Observation of Challenging Behaviour by Child

ECE 214 Observations and Child Development Early Childhood

PORTFOLIO ASSIGNMENT 40 %

1. Sociogram

1. Write an anecdote that describes the behaviours that concerns you. You may include more than one example from different instances.

Child’s name: Alisha Observer: Meng Ting Yu (Angela)

Age/D.O.B: Date: March 3, 2014

Time of Observation: 4:30 p.m. – 5:00 p.m. Setting: Bayview fairway public school

Purpose: The purpose of this observation is to identify the child’s challenging behaviour.

Context: It is afternoon free play time in the gym; there are 11 children in total and three adults. Two boys are playing basketball; three are running around and six girls are playing roller cart game with teachers.

Observation:

I was playing the roller cart game with Alisha in the gym, she cross her leg and sat on a cart. She held a Hula in her hand and asked me to hold on the other side to drag her around. After a while, C came and asked “can I join?” I said “sure”. Then Alisha started pushing at her, said “no, I don’t want you to play here”. C looked at Alisha then looked at me. Then I looked at Alisha and ask “She is your friend, we don’t push our friend. She would like to play with you. Can you tell me why you don’t want her to stay?” “Because she’s been mean to me all the time” Alisha answered. C continued keep silence and looked at Alisha, “Alisha, I didn’t been mean to, because you didn’t be nice to me”. Then I said “but she didn’t be mean to you today. She loves to be your friend, why don’t we forgive her past and try to build a friendship with C?” Alisha looked at C, thought about it and said “ok, I’ll try”.

Alisha walked toward to the shelf from her table, she then bend her knees down and took out her favourite board game “Candy Land” with her both hand. She then stand up and jumped quickly back to her table and ask S, “S let’s play Candy Land together”. Alisha and S walked to the back of the room; they sat down on the floor face to face. Alisha opened the box with her both hands and took out the ice cream character for herself. S took out the board map of the game from the box, she opened and put it between them, and then she put the candy shape spinner on the top of the map with her right hand. Alisha looked in the box and found a marshmallow character and hand it over to S and said “Here S, you can be marshmallow”. S looked at the box and said “No I don’t want the marshmallow, I want the Gingerbread man”. Both of them put the character at the bottom of the map and ready to start the game.

“I’m first because I’m the youngest” said Alisha. She took the spinner into her left hand and rotated the spinner between her right thumb and index finger. The spinner pointed at the edge of color green and almost at peanut area, so she moved her “Ice Cream” on the peanut area. S looked at the spinner and said “Alisha, you suppose to move to one green, is pointing the green area”. “No, is peanut” Alisha replied. S took the spinner in her hand and start to show Alisha, “Look its green!” “No, you moved it, give it back to me” Alisha start yelled at S. S did not give back the spinner to Alisha, “No is my turn now”. S rotated the spinner, she rotated it with her left thumb and index finger and the spinner stopped and pointed at the cupcake. She moved her Gingerbread man to the top of the map almost near the end, and then Alisha became angry. She yelled at S “No! You are cheating! You supposed to be red!” Alisha took the Gingerbread from the top to the bottom and put beside her ice cream man. “Look Alisha, it pointed at the cupcake, you have to follow the rule” said S by showing the spinner. Then Alisha stood up and bent her elbows beside her body and yelled “No, this is not fair, you’re cheating”. S stood up and took the game tutorial sheet from the box and showed to Alisha, “Look Alisha, it says move the character to the next space, to matches the colour.”

• I have already talked to you in the hall way about my situation. The problem of the child in my placement is playing games.

2. Write a developmental inference based on the sociogram where you describe the child’s problem in developmental terms. Provide an in text citation to support.

Inference:

According to the observation, Alisha seems to have trouble in social, emotional and behavioural. Children misbehaviour are based on their own perspective, for example, when Alisha think C’s arrival into the game is being mean to her, so she started to push C around with addition of a loud voice. Both verbal and non-verbal behaviour comes up in her mind without thinking, and she did not realize that her word and action can hurt other’s feelings. As children enter the school years, they become much more selective about whom they choose as friends. Just as kids compares themselves to others, they also start making judgments about other children (Cherry), just like Alisha judge that C is not her friend because they contain different personality. She observed C by looking her outfit, appearance and her friends, then think about it whether this person can be friend or not.

Children at the age 6 to 8 try to convince others that their views are right, just like Alisha judged with S about the spinner. The child did not have enough ability to identify or understand the rule of the game. In order to achieve her goal of winning the game, she would rather use cheating strategies to succeed. The biggest problem is that the child is ego-centrism; she thinks that her own behaviour is correct instead of allowing others to do the same. Base on Piaget’s levels of moral reasoning, she did not know that the rule of the game is unchangeable, she think maybe change the rule will be more enjoyable, but her action might cause cheating without telling other about her own rule at the beginning of the game.

3. Create a developmental goal based on your inference. These goals are to be written in paragraphs. Outline your rationale or reason for your goals. This should be the detailed evidence to back up your goal. Why is your goal developmentally appropriate for this child? Ensure you follow APA formatting.

My goal for Alisha is to develop her social and emotional skills base on activities. The reason is because she needs to learn self-regulation and empathy for another’s feelings while interact in the game. In Erickson’s second stage, children are trying to master skills at home, school and in their community. When they are successful they get the tools they need for important social tasks such as getting along with others. When they are unsuccessful, they feel inferior—set up a pattern for possible failure throughout life (Santrock, 2012)

2. Games with Rules

1. Record an anecdote of a child playing a game with rules.

Child’s name: Alisha Observer: Meng Ting Yu (Angela)

Age/D.O.B: Date: March 10, 2014

Time of Observation: 4:30 p.m. – 5:00 p.m. Setting: Bayview fairway public school

Purpose: The purpose of this observation is to identify the child’s behaviours during the game.

Context: It is afternoon free play time in the classroom; there are 20 children in total and three adults. Four boys are chatting with each other, five girls are knitting, three boys are playing blocks beside the window, five boys are playing words puzzle game, and three girls are playing board game.

Observation:

Alisha walked to M and pulled her hand, said “Let’s play games together”. She pulled M to a table with games. They took out the game board together and four chess pieces with different colour. Alisha took the entire green colour and placed them one by one at her side, “Here you can be the yellow side” she said by picking all the yellow chess and handed over to M. “I like red; I want to play the red side” M replied. “No you can’t have red, you must be yellow” Alisha began to rise her voice up. Then M asked “why”, “because this is my game, you must follow my rule” she answered. M said “no, I don’t like yellow, if you don’t give me red, I’m not play with you”. Alisha looked around the room then said “fine, you can be red”. Alisha placed all four colours of chess on the board and started to do the dice.

After few turns, Alisha continued took her green chess and began to move. When she moved to the yellow area, she substituted for yellow chess and continued move on. M saw it and said “hey, Alisha, you can’t do that. You suppose to use the green one; you can’t switch it during the game.” “Oh yes I can. This is my rule for this game” Alisha looked at M and answered.

2. Write a developmental inference which explains the child’s knowledge of games with rules using course resources.

Base on this observation, Alisha seems to having trouble playing games with others. She usually likes to make up her own rule while playing board games. She did not understand that the rule of the game must set up before the games begin; also she will play in her own way without telling others about her rule at the beginning, this sometimes makes people confuse or think she cheated the game. Before they start the game, the hierarchy of roles is established for individuals and roles. Alisha always goes first without asking the other child, she often self-talk “I’ll go first” and others just keep silence.

In Erickson’s theory, for middle childhood it is important to be good at something in school. For example, Alisha is the girl who takes seriously about winning, in her world, winning means “I am the best”. If Alisha win a game, she will raise her voice in front of the other child and said “oh yeah, I win”, then the child will tell Alisha that playing game is for fun not about winning. She did not understand the process of playing a game is more enjoyable social with other children; also this is not appropriate way to express her feeling.

3. Create a developmental goal and how you would implement it based on your inference. Outline your rationale or reason for your goals. Why is your goal developmentally appropriate for this child? Ensure you follow APA formatting.

My goal for Alisha is to let her understand that participant in the game will be more interesting than winning the game. According to Piaget’s research and theory, convince constructive educators of the value of group games for intellectual and moral development as well as for social and physical development (Piaget J., 1932/1965). Social and moral development is promoted as the child tries to figure out how to cooperate and negotiate with partners in order to play fairly (DeVries) such as group games. Playing in a group will lead the child to learn to problem solving and cooperate from each other, for example, one child can read about the rule at the beginning of the game, then decide the role of who will go first; another child can be the referee which avoid foul. The reason I plan to set up the group game is because Alisha often like to cheat in the game in order to win the game, but this may cause the game finish faster, and also she did not show respect to other children. From this point, group game can help the child learn to empathize other’s emotion and express her feeling in proper ways. When conflicts arise, other child and adult can support and help (scaffolding) Alisha discuss rules and reach mutual agreement about how to play the game by following the rule, and learn to negotiate and compromise.

3. Self-Concept and Stage of Friendship

1. Interview your child for the purpose of understanding the child’s Stage of Friendship according to Selman.

1. In order to avoid any negative effect on the children’s relationships in the room, ask the child to think of a friend, but not name them! Then ask the child to describe what makes that person of friend and what friends do with each other. Write up what happened in the interview using an anecdotal format including your questions and the child’s answers.

After snack time, I took a chair and sat beside Alisha, “hi Alisha, do you have any homework today?” “No” she answered. Then I said “okay, can I ask you some questions?” She nodded and replied “sure’. I asked “the first question is who do you usually or like to play with? Think of the name in your mind, and do not speak out.” Alisha stood up and looked around the room, “Okay I got one in my head.” I asked “is it a girl or a boy?” “Of course is a girl” Alisha replied. I continued asking “So why do you think she is your friend?” “Because we are in the same class, and we are cousin. Her mom and my mom are sister, and we live really close. Oh and she help me to do my homework sometimes. Can I go get some water? I’m really thirsty”. I stop my writing and looked at her, said “sure, go ahead”. When she came back, she asked “can you play Candy Land with me?” “I just have three more questions for you to answer it, and then I will play with you, okay?” I answered. Alisha seems fidgeted in her seat, but she still listened to my questions. “Alisha, what do you think a friend is?” She said ‘I don’t know, someone I like and doesn’t been mean to me”. “How do you treat your friend?” I asked, she then answered “we play games together”. “Okay the last question is how many friends do you have?” Alisha stood up and count the number by pointed other child with her left index finger, said “Hmm, I guess everyone is my friend”, she sat on her chair and continued “except A and BS, they are the oldest, especially they are boys. Can we play now?” “Yes sure, go get your game and set up on this table.” I said.

2. What can you infer regarding the child’s stage of friendship according to Selman?

According to Selman’s five stages of friendships, the children at the age between 3 to 7 years old like to play with a friend who lived nearby, such as Alisha’s cousin. They went to the same school, live in the same area, their age are close and as well as family relationships. At this age, Alisha view her cousin as momentary playmate, it shows that they both are having fun while playing with each other. However, Alisha always likes to play in her own way and expect others to follow her rule, she have very limited ability to see other perspectives, she will think that other child will have the same thought as her. If other children do not agree with her, she will get upset very easy. Alisha is the girl who likes to do things in her own way, and she changes frequently. For instance, she might say “C is my best friend, I like to play with her” for today, and the next day when she find out S is playing a game that she interested in, she will say “S is my best friend now”. On the other hand, Alisha likes to play with a child who has similar cultural with her. For example, C is a nice Chinese girl in our room, but Alisha does not like to play with her because she think that C always be mean to her. Base on a third person’s point of view, C always friendly to Alisha and never have any misbehaviour to her, all the things come up in Alisha’s own perspective. I also find out that she usually sit with her cousin and her other friends instead of Chinese.

2. Analysis of self-concept

• Ask the child a series of questions that will let you infer the child’s understanding of sense of self ; Self-concept (p. 370) class notes

During homework time, I interviewed Alisha again. I sat in front of her but she continued eating her snack. So I began to ask “what do you think about yourself?” she took a carrot in her hand and said “I’m the best, because I always win”. I continued asked “do you like your cousin S? What do you usually do with her?” she said “we do almost everything together. But we usually play games.” After I took note of her sentence, and asked “another question, who do you think is the leader? And who is the follower?” “Me, I’m the leader because I’m the youngest. She has to listen to me” Alisha pointed to herself.

In the early years as kids realize that they are independent individuals and progressing to a firm understanding of whom they are and what they like. (Santrock, 2012)

Works Cited

Cherry, K. (n.d.). Social and Emotional Development in Middle Childhood. Retrieved from Psychology: http://psychology.about.com/od/early-child-development/a/social-emotional-development-in-middle-childhood.htm

DeVries, R. (n.d.). How to Promote Children’s Development Through Playing. Retrieved from Moral and Intellectual Development Through Play: http://www.uni.edu/coe/regentsctr/publications/Moralandintellect.pdf

Kelly. (n.d.). The Cognitive Developmental Theory. Retrieved from Moral Development in Children: http://ehlt.flinders.edu.au/education/DLiT/2000/KESPres/cog.nit

Piaget, J. (1932/1965). The moral judgment of the child. London: Free Press.

Santrock, J. (2012). Children. New York: McGraw-Hill.

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