To observe the particular need of a child when engaged in an activity, which illustrated his/ her particular special need.

Jennifer Ng Unit 1

Title: A child with particular needs

Date: 25th June, 2002

Aim: To observe the particular need of a child when engaged in an activity, which illustrated his/ her particular special need.

Environment of the setting:

This observation is taking place in a preparatory department in a year 2 classroom. There are twenty children in Year 2 class. The classroom was well-ventilated and well-lit. The children are working on their Maths paper.

The particular special need of Florence:

The child with particular special need is called Florence and she is 7 years 5 months. She is a slower learner in the class. She finds it more difficult to learn than most other children of the same age. The activities and tasks have been given to her from the teacher and were planned separately from the other children and an appropriate to her stage and standards. She also needs particular help from the teacher and the classroom assistant. She comes from Romania and has s French mother but she couldn’t speak her own language, French or English very well. This has obviously affected her social and emotional development.

My planning of the activity:

She will need to listen my instruction for the activity. I will then give her a pencil and a piece of paper, and she will need to follow my instruction to draw a picture on the paper. The instructions I will be giving are as follow:

Draw a sun in the top of the right corner on your paper
Draw two clouds in the sky
Draw a bird underneath the clouds
Draw a house in the middle of the paper
Draw two windows in the house and a door
Draw two trees beside the house, one tree on one side of the house and then draw another tree on the other side of the house.
Draw a woman on the right
Draw a man on the left
Give a title to the picture

Observation

I have planned with the classroom teacher to arrange a suitable time for me to do the observation on Florence and we were discussed what sort of activity would be best to do, which illustrates her particular special need.

On the day I observed her, she was having a Maths Lesson. I called her out from her desk and took her to a quite place to carry out the activity. I demonstrate what the activity is about. I explained the activity very clearly with details of the instructions I gave to her. Then I gave a piece of plain paper and a pencil to her. She holds the pencil in adult fashion in her left hand and her right hand she was leaning on the paper. Then I asked to her to draw a sun in the top right hand corner of the paper. She then pointed to the left-hand corner and asked me, “Is it the right corner?” I then showed her the right corner and she drew a sun at the top. She then asked me, ‘what’s next?’ “Can you draw two clouds in the sky?” I said. Then she drew two clouds in the sky. “Okay, now can you draw a bird underneath the clouds?” She looked at me very puzzled so I repeated the question again. She said, “Underneath the clouds.” I nodded my head and said ‘yes’ to her. She then drew a bird in the correct place and I said. “It is a bird,” she said and I praised her. Then I moved on and asked her to draw a house in the middle of the paper. She asked me what the middle was, I then pointed on the paper halfway down, and said to her to start drawing there. She concentrated very well, with her head bent over along way. She drew a house with lots of windows and a door. I then asked her to draw a tree beside the house on each side. She repeated my word, “beside”. I showed her where, and she drew the tree with my finger pointing on the paper. She drew a tree beside the house and drew another tree on the other side. I then asked her to draw a woman on the right hand side of the paper. She asked me, “Is it right?” as she points at the left-hand side. Then I pointed the right and she drew a woman. I then asked her to draw a man on the left-hand side and she drew it on the correct side, so I praised her. After she had done the picture, I asked her to write her name at the top in the left-hand corner. I asked her to give me the title of this picture, she said to me, “France.” I asked her why she had named the picture that. She was fidgeting and wriggling in her chair and she said, ‘My mummy comes from France.’ Then I asked her to go back to her seat and praised her and said thank you to her.

Conclusion:

I feel I have been planned the task successful as I had discussed with her teacher to carry out the best activity for her. She seemed very enjoy on the activity, she doesn’t feel frustrated or bored as she usually finds it very difficult to sit still and concentrate for any length of time. But nothing happen when she done my activity, apart from when she had nearly finished, she was fidgeting and wriggling in her chair as she saw the some children were sent to go to the toilet, which means near to break time. She wanted ...

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Conclusion:

Overall, I think Florence had some confidence in her fine manipulative skills, but she was poorly on listening and speaking skills. She only respond in one or two words, but I came to the conclusion that she was unsure of the words I use such as beside, underneath.

Before I observed Florence, I have been talked to her teacher about her language development, her teacher told me that she is a slow learner in the class and the classroom assistant and the teacher always try to find more time to talk to her and spend more time on her works.

Whilst carrying out this observation I noticed that Florence was quite imaginative in her drawing as she draw a bird and a sun with a smile. According to Tassoni P. Beith K et al, Piaget’s stages of conceptual development in stage of Animism - children under the age of six or seven tend to imagine that objects and animals have the same thoughts and feeling as they have.

I have learnt that children who have language delay may have low self-esteem than others children who haven’t. Florence’s lack of competence in English could be an explanation for why it is difficult for her to socialise with other children as I have been working in her class before I noticed that she doesn’t have any friends.

I have also learnt that children need to encourage and praised throughout the activity and the task that has been given should not be too easy or hard it should be their stage and level to individual child, therefore the child will not feel bored and frustrated. I have also learnt that about the important of encouraging her to value herself and develop positive self-concept and self-image. Bruce T. Meggitt C says that, “The way children are helped to believe in themselves helps them in turn to develop positive relationships with other people.”

I think I have met the stated aim as I have planned an activity for Florence to do which illustrated her particular needs in all area of development, such as language and listening, I asked her question and she followed my instruction which she promote her listening and language skills. I also promote her emotional, physical and cognitive development as drawing, which develop her fine manipulative skills. The activity of drawing, which express her emotional on the picture and allowed her to think of the questions that I asked and think where to draw and what to draw, I was also allowed her to named the picture, which gave her a sense of achievement.

Methodology:

For this observation, I chose to do the method as free description. There are many reasons why I chose this. My first reason was the activity that I planned for Florence was easier to write down in free description, as it would not interrupt the child. The second reason was this method is a very effective way of doing it meaning that I got to pick up lots of details on how she carry out the task. Free description allows me to prepare quickly, as all I needed was a pen and a piece of paper, it is not complicated. But unfortunately, I find it quite difficult, as I had to take the activity while at the same time written up my observation, another thing this did not succeed as Florence kept asking what I was doing.

If I were to do this observation again, I would rather used checklist or tickchart with developmental norms on it. As I can focus on Florence’s learning and development skills in different areas that I am looking at and tick what Florence has achieved. But on the other hand, this only show me what she can achieved and what she cannot achieved, didn’t give me more detail as free description does. However, using checklist or tickchart is for observation is more quickly and easier to understand especially for observers who have got enough time to observe or allow them to complete later as they may see the child achieve the norms on other days. Before using this method, I will need to prepare a chart and research the developmental norms which appropriate to her stage and standard, but this will take a while to prepare and research.

Another method I could think of to do this observation is using Target Child method as is to look at the activity of one or more children and record what she is doing over a session. The advantage of using this method is allows Florence’s activity to be tracked over a continuous period or observed specific activities for Florence. Unfortunately, this method relies on using code; therefore I or any observer needs to be able to use the code and concentrate hard to when observe the child.

Recommendation:

I would recommended that Florence need additional help in some area of development, because she can’t speak really good English and she finds it quite difficult to communicate needs or make friends, therefore to promote her social skills. I would suggest that she need to join in a group activity e.g. model making which allow her to form a good relationship with others. She also needs to have friends and to feel that she belong there. Therefore the setting should make Florence feel welcome, and she needs to feel safe, both physically and emotionally by giving her a small job in the class e.g. helping snack and drink in break, which she will increase her self-esteem and confidence. This will also allow her to build up her language skill and social skill. Florence should be encouraged to live up to her potential and celebrated for her uniqueness. Adult should always look at children as individual first then consider their special need.

Bibliography:

Child Care & Education by Bruce T. Meggitt C. 2000

Babies and Young Children by Beaver M. Brewster J. Jones P. Keene A. Neaum S. Tallack J. 1999

Child Development An Illustration guide by Meggitt C. Sunderland G. 2000