Introduction
The following report will discuss the differences between 4, 5 and six year old in terms of language, motor skills and the way they interact. Throughout the discussion an explanation of how play help to promote these developments. The report is based on the Chanel 4 documentary, The Secret Life of 4, 5 and 6 year olds and the SQA unit Play in Practice.
Overview
Dr Sam Wass, Dr Elizabeth Kilby and Psychologist Paul Howard Jones take a look at children from the age of 4, 5 & 6 years. In particular they observed differences in how they socially interact, communicate with peers, and learn to share, stand up for themselves and find their place in new social groups. This takes place through hidden cameras and microphones, this enables them to oversee it all in the background and evaluate the situations throughout the documentary.
The children are put through different learning experiences and tasks, for the professionals to evaluate and observe their different development stages. All this helps to understand the children’s adult characteristics for future life as every child’s play experiences are crucial to their adult life.
Body
The documentary follows ten four, five and six year olds, exploring how children make and break friendships, share, stand up for themselves, find themselves, and find their place in a social group.
One of the observations that takes place in the documentary is looking at conflict amongst the children. The group of four year olds find this difficult due to their developmental stage and there is more aggression and accretion showing. The group of five year olds are showing more socially complex behaviour but some struggled to regulate their emotions which caused a paucity of control. The g...
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...the blue print to their future characteristics and skills in adult life, this is observed by Dr Elizabeth Kilby, Dr Sam Wass and Psychologist Paul Howard Jones to have more of an understanding on how the children learn through their own experiences and not being adult led. Their home life and adult influences have a huge impact on their development and skills.
The documentary looks at all these skills and qualities that are being built every day as a child grows, family influences and character difference within the different age groups and having a better understanding to how children develop in different situations.
Reference
Dr Sam Wass, Dr Elizabeth Kilby and Psychologist Paul Howard Jones conclusion was that what they learn at these ages is crucial to the blueprint for adult life.
Bibliography
Channel 4 documentary – secret life of a 4, 5 and 6 year olds.
The director of this film shows how the babies develop from infancy to toddlerhood at different developmental stages. As you watch the film, you see the babies develop physically, socially and cognitively. Culture and socioeconomic status provided these families with the
Parten’s idea of child lead stages of play would support JNTCP ‘behaviour that is freely chosen, personally directed’ as when the child is ready to progress they make the personal decision. It could be said that Parten’s job would have influenced the way she views play. Being a psychologist may have led her to believe that child led play is more beneficial for the child’s development as they are able to figure it out for themselves, thus making the child more independent. A teacher idea of play however, would be the opposite to that of a child psychologist, as a teacher would believe that adult led play is more beneficial for a child, as it can have a planned outcome and consequently better the child’s social, emotional and physical development. The Researching Effective Pedagogy in the Early Years (REPEY, 2002) research clearly states that there becomes a point where children need to be supported by an adult in order to further their thinking. Vygotsky theory of proximal development would support the teacher’s idea of child lead play. Proximal development represents the gap between what a child can accomplish alone, and what they can do with the guidance of an adult. Similarly, Bruner’s theory of scaffolding mimics the same idea as Vygotsky, the adult giving a helping hand to the child’s play to better their learning and
“Babies”. Is a documentary made by the Thomas Balmés. It offers a window on the lives of four infants in four completely different cultures. This is not a usual kind of documentary; there are no narration, no subtitles and actual dialogue was very minimal. The film explores childhood rituals, enculturation, socialization and parenthood. I will try to explore each of these themes and try to make the case that behaviors, values and fears are learned not something congenital. It has, in my opinion, comparative perspectives and different methods in rearing children in different societies. It achieves this by cutting the scenes in certain ways to show the differences between these different children. For example, in one part of the film, both Bayarjargal (the Mongolian child) and Mari (the Japanese child) were playing with their pet cats and then the two scenes were edited to a shot of Ponijo (the Namibian child) looking interested in flies. The four children developed in somewhat similar ways. However, there are differences in their behaviors due to the enculturation by seeing their parents or siblings who were doing what they thought to be the norms and the obvious landscape in which they are brought up. Two of the kids were born in rural areas (Namibia and Mongolia) and two were born in urban areas (the United States and Japan). The mothers of these infants were interviewed and chosen to be in the film
The article uses photographs as a way to bounce information between the child and the researcher. This is a good example of children using meaning-making and narrative to make “sense of the world and of experiences” (Wright, 2012, p. 18).This allows the adult to see “through the eyes of the child” (Wright, 2012, p. 18). This helps the adult gain information about what is engaging and challenging about the children’s learning environments from the child (Smith, Duncan, & Marshall, 2005) to then make a difference in the children lives to make it more engaging and challenging. This is also seen in Childhood studies where children are seen as rights holders. Children need to have the opportunity to express their opinion and voice their thoughts on any subject/experience that interests or provokes them. It’s the role of the adult to be able to understand what the child is saying and advocate for them. The documentation approach is making the children’s learning visible (Clark & Kinney, 2006). It’s seen in the article where the children’s learning is visible through photos and through their interpretations of those photos. At the core of the documentation approach is the belief that “children should be at the centre of decisions about their learning and development” (Clark & Kinney, 2006, p. 4). This approach allows children’s voices, views and understanding (Clark & Kinney, 2006, p. 4) to be heard helping adults to better understand the children to help make the right change/difference in the children’s lives. The Mosaic approach is about enabling children to “explore their perspectives” (Clark & Kinney, 2006, p. 9). This approach embraces children as social actors who are social beings in a social world who’s “interaction[s] make a difference”
Play is a wonderful asset for our children and can benefit them in many ways: physical, language, self-concept, and social development are four examples of the different areas that massively impact a child’s development. The different play...
From differences in play, temperament, and differential treatment to attachment and language everyone develops at a different speed. From observing these toddlers I saw the proven medians in development as well as the outliers. I saw the effects of different types of temperaments on the parents and realized how that could affect attachment as they grow up. Each part of development is important and it was very interesting and exciting to be able to see this first hand.
A major question that is continuously being researched and observed is whether children’s play is beneficial to children’s development. While many scientists have proved that play is, in fact, helpful in the development of children, I want to research how the different types of play affect children’s development, specifically children that are transitioning from late infancy to toddlerhood. The four different types of play that I will focus on observing is exploratory and manipulative play, functional or relational play, social play routines and pretend play. Furthermore, I would observe the children’s agency during their play and the social structures that can prevent children from playing, thus, resulting in lack of development.
For 12 weeks I observed a young pre-schooler Child C aged 31/2 years old, through my account I would give an observer’s view of Child C, three theories peculiar to Child C and my the emotions evoked in me as an observer. My observation assisted in my understanding of the changes in Child C as the week progressed over the 12 weeks.
Around the world children are able to express their creativity daily through the medium of play. Children play everywhere, at home, outside, at parks, at school, and many other places. This activity is enjoyable yet at the same time children learn how to solve problems, cooperate, take turns, and get along with others without even realizing that they are learning. Additionally, they develop motor skills such as climbing, running, grasping, and balancing all while participating in various types of play. Authors, Gordon and Browne state “Through play, children learn about the world: what color purple is, how to make matzo balls, and how to be a friend” (120). Therefore, play is not only fun for the child; it can also become a learning experience.
Tamara Tunie an American film, television actress, director, and producer once said, “I believe that you can always learn from observation” (Brainy Quote). Observation is an essential role in gathering the developmental needs of assessing young kids during play. While studying the kids interactions between the two classes, I have seen the children may be responding differently because of the different age groups. The age groupings is five year olds to ten year olds. Some kids who are in years five to six are as mature as a year eight or nine kid; it is a easier for some to grasp the material than others. It may be harder for the older children to sit in a class with the younger children because it takes them a longer time. During my observations,
This is also about power, because a common theme in this documentary is poverty. All 5 of the children featured live in communities that lack the basic commodities. With run down schools that in most cases are over packed and under staffed it’s only a matter of when the children in its walls will fail instead of why. When Francisco’s mother brings him to school and is first met with a security desk it’s only a wonder why these communities prosper with crime. When the learning gap between children is determined on whether their rich or poor it’s only a matter of how didn’t our system fail.
Reflect on the role of play in relation to children’s physical, emotional, social and language development.
Children develop normally when they are exposed to different types of play that allow them to express themselves while using their imaginations and being physically active. According to the Center for Health Education, Training and Nutrition Awareness, “Play is child’s work”; this is true because it is a child’s job to learn and develop in their first few years of life, in order for them to do this, they play. Not only is playing a child’s full time job, the United Nations High Commission for Human Rights listed play as a right of every child. Through their full time job of play, the children develop emotionally, socially, physically, and creatively. Children need to participate in child-led play in order to facilitate healthy development of their minds, body, and creativity.
This film is important from a developmental standpoint because it highlights key theories and observations about the growth and maturation from early childhood through late adolescence. The extraordinary changes that occur through this period of life play an essential role in determining who that child will become. This movie clearly demonstrates many of the ideas discussed in our course because it realistically outlines the life changes that occur as a child grows up
Robert-Holmes, G. (2011). It’s the bread and butter of our practice’: experiencing the Early Years Foundation Stage, International Journal, 20(1), pp. 30-42.