Self-Assessment: Diversity (Page 1 of 2)

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Give examples of situations that show you treat all children with equal respect and consideration.
I am impartial when it comes to children whom might argue over a toy. I am polite to each child even
to a child whom might display challenging behavior. I listen to children even those whom might
interrupt me; I will at least acknowledge them and let them know I hear them and will talk more
about their concerns or ideas as soon as I’m done talking. I always consider each child’s ideas during
play and activities and if it’s an idea we can’t complete I write the idea down on a piece of paper so
we can remember to try the idea the next day. If a child is not done with something they are creating
or playing with I offer them a tray to put their work on so they can finish it at the next available time.
If there is a project or creation that is too large to fit on a tray, we will take a picture of the project so
there is a visual reference and reminder to the child where they are at with the creation, for example,
a structure in the block center. I do my best to stay consistent with guidelines and play with each
individual child.

Give examples of situations where you offer activities and talk to children to build positive self-
identity and valuing of differences in children.
To build positive self-identity in my daycare program, during our morning meeting we sing a good
morning song which we clap out and that also greets everyone by name at daycare that day. “Good
Morning to Michelle, Good Morning to you, Good Morning to Michelle and how do you do?” then
everyone waves to Michelle and says “Good Morning Michelle!”. Then we sing it again the same way
but with a different name of someone in attendance.
To value differences in my daycare program we have played guessing games where I use a puppet to
ask the children who the puppet is describing. The puppet will describe physical appearances of a
child and then the children will look at themselves and the other children to see if they know who the
puppet is looking for.
When children have questions about differences they observe, I always answer them as accurately as
I can. For example, I have been asked, “What is on (child’s name) legs and feet?” I answer, “(Child’s
name) has braces on her/his legs and feet to help her/him walk!”
Give examples of situations where you are aware of and avoid using stereotypes in language
references – firefighter instead of fireman, etc.
I ensure that anytime I speak with children I never reference any character or person in a way that
makes them appear less than any other person. I encourage children to take on many different roles
during play. For example, in my daycare program children are often seen playing house and the girls
will often tell the boys that they have to “go to work” while they stay home and take care of the
babies and clean. In this example I encourage the girls and boys to try to take on different roles.
Sometimes during play children will express that “going to work” can be boring so I give them
scenarios to make it more interesting. I might say “You could be a construction worker and use tools
to fix houses (dollhouse)” or “You could be a chef and cook food for a restaurant”. Additionally, if
children don’t want to play the housekeeper role, I will encourage different scenarios for them as
housekeeper other than the typical take care of babies or clean the house. Other scenarios I use for
housekeeper are write a shopping list and go grocery shopping or take care of the house pet.
Give an example of a situation where you did or would intervene when children might tease or
reject others.
There have been situations in my program where children will reject another child. For example, two
girls were pretending to be on a bus by lining up chairs. There were clearly enough chairs for
everybody however the girls rejected another girl who was new to my daycare program. When this
happened, I calmly explained to the girls that it is not okay to exclude others. I made sure to let the
new child know that I care about her and am happy she is here. I also did the same for the two girls
who rejected the new child and then gave them a chance to discuss their feelings. While the girls
discussed their feelings, I made sure to listen to the reasons for the rejection. I found after their
discussion that the other chairs were occupied already by “other people for pretend”. We were then
able to figure out that adding another chair to the bus would make room for the new child.
If the children were not comfortable discussing their feelings, I would invite the new child to play
something different with me and then encourage her to ask the other girls who rejected her if they
wanted to play with us. Later that day I might use puppets with a rejection scenario to talk about how
it might feel to be rejected and what you can do when your rejected. I would make sure not to use
any of the children’s names involved in real life scenarios to avoid embarrassing any of the children.
Give some examples of what you would consider to be stereotypical language or bias toward or
against a child or group, and how you might respond if you saw or heard these from adults or
children in your classroom.
Some examples of bias and stereotypical language against children and groups could be someone
whom thinks or believes that… a person of a certain race is poor, a person of a certain race is a “bad
person” because of their skin color, a person can’t play or join in on a game because they are in a
wheelchair, a girl that is playing with a truck can’t play with it because she’s a girl, and a child can’t be
raised by two mommies. If I heard a child using bias or stereotypical language, I would approach them
and restate what they said. I would then probably ask them the reasons for their thoughts and
thinking to find out more about why they might have said what they said. I would then make sure
they know that what they said could hurt someone’s feelings. I might use puppets, pictures or give
other examples to teach them that human differences come in multiple forms. If I hear an adult
speaking in stereotypical language or bias toward or against a child or group, I would respond by
staying calm and remind myself that not everyone is totally aware of the perspectives of all human
differences. Then I might ask questions like “Why do you say that?” to learn more about their
reasoning or thinking behind the language. Starting out with a question like that opens the line of
communication to discuss the language in a respectful manner. If the adult is strong on their stance, I
might then respond by saying “In my program I encourage everyone to respect all human differences
and all kinds of families.”.
Describe the materials provided in the preschool environment to address a range of diversity
(dolls, play props, books, pictures, posters, play food, clothing items, etc.) Explain how the
materials reflect the lives of the children and families in your program as well as the diversity
found in society, including gender, age, language, and abilities – no stereotypical representations
(images of members of ethnic groups in only traditional garb or only females in nurturing roles, only
males as construction workers or doctors, etc.), reflect range of diversity, especially children and
families in the program. Give examples of materials that could be added.
In my daycare program I have several materials that convey a range of diversity. Some of those items
are…
Posters of children that show a range of human differences.
Baby Dolls of different race and ethnicities
Dollhouse Dolls of different race, ethnicities and ages
Non-Fiction Book on types of Families and cultures
People Blocks of various roles, abilities and disabilities
Laminated games and activities that depict a range of diversity
Paper of different skin tone colors
Magazines with images of diverse people to be used for art collages
Some materials that I need to add are…
Posters, puzzles and games of elderly people of various backgrounds
Posters and Photographs of a variety of diverse art of various backgrounds
Posters or pictures of important people of the past and present
A variety of skin tone markers, paint, crayons and play dough
Mirrors
Dolls that show a range of disabilities
Play food that represent popular foods from around the world
Books depicting different abilities, disabilities

In my program I involve families in making a page for our classroom book “Me and My Family”. Each
family includes pictures of their family and what they enjoy doing together. This prompts a lot of
discussion on brothers, sisters, moms, dads, grandparents, uncles, aunts and cousins. I have one child
who goes to mom’s house and dads house. When curiosity strikes the children about families in my
program, I take out a book called “Families” which talks about all the types of families there can be.
I have one child in my group whom wears braces on her legs and feet. One item I have is a people
block that also has braces on the legs and feet. I also plan on adding books and puzzles that depict
children with leg braces and other disabilities soon.
I love to read books from the series “In Many Cultures” some of those books are “Homes, In Many
Cultures”, “Transportation, In Many Cultures”, “Clothes, In Many Cultures” and etc. These books are
great to put in various centers for children to look at to see how homes, transportation, clothes and
etc. can be different than what they are used to seeing. I love watching how the children take out the
book “Homes, In Many Cultures” in the block center and then use various materials to build homes
shown in the book.
I made an Anti-Bias picture file in school that shows pictures of different roles, abilities, families,
cultures and artwork. These pictures have questions to use as prompts to discuss the images with
children. One image I used is a picture of a dreamcatcher. To discuss the image, I ask the children
open-ended questions such as “What is this a picture of?”, “Have you seen anyone use one?”, and
“What is it used for?”.