Week 2-Research Topic

I am very interested in the area of infant/toddler mental health and so have decided to focus on the subtopic of effective tools for assessing infant-toddler mental health that can be used by parents and teachers.  I am especially interested in the Ages & Stages Questionnaire: Social Emotional (ASQ:SE) because it is widely used by many of the childcare centers in the community where I work.  I have been trained in and have used the Devereux Early Childhood Assessment and so am interested in comparing these two instruments.  I am also interested in finding out more about strengths and weaknesses of each of these instruments and any limitations especially when used for children facing multiple risks and used by teachers with limited experience or formal education.   I am also interested in learning more about the impact of culture on screening outcomes.

I chose this topic because for infants and toddlers social-emotional development is a critical factor that influences all areas of development and has a long-term impact on child outcomes.  It is difficult to think that very young children can have serious mental health and behavior issues; however, I have been faced with working with such children, especially those children facing multiple risks.  Caselman & Self (2008) point out that “Rates for social-emotional behavioral problems among children living in at-risk environments range between 17 percent and 25 percent” (p. 103).  There are often few resources for teachers working with children with social-emotional concerns.  I recently had the opportunity to work closely with a mental health consultant and so have a better understanding of this issue as well as effective classroom strategies.  It seems that being able to identify social-emotional concerns is a logical  place to start when researching this topic.   I have used both the ASQ:SE and the Devereux Early Childhood Assessment for Infants and Toddlers (DECA-IT).  I have noticed that some teachers have a difficult time completing these instruments and then really have no idea what to do with the information. 

I have learned a lot from the resources for this class and the assignments.  While I have always been interested in reading research articles, I really had not idea of how complex the research process is.   I also have a much better idea of how to analyze research and resources (in a very basic way) and of the need to do so. 

I am also having a difficult time figuring out how I will take this topic/subtopic and develop a research question.  It has also been challenging to find research information about the DECA-IT.  I would be interested in learning about how others chose a topic and how they plan to develop a research question.  I would also appreciate any insights that others might have about this topic or related resources.