Resolving Shyness in Children to Enhance Performances - Research Paper Example

The aim of the paper is to conduct an investigation into the shyness problem experienced by children in primary schools and develop a suitable plan to resolve the behaviour for better performances. It gives a scenario of the class demonstrated behaviour through five children expressing reservation, fear, withdrawal, low self-esteem, and externalization problems. Following two theoretical perspectives; cognitive and behavioural theories, the shyness behaviour can be explained in terms of thoughts and belief systems and observable behaviours. It entails proposed solutions to the shyness and provides an evidence based support to reinforce the argument. Keywords: Cognitive and Behavioural Theories, Stimuli, Anxiety, Shyness, Withdrawal, Confidence, Internalization Problem, Behaviour, Performance, Learning, Thoughts, Children Teaching, Grade, Interaction, Optimism, Deconstruction, Negative and Positive Thoughts, Rational Cognition, Evidence, Environment Statement of the problem Teaching and interacting with children from different grades in the primary level, I have often identified persistent shyness among children in classrooms and playgrounds, which have been problems that tend to affect their general performances. Specific children demonstrate low confidence when expressing themselves, are less talkative, or even withdrawn. Some are extra self-conscious, self-reliant, nervous, or tend to take longer periods adjusting to new situations (where the rest already easily embrace). While shyness apparently appears to be a normal and temporal behaviour at a specific stage during development, its persistence and interference with children performances (class/playground interaction, inactivity, communication etc) is a challenge and problem in their development and education. Looking into their behaviour and struggle, without appropriate measures to assist the children overcome the shyness, it would end up obstructing their academic performances. I am convinced that if I get to understand the root causes of their shyness, I could develop suitable strategies to overcome their shyness and enable them to be more comfortable and confident to improve their affected performance areas in learning. Shyness is a common behaviour among children. However, teachers need not ignore persistent shy behaviours among their students, because it may generate certain negative effects in their learning process. Shyness is a simple word used to when describing a person with its’ behavioural traits. Cheek and Watson describe shyness as “an affective behavioural syndrome characterized by social anxiety and interpersonal inhibition that result from prospects or presence of interpersonal evaluation” (1989, p.87). Therefore, as a behaviour characteristic of a child, it becomes his or her specific personality trait gained through internalization of certain problems. Following the syndrome model, Crozier argues that one could be inferred shy when they “tended to feel tense, worried or awkward during social interactions” (1990, p.321). In addition to assisting children overcome their shyness to pave way for their better performances in learning, it is clear that deconstruction or externalization of their unique problems would help address the conceptual issue. Children’s performance in classroom is not limited to their examination achievements alone, but also their physical participation and reflection of their thoughts through the responses they give. Every school has a standard measure for performance, especially when it comes to grading after examinations. Therefore, while one child will be deemed best performed, the other could be given average or unsatisfactory performance based on the system. In the classroom context, a teacher would steer and influence his or her students to certain heights of attitude, strength, behaviour, and will to encourage better performances (more interaction and involvement, confident responses and expressions, desire, active behaviour and educational excellence). Though I have taught in different grades in my current employer school, I have remained a class teacher for the current Grade 4 children since they began school. From this experience, I easily identified five children with shyness personality traits, which have proved to be a real problem in their class and extracurricular performances. One would likely expect children to be most active in this stage. However, within the group of five, these children portrayed different behaviours, but also with distinctive demonstrated learning abilities ad outcomes. For ethical purposes, I call them Patel, Robin, Jessica, Laura and Rita. Jessica is the youngest in the class, an adopted child and lives with her foster parents after her exit from a missionary shelter home. She becomes nervous easily, has trouble verbalizing her feelings, avoids eye contact and achieves lower grades yet she is very cooperative. Patel joined the class in Grade 2, is of Indian Muslim descent, but can read and write English with less difficulty. Two years down the line, he’s quite reserved and has low self-esteem, which I observed each time I needed him to answer a question during interactive sessions. He achieves excellent grades in examinations, but has few friends and speaks English with Indian accent which pleases other children whenever he talks. Robin comes from a chaotic family and demonstrates internalized withdrawal and behaviour inhibition, especially at the experience of distress. Unfortunately, Robin’s perform has been deteriorating due to diminishing will and desire. He has a passion in Art, but is also affected in the field. Rita has a good family background and is always an average performer in academics. Her shyness stems from her developed personality, such that she often gets sensitive and intimidated by light issues. She has quick temper and gets violent easily, is afraid of losing, and likes refraining from physically challenging tasks in interactive sessions. Finally, Laura cannot stand harsh criticism. She has selective friends, who I could describe as lesser bold. She has a stuttering problem, often threatens her classmates about reporting them to her ‘emotional’ mother when criticised, but works well when alone and is very creative in class assignments. Their depicted traits risk hampering their future learning performances if proper measures and monitoring are not conducted. Failure to assist the students means that their difficulties would affect their learning. By overcoming shyness, Jessica can gather courage to ask questions and express herself confidently. Laura would learn to be independent and a risk taker, which would promote her creativity skills in leaning. Rita risks been labelled as an inferior child unless she overcomes her intimidation. Patel’s reservation and low esteem could result to delayed learning of fluent English and acceptance of the surrounding culture. Robin’s withdrawal could generate into serious performance problems in his education and later life when coping with stress. These behavioural problems affect their emotional readiness and attention, contribute to their lower understanding and gains, and hamper the development of their skills, which are all vital in the learning process for better performances. Past empirical studies have demonstrated existence of correlation between pro-social behaviours and overall performances. According to Chen, Li and Rubin, while children found to display pro-social or sociable behaviour were likely to achieve high academic performances in various areas, those who exhibited social withdrawal, inhibition, and shyness were associated with academic difficulties and performed poorly in school compared to their counterparts (1997). The idea here is that children would have to embrace pro-social and social behaviour, overcome their fear and shyness to be able to improve their academic performances. Theoretical framework Cognitive theories stress on the impact of humans conscious thoughts on their behaviour and emotions. They link the causal behaviour to a human’s thoughts or plan in mind, and are interested with mental processes to comprehend how information is learned and stored in memory (Alatis, 1990). Based on the theory, individuals engage in constant learning through their active and dynamic mental processing. Children will form ideas of their self or integrate new information through their mental processes. Shy children tend to have a weakness in various measures of cognitive abilities, which are translated to lower performances like slower reading rates in a cognitive control task (Wolfe & Bell, 2014). Children’s shy behaviour is an effect of their constructed thoughts and beliefs, perhaps through certain experiences. The theories imply that children will constantly search for meanings and describe elements or situations they encounter by organization of information in their minds. They suggest appropriate assistance to help children make sense of information, recognize irrational thoughts and challenge children to develop rational cognition. There exist proven paternal parenting association with children’s cognitive outcomes and behavioural functioning (Pougnet, Serbin, Stack & Schwartzman, 2011). By providing sufficient attention or presence, adults can help prevent children’s internalization of shyness traits (withdrawal, anxiety etc.) and behaviour, and externalization problem. It entails helping children develop better schemata so they can apply it when needed in different situations. Contrary to cognitive theorists, behaviourists emphasize on observation to learning of behaviour through experiences that shape individuals. They argue that forces external to an individual, the environment and previous learning experiences are major influencers of their behaviour. Shyness becomes a learnt behaviour acquired through observation and imitation of their influential role models or even builds up as a coping strategy to certain experiences (“Shyness,” 2014). Pavlov’s classical conditioning theory was developed to demonstrate children’s invoked responses when presented with certain stimuli. It implies that shyness behaviour could also be triggered by stimuli (harsh criticism, challenged, authoritative figure that stimulate fear among others). Hence shyness is an elicited behaviour by observable stimuli. Behaviourists conclude that all learners can obtain identical understanding, provided that they are exposed to the right environmental influencers (Weegar & Pacis, 2012). It involves change of environment and adoption of behavioural techniques that would alter shyness in children as part of the therapeutic process. Ruef et al., suggest adoption of a PBS approach to lessen or rectify students’ behaviour: it entails use of positive reinforcement, alternative responses and minimizing stimuli that activates their behaviours (n.d.). During its implementation, it would require performance of functional assessment to identify the antecedent variables and relations to the consequent shyness behaviour. Proposed Solution In relation to cognitive theories, active involvement and attention to children would effectively assist them in overcoming shyness. The parents and teachers have to collaborate and enhance their presence in the children’s lives, to identify self-defeating thought patterns. This way, they will: Deconstruct shyness beliefs and thoughts embraced in the children’s minds, and give them rational evidence they can comprehend at their age to change their perspectives. For example, where a child is shy speaking English because of his or her accent, the teacher could assist him embrace his culture and see its value to help create an assertive idea of the self. Constantly teach and encourage children to rephrase their negative thoughts to positive ones and practice them. This has to be monitored closely. For example, where the child sees impossibility and says ‘I cannot do it’ because he is shy, help shape his thoughts to ‘I can do it’ perhaps because he has done it before, or make him see its beneficial goal. Monitor and ensure children avoid personalization of negative outcomes to prevent internalization of shyness traits. Considering behavioural theories, the teacher needs to utilize effective practices and techniques to challenge shyness behaviour and its traits. Implementation of specific PBS strategies would support the adopted practices in classroom to overcome shyness in children. It is important to note that: Establishing the purpose that shyness serves for the child is necessary to assist the teacher comprehend the problem and make a wise decision on how to respond. It goes deep to identify the condition or factor that stimulates the child’s shyness. Exposing children to environmental stimuli that triggers their nervousness, withdrawal and other shyness traits to overcome the difficulties. Consistent encounter would help children to get accustomed. For example, children used to getting nervous and stuttering when required to respond should often be presented with questions to enable them get bold, organized in thoughts and fluent when responding. Making efforts to alter environments for the children in school activities to facilitate pro-social and sociable behaviour. Teaching replacement behaviour of shyness like self-management and alternative social skills. Discouraging class’s intimidating behaviours like bullying and making fun of others to prevent discomfort feelings that mould shyness. Literature Review Overcoming shy behaviour has most often incorporated both behavioural and cognitive interventions that have yielded the desired effect of change and improved children’s performances in learning. By deconstruction of a child’s belief system, one can establish the assumptions and constructs the child’s behaviour is built on. Therapists and counsellors rely on this to help individuals evaluate whether their assumptions are accurate or just an interpretation of the society that is not factual. Following a cognitive approach, counselling practice has often considered thinking errors to be the causes of their behaviours and emotions; through cognitive restructuring they see the misconceptions of their thoughts and change their perspective in light of rational evidence (Steigerwald & Stone, 1999). By modifying children’s thoughts from accumulated faulty cognition and beliefs, a treatment to their shyness is provided. Shyness has been linked to internalization problems. Clinically, treatment has been offered for internalized disorders like fear, extreme shyness and anxiety. Preventive interventions like building on children’s cognitive behavioural skills and counselling were found to increase some adolescents’ self-esteem and can teach children how to cope with negative thoughts, hence reducing internalization problems (Terzian, Hamilton & Ericson, 2011). Research also demonstrates that individuals positive thoughts help reduce shy behaviour. Faced by varying uncertainties in life, children engagement can help them overcome their shy characteristics by adopting an optimistic self-talk. With every achievement of an activity they set to perform or which they often avoid in fear failing in, they overcome their negative thoughts that stimulate shyness. Research conducted by O’Connor et al., revealed that children’s temperament intervention through teachers and classroom programs enhanced critical thinking and academic development among shy children (2014). Similarly, fostering optimistic thinking helps children become resilient, improve their self-concept, reduce anxiety and enhance their mental wellness. The problem of persistent shyness is known to propel other negative outcomes among children and adults. Among them are academic impairments and mild shyness causing low self-esteem. Exposure to stimuli causing shy behaviour among children has been used to alleviate their shy behaviour and negative emotional reactions. An empirical study conducted by Greco and Moris, revealed that the exposure based treatment in shy children by reporting high levels of extroversion and less timidity (2012). The exposure is often a deliberate plan to influence certain desired intentions. They eventually learn to stop evading the stimuli and respond more positively to consequent situations. Recognizing bad environments in children in schools and altering them also helped children mitigate behaviours like shyness, by promoting more interaction and responsive behaviours. It entails reshuffling classmates, activity schedules and class arrangements among others. In support to this, Dunlap et al. prove that “interventions involving alterations to features of the child’s activities and the child’s social and physical environment have been demonstrated to reduce challenging behaviors” (2006, p.37). Due to lack of knowledge of an alternative way to address the environmental stimuli, shyness as any other learned behavior is adopted by children. Teachers recognize that behavior skills for replacement are learnt, and are expected to teach shy children other alternative and efficient practices to implement (USF, 2011). Formulation and use of rules that discourage harassment of students’ because of their demonstrated behaviors have served to promote children’s interaction, cooperation and acceptance in the school environments. Conclusions Shyness is a normal behavior during children’s development. It becomes a problem in prolonged situations and when it tends to affect children’s overall performances. Based on Cognitive and Behavioral theories, shy children portray diverse behavioral traits based on what thought and belief systems they hold onto, and through observable factors like learning experiences and environmental forces. Following the cognitive theories, the proposed solutions entail reconstruction of children’s thoughts through rational evidence, embracing of positive thoughts, and prevention of internalization of shyness. Conducting of functional assessment, exposure to stimuli, altering environments, teaching replacement theory and overall discouragement of intimidating behaviors in class established rules are suggested based on the behavioral theories. Appendices Below Terms were adopted from “Basic psychological theories” (n.d.) Positive Behavioural Support – PBS Schema – organized pattern of thoughts and generic knowledge about how people and the world functions Stimulus – An occurrence or environmental element influencing behaviour. 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Brain Electrical Activity of Shy and Non-Shy Preschool-Aged Children during Executive Function Tasks. Infant Child Dev 23(3): 259-272. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4059612/. Read More