A Personal Uplifting Research Story

          “Even young children can contribute to research if appropriate methods are used” (Whiting, 2009). With so many unknowns facing the field of early childhood and children, research is needed to help children foster across each of their developmental domains. When involving children in research, it is imperative the Institutional Review Board’s requirements for special protection of children in research are followed (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, n.d). I have been able to personally experience a positive example of the effects of research on children and families which followed the Institutional Review Board’s ethical requirements, yet still yielded positive results for a child’s development.

            Five years ago, my uncle became a legal guardian for a three-year old child. The little girl’s mother had been battling chemical addiction for years and had found herself, as well as the child in a compromising situation, causing her to do what she felt was best and give up custody of her c to a person she knew could provide a better life for the child. My uncle took over guardianship of this child with very little prior knowledge about her background. We continue to tell him, he was at the ‘right place at the right time,’ so he could save this little girl.

Over the course of the next several years, this child experienced psychological distress, causing him to seek out support. Due to this little girl’s lack of trust in adults due to her upbringing, her therapist suggested they partake in an ongoing research study at her clinic involving a new type of play therapy. This new therapy would involve multiple family members being present to help the child gain trust in them and build new relationships, while she learned about how to deal with her past. Both my uncle and his new little girl had given their consent and assent to partake in this research. While both my uncle and the researchers understood there may be some ‘skeletons’ which would be revealed from the little girl’s past, they knew if she did not express them, further psychological damage would transpire.

In this situation, while ‘greater than minimal risk’ research was used, the amount of information gained about the child’s past, her new ability to express herself, and the trust she built with extended families members and adults helped her to develop a more psychologically stable state of mind. Due to her participation in the research, the therapist now uses the integration of extended family members within her therapy sessions with young children as a way to incorporate support and relationship building for children.

Research can have wonderful benefits for children and families if ethical, supportive measures are taken. I was excited to observe the effects of research using children within my own life, and I look forward to learning more about research and how I can incorporate it into my personal life circumstance in the future.

Reference

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services: Office for Human Research Protections

(OHRP). (n.d.) Special protections for children as research subjects. HHS.gov. Retrieved on from http://www.hhs.gov/ohrp/policy/populations/children.html.

Whiting, L. (2009). Involving children in research. Paediatric Nursing, 21(5), 32–36. Retrieved

from

http://uhra.herts.ac.uk/bitstream/handle/2299/7736/Appendix%203.pdf?sequence=8.

My Personal Research Journey

              The topic I have chosen for my research simulation is alternatives to standardized testing in early childhood. I chose this topic because I have personally observed my first grade students having severe testing anxiety when it comes time to complete our state and district testing. No matter what I tell my students or how prepared they may be, it is heartbreaking to see students physically shake, cry and even wet themselves because they are so nervous. I am interested in learning more ways to make testing less of a formal process and more of a set of engaging activities where students are not even aware they are being tested. While I understand we will still have to complete state testing requirements, I hope to find enough research so I may advocate for equally effective, yet creative ways to yield assessment data.

            The simulation process so far has been a bit challenging. At first I could not find too much information about alternates to standardized testing, but found many papers written about the pros and cons of testing. After some deep research I found some great articles and I look forward to applying the new terms from our resources in order to seek a more thorough understanding of the evidence behind each article.

While I too struggle with many of the terms, I am excited to expand on the terms and make the definitions more meaningful within our individual research charts. I am excited to look back at my completed research chart at the end of this course in order to document all I have learned about the research process. Having a place to organize all the new information, as well as to serve as a quick reference throughout my simulation will be very beneficial for my confidence in this project.

With assessment and standardized testing being a well-talked about concept with many educators, if anyone has any resources or experiences with alternate testing, I welcome the help. I am interested in any ideas or articles that may talk about different strategies to testing which have proven to be effective. Through our collaboration throughout this course, I am confident we all will come up with wonderful simulation projects.  “Research means finding out new things” (Mac Naughton & Rolfe,  2010, p.13) The more I learn about your simulation projects, I will do my best to also help each and every one of you with resources which I feel may be helpful in your research journeys. Best of luck everyone!

Reference

Mac Naughton, G., Rolfe, S.A., & Siraj-Blatchford, I. (2010). Doing early childhood research:

International perspectives on theory and practice (2nd ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.

Welcome EDUC 6163 to My Blog!

Hello Everyone and welcome to my Walden Blog. I am very excited for all of us to become more confident as we continue to learn new information about research this quarter. Through our collaboration and continued support for one another I am sure we will all reach our goal of becoming more comfortable with conducting research in the early childhood field.

*On a side note, if anyone would like to change states for a couple days, Minnesota has been having -40 to -50 degree windchills the past two days. All Minnesota public school have been cancelled due to a mandate by the governor the last few days... yikes! Please send any warm weather this way. :)

*Becca Rauch