Aspects of Child Protection Laws - Case Study Example

Case Study Introduction: The of this study is an Asian girl who is 3 years old, referred to in this report as Z. In accordance with child protection laws, school policies state that the identity of children and information about them is not to be disclosed publicly. She lives with her parents and brother; her father runs a family owned business in Birmingham. Z has an older brother who is seven years old. She goes to a nursery school in Birmingham full time from 9 a.m. in the morning to 3 p.m. in the afternoon. Analysis: Child Z appears to fit Piaget’s pre-operational stage of cognitive development where the development of speech is the most significant milestone (Ormond, 2005). She was quite vocal and articulate, greeting the other children with a Hello everyone! Child Z is from an Asian background but she approached other English children to ask, “you play with zu zu pets? This shows that Child Z is able to initiate interaction and blend well with her peers at the nursery school, even those from different ethnic backgrounds. This illustrates Vygotsky’s theory of cognitive development which stipulates that children tend to learn through their interactions with their surrounding culture. Z appears to be a self confident young person, who has learnt to interact confidently with those in her environment (Seigler, 2006), perhaps because of the high levels of love and attention she has received in her home environment. In the class, when the teacher demonstrated to the children how to make a paper boat, Z chimed in enthusiastically, “I do it! I make boat in the water”. She appears to have a strong sense of self esteem and is confident enough about being able to complete the task of making a boat (Hartup, 1992). This demonstrates the element of self regulation which Schaeffer mentions, where children tend to instruct themselves through their speech patterns (Schaeffer, 2003: 271). Piaget offered the view that early speech tends to be egocentric and is directed at the self, despite being spoken aloud, hence it has no particular function in terms of thinking (Schaeffer, 2003: 270), but Vygotsky saw such speech as externalized thought which children use actively for problem solving. The child Z appears to be well advanced cognitively, and her speech appears to be externalized thought in problem solving rather than being directed at the self. Linguistically, Child Z shows a very high level of linguistic development. She is vocal and articulate in her responses; when the lunchroom assistant asked Z what she had in her lunch box, the child responded clearly cheese and crackers. She also added, I like toast and chuckied up egg. Her vocabulary is advanced for her age and she is able to communicate her intentions quite clearly, using sentences which are quite complex and pronouncing them well (Berk 2006). Skinner, in applying his theory of operant conditioning, suggests that a child tends to imitate the language of the adults and carers and this may well be the case with Child Z, but Skinner’s theory has also been criticized on the grounds that children do not learn through mere imitation. This appears to be substantiated in Z’s case because the child has mixed up her past tenses, i.e., chuckied up egg instead of chucky egg which she would not have done is she had been learning by pure imitation. She also says I do it when she obviously means I can do it. In terms of development in language, Z appears to be well above normal, with her conversational skills and language ability being well ahead of the normal range in her age group. Oates and Grayson (2004:166) point out that where the acquisition of grammatical understanding is concerned, the development of speaking skills in children depends upon an implicit understanding of phonology, morphology and syntax. Clarke-Stewart’s study showed in 1973 that parental reinforcement increases vocabulary and Z’s advanced conversational skills could be the result of advanced interaction with her parents and other adults. While listening to the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears, Z’s attention span appeared to be quite good, she chimed in at different points in the story Its too hard, and then it’s too soft. This shows that Z is confident , assertive and well read; and seems to have progressed better in terms of their cognitive development due to the support and guidance of older people (Vygotsky). Z’s familiarity with the story, even before the teacher has told it, suggests that she may have heard the story earlier from a parent and enjoyed it. In the nursery, Z introduced herself to other children with: Hello, I’m Z and I’m playing. Would you like to join me?” This further reinforces the notion that the child Z has a high level of self esteem and confidence that her friendly overtures will not be rejected. The attachment theory states that attachment is the lasting psychological connectedness between human beings (Bowlby, 1969:194). If such a connection develops in infancy, children develop as self confident beings and this seems relevant in Z’s case. As Ainsworth (1985) points out, a child with secure attachment has an inner working model of the mother as being available and responsive to the child’s needs for love and reassurance. Child Z appears to be very secure and confident. In one game the children were playing, the child Z was the “Mummy” and another child was the “Daddy”. She said Hello ji, would you like to have a cookie? After the child accepted and offered Z some toffee in return Z said thank you very politely. Applying Skinner’s theory of operant conditioning in this context, it appears that the training Z has received at her home, which is a loving one but where discipline is observed, has carried over well into her social life as well. She seems to have been well trained to respond appropriately in a social situation and share things with others; terms such as please and thank you flow more naturally from her than they do with other children. I carried out several experiments where I measured the MLU (Mean length of Utterance) during twenty minute sessions and each time, the MLU turned out to be greater than 1.0 (Oates and Grayson, 2004:175). Therefore Z comes across as a gregarious child, who loves people in general and young children in particular. The child Z worked on a drawing and when her mother came to pick her up, she ran over to show her the picture: Mummy, look at my drawing; isn’t it nice? Z appears to be a confident and self assured child, who has a strong self concept and thinks her drawing is very good (Hartup, 1992). She appears to enjoy a warm, loving relationship with her mother. According to Dowling (2009:14), the development of self esteem in children is a slow process and is completed only by the time the child is about six years old; however early interactions with family members will determine the quality of the self esteem that develops. The nature of family interactions would also determine the kind of values a child develops. During the class, when one of the children was climbing a pole, Z rushed up to her and said “I do it!” very enthusiastically as usual, pushing her out of the way. The other child slipped, hurt her knee and began to cry. Z immediately stopped what she was doing, went to the other child, helped her up and hugged her, saying, “I’m sorry, you go first”, which made the other child happy. This shows that the child Z’s own inner security and the model of love she has been shown in her own family life has helped her to develop a strong sense of her own self worth and is also being transferred into her social life. (Ainsworth, 1985). In conclusion therefore, it may be inferred that Z is progressing quite well in terms of her emotional development and appears to be well on par with the average range of development in the social and emotional spheres. References: Dowling, Marion, 2009. “Young children’s Personal, Social and emotional development”, Sage Publications Oates, John and Grayson, Andrew, 2004. “Cognitive and language development in children”, Blackwell Publishing Ormrod, Jeanne Ellis, 2005. “Educational Psychology: Developing learners”, Prentice Hall Wood, D, 1998. “How Children Think and Learn”, (2nd edition), Oxford; Blackwell Publishing. Schaeffer, H.R., 2003. “Using language”, IN “Introducing Child Psychology”, Blackwell Publishing, at pp 267-303. Skinner, B. F, 1935. “Two types of conditioned reflex and a pseudo type”, Journal of General Psychology, 12: 66-77. Skinner, B.F., 1957. “Verbal Behaviour”, Apple Century Crofts Inc. Read More