My case study child ‘M’ is 20months old and i have been observing and spending a lot of time with him in his home setting with mum and baby sister ‘O’. M goes to nursery 3days a week and the rest of the time is at home with mum and the baby. Mum is a full time stay at home mum whilst looking after baby O but sends M to nursery 3days a week to give him interaction and the socialisation he needs that he may not get at home. She decided to do this when baby O came along as terrible 2’s are approaching and when finding your feet and finding your voice and strength, staying cooped in all day isn’t the best thing for a toddler, especially with some jealousy on the cards with the new baby sister. He spends the other days at home so mum is still able to spend quality time with M and be a part of his learning process.
‘Communicating with children requires certain skills. Parents must remember that children are still learning and developing so being able to communicate with them on their own level is imperative. In particular, parents must remember to use vocabulary that can be understood by their child, a calm tone and body language that will not send mixed messages. Parents should also allow plenty of time each day to speak with their children and stay involved in each other’s lives’
www.kidsbehaviour.co.uk
As shown in appendix I, II, III I have put in some of the observations I observed whilst being in the home setting into this to show M’s behaviour and language and speech development.
All children are different and learn at different rates. Some are fast language learners and some are slow, so it is best not to compare one child's language development with another's. The important thing to watch is that language development proceeds steadily, not whether it is fast or slow. I wanted to see how M’s language development was coming along, how it was being encouraged and what skills he had when it came to communicating with others and the world around him.
For my case study child being 20months, here is what he should be doing: 18months:
Has vocabulary of approximately 5-20 words
Vocabulary made up chiefly of nouns
Some echolalia (repeating a word or phrase over and over)
Much jargon with emotional content
Is able to follow simple commands:
Referring to appendix I, M showed that he is learning to talk and does understand simple things. When I got given a cup of tea in a mug, he automatically said juice, so he knew that my tea was a drink and therefore he wanted some juice and asked for it. M also showed that he has learnt how to start counting as when playing with the Lego he started to count on his own. He did miss the 1 out but when his mum gave him praise and told him to do it again with a little help he did it.
‘According to Skinner (behaviourist theorist) he suggests that children learn language through reinforcement. In other words, when a parent or carer shows enthusiasm for something a child tries to say, this should encourage the child to repeat the utterance’. This shows that reinforcement has a positive effect for a child’s learning.
During the observation ‘M’ showed some non-verbal communication when his baby sister picked up one of his toys. He immediately whimpered to mum, was making lots of eye contact to mum and to baby sister O and frowned and slapped his hands together. This was showing ‘M’ making non-verbal communication as he wasn’t happy about his sister talking his toy.
Referring to appendix II, ‘M’ showed good communication skills throughout and his use of knowledge of his language. Receptive language was shown in the observation by ‘M’. Caroline Bowen 1998, states 1-2yrs:
- Your child can point to pictures in a book when you name them and can point to body parts when asked.
- Can follow simple commands ‘push the bus’
- Understand questions ‘where’s the bear?’
- Likes simple stories and enjoys songs and nursery rhymes.
He showed that he has learnt words and can recognize these to pictures and objects in a book. He could understand what his mum was asking him and understood what to do when she asked him e.g. where is the bear, where is the ball etc.
‘Parents should read to their children as often as possible. The secret however which will lead to optimal language development, is to read the SAME stories over and over again’.
‘M’ also showed that he understands the animals have a language too, and that they make different noises. Again this is from being taught through interaction with mum. ‘M’ showed some echolalia in the observation. This is repeating a word or saying a word over and over. In the garden ‘M’ showed this when running around and said the word go three times when racing with ‘J’.
Expressive language (learning to speak and use language) was shown by ‘M’ here as he started to realise that ‘J’ had gone and turned and looked at me and told me that he had gone. ‘M’ seemed to enjoy interacting with J and he wasn’t shy to express his language. J is older than M so J is a lot more fluent in his speech but M seems to love interacting with J and chat along to him.
Birth to three matters quotes that children are skilful communicators and children use their voices to make contact, let people know what they need and how they feel. They are also starting to learn about ‘conversation’, which requires the ability to listen and respond appropriately, and to learn the ‘rules’ of communication through making meaning with the familiar people in their lives
‘Being together bleads to the wider development of social relations so that children become adept at forming friendships, being able to empathise, share emotions and experiences. It is through these interactions and upon these foundations that they become competent language users’.
Birth to three matters pg.65
In the observations that i observed ‘M’ has shown a wide variety of communication and language. He will say what he knows and is willing to learn when helped and prompted in the right direction. Milestones for his age show that he is average and on borderline for his learning and doesn’t seem to have any problems or delays in his speech. He shows good non-verbal communication skills and a lot of it. Because he is still learning and trying to express and develop his speech, non-verbal communication gets used a lot to express his feelings. This is anything from frowning, eye contact or body posture. When ‘M’ didn’t get his own way he used his arms a lot with frustration e.g. slapping his hands together, putting his hands over his eyes so no one could look at him etc. When babies haven’t got there full language skills and full vocabulary they will use a lot of non-verbal communication and it helps them to interact with their feeling and let others know how they feel and what they are thinking. In some of the observations i did over time, which aren’t in the appendix, ‘M’ has shown that when by himself he’ll keep himself to himself and won’t express his language as much but when around people he’s not afraid to say ‘ello ello’ or ‘bye bye’. When playing with ‘J’ referring to appendix II it showed that his communication skills perked up when with someone else, meaning a child he could play with. He wasn’t shy to express his strength of his voice i.e. screaming and shouting. As J is slightly older than M, it’s like M looks up and listens to J and tries to understand some of his vocabulary and tries to copy some of the sounds and noises he makes.
M has shown that he can say words that he has learnt but can also put two words together to start to make sense of what is going on e.g. saying bye bye he knew to say this and wave when someone was going. He has shown plenty of receptive language, learning to listen and to understand language. He shows he’s a keen communicator and will willingly listen to his mum and others teach him things and he has shown he can respond well and understand commands and questions. E.g where is...? or go and get this etc.
Referring to Skinner, he thinks interaction and reinforcement play a big role in the development of children’s language. I think this theorist relates to child M as he showed that he responded better to mum when she was interacting with him and talking to him about things, as he seemed to interact back more and be interested in what she was doing and saying to him. Also reinforcement helped child M as he loved getting praised for things he had done or said and it made him want to repeat the words knowing that he was going to get praise.
Word count: 2170 (Not including references or appendix I, II)
References:
Babies and Young Children, Beaver, Nelson Thornes 2001,
Appendix I:
Observation I: 28/11/08
Ello, ello ello ‘M’ says repeatedly to me with a big grin on his face when I entered the room. I sit on the sofa; he excitedly stumbles over to his toys and points at something. He picks up a fire truck and brings it over ‘wowww’ he says with his mouth wide open and his eyes fixed to the truck as if it was something he had never seen before.
Mum brings me over a cup of tea, ‘M’ points to this and says ‘juice’ clearly, repeats the word again and takes my hand. ‘Do you want some juice?’ I asked. His mum passes him his juice, ‘M’ smiles and takes a sip and then places it onto the floor.
Do you want a biscuit mum asked M, ‘NNoooo’ he loudly shouts with a frown on his face. Mum turned to me and said I bet really he’d live a biscuit he just has a habit for saying the word no for every question. ‘M’ brings me over a piece of Lego and shakes his head and says no again. ‘Shall we build a big tower with your Lego M?’ I started to take the Lego out of the box and he started to copy me and started to throw the Lego onto the carpet. He holds two bits together and tries to fix them together. ‘2, 3, 4’ he starts to count with the Lego. 2 and 3 being very clear to understand but 4 with a struggle. ‘Yes, very good M, do it again... 1...she starts’. ‘1...2...’ and then he stops. ‘M’ giggles and shakes his head from side to side.
Baby ‘O’ wakes up from her sleep, ‘M’ stares at O, smiles and looks at me and says ‘ba ba’, ‘yes a baby M, your baby sister’ I tell him. He goes over to her and kisses her arm whilst sat on mum’s knee. Baby ‘O’ has just discovered crawling so mum places her on the floor within the toys. O picks up a toy car and quick enough ‘mommy’ M whimpers and runs over to her and stares at O. Mum takes his hand and picks up a different toy car and explains to him that he has to share with O. M pushes his car on his hands and knees around the legs of the dining room table. ‘choo choo’ he quietly says to himself. When I asked him he wouldn’t repeat himself even when I asked him what noise does that train make?
Appendix II:
Observation 2: 5/12/08
‘M’ pushes way through piles of books on the floor looking for something that catches his eye. He picks up a small dullish book and places it behind him. He then makes a groaning sound and picks up a brightly coloured large book. The book is a word book he picks up, with plenty of pictures and objects with their words. ‘M’ walks over to mum and passed it to her then climbed up onto the sofa and sits staring at the book. ‘M’ points at the book and babbles away to himself and then looks at me and laughs. ‘oohh’ he says staring at the book. Mum starts to read the book to him. ‘bear’ he says looking at the brown bear on the page, ‘yes a bear M, well done’ mums says. ‘Where is the dog, M?’ ‘uh uh’ he makes the sound that’s supposed to be a dog but instead of woof woof it’s uh uh. He points and identifies the dog on the page. Mum turns the page and there is a picture of a pair of shoes on one side and a ball on the other. Do you know what that is ‘M’ and mum points to the ball. He mumbles a word. ‘Shoes’ loudly M shouts. ‘shoes shoes’. He jumps down off the sofa and runs to get his shoes. He manages to find one and runs over to mum and says ‘pees’, a word for please. Mum puts his shoes on. He forgets about the book and goes to the back door and starts to whimper. Holding onto the door handle he tries to open it but frowns and groans and turns to mum. Mum tells him he needs his coat on.
Outside in the garden J from next door can see ‘M’ through the fence and wants to come and play. He comes round. ‘M’ laughs with excitement and says part of his name as it’s quite easy to say. They run around the garden together. ‘go go go’ M chants as they play racing in the garden. They kick a ball around the garden, running round fast and kicking the ball as hard as they could. ‘J’ fell onto his bottom and when ‘M’ made eye contact with J M said ‘oh oo’ because he had fallen down.
‘J’ ran inside to go to the toilet, ‘M’ put out his hands and said ‘J gone?’ then with his mouth wide open. He looked shocked but then followed him inside to try and find him. ‘bye bye’ he starts to say waving his hand. He looks around and starts to cry as he can’t find J. He starts to shout ‘mommy’ and runs to the kitchen and grabs hold of her leg. He miserably looks to the floor. J returns from the toilet and M runs to him and with his hand over his mouth starts laughing. They both go over to the pile of books and start to look through what is there. J presses a button on a farm yard book ‘oink oink’, M says ‘oo’ and tries to copy the pig noise. J starts too and they both laugh and make pig noises. Mum turned and started to ask ‘what does a cow do’, ‘what does a duck do’ etc they both play along and show good language skills. Mum sits and watches and M seems to start to show off what language skills he has by repeatidly going over some of the words and noises that the animals make.
