Hello hello is anybody there?
25/08/2011
Three weeks ago as I was helping out tidying up the dining area, I noticed child G sitting at the family corner, she was busy having a conversation on the phone. There were two telephones on the table, she reaches for the handset and was busy chatting away with her head down.
She appeared to be in full conversation with the caller. I tried my best not to interrupt so I observed her just few steps away from her. I could hear her asking, “hello...anybody there?” and then there were few repetitions of “Yeah” and “How are you?” and “Yes” as in agreeing to what she and her caller were discussing. Few minutes after that, she put down the handset back onto the telephone, picked up the cordless phone and began to have another conversation again. By then she has already noticed that I she was being observed by me so she has cut this conversation shorter.
I walked up to her slowly and sat about a meter away from her so she has enough space because I did not want to feel I had invaded her space to play and said “Hi G, who were you talking to?” she replied “My mum” I asked “What was she saying?” and she replied “She was busy and we are going to the shops to get some presents!” we talked for few more minutes and mentioned that the present was for father’s day. We then spoke about the different kinds of presents we liked to give to our father for the upcoming Father’s Day that weekend. I asked her she would like to give make a Father’s Day card for her daddy so in the end I helped her out in making a Father’s Day card for her to take back home to her daddy.
The evidence showed how we are surrounded by the world of technology, in our homes and also within the Early Childhood. Every day we rely on technology for communication with the outside world. This goes to the children at our centres as well, we notice and have witnessed how it influences the lives of each child within our care. We as teachers play a huge role in signifying the use of technology on our children’s learning and development.It can be seen that children do notice how important technology can be for our lives because we use it every day, child G imitated what happens at home or maybe at her parent’s office or even at school when a teacher communicates on the phone.
Cognitive theorist, Jean Piaget as quoted by Curtis & Hagen was that children are active learners and that the two activities that are important for the development of infants and children are play and imitation. Piaget explained that during play, children act out their already established behavior and adapt reality to fit in an enjoyable manner and during imitation, children are trying to copy other people's actions in order to understand the world around them (Curtis & Hagen, 2003, p.115). Te Whāriki also states that in order to participate in this world, our children will need the confidence to develop their own perspectives as well as the capacity to continue acquiring new knowledge and skills (Ministry of Education, 1996).
Reference
Curtis, A. & O'Hagan, M. (2003). Play: All work and no play
Reference
Curtis, A. & O'Hagan, M. (2003). Play: All work and no play
makes jack a dull boy. In Care and education in early
childhood: A student's guide to theory and practise. London:
Routledge Falmer.
Ministry of Education. (1996). Te Whāriki: He whāriki mātauranga mo nga mokopuna o Aotearoa .Wellington: Learning Media.
* Images are from Google.com
* Images are from Google.com
It is great that child G learned how to use this device to engage in pretend play and imitate her own and other people's experiences of talking on the phone. Using the phone is a great way for children to extend upon their language, cognitive, motor, imaginative and creative skills. They also develop “the confidence to choose and experiment with materials, to play around with ideas, and to explore actively with” their senses (Ministry of Education, 1996, p. 88). It was really great that you used this experience to extend upon her telephone conversation by making her father's day present into a reality - awesome!
ReplyDeleteThis is a great experience. It shows how adult actions have an impact on children. Children often see adults talking on the phone and as children imitate adults they naturally use play phones to talk on the phone like adults do. It was great that you were able to take a step back so that you weren't invading her space but still in distance to observe and engage in conversation with her. Through the experience of her in conversation over the phone she is able to develop her language, social, emotional and creative skills as she engages in a make believe phone call with her mum. It also links her centre life with her home life which is great. A suggestion could be to possibly give her the opportunity at some time to use the 'real' phone to make a phone call to her mum maybe that way she is able to experience dialing the number and making a real phone call to her mum. It was great that you were able to engage in conversation with her about what she was talking to her mum about and extend it by asking her if she would like to make a fathers day card for her father. Great job Lorraine!
ReplyDeleteWhat a cool experience to capture happening. This is a everyday experience a lot of children like to be involved in. At my centre the children love using the phone to call people that are important in their lives. Pretend phones of course. I think it's great the children have experience in using the phone it helps them build confidence in social skills and helps their language skills. I think it's also great how you stood back from her to observe and let her interact with this technology. She has obviously connected this with the phone being used at home or elsewhere. You could extend this interest by making cups into phones so she is able to have a conversation with her peers. You could also let her call her mum or dad or a grandparent so she can talk to them and build onto her language skills and confidence. Awesome well done Lorraine
ReplyDeleteHi Lorraine, The use of props is commonly used by educators in early childhood. I myself make an active effort to take in to centre old appliances or packets from food items to stimulate the children and form an association between home and the centre. This aids the children by giving them a sense of belonging, the telephone used in this reflection is one of the connecting links that helps children develop, "an understanding of the links between the early childhood education setting and the known and familiar wider world through people, images, objects, languages, sounds, smells, and tastes that are the same as at home" (Ministry of Education, 1996, p.56).
ReplyDeleteChildren are like sponges they soak up information that they are directly exposed to. The language demonstrated by the child while deeply involved in fantasy play shows this. " Social cognitive theorists stress that people acquire a wide range of behaviors, thoughts, and feelings through observing others' behavior and that these observations form an important part of life-span development".(Santrock, J., 2010, p.27).