Handout 2-2: Component Coordination Log (Part 1)

Think back over the past month about the times you worked with another component to complete a task or to do something for a child or family. Record these examples on the format below. Examples are provided for each component. After you have noted several examples, discuss your "log" with your classroom team.
 

What Disabilities
Component Did 
What You Did
How You Followed Up
Example: 
At my request, observed child who seems to have developmental delays. Suggested strategies to foster the child's development.		 Implemented suggestions and observed the child several times in the next week Let coordinator know how the child was progressing. 
 
What HealthComponent Did
What You Did
How You Followed Up
Example: 
Provided information on upcoming Health Fair.		 Sent notices home with children. 
 		 Asked parents if they attended. Congratulated coordinator on success of Health Fair. 
 
What Social Services Component Did
What You Did
How You Followed Up
Example: 
Made home visit to see if family had a special need such as clothing or transportation.		 Let social worker know that child was often not appropriately dressed for the weather. Let social worker know when child comes more appropriately dressed.
What Parent Involvement Component Did
What You Did
How You Followed Up
Example:Made personal contact with parents to invite them to visit program. 
 		 Welcomed parents to classroom. Allowed parents to join in when they felt comfortable. Let coordinator know which parents are classroom volunteers.
Handout 2-3: A Typical Day for Our Classroom Team

Complete this chart indicating the roles and responsibilities of team members during various daily events (these may not be listed in the same order as they occur in your program). You might want to add or change the daily events to match your schedule.
 

    Team Member
Example: 
Ms. Carter  
Mrs. Logan 
Ms. Noonan  
Arrival  
Free Play  
Routines and Transitions 
Outdoor Play  
Lunch/Snack  
Rest/Nap Time 
Departure 
Roles and Responsibilities

Greeted parents and children  
Set up interest areas  Comforted crying child 
 
Follow Up Activity 2-1: Component Coordination Log (Part 2)

During the next week continue to note the times you work with another component to complete a task or to do something for a child or family. Record these examples on Handout 2-2: Component Coordination Log. At the end of the week, discuss your "log" with your classroom team.

Follow Up Activity 2-2: Component Classroom Visit

Invite a staff member from another component to visit your classroom to learn more about the daily lives of children. (If component staff regularly visit your classroom, ask someone to make a special visit to focus on a particular child or on how you handle a specific routine or time of the day.) Follow up to learn the visitor's impressions, answer questions about what he or she saw during the visit, and discuss ways to address children's individual needs. Use the format provided or one of your own to summarize this activity.

Visitor:                                                        Component:

What did this visitor see in your classroom and what suggestions did she or he make?

How do you and this individual plan to follow up on the visit?

You have many colleagues in Head Start who can help you support children and families. 
Session 3
Characteristics of Children in Multistressed Environments 
Summary for Classroom Teams 

Objectives

This session will enable you to:

Materials
Agenda

I. Discussion of Session 2 Follow-Up Activities (10 minutes)

As you discuss the Session 2 Follow-Up Activities, remember the following:

You can ask questions and/or voice concerns before the session begins. As you participate in the discussion, you can share your own thoughts and feelings about children's home and community environments. Also, you can discuss your own experiences working with children who exhibit behaviors similar to the ones in the examples. This discussion focuses on the importance of self-esteem for sound development and learning. During this discussion you can offer examples from your own experiences of how children develop self-esteem. Participants discuss how children begin developing trust as they learn to rely on an adult such as a parent, caretaker, or teacher. Their feelings of trust grow as they develop friendships with other children. Children who are affected by high levels of stress may have had few opportunities to develop self-help skills, or, conversely, they may have been forced to do too much for themselves, with few opportunities to play. In either case, classroom teams can help children develop autonomy. The group will review and discuss strategies for helping children develop cognitive and physical skills. You can share examples from your own experiences with children. This training segment begins by reviewing the purposes of observation and suggested strategies for recording observation notes. With your classroom team think of a child you would like to know more about. Next, record what you already know about the child on Handout 3: Getting to Know an Individual Child. Then meet with your team to discuss the similarities and differences in your recordings.

Ill. Closing (5 minutes)

Reading 3: Characteristics of Children Living in Multistressed Environments

As children grow and mature-gain self-esteem, develop social skills, use a variety of cognitive abilities, practice newly acquired fine and gross motor skills-they are challenged. This challenge creates stress-the kind that we normally think of as healthy. In addition to these normal and healthy challenges, children who live in multistressed environments often must cope with hunger, extreme poverty, homelessness, or violence. They need help from classroom teams to learn ways to cope with these unrelenting sources of stress.

The following are examples of how children who are highly stressed might be affected.

Some children may not have received the nurturing needed to develop a sense of trust. In the words of Lisbeth Schorr, "Both common sense and research tell us that as family stress, regardless of its source, increases, the capacity for nurturing decreases, and the likelihood of abuse and neglect increases." When parents are overwhelmed by the stresses of daily life, they may not be able to respond to their young children's needs consistently, predictably, and thoughtfully. Instead, children may get the message that they are not valued. They may see themselves as being in the way, a nuisance, or even a burden.

Children may have grown up in an environment that was so unsafe that they were not allowed to use their senses to explore. For example, when a family lives in substandard, hazardous housing, it may be neces sary for an infant or toddier to spend much of the day in a crib, stroller, high chair, or other confining equipment, rather than being free to move and crawl around. Such lack of freedom can inhibit or slow down development.

Families may not provide consistent, age-appropriate guidance to help their children develop self-discipline. Discipline may be sporadic, overly punitive, and/or applied without regard for the child's developmental age. For example, one day children may be punished for talking back to parents, while on another day this same behavior is ignored. Lack of consistency can make it difficult for children to develop trust.

Families may live in overcrowded homes, with little private space. Homeless children in particular have intense needs for privacy and individual space, and may have difficulty sharing materials in the classroom and their teacher's attention.

Children growing up in overcrowded or unsafe homes, or children who have moved frequently, may have had no place to play and few opportunities to develop friendships.

Families may have little control over their lives, and the children may have had few opportunities to learn how to make decisions and choices. This lack of control can be communicated to the children in the family both directly and indirectly. For example, in many homeless shelters meals are served at specific times, and food is not available in between meals. If a family misses the meal time (perhaps because the bus was late, or the alarm clock didn't go oft) children are likely to be hungry until the next meal. This is one reason why children may be so hungry when they arrive at Head Start that they do not participate in the activities.

Young children can display a wide range of signs that their lives are full of stress. The behaviors described in the examples might be due to a variety of stresses including:
exposure to violence, child abuse or neglect, homelessness, and so on. Children do not respond to stress in the same ways that adults do. They may develop coping mechanisms that make it difficult to play and make friends with other children. Regardless of the cause of the stress, what children need most is a safe, supportive environment, including caring adults. They need many opportunities to play because play helps them cope with stress and develop friendships. In addition, some children may need addi tional services from specialists such as a speech therapist, psychologist, or physician.

As you review the examples that follow you may think, "These sound like typical children, not children who are affected by stress." Typical children may behave in these ways occasionally, however, a highly stressed child is likely to exhibit several of these behaviors, day after day, for long periods of time.

The examples show the response of one member of the classroom team. The individual would discuss the child's behavior and strategies for responding with the classroom team and with component staff such as the Disabilities Coordinator or the Mental Health Consultant.

A child who is living in a multistressed environment might exhibit behaviors such as the following:

· Developmental differences

· Family relationships · The daily program, routines, and transitions
- Short attention span, quickly moving from one activity to another. During the last ten minutes, Demian played with the blocks, climbed up to the loft and down again, walked around in the firefighter's hat, and used the baster at the water play table. His teacher will show him how to use some of the materials in the classroom and sit with him while he plays.
· Mental health
- Moods change quickly and without notice. As the children and adults walked outside to the playground, Marie noticed that her shoe was untied and started screaming. Her teacher quickly responded, tied Marie's shoe, and sat with her quietly for afew minutes until she calmed down.
- Unable to relax. Eddie stands by his cubby watching the other children. His teacher asks him if he would like to play with playdough. The teacher plays with Eddie for afew minutes, rolling the dough and using the different utensils.
- Appears to lack self-esteem; doesn't want to try new tasks; seems to be afraid of falling. A teacher offers Kim a turn with a new game. Kim says, "No. I want to do the old one." The teacher offers to play the old game with Kim first, then they can try the new one.

 - Seeks attention and physical contact indiscriminately. When a visitor comes to the classroom, Jon runs to her and asks to be picked up. His teacher offers to sit and read a book with Jon.

Clings to people and possessions. Several times this week Eric refused to take off his coat and stayed close to his teacher all day His teacher took a Polaroid picture of him, hung it over his cubby, and told Eric that the cubby was his own special place.

· Interactions with other children
- Intrudes in other children's play. Two children are pushing cars up and down a bridge they made with blocks. Mark grabs several cars and takes them to a nearby table. When the other children try to get them back, Mark throws the cars across the room. The teacher takes Mark aside and tells him that it is not okay to throw things. She helps him find something else to do.
 - Has trouble reading social cues from peers. Rudy is sitting on her carpet square. Nancy tries to sit on the same square. Rudy gets up and moves to another square. The teacher steps in and asks Rudy to use her words to let Nancy know that she doesn't want her to sit so close. She tells Nancy that there are enough carpet squares for each child to have his or her own.
- Has difficulty playing and negotiating with peers. Three children are playing "beauty parlor." Lani tries to join in, but the children tell her to go away. The teacher gives Lani an old hair dryer and offers to sit in the beauty parlor to have her hair done.
· Behavior issues
- Acts out to seek attention. Luis knocks over his block tower and throws the blocks around the room. His teacher reminds him that blocks are for building with. She helps him clean up, then gets him involved in water play.
- Displays aggressive behaviors. Amber refuses to go outside and kicks her teacher. The teacher asks Amber to come with her to the kitchen to get some ice for her sore leg. On the way she tells Amber that it is not okay to kick people. She says, "Use your words to tell me why you don't want to go outside."
- Extremely withdrawn or quiet. Perry plays alone and rarely speaks to his teach ers and classmates. His teacher spends time with him each day, to let Perry know that she cares about him.
Adults and children with self-esteem know what they are capable of doing and feel good about themselves. They know that they are respected and valued by others. Development of a sense of self begins in infancy and continues throughout life. It is determined and influenced by daily experiences and interactions with the important people in our lives.

Self-esteem affects children's ability to play, to relate to others, to grow, and to develop. When children have low self-esteem they may not like themselves, they frequently are unwilling to try new activities, and they may feel as though they aren't valued by others. Chil dren express their negative feelings about themselves in a variety of ways, including being aggressive or very withdrawn.

Erik Erikson identified critical stages in the child's development of self-esteem. Three of these stages occur during early childhood. When development occurs at a normal pace, trust develops in infancy, autonomy in toddlerhood, and initiative during the preschool years.

Many children have not passed completely through the stages defined by Erikson. They will have residual needs from earlier stages still to be met.

Infants develop a sense of trust when the adults who care for them let them know that they are valued human beings. Infants develop a sense of trust when their parents and other caregivers:

A sense of trust allows infants to explore the environment, try new activities, develop new skills, and learn how to interact with other children and adults.

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