Essay Example on Observing Year One Children: Assessing Learning Style & Strengths

Introduction

Observation is a critical tool in assessing the learning style of a child as well as identifying their weaknesses and strengths hence the regular analysis of observation will help adjust the setting to improve the behavior and learning of children (Fredrickson and Cline2015). Also, it can help to connect with children in a significant way and establish a stronger relationship in the classroom. In the United Kingdom, year one is the 1st year after Reception. It is the 1st year where the introduction of the 1st sections of the national curriculum is done under compulsory education with students aged five to seven years. I observed the students' play in year one and saw that there was regular interaction with one another at school but the critical stage at this age was play. It provided students with an opportunity to venture into their interpersonal skills by initiating activities. According to the stages of psychosocial development theory by Erik Erikson, it is called Initiative versus guilt. Here, children start planning activities, making up games, and initiating tasks with others. When presented with an opportunity, they feel secure in their capacities to lead the rest, make decisions, and feel secure as well. However, if the behaviour is squelched through control or criticism, they develop a sense of guilt. The students shall usually overstep the mark in their forcefulness and the consequence is that the teachers shall tend to punish them and restrict their initiatives too much (McMahon 2009). Play is a crucial part of children's growth and development. Every child undergoes various developmental stages from birth to adulthood. Scientists have identified various stages of development in which children adopt various behaviours and characters. These stages need to be managed properly to enable the child to grow well and develop fully in all spheres of their lives. Child play is a great tool that is significant for enhancing proper child development. While handling children aged 5-6 years, I observed various behaviours associated with children at this particular age. The following is a discussion of my reflection based on my observations of play in four different fields.

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Reading and New Knowledge

Children aged 5-6 years tend to be very active and interested in learning reading skills. What they need most is an active adult who would stir them up through interesting play to help them master the concepts. Reading itself is one of the best play children like. During my interaction with them, I tried as much as possible to help them master concepts through incorporating play in various ways (Brock 2014). Roleplay was one of the most effective ways of helping children learn new knowledge, ideas, and roles that await them in adulthood. While reading, I assigned them different roles to play including the nurse, doctor, veterinary, astronaut, chef, teacher, among others. While acting in such roles, children seemed to enjoy very much what they were reading. They had a wonderful moment acting in the capacity of the roles assigned. In addition to that, they could also easily remember what they read about during the role-play session. In that way, children not only enjoyed reading but also began to make sense of activities awaiting them in the adult world (Moon 2013). They acquired new knowledge, ideas, and interests while also boosting their social interactions with each other. Roleplay for children aged 5-6 years is a crucial tool that goes beyond the visible behaviour of the child to model their character and behavioural adaptations to their respective roles. Jean Piaget, a Swiss psychologist, observed that the thought process of children is crucial as it influences how they understand and interact with the surrounding world. Therefore, role-playing served as a way of influencing the children's thought process to shape their interest and understanding of the surrounding world (Brock 2014). Furthermore, it helps them to properly manage the transition into other stages into adulthood by enabling them to remain focused on the role to which they were assigned and got interested.

Experimentation with New Approaches

Experimentation with new approaches is another dimension in which I came to understand the children much better. While handling them, I observed that children could get bored easily when I kept on using one particular approach. Therefore, I began experimenting with various approaches to stir up their learning and keep them joyful and interested. One approach after another worked perfectly as children liked trying out new ideas, games, and interesting plays (Fairbairn & Winch 2011). The key concept here was the fact that each child enjoyed being in the presence of others. They were happier together than while alone. Another observation I made was that children liked switching roles based on personal interests. Each time I introduced a new approach, they kept on making adjustments if not accepting the status quo. However, one of the outstanding characteristics I observed was the thirst for recognition. While engaging in play with each other, each child kept on seeking for continuous recognition. This included the need to approve each child's ideas and keeping eye contact with each of them to make them feel recognized in the play (Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood 2000+). Everyone wanted my focus on their opinions and constant approval for their views or requests. Apart from that, I had to keep on experimenting what approach worked best for everything we did. At some point, I could let them say their opinions and allow others to contribute their views on the subject matter under discussion. Learning through social interactions was fun and effective. Lev Vygotsky, a Russian psychologist observed that social interactions played an essential role in the child's learning (Hargie 2016). Through doing and experimenting with things together, children undergo a continuous learning process marked with fun and clear memory. While doing so, children kept on imitating others whom they thought had desirable behaviours. The collaborative learning among themselves under my guidance provided an effective ingredient for making learning more cheerful and effective.

New Training or Research

Play observation for new training in children was thrilling. Children tend to believe in each other's ability to understand certain concepts. While engaging with children, it is a common observation that they like asking each other questions and taking answers as provided. They believe that their peers know what they do not know. Despite having occasional arguments, children tend to keep faith in their peers and encourage each other during play. Social interaction is the major form of learning among them. They support each other and let them be at par ideologically (Early Child Development and Care n.d.). My observation was that children aged 5-6 years learn quickly when they do this with peers so long as an interesting play has been incorporated in the learning process. Singing is one of the suitable play that enhances their ability to master new concepts. Songs carry an important message that can be used to train children new concepts. However, the song ought to carry an important message that is needed to be passed on to the children. After singing the song, it becomes very crucial to help them understand what message the song tries to put across so that they may make sense of what they sing. While doing so, children copy the teacher and try to do exactly as the teacher does it (Northridge 2017). Albert Bandura, an American-Canadian psychologist, observed that children acquire new behaviours through modelling and observation (Hargie 2018). By allowing children to exercise their observatory capability, they tend to gain much influence in their behaviours, thinking, and understanding. Therefore, practices such as singing and doing things together can be essential for achieving exceedingly great outcome in child development.

A Research Form of Practice

Training children a new concept was another important aspect I experienced much fun. I wanted to let the children learn about the new concept, and gain a research-based idea. As always, observing the children play was the order of the day. My work entailed deciding what specific play was fit and suitable for their training (Achard 2014). The sensory play worked best in equipping children with investigative and exploratory skills necessary for their research needs. Sensory play refers to the activity involving seeing, hearing, smelling, and touching. Children like such activities very much because they are like windows to fresh knowledge and satisfaction. Sensory play triggers exploration and serves as the beginning of science among children (Kottman 2014). By engaging children in sensory play, I learned that children are very observant. They were able to make the right observations on various items and situations. Another critical observation I made was that children aged 5-6 years also liked seeking clarification on many issues. They asked questions and were ready to get answers. The answers given to them formed part of the pool of ideas stored in their brain at that age. When tested later, these children were also able to remember clearly the information fed to them during their exploratory queries. At that stage, children were also able to distinguish correctly the sounds of different items and animals. Hearing well is one way through which research may be conducted (Oliver & Pitt 2011). Since science encompasses all these skills involved in sensory play, children had a rightful standing in the foundational research through participating in such basic forms of research as observing, hearing, tasting, smelling, and touching. This is proof of continuous growth and development among children. According to Lev Vygotsky, a Russian psychologist, children learn better through hands-on experience (Bassot 2016). They want to see, hear, touch, and taste. In such a manner, what they learn to stick to their mind because they can relate to what they experienced personally. Therefore, sensory play provided such a wonderful opportunity for research practice and active learning.

References

Achard, D. (2014) Children: Rights and Childhood. Third; 3 edn. London: Routledge Ltd.

Bassot, B(2016) The reflective journal, 2nd edition. London: Palgrave Macmillan.

Brock, A (2014) The Early Years Reflective Practice Handbook. GB: Taylor and Francis. EbookContemporary Issues in Early Childhood (2000+)

Early Child Development and Care

Fairbairn, G.J. and Winch, C. (2011) Reading, writing, and reasoning: a guide for students. GB: McGraw-Hill Education. EbookFredrickson, N, and Cline, T (2015) Special Education Needs, Inclusion, and Diversity. Maidenhead: Open University.

Garhart Mooney, C (2009) Theories of Attachment: An Introduction to Bowlby, Ainsworth, Gerber, Brazelton, Kennel, and Klaus. GB: Redleaf Press.

Hargie, O (2016) Skilled Interpersonal Communication. Oxon: Routledge. EbookHargie, O., 2018. Skill in theory: Communication as skilled performance. In The handbook of communication skills (pp. 9-40). Routledge. https://i-cbt.org.ua/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/2006-The-handbook-of-comunication-skills-Hargie.pdf#page=18Journal of Adventure Education and Outdoor Learning (2000+) International Journal of Early Years Education(1997+)

Kottman, T(2014) Play Therapy: Basics and Beyond. [Online] USA: American Counselling Association

McMahon, L (2009) The Handbook of Play Therapy. 2nd Edition. Hove: Routledge

Moon J.A. (2013) A Handbook of Reflective and Experiential Learning: Theory and Practice. London: Taylor $ Francis Ltd - M.U. An ebookNorthridge, (2017) The Good Study Skills Handbook (Palgrave Study Skills). G...