Lauren Mariano: Article 1 Socio-Emotional Development Full citation (APA): Roe, J. (2008).

. Social Inclusion: Meeting the Socio-Emotional Needs of Children With Visual Needs. British Journal of Visual Impairment, 26(2), 147-158. Summary of the article: This article was about students and their social-emotional development. It stressed four main points: the positives of social emotion skills, friendships, how teachers can help students with visual impairments and also aspects to promote positive social interaction. The first point was about social emotion skills and how they are so very important to the development of children. By developing good social-emotional skills, students will be more successful with interpersonal skills, interactions between peers, academics, group entry, confidence, selfconcept, and also may decrease their chance of being bullied. These social-emotional skills help students become more rounded people and will give them opportunities in school and outside of school. Friendships are so important to social-emotional development and also to the overall well being of a child. They are improving their quality of life, having an outlet for emotional difficulties and also learning how to care and respond to other peoples feelings. Friendships can show students that there are not the only people in the world, and that there are other people that they need to care about and consider. Teachers can help student with visual impairments by creating a caring and supportive environment where they can promote social interaction and inclusion while also making sure students are being successful academically. Teachers also need to help children with visual impairments by giving them more opportunities to use the skills they use in everyday life with their other senses besides sight. They might set up a sensory table with play dough or water so students with visual impairments can use their sense of touch. The last thing the article talked about were the aspects to promote positive social interaction in everyday activities. These include: physical layout of room, social content, learning activities, small group and individual sessions and support. The physical layout of the room is very important to children with visual impairments because they do not want to have to be told where everything is each day. With routine there is no wondering where a students favorite toy is. Social content can help students become more active in interactions between different classmates by being able to pick partners and making sure every student is included. The teacher plans the learning activities of a student, and he or she may need help from another teacher that has had a visually impaired student in the past. The teacher may also encourage the visually impaired student to join clubs or extra-curricular activities to promote positive social interaction. Small group session are sometimes good for a student to work on skill while also engaging and individual sessions are good for counseling or mentoring purposes. The last aspect is support. Supporting a student with visual impairments is very important because it gives the student confidence when a teacher praises the positive things they do and the social interactions they experience. Strengths of the article: I think that the strengths of this article were the points the author made about the importance of social interactions of children. There are many points that were made about how important social interactions between children are at any age, and how they will affect a student in the future. The positive effects that friendships, complex play, and the development of socialemotional skills have on a child are tremendous. I love how the article stressed how important these three parts of a childs development really are. I could really relate to some of these aspects because I do work in the CDC and see children everyday that lack in social-emotional interactions, and that can really hurt a childs development.

Weaknesses of article: I think that the weaknesses of this article were in the focus on the strategies that teachers can use to help visually impaired children in a classroom. The article only really stressed the importance of social-emotional interactions between children, and not so much about how visually impaired children can be helped in this area. The article only gave the strategy of having a supportive environment for the student with visual impairments. I would have really liked to see more about visually impaired students and how I can help them in a classroom, but I did get a lot of information about social-emotional development. Lauren Mariano: Article 2 Socio-Emotional Development Full citation (APA): Hallam , S. (2010). The Power of Music: Its impact on the Intellectual, Social and Personal Development of Children and Young People . International Journal of Music Education, 28(3), 269-289. Retrieved from http://http://ijm.sagepub.com/content/28/3/269.full.pdf+html Summary of the article This article was about the effects that music has on many aspects of the development of children including the social-emotional domain. This article touched on the positives that music has on the social and emotional development in children today. Children seem to have higher self-esteem, higher motivation, more self-efficacy and more sense of self-achievement. All of these things are good because they make children more confident, and more confident students will be more willing to put themselves out into the world to develop emotionally and socially. The article talked about how student who participate in musical activities talked more to their teachers and parents afterwards, which I think is very interesting and it seems almost as if the music opened up the students to their parents and teachers. The article also talked about music in class, being a part of a school band, and also the effects music has on the emotional development of a child. The positive effects music has, while on in the classroom, are: better social adjustment and overall more positive attitudes. When teachers play music in the classroom, the students seem to become more interested and more engaged in what they are doing. Music in the classroom also facilitates group work and enables students to express themselves in front of their peers. The next thing that the article talked about was the importance of being in a school band to social development. By being in a school band, students can help past relationships mature by becoming even closer with students they see in the regular classroom. Band also helps some major skills such as trust and respect, because a student has to be able to use these skills when playing as a group. The last part of the article was about how music increases emotional sensitivity. Students can have their whole mood change just because a different song comes on, and they can develop differently by the music they have listened to as a small infant. Strengths of the Article: I think that the article was very informative about how music helped the student develop better socially, but they only touched on the emotional side a couple times. The point of the importance of music in a childs life was really brought across in this article and it really made me realize how music has impacted my own life. I think that children need to be introduced to music at a young age because it can really affect their social and emotional development. Weaknesses of Article: I think that this article was very strong, but the only problem I had with it was the lack of information about the emotional development related to music. If the article had a little more information it would have been perfect, because it really only talked about the social development and a little about emotional.

Lauren Mariano: Article 3 Physical Development Full citation (APA): Burdette, H. L. (2005). Resurrecting Free Play in Young Children. Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, 159, 46-50. Retrieved from http://www.childrenandnature.org/uploads/Burdette_LookingBeyond.pdf Summary of the article: The idea of this article is that unstructured, outdoor play needs to be involved in childrens lives again. Children need to stop doing passive activities, such as watching television and playing on the computer, and get outside to play with other children. The article mentioned that parents should be aware of the lack of play in their childrens lives and should be supporting them in their path to increase play in their every day activities. This article talked about the three As in promoting play: attention, affiliation and affect. Attention deals with children working on their cognitive skills because of play. Physically active students are better able to learn and better behaved in the classroom. Affiliation deals with social skill sharpening because of play. Children learn new social skills when they play with others like sharing, leading and caring. They will use these skills to develop as people. The last aspect is affect, which was about childrens well being because of play. The article talked about how children will be happier outside in the sun and their moods will also be higher and better. Play is very important to a childs development and will always be. Parents and teachers need to be aware of the impact play has on a child and also how if affects their physical development. Strengths of this Article: I think that that strengths of this article included how the article was set up, the information in the article, and the impact has on everyone. The article was set up so that the reader could understand it easy and it was a very good article. The article also had a lot of information in it and was very interesting. The points that were made could influence anyone from teachers to parents to even students. Weaknesses of this Article: I think that weaknesses of this article would be that the introduction was too long. The intro talked a lot about how the term play should be used instead of physical activity and I didnt really know where this information fit into the article about physical development. Lauren Mariano: Article 4 Cognitive Development Full citation (APA): Bergen, D. (2002). The Role of Pretend Play in Children's Cognitive Development. Early Childhood Research and Practice, 4(1), Retrieved from http://ecrp.uiuc.edu/v4n1/bergen.html Summary of the article: This article is about the importance of pretend play in cognitive development, and how free play can benefit children in so many ways. The advantages of pretend play in cognitive development are that children work on goal setting, problem solving, role taking, and improvisation. They are using their brains to develop other ways to think when they are playing. Play engages a childs brain and helps them to think of new ideas for their games and roles that will take on. The theory of the mind is something that was talked about in this article because it helps us realize that role-play is a form of perspective taking and that children learn a lot from play, that they can use in everyday learning. There have been studies done that test literacy skill development through play, and they have found that children are more engaged during literacy acts. The fact that play can affect literacy and childrens work inside the classroom is very interesting. Children with a lot of play imbedded into their every day schedule will be more

interested in the classroom and will also have a higher capacity for met cognition, problem solving and their academics will be greater. Strengths of this Article: There were many strengths of this article including the depth of information that it had. There was a lot of research presented in this article and the connections between the research and the actual experiences I have seen are very interesting. I think that the author of this article really looked into the cognitive development and found good information about it to share. Weaknesses of this Article: I dont really think there were many weaknesses in this article. The information was really good and the topics brought up were right on target with the main points of the article. The only thing that I can think that could be a potential weakness would be the part about social and linguistic competence. The article was supposed to be about cognitive, and I know that linguistics is part of cognitive development, but I didnt think that the social part belonged. Lauren Mariano: Article 5 Spiritual Development Full citation (APA): Geula, K. (2004). Emotional intelligence and spiritual development. Paper presented at the Forum for Integrated Education Reform sponsored by the Council for Global Integrative Education, Santa Cruz, CA, October 28-30. Retrieved 23 October 2011, from http://chiron.valdosta.edu/whuitt/CGIE/geula.pdf Summary of the article: The beginning of this article is really interesting because it talks about something called the emotional brain. The emotional brain of children is developed by the attachment of parent and child and relationships between the child and divine. The article stresses the importance of the development of the emotional brain because it makes the child or student more rounded as a person and ready to enter the world with a stable center. The first section of the article also stated that experience that children have played a greater role in the development of emotionality than genes alone. Experiences in childrens lives really impact how they develop and grow into adults. Every situation that children are in where they have to react and make a decision about something can change the way they think about future events. The article also talked about the importance of mothers and their impact on the development of spirituality in a child. Mothers are the first people that the child is in contact with and they share the spiritual nature through their emotions during and after a pregnancy. It also talked about how teachers are some of the first people to also influence children in the development of spirituality. The teachers have to think about their students as part of civilization and must think of the purpose of human life when they are educating them. Meditation is a very important part of the development of spirituality in children and also in adults. No one really knows what meditation does to a human but it definitely has an impact in many parts of the human life. The article stated it impacts self-mastery and regulation, creativity, and discoveries (Geula). Children should be taught ways of meditation and should be aware of self, self-science and strategies to manage emotions. Strengths of this Article: I think that the strengths of this article are the way it connects the ideas taught in the classroom to ideas that could be taught at home. The importance of meditation was never taught in school before and was assumed to be taught at home, but this article really stresses how teachers should be teaching more strategies to help the spiritual development in children in their classes.

Weaknesses in this Article: I dont think this article had that many weaknesses, I just thought it was a really strong article. The information was very useful and the research was very well executed and important. Lauren Mariano: Article 6 Language Development Full citation (APA): Crosser, S. (2007). Enhancing the Language Development of Young Children. Earlychildhood NEWS, doi:http://www.earlychildhoodnews.com/earlychildhood/article_print.aspx?ArticleId=119 Summary of the article: This article starts out by talking about children when they first are born. Talking to a child the first moments of their life can be a very important part to their language development. By children being introduced to language the very moment they are brought into the world, they are more likely to develop language quicker compared to children not spoken to from the hospital. Children use many ways to communicate, such as: body language, their facial expressions, the pitch and volume of their voice and also the intonation they use. The next part of the article was about different theories about language development. The three reviewed in this article were: Nativist, social learning, and Interactionist. The Nativist theory basically says that children have a genetic desire to make sense of the world around them, causing children to try to figure out the world around them by learning the language around them. The social learning theory says that children imitate the words and sentences around them that are said by parents, teachers, friends and other people around them. If a child says the correct word they are praised and rewarded, but if they say the wrong word that are corrected. The only problem with this theory is how do original songs or lyrics get written if all words that children learn are repeated from another person. The last theory was the Interactionist theory, which says that children need to interact with others to learn how to speak. Interaction with other humans is key to the Interactionist theory because children need to talk to other people to learn new words and concepts to be able to achieve language fluency at the age of 3 like a typical developing child. This article also talked about many ways to encourage language development for all ages of children. Rhymes, word games and songs were strong for infants. Songs, books and outings were good for language development for toddlers. And story lines and encouragement of questioning are both good strategies for preschoolers. The last part in the article was about play and how it promotes language development. Play seems to help children develop in every developmental domain as well as language. By children getting to talk with caregivers or even use pretend microphones their language development is much stronger because they can use words to communicate how they feel. Strengths of this Article: I think that this article is really informational and also realistic. Some articles use strategies and other examples that are not useful to teachers and other caregivers. I think this article had a lot of examples that I could relate to children I have seen and cared for. Weaknesses in this Article: I dont think there were many weaknesses in this article. I really think all the information was really good and educational to me. I learned a lot about the theories and also about strategies that could be used to promote language development, which I could incorporate into my classroom.

Parent Article 1: Newborn Lauren Mariano Full citation (APA): Girolami, G. (2007). A Newborn Workout? Experts Say "Yes!".Earlychildhood NEWS, Retrieved from http://www.earlychildhoodnews.com/earlychildhood/article_view.aspx?ArticleId=747 Summary of the article This article talks about babies and how they sometimes dont reach their milestones typically and strategies to improve the development of babies by using exercises. Many babies have plagiocephaly, which is usually characterized by a flat head, tilted neck, and non-specific delays such as bad eating habits and not lifting head up by 3 months. Some of these developments could be strengthened if newborns are encouraged to activation and strengthening of their neck and back muscles. With the introduction of exercises into a newborns routine, their motor skills will develop quicker and at a more typical rate. The importance of tummy time was stressed in this article because of how much tummy time is missed out on in newborns today. Pathway Awareness Medical Round Table has created different standards for tummy time and shows parents, caregivers, and teachers an outline of when tummy time should start, how much is need and the best and most encouraging ways to get newborns to participate in tummy time. The end of the article showed a workout routine for newborns that will increase the amount of tummy time they have. The workout really stressed sleeping, as newborns sleep a lot. The moves described would absolutely increase tummy time and help develop neck and back muscles in newborns. Implications for parents: I think that this articles encouragement of a newborn workout may cause some implications for a childs development in cognitive development. I chose cognitive development because if parents use physical activity with newborns while they are laying or sleeping, they will be less likely to read stories or sing to children, which increases cognitive development. Newborns pick up words and hum songs when their parents use those before bedtime and increase cognitive development instead of physical and motor development. Parent Article 2: Infants Lauren Mariano Full citation (APA): Tomlin, C. R. (2007). Infants and Toddlers: The Importance of Bonding and Attachment. Earlychildhood NEWS, Retrieved from http://www.earlychildhoodnews.com/earlychildhood/article_view.aspx?ArticleId=716 Summary of the article: This article talks about the importance of an emotionally positive and mutually rewarding relationship between parents and their children, as they are infants and toddlers. The tie between parents and their children ultimately creates a relationship that is built on trust and comfort. These two aspects of a childs life are really important for this typical development. During infancy, stranger anxiety develops and it is important for parents to bond with their children before this period starts. The idea of imprinting was also brought up in this article, and how children are somewhat like animals in that they will attach to the first person they see. The article brought up a great point about fathers and their impact on attachment and bonding. Even though play with fathers is sometimes a little more rough than with mothers, research has shown that children whose fathers spend a lot of time playing with them are found to be better

adjusted to strange situations (Tomlin). When children play with their fathers they are more open and can figure out what decisions need to be made. Fathers play also helps cognitive development in a positive way. During the infant stage of childhood, the parents need to be with their children to insure that they will create strong bond and attachment. Implications for Parents: I think that the only implication for parents with this article would be how busy the parents were. If parents are really busy with work and other parts of life, they might not have a lot of time to play with their children and really create a bond with them. Especially at the infant stage, parents need to make time to be with their children and to get to know them as they grow up. Parents have agreed to be responsible for their child and should always make an effort to be with them at all times. The importance of an attachment between child and parent not only helps social/emotional development but also cognitive development. Parent Article 3: Toddlerhood Lauren Mariano Full citation (APA): Klein, A. S. (2007). Different Approaches to Teaching: Comparing Three Preschool Programs. Earlychildhood NEWS, Retrieved from http://www.earlychildhoodnews.com/earlychildhood/article_view.aspx?ArticleId=367 Summary of the article This article talks about three different approaches to teaching and how each of these is important to the classroom. Each teacher has their own way of teaching, but there are many philosophies about teaching, and every educator should be knowledgeable of these approaches. The first approach was the Montessori method. We have talked a lot about this method in classes throughout my time at Seton Hill University and I really like this method. The strengths of this method include: children learning on their own by discovery, independent learning, and using sensory materials. The main idea of Montessori method is that children learn on their own with a little guidance from teachers, but by discovery and exploration they learn new concepts. The second approach was the high scope method. The high scope method is based on the constructivist method where children learn best from physically interacting with the environment and with others. This is very similar to the Montessori theory but the idea of play is more dominant in the high scope method. The main focus of high scope is interactions with other teachers and students. There is also a lot of play, movement and socialization involved with high scope. High scope also follows guidelines like record keeping and observations for the program. The last approach is the Reggio Emilia approach. This method involves cooperations and collaboration, an atelierista (teacher with special training) and projects. The Reggio Emilia approach has strong and deep curriculum and takes a long time period to complete a project. This method also uses: flowcharts, documentation, and co-construction. Implications for Parents: Parents of toddlers entering a school with any of these three approaches might be overwhelmed. They are used to their children playing all day and to switch to a method of teaching with environments or sensor tables might be a little too much. I think that the Montessori method would be the easiest transition for toddlers and those they would love it, but the Reggio Emilia approach might be difficult because of its depth and intensity.

Parent Article 4: Childhood Lauren Mariano Full citation (APA): Sanders, G.E. (2007). Fitness Begins in Early Childhood. Earlychildhood NEWS, Retrieved from http://www.earlychildhoodnews.com/earlychildhood/article_view.aspx?ArticleId=354 Summary of the article: This article talked about fitness in children and how children should be participating in physical activity. The beginning of the article talked about how 1/3 of children today are overweight and obese. Not only does this problem impact a childs physical abilities but it also impacts a childs health. Children who are overweight and obese in their early years are more likely to have problems with their heart and cholesterol later in life. If children start being healthy earlier, they will become healthy adolescents and adults. The main reason that children are overweight and obese is because they are not active. Children are more focused on technology now a days and do not focus on nature or physical activity. Technology was not a large part of past generations lives, but it is very important to todays generation. Children do not experience nature like the past generation did, and they are less rounded and less in touch with the environment. With physical activity children would be more involved in nature and would also step away from their electronics and get in better physical shape. The article talked about the Surgeon General and his recommendation of physical activity for children. He states, All people over the age of 2 should accumulate at least 30 minutes of endurance-type physical activity!.on most preferably all days of the week(Sanders). This means that all children should be participate in 30 minutes of activity a day. In school, children usually are involved in sports or gym class, but other than that they do not have physical activity implemented in their everyday routine. There are many activities that students can do to promote physical activity, but the article stressed that they should be fun and appropriate for the age of the child. If a child is 2 they should not be playing basketball, and at the same time if a student is 9 or 10 they should not be crawling around like a small infant. Sanders stated that students should start physical activity at a young age, preferably before the age of 2. At this age children should be strengthening their gross motor movements by activities such as crawling, climbing and kicking. As children grow and become older they should be using their coordination skills to be active. The eye-foot and hand-eye coordination is very important and will be very useful in physical activity as an adolescent. Fitness during early childhood creates building blocks for future activities when children grow and develop. Implications for Parents: I think that the biggest implication for parents with the idea of fitness in early childhood would be if they are not physically fit. If parents are not motivated to work out they will most likely not try to motivate their children to do the same. Parents also might be very busy with work or other children to not be able to focus on putting their children in physical activities or encourage playing with other children. The aspect of time is a real obstacle in the road to a healthy fitness routine. Parent Article 5: Early Intervention Lauren Mariano Full citation (APA): Freidman, D. (2007). Bringing Early Intervention to the Classroom . Earlychildhood NEWS, doi:http://www.earlychildhoodnews.com/earlychildhood/article_view.aspx?ArticleId=727

Summary of the article: This article talks about early intervention and what it actually is. The article is introduced with a story about a teacher named Jennifer who had a child in her classroom that had some behavioral problems, so she thought. She didnt know how to handle the child, Michael and none of her strategies she had learned to help were not working. She talked to her friend who told her about the Early Intervention program. Early intervention is for children that are between the ages of 0 and 3 and it is used to catch up children sooner rather than later. This program is created to help children when success rates are higher and less resource-intensive (Freidman). The steps of the early intervention program are: referral, first contact, evaluation, create of an individualized family service plan and then delivery of services. The process of getting a child into the early intervention program can be very quick or very extensive. Early intervention program is used for a lot of delays, such as developmental and speech, learning disabilities and other problems like hearing and vision. These problems can really affect a child in the classroom and create a barrier between them and their education. The article ended talking about how many teachers know the signs of a students not being on track or not being typical and they can take a child aside and help them. They might also do developmental evaluations at the school to make sure children are on track with their development and also to let the parents know what the child is up to at school. Implications for Parents: I think this article is very useful to parents because they need to know about early intervention and how it can help their child. I really love the early intervention program and I love how it targets children at a young age to get them on track before its too late. Parents should be aware of this program and also should be able to be flexible with their childs teacher if they see a problem in class and maybe suggest early intervention as a solution.