When considering a commitment to viewing young children
holistically a child’s physical health should be assessed. Physical health is
an important factor that can either hinder or help a child’s learning ability. An
impediment to a concentration in learning can be low self esteem. An example of
low self esteem linked to a health problem can be obesity. Students who suffer
from low self esteem are not able to concentrate because they feel judged,
underappreciated, and most likely not competent enough. Being obese for a child
also means that they have to take on the emotional stress of being bullied or
not accepted by their peers. A child who is malnourished may also be physically
unfit to concentrate in class.
Another issue that should be assessed is the development of the
brain while the child is growing. The maturing corpus callosum connects the two hemispheres of the
brain. The prefrontal cortex part of the brain is responsible for planning,
monitoring, and evaluating. Because these developments continue through middle
childhood, it is imperative to keep monitoring the child. Part of the
monitoring includes advances in reaction time, attention, and at the ways to
measure brain activity. These measurements embrace tests of aptitude and
achievement that point toward whether a child is developing as projected
(Berger, 2009).
There are many issues besides obesity and
brain development that affect a child’s learning process. While researching
other countries, I found out that in South Korea, children are not assessed
often enough for serious disorders that affect the child’s learning process
such as Autism (Johnson, 2011). As a result of this, many children are under
diagnosed and children as well as parents are not well informed or educated on
the subject. A survey that was taken in the city of Seoul showed that only 65%
of parents returned a questionnaire used as a screening tool. My opinion is that
children issues need more advocacies in the United States as well as other
parts of the world. Parents need to be educated and know that simply reprimanding
their child for not having good grades is not beneficial. Being professionals
in the childhood field we owe it to every child in the world to stay informed
and abreast new research and statistics that can help us help them. Staying
updated in all aspects of assessing a child can help us not become obsolete as
teachers but stay informed on new assessment tools being used and new techniques
to implement.
Reference:
Johnson,
Carla. (2011). Autism Study in South Korea Finds Rate than Previous U.S.
Estimate. The Internet Newspaper: News, Blogs, Videos, Community. Retrieved
from
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/09/autism-study-south-korea_n_859231.html
Berger, K. S. (2009).
The developing person through
childhood (5th ed.). New
York, NY: Worth Publishers.
You make a great point that obesity is a health issue that many times also leads to low self esteem and poor academic achievement. According to Berger, 2009, children at school age experience concerns about inferiority, obesity then becomes a huge challenge in learning to accept themselves and be accepted by peers. Health concerns associated with obesity including diabetes can not only have lasting effects on a child's health but may cause a child to have poor attendance, further affecting performance. I agree that parents need to be involved however I also believe that for that to happen, as educators we need to be creative in getting families involved to value their place as their child's first teacher. Parents aren't trained in child development or on learning objectives and standards, we must show them all the wonderful achievements their children celebrate each day, and use that as a tool for them to learn where their child is at today in terms of meeting standards so they too can support their child in moving on to the next standard. I enjoyed the picture, it really made a statement.
ReplyDeleteBerger, K. S. (2009). The developing person through childhood (5th ed.). New York, NY: Worth Publishers.
I agree that when we think of the whole child we need to think about physical health as well. We should teach about the importance of being active and healthy, along with good hygiene! Anything that we can do to help promote a child's self-esteem should be valued in the classroom! It sometimes only takes one teacher who "gets" the child in that special way to help that child to soar!
ReplyDeleteAddressing a child's physical health can be just as important as following their education. But I think some times so much focus is put on the parents, not to say as parents we are not responsible for what our children eat or drink, but adopting nutrition in early education not just as giving the children healthy foods but teaching them about what they are eating and why they need it as well as the vitamins they are receiving from each food selection. According to Bronfenbrenner's Theory, children are greatly influenced by the individual's in the microsystem that surrounds them (Berger, 2009). So I feel that as early educators we have tremendous influence on helping children to develop good eating habits that will hopefully stay with them for a lifetime even if the eating habits at home are not good. A little bit of healthy eating is better than none at all! Thanks Dina for the great post!
DeleteReference:
Berger, K. S. (2009). The developing person through childhood (5th ed.). New York, NY: Worth Publishers.