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Sitting here pondering how many questions in the field of early childhood development are unanswered and only thinking of one to use as a potential for research to have an impact is difficult. Having a child with special needs brings up quite a few ideas, having a nephew who succumbed to cancer while young offers more, thinking of my two other nephews who were adopted through the foster program and the impact is has play on each ones short life could be examined, and the one that baffles me often is how are children raised by the same parents so different as adults? All of these could yield interesting and pertinent results but I will focus on children who move multiple times due to military connections and the impact this may have throughout the lifespan of the person.
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A study of this sort could add so much to the field of early childhood development due to many children are born into military families (some with both parents serving). These children are not offered an option but to pack up and move yearly in some cases. My son is almost fourteen and has moved ten times and attended just about as many different school districts. A positive contribution this can add would be stabilization for families with children as to not disturb the momentum of development. With this stabilization, the children are able to form better bonds with other children who are not constantly rotating out of each other lives. Also, the stress of always wondering when the next move is going to take place can be replaced with the notion of safety and security of not having to uproot again. Thinking longitudinal, the results of being offered a less nomadic lifestyle could yield more confident and successful children who have not have to relearn or have to catch up to different standards or lessons when moving so often.
As my life is quite unconventional due to military ties, I often wonder how different things would be for my son and students if each one were offered the opportunity to stay in one place until ready to move on his or her own accord.
Sarah,
ReplyDeleteBeing an Army wife, this hit home for me. I often beat myself up about the stress and uncertainty my children have to endure. Your claim....Thinking longitudinal, the results of being offered a less nomadic lifestyle could yield more confident and successful children who have not have to relearn or have to catch up to different standards or lessons when moving so often. put my mind at ease though.
Haleema,
DeleteThank you for response. I am sure you are all too familiar with this subject. My son has moved so much (particularly a lot in his first few years of primary school) so it was frustrating for him to learn about the groundhog in kindergarten and first grade as each time it was approached as a new concept for the class but he has learned about this tradition in pre-kindergarten. As he has gotten older the struggle for making friends becomes more pronounced and with our most recent move he has yet to make a friend which breaks my heart. He has managed to keep in contact with two really good friends (thank you facetime and Nintendo) who also relocated around the same time we did. I just hope for the best for him and we just continue doing what we know.
This is an interesting topic and I can't imagine what it must feel like to have to move several times throughout my childhood. I have a few friends who did move, not because they were part of a military family, but because their parent's job would relocate them. They expressed the difficulties making strong bonds with their peers due to the constant move as well.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading your post, the question you posed at the end piqued my curiosity too.
Trisha,
DeleteI know my focus was on the children but I know for myself that it takes a good while to make friends. I am older so this does not bother me as much but children need those connections and I find as my son is getting older those are becoming increasingly more difficult. I do wonder if there would be a way to have a test group of military families who stay in one place for an entire career to compare who these children fair emotionally compared to those who have moved about. It would be interesting to learn about this.