If I Could Conduct Research on Anything...

If I could conduct research on any topic in the early childhood field, I would choose to look at the ways children are influenced by positive guidance techniques (such as Conscious Discipline) over the course of their schooling, from Kindergarten to high school graduation.  The organization that I work for requires each individual who works with children to be trained on positive guidance when they start and each year after for the duration of their careers.  I personally have seen changes in children who went from being physically aggressive to recognizing when to walk away from an activity and do breathing exercises to calm himself (a preschooler).  One of the main reasons I would conduct this research is because I see children having difficulty managing their emotions and certain positive guidance techniques teach children coping strategies and also encourage them to express what it is that they are feeling.  I would be especially interested in finding out how these techniques affect children who are living in poverty.

I believe that the positive contributions might be an increase in students seeking professional help when they need it.  Right now, young children are expressing themselves in ways that are harmful to themselves and sometimes others.  They need to realize that there are positive to express themselves.  I have listed two links that sparked my interest in this topic.

Related links:

From Gang Leader to Graduate:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXJGcqcJckA

Every Kid Needs a Champion:  https://www.ted.com/talks/rita_pierson_every_kid_needs_a_champion

Proposed Research Topic

The research topic that I chose to reflect on explores mental health in children and healthy, non-medicinal treatments.  I chose this topic because I work with/train adult who work directly with children (indirectly myself) and we all have noticed an increase in some of the issue that they face on a regular basis.  During the first week of class, I was presented with a situation where a child had been cutting herself.  One of the teachers brought it to our attention and we had to deal addressing it with her, letting her know we would have to speak with her mom and helping her realize that we were not betraying her trust, but doing everything that we could to insure her safety.  Though I have not had to deal with this is the past, I see an increase in the number of issues that the staff and I deal with that fall under the category of mental health so I want to do my part to help!

Admittedly, the resources over the past couple of weeks have been very helpful.  Constructing the chart helped me to slow down and stop and really think about what certain terms mean vs. me going through and just reading the material and looking over something helpful - hidden gems in plain sight!  I now feel like I can lean forward a little bit and be more organized in how I state my topic and conduct the research.  However, this is a broad topic.  I am open to any suggestions and advice!

Here are a couple of websites I have  explored so far:

https://www.samhsa.gov/children

http://www.dcf.state.fl.us/programs/samh/mentalhealth/work.shtml