Reflective Analysis of Portfolio Artifact

Rationale/Reflection
NAEYC Standard:
STANDARD 1. PROMOTING CHILD DEVELOPMENT AND LEARNING
Candidates prepared in early childhood degree programs are grounded in a child development knowledge base.
They use their understanding of a) young childrens characteristics and needs, and b) multiple interacting
influences on childrens development and learning, to c) create environments that are healthy, respectful,
supportive, and challenging for each child.
(NAEYC, 2010)

Brief Description of Evidence:
During the fall semester of 2012 of my ECED 120-Early Childhood Curriculum course, I worked on
developing the knowledge and information about the Erik Erikson psychological stages. The prepared
information requires learning the stages which provides a grounded outlook on child development, the
developmental stages, measurable needs and characteristics involving the use of book resources, descriptions of
changes in the environment, experiences of growth in all stages and changes which happen in a childs life. In
addition to learning the interacting influences which affect these stages I created a paper which broke down
each stage through the words and research of the theorist Erik Erikson.
Analysis of What I Learned:
Through the completion of self-reflection and analysis of my own life from the perspective of early
childhood theorist, Erik Erikson I created a paper of detailed findings of the developmental stages in which I
progressed through my life thus far. I now know the importance of interpreting young childrens
characteristics, background history and interacting influences. Through this artifact I have learned how to
become more involved with the development of the child and what he/she may be going through a in a
particular psychological stage or change through culture, home life, and everyday childhood development
milestones.

How This Artifact Demonstrates my Competence on the NAEYC Standard:
This project is just one of many projects in which I worked thoroughly with research and integrated an
analysis of my own life from the theories of Erik Erikson. Through spending time researching the various
psychological stages, I feel more informed that my teaching practices are developmentally appropriate for
young children and will positively influence each childs development and learning by providing him/her with
the correct care and environmental experiences to encourage positive outcomes for every child.