Michelle Hanks
After reading the article on “Soundscape of Early Childhood” it brings me back to one of the children in my classroom who struggles with loud noises. When or if it gets too loud for her she will cry out and cover her ears or run over to the cozy corner and put her face into the pillow and a blanket over her head. We have a boy who likes to use his screeching sounds or he will scream in class, what we do is turn the light off and talk in a low whisper to see if they can hear us. I like how the article states to use sign language when at meal time or when the children are being safe in the classroom use the thumbs up for praise, smile, bump of the fists, or even a hug. I plan to print all of these article out and put into a 3-ring binder to share with my EHS team as these would be handy for parents and for us to use in the classroom.
In our text book “Trauma-Informed Practices for Early Childhood Educators” for starters I learned about the Redwood Tree. How the author’s compared children to a redwood tree when a child has been impacted by trauma. Coast Redwoods can can withstand any potential threats that may come its way like insects, fungi, disease, and fire. These trees continue to live not only through fires year after year but they can also continue to survive through natural environments(Page 49) What really got me was on page 57 (A young redwood’s growth impacted by fire continuing to grow and develop) Connecting this principle to the Metaphor: “A young child who suffers from trauma can be deeply impacted by the experience but the trauma does not define who that child is, if the focus is is on the trauma than we as early childhood educators will fail to see the strengths, the capacities, and the resiliencies-the new growth-which could significantly be the aspect of that child’s identity as a unique and whole human bing”. What I grasp on that statement is looking beyond the trauma to see the real child that has strengths, capacities, and the resilience to over come what they had to endure they are more than the child who endured trauma.