Relationship with self
Kai is 14 months old and has been attending the children’s centre full-time since he was three months of age. He is adored by the education team and his teacher Malak has been with him since he enrolled, and they have a trusting bond. In the last few weeks, Kai has started to become frustrated with the other children who range in age from six months to two years of age, including fighting over play materials or getting angry for no apparent reason. This week he has bitten two of the younger infants and his parents and the teaching team are at a loss to know why this is happening as Kai is happy most of the time. They have tried distracting him with things he likes to do such as playing with balls, moving around the room and playing with trucks, but this does not always work.
Relationship with others
Seong is 2 years of age and she has been having trouble transitioning into childcare, which she attends two days each week. Seong is an only child and has been transitioning to childcare since her mother returned to work six weeks ago. She’s refusing to eat and sleep while in the setting and she is persistently calling for ‘mama’ or ‘dada’. Her teachers Vic and Efe observe she plays alongside the other children and appears to have moments where she is happy as she engages with the experiences which are planned for her, especially looking at books, playing with blocks and the sandpit outside.
Relationship with curriculum
Duri has been enrolled in kindergarten for six months. He has excellent communication skills with adults, numeracy skills and an interest in anything scientific. He is 5 years old and his parents believe he’s gifted. Duri rarely engages with any of the children at kindergarten and he prefers to take part in the learning experiences in isolation as he sits quietly, completing challenging puzzles or Lego sets, similar to what he does at home. His teacher Lee has tried to engage him in several social experiences and is concerned that although Duri has areas of strength, his social skills need to develop, and he refuses to engage with creative and physical activities at all. Duri’s parents are asking Lee for advice about enrolling him in a gifted program early.
Task
Your task is to:
Select one resource and one teaching strategy for each scenario, that reflect the needs of the child to support their behaviour. Your selection should demonstrate consideration for the child’s relationship to self, others and the curriculum. Each item should be clearly labelled with the week number and topic of each scenario. You must respond to all three scenarios.
Write one rationale per scenario (3 rationales in total) to justify the selection of the resource and strategy, explaining how they support the behaviours identified in the scenario and how they will contribute to establishing and maintaining a positive and productive learning environment.
Your rationales should:
- Identify and discuss the child’s behaviour regarding relationship to self, others and the curriculum within the scenarios.
- Discuss and analyse learning behaviour theory, principles, policies and practices in relation to the scenarios. Examples of practice can illustrate your reasoning for the resource and strategy.
- Discuss how the resource supports positive models of behaviour to guide and support infants, toddlers and pre-school children in their social and emotional skills.
- Include unit readings and relevant research-based literature.
- Include in-text citations.
- Adhere to the word count of 500 words per scenario (3 scenarios x 500 words = 1500 words).
Your folio format:
- Can use dot points and clear headings.
- Can use an appendix including additional items that relate to the strategies and resources (not counted in the word count).
- Must include an APA 7th reference list (not included in the word count).
Tips to complete this assignment:
- An example of a resource could be an ‘All about me’ book that supports a child’s transition to childcare. Another example could be an app for an iPad and explanation on how this would be used.
- The resource you choose should target the underlying behaviour, not the academic side, e.g. We do not want to see a reading resource for a child struggling with reading rather one that targets his sense of worth.
- You do not need to explain the theory in this assignment. Simply state which one it is and how it applies to your scenario/resource.
- At this level, OLAs do not want to see simplistic resources such as reward or sticker charts, applications for funding etc. The emphasis is how are you going to address this behaviour (reduce its occurrence in the future- preventative).
- Stick with the information you have been given in each scenario. Do not try and extrapolate extra information or presume detail that isn’t there. The scenarios are brief but contain enough information (alongside the related readings and learning materials) to choose resources and complete this assignment.
- Look at the focus for each week when choosing your resource i.e. Relationship with self, others etc. This, along with the learning materials, should help you choose an appropriate resource.
- This assignment is not an essay. Each section needs to be written separately. The folio needs to be professional and usable in the industry so third person is required.
- View 4.6 Activity: Getting started with Assignment 2 for an example of how to approach this task.