International Research

I looked at the website for austrailia. http://www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au/ I found that many of the topics that are important to them are also relevant in the United States. some of the topics include; breastfeeding, childcare ratings, diversity among children, inclusion of children, and many more. I saw that the national quality standards were a big issue on this site. They seem to take the "accredidation" process very seriously there. It was good to see that we are not the only country that is focused in on the inclusion process of children. This is one thing that I believe will make or break a child in their school careers. Children need to feel included no matter their state. I also noticed that child health and obesity is another big topic in their country. This means to me that we as a human race need to stop and look at what we are feeding our children and how much we are denying them the abilities to actively play. This is something that i would like to look closer into and possibly try to find a way to helop parents understand that this is not ok and that our children are going to suffer in the long run.

Research that will benifit children...

If I could choose any topic within the early childhood field to research and it would have a positive outcome on the entire community, it would be behavioral problems in young children. I choose this topic because I lived with this issue for much of my life. My brother has had behavioral problems his whole life due to a severe brain injury he got when he was two. I know what it is like for children to be put through test after test, and the Doctors never come up with a correct diagnosis. I would run a study to make sure that children were not being passed over when there may be something seriously wrong. Too many children today are being diagnosed with ADD and ADHD, and I find that to be the "easy way out" for doctors and parents. A child who is two or three years old should not be given this diagnosis. The child is more than likely just acting their age and the partents do not know what else to do, so they run to the doctor and get a prescription for Ridlin to calm the child down. This makes it difficult for the next child that comes along who may have something more severe than ADD or ADHD. I had a child in my class years ago who was, for lack of better terms, terrible. This child was as sweet as could be when things were going his way or he was playing. When he lost his temper though he was capable of injuring even adults. He woudl throw chairs, tables, knock over shelves filled with toys, bite, punch, the list goes on. There was something about this boy that I was drawn to. I took him under my wing and played a little bit of favorites with him, so I coudl possibly point his mother in the right direction. Jeremy was three and there was no reason for him to be acting the way he was for no reason. After I took on this mission I found that there were triggers that would set him off and allow him to lose his temper. He had a very difficult time with transition and needed ample time to prepare himself for that to happen. I would always alert him when there was 10 minutes left of an activity and allow him to begin his own transition before the rest of the class. This helped him a great deal. It was not medication that he needed it was attention.
I want to run a study that would allow people to see that jumping to conclusions like ADD is not always the right choice. A child may simply need some extra TLC and some time to work things out for themselves.

My research topic

I decided to do the topic of when children begin to actually learn their colors, shapes, letters, numbers, etc... I narrowed the topic down to what I truly wish to research and put my effort into. I have noticed in my many years of working with children and in day care centers that children are attracted to certain colors. Before the age of two I have found that if you put multiples of the same toy in front of a child of different colors almost 99% of the time the child will go for the red toy. This is what I find to be curious. I know that as children age their site grows. i also know that when children are born they are color blind and red is a significant color that sticks out in their grayscale. I want to find out why children truly like the color red over any other color. I want to know that when children begin to learn their colors and shapes, etc... that they learn certain letters or numbers faster because they are in the color red. These are all small little experiments I have done in my own time and with different children in different ages. I want to know the reasoning behind this.