January 18, 2013

RESEARCH SIMULATION



The topic of my interest for research is how a child’s mental health is affected when they are victimized and abused during the early years



I chose this topic because I have personally seen how a child's emotional state can be affected due to abuse. Because the brain controls all of our actions and emotions, a child's mental health is very important.

A child who is not emotionally stable cannot concentrate in school and develop the skills necessary to succeed.



 I think this area in particular needs more research because it is often overlooked and from this area many important factors depend. One very important factor is citizenship skills, which in contrast affects the social skills. Social and emotional skills are what shape a child and as long as we do not understand how they are feeling emotionally, it is going to be very difficult to decipher their actions and help them. Teachers who create a caring relationship with students is because they have somewhat peeked into their inner emotional state and are able to understand them.

Citizenship skills are often overlooked because the educators are too busy trying to meet the academic requirements so the school will not suffer the consequences of cuts in funding. During this process, the children’s emotional state is stressed and this causes the child to perform poorly sometimes. I believe the base of all the problems the youth of today face derive from the lack of promoting good citizenship skills at an early age. This topic would be of ultimate importance and interest for me to research further. From such research, teachers as well as families would benefit. At school, teachers would be able to acquire improved academic results from students; and at home, parents would have a well behaved child. Overall, after transitioning to adulthood, these children would be productive law abiding citizens and the benefit would extend globally

8 comments:

  1. Hey Dina! As you know I experience on a daily basis what can happen if a child is traumatized in early childhood, teaching in a low income, rural area. Often I think it is due to the lack of education on the parents part. For example, if a teen parent doesn't know that leaving a newborn in an unlit room for an extended period of time without interaction that the child can then develop abandonment issues, along with developmental problems...So my thoughts are go towards more education for poor, unprepared parents.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Whitney,

      I have always worked with the low income population too and I love working with them. And yes, I agree we need more parent empowerement and parent education.Teachers should always work in collaboration with the parents. Just last week we had an incident with a 12 year old in one of the schools I work in. The child comes from a low income household and has severe social and behavioral problems. He was placed in a special program and was doing good, but unfortunately; the father removed him. According to the father, his son did not belong in "no special ed class".

      Delete
  2. Dina I will be interested in the results of your research. Doing my undergraduate years I spent a lot of time at aearly childhood program entitled Tedi Bear, it was a clinic for abused children. Ifbi can be any assistance to you please do not hesitate to contactnme.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Megan,

      Thank you for offering your help. I am sure we can share very good information. I look forward to working with you, I would be interested to know more about the TediBear clinic.

      Delete
  3. Dina, very interesting topic you have chosen. The brain controls all our being. A few days ago, my friend observed that many adolescents look disturbed and restless. I told her that adulthood is usually the outcome of early childhood. It all depends on the foundation during early years. If children mental health is enhanced, we will have more emotionally stable adults. i will like to participate in this study. I will keep in touch.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Vivian,

      My job is working in many different schools and your friend is absolutely right. It is very sad to see how some teenagers look upset or disturbed. I was in a middle school last week and there was a child with a frown and a very sad look in his eyes. When I asked him if he was ok or wanted to talk, he said he was just upset.This child did not want to talk about his problem to me,or the counselor. I know from experience he was not trying to be defiant but I could just tell he was so miserable. Unfortunately, that misery was coming from home where it should be a safehaven for children.

      Delete
  4. Dina

    I am interesting in your topic "how a child’s mental health is affected when they are victimized and abused during the early years". However, I feel the topic is still too broad. "The child abuse" reflects many factors. You want to discuss the "lack of promoting good citizenship skills" or "citizenship skills". So you might want to narrow down the topic to "citizenship skills affect a child’s mental health".

    Sara

    ReplyDelete
  5. Thank you for all your comments ladies. I appreciate you sharing your experiences with me. And Sara, I agree with you, I do need to narrow it down. Thanks for the pointer. I think I will keep the topic you suggested "citizenship skills affect a child’s mental health", I had actually been thinking of narrowing it and was not able to come up with something.

    ReplyDelete