Ethics in Early Childhood Research:

I decided to go with Option 2: Researching my own topics:

 There are so many issues that need to be researched. I would research the benefits of play, how solitary play and group play differ and its affects, and how child care verse in-home (nanny or family) care affects a child.  I know that the benefits of play are limitless and great. Children develop their imagination, cognitive, social, and language growth during play. There are so many different aspects of play. The fact that there is less play in educational settings is upsetting and detrimental to children. 

If all of the above topics were researched the benefits for children would be numerous. We would have a deeper understanding of how play affects the brain and growth, what types of play help what development domains and what should be implemented in education environments. In regards to solitary and group play we will see how interacting with others affects development verse playing alone. I have always wondered if a child spends more time playing alone if that adversely affects development and how does one exactly develop their child to be able to entertain themselves? I think it is beneficial for children to be able to entertain themselves. Solitary play and group play are connected to child care verse in-home care because in a child care setting there are several children to play with whereas in an in-home setting there is a range of children, none to a few. In an in-home setting a child might gain more solitary play or adult play verse group play. If these ideas were researched then we would know which setting is better for a child or how to improve the different settings. 

I was born 3 months early, had 100% oxygen for almost the first week and was in an incubator for 2 months. I just found out that I participated in a research study as an infant. The project was to implement more talking and touching (then normal) to premature babies to see if this type of stimulation increased their survival rate. I had almost constant attention throughout the day and night. Other then the NICU nurses my parents took shifts everyday to visit with me. Generally my dad would come in the early morning 3am-5am, my mom would come 8am-9am and on her lunch break, then my parents would come after work for like an hour, go eat dinner then come back for a few hours. My parents did not find out what the results of the research findings were, they were just concerned about me surviving and were all in for implementing the attention. For my case, the stimulation increased my survival rate, had i been a boy my survival rate would have been even lower (irrelevant to the research project).