Skinner theory was that he believed that children’s behaviour will improve and children will learn from it by praising them for something good than from punishing them for doing something bad. By emphasize good behaviour it showed that children were less likely to misbehave.
Piaget theory was he believed that there are 4 stages, they were:
- “Sensori-motor (birth to approx. 2 years) The children initially has basic reflexes and gradually moves to learn through senses and movement. The infant will develop schema linked to grasping, shaking and hitting.
- Pre-operational (2-7 years) The child begins to develop symbolic play experiences. Language and literacy skills develop quickly during this period. The child is egocentric in that they mainly see things from their own point of view and have difficulty putting themselves into someone else’s position.
- Concrete operational (7-12 years) The child is developing more structured and logical thought processes but still relates very much to concrete activities. Begins to abstract ideas towards the end of this period.
- Formal operational (12+) abstract thinking is more noticeable during this stage and the child has a greater understanding of ethical issues and truth. They can develop hypotheses and make good attempts to test them. It is thought that some adults do not fully complete this stage of development.”
(Gill squire, BTEC national children’s care learning & development, 2nd edition, 2007, page 255)
Piaget also believed that children's minds work and develop by simply growing up. He thought by children growing up they would be able to understand their world. He also thought children cannot do certain task until they are psychologically mature enough to do so.
Vygotsky theory was that he believed that it was important to look at each child as an individual who learns uniquely. He thought that cognitive development was prompted by social interaction “The level of development for an individual child became known as ‘the zone of actual development’ but Vygotsky felt that children were actual capable of higher levels with support and assistance from adults. The difference between these two levels was known as the ‘zone of proximal development’ ” (Gill squire, BTEC national children’s care learning & development, 2nd edition, 2007, page 256)
He thought that children’s learning was strongly supported by adults, such as parents, carer, teacher or nursery nurse, which will help extend the children’s learning and reinforce it. He also thought that adults intervention was important and allowed them reach and move onto the next zone.
Bruner theory was similar to Piaget’s but he thought there were only three stages of cognitive development, they are:
- Enactive (0-1) – learning through doing – physical movement
- Iconic (1-7) developing mental images
- Symbolic (7+) using symbols such as language and other representational modes to transfer thoughts.
(Gill squire, BTEC national children’s care learning & development, 2nd edition, 2007, page 256)
He believed children first learnt by doing, then they image what they have been doing, finally they draw symbols of drawing, writing and numbers of what they had done and imaged. Bruner also believed that children need adults to support them as they move through the different stages.
I have research on all 5 theorists above, I have look at their theory and I believe that in different parts of all 5 theorist theories, as some part is relevant to children development in some way or another. In my placement I can relate to Pavlov theory as at the end of play time the teacher blows her whistle and counts to 5, while the children are stopping what they are doing and give the teacher 5. By the time the teacher has counted to 5 the child should all be standing still, but what I have notice is that when the teacher blows her whistle and counts to 5, the children stop what they are doing and give the teacher 5 before the teacher has counted to 5, normally when the teacher has got to 3 – 4. This shows that the children were conditioned to stand still when the teacher blow the whistle and counted to 5.
I can relate to skinners theory because when I was at my placement with the babies, a child would not eat his lunch. The nursery nurse kept telling the child off for not eating, and getting the child down from the table and putting him to bed. The child never eats his lunch meal, until one day we tried to encourage him to eat. Eventually the child took a mouthful, so we all praised him a lot. From then on every time the child eats his lunch we praised him, so now he always eats his lunch. So for praising the child for eating his lunch improve his behaviour than telling him off.
I can also relate to Vygotsky theory because at Christmas time we did a nativity play, where all the children got to socialize, although the teacher and I had to intervene to keep them on track and learn there lines.
Task 2
The role of the adult in a child care setting is to firstly get to known the children, this is done by working with the parent. By working with the parents you will be able to find out the needs of the children. These needs could be dietary, physical, emotional or other needs to delevepment. Other ways in getting to known the child and their needs is to to observe them. By doing observation you will be able to gain information about the child, which will them enable you to plan activities to their need/ability.
When planning activities there are many things that you should think about, such as making sure that the area in which the activity will be set out in is safe, that there is sufficient space which will allow the children to carry out the play (activity) successfully. The equipment going to be used is safe, that there is enough equipment, and at the right developmentally stage for the children. Also that every child has the opportunity to take part in the activity if wants too, so there’s no means of exhaustive or restrictive, such as:
- Left handed scissors
- Access to activities for wheelchair users
- Tactile collage for sight impaired children
- Paired activities for a child is shy
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Specialised equipment for children who have difficulty with manipulative skills and gripping. (Gill squire, BTEC national children’s care learning & development, 2nd edition, 2007, page 275)
The most important thing is to have differentiation, so that every child is allowed to achieve, but also can be extended to stretch the learning of other children. Another thing is to make sure that activities are different which are suitable for all children.
When observations have been done to establish children’s needs, and appropriate activities have been planned, the activity experience needs to be provide. So then the adults need to evaluate to find out if the key learning intention was met. If it has been met, then how can they further the learning or if not what went wrong and how can they adapt the activity to make it better. This is important in order to further the planning and learning to take place.
I think that the role of an adult is very important. The reason I think this because
Task 3
Routine 1 - children aged 0 – 3 years
9:00 – children arriving
9:10 - tubes and tent equipment (physical)
10:00 – snack
10:30 – nappy change
10:40 – hand painting (creative)
12:00 – lunch
12:30 – nappy change
12:40 - sleep time
1:40 – sing song/nursery rhymes (emotional)
2:30 – nappy change
3:00 – tea time
3:30 playing in the home corner (social)
4:30 – nappy change
4:40 - story time (language)
5:00 – home time
Tubes and tent equipment will promote physical learning as they will be using their gross motor skills.
Playing in the home corner will promote social learning will be socializing/playing with other children.
Hand painting will promote creative learning as they will be using their hands to paint a picture.
Nursery rhymes will promote emotional learning as they will be able to sing-along and listen to nursery rhymes.
Story time will promote their language as they will be listening to different vocabulary.
Routine 2 - children aged 3 – 5 years
9:00 – children arriving
9:10 - musical games – head, shoulders, knees and toes etc (physical, social and emotional)
10:00 – snack
10:30 – nappy change
10:40 – egg hut (physical, social and emotional)
12:00 – lunch
12:30 – nappy change
12:40 – decorating an egg (creative)
1:40 – dressing up (social and emotional)
2:30 – nappy change
3:00 – tea time
4:30 – nappy change
4:40 - story time (language)
5:00 – home time
Musical games – head, shoulders, knees and toes and egg hut will promote physical learning as they will be using their fine and gross motor skills.
Dressing up, egg hut and musical games will promote social learning will be socializing/playing with other children.
Decorating an egg will promote creative learning as they will be using their hands and other materials to paint the egg.
Dressing up, egg hut and musical games will promote emotional learning as they will be able to join in with action, playing with other children.
Story time will promote their language as they will be listening to different vocabulary.
Routine 3 - children aged 5 – 8 years
8:55 – Registration
9:05 – Assembly
9:20 – ERR
9:40 – P.E (physical)
10:30 - Break
10:45 – Numeracy (social)
12:15 – Lunch
1:15 – Art (creative)
2:00 – break
2:10 – Reading and play (language and emotional)
3:15 – Home time
P.E will promote physical learning as they will be moving to music.
Numeracy will promote social learning as they will be playing board games.
Art will promote creative learning as they will be making a card.
Reading will promote language as they will be reading.
Free play will promote emotional learning as they will be dressing up.
