The Influence of Family, Culture, and Society in Early Childhood course was very insightful. The most surprising information was the novel “The spirit catches you and you fall down: A Hmong child, her American doctors and the collision of two cultures” by Anne Fadiman. This eye opening novel provided insight into how different cultures have different values and beliefs. I became more sympathetic on the plight and strength it must take for a family to travel to a new country and encounter multiple change. The novel opened the way for discussions on biases, biases that exist due to culture, language, race, ethnicity and sexuality.

The values and beliefs of one’s family develop the child’s identity. Early childhood professionals need to take into account family dynamics and societal norms when working with young children. It is important to display all family structures in the classroom and include literature that depicts family structures. One must also include the language of the home within the school environment this aids in building reciprocal relationships. These relationships between home and school are vital for the ultimate growth of children.

Another aspect from the course that aids in student growth is the development of resiliency. I connected most with the Resiliency Wheel by Nan Henderson. The resiliency wheel provided research behind the items that I promote in my classroom and throughout the school. These items include setting and communicating high expectations, providing care and support, setting clear and consistent boundaries, providing opportunities for meaningful participation, increasing prosocial bonding and teaching ‘life skills’. I have learned throughout my years as an early childhood professional that children will live up to expectations within boundaries that are set in a caring and supportive manner.

Children that grow up in a caring and supportive family build secure attachments. I learned through researching the challenge of giftedness in early childhood education that secure attachments lead to young children reaching their full potential. When a child feels safe, they are more apt to be curious of their environment and explore their surroundings. The child cultivates self-confidence and persistence, skills that are necessary for lifelong learning. These secure attachments should be developed between the child and the teacher as well. Mimi Wellisch stated, “Secure attachment may be the gatekeeper to unlimited possibilities” (2010. p. 124). The development of children that are lifelong learners is currently an aspiration and will continue to be an aspiration in the future.

One area that I hope to further investigate and will motivate me in the profession is the identification of and development of effective gifted programming for young children. “Karnes and Johnson (1987a, p. 198) suggested that rather than cognitive goals, suitable objectives for gifted preschoolers include:
(a) a healthy self-concept and good self-esteem;
(b) appropriate interpersonal skills;
(c) a high level of curiosity and motivation to learn;
(d) ability to persist as task;
(e) willingness to take risks;
(f) ability to engage in creative and productive thinking;
(g) acquisition of higher level thinking process; and
(h) ability to work independently and in groups (as cited in Walsh, Kemp, Hodge, & Bowes. 2012. p. 122-123).
These objectives will be used as the foundation in the development of an early learning center. A center that nurtures self-reliance, problem solving, cooperation and self-esteem while building children’s gifts and talents through challenging and stimulating activities of interest.

Reference:
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.

Resiliency.com. (n.d.) Retrieved January 5, 2014, from http://www.resiliency.com/free-articles-resources/crisis-response-and-the-resiliency-wheel/

Walsh, R., Kemp, C., Hodge, K. and Bowes, J. (2012) Searching for evidence-based practice: A review of the research on educational interventions for intellectually gifted children in the early childhood years. Journal for the Education of the Gifted 35(2) 103-108. DOI: 10.1177/0162353212440610.

Wellisch, M. (2010). Communicating love or fear: The role of attachment styles in pathways to giftedness. Roeper Review 32(2) 116-126. DOI: 10.1080/02783191003587900.