Posts by Kathy

Kathy

Apr 6, 2008

Writing Feedback / A reflection paper about my practicum site [3]

Hi,

I have to write a reflection paper for my human development class. I am working with first graders in an elementary school and our professor wants to know this:

Choose one thing about your practicum site that you think should be different. This can be something procedural, something structural, something related to curriculum or to clients or to personnel. Think about how you would change and improve this thing if you had the power to make it different. Relate the changes you come up with to some area of knowledge in the study of human development. Be concrete, detailed and specific. Is there anything that you can do as an intern to impact this area or to begin the process of change?

I am working with a great teacher and I do not see anything I want to change. She's very creative with her students and she keeps her students engage. The class size is 20. I could talk about making the class size smaller, but I feel I don't have much to write about on that. I have to write a 4 page paper and I do not know if I can stretch that idea out into 4 pages. I need help coming up with ideas to write about. I feel I must make up something big that I can write a lot about, but it is hard when I completely agree with their approach to education compared to other schools. Also, my professor has read my journal about my experience in this practicum site and I have a lot of positive journal entries about the teacher and the school. Can someone please help me come up with ideas I can write a lot about? I'll greatly appreciate it!

Kathy

Apr 7, 2008

Writing Feedback / A reflection paper about my practicum site [3]

Hi Sarah,

Thank you so much for your response. Yesterday I spent time working on my essay. I decided to talk about providing more training programs, resources, and support for teachers, but I could not relate a lot of it to human development. I think I am going to redo my paper and work on my original idea about class sizes and apply the ideas you gave me. I think I can relate more human development to this topic and I can also help make a change by recommending local volunteer groups to include schools in their volunteering agendas.

Kathy

Apr 8, 2008

Essays / Evaluation Paper - how to optimize the development of children [12]

Hi,

I have to write another paper evaluating a web article. I really need to get 100% on this essay to get an A in the class. I am so overwhelmed and stressed with school work and I feel intimidated by this essay. I don't know why? Its not hard. I probably wouldn't feel intimidated if I didn't have the pressure of getting 100% on it and the pressure of having so much school work due each week and trying to get good grades at the same time. Also, my mind gets few hours of sleep and I think that is getting to me as well, but I can't sleep since time is ticking away (sorry I'm venting). Our professor gave us the instructions below for our essay. It has to be at least 3 pages. Maximum 5 pages.

Choose a recent (within the last 2 years) article written for parents, teachers, or other family members on how to optimize the development of children (any age between conception through adolescence may be used) or written for family members on how to improve family functioning. This article is casual, one that would be read by non-child development people. Evaluate this casual article by comparing it with professional research that pertain to the topic of the article, using professional journals, edited books, research monographs and/or government publications. The main requirement is that the sources report original research or theory by the authors (i.e., that primary sources of theory and research be used for the evaluation). Cite sources in the body of the paper and provide a list of reference cited at the end of the paper using APA style.

Content

1. Describe the process you used for finding a web article suitable for this assignment. What advise would you give to a parent on finding an article on your topic?

I do not think it is enough for me to say I went online and used google.com to find a casual web article on my topic. The advise I would give to parents is to find a computer with internet access and summarize their topics into keywords. Then, I would recommend they use google.com as their search engine. Once they enter the keywords on that site a list of websites will appear and they can decide which websites answer their questions best. That's all I have to say on the questions above.

2) What credibility did you give initially to an article drawn from the WWW? What are your thoughts about the practical experience versus scientific information as credible sources of information about children or families (as applied to the article)? Why?

Well, the author states she has 20 years of occupational therapy. I would give her article some credibility. I think scientific information helps support practical experiences best. Not all practical experiences benefit everyone and what scientific information does is it helps broaden practical experiences so that everyone else can benefit from them as well. I don't know if that made any sense. lol.

3) what were the main points of the article? Provide concise summary.

The article describes what characteristics pertain to children who are resilient. It informs parents different ways of promoting resilience with their child. It also, explains the benefits resilient children have in life.

4) How sound were the points made by the author when compared to current scientific theory and research on the topic of the article? This question should receive emphasis in your write-up. In your professional life, people will ask you to refer them to articles about children and families. You should be able to identify current information that is well supported by professional theory and research. Thus, the key question here is the following: are the main suggestions made in the article in agreement (or not) with scientific research? In answering this question, you should compare the main points summarized in 3 above with information drawn form the scientific sources identified.

This part I like since it is compare/contrast. I can find a lot of scholarly articles on this topic. Is the professor stating that he wants the majority of the paper to be about the web article versus scholarly articles? So, you think the rest of the questions above should be at least a paragraph long or should question # 3 be a page long and #1 and #2 a paragraph long?

5) What are your overall conclusion about the article? Also give two original examples of how the information in the article could be applied to real life on to working with children in the home and the second to working with them in community settings such as school.

How long should this part be? I page long or half a page?

By the way, this is the web article I picked: e-bility.com/articles/child_resiliance.php

I would appreciate your feedback. Thanks! =)

Kathy

Apr 10, 2008

Essays / Evaluation Paper - how to optimize the development of children [12]

Resilience during childhood is one of the most important qualities a person can have, because it helps with difficult life experiences, such as lonely times, frustrating times, and unfair times. For this reason it is vital for parents to help build their child's backbone in order for them to bounce back through hardships. The search engine called, google.com was used to find a web article on this topic. The advice I would give to parents who are interested in this topic is to find a computer with internet access and summarize their topic into general keywords. Then, I would recommend they use google.com as their search engine. Once they enter the keywords on the search engine site a list of websites will appear and they can decide which websites answer their questions best.

When I initially viewed the article I gave it some credibility since the article contained a description about the author who wrote it. The description includes a picture of the author along with detailed information of the author's professional history. It also includes a link where one can find additional information about the author's mission and research history. Scientific information helps support practical experiences best. Not all practical experiences apply to everyone. Therefore, scientific information helps broaden practical experiences so that everyone else can benefit from them as well.

For the second paragraph am I answering the second question on the previous post I posted correctly?

Kathy

Apr 10, 2008

Essays / Evaluation Paper - how to optimize the development of children [12]

Hi,

I edited the 2nd paragraph. Does this one sound better? How's the grammar?

When I initially viewed the article, I gave it some credibility since the article contained a description about the author who wrote it. The description includes information about the author's professional history along with a picture of the author. It also includes a link where one can find additional information about the author's mission and education history. I believe practical experience is the knowledge one gains from one's own personal experience, therefore it is a less credible source of information about children and families since one's own experiences can not apply to everyone. Controlled scientific information is knowledge that as been explored through scientific experiments. The source of information one retrieves from these scientific experiments help provide useful information that can apply to everyone which makes scientific information more credible than practical experience.

Thanks!

Kathy

Apr 12, 2008

Essays / Evaluation Paper - how to optimize the development of children [12]

Hi,

This is what I have for question #3 above. I will appreciate it if you can proofread it and check my grammar. I posted the website of the article in a previous post and I was wondering if you can let me know if I summarized the article correctly? I'll appreciate it thanks!

The author of the article defines resilience as the individual's capacity to minimize or overcome adversity. One of the three main resources of resilience the author describes is called "I HAVE," which is the child's available external support resources. These resources provide the child with a sense of security and safety. The second resource is called "I AM." This is when a child relies on his or her own personal feelings, strengths, and beliefs. The last resource she describes is called "I CAN." This is the child's social skills and interpersonal skills learned through communication and interaction.

The author provides many examples that explain the three main resources of resilience. She also mentions that younger children experience the "I HAVE" resource more frequently compared to older children. As children age, they rely more on the "I AM" resource as well as the "I CAN" resource. The author also includes examples of activities and opportunities parents can provide to their children to help promote resilience. Some of the activities and opportunities the author suggests parents participate with their children include emotional support, clear rules, clear consequences, and unconditional love. The author concludes her article by expressing the multiple factors that are attributed to resilience, such as genetics and the children's temperaments.

Kathy

Apr 14, 2008

Essays / Evaluation Paper - how to optimize the development of children [12]

This is what I have for question #4 above.

According to Garmezy, resiliency is explained by the presence of "protective factors," those qualities or situations that help alter or reverse expected negative outcomes. Resiliency can be developed by providing and promoting these protective factors in a child's life. Protective factors can be internal (within the individual) or external (involving the family, school, and community). Internal protective factors within the child involve the ability to take control, be proactive, and make decisions about what to do instead of just letting things happen. Resilient children take responsibility for their decisions, and they engage others when needed.

External protective factors can be found in the home, school, and community environments. Garmezy has identified three themes involving external protective factors that apply to each of these environments, which are caring relationships, positive and high expectations, and opportunities for meaningful participation. The author of the article and the researchers believe that there are internal and external protection factors that lead to resilience. The researchers and author agree that children who obtain more external support will have more positive inner abilities. They also believe that a nurturing and positive environment will help promote resilience in children.

According to Garmezy , parents and families can help foster resilience in their children by first understanding the risk and protective factors involved in the child's life. The author of the article mentions this point as well as she stated, "Through understanding what resilience is, parents and care givers can provide specific opportunities and activities to promote resilience in their child." According to Garmezy parents can be powerful advocates for their children. They can develop partnership with their child's teachers to get involved in his or her education. The author of the article did not mention how parents can get involved in their children's education. Therefore, parents who read her article will lack this valuable information that can help their children become more resilient.

According to Grotberg, parents or caregivers need to take care of their own physical and mental health in order to give their children the attention that they need. The author of the article failed to mention this point as well. It is important that parents or caregivers know the importance their health makes in the lives of their children. According to Kagan, a child's own genetic make-up and temperament are fundamental to whether he of she will be resilient. Therefore, a child's vulnerability to anxiety, challenges, stress or unfamiliarity determines his or her self-perception, how he or she interacts with others, and how he or she addresses adversity. The author of the article is correct in stating that genetic factors and the child's temperament are other factors that attribute to resiliency.

Kathy

Apr 14, 2008

Essays / Evaluation Paper - how to optimize the development of children [12]

For the summary, you said I should include some of the suggestions the author made towards the end. Which suggestions? Are you talking about the activities and opportunities, like "Model behaviour that you would like the child to display?"

Thanks you for your help! I appreciate it! =)

Kathy

Apr 14, 2008

Essays / Evaluation Paper - how to optimize the development of children [12]

5) What are your overall conclusion about the article? Also give two original examples of how the information in the article could be applied to real life on to working with children in the home and the second to working with them in community settings such as school.

I am not sure if my examples are what he is asking for in the question above.

Overall, the points the author made are supported by scientific information. The author provided good examples to help children develop resiliency that can be beneficial to non-child development people. However, the article does lack other useful information mentioned in scholarly articles. Divorced parents with children can apply the information in this article to help their children overcome this adversity. Parents can teach their children to say, "I am a good son or daughter." This can help children develop their internal resource of resilience. The parents can also teach their children to say "I have my mother and father whom I can trust." If parents follow the suggested activities and opportunities the author mentions in the article, they can develop trust with their children. Parents can also teach their children to say, "I can tell my mother or father what is bothering me." This thought process can help children vent out their frustrations, confusions, and sadness over their parents' divorce. Teachers can also help children build their external resource of resilience by encouraging them to do things on their own and to seek help when it is needed. They can help children build their internal resource by helping them feel proud of their accomplishments in class. They can also help them say, "I can ask my teachers for help when I need it." Overall, the "I HAVE", "I AM", and "I CAN" resources explained in the article can help build children's resiliency through strengthening their internal resource.

Kathy

Apr 15, 2008

Essays / Evaluation Paper - how to optimize the development of children [12]

Thank you for your help! =)