My Supports

My Supports

Sources of Daily Support and Their Benefits

God-provider, protector, and a Father that makes life easier

Family-emotional, physical support, and love

Friends-emotional support and extended family

Community-ensures all aspects of the above support systems coming together

All of these supports are important and essential to my well being.  Each plays both an interconnected and isolated role.  All are centered on a relationship with God.  Therefore, without one the system is off balanced.  Without family as sense of belonging leaves, while without friends peer interaction becomes difficult.  The community serves as the collaborative support of all of the above.  Without a community, how would friends and families interact differently with one another? 

The Challenge

The challenge that I choose was that of being blind.  A blind person relies on others for transportation.  Family and friends would be needed in order to aid in this area.  However, blind individuals are able to cook, feed themselves, and take care of themselves daily.  With proper systems in place, tasks such as getting dressed can be quite simple.  However, family members and friends would be needed to create these initial systems.  Tasks such as managing finances would require the assistance of a trusted family member.  How would the life of a blind person be different without these supports?  While service dogs can be provided to aid in daily life, tasks such as allowing someone else to manage the finances require trust.  How can such systems be developed without the supports of family, friends, and even members of the community?   

Connection to Play

Quotes about play and my childhood:

Play fosters belonging and encourages cooperation. 

~Stuart Brown

In our play we reveal what kind of people we are. 

~Ovid

My Essential Items of Play as a Young Child:

As a child, I loved to play with dolls.  Through them I learned how to be nurturing.  As an only child, they also served as “friends.”  My favorite doll was a Cabbage Patch doll that went everywhere with me. 

 The model kitchen was also a favorite pastime of mine.  It was later passed down to younger cousins.  Here through socio-dramatic play we learned how to interact with one another and probably assumed gender roles as well. 

How People Supported Play and the Role of Play in my Childhood:

Play served as a means of exploration, learning, and reinforcement.  I learned how to interact with others, play alone, and how to experience the world around me in a fun manner.  My parents were always receptive to listening me play and often interacted with me.  As an only child, I often played with older cousins who would teach me through play.  From playing with them I learned how to tie my shoes, braid, sew, and even make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.  Everyone around me supported play including interacting with my imaginary friend.  I now know that imaginary friends serve the purpose of teaching us how to interact with others around us. 

Similarities and Difference in Play Then and Now:

When I was young, most play occurred outside.  We loved to explore nature and run.  It was nothing like having the fresh breeze brush against our skin.  Today, most play occurs indoors.  Video games and television monopolize the majority of play.  People are also less trusting to send children outside to play.  However, children do still have imaginary friends and still play in a “rough and tumble” fashion as well as pretend play.  I believe that play still serves the purpose of learning and exploration.  My hope for younger children is that they are able to learn through play in schools like I was able to.  This made school fun, exciting, and engaging. 

Role of Play Throughout Life:

Play not only builds schema for young children and affords them to the opportunity to practice new skills, but it also allows them the ability to experience life in a fun and exciting way.  Adults often forget that play serves to re-energize us and relax us from the daily stresses of life.  Play later on in life provides opportunities to meet new people and experience new things, just as it does in childhood.  

Relationships

I am a firm believer that relationships are the essence of survival. I believe we need each other to live. In terms of children, I believe they need positive support systems that provide them with a means to be themselves, express themselves, and teaches to them love themselves and others.

Final Thoughts...

"With both heart and mind, we can build caring communities, design schools that develop children's wisdom and emotional strength along with their intellect and physical strength, and operate institutions with balance, intelligence and appreciation for people and the environment."
~Doc Childre, Freeze-Frame
I chose this quote because I am a firm believer in shaping tomorrow for our children. For me, this quote is inspirational and reminds us as educators to give our all for our students, their families, their communities, and world!

I would like to thank you all for your support on my blog over this course. I welcome you all at any time!

Best Wishes in all your Endeavors,

Jossalyn Richardson

Testing

When it comes to assessing children, I have mixed emotions. I believe that looking at the child holistically is essential because each person is different. We all think differently and reason differently, and therefore, we should be measured differently and according to various instruments. In terms of everyone being different, I find it poignant that we not have a measured level of “normalcy.” For example, I have a brother with a learning disability—not a severe disability, however it has kept him from doing some things. However, in other areas of his life (what one may consider common sense) he is a genius. He understands all spoken and unspoken rules and functions in society successfully with aid. However, if my brother were to take a standardized test, he would more than likely not score well at all. So, I find it difficult to base everything about him against an assessment.

In Japan, children are given an IQ test to determine what type of profession they should pursue. However in America, assessments are used in a different way. I feel we use assessments to give us a baseline, but also as tool to determine intelligence, not just measure it. I teach middle-aged children and oftentimes they are capable of performing a task, but they may need the final project modified or to be able to show mastery in a different way. I do feel assessments provide useful information, however I don’t know how fair it is to allow one assessment to be a “fits all sizes” model. 

Stressor Children Face

My heart goes out to children who have to deal with stressors. Fortunately, I have never experienced any of these stressors (and I give God all praise for that); however, when I was younger worked at a summer camp for a few summers, and I met children who did experience these types of things. For example, I met a child who dealt with poverty. I remember him coming to camp everyday with soiled clothes, hygienic discrepancies, no shoelaces, and no hair cut and hungry. He was one of six children living in a small, one bedroom apartment. To me, this young gentleman dealt with living in poverty by coming to the summer camp every day to eat lunch.

While there, I attempted to purchase items for the young man and I also got the city to sponsor a Personal Care Day. When I asked the city to sponsor the Personal Care Day, I was initially told it couldn’t be pulled off (because it was only a summer program), however I looked at the children I serviced (ones like the young man I mentioned earlier), and I couldn’t have a defeated attitude in their name. Therefore, I had local cosmetologist and barbers come out to give the children free hairstyles and haircuts. I also had Wal-Mart provide the children with toiletry bags. While the Personal Care Day was in no way a permanent fix, I wanted the children in the program to know that I cared. I have never been hungry, or in need of something so badly that my mother didn’t work diligently to provide. We didn’t always have everything we would have liked to have, but we were never in a situation like the some children I say while working at the summer camp.

I am not sure if children are every really able to get over these types of stressors; however, I believe in these situations plasticity will occur based on the experiences these children have faced.

This week, I researched how children in Africa are affected by poverty (among the other many stressors they face). After reading about poverty in Africa, I realized that many of the stressors children face in Africa overlap. For example, their poverty is surrounded by inadequate medical care, insufficient nutrients, and much more. However the children there die from poverty or it’s dealt with through programs like United Nations, Feed the Children and many more that support those countries to help alleviate some of the burden. However, even with the information I read, I wanted to hear the voices of their children from Africa. I feel that we read a lot of information but the best sources are the sources themselves. I would like to hear from children from the country to attempt to understand how they feel. Nevertheless, I still believe that children this country can have lasting effects.

Breastfeeding

I chose breastfeeding as my public health topic. I chose breastfeeding because I found the topic interesting this week in the reading. I was particularly intrigued by the subtitle “Breast is the Best.” However, more importantly, this topic is meaningful to me because my Aunt breastfed her youngest child and I have witnessed firsthand how strong and healthy she is. I recall when my baby cousin came home from the hospital and my aunt and uncle decided to breastfeed. I remember looking at the formula and the milk produced by my aunt, it looked so different—the formula looked weak (fragile) in comparison to the milk produced by my aunt. The protein in my aunt’s milk was evident.

Today, seeing how my strong my little cousin’s bones are, how the muscles develop in her legs and arms, how rich her blood is, how she rarely feels ill, I am convinced that after we (my fiancé’ and I ) get married and decided to have children that we too will breastfeed based on the numerous benefits. Overall it helps our child, and whatever helps my children—I’m all about it!!

I decided to research breastfeeding in Australia this week. To my surprise, breastfeeding is an essential component of their lifestyle. They have lots of information dedicated to sharing the benefits of breastfeeding on the site: http://www.breastfeeding.asn.au/bfinfo/general.html . The site included the benefits of breastfeeding, classes to teach the appropriate practices, etc. I found the information extremely helpful and supportive to the concept.