Ed5013 Early Childhood Development- Education Assessment Answers

Answers

Part 1

Introduction

Early childhood education is that branch of education in which young children, usually up to the age of eight are taught. The early childhood development is very crucial as the emotional, physical and social development of the young children has a direct impact on such child’s overall development and on their transformation as adults (CEECD, 2011). This is the age when the children go through the most rapid growth in the development of their brain; and in this, a key role is played by the surrounding environment. Thus, in order to maximize the future well-being of the young children, it is important to invest in early childhood development. There are a number of factors which have an impact on the early childhood development and these are due to the technological changes, global issues and the social factors which affect the lives of the children, as well as, their families (Penn, 2005). In the following parts, an attempt has been made to discuss some of the issues which can be raised in this context; including the educator training, parent engagement, and other related issues, which often become a source of controversy in this field.

Issues and Controversy

As has been stated in the introductory section, educator training is one of the key issues in early childhood development. In order to incorporate the learning in such young children and to do it in most skilful and apt manner, the person providing such education needs to have the necessary skills and education for playing their role efficiently and effectively. There has been a marked increase in the enrolment in pre-primary education between 1999 and 2009. Even though there has been a rise in the early childhood education workforce, an issue of controversy remains the quality associated with this increase in quantity of services, particularly when the same is decreased with such increase. There is also a shortfall in the properly trained early educators which puts a negative impact on the early childhood development. The problems are raised when this factor is coupled with political and social factors. There are some nations in which the expansion has been beneficial for the urban population, which is an easier to reach population, in comparison to the ones from rural or poor areas. Thus, there is an uneven concentration of quality early educators for the disadvantaged and most vulnerable (UNESCO, 2015).

The staffs included in early education programmes consist of care staff, educational staff, administrative staff and assistant staff. The early educators have lower professional and education qualifications, along with getting lower wages in comparison to the primary school teachers, irrespective of the nation being developing and developed. This is an apathetic situation as the most important people are given less significance thus de-motivating the quality staff from being indulged in such services. This raises the question on the state and federal governments in their need and support of the professionals of early childhood, particularly when it comes to ensuring the specialized training and development which is of high quality for the child care in meeting the needs of the children (National Louis University, 2017). When this is such a crucial stage for the development of future leaders of any nation, the failure of the governments in providing relevant funds for quality education to be provided, in terms of equalised if not high pay for early educators, raises question on the commitment of the governments on this aspect of education. Not only the early educators get low salary, but they also get less training and fewer opportunities, which further takes the interest away from this field (UNESCO, 2015).

Another key issue which is almost becoming a hindrance in the early childhood development is the parent engagement. There is a need for the childhood educators to create present and continued partnership and effective communication with the parents in order to provide the best possible opportunities and learning experience to the child, at every place, which includes home, school, and community settings (Powers, 2016). However, with the rise in number of single parents and broken homes, this can be a difficulty as the emotional status of a child is impacted due to such relations. Particularly when the environment at home is hostile and uncooperative, a major impact can be caused on the mental growth of the children. At such instances, the children face a threat where the community settings are also hostile and unfavourable, particularly when they restrict the interference of early educators, who could safeguard the child or at the very least, identify the treat to the early development of the child (Votruba-Drzal and Dearing, 2017).

The research conducted by University of Oxford has shown that the children of such parents who took a part in the Peers Early Education Partnership made major progress in learning in comparison to the children of such parents who failed to take a part in such programmes (Sanabria-Hernandez, 2008). But such participations are also restricted due to the lack of time with the parents or at certain times, the very lack of interest in this aspect. The challenges in this aspect also include the lack of conclusive evidence on the family involvement programs being uniformly effective. There is also an ambiguity on what exactly is family involvement as it could include different aspects for different people. The ambiguity in definition of family involvement results in programs which are formed of disconnected activities which have very less relevance to the classroom environment or that of family. In order for the same to be effective, there is a need to address the unclear boundaries which are present between school and home (Coleman and Churchill, 2017).

A key point of controversy in the early childhood development is the role of technology. The key concern in this regard is not only for the educators but also for the parents due to the possible impact of technology on learning and development of the children, particularly in context of their physical, cognitive, social and emotional development. There are some factors who support the notion that the young children should be given the opportunity to use computers as it is just another tool which aids in the development of the young children, apart from encouraging the same (Blake, Winsor  and Allen, 2011). However, the controversy is raised in context of the views presented by the opponents of this view who have stated that even though computer is a useful tool for young children, it is not the right manner of promoting healthy development in children. Where the use of technology substitutes the physical experiences, it becomes particularly problematic (Fischer, Wild and Sutherland, 2013).

The aim of the early childhood educators is not just towards their education but also towards their overall development, where health is a key aspect. However, when computers enter the life of such young children, the reliance is placed on teaching through visuals and colours, where help of games is also taken. This could result in addiction and reliance on technology, instead of being focused on physical learning. This is also problematic due to the physical activities being replaced with computers and the different advanced technological instruments (Donohue, 2014). The goal is to promote cognitive thinking in the children, where they grow in a healthy manner, which can be restricted through reliance on computers. This is particularly important in context of the reliance of technology in helping learning in child. At a very basic level example, a child who relies on computers to learn everything would use calculator to do the basic sums. How is the use of technology an advantage particularly when the child is being taught to reply on electronic devices, instead of using their brains, which create such devices? Agreed that this is a very unrealistic example but the crux of this matter cannot be denied. Thus, there is a need to limit the use of technology of children, but when it comes to young children, the same should be restricted. There is a need to put focus on their physical development particularly at such tender age (Simon and Nemeth, 2012).

Two more major issues which act as an obstacle in child development are poverty and language development. Both of these issues stem from the socio-economic status of an individual, which impact the physical and mental health of the child. Poverty is something which makes education a distant dream for the children and even when they obtain education, it is not from the qualified sources. All this leads to the disparities in the development of the language processing of children which is most consistent in terms of decreased vocabulary, syntax and phonological awareness in different developmental stages. Due to the stress which is placed on the child at the very early stages of their life, the brain physiology is affected, which particularly impacts on the typical language development regions of the brain. Poverty is thus associated with deficits in psychological underpinning of language learning, which depends upon the memory as a result of this stress (Perkins, Finegood and Swain, 2013).

Decades of research has presented that the children who are from low income families are usually at the high risk of entering school with very poor language skills, in comparison to the students which are privileged ones. Such children are two years behind on an average from the privileged students on the basis of standardized language development tests. The research has presented that there is achievement gap which could start from as early as eighteen months. Also, by the age of two, the children of the lower income families which depicts around 6 months gap in their proficiency of language. By the time, the child becomes three there is a different in vocabulary, which is so large that the children, in order to catch up, have to attend the additional schooling. There is also a problem of the poor children in having a difficulty in gaining an understanding on the abstract language and also have low writing and reading skills, which results in the odds being raised for the children dropping out of the school in coming time. This results in struggle with the phonological awareness skills, which depicts the ability to manipulate the sound system of language in a conscious manner (Harkness, 2015).

Parents, who struggle in a financial manner, often do not have the resources or the time in devoting to reading to their children. This has a direct impact over the budding literacy skills of the children. There is a need for the strong literacy skills to be built at the very start, i.e., in the early development years. Also, the process of getting these skills initiates from the very start, which makes it crucial for the parents to make an effort in reading to their children.  Language is something which connects everyone, and is thus significant to foster communication skills in the children from the very young age. There is a need for combination of parental engagement and early intervention. There is a need for steps to be taken for the children from low income families in order to overcome the language achievement gap (Harkness, 2015).

Conclusion

Thus, on the basis of this discussion, it can be summarized that there are a number of controversies and issues which revolve around the early childhood development. In the undertaken discussion, three key issues were discussed, to show the manner in which they become problematic or hindrance in the development of young children, and also provided the manner in which they can be attempted to be corrected. The first issue was related to the problems in educator training and the need for the enhanced role of states in providing the necessary training and salaries to the childhood educators in order to make this profession attractive for the skilled educators. The discussion moved on to discussion the issues surrounding parent engagement, which stemmed from the lack of interest of parents to the ambiguity in what exactly, can be deemed as parent engagement. The last issue was related to the role of technology in young children education and the need for substituting technology with physical experiences.

Part 2

Before I had started making this assignment, I was apprehensive regarding not being able to find the relevant material for doing the task stated above. I knew that there were a number of issues and controversies surrounding the early childhood development but I could not pinpoint them exactly. And so, I started talking to my seniors regarding what books or material I should refer to, in order to find these issues. They suggested me some material which I used in this assignment, particularly the work of Penn (2005) and the work of Powers (2016). The latter work particularly highlighted a key area of concern in this field. I found both these books very relevant as the research which I had conducted before asking my seniors about this assignment also showed a reference to these literatures. Even though reading the entire literatures was not possible for me, I read the summaries of these books and the relevant chapters of it to gain a view about this.

I started writing and ended up writing around 1500 words on parent engagement only. So, I restricted my work and started again. This time, I prepared an outline where I chose to write on three specific controversial issues, i.e., the technological issue, the parent engagement and the educator problems. The file of UNESCO which I found online was very shocking to me as it presented the statistics regarding the problems being faced by educators and the reasons why there is often a lack of quality educators in the field of early childhood development. This is the reason I chose to include a key part of those statistics in this discussion to highlight the real issues on why people are not attracted towards this profession. Then I moved my focus to the technological issues, which in my personal opinion, is a key point pulling back the young children. I have done baby-sitting for some parents in the past and I have seen with my own eyes how young children are over indulged in technological devices. This has made them addicted to their phones, laptops and tablets which is a major hindrance in them getting up and reading a good book. A good book can never be replaced by technology and the children need to be shown that. Also, the reliance on technology is for gaming also. So, the sole source of entertainment for the young children is their electronic device, which makes them unhealthy, owing to the lack of necessary physical activity. Education is not only thing which helps in development and there is a need for the children to get up and have fun, instead of being indulged in their devices. Thus, the discussion I carried above also presented my view on the problems which cause hindrance in the early childhood development.

References

Blake, S., Winsor, D.L., and Allen, L. (2011) Child Development and the Use of Technology: Perspectives, Applications and Experiences: Perspectives, Applications and Experiences. Hershey, PA: IGI Global.

CEECD. (2011) Importance of early childhood development. [Online] CEECD. Available from: https://www.child-encyclopedia.com/importance-early-childhood-development [Accessed on: 02/12/17]

Coleman, M., and Churchill, S. (2017) Challenges to family involvement. [Online] FPO. Available from: https://www.freepatentsonline.com/article/Childhood-Education/19263547.html [Accessed on: 02/12/17]

Donohue, C. (2014) Technology and Digital Media in the Early Years: Tools for Teaching and Learning. New York: Routledge.

Fischer, ‎F., Wild, ‎F., and Sutherland, R. (2013) Grand Challenges in Technology Enhanced Learning: Outcomes of the 3rd Alpine Rendez-Vous. New York: Springer Science & Business Media.

Harkness, J. (2015) How Poverty Affects Children’s Language Skills. [Online] The Brogen Project. Available from: https://borgenproject.org/poverty-affects-childrens-language-skills/ [Accessed on: 02/12/17]

National Louis University. (2017) Issues in Early Childhood Development. [Online] National Louis University. Available from: https://www.nl.edu/educationdegreeinfo/earlychildhoodeducation/issuesinearlychildhooddevelopment/ [Accessed on: 02/12/17]

Penn, H. (2005) Understanding Early Childhood: issues and controversies. Maidenhead: Open University Press.

Perkins, S. C., Finegood, E. D., and Swain, J. E. (2013) Poverty and language development: Roles of parenting and stress. Innovations in clinical neuroscience, 10(4), 10.

Powers, J. (2016) Parent Engagement in Early Learning: Strategies for Working with Families. 2^nd ed. St Paul, MN: Redleaf Press.

Sanabria-Hernandez, L. (2008) Engaging Families in Early Childhood Education. [Online] RTI. Available from: https://www.rtinetwork.org/essential/family/engagingfamilies [Accessed on: 02/12/17]

Simon, F., and Nemeth, K. (2012) Digital Decisions: Choosing the Right Technology Tools for Early Childhood Education. Lewisville, NC: Gryphon House, Inc.

UNESCO. (2015) Policies and Strategies to Enhance the Quality of Early Childhood Educators. [Online] UNESCO. Available from: https://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0023/002324/232453e.pdf [Accessed on: 02/12/17]

Votruba-Drzal, E., and Dearing, E. (2017) The Wiley Handbook of Early Childhood Development Programs, Practices, and Policies. West Sussex: John Wiley & Sons.