Discussing Child Learning Strategies

The two videos reviewed are the Visually Impaired and Understanding Hearing Impairments clips. The first one focused on the Blind Babies Foundation and its impact on the story of Joshua Estes Higden, a visually impaired child. The foundation aims to help those families whose lives have been inevitably affected by their children’s health conditions. The foundation specialists strongly suggest seeking aid in the earliest stages of childhood to increase the probability of a better future life. Specifically, professionals refer to the strategy as home-based early intervention (Valley PBS, 2009). Moreover, the importance of teaching a visually impaired child basic sound cues is emphasized. In this way, the strategy allows for better comprehension of the external environment. The tactile functions must also be worked on to ensure proper participation in daily activities.

The second video on Understanding Hearing Impairments provided a short clip telling the story of Haylie, a young girl faced with a genetic hearing problem. The speaker explained the incorporation of speech therapy into her niece’s development and its beneficial consequences. Furthermore, Haylie’s life has significantly improved through the use of hearing aids, other assisting technology, and most importantly, the love and patience of her family (KittenkatDesign, 2010). Communication is an essential factor to consider in this case, as it plays a significant role in a child’s development and perception of their own health conditions.

According to one strategy of Teaching Children about Feelings, the use of pictures can be a unique and effective way of exploring the concept of feelings with children. Hence, instead of verbal cues, describing one’s mood or feelings with a picture can become a daily method of checking in. At the same time, the specific words for every emotion can be taught and applied depending on the situation. Furthermore, while initiating the discussion with pictures, it is crucial that eventually, the child learns to differentiate between simple and complex emotions on people’s faces. Activities related to the strategy include the feelings cube activity, which involves pictures of various sentiments expressed by children and adults. This knowledge can be applied to my own work with young children in the way of encouraging visual stimulators to then apply those skills to real-life practices.

Moreover, Building Positive Relationships with Young Children enables investing time and effort into quality time with children to ensure a positive relationship with them. In my own experience of dealing with children, rushing has never contributed to a successful establishment of boundaries with children. On the other hand, allocating time out of my schedule to spend sufficient time with young children allows a productive learning session.

One key concept from the week’s reading would be the temporal adaptations (p.232). The term refers to ‘the structure, routine, and predictable activities that occur naturally in the home and educational setting’. The importance of temporal adaptations can be seen in the way they aid children with ASD in avoiding the anxiety of unexpected events. Early childhood professionals must understand the necessity to provide regular and standard conditions for a child with ASD, including both at home and in the classroom. There are various ways to organize a set routine for different environments, for example, break and mealtimes. Furthermore, sessions with an early childhood special educator are vital for the introduction to such adaptations, which is why I find it critical that the professional is familiar with the concept.

One question that can be formed on the concept of temporal adaptations: what are the ways the strategy of temporal adaptations can be applied to classroom settings?

References

KittenkatDesign. (2010). Understanding Hearing Impairments [Video]. YouTube. Web.

Valley PBS. (2009). Visually Impaired [Video]. YouTube. Web.