Four Year Old Girls Reading and Writing Map of Development - Case Study Example

Running Head: LANGUAGE AND LITERACIES Language and Literacies Course Tutor Date Language and Literacies Background Information Winnie Ruth is a four year old girl born in a family of three. She is the last born. Her mother is a nurse while the dad is a high school head teacher. The parents have a joint venture whereby they engage on a family business which they run concurrently with their full time career. Due to the nature of their schedule, Winnie’s parents have limited time to spend at home hence their daughter is deprived of the necessary parental stimulation. More often than not, she is left under the custody of a house help. However the girl has adequate nutritional needs well catered for. Statement of the Problem The child demonstrates good speech development suitable for her age. She also seems to display developed common sense which is portrayed when she is playing with her playmates and it starts raining, she literally runs for a shelter. She also displays well developed motor system in that she can hop, run, draw circle or even a square. Nevertheless, Winnie has mildly undeveloped cognitive system in that she seems retrogressing in her academics. She appears to be gradually not recognizing simple words, spelling, reading, writing and counting of numbers like 1 to 20 that she once knew. Winnie is child who can feed herself comfortably, dress and use toilet without assistance. Thus the purpose of the study is to assess and monitor the development of the child’s communication skills in terms of listening, writing, and reading as well as social emotional skill, how they are inter connected and their advancement as the child grows. It was therefore necessary to come up with tools of data collection which entailed questionnaires and interviews of those involved in the learning and interaction of the child who were teachers and parents that was to be repetitively done eight times at an interval of seven days. They included the following; Interview Schedule For: A. Parents What are the Winnie’s immediate needs as per her age? How old is she? B. Teacher What are some of the behavioral indicators that act as a pointer towards the child being socially and emotionally maladjusted? Does she demonstrate poor concentration in class? Does she portray low self esteem and lack of confidence? What might be the likely emotional, social and educational outcome of the problem on a child in the short and long term? C. Child What is your name? Which color is best? A) Blue b) Red c) black Do you play with your friends? Do you know how to write your name? If yes, write it down Spell the name of your school. (Commonwealth of Australia, 2009). Questionnaire Teacher Does she perform well in academics? Yes= No= How does she progress academically? ---------------------- Explain clearly the indicators of how well developed or not of her communication skills in terms of listening, writing, reading and socializing with others. Parents Do you provide her basic needs adequately? Yes= No= Is your child able to sustain social relationship with? Family members, relatives or friends? Yes= No= Does she demonstrate any guilt or feelings of inadequacy Yes= No= Do you engage the child in an open talk? Yes= No= How many children do you have? a) Sons-------------------------- b) Daughters-------------------- What is their age difference? -------------------------------------- Explain the measures you take to ensure continuous growth and development of the child’s communication skills as they apply to the child’s interactions at home? ------------------------------ OBSERVATION CHECKLIST TOR THE CHILD UNDER STUDY Activities at school No. of attempts Tally Attempts made 1. Playing with other 10 children 2. Concentrating in the class 10 3. Running and hopping 10 4. Writing and drawing 10 5. Reading 10 Activities at home No. of attempts Tally Attempts made 1. Being withdrawn 10 from other family members 2. Dressing and undressing herself 10 3. Playing with her friends 10 (Commonwealth of Australia, 2009). Findings and Implication It was found that all aspects of development are integrated to foster holistic development in a child for example the fine motor muscles of the fingers develop with age (physical development) and practice during drawing sessions (Kevlynn Annandale, 2004). Description of the details of the picture is enhanced by language development which is more precise as the child develops. Large and beautiful pictures made more sense than detailed pictures since the eye and hand coordination are not fully grown (Brickmayer, Kennedy, & Stonehouse, 2008).The child could not learn during the entire period through abstract that is imagination. There had to be concrete materials for the child to make symbol representation. (Kevlynn Annandale, 2005). Interestingly, the child seemed to enjoy drawing more than writing. However both seemed to develop simultaneously since both depended on the fine motor muscles. (Brickmayer, Kennedy, & Stonehouse, 2008). As for drawing real objects were used then symbolic materials to represent what they had viewed. During the entire process, the teacher would describe and explain the object. Then there would be probing of questions to stimulate learners` cognitive faculty. They were later told to make drawing of what they were seeing (Shagoury, 2009).Thus learning was relating of known concept to unknown. (Gee, 2006). The process involved for both writing and drawing is the same. They learned from scribbling letters, numbers and drawings which was later followed by coloring them. This was then developed to modeling followed by tracing of letters, numbers and pictures. This would later graduate to tracing then cutting out of the three concepts. Later they would stick the numbers, letters and drawings. At this stage the child would advance to writing or drawing them. This process was done for every letter alone and separately until internalized to avoid confusion. At this age it was observed that the child engaged the five senses in learning to make it more real and ideal (Paul, J. 2009). It was found out that Winnie’s class engaged in outdoor activities such as nature walk whereby they engage in exploration, discovery of different features and cater for their curiosity. This could have attributed to Winnie articulate speech. On the same breath, she is brought up in the midst of other children. This is because of the interaction among children both at home and school environment (Gee, 2006). As for spelling of letters and pronunciation, they started with mastery of vowels and consonants individually which were later merged to produce sounds. Thus they started from simple concept to complex (Haley, N. (2005). The girl was also having low concentration span. This was observed whereby she could be told to repeat what the teacher had just told them thereby being unable to do so. This was well countered by use of active short learning plays in the school environment. This were enjoyable and ensured that the child does not lose concentration (Kevlynn Annandale, 2005). The teacher also engaged them in life drawing objects that enhanced the children’s observation as well as inference skills. The teacher would ask the class to describe the object such as a flower for the children to develop language, observation skills and cognitive development. When given a drawing to observe, explained, answer questions the child asks and lastly ask him or her to draw what is seeing was the best teaching methodology rather than telling the learner to draw first before observation. This is because children learning are reinforced most through observation whereby they internalize what they see. There was scaffolding of the teacher by probing a child to speaking by use of open ended questions to ensure that the child keeps track on what he or she is narrating so as to increase creativity, imagination and child’s remembrance faculties (Kevlynn Annandale, 2004). In the beginning, Winnie was declining academically compared to her age and child’s developmental milestone. This was averted by use of short repetitive songs and poems that were commensurate with their developing memories in terms of word vocabulary (Kevlynn, Annandale. (2004). The songs enhanced and reinforced cultural values. In addition the class was involved in rotary role play whereby everyone would be given a chance to perform and still abide to the rules of the game. As a result their listening and speaking skills were sharpened. (Gee, 2006). She was well showered with encouraging complements from the school as well as home environment like praise, clapping for an improvement or in case of any positive change. This served as a motivation mechanism as reflected by Australian early years learning framework (Paul, 2009). Writing skills were enhanced by use of short words and sentences that would not confuse the child. The parents also on the other hand enhanced these commendable efforts by checking out on their child’s daily learnt activities and relating them further to the child day to day occurrences like colors in language. Still, the parents checked on any home work given so that the child does it on time to avoid lagging behind due to unfinished assignments. It was observed that the child developed more interest as she felt supported (Emeritus, 2005). . Teaching learning resources were simple, clear and legible to avoid any misunderstanding. It was noted that long stories steered monotony, boredom and lack of concentration. The teacher ensured that learning lessons were precise and understandable by being simple to avoid ambiguity among children (Shagoury, 2009). Learners were given activities proportionate to their cognitive ability. There was no laughing at one another when they make mistakes, ill speaking or discrimination. The teacher also ensured that there was no rush of the children so that they can learn according to their pace for complete understanding and keep at bay confusion ( Kevlynn, Annandale 2004). Finally, writing skill was seen to progress in stages which included the following; firstly there was role play stage whereby the child does not understand the meaning of writing and relates it to daily experiences .Winnie was originally in this stage of development. Later, she could write words depending on their sound but not their spelling knowledge like “kap” instead of cup thus portrayed early stage of advancement. Still, there were words she progressed into transitional stage in that she could write them correctly irrespective of their spelling like girl, book, and chair among others (Kevlynn, Annandale 2005). In the beginning of the girl could hardly read. She would read out of memorizing or relating word with pictures thus she was in role stage of development. This later improved to a level whereby she could read by relating words with their sounds. This was reinforced by reputation of these words and their sounds. In both writing and spelling the learner was unable to recognize punctuation marks. They posed to her as errors thus confusing (Kevlynn, Annandale 2004). Conclusion A child is an evolving being who is entirely shaped by the early childhood details that is every day experiences. Listening, speaking and writing go hand in hand depending on early stimulation done. Learning of the child is dependent on sensation which means that concrete materials have to be used. A four year old is basically at the initial stage of learning in both writing and reading skills. References Brickmayer, Kennedy, & Stonehouse, A. (2008). From lullabies to literature: Stories in the services of infants and toddlers. Washington DC: NAEYC. Castle Hill, NSW: Pademelon Press. Commonwealth of Australia (2009). Belonging, being and becoming: The early years learning framework for Australia. Austria. . Daniels, M. (2009). Social Linguistics. London: Rutledge. Emeritus, K. (2005). New Literacies in action. London: Ken State University. Gee, P. (2006). Situated Language and Learning: A Critique of Traditional Schooling (Literacies). Sydney: Kindey Publishers. Haley, N. (2005). Eighth Grade Language Arts/Social Studies Teacher. Ohio: Tallmadge. James, C. (2008). Those who can Teach. New York: Sage. Kevlynn, Annandale. (2004). Reading map of Development: Addressing Current Literacy Challenges. Kevlynn, Annandale. (2005). Writing map of Development: Addressing Current Literacy Challenges. Makin, Diaz, & McLachlan, (2007). Literacies in childhood: Changing views, challenging practice. NSW, Australia: Elsevier Australia. Mills, C. (2010). Language and Literacies in Primary school. London: Rutledge. Paul, J. (2009). Social linguistics and Literacy Ideologies. Tokyo: Macmillan. Samuel, F. (2006). Teaching with video games. New Jersey: Steven & Sons. Shagoury, R. E. (2009). Raising writers: Understanding and nurturing young children's writing development. USA: Allyn & Bacon, Pearson. Tarus, R. (2008). A critique of traditional Schooling. Chicago: Sage. Read More