Observing Communication

          I had an experience yesterday at work watching interaction between a parent and child I have in my classroom.  The child had had a difficult day at school.  He was fighting with other children, had a bathroom accident and seemed not himself.  The mother rushed in to pick him and his brother up (they are twins), then rushed out so quickly I did not have a chance to talk to her.  When I was cleaning up the room I found his wet clothes in a bag in his cubbie which she forgot to check.  I put them aside and continued to clean.  I then saw her and the boys walk by the classroom going to their car from the playground.  I stopped her and opened the door.  I quietly said, “I’m glad I caught you,” and gave her the wet clothes.  She looked at her son and rolled her eyes.  She then said his whole name with a sigh.  He usually goes by a shorter nickname.  She then told me loudly that he had pushed another boy on the playground and that was why they were leaving.  She kept looking at him with a disapproving look.  She then told him she was not happy and they walked away. 

          The communication was very one sided.  When relating this to the media-presentation this week the “Communicating with Young Children” the communication was not reciprocal and respectful.  This boy has a problem communicating in the classroom and by relating it to the snapshot of the interaction with his mother it is easier to understand.  Talking negatively in front of another adult who the child respects makes them feel very unworthy. 

          I believe the adult-child communication should have been done privately where the issues could have been discussed in detail and worked out.  No knowledge came out of the communication which happened outside of the classroom.  I would have talked to both the children after the hitting happened, and not scooted him away from the playground.  If I needed to have a conversation with the teacher I would not have done it with the child present. 

          In regard to my own communication with children this week the main thing I have learned is I always treat children respectful and never put them down.  I try to have meaningful conversations and deal with problems as they present themselves.

References

Laureate Education Inc.(Producer). (2011). Communicating With Young Children. Baltimore, MD: Author

                

Creating Affirming Environments

If I opened my own Family Child Care Home I would want everything to look very natural and have elements of bringing nature inside. I believe it brings a calming effect to the room and to the children. I would find beautiful real pictures of multi-cultural children and hang them on the wall in frames to make it feel very homey. The photos I chose would also show pictures crossing typical gender roles. For example: girls playing cars. I would also show different family dynamics in photos, like single parent households. I would have multi-cultural dress up clothes in the dramatic play with all different types of pretend food from sushi to pita bread. The baby dolls would have all different skin colors from light to dark. I would have elements in my classroom from other parts of the world. For example: a wall hanging from Indonesia. The language displayed around the room would be in every language my families used. If there were four home languages I would use all of them in correspondence. Anyone who entered my care center could tell immediately who was in the program at that time (Derman-Sparks & Edwards, 2010 p.43). The books in my center would have personalized topics to relate to the children and we would make them ourselves if needed. The puzzles would have real photos of children who represented the classroom. I would have a family board where photos of the families were displayed in frames. When playing music I would choose music with different languages as well as culturally diverse music. In my dreams I would create a beautiful classroom where all children were represented and respected.
References
Derman-Sparks, & Edwards, J. (2010). Anti-Bias education for young children and ourselves. Washington D.C. National Association for the Education of Young Children( NAEYC).