The Sexualization of Early Childhood

Share your reaction to the topic of the sexualization of early childhood.

Provide three or more examples, from your personal or professional experience, that further illustrate the exposure of young children to a highly sexualized environment.

While reading the article by Levin & Kilbourne (2009) I didn’t have too much of a reaction. This is something that I have talked about in the past and have heard stories of. It seems as time goes on, children younger and younger start knowing about sexualization even if they don’t know how to explain it.

One example that I can give from my professional experience is a story that I was told when I started working in my preschool classroom. The teacher before me had been written up for an event that happened in the classroom because she was not circulating the room but only watching the children’s heads. When the teacher finally got up to walk around the room she found two children playing doctor. The boy had stuck one of the toy instruments in the girl’s private area. The fact that they knew what to do, shows how quickly children are learning about sex.

Another example I have comes from my personal life which involves my best friend and her little sister. My best friend loves to listen to all types of music and would teach her sister parts of songs and dance moves to go with it. The one incident I remember the most is when the sister was five years old and was walking around shaking her hips and butt singing “shake your money maker” by Ludacris (Williams & Bridges, 2006). My best friend found this to be so funny and kept teaching her sister different songs and different moves.

The final example I have comes from my own experience. When I was five years old my mother would let me watch rated “R” movies that involved sex, like Pretty Woman (Milchan, Reuther, & Goldstein, 1990). Watching that movie I remember trying to act out scenes with one of the kids at my babysitters. I remember that clothes were always on but we would pretend to do stuff.

Explain the implications this may have on children’s healthy development. Include ideas you might have, as an early childhood professional, to best respond to these concerns and to reduce the negative impact on children.

These experiences are things that I know made me grow up faster than I should have. I think that with all of these experiences I can see how girls and boys will feel like they have to be sexy or have to be in a relationship to prove something. I feel like we are constantly trying to get our children to grow up but when they do we try to make them kids again. This cannot be healthy on a child’s development. They are being forced to grow up faster and try to understand concepts that they shouldn’t be ready to learn about. I think the best thing that we can do as professionals is to remind parents that their child is young and that they should hold onto those years. We can also teach content and concepts that are age appropriate.

Describe the ways in which your awareness of the sexualization of early childhood has been influenced and/or modified by studying the topic this week.

By learning about this topic this week, I think I will be more aware of what children are exposed to in my care. Due to our reading this week, I am also very curious about the rest of the book. It seems like it will have great ideas and resources to help us feel more confident about talking to parents and our students about what is appropriate and not.

References:

Levin, D. E., & Kilbourne, J. (2009). [Introduction]. So sexy so soon: The new sexualized childhood and what parents can do to protect their kids (pp. 1-8). New York: Ballantine Books. Retrieved from: http://dianeelevin.com/sosexysosoon/introduction.pdf

Williams, P. & Bridges, C. (2006). Money maker [Recorded by Ludacris featuring Pharrel] On Release therapy [CD]. Atlanta, Georgia: DTP, Def Jam.

Milchan, A., Reuther, S., & Goldstein, G. (Producer), & Marshall, G. (Director). (1990). Pretty Woman [Motion Picture]. United States: Silver Screen Partners IV & Touchstone Pictures.

Evaluating Impacts on Professional Practice

This week we had to think about the impact our personal life has on our professional life, in regards to if we were being stereotyped or people were being bias towards us. By having these negative impacts on your social life, it is guaranteed to have some effect on your professional life. The consequences that I could see happening is the teacher not having confidence in herself and therefore not helping her students gain the confidence that they need.

 

Another consequence could be that stereotypes and biasness in the classroom goes unseen because the teacher no longer knows how to handle the situation. The teacher could also take personal offense to a comment and treat a child differently. This could also lead to poor interactions with the families because the teacher may think that the families think the same as the people stereotyping him or her.

 

One example that I can think of would be a teacher who is being judge for being lower class. She may then feel like she is not good enough to teach her student. She could also feel that the parents of her students are always judging her by the clothes she wears or her means of transportation.

Observing Communication

I was just at a family function and I decided this would be a great time to do our observation. My aunt walked in the room and immediately picked up my godson. She said, “Hello Emmitt!” Then turned to his mother and started asking her questions on how Emmitt was doing. Emmitt started squirming and saying “down.” My aunt did not listen until finally Emmitt squirmed just enough for her to almost drop him. That is when she put him down and continued talking.

From this whole observation, I learned that my family does this quite a bit to the younger ones. Everyone will pick them up and say hello but then start talking to an adult. The children then go unnoticed and most likely feel like they are not important.

This week, we learned vital tools to interacting with children. One main tip that I learned  was “to refrain from talking about babies to others in the baby’s presence” (Kovach & Da Ros-Voseles, 2011, p.48). For this to happen, my aunt should have asked Emmitt how he was doing and then later ask the mother. We also learned to “talk to babies before touching them” (Kovach & Da Ros-Voseles, 2011, p.48). I think Emmitt would have felt more comfortable if my aunt would have asked Emmitt if she could pick him up or say that she was going to pick him up. Being that Emmitt is a toddler, he knows how to express his wants and needs and this should be listened to.

While watching this encounter, I realized that I do the same things. I don’t think about talking to the child before picking them up or asking the child the questions. I just assume that since he can’t answer that it doesn’t really matter. I now know that this is completely wrong! I need to make sure that I communicate more with the younger children and explain what I am going to do before or while I am doing it. The one thing that I do know I do well is getting down to the child’s level to talk to them. I believe that this really helps in the communication process because I will not look intimidating to the child.

References:

Kovach, B., & Da Ros-Voseles, D. (2011). Communicating with babies. YC: Young Children, 66(2), 48-50. Retrieved from http://ezp.waldenulibrary.org/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ehh&AN=60001533&site=ehost-live&scope=site

Creating Affirming Environments

The picture above is of my Family Child Care Home. To begin, parents will come into the green area, or the outside area that is fenced off. If there is bad weather, then the family will walk through this area and enter the inside drop off area that has the same centers.

In both areas the parents can sign in and the children can have a transition area. In both areas, there will be a place for children to relax and wake up or to continue sleeping. This place will have some couches and chairs along with some pillows. I chose to have this area based off of the area that Adriana (Laureate Education, Inc., n.d.) had in her center. She made sure to have a quiet area for the children to wake up or calm down in. I found this to be a very nice area for the children to wake up in a peaceful area.

Also in this area is a jungle gym that has equipment for all ages and capabilities. There is also a block area that has block people and Lego people of different cultures. Derman-Sparks & Edwards (2010) said that it was useful to have multicultural Lego people and I agreed with them completely. Next to the block area is the sand box that has all types of tools and equipment for free play. The final area is the Dramatic Play area that has persona dolls, clothes from all cultures, food from all cultures, etc. All of these will feature “diversity of age, race, gender, and body types, including people with physical challenges” (Derman-Sparks & Edwards, 2010, p. 52). All of these areas are designed for children to make independent decisions and learn about the cultures around them.

The next room is the group area which is for all the ages in the center. In this area, there is a space for parents to share information about their children and families with the center and other families. There is also an area for families to bring in pictures and items that share their cultures and home life. Both of these areas were inspired by the areas in Adriana’s (Laureate Education, Inc., n.d.) center. In Adriana’s center there was an area to share one families’ culture for the month. For me it seemed like a good idea to have a place for all of the families to put items and pictures to share with everyone. The final area in this room is the circle time area where all the children in the center come together.

The next two rooms are the infant/toddler room and the preschool room. In both rooms there is a block area and dramatic play area that has the same concept as the ones in the drop off area. The dramatic play area is a great place for children to work through conflict resolution and act out scenarios that they are having trouble understanding. Both areas help with independent thinking and exploration.

There is also a music area, a book and puzzle area, and a meeting area. I got both the music area and the book and puzzle area ideas from the center that I used to work for and from Derman-Sparks & Edwards (2010). I believe that the music area is a great place to express oneself to the music of the different cultures. Finally in both rooms there is an art area that includes all the colors of skin tones which Derman-Sparks & Edwards (2010) suggested having. This area will help children to understand the different colors of our skin and to express their feelings openly.

The final part of my center is the kitchen and dining room area. In the kitchen, meals will be prepared that are inspired by the families in our center. These inspirations can come from family recipes or from sharing time with the children.  Finally, the dining area has a table that is big enough for all the children to come in and eat together along with the staff members and any parents that want to come in. I believe that this area helps bring the families together and gives them a sense of community in our center.

 

References:

Derman-Sparks, L., & Olsen Edwards, J. (2010). Anti-bias education for young children and ourselves. Washington, DC: NAEYC.

Laureate Education, Inc. (n.d.). Welcome to an anti-bias learning community. Retrieved from https://class.waldenu.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_tab_group_id=_2_1&url=%2Fwebapps%2Fblackboard%2Fexecute%2Flauncher%3Ftype%3DCourse%26id%3D_1373761_1%26url%3D

What I Have Learned

One hope that I have when I think about working with children and families is that they all feel welcomed and comfortable around me. I hope that I can teach children to see pass stereotypes and their own biases to see a person for who they truly are.

One goal that I would want to set for the early childhood field is to make courses like these more known and available to ALL teachers. I think that teachers should have to understand the impact that their biases have on others and what they are teaching their students without knowing it.

I want to thank Dr. Ferrari and all of my colleagues for everything that you have taught me. This course was filled with so much insight and each of you helped me to understand the different aspects of it all. I would assume that I will see most of you in the next course, but if not, I wish you the best of luck with the rest of the program!

Week 7

The top row represents an Anti-Bias Education, where every child learns to love one another and their differences. The bottom row represents what children go through and how they feel when bias and discrimination enter their lives. With each experience, a child is either given the opportunity to grow and experience new things, or left behind and not being able to see the world for what it is.

The bottom left picture is my favorite because it shows how children can get trapped by the labels that are given to them.


References:

B, R. (n.d.). Bye bye prejudice! Retrieved from http://library.thinkquest.org/CR0210341/solutions/rebecca/rebecca.htm

Compasito. (n.d.). Discrimination. Retrieved from http://www.eycb.coe.int/compasito/chapter_5/3.html

Look For Diagnosis. (2009). Prejudice. Retrieved from http://www.lookfordiagnosis.com/mesh_info.php?term=Prejudice&lang=1

PBWorks. (2009). Prejudice and discrimination. Retrieved from http://kiefer.pbworks.com/w/page/6289146/Prejudice%20and%20Discrimination

Teen Health Alliance. (2007). Subject: discrimination. Retrieved from http://www.teenvillage.org/social_discrimination_prejudice.asp

Week 6

This week we are supposed to write a story about a time when a child pointed out someone else’s differences and the response that we had towards this comment. The story that sticks out most in my head happened when I was teaching preschool. One of my preschool students wanted to spend some time alone. She did quite a bit where she would get mad at the other children and just wanted some time to herself. Well, on this particular day, one of the boys would not leave her alone because he wanted to play with her.

As the child got more frustrated that the boy was bothering her, she turned and pointed to the boy and yelled, “I don’t like to play with black people!” At this point, I was completely in shock, and walked over to the children. I asked the boy if he was okay, and when he said “yes” he went and played with another group of children. At that time, I turned to the girl and said, “We shouldn’t say things like that. You just hurt his feelings. How do you think you would feel if someone said that to you?”

This is when the child got quite and said that she just wanted some alone time. We talked about the different ways to tell someone that we want to be left alone and that she should have come to me if there was a problem. Later, we informed both the children’s parents on what had happened.

Thinking back, I don’t know if I gave both children the right message. I talked about hurting someone’s feelings but I didn’t really go into detail about how we are all different. I was just so shocked by this incident, especially since they are really good friends, and I didn’t know how to handle the situation.

Learning what I have from this program, the one thing that an anti-bias educator would do is talk to both children at the same time to talk about differences. I should have talked to the other child more and made sure that he was ok, and to let him know that it was not ok with what the other child said. If I had all this information, I would have also talked to the girl more about race and how it wasn’t his skin color that made her not want to play with him. I think if this situation were to happen again, I wouldn’t be so shocked and not know how to handle it. I would be more prepared and ready to take action.