Mentally and emotionally healthy environments for children

Many children face serious stress in their family environment. See pages 565–570 in your course text. Describe three signs that demonstrate a young child might be experiencing mental/emotional stress due to factors outside his/her early childhood setting and consequently might need special attention. What might early childhood professionals do in cases such as this to help alleviate a child's stress?

            Children experience stress just like adults because of various factors outside their early childhood setting. Although these children can find it hard to recognize and speak about stresses, there are various signs that a person can observe in children who are experiencing stress.   A child who is experiencing stress outside an early childhood setting manifests it through change in behavior such as acting irritable, withdrawing from activities that he or she used to like, and displaying fear or worry towards an individual or a certain gender. In some instances, a child who is experiencing stress caused by factors outside an early childhood setting may seem okay and in his or her normal self but starts acting out in an unusual manner when in other settings. Children under stress caused by factors outside an early childhood setting may express these stress feelings by saying bad things about them, their friends or family such as “I am stupid” or “Nobody like me” (Robertson, 2012).

            It is important that early childhood professionals to work with parents to understand what are the causes of these stresses. Communicating with parents of a child will help an early childhood professional to tap into the child’s thoughts, behavior and feelings to enable him or her understand the factors causing the stress (Doll, Zucker & Brehm, 2004). Another way that early childhood professional can help these children is by spending more time with them and assuring them that other people also share their feelings. This gives them confidence to handle the stressful situation they are experiencing (United States, 1994).

As you have been learning, early childhood educators have a responsibility to help provide mentally/emotionally healthy environments for children, themselves, and their colleagues. Drawing on Section 15.4 in your course text, define what you consider to be a mentally healthy early childhood environment. What specific stressors might you expect to find in an early childhood setting? How might you alleviate these stressors?

            A mentally healthy early childhood environment is one which provides a responsive, warm, one-on-one care for children and a consistent routine that enables children to develop a sense of sense of trust and security (Doll, Zucker & Brehm, 2004). A mentally healthy early childhood environment refers to one that is designed to allow supervision of children and supports appropriate behavior. This early childhood environment provides an atmosphere that makes children feel they belong and have a freedom to express both their positive and negative emotions about what they feel, which helps them to deal with their emotions and learn how to handle challenges in life (Bergen & Robertson, 2013).

            Doll, Zucker & Brehm (2004) note that it is every early childhood educator to develop a safe and healthy environment for children under his or her care. There are various stressors that are common in an early childhood environment that affect effect care for young children. These stressors may not have immediate impact, but have significant impact on children’s well-being and health (Bergen & Robertson, 2013).

            Indoor air quality stressors are commonly found in an early childhood setting. These stressors such as high temperatures, dust mites, dust, pesticides or cleaning agents contribute to health problems associated with quality of air like asthma exacerbation, allergies, and eyes or nose irritation, which affects children in an early childhood environment (Doll, Zucker & Brehm, 2004). The best way to alleviate these air quality stressors is to ensure that the early childhood environment whether a playground or day care facility is well ventilated to allow free movement of air. As a childhood educator, I can possibly mitigate effects from these stressors by ensuring that there is enough space for children to move or play. Fumigation or pest control of a child day care facility or playground can be done during weekends when the children are not around to avoid them being affected by the toxic chemicals (Bergen & Robertson, 2013).

            Spread of communicable diseases in an early childhood environment is common stressor that early childhood educators experience while interacting with children in a childhood development setting. Strategies that I can use to alleviate these stressors include encouraging parents to vaccinate their children to enhance disease control and prevention. As an early childhood educator, I can reduce the effects of these stressors by practicing universal precautions such as encouraging children in my day care to practice basic health hygiene by washing hands after visiting the toilet, not sharing combs, towels or clothes (Doll, Zucker & Brehm, 2004). Apart from staying at home when am not feeling well, I will advise parents to keep their children at home when they are not feeling well to avoid the spread of the disease to other children in the day care (Bergen & Robertson, 2013). 

Refer to Section 10.4, "Recording Health Status of Children" (pp. 397–400), in your course text. Summarize the pros and cons of three different health status recording methods described in your readings. What challenges might early childhood professionals face in recording health observations in their settings? What solutions can you suggest for overcoming these challenges?

            There are various benefits and disadvantages involved in the ongoing monitoring and recording within an early childhood setting. Observation, screening and assessment enable an early childhood professional to understand a child’s current level of competence, which helps in informed planning. These methods of recording health status of children helps in reflecting the appropriateness of early childhood resource provision in addition to providing useful information to share with other involved parties. These methods of recording children’s health status further support the assessment of children, learning environment and methods used by an early childhood (Robertson, 2012).

            The demerit of these recording methods is that identification of reasons and meaning from observation, screening or assessment is difficult because it is influenced by the evaluator’s preconceived notions and opinions. This makes the conclusions made after recording the health status of a child not facts that can be relied to explain or describe the behavior or health of a child. Challenges that early childhood professional might face while intending to record health observation in their settings include having difficulties to perform assessments when they lack awareness, cultural sensitivity and training required to conduct children’s health assessments in an early childhood development environment (Robertson, 2012).

            There are various ways that an early childhood professional can use to avoid these challenges when recording the health status of children after an observation. Before starting observation, it is important to identify realistic expectations on when and how to observe. This will help in completing the exercise at the targeted time without the need to extend time. Evaluators need to be objective and record what they see, and not what they think they are seeing. This helps in recording assumptions of what a child intends to do or feels. Trusting what you observe even when it seems unlikely is important because it avoids assumptions and means that there are changes in a child that had not been observed in the child development setting. As unlikely as an observation record may seem, it is important to use that information to plan activities, modifying early childhood programs or provide resources relevant to a child after conducting observations (Robertson, 2012). 

Reference

Bergen, S., & Robertson, R. (2013). Healthy children, healthy lives: The wellness guide for early   childhood programs. St. Paul, MN: Redleaf Press.  

Doll, B., Zucker, S., & Brehm, K. (2004). Resilient classrooms: Creating healthy environments     for learning. New York: Guilford Press.  

Robertson, Cathie. (2012). Safety, Nutrition and Health in Early Education. Wadsworth Pub Co. 

United States. (1994). Responding to children under stress: A skill-based training guide for            classroom teams. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services,         Administration for Children and Families, Administration on Children, Youth and         Families, Head Start Bureau.