Share one similarity you had when it came to completing this activity. 5 sentences or more.

Explain how completing this activity helped to increase your knowledge of vocabulary related to families.

It is important for us to have a great understanding of the terms that we have learned throughout the last few weeks, especially if we plan to work with children and families. These terms help us to understand families in a deeper way and they also provide more knowledge for us to work with them and to help. Completing this activity helped me to increase my knowledge of vocabulary related to families. There were quite a few terms that I was unsure of, a couple I was confused about, and a couple that I knew, but my terminology was different than the activity’s. What I realized is there were quite a few terms that I would hear and I was used to placing them into the same category. Although they may be related, their definitions are very different.

Discuss which family term(s) you are still confused about and share one step you can take to strengthen your understanding of this term(s). If you are not confused about any terms, share what steps took to have a solid understanding of these terms.

One term I have heard before and am still a bit confused about is Goodness of Fit. The definition is the match between the physical and emotional environment with the unique temperament of each individual (Wardle & Fitzpatrick, 2016). Although the definition speaks for itself and provides the meaning, it is a meaning that I am having a hard time grasping. Cultural norms is not a term that necessarily confuses me, but when I was asked to type out my definition it seemed as though I was way off. The step I can take to strengthen my understanding is to research these terms and to become more familiar with using them. I can also quiz myself and figure out ways that I may use these terms in a phrase or when I could use them while speaking to a family or even people that I am working with.

Describe how completing this activity helped you to feel more confident about working with children and their families.

Completing this activity helped me to feel more confident about working with children and their families because it is always reassuring to see how much I have learned. I noticed this while going through terms and realized that I knew most of them very well. My definitions were not work for work accurate compared to the activity’s definition, but they have the same meaning so I am happy to know that much! I recently sent in my resume for a position that is my ideal position through the county, doing home visits to assess children and their families. When I applied a part of me felt like this was a long shot and that maybe I do not know as much as I thought. This activity showed me that it is easy to doubt ourselves, and although I sometimes feel that after I move on from a course the information is lost, it is not lost but rather a little buried because I am focusing on the next course.

References

Wardle, F., & Fitzpatrick, T. (2016). Children & families: Understanding behaviors & dynamics [Electronic version]. Retrieved from https://content.ashford.edu/ (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.