Research Around the World

What are some of the current international research topics?
Current 2016 international research topics are the following: a. Gifted and talented: Inclusion and exclusion. b. Creativity and young children: Wondering, exploring, discovering, learning. c. Connecting with babies.

What surprising facts/insights/new ideas about early childhood did you gain from exploring this international early childhood website.
I chose the Early Childhood Australia's Advocacy website. Early Childhood Australia's Advocacy (ECA) is the national peak body for early childhood. The debate all matters regarding children birth to eight years of age as well as the families. This includes:

Early childhood education and care (preschool, long day care, family day care, occasional care, mobile services and specialist programs)

Early years of schooling

Outside school hours care

Child and family centres, programs and support services

Inclusion support

Social and emotional wellbeing

Maternal & child health services

Parent education (birth to eight)

Other policy areas affecting children and their families

Our work is informed by our:

• commitment to children’s rights
• knowledge of early childhood development, learning and pedagogy
• commitment to an inclusive and just society
• respect for the rights and aspirations of families
• the active involvement of our members

They advocate through their state territory and state branches. They also advocate on government issues.

What other noteworthy information did you find on this website?
I saw they have an online platform called the ECA Learning Hub. The learning Hub offers great professional development resources for all professionals and educators that work with young children. This allows professionals and educators to learn new ideas and become more knowledgeable about the frameworks, standards, and research about quality practice. learning Hub also have videos, modules and webinars that are great to use as resources.
                                                                         
                                                                        Reference
                                                           
Early Childhood Australia:  Retrieved from:                                     
http://www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au/

Research that benefits Children and Families-Uplifting Stories

                                                           The Benefits of Music

I think this article is important to children and families, because some parents feel that music is just music. They feel that children are not getting anything from music; that's not true. Research has found that learning music facilitates learning other subjects and enhances skills that children inevitably use in other areas. "A music-rich experience for children of singing, listening and moving is really bringing a very serious benefit to children as they progress into more formal learning". Research shows that learning the do-re-mi can help children excel in ways beyond the basic ABCs (http://www.pbs.org.../education/music-arts/).

Music gears towards language development for all children. when a child is born; they learn the different sounds, and decoding of different words. When children are introduced to music, it enhances all these abilities that promotes language development. According to studies musical training gets the left side of the brain which processes language. there's a relationship between language development and music in children; it becomes the root of social competence.

Music can also increase a child's IQ. A man name Glenn Schellenberg did a study and has found that when a children were taking weekly piano and voice lessons their IQs increased. He took 12 children for nine months and gave them voice lessons; another group and gave them drama lessons to see if art had a better effect than music. Then he took a third group and didn't give them any lessons. All the children's IQ were tested before going to the first grade, and then tested before going to second grade. he found that the children that had been given the music lessons IQs had increased higher than the children that had no music lessons.

Researchers have also found that music helps children with spatial temporal skills to help them with solving math problems. Not only does music helps math skills, but helps children with art, gaming, architecture, computers and even engineering skills.

When Christopher Johnson did a study on music with children in elementary; he found that these children scored 22 percent higher in English, and 20 percent higher on math scores on standardized tests. The studies have shown that music can improve a child's learning abilities. It allows the children to learn discipline, and learning a skill.
                                                                                   Reference
The Benefits of Music Education. Music & Art. Education. Retrieved from:
       http://www.pbs.org./education/music-arts/the-benefits-of-music-education

Your Personal research Journey

The topic that I chose was; Death Understanding and fear of Death in Young Children. The reason why I chose this topic was because death and fears are common in our lives everyday. Death and facing fears can be not only not be understandable, but confused. It can be a puzzle that has a lot of missing pieces.

 Professionally, I have to face these problems with my young children and their families. I need to know how to discuss this issues without being bias. I need to know what resources I need to accomplish this task. I can honestly say these terms in the book, is very confusing. When I started the class, I had no book, and thought I was going to be lost. Now its more confusing. I constantly view the chart, but too me; its still confusing.

I know what to look for certain material from the chart. I have always felt that research was hard. I have that research anxiety. I am asking you, my colleagues to help me figure out the process of research. I need to know how to access the right information, and what to do with the information. I would like to know your resources that you think that can help me with this course. I did go to the internet and goggled other resources, and found that some of them had the same similarities. I hope that someone can assist me.