Several studies research have shown that the number of teen pregnancies has increased in the past years (Dubow, Boxer, & Huesmann, 2009). The increase of teen mothers is more notable in developing nations than the developed countries. However, others studies have also shown that teen pregnancies are an issue that all nations of the world have to deal with. Similarly, it is also clear that being a teen mother also has many negative effects on the early childhood education of their children. Several studies have also documented the fact that having a child at an early age also affects factors such as literacy and reading skills of the children (Dubow, Boxer, & Huesmann, 2009). Moreover, other information tends to feel that children born to teen mothers tend to be less ready for education compared to those born to mothers of average birth ages. Therefore, this study aims to find out the effects of the teen mother on early childhood developments of their children. The study also provides strategies and recommendation for helping teen mothers overcome the challenges they face while raising their children.
A research study by Dunst and Trivette (2009) shows that being a teen mother has many negative effects on the early childhood educational development of their children. For example, it is clear that children born of the teenage mother are usually less ready for schooling than those born to mothers of normal ages. For example, they do not have effecgive literacy skills required of a child at the entry point of early childhood education. The study states that teen mothers do not take the chance to prepare their children for education at an early age. For instances, they do not take the time to introduce children to numbers nd alphabet while stil at home, thus making them ready for school. Normal beliefs have it that the first teacher that a child encounters is his or her mother. The mother teaches the child to talk, pronounce the word, recite letters and even count numbers. However, most studies have shown that most teen mothers do not usually have the skills to educate their children on such early childhood educational requirements (Curie, 2001). On the other hand, the author states that most of them still have their teenhood stages clouding their judgment and hence tend to care more about themselves than they do to their children.
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Better still, studies have shown that most teen mothers have requested increased help for their children in terms of literacy skills acquisition. Thus, teachers and others educators need to help the teen mothers in ensuring that they acquire effective literacy skills while a school (Dubow, Boxer, & Huesmann, 2009). A descriptive determinant analysis (DDA) showed that children born to teen mothers were below grade levels in terms of literacy school in their schools (Dunst & Trivette, 2009). Thus, the children lack the required literacy skills that most of their peers born to older mothers possess. It is clear from such studies that most teen mothers do not take the chance to evaluate their literacy skills at various grade levels (Dubow, Boxer, & Huesmann, 2009). Other studies have shown that most teen mothers also have lower levels of education that negatively influence their economic lives (Larco, Kleiman, & Darling, 2011). Lack of adequate financial resources hinders teenagers from providing effective educational activities to their children. Thus this is another factor that affects early childhood education among children born to teen mothers.
Since most teens get their children at a young age when they do not perceive health issue effectively, they tend to pass on negative health traits to their children. Most children born to teen mothers are usually of low birth weights and tend to develop various complications that affect their academic performances (Dunst & Trivette, 2009). The issue of low birth weight might lead to mental health effects that might affect the readiness of going to school. Similarly, mental health effect also affects the child’s ability to be ready for early school enrolments well as interfering with their literacy skills (Larco, Kleiman, & Darling, 2011). On that note, most children belonging to teenage mothers end up lacking the necessary literacy skills. Moreover, these children are usually not ready enough for school.
Other studies also reveal that teenage mothers usually do not understand the reasons why they need to be there for their children in different ways (Curie, 2001). Thus, teen mother ends up creating disparities between them and their children which end up affecting their readiness for academic involvement (Paniagua & Walker, 2012). Experts define school readiness as the emotional, linguistic, social, and intellectual, developments of a child at the time they are starting early childhood education. Moreover, school readiness is also viewed as an asset of interactions between the school, environment, and people, around him or her (Paniagua & Walker, 2012).
Since most teenagers distance themselves from their children by not being emotionally involved in their lives, they negatively affect the child’s emotional, social, physical and intellectual development. This, in turn, affects the child’s ability to be ready for early childhood education when they attain the age required for them to start school because they lack effective emotional and interaction skills required at such levels (Paniagua & Walker, 2012). Thus most teenage mothers has not been conscious of how they healthy physical, intellectual, social, and emotional attachments to their children affect their abilities to be ready for school and schooling activities. It is clear that the lack of these attachments affects the ability of the child to achieve the required intellectual abilities when joining early childhood education institutions. Most of the children usually have worse literacy skills, social, and emotional activities.
Moreover, since most teen mothers do not actively engage in the school activities and early educational activities of the child, they end up affecting school performances of the children because thay are not ale to help their children do their homework and even further their studies at home (Clain & Miller, 2008). A larger percentage of teen mothers do not have an adequate education (Dubow, Boxer, & Huesmann, 2009). Similarly, most of them do not understand the benefits of having better if not adequate educations because of their inadequate educational backgrounds. Therefore, the lack the knowledge and skills in helping improve the grades and performances of their children. This happens because most of the mothers do not see the essence of going to school and this could have been the initial cause of them becoming pregnant at an early age.
They failed to see the positive effect of education in their lives as teenages, and they might pass on the negative attitude they harbored towards school to their children unknowingly even if they did not expect to negatively affect their children’s view of education. What happens is that most teen mothers do not home school their children before they go to mainstream school . It takes the mother and the father to introduce the children to early childhood educational experiences such as counting and reciting the alphabetical letters and even knowing some colors (Dubow, Boxer, & Huesmann, 2009). Such issues encourage children to want to know more and engage further in academic activities. However, since teen mother does not understand the benefits of such involvement, they fail even to help their children with homework and hence the children end up performing poorly in their academic activities.
Another problem that affects early childhood education among children born of the teen mother is the lack of participation in school activities (Lepstein & Sanders, 2002). It is clear from results that most teen mothers do not take the time to engage in school activities at the institutions in which their children learn. They do not go for parents meeting especially for fear of stigmatization and being judged harshly by others. Teen mothers also do not factitively engage the teachers at the school where their children learn in helping them understand the children and hence devise better learning intervention methods for help in their parents. Most of them do not know how school activities run and choose not to involve heavily in the school life and activities. Moreover, it is also clear that most teen mothers do not engage in other co-curricular activities such as sports and hence fail to inculcate such skills in their children (Laroque, Kleiman, & Darling, 2011). Thus, such isolations and lack of participation in school activities also affect a child’s performances and intellectual developments.
Effective strategies /Planning Communication
The discussion above has shown that teen mother has negative effects on their children’s education. The negative effects come as a result of various factors including lack of adequate educational background, poor appreciation of education in one’s life, poor socio-economic status, fear of stigmatization, and lack of adequate knowledge and skills to engage in active child learning activities. Therefore, it is important to come up with effective communication and other strategies to help teen mother influence the early childhood educational involvement of their children in the most effective way. The strategies used for the family should be able to help both the mother and the child to achieve effective educational outcomes.
Goals and strategies
The main goal of the communication activity is to help the mother to understand the benefits of education not only in her lives but also in the child’s life. The communication strategies and planning process also aim to encourage the teen mothers to be more active in participative in her child’ educational life. The strategy in this part also aims to appeal to the teen mother to be more present and available for the child so that she can learn how to positively influence the child’ social, emotional, and intellectual development of the child (Hofferth, 2009). On the same note, the strategy should make it possible for the mother to help the child improve their academic performance and grades by promoting their intellectual development through activities such as homeschooling and helping with homework.
Moreover, the mother can also influence the child’s educational involvement by taking part in improving their literacy skills at home. Thus, the teen mother can come up with resources such as charts and story books that they read together with the child to help them improve their literacy skills (Curie, 2001). The other aim of the strategy and communication process is to motivate the teen mother to know that they are important factors in helping the children to be ready for early childhood educations. It is also important to help them know that they have the skills and abilities to help their children embrace education at an early stage. It is clear in this strategy that the teenagers also need help in understanding the benefits of education and how to go about involving in their child’s academic performances. Thus the planning and communication state will help them achieve all these goals.
Strategies and methods of approach
The first strategy is to counsel the mother and let her know that I am there to help her shape the educational life of her child. I would also counsel her and provide her with career opportunities that she can engage in and enable her not only to get enough money to provide for herself and her son but also if she may wish to help her go back to school.
Similarly, I will coach the teen mother on how she can get involved in her child’s educational life not only in school but also at home. I will make it clear to her that she can always help her child with homework, reading, and other educational, developmental skills required for the child. Moreover, I will take her through her daily life procedures and try to come up with an ample time that she can be with the child so that she can help improve the child emotional and social skills well as inculcating interactive abilities on the child. The other strategy that I intend to use with the mother is to motivate her to know that she has enough potential to help herself and the child live better lives than most people have imagined for them. I believe that every person has potentials that they can tap into to make a turnaround in their lives.
Therefore I will motivate the mother to think of all the possible way that she can use to change her life and that of her child with the aim of providing a better environment for both of them. Similarly, I will aim to educate the mother on other means that can enable her to be close to her child and help change the child s attitude and perception of educational life. For example, is clear that most adolescents lack the ability to encourage and motivate others, including their children. Therefore, I will aim to educate her on how to go about such practices. Similarly, it can be quite tasking to raise a child as a teen mother; therefore, I will also help the mother to come up with effective methods of raising her child. For example, I will encourage her to talk to her parents, friends, relatives and even seek further professional help where necessary and as often as possible.
Recommendation
The above discussion has not shown how children born of teen mothers lack fundamental skills in early childhood education but also how their teen mother affects influence the occurrences of such situation. The discussion has also shown how teen mothers can be helped to enable them to change their perception and actions towards their children with the aim of helping to improve child readiness, literacy, and other developmental skills in their children. Therefore, the first recommendation is that the school should encourage teen mothers to take part in educational activities more often than they do. In fact, if possible the school can create a conducive atmosphere by encouraging the teen mothers to visit the school during other occasions when the other parents are not in the school.
Secondly, it is important for the teen mother to go through counseling sessions to help them cope with any stressful factors of teen parenting. Similarly, counseling can also help them come up with effective strategies for managing teen motherhood and developing effective steps in raising the child. Similarly, the people living with or related t the teen mother should also provide the necessary help to the mother t make it possible for them to get involved in academic activities of their children, for example, they can help the children with homework and teach the children to practice reading story books so as to improve their literacy skills. Finally, the society leaders should come up with educational activities for teen mothers. The activities should help them view academic life differently and if possible persuade them to continue their education with the aim of getting a better job to help improve their financial lives. Similarly, they can create activities that enable the teen mother to come up with effective financial activities to boost their economic status.
Several studies have shown that most teen mothers have negative influences on their children’s early childhood educational lives. The studies have shown that the teen mothers usually distance themselves from their young children and hence negatively influence emotional, social and cognitive development among the children. Such actions by the teen mothers also lead to poor cognitive developments and interfere with the child’s ability to interact with people in his environment and at school. The problems also lead to the problem of the children lacking effective literacy skills and not being ready upon attaining the age of early childhood education. It is also clear that these issues occur because the teen mothers do not develop effective emotional and social attachment to the children. The teen mothers do not get involved with early school activities and do not seem to understand what to do. Therefore, it is important for them to go through strategies that will help them understand the need to influence their children's early educational activities positively. For example, leaders in the society can come up with activities that enable the teen mothers to understand such needs through education. They can also create opportunities that enable the teen mothers to have effective financial lives. Similarly, the teen mothers can also go through counseling sessions that help them improve their ability to influence their children socially and emotionally.
References
Clain, A., & Miller, M. (2008). In Support of Family-Teacher Partnerships. Early Childhood News.
Curie, J. (2001). Early Childhood Education Programs. The Journal of Economic Perspectives, Vol 15 Issue No 2 , 213-238.
Dubow, E., Boxer, P., & Huesmann, L. (2009). Long-term Effects of Parents’ Education on Children’s Educational and Occupational Success: Mediation by Family Interactions, Child Aggression, and Teenage Aspirations. Merrill Palmer Q (Wayne State Univ Press). Vol 55 Issue No 3 , 224–249.
Dunst, C.J. &Trivette, C.M. (2009). Capacity-Building Family Systems Intervention Practices. Journal of Family Social Work, 119-143.
Hofferth, S. (2009). Risking the Future: Adolescent Sexuality, Pregnancy, and Childbearing, Volume II: Working Papers and Statistical Appendices. Rockvile Pike, MD: National Academy of Science.
Laroque, M., Kleiman, I., &Darling. S.M. (2011). Parental Involvement: The Missing Link in Student Achievement. Preventing School Failure, 55(3), 115-122.
Lepstein, J., & Sanders, M. (2002). Parent Engagement Building trust between families and schools. Torornto: dcuation Canada.
Paniagua, M., & Walker, I. (2012). The Impact of Teenage Motherhood on the Education and Fertility of their Children: Evidence for Europe. Munich.
