Blog 4

     Blog 4

      Dorothy Thompson

     Date:   2/28/12

 I volunteered in an infant/toddler multicultural classroom and spoke with the director, teacher and parent. There was a lot of language in the classroom, both Spanish and English. There was music in both languages.  Parents had to spend an hour a day in the center. I was told that this was to help young parents gain parenting skills.  As I sat in the classroom playing with a couple of children the teachers were sharing information about a child that needed a helmet for his head. His head was slanted in the back. He was a very intelligent child and was on task developmentally.  I was surprised to hear them say that the child had a flat head because of him laying on it too much.  I watched as children were taken care of by caregivers, student aids, and parents.  I was able to help provide care for a child also as I volunteered in the classroom, I read books, sang to them, and provided basic care.

 I was surprised at how the staff talked about the child in the classroom with all these people in the classroom. I feel that only the director and teaching staff should have discussed this in private.  I feel that this breached the confidentially of the child and his family.  I feel that confidentiality is very important. Information about children and families should not be discussed in front of people that are not staff directly in contact with the child. They treated confidentially too casually.   I ask the director if they valued confidentiality. She answered, yes why?  I mentioned that I was concern about confidentiality of parents and children and wanted to know what to do if it occurred if I was in the room. She said that it should be reported.  I later asked the teacher in the classroom, do you all value the confidentiality of families and she said, all the time. She then looked at me with a look of surprise. I was surprised because of what I had heard between her and other teachers and parents in the classroom.  I learned not to take families for granted.  I learned that if I am to be an advocate for families they have to be able to trust me with information that is very sensitive to them and that I must earn that trust.

The insights I want to share is the confidentiality of families and how it felt to be in an environment different from the one that I am accustom to.   I know how it must feel for those Spanish speakers to be in a country and not understand the language.  I felt very uncomfortable in the classroom with so many Spanish speaking people.  Half the time I did not know what was going on.  I just interacted with the children and observed as I would with all English speaking environment.

Blog 3

Blog 3

Observing and Interacting With Program Director(s) and Other Administrative Staff in Your Setting:

I will you address advocacy issues with professionals in your setting by expressing how I feel when children are not identified in time to get the help they need under the age of three years old.  When there is a concern about a child, I feel that that child should be observed and assessed to assure that the issues are because of exposure, or are developmentally delayed.  I understand that it is not easy to identify a child if you are not a provider for that child and again some children can be spotted instantly by just knowing the benchmarks of development.

I would like to find out more about how to possibly become involved with current advocacy programs in my setting by seeking resources and programs used to assess children who appear to be delayed.  Also I would ask questions to find out who I am to speak to for procedures if I had a concern about a child.  I would also want to know what I can do to help the child.  The difference I would like to see in my field is teachers trained to identify children with disabilities in need of services at an early age. I would also like to see teachers be qualified to implement individual education plans and family individual plans for children of early intervention plans in center base programs. I would like to see resources available in center base programs.

Today I was pleased to be able to interact with the director.  There was a teacher out and she was filling in for the teacher that was out. There was also the health nurse that comes out once a month.  She was talking about diaper changing and the changes that are to be taking place in the classroom in reference to sleep time and focus on sterilizing diaper changing table.  There was also a memo about hand mouth and feet in the center.  I spoke to the director about a concern I had about one of the babies that was five months old that just laid there on his back.  They have different theories of when children are considered developmentally delayed. He would not lie on his tummy without screaming, he would not bend his knees while being exercised, and he would not try to turn his body.  I assisted while they assessed his gross motor skills.  They were not aware that there may have been a concern about the child.  He laughed and smiled when talked to and just started reaching and grasping toys.

 The lead teacher said that it was a cultural thing.  She explained how different cultures expect their children to develop at different paces.  Although I disagreed with her because of what I have been taught, I continued to listen and watched as they played with the baby to assess his level of gross motor skills.  The baby is Hispanic but I don’t think that had anything to do with it.  The director felt that it was exposure; the child just needed the opportunity to try to improve the skills she said.  This child is three days older than his cousin who is moving around, reaching, grasping, turning over from back to tummy, interacting with peers and adults, kicking, reaching and more. They are completely at different developmentally levels to be the same age. They also live in the same house.  That was very interesting to me and I feel that as a teacher the child’s delay should have been noticed.  Even if it was not a concern a flag should have arose. These are times for advocating for children.  The nurse said to observe and work with the child and document improvements.  After which they will talk to mom, and consider referral.  I Interacted with a young parent that was sitting nervously patting and shaking her son. I encouraged her to sit him in bouncer and talk to him and read to him as she stroked his hand gently.  She read, talked, and stroked his hand and he listened to her as she read to him. I thought that was awesome.