Research Around the World

I chose to explore the Early Childhood Development Virtual University (ECDVU) Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA).  Most of the topics include ways to improve the education of children and also parents.  Researches also include studies about including indigenous knowledge and practices into children’s school education.   

The ECDVU is supported by international, regional and local organizations in order to provide training programs.  It is interesting to see how many professionals from so many different countries and cultures came together to support this organization.  Its goal is “to further develop African ECD leadership capacity as a key strategy in support of child, family and community well-being and broader social and economic development” (ECDVU, 2012).

This website also provided links to the ECDVU Middle East North Africa (MENA), the University of Victoria School of Child and Youth Care.  It was interesting for me to go through these websites to understand more about the ECDVU Sub-Saharan Africa. 

Research that Benefits Children and Families

            To conduct a research, I would choose to study the benefits of play on young children and their families.  More specifically, I would like to study the social and emotional benefits of play on children’s behavior.  I believe that this study would encourage parents and caregivers to spend more play time with their children in order to promote healthy and positive development.  This research would also allow parents and caregivers to engage their children in rough and tumble play, pretend play, role play and limit their time playing video games or watching television.  Many parents are not aware of the negative effects of television and video games have on their children.   I believe research can shed light on these dangers and motivate parents to spend more time playing and doing activities with their children.  Including different kinds of play in the classroom can also help children enjoy school and motivate them to work harder to achieve more; therefore this research would also be beneficial to early childhood professionals.

Your Personal Research Journey

The topic I chose for the research simulation is the importance of play in early childhood development.  The reason I chose this topic is that recently, there has been so much pressure on teachers to cover the academic curriculum that children aren’t given enough play time. Throughout this course, I have learned about the necessity of including all kinds of play in a child’s everyday life.  I have also learned about all the positive outcomes play has on children’s early development. 

I am using the Walden Library to find journal articles providing information about play and early childhood development.  I found several articles about pretend play, rough and tumble play, role play; and about how all these kinds of play are important in a child’s development. 

Since this topic is a vast one, I think I will need advice from my colleagues on how to start this research process and ways to obtain new information and findings.  I think I will also need advice on sorting resources; I tend to gather too many resources and then I always have a hard time studying only the most relevant ones.  One relevant resource that I have studied in a previous course is The vital role of play in early childhood education (Almon J., 2002).