Entry #4, 26 October 2009

Today I decided I'd like to spend my first work placement mainly with the 2-3 year olds. I feel it's at this age group that children's personalities really start to develop, and I also enjoy it more when the children are better able to communicate.

Nevertheless, I managed to meet some of the 3-4 year olds, as the 2 groups spend some time together throughout the day. I met F'e again, who I first met the previous week. She actually walked up to me and introduced herself, and then asked my name!

At one point, F'e was playing with a bag that had a picture on it. She hid the picture from me, repeatedly saying "You can't see it!", but I already knew what was on the picture. I told Frankie "Yes I can, yes I can!", and started to describe the hidden picture . As she checked my description with the actual picture, her eyes nearly popped out as they opened wide in amazement. :)

I also met a 3-4 year old boy named S'r, who I was told had Special Education Needs. Apparently, he was autistic, and was undergoing the appropriate checks and procedures to confirm it. The only thing I can recall about autism is a poor capacity for social skills, and peculiar behaviours, such as lining things up.

I may have been influenced by people telling me S'r had these behaviours, but I felt he did exhibit them. He struck me as strange first of all because I'd never met him before, but he came right up to me, grabbed my hand and proceeded to lead me away from everyone else without saying a word.

He did repeatedly line up the contents of a bowl of plastic fruit, as well as several flashcards, but I wouldn't have deemed it as excessive. Also, he did not interact with any of the other children, beyond protesting when his toys were taken, but he did laugh when an adult was playing with him by picking him up, swinging him around and tickling him.

Back to the 2-3s, there were 8 children in today.

I met a child named K't. He was in a particularly bad mood today, often getting upset and clingy. I therefore witnessed a behaviour I'd seen before, namely manipulation!

Although I don't mind holding onto a child for the whole day, it really makes it difficult for the child to take part in any developmental activities, and also causes me to be sort of a deadweight to the rest of the staff. As such, childcare practitioners will rarely latch on to a child for the whole day (unless they ARE trying to be a deadweight).

Anyway, as children get older, they discover that they can manipulate others to suit their needs. In K'm's case, he seemed well-versed in the manipulation techniques! Despite only meeting me for the first time today, the other adults were too preoccupied with other things, and so he decided to focus on me.

First of all, to get more 1 on 1 time with me, he repeatedly told me he needed to go to the toilet. Secondly, to get me to carry him, he kept requesting to look at things which were high above the ground, as earlier on in the day I'd picked him up to show him those sort of things.

One of the other tactics I've seen children use are taking their own shoes off, because I tend to sit a child on my lap to put on their shoes and socks.

Earlier in the morning, when I first arrived in the room and was talking with 2 other adults, B'a seemed glad to see me. She was smiling, waved to me, and even called out my name. I had to spend most of the day attending to K'm though. Towards the end of the day, she came up to me and requested to be carried.

B'a seemed to be unsettled by something, but I regret to say I didn't know what. I asked her if she was tired, and she said yes, so hopefully that was it. I suggested she lie down on a cushion, to which she agreed. 2 other children decided to lie down as well, and they started to argue. Unfortunately I had to leave the room to attend to other duties, and the other staff were busy as well.

 

Moving Forward

I'm meant to pick a key child whom I'd like to work closely with by the end of the week. I supposed I'd like it to be B'a, as she has a bright personality and already seems to be forming a good relationship with me.

I'm also very curious about S'r's situation. I hope I'm not being insensitive to his needs, but I feel his behaviour to be very intriguing, and how they deal with him should also be something out of the ordinary.

Wouldn't it be much more involving for a childcare practitioner if there was more at stake? There would be a feeling of great reward to see S'r progress, and on the flipside, there's also the potential for great disappointment if his condition didn't improve. I for one would feel a lot more involved in things like this, rather than writing reports on why some economic figure went up or down, why it went up or down, and whether in future it will go...up...or down...

And although the child to staff ratio was within the acceptable standards, there were times I felt the children weren't getting enough attention, such as when B'a was arguing with the other 2 children about lying on the cushions. I guess it's obvious that 1 to 1 attention is best, but that's not really feasible. I wonder how these "acceptable ratios" were decided upon?