Research that Benefit Children and
Families – An Uplifting Story
I believe the recent early childhood
research of the last five to ten years on the practice of “Inclusion” for example has not only increased
positive relationships among the children and the teachers in the classroom, it
has brought an increased sense of international awareness for preschool
children.
One series of events happened in our
Head Start classroom when a Latino family was asked to make a book with pictures
of their child and his family. His name was the title and the illustrator and under the pictures were the names of him and his family members. While I was there visiting the classroom, he proudly reached for his book in the library and
told his story when the teacher announced it was time for reading. After he successfully read his picture book and showed the pictures to the class, I learned a lot about him that day. I learned what country
he and his family were from. I learned about the foods he likes to eat and I
learned the names of his mother, his father, his siblings and his grandmother. He
and the children were also happy to show me his country on the globe and on another classroom visit I heard the children greet him in his own language.
One study reports that children benefit
most when teachers engage them in stimulating interactions that can provide input
and help them acquire new knowledge and skills that can elicit their verbal
responses and reactions; support their
engagement and enjoyment of learning and can foster their social, emotional, cognitive, language
and physical learning (Yoshikawa, 2013) . It was clear to me that day that the class had been engaged in Inclusion activities and their proud presentation was the result of every child being a part.
Reference
Yoshikawa,
H., etal. 2013. Investing in Our Future: The Evidence Base on Preschool
Education, Foundation
For Child Development. Retrieved
from
