My professional and academic interest in child development and neuroscience began in earnest with a field experience at the Mrs. Chris Play & Learn during my junior year of high school. I was fortunate to work with infants to pre-K ages children. During my time, I was able to observe their interactions with other children and adults, particularly their developmental changes. This experience greatly impacted me because my life devotion became to create equality in early childhood education. My education and experience over the past decade has prepared me for a career in educational neuroscience utilizing early childhood interventions to address learning discrepancies in different socioeconomic statuses. I attended Morehouse School of Medicine …show more content…
Despite my dissertation research and previous research experiences, being more wet bench training. The exposure brings uniqueness to my scientific journey as educational neuroscientist. I have been prepared to be self-sufficient, innovative and highly inquisitive individual. My research have trained me in behavioral studies and experimental design. Through my dissertation studies, I gained a profound love for cognitive neuroscience. I sought out opportunities that has allow me to become engrossed in the field such as attending annual cognitive neuroscience conferences, volunteering for Jumpstart, completing CDA training courses and becoming a graduate reviewer for Society for Research in Child Development. My long-term career goal is to become an academic professor on the tenure track at undergraduate or graduate institution. Based on my interests, I would like to teach introduction to neuroscience, developmental neuroscience, cognitive neuroscience or child development courses. In addition, I intend to establish learning development centers for birth through pre-K ages that implement brain-based learning paradigms. The centers will serve as a longitudinal study, the children will be followed from birth through kindergarten
Christina J. Groark, Stephanie K. McCarthy, Afton R. Kirk. (2014). Early Child Development: From Theory to Practice. Bridgepoint Education, Inc.
In recent years there have been a myriad of ground breaking discoveries in science. However, I believe more can be done in neurology as we have a worldwide ageing population with dementia affecting many sufferers and their families. I wish to study neuroscience as I would like to examine conditions such as this but also investigate other aspects of the brain such as neuroanatomy. Having had a close family member diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, I've been exposed to the fragilities of the human brain from a young age. Even though watching the slow deterioration has been distressing, I have also found it very interesting to see how such a complicated organ can be subjected to such large changes due to a degenerative condition. As a result of this personal experience, my desire to study the intricacy and complexities of the brain has substantially increased.
Chemistry captivated me as a college freshman by her promise of truth. Truth was a magical word, and was all the more alluring when associated with science, which to me back then meant the absolute. The process by which truth emerged from chemistry was so elegant: I loved to envision different molecules combining their molecular orbitals to form a product with the lowest energy level, and could not stop marveling at how concepts like energy, almost metaphysically abstract, manifested themselves so concretely in chemical reactions.
Engaging with the study of the mind and its effect on human behaviour fascinates me. Why do we behave the way we do and how does our social surrounding affect us? My interest deepens into how the innate mind of a human builds up and exhibits certain types of behaviour. I am intrigued by how child behaviour differs from adult behaviour, and how children exhibit their behaviour in the environment aspiring me towards the role of a child psychologist. My vision is to work with children to understand their behaviour as well as improve it using the skills I aim to learn during my undergraduate course of psychology.
We’re on our knees pinning my brother to the floor, hoping it will make him stop this one time. Quickly, we try to apply all of the advice given to us from the hundreds of doctors we visit to help calm his violent tremors. He keeps shaking. Next thing I know, we’re back in an all too familiar hospital with a doctor we know all too well.
An explanation of the impact of current research into development and learning of babies and young children.
My interest in the human brain really began my junior year of high school when I took AP Psychology. I could not get enough of learning about how and why we function on a day to day basis, which can be looked at from multiple perspectives including from a biological angle. It amazed me then, and still amazes me today, that a complex network of neurons which fire electrochemical signals is the basis of every action we do on a day to day basis. This idea sparked my passion for learning more about the nervous system and how it functions, and is an interest which remains with me to this day. This same year of high school I also fell in love with Chemistry and Anatomy/Physiology, both of which applied in some capacity to AP Psychology as well. Ultimately
A longitudinal study done by Lansford et. al involved the observations of 574 children from the ages 5 to 21. The participants were recruited when they entered kindergarten in 1987 or 1988 at Tennessee and Indiana. The parents of the children were randomly approached and asked if they would take part in the longitudinal study. Detailed interviews concerning the child’s developmental history were conducted with their mothers before they had entered kindergarten. In these interviews, the mothers were
At age thirteen my family left Scotland and moved to the United States. Througout this transition I noticed a big culture difference. It got me curious to why people are all the same but when you live in a different place people act differently. About to graduate my senior year for highschool I discovered tere were answers to people behavior in my AP Psychology class. That is when I discovered my passion for psychology and have presued it ever since.
Berk, L. E. (2012). Infants, Children, and Adolescents (7th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.
Infant learning and brain development is fragile and contingent upon numerous intrinsic and extrinsic factors. The most critical time frame for infant brain development is from the second trimester to the first three months of life (Marshall, 2011). During this time, neural pathways are forming, areas of the brain are maturing, and brain development is rapid. From infancy until the age of 3 years, neural pathways are still being formed in response to stimulation and for this reason, it is extremely important for caregivers and parents to be aware of the many factors that can influence brain development in infants (Marshall, 2011).
From a very young age I’ve been profoundly captivated by the realm of Neuroscience and how it’s tied into the profession of medicine. I couldn’t understand how all these neurological disorders have gone untreated for so long. Why do we have cures for countless conditions affecting other parts of the body but not for the brain and the nervous system? I couldn’t quite grasp the intricacy of our brain. So delicate and fragile, we’re limited to the very periphery of it. It’s precisely the unknown that intrigues me. It challenges me to indulge and discover. To one day catalyze cures and to provide hope for those once hopeless. Neuroscience at Rice will set me on that path that I so desire. It’ll show me the foundation of the sophisticated webs
Child development is the foundation upon which early childhood practice is based. Because the psychomotor, socioemotional, cognitive, and linguistic developmental domains are inter-related, early childhood professionals in all types of programs (e.g., family child care homes, early childhood education centers) must comprehend both the processes of development and the adult’s role in supporting each child’s growth, development, and learning. (p. 1)
Early childhood education has not always been the top priority in the education world. Although, research has proved that it should be the top priority as the benefits of Early Childhood Education are innumerous. Extensive neuroscience research has discovered that the brain is build over time and it is built from the bottom up. Early childhood experiences directly affect the quality brain development. Establishing a sturdy foundation through a high quality early childhood education experience, will dramatically develop child's brain. As a result, they will have a brighter future. In this essay, I will propose a plan for the children of 2020 and how to ensure the best early childhood education experience. I personally believe that racially, culturally, linguistically and developmentally responsive practices parental involvement are critical to the sturdy foundation that is essential to the positive early childhood experience.
I did not predict finding myself in a diabetic and emergency clinic for part of my summer in India. However, my curiosity to explore the inner workings of a medical center spurred me to accept an observation position for three weeks. The first day I went, there was no electricity and the waiting room was packed with patients, as the doctor was running late. I sat in the suffocating room for an hour until a nurse ushered me to a quick tour of the clinic. Walking along the dark corridor, we discovered a surgical room illuminated by a flickering light. Many technologies usually found in the United States were unavailable, and the existing tools were lacking. Knowing that it was due to the inability of these clinics to afford technology and the