Observing and Interacting With Families of the Children in Your Settings

During my observation I sat down and interacted with a Spanish speaking family.  The mother spoke a little English and the child didn't have any language at all.  The teacher told me that the child has a speech therapist that comes in and work with him.  Just so happen while I was there the speech therapist came in the classroom.  The teacher told me that I could sit off in a quiet area and watch the child and the therapist interact. The therapist sat down with the child and did one on one activities with the child on language.  After the therapist left I sat down with the parent and talked to her about language told the parent that I was doing my research paper for my class on literacy.  I asked the parent how often do she read at home and she told me that she read every ay only in Spanish.  I spoke with the teacher and asked her if I could give the parent some activities to do at home with the child dealing with language.  The teacher told me that it was okay so I gave the parents the activities to do with the child at home.  The teacher started the children with their writing and reading activities.  One insight that I gained from my observation was seeing how the child language really develop while working with the speech therapist.  The child was able to pronounce the words that were the cards that was shown to him.  Another insight was that the parent did read to the child but only in Spanish at home.  I asked the teacher was the child beng confused with the language and she told me no because she pair the child up with a English and Spanish child to do reading with.

Interacting with Professionals/Administrators and your Advocacy Plan

I had the opportunity to interact with the Infant& Toddler Specialist because the Site Director was out that day.  I learned what literacy is and how important it is to implement it to the students.  My understanding of advocacy is to go after something that is important and support it in the process.  I would address advocacy issues with professionals by asking them why they feel that literacy is important to them.   The learning experience that I can share was the day that I observed and interviewed the Infant and Toddler they had a literacy event that I was able to attend.  The literacy event gave me the opportunity to see how literacy is implemented with the parent and the child.  The event gave the parent the opportunity to read to their child and complete an activity.