Blog two - Movement
By : Michelle Wheatley
Date: 22.03.2013
In my centre I am currently working with children aged 0-2years old. In our care we have 12 infants who are all learning to roll, sit unsupported, crawl, walk, run and many many more milestones. Each child we have had in our room learn at a different rate and at different ages.
One little girl in particular is a little over a year old and has been crawling since she started with us at 11 months old. Over the last three weeks we have noticed and documented (and written many many learning stories might i add) that she has really taken an interest is wanting to walk. When she first started taking an interest, she used a green bike outside as her aid to pull herself up and use the bike for added support has she walked around the outdoor area. She started off slow but has the week progressed she became very confident and fearless. When it came to losing balance and falling over she would get straight back up and continue to move forward. As she became very confident within herself she starting using other aids within the environment such as our wooden chairs that we sit on for our meals, they were perfect size and weight for her to pull herself up on and push around our lino floor.
In the second week of observations we noticed her standing on her own with any support from an aid or a teacher. She would pull herself up against furniture then let go and stand for short periods at a time. At first she was very uneasy on her feet and was only standing for short amounts of time (3 - 5 seconds). Has the week continued she started standing for longer periods of time (30 seconds plus).
At the beginning of this week, dad had mentioned when he dropped her off that she had taken her first three steps at home. From here I have encouraged her over the course of the week to keep going and trying. By midweek this little girl who we had been watching develop her own way to learn how to walk was taking 10 steps all together.
This one little girl has become a very confident young girl who others and myself have spent a lot of time encouraging to continue her further development with her confidence within her self and abilities and her gross motor skills. MacNaughton and Williams (2009) states that "Physically helping a child with a task may involve holding their hand as they enter a situation about which they feel apprehension, or helping them to use a piece of equipment by holding it steady" (p.69). By helping this little girl and encouraging her, she has learnt to walk and I have Incorporated simple strategies into my everyday teaching. This little girl has become very aware of how far she can push her body. She has developed a sense of no fear at all. When she falls she gets up and continues to move forward with no tears at all. Ministry of education (1996) states that "as they explore their world, children gain confidence in the control and use of their bodies" (p.98). I have continued to observe and document all the learning that is happening and turning these into learning stories. These have all started with one simple observation and I have continued to write learning stories and add these to her portfolio has well as display these on our wall with more stories on movement with other children in the room. Arthur, Beecher, Death, Dockett, & Farmer (2007) states that "Learning stories help to make children's learning visible for families and encourage educators, families and children to discuss learning together" (p.60).
KEEP ON WALKING!!!
Hey Michelle,
ReplyDeleteLoved reading your blog about the little girl in your room who has recently learnt to walk, it must be amazing as a teacher in the infants room to be part of these great achievements and milestones in child's life. Its wonderful to hear that you and the other teachers have continued to encourage her to be a confident walker and further develop her gross motor skills. I was wondering, is there any technology, digital or non-digital that helped this little girl to learn to walk or any kind of technology that influenced her or prompted her to walk in the centre or even in her home life? "Most children now experience a range of technologies as part of everyday life" (Arthur, Beecher, Death, Dockett & Farmer, 2007, p. 12), for eg: perhaps you could have used a bright, colorful toy as a prompt that had attractive lights or noises to get the little girl to walk to, reach for or try get to.
Awesome work, cheers
References
Arthur, L., Beecher, B., Death, E., Dockett, S., & Farmer, S. (2008). Programming and planning in early childhood settings (4th ed.). Victoria, Australia: Thompson.
Hi Bex,
DeleteThe only form of non digital technology that has been used are the outdoor bikes, so this helps her to move faster around the outdoor area to get where she wants to be. And inside she uses a wooden chair that is at perfect height for her and pushes this around the room. This little girl is a very active little girl who has always wanted to walk but only recently become confident enough to start uses such aids and stated above and as of this week take her first steps with us in the centre.
Thanks Bex!!
How fortunate you are Michelle to be part of this amazing moment of achievment. It is great that you have the repore with the parents so you are able to have a wider perspective of what occurs at home and that you are able to build on it(Ministry of Education, 1996).Maybe you could speak with the parents and find out if there is a particular piece of technology that she uses at home this could support the links between home and centre to further support her confidence (Santrock, 2009). In a sense you are her piece of technology, someone who enables her to discover and explore how her own body works and the fact that you have been there for 18 months sort of makes you part of the furniture. Are there pictures or graphics that depict children walking in the toddler room? this too could support the child in developing further skills (Ministry of Education, 2007). Grapics books which I would use in my childhood was how I learnt to walk along side the adults.I enjoyed the clip on how to support your child thankyou look forward to your next blog
ReplyDeleteMichelle you are so lucky to work with these very special moments in a child and families life. I can hear from your reflection that you honour this and try and share every moment with the parents. It was so beautiful to read.
ReplyDeleteI think you are also very clever to have seen the benefit of this reflection. You have made me think about what is involved in an infant and toddler room. The technology you have described has been made at a size that is just right for little hands and feet. You have definitely captured Smorti’s (1999) definition of technology where “technology is about helping people and solving problems” (p.5).
You blog has reminded me of the time when my son was 12 months and at day care. I felt an awful mum for leaving him and felt like I was missing out on so much. Do you know if someone had offered me a private blog where they captured the special moments on video I would have jumped at the chance. I know I would have uploaded my own videos to share with the teachers too. What are your thoughts on this Michelle? Has the course made you think of new ways that you can communicate with you families and share the awesome moments (Wang, 2008; Yang, 2009).
Thank you so much for truly making me think with your post! Loving this blog and watching you as a teacher. Hearing you here I would have happily left my son with such a wonderful, responsive caring teacher.
Thank Michelle for another wonderful blog. You are so lucky to work with such a special age group, my heart is defiantly with the under twos so I enjoyed reading your blog entry very much. I think it was a very responsive of you as a teacher to ensure that your child had opportunities to develop her gross motor skills both in and outdoors as it is very important for children to have these opportunities at this age (Gonzalez-Mena, 2008). I loved the use of the non digital technology in your blog, Items such as chairs and bikes where getting manipulated into pieces of technology with a completely different purpose unique to that child’s current need. I feel this helps remind us again that technology is anything that helps or assists in making something easier (Smorti, 1995). Through watching your child use the pieces of technology around her help advance a particular skill made you more conscious of your environment set up?
ReplyDeleteThanks Jamee