My Personal Research Journey (Step 1)

When thinking about my research topic, I found that to be my main challenge. I would like to look more into anything regarding Early Intervention programs and their inner workings, however pinpointing an exact topic to focus solely on is difficult to me. I want to see what could best help all types of situations ideally so I instantly thought about what areas I am more passionate towards. I would want to know what could be the best plan for infants and toddlers with various emotional and psychological issues or disorders.

I, myself have personal and professional experiences that have effected my decision on this topic as well as my decision and interest in future work in early intervention. I have two relatives, who are unrelated to each other, who seem to have symptoms of ADD or ADHD, and call it a gut thing, but there is something about their behavior that is off or that would be considered “erratic” in addition, my close friend and her son also has this disorder and is currently being treated with medication and therapy.

My professional experience while teaching in an infant room for over ten years, has brought me to a few children with verbal delays as well as a disorder called chromosome 18 disorder; a genetic disorder in which the person is missing the 18th chromosome and conditions of this disorder ranges from mild retardation to deformities, low muscle tone or function, and learning and development delays, just to name a few. The child who was in my classroom with this disorder, was diagnosed to never walk, never talk, have signs of down syndrome and have a large amount of delays. After she was a year old, and had physical therapy and early intervention work, she made huge strides in proving her doctors wrong, she is currently a smart, healthy ten year old who skipped crawling and went straight to walking, and speaks and functions just like everyone else, her doctors ended up calling her their “miracle child”. Interacting with her was an incredible experience and just being witness to her development and seeing her defy all odds, really sparked my interest into the depths of development.

Just last year, after I had my son, I was then out of the daycare venu and out of work, but heavily into Mommy and me classes and groups where I met numerous women who were wonderful mothers with adorable children. One of the mothers had a little girl who was just a month younger then my son but seemed so small like a preemie and from what I could see, did not gain much weight in a short amount of time and her physical development overall did not seem right to me. After months of this little girl going to doctors and seeing specialists, including early intervention specialists, and upon visiting the local Children’s Hospital while getting tests, they finally found out what was going on with her; she was diagnosed with Mitochondrial Disorder. Again, another disorder I have not heard of, but was also a genetic disorder which attacks the central nervous system and there is no known cure. Her breathing and feeding was initially effected and her poor muscle strength in her neck caused her to appear humped over, after. She was later given less then a year to live because of the progression of her case, and she then took a turn for the worse and passed away this past April. On a personal level of course, this effected me because this was a friend, my child’s friend, my friend’s child, and she was just a month younger then my son so it hit hard for me. It also caused me to want to help on an advocacy level and help work on finding a cure. This disorder is found usually in the early years of life but there are various types of cases and adults and teenagers are living with this disorder today, so even though there is a ticking clock on this disorder, some cases bring you hope.
Information on Mitochondrial Disorder: http://www.umdf.org
http://www.mitoaction.org/

With all these experiences, it has brought me to want to help with these disorders, diseases, delays and especially focus on my favored age group; infants and toddlers, and to help them and their families as much as possible. Ideally, I basically want to find out exactly what can be done to help various issues that Early Intervention deals with on a regular basis, just get educated to the inner workings for the job and what is done differently depending on each case. I already have a tendency to learn more towards what effects a child on a emotional and psychological level and what can truly help their development in that way. What can we do to help the daily lives of children who deal with their ADHD? What can benefit those who have suffered a great emotional ordeal at such a young age? Is there activities to help in a form of therapy? For those who can not talk, and those individuals who have suffered negative experiences within their small little life, how can we help? For those who have an deadly illness or disorder, how can we help them and their families through the process?

This process will undoubtedly create an emotional journey, however to find out what could truly benefit all children, no matter what their condition, is my main goal. If anyone has any advice, or insights of their own or experiences or stories they’d like to share, I’m all ears! All information would be helpful and would add to my knowledge and experience base.