What was your most valuable takeaway from this weeks’ content?

[Meredith Pizzi]

Please share with us what you will take away from this week’s content.

[Wei Ming Loi]

[Wei Ming Loi]

I thoroughly enjoyed Beth’s sharing in the videos. What struck me most are the ideas and advice that we can give to parents based on the understanding of the child’s development.

For example in 12-18 months, the children show ownership of people and objects and are not interested in sharing and telling the child at that time to share might not be appropriate. At 18-24 months, children may show defiant behavior and we can assure the parents that it is not due to a parenting style but a need in development. At 24-36 months, children may not differentiate between reality and make-believe thus at times they might say something that is not real but he or she is not lying but rather it’s part of his/her normal development.

From just this few examples, I feel that by sharing such facts with the parents, they will get to see their child in a different light and the child on the other hand gets to play in a safe and nurturing environment.

[Angie Carter]

I really valued the bold points in each stage of development. Often as a professional working with little ones we become caught up in all of the things the child is not doing, especially when we are doing assessments. With many of my clients I am doing a HELP assessment everything 3-6 months. I find myself nit picking all the little details in my mind and feeling guilty as how to approach the delays with parents. Beth’s bold areas of concern or red flags will help me prioritize development so I can share the more important delays with parents. I also really benefitted from new models of how to phrase the delays when speaking with parents. MUch of this course for me is helping to refresh myself and this week has provided me new ideas on how to discuss child development with parents. Wonderful! Because I have burn out with parents More than I do with the children!

[Angie Carter]

After reading Ming Loi’s post it reminded me of how I enjoyed hearing other remarks and phrases to incorporate into therapy to explain how and why what their child is doing is important and encouraged. I need new phrases!

[Elizabeth Schwartz]

One tip as you go through this course…save a copy of all your comments to the forums. Prior course participants have found that they wrote wonderfully articulate remarks and phrases on their own in their responses!

[Amy DiLabio]

I valued the reminder and overview of early childhood development. It was helpful to focus on these milestones of development as they relate to my students. At times it can be easy to get wrapped up in pushing children to know more and more and to expect more and more of them. Parents will come to me with concerns that their child is not developing appropriately. It is important for me to remind parents that development is on a continuum and each child develops at their own pace. The information presented gave me new words and ways to share with parents and reassure them that their child is developing typically.

[Tamara Strom]

I found the overview of development to be helpful for each stage, but with the caviat that it is a developmental range, and that parents need not fear if children do not reach milestones by an exact time, as long as they are within an appropriate range. That being said, it was helpful to note the red flags of when a parent may truly have cause for concern.

Similar to Ming Loi, I found the parent education moments helpful. I’m sure every parent is constantly questioning whether their child’s behavior is “normal” and worrying that they may be responsible for any behavioral or developmental problems in their child. It was therefore helpful to be able to reassure parents that certain behaviors, such as defiance, or the inability to distinguish between fantasy and reality, are developmentally appropriate at certain ages.

I also liked the idea of trying to remind ourselves to experience the world from the perspective of the child, exploring the world through all senses, etc.

[Alyssa Kereki]

Similar to Tamara, I enjoyed trying to experience the world from the perspective of the child. I had never truly considered how litle of the world an infant gets to experience, and thinking about this made me wonder how other age groups view the world. For instance, Beth discussed how biting is actually an attempt at oral stimulation rather than an act of anger or frustration. I also liked thinking of jumping as “physical freedom,” an excitement that we often overlook as adults. Simply jumping and playing along with the children can help us connect with them and put ourselves in that mindset.

[Laura Montesano]

At this point in my career my work is focused on children birth to three years old, however an overview of child development is still ALWAYS helpful for me. As much as I am familiar with child development, I am more often in the company of children who are not nearly meeting their milestones and it still surprises me to see where they actually fall in developmental stages. I guess that can also be looked at as a good thing though, because I am focused on all of the things they can do rather than can’t do.

[Robin Jacobs]

The review of developmental milestones was a great refresher! The clearly defined, chronological presentation and continuity of building blocks in regard to physical, sensory, motor, cognitive, emotional/social and language development through the ages helped refocus the way I will be observing where the children are in the developmental continuum. I will be looking through a “wider lens.” Keeping the big picture of the whole-child in mind while also focusing on specific goals.

I have worked mostly with mixed-age groups (birth-five) for a couple reasons. Since the parent/caregiver are one-on-one with the child within the group setting I felt with parent education I could provide a meaningful environment for each parent/child both individually and within the group. I liked that parents and children at all levels would learn from each other and support and accept one another. I mainstreamed children with developmental delays with typically developing children. This is also a carry-over from my Suzuki piano training. However, as I contemplate beginning early family music groups again, I’m thinking about narrowing the age spread for each group and really focusing on each of the specific developmental milestones, as described in the videos this past week.

Meredith and Beth, I’d like to hear more about how you balance the difference in chronological age and developmental abilities when assigning children to a specific group and when you feel the child is ready to move on. As even typically developing children do not develop at the same rate for each area

[Leigh Giglio]

First, I apologize for this entry being late. I had a sick little one last week and my “course” time was spent either taking care of him or catching up on rest.
I really enjoyed the review of the developmental stages and milestones. I am in the midst of both parenting children in these age ranges(almost 3 and 4.5), as well as teaching in a preschool setting with 2 year olds through 5 year olds. Even though my education has taught me what to expect at each age, as a parent, you do question yourself at times with certain behaviors your child are exhibiting and wonder if this is normal or should they be able to do “?” yet? I especially liked the parenting advice that Beth shared, as well as the red flags to know when there may be a developmental problem to look into.

[Elizabeth Schwartz]

Thanks for this great discussion. Robin, we will be looking at groupings in the coming weeks. Later on we will spend quite a bit of time on how to assure success for each child.

I am glad that the checklists and words have been helpful. One thing we give our Sprouting Melodies Providers is an extensive list of “Sprouting Melodies Sayings” – short quotes for parents that are simple to understand and quick to share. You will hear more about that in the coming weeks.

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