This is a passport photo of me when I was a couple of months old.  I was able to experience visiting many different places before I turned 5 years old.  My parents were missionaries and I was born in Brussels, Belgium while they were learning French.  Throughout my childhood I can remember playing with the children in Zaire, Africa, putting our babies in "panyas" on our backs and conversing with the children in Swahili, Kenunde and other languages.  Periodically I remember short songs from my childhood, friends I played with as well as the types of food we used to eat.  When I played in Africa I ran around bare-foot with the other children making things out of dirt, sticks and other things in the natural environment.  We did not have the toys that are in the US.  While playing with the children I picked up on the languages that they spoke.  Unfortunately, I do not remember any of the languages (my mother says I spoke 5 different languages).  That definitely goes to show you that children under the age of 5 can pick up on things very quickly, especially when playing and interacting with other children.  Now that I think about it this could be one of the main reasons why I love being a Speech-Pathologist so much and helping people learn how to speak, my love for languages has never left!

Play vs. Relationships/Attachments

I personally feel that both play and relationships/attachments are essential to child development and were essential to my development.  Through pretend play I learned how to do my sister’s hair, read at a young age and be very expressive (not always good when my little sister came into the picture).  On the other hand, through relationships I learned the importance of caring about another person’s feelings, trusting in individuals other than myself as well as how to be a confident, independent girl and later woman.  I came from a home environment that was always bursting through the seams with love and affection.  My parents showed me the importance of having a strong family bond and spending time with those you loved by having family worships, playing board games together, going on family vacations, and many other things.  I didn’t understand the significance of all the activities to build our bonds until I became much older and went to college.  I now respect and savor the memories and hope to build the same strong foundation for my children.

My views on the importance of play to a child’s development

Play has not received as much support and research as it should.  The benefits of play are not simplistic but very intricate and essential to the development of a child.  Through my reading and listening to videos I have learned so much more about play that I had not known or realized before.  I have learned after listening to Dr. Gopnik that it is best to allow children to learn and explore on their own instead of modeling and always showing them how different things work.  She specifically said that by allowing children to explore toys and games on their own independently we are helping them to find out more than one way of doing things instead of placing them into a box and showing them only one way of doing things (Laureate Education, Inc., 2013).  Dr. Gopnik further elaborated on how play, specifically pretend play, is essential to helping children to develop and understand relationships and people.  Children are able to learn complex concepts, such as theory of mind, by engaging in pretend play and exploring other worlds.  When children play they play passionately and place a lot of their emotions into their play.  Therefore they also are able to understand the concept of having and displaying emotions through pretend play (Laureate Education, Inc., 2013).  When play is combined with other avenues in life the development of a child is enhanced.  The International Play Association states that, “play, recreation, rest, leisure and involvement in cultural and artistic life are all interrelated and critical to a happy, healthy childhood (2012).  Play also assists children with developing even higher executive functions such as, self-control.   Children in a preschool classroom were analyzed while engaging with one another.   Researchers found that the children waited for their turn, held back when they were becoming frustrated and waited for all members of a group to completely write a title.  All of these factors helped build a child’s self-control and may not have been evident if the children were required to sit at desks, listen to a teacher lecture, and perform all things in scheduled routines.  (Tough, P., 2009).

I have just shared some specific information with you in regards to the importance of play.  What are your views on the importance of play to a child’s development.  Do you think relationships/attachments are more important than play?  Why or why not?

References

International Play Association: Promoting the child’s right to play. (n.d.) Retrieved October 19, 2012, From http://ipaworld.org

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2013).  A conversation about child development {Video File}. Baltimore, MD: Author

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2013). Development and culture {Video file}. Baltimore, MD: Author.

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2013). Studying child development: Lessons learned {Video file}. Baltimore, MD: Author

 

Introducing......Me!

My name is Melissa Donovan and I am a pediatric Speech Pathologist in the Georgia area. I have worked in private practices and have enjoyed every minute of it! I love my job and enjoy the population that I see. I am also currently pursuing an EdD in Early Childhood. Therefore, if you have any information related to child development, language disorders and poverty from experience or reputable sources I would greatly appreciate you posting.

I have known that children were my passion since I was a young girl. I can remember working at an in-home daycare at the tender age of 12 and being awed at the intricate minds of young children. I then went on to high school and assisted in Kindergarten and First grade classrooms throughout the school year. Each year I learned more and more new things about children. After high school I continued to college where I worked in the Child Development Center on campus. I enjoyed teaching the children simple concepts related to following directions, learning different languages and learning pre-literacy skills. After the Child Development Center I then found myself working with an older population of individuals' with intellectual disabilities. I acquired a new-found respect and sincerity for those that had special needs and worked diligently to make sure that I was providing the best possible care that I could provide. After all of the many experiences with working with children and adults with special needs I decided to venture into Speech-Pathology where I could work with a variety of populations. Once I started Speech Pathology I loved every minute of it. There was always a wealth of information to learn about the development of children, language delays, speech delays, and many other things. I have enjoyed the years that I have been working as a Speech-Pathologist and look forward to enhancing and expanding my knowledge related to child development by pursuing my EdD.

I have always had a passion for helping others, specifically children. However, I have always talked about my passion and not really done too many things to get involved. Since I have been at Walden University I have learned so many different things about the depth of the problems and difficulties that children in America as well as other countries face today. The problems are simply becoming larger and larger and unfortunately they are getting swept under the rug. My question to you is, what are you doing to make the situation of children better where you live? Are you truly doing all that you can do and going over and beyond the call of duty or do you simply go to your job every day and ignore the news. Unfortunately, I was one of those individuals that went to work every day and didn't really pay attention to what was going on around me. However, after performing expansive research and completing various assignments at Walden I now have a better idea of what is going on in today's society. 

My goal is to become more involved in world organizations that work diligently to improve the lives of children, such as the Children’s Fund.  The Children's Fund is an organization that does a wealth of things to improve the situation of children living in America today. Many other organizations such as the National Association for the Education of Young Children ensure that our children receive not only education, but the type of education that is most beneficial to their development.   I also want to educate my colleagues and friends around me about the many things going on with today’s children in the area of poverty and language delays.  Last but not least my ultimate goal is to provide different workshops to parents of children in impoverished areas so that they may begin to stop the cycle of “losing our youth.”  There is a lot of work to be done, but if we all work together the situation of our young children can improve in our small areas and gradually all over the world.  Every little bit helps.

References                                                           

Children’s Defense Fund. (n.d.). Retrieved March 23, 2013 from www.childrensdefense.org

National Association for the Education of Young Children. (n.d.). Retrieved March 23, 2013

            from www.naeyc.org