Treasures and Observations

Treasure:
One treasure I definitely took away from the Mooney and Wood reading was all of the amazing information I learned about child development! I know this is sort of a lame statement, since that is the whole point of why we’re reading it, but I truly knew VERY little about child development before this class. I can’t believe that I have been working with kids all my life and never knew these really important milestones about the ages they are at and the totally natural struggles they might be having. So much of it makes SO much sense! They are totally patterns I have seen in children, but never put together as development standards.
I particularly found the Erik Erikson chapter interesting. I’ve worked with children for a long time, and feel that, whether schooled in it or not, I understand them and what’s going on with them. Babies, however, are like a foreign universe to me. It was therefore super interesting to be able to learn about their sole functions when they are little and how there are certain things that we can do as caretakers that will either help them to successfully get to the next stage, or completely screw them up! I decided on the day that I was reading the Mooney book, that any man who is going to father my babies is going to have to read this first. That may be harsh, but I think it’s totally necessary, and anyone who strives to be a good parent(/teacher) would understand!

Observations:
I can’t believe how much this reading has answered my questions to many real-life situations as well. For instance, I love going over to my boyfriend’s uncle’s house to hang out with their 3 year old. He’s definitely my pal. But knowing virtually nothing about those younger than 6, I went along with everyone else when they make Zac feel guilty about not being a “big-boy” when he doesn’t eat dinner or turns on the lights or gets hurt an cries. Who knew that this could be doing irreversible damage?! I fully intend to talk to his parents the next time I go over, sighting our friend, Erikson: “When adults are unable to adjust to a child’s swinging between needs for dependence and independence at this stage, they often shame the child for behavior which is actually developmentally appropriate.” (p. 46)
I also was very pleased to see that even though so much of this information seemed so new to me, I did see a comparison in Erikson’s “Give Children Simple Choices” principle with the Love and Logic parenting technique. I’m sure Erikson came first, but it’s just nice to see that something I have learned about and agree with and work hard to use in my everyday interactions with children is backed by one of the fathers of Educational Principle today. And what was even better was that he explains some of the psychology behind why it’s best to use this. With the Love and Logic seminar I went to, they simply said that it was a good technique to use. But now it makes sense that because many of the youth I served in my past occupation had not developed fully in the first stages of their life (attachment, trust), they end up developing Reactive Attachment Disorder (which again, was an acronym I used often, but something I never understood the psychology behind). Therefore, you have to use Love and Logic (Simple Choices) with teenagers (when normally you’d be using it with toddlers) because they never made it past those beginning stages to fully develop into the later ones. It’s all coming together now!