Research Studies

    Concern for Others: A Study on Empathy in Toddlers with Moderate Hearing Loss

     Evelien Dirks,  Lizet Ketelaar, Rosanne van der Zee, Anouk P. Netten, Johan H.M. Frijns, and Carolien Rieffe

    A research study that I find to be very beneficial and important in the studies of early intervention is seeing how toddlers with moderate hearing loss respond to empathetic prompts and how it differs from toddlers with no moderate hearing loss. Empathy is a very important concept that I want all my students and families to have a full understanding and grasp on. As stated numerous times previously in my blog I believe the world will be a better place if people were aware of empathy and concerned for others well being. 

This study was distributed in the Netherlands. In this study, there was a total of 44 children between the ages of 29 and 33 months old. 23 toddlers had moderate hearing loss and 21 did not. 

“Parent report (ITSEA) and observation measures were used to rate the toddlers’ levels of empathy. The results showed that the levels of affective empathy in toddlers with MHL and with nHL were similar on both measures. Toddlers with MHL lagged behind their peers with nHL on some precursors of cognitive empathy (intention understanding and joint attention). Language ability was unrelated to empathy levels in both groups of toddlers”(Dirks, Ketelaar, etc. 2016). 

“This study indicates that these children are also at risk for social-emotional difficulties. Although the young children with MHL in this study were affected by other people’s emotions to the same extent as hearing children, they were less able to read other people’s intentions, potentially impairing their ability to respond appropriately in social interactions” (Dirks, Ketelaar, etc. 2016). 

In this study, we see that there is needed progression and growth in terms of hearing loss early intervention and teaching children with moderate hearing loss social cognition. Hopefully, after seeing this study more researchers will want to do researches similar to this one so that we can see how to help in the topic of early intervention in the ECE field. 

See more in-depth how this study was distributed to the children and family participants here: https://academic.oup.com/jdsde/article/22/2/178/2645622

Embarking on Research in the ECE Field

                                        My Journey Into Research in the Early Childhood Education Field

                                         

                                                    Introduction to My Experience of Research 

            When I originally think or see the word research I would be lying if I said the word doesn't give my body an immediate response to feeling anxious and filled with self-doubt. Throughout all my schooling research has never been my strong suit and I have spent countless sleepless nights trying to write and come up with my own research paper. I know the importance of conducting research for various career fields and how it can help us progress and move forward in the world, however, I would much rather be a participant in a study than do the actual write-up and research for the said study. That being said I am dipping my toe yet again in the roaring waves in the ocean that is research. What I am hoping is that since this is a field I am very passionate about and the fact that I have free range on what type of research I am doing is that I will enjoy learning, seeing, and dare I say writing my own research on the topic of diversity in Early Childhood Education.

                                                                        Week 2 Sub Topics

            My subtopic for this week is how can ECE educators effectively and respectively communicate with families about getting their child therapeutic support? I chose this topic because I am interested in working with kids with various developmental delays. I find it challenging speaking to family members about seeking outside help for help with their child's developmental progress. As of now when I have had this conversation with parents I am assisted by a member of the leadership team with these conversations. It can be very difficult to hear that your child may need some additional services outside of the school program especially when they are so young. Parents may feel as if it is something that they are doing wrong or just refuse to believe that their child has any developmental delays or challenges. It is a very sensitive topic to address and I want to be there as a supportive caregiver for the parent but also make sure to get the point across of why this early intervention is beneficial and sometimes necessary for the child. When I was younger I needed speech therapy and my parents enrolled me in speech therapy before I even started attending a school program. I can relate to the students who may be having developmental delays and are feeling left out or different than their peers and I want to be there for them and let them know that they are not alone and that I will do whatever I can to help them succeed. 

  

      I decided to start my research search in the Walden Library database I looked for family engagement in the ECE field. Here are some of my research findings:

 

Building Collaborative Relationships With Parents: A Checklist for Promoting Success. by Sarah M. Avendano and Eunsoo Cho. March 1, 2020. Teaching Exceptional Children

From this source, I was led to a related topic of Early Intervention. I clicked on this link and found an article on "Stability of Autism Spectrum Disorder in Young Children with Diverse Backgrounds." This article was written by Ivy Giserman‑Kiss and Alice S. Carter. 

The last article I found related to my topic of research was on the ERIC (Institue of Education Sciences) database and it is another article discussing family engagement in ECE. A New Approach to Defining and Measuring Family Engagement in Early Childhood Education Programs by Teresa Eckrich Sommer, Amy Sanchez, and Andrea Kinghorn Busby. July-September 2018, Vol. 4, No. 3, pp. 1–12.