- What is a girl like?
“Girls like to play ‘house house’ and they like Barbie’s. They are sometimes shy and they are beautiful, kind and they play with me too.”
- Maria, you’re a boy aren’t you?
“No! I’m not a boy. I don’t like playing football like boys. I wasn’t born like a boy. I was born like a girl, so I can’t be a boy.”
I asked Maria if she liked ‘Bob the Builder’. Her answer was, “No, Bob the Builder is for boys. I like Barbie’s. I’ve got a Barbie bike and a Barbie helmet. If I fall I won’t hurt myself. I’ve got a Barbie room too!”
I also played a game to investigate gender stereotypes. To make it interesting and more fun for Maria, I showed her pictures of different occupations and asked Maria to identify whether certain occupations were more suitable for men, women, or both.
Nurse: “Men can’t be nurses because nurse doesn’t sound like a man’s name.”
Police Officer: “They can both be police people, but ladies are called ‘police ladies’ and men are called ‘police men.”
Teacher: “Both can be teachers but children can’t be teachers. My teacher is a lady and I like having lady teachers because Mr Hall shouts.”
Doctor: “Both can be doctors I think, but my doctor is a man.”
3rd Visit
Aim 4: - Can the child tell what a friend is? Do their friends match the norms for their age? Do they have a best friend?
I asked Maria the questions below. She showed a lot of interest when answering my questions on this topic.
- What is a friend?
“They are kind to you, hang around with you and they play with you.”
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How many friends have you got?
“I’ve got loads of friends. Aneesa, Aleena, Lauren and Sarah.”
(Didn’t name any boys’ names)
- Do you have a best friend?
“Yes, Aneesa is my best friend!”
- Why is Aneesa your best friend?
“She is a Pakistani like me; we’ve got the same hair too. She hangs around with me sometimes and is kind to me.”
- How is she a Pakistani like you?
“She has got same hair like me and we have the same colour skin and she speaks the same as me and eats the same food too.”
Aim 5: - To find out what stage Maria is in Moral development.
I read Maria two short stories below, which posed a problem of moral judgement.
After reading to two stories to Maria, I didn’t find her to be concentrating very much, probably because there were people around her when I was reading the stories to her. I then asked Maria to repeat what I had said in the stories but she got a couple of things mixed up. But even then I knew that she had understood more or less the stories.
Moral development
A little boy who is called John is in his room. He is called to dinner. He goes into the dinning room. But behind the door there was a chair, and on the chair there was a tray with 15 cups on it. John couldn’t have known that there was all this behind the door. He goes in, the door knocks against the tray, bang go the fifteen cups and all get broken.
Once there was a little boy whose name was Henry. One day when his mother was out he tried to get some jam out of the cupboard. He climbed up on the chair and stretched out his arm. But the jam was too high up and he couldn’t reach it have any. But while he was trying to get it he knocked over a cup. The cup fell down and broke.
Now which child was the naughtiest? And are both naughty or is one not as naughty as the other?
“Henry is the naughtiest because he was getting the jam when his mum wasn’t at home.”
And then straight after she changed her mind and said “no I think John is naughty too because he broke 15 cups”
How would you punish him?
“I would shout at him, then hit him and then read him a sad story to make him cry.”
Would you punish them the same and how would you punish them?
“No, the one who broke the 15 cups I would shout at him because he broke the cups and now his mummy can’t drink any tea. I would just shout at Henry.”
I also found this opportunity to observe Maria interacting with other children, as it was her sister’s birthday party.
Aim 6: - To observe Maria interacting with other children and to find out what type of play she is engaged in.
Today was one of Maria’s elder sister’s birthday party, so I took this opportunity to observe her interacting with other children at the party.
Maria seemed especially playful with another girl, her friend and next-door-neighbour and two other boys who were her cousins, at the party. Both her cousins and her friend were of the same age as Maria, so this was an advantage for me, as I’d been given the chance to compare her with other children of her age.
Maria was very extrovert with her friend and both her cousins. She even introduced them all to me, which I found very pleasing. I also found Maria to be a little bossy towards her cousins at times; one of the boys brought over a play-till to Maria and gestured to start playing with it. Maria immediately demanded the boy to put it back and claimed that this was not the right time to play the game. “No you can’t play with that; I’m going to play with my dolls now.” Maria wanted to be in charge. Although Maria was acting in an officious manner towards the boys, she was quite the opposite towards her friend. Maria was doing her utmost to making her friend feel looked after and shared all her toys with her calling her friend over every time she was to move to another part of the room. She was playing a game, called ‘house house’. She had used her living room as her ‘house’ and made different parts of the room different rooms in her ‘house’ shifting from one part of the room to the other as if she was entering different rooms of her ‘house’. Maria did not let her cousins mess around with certain toys, such as the Barbie doll and doll’s house, whereas she didn’t mind what her friend picked up or played with. When one of Maria’s cousins went over and reached over to pick up the Barbie doll, she shouted, “You can’t play with Barbie, you are a boy!” At this the boy replied, “I wasn’t going to play with it, I want to hit it!” At this point Maria seemed very protective over her doll and became very angry and upset and handed the Barbie over to her sister telling her to hide it from the boys. After finishing playing with her toys Maria put them all away neatly, and her friend also helped her.
It was soon time for presents to be unwrapped and revealed. I took this opportunity to see how Maria reacted and behaved. I found Maria to be very observant. She was categorising the presents in terms of size saying that the biggest were the ‘good’ presents and the small ones were the ‘ok’ presents. Also, when amongst the presents she found a present already unwrapped, a box of celebrations, she put it aside saying, “Don’t put that with the presents, we already know what that one is”.
Maria was imitating her sister as she unwrapped her presents and trying to join in with her sister’s friends by trying to act their age and trying to join into their conversations. I found Maria to be very talkative on this visit. Maria also took this chance to show her talent of singing and dancing which she seemed to be enjoying a lot. I also noticed that the more she got praised, the more this encouraged her and she seemed to be getting more confident each time she got cheered.
Reasons for choosing a particular method of data collection
I chose different ways to observe Maria in order to make the visit as interesting as possible for us both.
I decided to split what I wanted to find out about Maria in 3 visits. I chose to do this so that it would make it easier for me and Maria to focus on a certain aspect during each visit.
I chose to carry this study out in three different ways:-
1) Ask Maria questions because I could get a direct answer and it would be a reliable source.
2) By undergoing activities related to specific aspects because I could see Maria’s reaction and how she copes with certain situations. For example, when I replicated Piaget’s study of Moral development I waned to see if my findings supported Piaget’s theory.
3) By observing Maria to see how she responded naturally.
I only encountered one problem in collecting the data, which was on my 2nd visit when I went to observe Maria she seemed a little tired as she had just woken up and was not in the mood for any activity, so I had to wait for at least half an hour which meant that the observation had to be rushed.
Over all I found all the information obtained from the observations and activities to be very useful as most of my findings supported my aims.
Discussion and interpretation
(Refer to Appendix section)
The early years of a child’s life are crucial for social and emotional development. Therefore, it is important that we take every step necessary to ensure that children grow up in environments where their social, emotional needs are met.
A typical five year old is dependable and obedient with a certain capacity for friendship. On my first visit I found Maria to be very friendly towards me and greeted me happily and me feel welcome to interact with her. When I asked Maria about her interests, she provided me with a long list. This included artistic and fun activities. This sets Maria aside from the average five year old as her interests are widely based. Although she does also enjoy playing with her dolls and watching TV programmes such as ‘Tweenies’ she also likes to be read to every night before going to bed. Her favourite book is ‘Alice in wonderland’. Children of five years of age enjoy being read to by their mother. This shows emotional linkage with their mother is strong.
When playing ‘snakes and ladders’ with Maria, I found her to be very determined to win. She followed the rules of the game and also explained to me what they were. Children aged five are beginning to learn how to play using rules. Maria is good at abiding by the rules that her mum sets upon her. Most children are rebellious at following rules which makes Maria different to the average five year old.
Maria was said to be close to her elder sister Sarah, whom she spends most of her time with. She also makes this known. For e.g. at the party she found comfort in her sister, when she was upset over her doll being threatened by her boy cousin. Whilst interviewing Maria’s mum I found out that Maria thinks logically and is quite mature in her attitude. This was also supported by my first visit where Maria explained the rules of ‘snakes and ladders’ to me. Here I found her to be acting mature in what she was doing.
Among the most important aspect of a child’s growing persona, or self identity is the development of self-concept:- the sense of self that includes both self image. Our self image is our internal image or picture of ourselves that includes our looks, gender ethnicity, standing in the family, and abilities. Before we can begin to develop relationships with others, each of us must first establish some notion of our own identity. Self-recognition occurs as early as the child’s 18 months of life. In early childhood, the child begins to realize that they are their own self. They begin to develop a better sense of self-understanding. They think if self in terms of physical terms. If asked to describe themselves 3-5 year olds would usually talk about their physical appearance, hobbies and possessions. But when I asked Maria to describe herself, she came up with the words “Nice, kind, good, beautiful and helpful”. She did not give me any negative points about herself and we can also see that she did not use external characteristics but used internal. And this puts her aside from a typical five year old.
Their sense of identity also includes knowledge that they are a boy or girl (gender) and a member of a particular family, racial, religious or ethnic group. (Mitchell and David, 1992). At the age of five, children do have a sense of their gender. When I asked Maria to describe to me what a boy and a girl looks like. For a boy she came up with. “ a boy has short hair, plays football and they don’t like ‘house house’ and to make this clear she gave me an example of a boy in her class “Shoaib doesn’t like ‘house house’ too, he never plays with us.” Describing a girl Maria claimed that “they are sometimes shy, they are beautiful, kind and play with her.” The sex stereotyping increases with the age and is well established by the middle school years. (Serbin et al, 1993). Maria also knows that gender is constant. “No I’m not a boy… I wasn’t born like a boy. I was born like a girl, so I can’t be a boy.” This shows that Maria is at the right stage of her development. As by three years of age, most children can correctly label their own, or another person’s sex or gender and are said to have achieved gender identity. For children aged five years, ender does not depend on clothes, hair, etc.
To investigate gender stereotypes, I carried out an activity with Maria, and showed her pictures of different occupations and asked Maria to identify whether certain occupations were more suitable for men, women or both, for example when I showed her a picture of a teacher, she said “Both can be teachers… My teacher is a lady”
Maria’s choice of toys also emphasized gender stereotypes as Maria enjoyed playing with her Barbie dolls a lot and didn’t find much interest in football as she claimed it was a game for boys to play.
Children aged five are also aware of how people feel about them. They want to please adults in their lives and look for approval and praise. Maria showed this type of behaviour on several occasions of my visits. When she took me up to her room, she showed me some of her achievements that she had accomplished at school in the hope that I would praise her. I knew she wanted to be admired and I gave her a lot of encouragement. Also, at the party, when Maria took the chance to show her talent of singing and dancing, I noticed that the more she got praised, the more confident she became as she received this encouragement. After observing Maria at the party, I was able to conclude that Maria was a bright and confident child.
Friendships often have a momentary quality, although some friendships may be ‘quite stable, especially if children have known each other for a long time’ (Pica, 1997).
When I asked Maria about her friends, she seemed to show a lot of interest when answering my set questions. Maria described a friend to be someone who is “kind to you, hangs around with you and they play with you.”
A study done by Ladd et al (1996), shows the importance of friendship quality. They found five year olds, all of who had a reciprocated and stable ‘best friend’ in their classroom.
Maria also has a best friend called Anisa, when asking her why she chose Anisa as her best friend, Maria’s reply was very interesting, and not what I would have expected to hear from a five year old. She claimed, “She is a Pakistani like me; we have the same hair too, and she hangs around with me sometimes and is kind to me.” I then asked her, “ How is she Pakistani like you?” Maria answered, “She has the same hair like me… we have the same colour skin and she speaks the same as me and we eat the same food.”
As a child grows up, he or she will become aware that people differ by ethnic origin. By the age of four or five years, children seem able to make basic discriminations for example between black and white. I found Maria to be a little above this stage, as she identified why they are alike. Finkelstein and Haskins (1983) also found out that five year olds showed marked preferences for playmates from the same ethnic group. Maria also had other friends, two of them being English girls. Maria did not mention any boy’s names when naming her friends. This may be because school age children tend to select same sex partners for play and more so as they get older (Maccoby, 1998). Children prefer to play with members of their own sex because of narcissistic enjoyment of seeing themselves reflected in others.
Moral development is one of our most important character traits, which is the ability to tell right from wrong. Piaget believes that moral development, like all phases of human growth occurs in a series of stages. In view of the egocentricity of the preschool child, Piaget doubts that children below the age of seven are capable of emphasizing with others to the degree required for truly ethical behaviour. He suggests that preschool children cannot be taught ethics but can only be trained to behave properly. I chose to read Maria two short stories, which posed a problem of moral developments. From the results, I felt that although Maria knew what was happening in each story, she still was unsure which child was the most badly behaved. At first she clearly said, “Henry is the naughtiest, because he was getting the jam when his mum wasn’t at home.” Then a couple of seconds later, she seemed to have changed her mind, as the more she thought about the two stories, she then said, “No, I think John is naughty too, because he broke fifteen cups.” Maria at first judged the child to be naughtier by motive and intention, but then changed her mind on the basis of the amount of damage done.
Piaget also found that before the age of nine years, children often judge on the basis of the amount of damage, whereas after this age, the children judge by motive or intention.
As Maria was uncertain about what the answer should be, I found that this showed her to have a very basic understanding of right and wrong, which also is also common for children of her age.
Play and social development go hand in hand. Play offers many opportunities to be with other children and to share, take turns, disagree and compromise (Mitchell and Davis, 1992). Children aged five years old enjoy each other’s company. While at play, they are increasing their self-awareness, and are becoming more involved in group and pretend play.
While observing Maria at the party, I found her attitude towards other children to be friendly, but mostly towards her best friend. As she seemed a little bossy towards her boy cousins. Maria would not let her cousins play with her dolls. “You can’t play with Barbie’s…” Being bossy is another attitude found in five year olds. Maria wanted to be in charge. . I found this when one of the boys brought over a play-till to Maria, wanting to play with it. Maria immediately demanded for them to put it back as it was not the right time to play with it. I thought this may be because as she is the youngest in her family she took this opportunity to be able to boss the children around rather then her older siblings bossing her around. Although she was acting in this way towards the boys, she was however the opposite towards her friend. I found her taking turns during playing and she was doing her utmost to making her friend feel looked after and shared all her toys with her. I found Maria’s nature to be very loving and caring towards people she likes and gets along with. Something which other children of her age may be lacking.
Play is varied according to the social environment the children are in. I found Maria to be playing in substitute pretend play and sociodramatic play. Substitute play is the use of objects, which stand for something completely different. Sociodramatic play is when the child begins to play part/roles. Here Maria and her friend were playing ‘house house’ converting one room into different rooms of a house. They used the Barbie dolls as their children. They both however seemed to be aware of the roles they were engaged in. Vygotsky saw play as being the leading source of development in the preschool years, this was because the nature of pretend play meant that the child was liberating from situational constraints through his activity in an imaginary situation.
Maria was also found to be very observant. She was categorising the presents at the party in terms of size, saying the biggest were the ‘good’ presents and the small were the ‘ok’ presents. Also amongst the presents she found a present already unwrapped. She put it aside saying “don’t put that with the presents, we already know what that one is.”
Maria is a very talkative person and does not get shy easily if someone new enters in her life. This I felt was a positive side to Maria as most young children take time to interact with other people they don’t know too well. Maria also surprised me at the party by showing me her talent of singing and dancing. She seemed to be enjoying this very much. The more she got praised, the more this encouraged her and she seemed to be getting more confident each time she got praised.
Each child is unique. It is therefore difficult to describe exactly what should be expected at each stage of a child’s development. While certain attitudes, behaviours and physical milestones tend to occur at certain ages, a wide spectrum of growth and behaviour for each child is normal. Overall I found Maria to be a polite and pleasant child, who is not shy and wants to be praised a lot of the time. I found her to be matching the norms of a child her age.
Bibliography
Gesell, A et al (1965) ‘The child from five to ten’ Hamish Hamilton
Janice J, Beaty (2002) ‘Observing development of the young child’ (5th edition)
Sharman, cross & Vennis (1995) ‘Observing children:- A practical guide’ Cassell
Smith, Cowie, Blades (2003) ‘Understanding children’s development’ (Fourth edition)
