Class Reflections

This entire class has been so very enlightening to me. I have learned new information, examined my own biases and weaknesses and learned about ways to enhance relationships with families and children from different cultures. I connected the most with the book, Anti-bias Education for Young Children and Ourselves. This book is going to be a guidebook for me in the future. I have learned how to avoid embarrassing situations and how to appropriately approach individuals that are different from me.  I also appreciate the content of the book because it helps explain what I should do to eliminate biases with my students as well. I learned that there are many ways to adjust situations so that the children and others in the environment can learn as much and to re-shape negative situations and behaviors into positive life lessons (Derman-Sparks & Edwards, 2010).

The information I found somewhat disturbing and surprising was the way in which the US doctors interacted and communicated with the Lee family in, The spirit catches you and you fall down.  The progression of the whole story was very sad and made me realize how ignorant we often are to the beliefs and customs of other cultures. I believe in Western civilization all we know is what we have been exposed to therefore we look at other cultures as if their ways are ridiculous. This was the view of many of the professionals that worked with the Lee's. Sadly, it shouldn't be like that and this book showed me how dangerous having opinions such as those could be (Fadiman, 2012).

The information I learned about autism and early intervention really inspired me to work even more diligently to provide more knowledge to individuals. I was also inspired because of the evident need for more longitudinal research in the field of autism. The more I researched the more I found that parents had to fight to help their children without a wealth of resources available to them. I did not understand or know that parents had limited help as their children became older until I was going through multiple articles and studies. The results were disturbing.

The information I found is vital to me as an early childhood professional because I consistently work with this population. I now know more specific things I need to do when working with the autistic population. I know how vital it is for me to encourage parents to take advantage of early intervention as soon as possible as well as multiple organizations they can visit for more resources.  Last, but not least I now know that every parent is at a different stage of resilience and I must approach each situation with different suggestions, statements, and resources.

References
Derman-Sparks, L., & Edwards, J. O. (2010). Anti-bias education for young children and ourselves.

Washington, DC: National Association for the Education of Young Children.

Fadiman, A. (2012). The spirit catches you and you fall down: A Hmong child, her American doctors, and

the collision of two cultures. New York, NY: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux.