RESEARCH AROUND THE WORLD

For this week's Blog Assignment I chose the link to the Early Childhood Development Virtual University (ECDVC) Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA).

 http://www.cyc.uvic.ca/index.php#

Once on the website I chose to view the link for the School of Child and Youth Care from the University of Victoria, Human and Social Development.

http://www.cyc.uvic.ca/

 

Making a difference in the lives of children, youth, families and communities

Once on the website, I was very impressed with the many Early Childhood programs that they had for students and faculty from all different kinds of diverse backgrounds, with one common interest, to make a difference in the lives of children, youth, families, and community.  And this was very apparent from the minute I began to read the Organization's  Mission statement and values.


Mission statement and values:

The School of Child and Youth Care provides education, training, professional development and research for the care and support of children, youth, families and their communities. The work of the School of Child and Youth Care is grounded in the principles of inclusion, social justice and ethical practice.
In order to achieve this mission the school has 3 major goals:

• To provide university level education in child and youth care through the delivery of an inclusi

  Values

• Focus on strengths – build on assets and resources to form positive professional identities and skills for ethical, collaborative practice.
• Self awareness – promote reflection and articulation of self location to ensure respectful, accountable practice across cultures and social groups.
• Inclusion – foster respect for and encouragement of diversity.
• Collaborative practice – promote family-centred practice, community capacity building, and partnerships across sectors to achieve developmental goals for children and youth.
• Social justice – advocate for de-colonizing policies, practices, and relationships that recognize historical injustices and promote equitable opportunities for holistic development.
• Accountability – draw upon established evidence of effective practices and innovate promising practices that are accountable to the children and families served.
• Knowledge construction – contribute to understandings about development across cultures and contexts and ways to improve opportunities for well-being.
• Pluralistic and social justice perspectives - critically attend to diversity, inclusion, cultural attunement and advocacy within practice.
• Ecological perspective - draw upon ecological perspectives to inform practice.

In conclusion I would have to say that I found this website to be very impressive, as well as filled with vital and important information and research for people in the Early childhood field.  I feel that I gained a lot both professionally and personally, and I also feel that this website provided some valuable and resourceful facts and information.  But even more importantly I really feel that by exploring this particular website I was really able to gain some valuable tools and insights into the new and exciting world of the international early childhood field.





References:  Retrieved from:

 http://www.cyc.uvic.ca/index.php#

Research that Benefits Children and Families—Uplifting Stories

Research On Trauma, Loss & Grief 

"Children express grief in a different way than adults.  They tend to move in and out of intense feelings, rather than sustaining high levels of one emotion for long periods of time.  When adults see a grieving child playing or laughing, they may mistakenly believe that the child is "over it".  This perception may influence how much grief support a child receives" (Children's Grief Education Association, 2011).

For this week's Blog assignment I chose Option 1.  And that is because about five or six years ago at one of the Head-start Pre-schools I was working at the time, was involved in a research study that involved a year long volunteer study and counseling sessions on Trauma, Loss and Grief for Pre-school children.  

The counseling sessions, conducted by a psychologist were strictly on a volunteer basis for children that had recently been involved in any kind of trauma, loss of a loved one, or else experiencing some kind of grief as the result of a trauma or loss.  Prior to the start of the start of the counseling sessions at the beginning of the new school year all parents and guardians were sent out surveys and questionnaires to fill out in regards to deciding if they felt there children would benefit from these kind of services.

In my personal and professional opinion I would definitely have to say that this experience was a very positive, and helpful experience for all the children and parents that were involved in this study.  And for two families in particular, I really think it helped them deal with two unfortunate and traumatic experiences involving the murders of a young father and a care-giver grandmother.  Of course both cases were not connected at all it just happened that two of our children and families were dealing with these unfortunate circumstances and similar times.  But after having both the children, and their families attend the sessions, two times a week, for the entire school year there really seemed to be some positive benefits for all the children and families involved.

I was very close to both of these children, as well as their families and I can honestly say that from personal experiences with both these families, this was definitely a positive example of study and research.  The kind of research that helped benefit not only the two young children involved, but also their families.  Helping them cope with their grieving process,  as well as dealing with some extremely difficult and traumatic circumstances.

References:  Retrieved from:

http://www.icisf.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=34%3Afamily-recovery-from-terror-grief-and-trauma&catid=31&Itemid=30

http://www.therapeuticresources.com/grief.html

http://www.childgrief.org/childrenandgrief.htm

My Personal Journey

In identifying several subtopics for this assignment I finally chose the topic of Death of a Parent/Sibling or close Relative, and the powerful impact and traumatic effects it can and does have on a young child or children.

After reading the article, "Death Understanding and Fear of Death in Young children", by Virginia Slaughter & Maya Griffiths, I focused on this topic based on some of my own personal and professional experiences.  Some experiences that unfortunately involved the tragic and traumatic death of a parent and a grandmother of two different children from our school.  And in both cases the deaths were a result of two tragic and senseless murders.  So it is because of my experiences with both these two children and their families throughout the years that this topic of Death, and the lasting and powerful effects it has on all the family members, especially the young children, that I came to this topic.  And it was also through these two separate experiences that I was also very fortunate enough to be involved with a program through  my agency that provided the Head-start children in need with the appropriate services to help them, as well as their families to deal with the loss of a loved one.



References:  Retrieved from

Slaughter, V., & Griffiths, M. (2007). Death understanding and fear of death in young children. Clinical Child Psychology & Psychiatry, 12(4), 525–535. Retrieved from the Walden Library using Sage Premier 2010 database.