For my research simulation I chose to focus on cognitive development because it is my professional perspective that a child’s cognitive development sets the foundation for academic success in the future which is my professional reason for choosing these three subtopics. If a child is offered the opportunity and resources to build a strong cognitive foundation, then learning basic skills for becoming a healthy, accomplished adult can be achieved. The first of three related subtopics for cognitive development in early learning would be:
1. Ways to foster cognitive development during the prenatal stages.
2. The home environment and how it affects and/or influences cognitive development in toddlers.
3. Cognitive development and parents’ perspective on child development.
So far, with this simulation process, I am aware that conducting "high quality" research for the topic I chose is going to take a considerable amount of time and require me to work on my organization and time management skills in order to have a credible product at the end of this process. I feel so overwhelmed right now because it seems as if this will require a lot of reading and various evaluations of different methods...I am completely new to this area of the early childhood field! But, I am curious as to if I will find an answer to my subtopics in relation to cognitive development. So I guess...here we go!
I also feel overwhelmed! I really like the subtopics you picked. I am still trying to decide for sure what direction I should go in. Hopefully we can support each other through this process. I particularly find your topic of parent's perspective on child development to be interesting. -Mary
ReplyDeleteCognitive development is a good topic. I was going to do cognitive development then I switched to social-emotional development because I have had more experience with children scoring lower on social-emotional development.
ReplyDeleteMary,
ReplyDeleteI feel that you chose a good topic to research. I chose to do research on Children with Special needs. I am still a little confused at the whole process. I think the topic you chose is very broad and you will be able to find information on the cognitive development of children. I feel information on the home environment of children will be a very interesting perspective to explore. Good Post!
I am also very passionate about prenatal development as well as parent education during prenatal care! I feel strongly that if parents received some child development information as part of routine prenatal care that we may ensure more potential development for more children. I don't think it's that parents "don't want" to foster cognitive development in their young children...I think it's more that they don't know how. Some information on the importance of the first 5 years and how they can help encourage this development would help many parents and children is my belief!
ReplyDeleteHello,
ReplyDeleteI agree with the overwhelmed feeling. I choose the larger of the topic and am doing preschool aged development and it plays right into the hands of the cognitive development. I agree that when a child is offered the resources then they can become much more.
Hi!
ReplyDeleteI can say that our simulations are along the same lines of focus. I am (and have been for a while) focusing on how to help parents incorporate quality ECE developmental skills into their everyday family dynamic. Basically, how can parents bring the EC center home with them and utilize those skills when they are not EC professionals.
I do like your first subtopic as well. I agree that a lot of the parental skills start when the child is still within the womb. Its almost like prep training for a marathon, if you train for it before hand, when its time to run you already have your basic skills to help you along.
Also, I know exactly how you are feeling with all the new information of researching, Believe me, my last degree program was this entire class by about 20x lol! So take each chapter slowly and get the best generalization of everything that you can. The actual researching goes way deep than this with the statistics to go with it. I will definitely keep up with your progress and to see if we hit any similar points along the way.