Communication Skills

Communication for me as a Speech and Language Pathologist is a way of life. In school we were taught the 7C’s of communication which include being clear, concise, concrete, correct, coherent, complete and courteous (Mind Tools). Each of these are important in effectively communicating policy changes but the two most important are being correct and courteous. It is important in being correct in the information that you provide. When being a leader or voice of the people it is imperative to be correct in the facts that are presented. When data is falsified by someone that is attempting to change any policy gives the person presenting the information poor credibility. This can be compared to Brian Williams on NBC. He was a respectable new anchor until it was determined that he falsified information that he was giving to the public. Effective communication is built on trust that had to last.

The next communication skill that is important to embody when leading policy change is being courteous. This can be a difficult one to embody especially when those who you are communicating with are oppositional to the policy that is being changed. This is not the time to lose your cool or be disrespectful in any way. This includes verbal and nonverbal communication. Nonverbal communication that is not courteous is poor body language such as folding your arms, your tone of voice, muscle tension and breathing (Helpguide). Maintaining your cool through adversity is what will help to get better results. Being courteous also includes considering the people that the policy will affect.

I would like to improve on being more correct and accurate in the information that I present to others. I am able to do this in the field of Speech and Language Pathology and hope to be as adequate in my delivery of Early Childhood Educational information. I never want to be labeled as someone who gives false and incorrect information. I honestly would like to improve on each of the 7 C’s of communication to be as convincing and factual as I can be when addressing law makers and the people these laws will affect!

Resources

Helpguide.org. (n.d.). Effective communication. Retrieved October 15, 2013, from

http://www.helpguide.org/mental/effective_communication_skills.htm

Mind Tools. (n.d.). The 7 Cs of communication: A checklist for clear communication. Retrieved

             October 15, 2013, from http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newCS_85.htm

Social Media's Influence on Policies

With the rise of social media outlets such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, SnapChat, Instagram, Pinterest and more everyone’s thoughts, meals and families are posted within seconds. Videos and messages are going viral quicker than ever before. Everyone is connected to these various applications within seconds on their smart phones. From middle school to politicians social media is a communication outlet that reaches around the world. Social media is strong in today’s society and it makes it easy to share breaking news, societal issues and the exchange of opinions to a live audience (June, Hong & Sung-Min, 2011). The two social media outlets that I would use to promote my policy is Facebook and YouTube. I would use these two outlets because my policy is geared towards teachers participating in professional development. Several teachers use Facebook as a means to communicate with family and old friends. I would use YouTube to upload a video that has the potential to go viral that can be viewed by anyone who comes in contact with English Language Learners and seeks to learn more strategies for effectively working with them.

The audience that I would target specifically is teachers. My policy will require teachers to participate in professional development that targets strategies for English Language Learners. Teachers will be able to share thoughts and ideas with other teachers around the world. Social media even opens the door to speak directly to other educators from other countries. I would use Facebook because it is the most common social media outlet that most educators are already members of. I would use YouTube because teachers often use YouTube to find videos, songs, movies and how to videos.

A great benefit of using social media in relation to policies is crowd sourced policy decision. Social media ideas will influence policy proposal making and decision stages in the near future (June, Hong & Sung-Min, 2011). The closed door process is shifting with the rise of social media to a public policy deliberating stage. Social Media can help bridge the gap between the government and citizens. Putting a simple hashtag on a statement helps it trend among millions. Teachers can also rally together to raise fund on social media for professional development. A challenge is dealing with those online who are trolling or provoking others to argue about the topic and flaming where hostile behavior is exhibited through profanity, obscenity and insults (Lampe, LaRose, Steinfield & DeMaagd, 2011). Cyberbullying is a huge problem with social media since everyone is free to share what they are thinking. This may deter people from participating or supporting a policy.

Resources 

June, P., Hong, C., & Sung-Min, P. (2011). Social media's impact on policy making. SERI  Quarterly,4(4), 125–129. Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.

Lampe, C., LaRose, R., Steinfield, C., & DeMaagd, K. (2011). Inherent barriers to the use of social media for public policy informatics. Innovation Journal, 16(1), 1–17.Retrieved from the Walden Library databases. 

Course Goals

Setting goals is an important part of identifying areas that need improvement. Several goals came to mind in looking over the objectives for this course. As a Speech and Language Pathologist I am only knowledgeable of those laws, policies and systems that affect a child’s speech and language ability. The three goals that I will set for myself this semester in order to be a more effective professional include 1) Become more familiar with the laws and policies for early childhood education in Virginia 2) Understand what professional developments teachers can use in regards to the laws and policies in each state and 3) providing support under the law for families who are English Language Learners (ELL).

1.      .      Becoming more familiar with the laws and policies for early childhood programs in VA is critical as a scholar practitioner. New laws are passed all the time and many teachers do not adjust or account for the different laws. I would especially like to better understand what laws and policies are in place in VA for determining if an ELL student needs special education.
2.       .    Understanding what professional development teachers can use in regards to laws and policies for their home state is a critical factor in becoming a more effective professional. I currently am not as knowledgeable of the various laws and systems that apply to early childhood teachers, students and families. Professional developments can also bring focus groups that offer support to teachers in regards to laws, policies and systems.
3.        During this class I hope to learn more about what policies, laws and systems support ELL students and their families. In my school system there is no set policy to follow when determining if an ELL child should be referred for special education. It is also important to understand what resources are available for Ell families under the law. 

Each factor mentioned above will help me to make a better impact on the lives of young children and their families. Improving on these three goals will help me to identify what laws and policies are not effective or non-existent within my school system. I look forward to learning more on this subject and growing as a scholar practitioner.   

Course Reflections...

I have truly enjoyed this class. I found it surprising the bias that people project on to others. I also found it interesting to determine what bias I projected on to others as well. I was able to look deeper into my challenge of working with English Language Learners. I hope to further my knowledge and education on what factors teachers use to determine that a child needs special education. Providing teachers with proper training will help them to be more knowledgeable on the different cultures in their class. My future aspirations are to continue learning more about ELL students, learn more about stress, trauma and resilience. Teaching resilience in the midst of trouble helped to motivate me in this profession. Reading several articles of families that assimilated into the culture and the various resources they need fuels my passion for working with ELL students and their families. This class has truly added to who I am as a scholar-practitioner!

Interview Process and Course Project Update

This interview process is going well. I am interviewing the English as a Second Language (ESL) teacher in my school and the Assistant Director of the Bright Beginnings program that I work for. I had the pleasure of sitting down with the ESL teacher while we planned our second Spanish Family Social.Sitting with this teacher I have learned so much about how Spanish children develop and the effects of not having early intervention and what resources these families are lacking in. Throughout the interview process with the ESL teacher I appreciated her letting me see what assessments she uses with the K-5 children. I also appreciated the collaboration to put on another social for our Spanish families. With interviewing the Assistant Director of my program I appreciate her taking time out of her busy schedule to allow me to interview her. I have been very successful in setting up a meeting time to interview them because I understand that their time is valuable,

An important experience that I can relate to both interviewees is that neither of them started out working directly with English Language Learning (ELL) children. I realized that they both started as general education teachers and saw a need to reach out to ELL children later in their career. As more and more ELL children enter school younger I am thankful for teachers that take the time to assist in their development, I am especially thankful to my Assistant Director who identified that teachers needed more training on ELL students and referring them for special education. She has provided effective professional development that has shaped the way teachers view ELL students. We still do not have a concrete approach but we are working towards one.

This leads me to my course project. My project will seek to understand what factors teachers use to identify an ELL student as needing special education. This quantitative study will examine the views and opinions of teachers and therapist that directly work with ELL students. From this project more direct professional development can be implemented to train teachers on  working with ELL students and understanding when they should recommend an ELL student for special education.  I have found several articles about the risk factors and stress that ELL families endure especially when it comes to education. In previous classes I never considered the risk and stress that ELL families experience and the stress of teachers working with ELL students.

Questions:

Does your school system provide professional development on ELL students and families.
Do you ever recommend an ELL child for Speech and Language Services? What factors led you to make this decision?



2nd Spanish Family Social and resource distribution! 

The Challenges of working with English Language Learning (ELL) students

Let’s take a second to reflect…

• Have you ever had a child walk into your class that doesn't speak primarily English?
• Have you ever had a child walk into your class that speaks a language you may have never heard of?
• What strategies did you use to help this child and their family feel welcomed?
• Did you feel confident in knowing what to do with this student or did you feel like it was the ESL teacher’s job to help them?
• Does your county have sufficient resources such as interpreters for various languages?

            These questions led me to identifying a challenge in my school system.  I often hear teachers saying that a child needs special education when they are an English Language Learner and often times especially in preschool that is not true. A challenge that I see educators with educators is over identifying students as needing special education.  I became interested in this topic last year when I realized there were limited services available for those families who speak a different language. I was able to put together a social for the Spanish speaking families which you can read in the previous blog post and share important information that some families didn't know were available. I hope to seek a solution for what factors teachers identify before referring students for special education and what inclusion strategies they are implementing. Building the trust of a family assimilating into the American culture is very important to me.

The whole reason that I became a Speech and Language Pathologist is because I believe that everyone deserves a voice. These families deserve to be included and offered that most ethical solutions for success. With the rise of ELL students entering school at a younger age there needs to be a protocol or checklist that teachers can use to identify if the child is demonstrating a disorder or a difference in their expressive and receptive language abilities. Teachers have to be given proper and effective training on working with these families. I truly believe that it is up to the administration to make a plan on how they will include ELL students and their families and implement that plan through teachers, therapist and other staff who directly work with these students.

How do you include ELL families in your classroom?

What factors do you look for before determining that these students need special education services?

Resources

Reeves, A & Van Tuyle, V (2014) Preparing Principals for Success with English

Language Learners Challenges and Opportunities in Illinois. International Journal of Education Leadership Preparation, 9 (1)

Paradis, J (2011) The Interface between bilingual development and specific language

impairment. Applies Psycholinguistics. 

Reflections...

In my 4 years of working with preschoolers I truly believe that children all learn differently. After learning more about English Language Learners and  how children around the world learn it truly does make this world a beautiful garden. We have to be accepting of others cultures and values and work together to improve the quality of childhood education! 

Providing a positive environment where children are free to learn and explore is necessary in early learning. Children hear and understand more then we give them credit for! We can not demonstrate a non caring attitude such as letting our personal lives carry over into the classroom, being on the phone or computer instead of interacting with the children, not providing individual attention to children not picking up concepts quickly, poor interactions with the families and inappropriate materials in the classroom to name a few. I hope that one day all children regardless of race, religious belief or social status will be provided a quality early childhood experience. 

Resources from my Global Early Childhood Development class that I have found thought provoking:

Association for Childhood Education International. (2011a). The decade for childhood 2012-2022.Retrieved from http://www.acei.org/acei-news/decade-for-childhood-initiative-highlights-childrens-rights 

Learning about the decade of Early Childhood was extremely interesting! The Association for Childhood Education International (ACEI) and the Alliance for Childhood allotted the years 2012-2022 and the International Decade for Early Childhood. A cohort of ambassadors from around the world meets at a biannual Global Summit on Childhood to discuss problems and solutions related to early childhood education.  I think this is an important resource because as scholars of change we have to be aware of what practices are effective as well as what current trends are prevalent around the world. This allows a time for advocates to build partnerships that will help change the children of the future.

National Association for the Education of Young Children. (n.d.c). Retrieved October 23, 2012,from www.naeyc.org

            The National Association for the Education of Young Children is one of the largest organizations that work on behalf of children. Within their website you are able to learn about how to become a member, literature on early childhood education, exploring developmentally appropriate practice, information on attending the annual conference and expo, finding accredited programs, pursuing accreditation for your program and policy updates. This website also provides a Code of Ethics that all teachers and therapist should abide by. The most important thing I valued in this code was having respect for your peers thoughts and ideas. We will not all get along but everyone’s ideas should be valued and not talked about behind the persons back. The worst thing is to work in an uncomfortable environment. I think if more people referred to this Code of Ethics it would eliminate the static among teachers who don’t get along. We should all have the same goal which is to educate children and their families ethically.

What inspires me???

The thing that inspires me most is seeing children make progress. As a Speech Therapist I often see children as young as 1 who have articulation and language delays or disorders. Seeing these children grow and move on to Kindergarten sometimes not needing an Individualized Education Plan ( IEP )touches a special place in my heart. I know that all the hard work was all worth it.

I also found a passion for working with Spanish speaking families. As I researched how English Language Learners learn and are assessed I found some of the research to be challenging. Current research is limited and program implementation is scares. Through it all I found a great motivator. This year I teamed up with the ESL teacher and school psychologist to offer the Spanish families a time where they could gain information from the community such as libraries, English classes, translation services, free recreation activities and more. We were able to provide 18 families with food, books and clothing when they attended. All the children were in a separate room watching a movie with my school’s principal and assistant principal. I am so grateful for the support and partnership that is demonstrated at my school. This social helped to bring awareness to what information these families are not aware of. They provided feedback that we were then able to share with the teachers. It was such a great feeling to see these families gain information that they didn't previously know. I hope to do this again and extend it to other schools as well!!!!

 

 Resource Links

http://www.acei.org/acei-news/decade-for-childhood-initiative-highlights-childrens-rights 

www.naeyc.org