Research that Benefits Children and Families - Uplifting Stories

Initially when I reviewed the options for this class assignment I was ecstatic however, as I began to brainstorm which real time story to share, I almost had a series of titles for a novel. After much thought I decided to review a few articles to see what was going on in the world that was worth sharing instead.
My searching brought me to several sites with great success stories in research to share. I decided to share from basiced.org. "Communities cannot rise out of poverty if their children do not thrive. That’s why early learning education and development programs that set a strong foundation for a child’s capacity to learn throughout life — across cognitive, social-emotional and language domains — are critical to later success" (Torrico, 2020). Children and there families face a great deal of day to day struggles and in my opinion their education and path to a better future should not be one of those struggles. This article shared a need for this country to have a program that outline the areas that children need help with the most along with the best possible approach to assisting them in obtaining their goals. According to research the first few years of a child life are the most important in reference to their developmental learning skills "when a developmental delay is not found early, children must wait to get the help they need to do well in social and educational settings" (CDC, 2020). "Save the Children developed IDELA, the International Development and Early Learning Assessment, an open-source tool that measures four key areas of early development: social-emotional skills, emergent numeracy, emergent literacy, and motor skills in children ages 3.5 to 6 years. With IDELA, every child is a “data point” and every partner who utilizes this tool is asked to share each data point as part of a worldwide, collaborative effort to aggregate what we’re learning about what’s working in early education. IDELA is now used in 70+ countries, and FH has launched it in 13 countries where we work" (Torrico, 2020).  This study discovers earlier on what children need and meets them on their level in order for them to gain the skills they need to reach their developmental goals. I found this to be great because it sought to provide children in poverty a chance to receive the needed resources to assess them in order to keep them on their learning course. "IDELA allows FH to share a common language and standardized definitions across different countries " (Torrico, 2020). Not only did this research uncover ways to build on the children strengths they developed ways to bring their home life and their parents into the process. "FH established common play areas in the community, where children can sing songs and use expressive vocabulary to communicate more with peers. At home, FH is training parents and caregivers through Care Groups to have more conversational interactions with their children, including using higher-level vocabulary in daily life" (Torrico, 2020).


Resources

Basic Education Coalition. (2020, January 24). Success stories of how global basic education transforms the lives of real children. Retrieved from https://www.basiced.org/impact-qualitative

Child Development Basics. (2020, March 5). Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/childdevelopment/facts.html

https://wallpaperaccess.com/stitch-ohana

My Personal Research Journey

It is with the strongest of conviction that I seek to gain as much current knowledge on the many platforms and strategies that are helping educators not just reach students but their parents as well. I believe that there is a indestructible foundation built when parents, educators and students work together. I am aware that technology has become the go to source to keep schools and parents connected however, there is still the need for physical presence , one on one as well as to be actively involved in a child development. As I shared before I have four daughters of my own and I know all to well how difficult it can be for working parents to find the time to be actively involved. What I would like are some current useful suggestions that will work to provide a healthy balance foundation that has worked for other educators and the challenges they came upon if any with getting parents involved in their students learning. The thing I love about all of the schools my older three daughters have attended is that their teachers from Pre-K to college literally follow them and so many other students of their showing support and I think that was also a huge factor that played a role in their lives. When children a nurtured properly in my opinion I feel that it strengthens their confidence in themselves as well as their drive to succeed. " When schools, parents, families, and communities work together to support learning, students tend to earn higher grades, attend school more regularly, stay in school longer, and enroll in higher level programs. Researchers cite parent-family community involvement as a key to addressing the school dropout crisis, and note that strong school-family-community partnerships foster higher educational aspirations and more motivated students" (NEA, 2008).

Resources
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/387520742910461255/

NEA Policy Briefs. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.nea.org/home/36073.htm
http://www.nea.org/assets/docs/PB11_ParentInvolvement08.pdf