Having gone through series of interactions
in this course up to this level, I realized that my life has not been directly
touched by advocate effort but hearing testimonials of my colleagues in
addition to research finding, my eyes are now open to areas of diverse
challenges and needs which should be met to help children reach their
developmental milestone and develop normally.
Specific areas I would like to concentrate
on, for children ages 0 – 12 years, include the following: language arts,
physical development, mathematics, creative development, science and
socio-emotional development.
Given that resources are mainly devoted to
children 0 -5 years to meet their developmental milestones but sometimes some
children are unfortunate by default of circumstances and miss the opportunity
of getting the services meant for their developmental milestone at 5 years of
age. In continuation of their schooling, their experienced loss in developmental
gap would be having negative impacts in their performances. I wonder whether this
gap should be left or bridged but my conscience and passion align me in the direction
of bridging the gap, therefore, I am advocating on their behave. Meaning that
children ages 6 – 12 years old who need help ought to receive help to argument
or close the gap in their developmental pattern.
To be effective in closing this gap I would
like to become a service/program coordinator so as to liaise between the
parents, students, and teachers at both levels 0 – 5 years and 6 – 12 years
old.
My interest is focused on the economically
challenged population whose children feel the impact of poverty most. These
children manifest a lot of socio-emotional behavioral problems and mental
health challenges. These problems deprive them of normal developmental
progress.
Chika,
ReplyDeleteGood for you for recognizing that older children can still benefit from assistance. My children are in middle school and often by this time problem children have been written off.
Having been a special needs child growing up I often simple wanted to just get out of school as fast as possible before anyone learned of my issues. I would simple want to remind you that often these children want their problems and issues to stay private and kept confidential. Alot of adults in the interest of helping out out the child and their family siituation in very uninteded ways that can intenfy the stresslevel.
Hi Chika!
ReplyDeleteYou provide an interesting perspective and detailed explanation supporting your passion to advocate for children ages 6-12 years old in bridging achievement gaps. I agree with you that children ages 6-12 years old at times lack the quality and quantity of early intervention services often offered to children ages 0-5 years old. Children ages 6-12 years old experiencing academic and developmental delays whom fail to receive early intervention services may potentially experience long term detrimental effects on their self-esteem, self-worth, and stability. As you rightfully stated, it’s extremely important to consider older children in conjunction with younger children when formulating and implementation early intervention services.