My Supports

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I     I have an amazing support system. I have an amazing husband who supports me in everything I do. He does this in really simple ways. Things such as doing the laundry so I can study or cooking dinner or bringing me a cup of coffee on a Saturday morning when I am working on school work. He wants me to be successful and has been supporting me in this way for the past 9 years. We joke that I am a professional student and he is the support! My friends are a great support as well, they are constantly encouraging me and taking me out to relax instead of stress with work and school and all the life things. My work family is incredibly supportive as well always providing an ear to listen or verbally process things. 

     Aside from relational support, I believe that we have the support of technology and research. Without technology I could not be taking this journey while working full time in an entirely online program. If these support systems were gone from my life, I am not sure that I would be on the journey I am on now. I know that i would be in a different place in my life than I am now without these relationships and supports. My life is better because of these supports! 

     

      Looking at a challenge I could imagine, I chose to imagine what my life would be like if I were deaf. I would need the same support systems through relationships I currently have, but I think there would be many more supports necessary. My home would have to be set up differently so that I would be able to know when someone was knocking on my door and I would have to have different technology to help in various areas of my life. Learning a new language would be difficult, maneuvering through life would be a completely different experience than what I know now. Another support might be hearing aides to aide in hearing some things.

      While I can work through my life without the supports mentioned above, although it would be difficult, I do not think I could be as successful without supports if I were deaf. The supports such as setting my home up to know when someone was knocking on the door or calling the phone would be absolutely necessary for success. I think life would be extremely lonely without these supports if I were faced with the challenge of living in a hearing world without being able to hear. One of my co-workers has a brother who is completely deaf and I have had several conversations with her about how life is different for him than for others. The lights in the house blink when the phone rings or the door bell rings. When her brother's wife had their first child, they had to adjust a lot so that he knew when the baby needed something and was able to help his wife. Without supports things are much harder than they are with supports. 

      Is it impossible to work through challenges or varying abilities without supports? I don't know for sure. I do not have first hand experience, but I know how difficult it would be for me to work through my emotional challenges without my relational supports. I think that is the point. We need each other and we need support in all shapes and sizes. We need people and we need new found technology and research. We need places of inclusion that provide encouragement, not only support, but a place to grow and succeed. I hope that I am able to provide that for children and families as well as advocate for high-quality inclusion programs in early childhood and beyond. 

       

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My Connections to Play

These quotes are very powerful in my opinion concerning play. Both encompass what play was like for me as a child and how I feel about play in the Early Childhood field.






Play for me as a child was typically outside, with my older brothers or with neighborhood friends. We played in the creek outside of my Papa's house, at the local park on the merry-go-round and countless games of football in the backyard. I spent time under trees reading books. Books were and are my choice of "play". I could be anyone, anywhere and would spend HOURS under a tree on a blanket reading Anne Frank, The Boxcar Children, The Babysitter's Club, Beverly Clearly, anything and everything I could get my hands on. I remember playing school on the steps at our apartment, We played dodge ball with the horse apples that we found on the ground in the yard, jumped in leaf piles, made forts in the living room and rolled down hills. Play was with our whole bodies. We made up the rules as we went and the games would last for days at a time. My brothers, my neighbors and classmates, as well as my parents all had a role to play in the "play" I participated in as a child. They encouraged me to be myself, experiment and imagine all the things I thought I would be or could be. I am forever grateful for their support in my play then and now!

I think that play is very different now than it was when I was a child.  I watch children not really know how to play outside. As a child, we spent so many hours outside just playing with whatever and whoever there was to play with. It is interesting to me that children do not know how to play. When they are outside, they play things based off of the TV shows they watch, the movies they have seen or the recent video games they have played. To simply make a game as they go seems rare. I believe that play in it's purest form opens the door to problem solving, creative thinking, and dreaming as well as impulse control and self-regulation. Play is so very vital to all of us. Children and adults! Play opens all sorts of doors for us. I hope that as early childhood educators we can advocate for play in a way that shows it's importance and refuels a passion for play in children of all ages!