"Our lives begin to end the day that we become silent about things that matter." ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.
Throughout this journey to becoming an advocate I get excited about learning new information about what matters to me. It makes me happy to see that there are others out there that believe in the same thing that I believe in. I have become inspired by seeing families that have used the DECA in their clinical therapy sessions. This has really helped everyone involved with the family to see what is going on with the young child and what they can do to help them.
I do feel that people may look at this process and think that it is going to take a long time to get this whole thing done with. I feel that people may become discouraged and slack on following through with this assessment in the appropriate way. I also feel that people might just nod their head at me and agree because they do not believe that this assessment truly helps to identify problematic areas in a young child's learning.
I am not really having any challenging emotions that are coming over me but I am feeling anxious about how people are going to respond to the information that I am presenting. I keeping thinking if they are going to understand my reasons why and if they are going to agree that the goals I have created are attainable for their site. Implementing the action plan is going to be difficult if people do not understand the strength behind this assessment. I can probably convince the teachers to implement this assessment tool but I know how much work they already have and how this can be a burden on them.
I think it is important that people remember that when they are advocating for something that they do it with a positive attitude. Advocacy is a way to get others to know and understand how you feel a particular topic. You need to persuade them to believe you. Do not ever get discouraged about letting people know the truth about your advocacy plans and how important it is to you and others around you (especially the children and their families)
KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK!! ALMOST THERE!!