Research that Benefits Children and Families—Uplifting Stories

Thanks to cancer research, Connor Dykes three years old is the survivor of Multiforme Congenital Glioblastoma. The nightmare began when Connor was an infant, just six weeks old.  Connor’s mom (Mindy Dykes) went out to spend time with a friend while dad (David Dykes) stayed home to hang out with the children. Connor had a bad case of acid reflux and threw up on several occasions. Dad held Connor to comfort him and found that Connor became more agitated when the lights were on. When mom came home and turned on the lights, they discovered that the left side of Connor’s head had swollen badly. Immediately they rushed Connor to the nearest hospital only to be transferred by ambulance to the University of Minnesota’s Children’s hospital. Immediately Connor received a CT scan and it was discovered that he had a brain tumor the size of an adult’s fist. The doctor’s recommended surgery. Although the surgery was risky, Mindy consented to the surgery. Four and a half hours later, Connor was stabilized and opened his eyes. But unfortunately Connor was not out of the clear as three days later Connor was diagnosed with stage IV of Multiforme Congenital Glioblastoma.

Fortunately Connor’s future looked bright, as most children with this disease die during childbirth. Dr. Moertel and other specialists informed Connor’s parents that Connor’s treatment would be innovative. After five months of chemotherapy, Connor became the youngest person ever to self donate bone marrow.  Amazingly this procedure was successful the first time and Connor gave more bone marrow than his doctor expected. 

The bone marrow transplant was a success, and two years later, Connor was considered cured. Mindy and David attributed Connor’s outcome to the strides made through research. The CT scan that was administered within 30 seconds, the chemotherapy with the right combination of drugs, and the bone marrow transplant were all methods developed from research. 

To help other children like Connor, The Dykes eagerly consented to any research doctors wanted to do.  Although Connor struggles with several developmental disabilities, one of them being hearing loss from the aggressive chemotherapy, the Dykes both agree that Connor’s survival far outweighs this loss.

References

Ballif, C. H. (2009). Brain Cancer- Connor’s story something greater in mind. Children’s Cancer Research Fund. Retrieved from http://www.childrenscancer.org/stories-of-hope/kids-stories/connor.html

My Personal Research Journey

The simulated topic I chose to research is, The Accuracy of Early Childhood Assessments and shortcomings. What I would like to explore is how accurate are early childhood assessments and if any, what factors attribute to shortcomings in conducting accurate early childhood assessments.

The reason why I am interested in this particular topic is because as a preschool teacher, I have found myself at times speculating answers to questions about the children's abilities. For the past several months,  I have been the only lead teacher for a group of fifteen three year old children. All though I have the assistance of a floater who may write a few journals for me, all other documentation including assessments, is my responsibility.  Also as the field is becoming more professionalized, I have noticed that teacher workloads continue to increase, yet the infrastructure to accommodate for these changes have not.

What I have gained from completing the simulation chart, is that I have formulated a hypothesis based on my personal experience and knowledge about my co-workers experience in this area. Therefore, I conclude that the research methodology best suited for what I want to accomplish would be The Deductive Research methodology (Mac Naughton, Rolfe, Siraj-Blatchford, 2010) as I am only interested in this question.

To my colleagues, I ask that if you have any knowledge about this topic or can refer me to some credible resources please feel free to share with me. We will get through this together. Thank you so much.

Cheryl Byrd

References

Mac Naughton, G., Rolfe, S. A., & Siray – Blatchford, I. (2010).  Doing Early Childhood Research International Perspectives on Theory and Practice (2nd Ed.). New York, NY: