week 5 Assignment. Hopefully I can take advantage of the free time I never have...

WK 4 Blog Assignment

Well, I am sad to say that I wrote a huge blog and then my computer overheated and I lost it. Good thing the new computer arrived this week, I just hadn't switched all my stuff over yet and wanted to get my work done before playing with all my files while I move them. So, I guarantee this post is not nearly as good as it had been.

 So this assignment is about my experience with sickness/disease in the family, which was a huge stresser to my brother an I as we grew up, and even today. My father has been sick since before I was officially a teenager, I believe they call them tween's now. My brother is four years younger than me, and was in elementary school. Our first health encounter was a spine problem, the solution was to fuse some disks in my fathers spine. During recovery, my father was practically paralyzed from the waist down, gaining control very slowly. Soon we discovered there was a blood clot which needed to be removed but was risky. Being from MA, it was unusual for a procedure to happen out of state, but my father found a procedure that could be performed which he felt was a good risk to take. It went well, but paralyzed one of his vocal cords, his voice at 10% of what it used to be- something devastating to our family, as my fathers livelihood was being a radio DJ. Another experimental surgery placed a silicone implant next to his working vocal cord, which vibrated the paralyzed one, giving him back about 80% of the voice he had. Then, they found cancer in his lung. Chemo and other treatments left us at the option to remove his left lung. More chemo to ensure everything was in remission and we thought we were good to go! Pneumonia hit, and landed dad on oxygen. Gradually he was able to function without it, and then pneumonia hit again, and he was on oxygen full time. It almost killed him. He's on oxygen permanently. Pneumonia hit a third time, and thankfully he recovered. It has been over 10 years, and the doctors have cleared him of any possible return of lung cancer. He can walk, usually without a cane. He is on oxygen but makes a habit of remaining active. This includes getting three oxygen hoses each 10 feet long so he can go lounge in the lake while we're on vacation! He frequents the local gym and sits in the hottub and the pool regularly, keeping the tank away from the water, but using long hoses so he can roam a bit. He can drive. He can talk. He can laugh (and complain, for that matter hahaha). and most importantly, he lives. My father is turning 65 this year. The past 15 years have been a roller coaster for my brother and I. Four years apart, I never realized how much he missed or doesn't remember. We used to go roller skating regularly with my dad, weekend trips to the lake to spend time on our boat, cuddle time watching tv, daddy used to cook dinner too. My brother remembers little of this, and seems to have suffered emotionally. He distances himself from my father because he's afraid of getting too close, we have almost lost him too many times in our life. He spends a lot of time with my mom, though.  Me on the other hand, I'm daddy's girl. I call him and chat a lot, while my brother who is still home- barely talks to him. Some might think my brother simply doesn't get along with my father, but the problem is that they are similar and that he is secretly just as sentimental as dad. My brothers college essay was all about his struggles with my fathers illnesses, he let only me read it. It was difficult to focus on school when there was a health problem, but for me it was easier to keep going and doing my school work because there was nothing I could do to fix daddy. Staying at home and crying didn't help. Now that I'm older, I am still striving for greatness in order to impress my dad. I am who I am because of his problems.


I don't have a special affinity for any specific region in order to research stresses there. One frustrating part of this class, is i'm simply not interested in other regions at this time. Randomly, I found an article about obesity in Portugal. This article discusses "Prevalence of overweight and obesity are elevated among children of the Sintra region in Portugal compared to most other regions of Europe"(Ferreira & Marques-Vidal, 2008, p1) and that the "The relationship with the parents’ nutritional state stresses the need to target families for preventing obesity" (Ferreira & Marques-Vidal, 2008, p1). It is decieded that "parental BMI and dietary selectivity appear to exert a higher effect than birth weight, breast­feeding, or school meals."




Ferreira, R. J., & Marques-vidal, P. (2008). Prevalence and determinants of obesity in children in public schools of sintra, portugal. Obesity, 16(2), 497-500. doi: 10.1038/oby.2007.74

WK 3 blog assignment

There is no assignment this week. YAY for a little extra free time.

WK2 blog assignment

SIDS is important to me as a public health issue for families of infants because I work with infants on a daily basis. Sudden infant death syndrome is the term used when an infant dies suddenly without any cause or known medical reason. There does not appear to be any indicators prior to death that there is something wrong. There are some preventative measures, such as infants sleeping on their backs in a well ventilated room.

In Asutria, they have a "Safe Sleep" campaign to make parents and families aware of SIDS prevention methods. "The current focus is to convey a clear and uniform message in personal conversations before and after birth of the child. These conversations with parents are the most important tool to detect SIDS related anxiety and a possibly increased risk of SIDS. In the last 30 years various polysomnographic parameters were published that were associated with an increased risk of SIDS.Today there is international consent that polysomnography is not an efficient screening method to demonstrate increased risk of SIDS. Therefore the use of polysomnography, besides research purposes, has been limited to investigating clinical symptoms of infants and children. Concerning monitoring it is important to note that--in contrast to the undisputed importance of monitoring breathing disorders--the effectiveness inSIDS prevention is unproven. State of the art are instruments that monitor heart and breathing rate and have adequate storage functions. The duration of monitoring should encompass the symptomatic period as well as a safety period of three months. The monitor should not be routinely prescribed for a year. The guiding principle is "As short as possible with stringent indication". Prerequisite for the monitoring is good instruction of the parents and a continuous consultation by competent outpatient clinics." (Ipsiroglu, Kerbl, Urschitz & Kurz, 2010)

Ipsiroglu OS, Kerbl R, Urschitz M, Kurz R.(2010) Wiener Klinische Wochenschrift; Vol. 112 (5), pp. 187-92.

My future work is impacted by SIDS knowledge, and I have taken training about it. without knowledge of what SIDS is, I believe state guidelines here in MA would be different. We are not allowed to place an infant on their stomach, but can allow them to sleep that way if they roll over themselves. There are to be no loose items in the cribs while in the facility, all blankets must be tucked in tightly or the baby must be swaddled. Toys are not allowed in the cribs. As always, constant supervision is required at all times. Generally, each facility has good air circulation as well.