Ashford 5: – Week 4 – Discussion 1

Your initial discussion thread is due on Day 3 (Thursday) and you have until Day 7 (Monday) to respond to your classmates. Your grade will reflect both the quality of your initial post and the depth of your responses. Reference the Discussion Forum Grading Rubric for guidance on how your discussion will be evaluated.

Health   and Wellness Appraisals

 You are a teacher in a 4-year-old classroom and begin each day with your daily health and wellness check.  You notice that a child who is dropped off looks very tired and is uncommonly quiet as she walks into the classroom.  She was dropped off by bus so you have no additional information.   
 

Given the above scenario, choose one of the following possible causes for the change in the child.  Please indicate the cause you selected in the subject line of your discussion post.

1. Sickness/Illness 
2. Trauma 
3. Abuse 
4. Oral Health Issue: Tooth ache, poor oral health 
5. Nutritional Concern: Inadequate nutritional intake,      food allergy, food intolerance 
6. Hearing Concern: Ear Infection, ear ache 
7. Vision Concern: Eye infection 
8. Social-Emotional Issue 

Examples of some of these common situations are described further in Chapter 7.  After you select one of these as a possible cause for the child’s change in demeanor, use your imagination to develop it further discussing what you may see when you conduct your observation of the child.  Be mindful to detail what you might look for and how you will document your observations.  Based on your fictitious observation, create a plan of action for how to proceed.  This plan should include both immediate and long-term actions that you will take.  
 

Address the following points in your discussion:

• Fictitious elaboration of what you observe in the       child including the possible cause.  Include enough so that you can       make a plan of action 
• Short-term plan of action detailing the procedure of       how you will address the issue immediately or by the end of the day 
• Long-term plan of action detailing the procedure of       how you will follow-up your short-term plan of action
• Specific discussion regarding how you will support the       child during this time 

Guided Response:  Read several of your classmates’ responses.  Choose two peers who have chosen a different possible cause.  Describe one example of a short-term action and one example of a long-term action that your classmates did not think of.