Child 440

Administrative Issues

Personal Planning Statement

Mission Statement
As I work with children, I plan on building resilience from at risk circumstances to
promote life readiness, by teaching children essential life skills that focus on different ethical
principles while supporting their overall cognitive, social, emotional, physical and spiritual
development.

Philosophy Statement

Belief Statement 1: I believe working with children requires many if not all human values,
however some important values I’d mostly adhere to are patience, empathy, and determination
when working with high-risk children. As I work with children I will work at their pace and
empower parents by helping them understand the crucial impact they are in the lives of their
children. I will also show empathy and kindness to those I work with by being genuine and
personal about my own struggles and serving and loving them in ways that adhere to their
needs.

Belief Statement 2:
Children learn in a variety of ways and at different rates. Just as it was proposed by Howard
Gardner in 1983, there are multiple intelligences or as Gardner poses it intelligence is “the
capacity to solve problems or fashion products that are valued in one or more cultural setting.
He originally identified seven intelligences: linguistic, logical-mathematical, musical, spatial,
bodily-kinesthetic, interpersonal, and intrapersonal. He later suggested the existence of several
others, including naturalist, spiritual, and existential. Everyone has all the intelligences, but in
different proportions” (H. Gardner & T. Hatch, 1989). My belief is that children born in at-risk
circumstances can have the capacity to develop certain intelligences that not other children
born in ideal households can develop as quickly. These intelligences can benefit the children to
learn other important values like empathy, selflessness, resilience, tolerance and other life-skills
that can make them just as successful as any other child.

Belief Statement 3: My work will foster optimal development by empowering children to rise
up out of their circumstances by teaching them life skills that will provide them with the ability
to cope with their current circumstances.

Goal 1: Educate parents on their children’s overall physical, emotional, social, and
cognitive development and role play with them to practice how they can teach their
children in developmentally appropriate ways.
Objective 1: Teach children important housework responsibilities and skills while
mentoring parents to similar responsibilities to teach their children as well.
 Objective 2: Role play with parents and perform different scenarios about how
to teach them a variety of life skills.

Goal 2: Teach children empathy, gratitude and love for self and others by educating
them through developmentally appropriate ways the hardships and struggles their
family goes through.
Objective 1: Help parents and children talk to each other openly by mentoring
parents on how to talk openly about their struggles in childhood in appropriate
ways for their children to understand and develop empathy and understanding
towards them.
Objective 2:
Offer children and parents an opportunity to self-reflect the things they are
grateful for, record it in different ways and find opportunities to share them with
each other.

Goal 3: Teach children coping skills during especially difficult and chaotic circumstances
derived from family dysfunctionality or other challenges that they have currently
experienced or will experience in the future.
Objective 1: Teach children anger, depression and anxiety coping skills and
incorporate it in their play through different activities involving, books, pretend
play, art and other developmentally appropriate activities.
Objective 2: Help children be open about hardships and talk about their
emotions through therapeutic strategies while teaching children and family’s
heathy ways to express those emotions.

Reference

Multiple Intelligences Go to School: Educational Implications of the Theory of Multiple

Intelligences," by H. Gardner & T. Hatch, 1989, Educational Researcher, 18(8), 4–9.