Early Childhood Education

Posted: October 17th, 2013

Early Childhood Education

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1. The difference between management and leadership lies in the roles that are carried out by the two in any organization (Bennis, 1989). Management is structure oriented while the latter is relational and focuses on people. Leadership works on developing a new status quo while management is about administration and maintenance of the status quo. This is to imply that a leader will work on the creation of a new direction in an organization while the manager directs the people in an organization based on already set directives (Bennis, 1985).
2. The components of a program determine its unique characteristics. Such components include the suitability of the environment to meet the needs of the learners, the quality that is articulated by the staff, the level of compatibility experienced between the program’s grouping practices and its learners, involvement of the learners’ parents and the ability to maintain a consistent program (Persky & Golubchick, 1991). Decisions that are made with regard to the structure of the program affect the relationship between the educators, the learners and their parents. Such relationships will make a program standout from the rest and end up defining the uniqueness of a program (Hood, 2011).
3. Early childhood education requires a focus on the areas of language development, social emotional development, cognitive development, literacy development and physical development (Click, 2004). The development of a child’s language is considered the cornerstone of the program’s curriculum, and a build up should be done to necessitate successful language learning in the child. Symbolic representation and sensory motor are considered the two stages in a child’s cognitive development. Teachers should, therefore, ensure that the curriculum enables the child to learn to use both their senses and images in order to ensure development in their thinking capacity. The next step is ensuring that the learners develop their literacy. This entails their ability to manipulate words, hold a book and pen, making sense out of stories through following pictures and saying names of letters in patterns. The educator should then be able to incorporate aspects of physical and social emotional development. This is done through the addressing sensory integration skills, performance of physical movement and the child’s ability to develop close and secure relationships (File, Mueller & Wisneski, 2012).
4. The licensing requirements for infant or toddler programs have various categories addressing the fundamental objectives of such programs. These categories include staff qualification, child age groups, staff ratio and group size, program curriculum, facility requirements, record keeping and policy requirements (Wortham, 2006). The staff qualification deals with the training and orientation of the educators while the category of child age groups requires that the program stipulate the precise clusters of ages with which it deals. The ratio of the staff in regards to the size of the learners concerns the maximum number of children to be handled by a number of educators. The program curriculum must also address the fundamental areas of child development while the records and policies must meet the stipulated criteria (Wittmer& Petersen, 2006).
5. Educators and staff in learning programs can be maintained amidst the challenge of high turnover through the issuance of incentives by the director (Gordon & Browne, 2011). The director should formulate policies that ensure the program’s staff is constantly motivated through high payment packages. Other than this, the director should also ensure that the goals of the institution are channeled towards the maintenance of high levels of productivity. This will provoke the staff to work towards the achievement of the program’s goal (Isenberg & Jalongo, 1997).
6. Budget analysis includes the scrutiny of a program’s goals, its productivity in terms if the achievement of these goals and the capital it uses in running the facility (McCall& Craft, 2004). The productivity of the program should warrant its feasibility. This is to imply that the program should be able to spend an amount of money that can be ploughed back and guarantee a surplus (Bartik, 2011).
7. One of the strategies proposed by NAYEC, when helping a child who has experienced natural disasters, is the use of storybooks to calm the child. This will help the child with handling trauma experienced after the disaster (Grace & Shores, 2010). They also encourage the involvement of children in post-disaster reconstruction activities (NAYEC, 2005). This includes activities like rebuilding the society after the disaster.
8. In order to create an atmosphere that encourages a child to eat, a caregiver should provide a relaxing and calm atmosphere (Whitney & Rolfes, 2011). This can be achieved through discussion of colors, tastes of food and textures. This will also develop cognitive development. Eating can also be encouraged when the caregivers allow the children to feed themselves. This can be achieved by using child-sized utensils. The caregiver should also avoid use of nonverbal cues that are likely to discourage the child, like sighing or frowning, when the child makes a mess (Robertson, 1998).
9. In parent education programs, the parents can talk and sing to the children when carrying out duties like feeding them or giving them a bath (Chen, Klein & Paul, 2007). They can also read them stories right before they sleep and engage them in short trips to unfamiliar places where they get to learn different environments. Parents can also help their children by playing with them games that have picture cards, and when coming across signs they can point out the words (Marsh, 2005).
10. The signs of physical abuse in a child include the presence of unexplained marks and injuries in the child’s body (Berner & Wachs, 2010). Emotional abuse, on the other hand, can be identified by signs of withdrawal exhibited by the child. The child will have a tendency to shy away from peers during socially interactive activities and to some extent may refuse to respond to educators and caregivers (Siebel, Britt, Gillespie, Parlakian, et al). Once a case of abuse has been verified by the teacher, the educator should immediately report to the director who will confront either the parents or authority.

Reference

Bartik, T. J. (2011). Investing in kids: Early childhood programs and local economic development. Kalamazoo, Mich: W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research.

Bennis, W. G. (1989). On becoming a leader. Reading, Mass: Addison-Wesley Pub. Co.

Bennis, W. G., & Nanus, B. (1985). Leaders: The strategies for taking charge. New York: Harper & Row.

Bredekamp, S., Copple, C., & National Association for the Education of Young Children. (1997). Developmentally appropriate practice in early childhood programs. Washington, D.C: National Association for the Education of Young Children.

Bremner, J. G., & Wachs, T. D. (2010). The Wiley-Blackwell handbook of infant development. Chichester, West Sussex: Wiley-Blackwell.

Chen, D., Klein, M. D., & Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co. (2007). Early interactions: Parent-professional perspectives in early intervention. Baltimore, MD: Paul H. Brookes Pub.

Click, P., & Click, P. (2004). Administration of programs for young children. Clifton Park, NY: Thomson/Delmar Learning.

File, N., Mueller, J. J., & Wisneski, D. B. (2012). Curriculum in early childhood education: Re-examined, rediscovered, renewed. New York: Routledge.

Gordon, A. M., & Browne, K. W. (2011). Beginnings and beyond: Foundations in early childhood education. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.

Grace, C., & Shores, E. F. (2010). After the crisis: Using storybooks to help children cope. Silver Spring, MD: Gryphon House.

Hood, ., Hood, M., & Early Childhood Australia. (2011). Partnerships: Working together in early childhood settings. Deakin West, A.C.T: Early Childhood Australia.

Isenberg, J. P., & Jalongo, M. R. (1997). Major trends and issues in early childhood education: Challenges, controversies, and insights. New York: Teachers College Press.

Marsh, J. (2005). Popular culture, new media and digital literacy in early childhood. London: RoutledgeFalmer.

McCall, R. M., & Craft, D. H. (2004). Purposeful play: Early childhood movement activities on a budget. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.

NAYEC (2005). Coping with disasters. Retrevied from: http://www.naeyc.org/newsroom/Resources_on_coping_with_disasters#Helping_children_after_trauma 14^th August 14, 2012.

Persky, B., Golubchick, L. H., Doctorate Association of New York Educators., & American Federation of Teachers. (1991). Early childhood education. Lanham: University Press of America.

Robertson, C. (1998). Safety, nutrition, and health in early education. Albany: Delmar Publishers.

Schiller, P. B., & Hastings, K. (1998). The complete resource book: An early childhood curriculum : over 2000 activities and ideas!. Beltsville, Md: Gryphon House.

Seibel, N. L., Britt, D., Gillespie, L. G., Parlakian, R., & Zero to Three (Organization). (2006). Preventing child abuse and neglect: Parent–provider partnerships in child care. Washington, D.C: Zero to Three.

Whitney, E. N., & Rolfes, S. R. (2011). Understanding nutrition. Australia: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.

Wittmer, D. S., & Petersen, S. H. (2006). Infant and toddler development and responsive program planning: A relationship-based approach. Upper Saddle River, N.J: Pearson/Merrill Prentice Hall.

Wortham, S. C. (2006). Early childhood curriculum: Developmental bases for learning and teaching. Upper Saddle River, N.J: Pearson/ Merrill/Prentice Hall.