Pets in the Classroom Can Develop Students' Social Emotional - Research Paper Example

Pets in the room can develop social emotional Introduction In the recent years, more and more family choose to have a pet in their home. Likewise, more and more school use the pets in the classroom to help students to develop their social-emotional, self-control and build a good relationship with others all these are attachment that can assist the student grow. The power that human-animal bond brings has been explained in sources as diverse as ancient literature, and study reports in the professional literature (Chandler, Mallon, Parshall, Siegel, as cited in Flom, 2005). Educators have applied classic examples, like those found in the children’s books Where the Red Fern Grows and Old Yelle, to teach young students important lessons about feeling and loving. Families likewise have traditionally endorsed the role of animals in the path of child-rearing: rural children have assumed obligation for animal care from an early age. For example, the Maltese children through observe and feed animals such as a flock of sheep or hours every daily life to know about different animal’s habit. Children are natural inquirers and observers of the world around them (Tunnicliffe, Gatt, Agius, Pizzuto, 2008). They learn from their first-hand experiences (Boulter, as cited in Tunnicliffe, Gatt, Agius, Pizzuto). On the other hand, the children who live in the city, the animal is more like a friend or brother make a companion role. Many young children have a natural attraction to and curiosity about animals (Meadan, Jegatheesan, 2010). Many of children think that pets are their friends and brother hence the attachment. Children like to touch it and talk to it. Over half of American households have a pet. (Cain, Purvis, Otto, as cited in Albert, Bulcroft, 1988). According to the Albert, Bulcroft, (1988) research showed that eighty-seven percent of the urban pet owners rate the extent of their pet’s membership in the family as either a 5 (48.8%) or a 4 (38.1%). Indeed, as members of the family, pets play significant emotional and psychological attachment roles in the urban household (Albert, Bulcroft, 1988). Nowadays, when asking about animals, it is hard to find a person beloved pet or share that they’ve always loved dolphins, snakes, or ladybugs (Palmeri, 2007). There are over 212 million pets living in 60% of US households (Salzman, as cited in Palmeri, 2007), and in the majority of these households, the animals are considered as members of the family (Katcher, Lagoni, Butler, Hetts, as cited in Palmeri, 2007). As the member of the family, pets take on a variety of roles from best friend to a child (Palmeri, 2007). If pet come in the new family, it is will companion with the couple, and when the new baby is born, pet will accompany with child to grow up. As a family moves through various stages of development within the family life cycle, the role of the pet attachment changes and evolves in adaptation to the changes within the family and the needs of the family during those stages (Palmeri, 2007). The benefits of the pets in the family Family: Within the last 30 years research investigating human-animal attachment has emerged as an important field in the social sciences (Daly, Suggs, 2010). Contained in this work is clear evidence of the value and benefits that animals have for children, including making a significant contribution to the development of empathy and other important socio-emotional behaviour (Beck, Katcher, McNicholas, Collis, Melson, as cited in Daly, Suggs, 2010). For instance, Melson (2001) discusses the general emotional benefits that can be reaped from the relationships between children and their pets (Daly, Suggs, 2010) Poresky and Hendrix (1990) found that children’s attachment to their pets was correlated with increased empathy as well as social competence (Daly, Suggs, 2010). Others have reported a correlation between children’s attachment and increased empathy and prosocial orientation (Vizek-Vidovic et al., as cited in Daly, Suggs, 2010). More and more dogs trained by human to do the therapy to help people relax and reduce the stress. Indeed, dogs reduced behavior stress for children undergoing a medical examination (Hansen et al., as cited in Daly, Suggs, 2010); provided an improved focus for cooperative and positive interactions in children with Down’s syndrome (Limond et al., as cited in Daly, Suggs, 2010); and canine presence increased the social acknowledgement received for children in wheelchairs (Mader et al., as cited in Daly, Suggs, 2010). In usually, pets especially dog or cat in the family plays a very flexible role that will change by family change. For example, for the single women, the pet is like a friend. And if the women married, the pet change his role to their child. After that, if they have a baby, the pet might change to baby’s brother or sister. And when children grow up, he will develop their relationship with pets. Companion animals or pets can be very important in the lives of children because pets commonly assume a peer-like role for children. (Wendy, Turner, 2005). The animal may be viewed by the child as a best friend or even a sibling (Brown, Richards, Wilson, as cited in Wendy, Turner, 2005). Research suggest that children who are the youngest in the family or are only children are even more likely to develop a nurturing and caring relationship with a companion animal and hence there attachment (Wendy, Turner, 2005). In China, because of the One Child Policy, most of the children don’t have a brother or sister. Parents and grandparents around with one child to help them do anything they want. Because of the parents overindulge children, many of the Chinese child doesn’t know how to take care others feeling, doesn’t know how to build a relationship with others, selfish and self-centeredness. Many of Chinese parents choose to have a small pets such as turtle, rabbits, dog, and cat in the family to accompany with their children. Parents let children take care the dog daily life such as walk the dog, feed it, and wash it. Research also indicates that attachment to animals provide children with a sense of security and help to counter issues of fearfulness and loneliness (Heath, Mc Kenry, Rew, as cited in Wendy, Turner, 2005). This particularly for those children who personality is introvert and some parents need to work all day let children stay home alone. These self-care children who come home to a companion animal feel a greater sense of security, and the animal can help to reduce some of the isolation and boredom that such children often experience (Heath, Mc Kenry, as cited in Wendy, Turner, 2005). Children with a strong attachment to pets also have demonstrated higher self-esteem (Tribenbacher, as cited in Wendy, Turner, 2005). This reinforces the belief held by many parents and helping professionals that the relationship between children and companion animals is valuable and should be encouraged (Wendy, Turner, 2005). In the family, loss pet is a very serious issue for children. No matter, pet is dead or lost, for children, they must be very sad or even more. But, on the other hand, parents can use it very carefully let children face the first time leave with their intimate partner. To further complicate matters, the death of a pet is frequently a child’s first experience with death, and is reported as one of the most stressful events in a child’s life (Brown et al., as cited in Wendy, Turner, 2005). However, it is very important for parents and helping professionals to deal carefully with children’s reaction to the animal’s death, as helping children to cope with pet loss can lay the foundation for how they will handle grief in the future (Wendy, Turner, 2005). Parents could seize this opportunity to teach children using the right way to accept the death. Because in the future, their children will face many times death. The benefits of the pets in the classroom and continuous attachment to students Many preschools and elementary schools keep small animals such as ducks and rabbits for educational purposes (Toyama, Lee, Muto, 1997). Having a pet in the classroom can help children to develop their social-emotional and helping behavior. Teacher can spread different task to a different group, for example, one group is to observe the small pets and take notes, another one is to feed them. Through working for pets, it will improve student cooperation ability and communication with partner. Also, students create their imaginary animal companion (perhaps as puppets), write pet care manuals and portray their learning by a pet shop or producing a pet show (Freeman, Sokoloff, 1996). These activities assist students synthesize what they think with other’s beliefs, which can be extended as they develop new meanings (Freeman, Sokoloff, 1996). Indeed, in most class, students were encouraged to interact with the pet informally and throughout the day (Daly, Suggs, 2010). The animals appeared to be used to spark interest in animal research and for science projects in which, for example, their weight and growth patterns were logged (Daly, Suggs, 2010).Teachers and children typically feed animals and clean up their hutches, and it is assumed that children will acquire social and scientific knowledge by caring for animals (Toyama, Lee, Muto, 1997). Furthermore, classroom pets can contribute to the development of compassion and responsibility in young children of preschool and primary school age, promote and facilitate their social interactions with peers and adults, develop and enhance self-esteem and self-worth, and encourage awareness of one’s own and others’ feelings (Jegatheesan, Meadan, 2010). The benefits of pets in the classroom include developing student friendship and their feeling about what they are and what they admire to be. Helping student can easily to communicate with others and develop their social-emotional. Animal companions enhance the social-emotional development of both typically developing children and children with special needs (Friedmann, NIH, as cited in Jegatheesan, Meadan, 2010). Human-animal interaction helps children build positive relationships through community building, learning about caring, promoting their self-confidence and creating home-school connections (Jegatheesan, Meadan, 2010). Many of elementary students are very shyness and hard to communicate with peers especially those students just come into the elementary school. They don’t have friends and everything for them is new. They will feel a little bit scared and shyness. If the classroom has small pets, that will help the student to build a relationship with other very quickly because students can work together. Children’s interactions with their peers and pets provide opportunities to know, appreciate, and learn to understand one another (Jegatheesan, Meadan, 2010). Aggressive behavior in the elementary school is more and more common, many of the students show up some aggression behavior. Using the small pets in the classroom can help a student reduce the aggression behavior. Aggressive human behavior can be comprehended easily as students note that a gerbil, or guinea or hamster pig is more likely to bite when it feels threatened or hurt (Flom, 2005). Linking aggressive animal perception to their own or classmates’ aggression may produce both insight and empathy (Flom, 2005). Several researchers have reported lower aggression and enhanced social skills in many children involved in animal-assisted strategies and programming (Mallon, Voelker, as cited in Flom, 2005). According to the Mockler (2010) talk about Thomas who is a student is a profoundly deaf student with cerebral palsy. He has difficulty sitting or staying in one place for longer than a minute and is constantly moving around the classroom (Mockler, 2010). A therapy dog named Penni help him to change their behavior. Therapy dogs like Penni aid in instruction in a variety of ways, they are particularly suited to work with preschool-aged children and special need populations where the curriculum most easily can incorporate a therapy dog. Hypothesis In this study, I will be interested in looking at whether or not pets in the classroom can improve children’s social-emotional behavior this is seen through their attachment to the pets. Methods Sample to be used will be comprised of 60 participants/students from the classroom, with a mainly middle-class socio-economic background. This will include 40 girls and 20 boys. In order to obtain a developmental perception, a cross-sectional research design will be used: participants will be divided into two groups, and different research will be conducted to them. The mean age between the groups is not that much just 1. One group will be a pre -test – intervention conducted of small pets in the classroom including dogs and cats - post, another group both Pre -test and post test conducted. Regarding pet ownership, 27 (45.6%) students are non-owners and 33 (54.4%) are pet owners. Out of the pet owners, 16 (26.2% of who are researched on) will have dog, 6 (9.2%) a cat, and 11 (19.0%) own other kinds of pets. Variable The single variable on pet attachment will be selected as indicator of some socio-emotional features. One choice variable will be considered to ensure effectiveness of the research. The Development in classroom: attachment to pets (student Pet Attachment Scale), empathy (student Empathy Scale, pro-social emphasis and orientation (student Pro-social Orientation Scale), for loneliness (student Loneliness Scale), social anxiety will be (Social Anxiety Scale for student), and perception of classroom climate (Perception of Classroom Climate Scale). So as to measure these variables, different questionnaires will be used. Demographic survey will be also used too. All instruments, except student Pet Attachment Scale, will be intend to be completed by all students regardless of pet ownership status (Turner, 2005). The purpose of using demographic survey will be to obtain general information about the students’ participants such as age, gender grade, birth order, and the number of family members. The other surveys given to the students will be made up of simple multiple choice questions. All questionnaires designed and used for the assessment and evaluation of socio-emotional variables will be of items that need responses on 4-point Likert scales (Freeman & Sokoloff, 1996). Procedure Before administration of the instruments, there will be seeking of permission from school authorities, and 60 students will be given a brief explanation of the role of the research. Data collection and analyzed will be performed in the classrooms during one of the regular school hours and will last for about 60 minutes. Results In order to answer the key question of the research, namely if there are any differences in aspects of socio-emotional development of students of different gender, pet ownership status and kind of pet owned, many analyses of variance (gender by grade by pet ownership) will be computed for every criterion of socio-emotional development. Inspection reveal a significant key effect of grade for all given variables, as well as a significant key effect of gender for all given variables except social anxiety. Likewise, a significant main effect for pet possession was computed only for attachment, empathy, and prosocial orientation. Furthermore, some significant interactions were attained between possession and gender, and pet ownership and grade of obtaining the pet in regards to attachment and pro-social orientation. Results The student Pet Attachment Scale is expected to be conducted to 33 pet owners in the sample. Analysis of variance revealed significant key effects for gender, grade of obtaining the pet and pet possession. Furthermore, cat and dog possesses reported high levels of attachment than owners of other kinds of pets. Although girls were more attached to pets than boys, girls who had pets other than cats or dogs had by far minimum mean scores on the attachment to pets scale (Daly& Suggs, 2010). Analysis of will mean for empathy reveal significant key effects for all three independent variables: pet ownership gender and grade for obtaining pet. Scheffe post hoc always tests of significance (p Read More