EDU60052: Child Growth, Health, and Wellbeing

Introduction

Amelia, a little four-year-old who attends kindergarten five days a week, is the major subject of the report. Amelia is the second youngest of three children; her father works in healthcare, while her mother stays at home with the family. Amelia has lots of opportunity for group activities and unstructured play at the kindergarten, which is important for her growth. Amelia participates in a variety of activities during her carefully supervised seventy-minute outdoor kindergarten time, such as interacting with her friends, discovering her surroundings, and picking up new abilities. Amelia moved into the 35 year old room lately. Her experiences are examined to demonstrate the applicability of many theories of development, including those put out by Jean Piaget, Lev Vygotsky, and Albert Bandura. Amelia's perception of the world aligns with some parts of many theories. According to vonSalisch et al. (2022), Bandura postulates that people learn new abilities and information by emulating and observing the behaviors of others around them. Amelia demonstrates how she is expanding her knowledge via social interactions, which is a separate important idea in Vygotsky's theory of education. Piaget's idea encourages youngsters to take charge of their own learning and development. Amelia discovers the world via play, much like other children do, and by her observations and actions. Consequently, Amelia's kindergarten playtime is not only enjoyable but also essential to her overall growth.

Child and Learning

Observation 1

I recounted Amelia's five-week observation using storytelling. She received linguistic, cognitive, and social-emotional training from me. Amelia enjoys dressing up, acting a lot, and playing games, especially making them up. Amelia uses her dolls and stuffed animals to construct elaborate stories. Her interests and vivid imagination are evident in her games, where she sometimes reenacts scenes from her favorite TV show or film. Amelia is an analytical thinker who solves difficulties. Complex block constructions and puzzles put her thinking and reasoning to the test. Amelia is capable of problem-solving and creative thought. Amelia enjoys acting out stories, playing with toys, and having pretend playtime. She likes to share her thoughts and experiences with others. In general, Amelia likes to study, especially when she can use her imagination. She likes to communicate utilizing her sophisticated cognitive and linguistic abilities.

Amelia was also playing outside with her buddies Finn and Adam, as she experimented with a paintbrush and a cup of water. She had observed the water evaporate in the sun while perched on the sidewalk and applying large brushstrokes. By praising Amelia for taking the initiative to do something on her own, I hoped to encourage her inventiveness and innate curiosity. "Would you like some color?" I inquired with the hopes of expanding Amelia's horizons. She responded with a loud "Yeah!" I found some watercolors and gave them to Amelia. She mixed the pigments with excitement and started painting the cement. Finn and Adam quickly joined in, and together they created an incredible painting on the pavement. It was satisfying to witness Amelia's initiative pay off as she was able to fully explore her creative potential. By letting her use colored pencils and crayons, I promoted her development as a person and learner and enhanced her interactions with other kids (Rakap et al., 2018). It was motivating to watch the children collaborate to create their patterns on the cement.

Observation 2

Amelia was quite thrilled about our planned outside "car-roller-painting" practice this morning. Happy, she cried out to her teacher, "I want to do this craft, Joanne!" "I like 'yellow,'" Amelia responded in response to her teacher's question about her favorite hue to use while writing her name. She was corrected by the teacher, who said, "Oh, I like 'Yellow' too!" Isn't that a stunning, vibrant color? The teacher then broke the word "Yellow" down into its constituent syllables and had Amelia repeat it carefully to show her how to say it correctly. When Amelia repeated the word, the teacher was thrilled with her attempt. After that, Amelia wrote her name on the paper with her left hand and tried out various color combinations to create highways for her toy vehicles.

Amelia observed that during the game, the color "Orange" was absent. The instructor then asked Amelia which color she liked most and recommended they make it using a two-color mix. Dimitri, a different participant, suggested "Red" for the assignment. Taking turns, Amelia and Dimitri mixed the red and yellow paint, and they were both happy as "Orange" sprang to life. Using the new color, they created additional markings on their paper. They stored their papers in the painting drier once they were finished. When Amelia requested to generate the color "Pink" the next time, the instructor agreed to reschedule the task for the following week.

My findings indicate that Amelia enjoys playing, especially making up her own games. She dresses up and plays roles for a good portion of her day. She is not hesitant to include her hobbies into her games and has a strong imagination. She may act out her best scene from a television program or film. Amelia is very good at solving difficulties and using analytical thinking. She enjoys solving puzzles and building intricate block constructions to put her logic and thinking to the test. Amelia has the ability to think creatively and unconventionally to solve problems. She also likes to play pretend, which she does by dressing up, assuming different characters, and interacting with dolls and stuffed animals. She also likes to share her ideas and experiences with people and is fairly communicative. Amelia has discovered that, on the whole, she is motivated and engaged in her education, particularly when she applies her creativity. She likes using her highly developed language and cognitive skills in conversation.

Amelia eventually took on noticeably different colors (ViolaPenttinenet al., 2020). Every artist continued to experiment with different techniques to create colors and transform those colors into various shapes. Amelia saw that the water become black and that blue and yellow combined to form green as she added additional color to it. The other two children learned from Amelia from what they heard about the things she was creating and learning. When they saw that the hue blended green and blue, they invented a new name for it. She gave an explanation of how she interprets contrasts in light and dark tones. Children connect with one another both vocally and nonverbally for a variety of reasons.

Amelia struggles with listening and information processing, though, which makes her frustrated when she can't complete a job on her own. Additionally, she prefers large motor activitieslike running, leaping, and climbingover small motor activitieslike painting and sketching. Based on my observations, Amelia might benefit from further practice in obeying instructions and honing her fine motor skills. Amelia should have access to playdough, scissors, and crayons, as well as be required to follow simple instructions, if her instructor wishes to support her learning and development.

Discussions

The curriculum and methods of instruction have an impact on Amelia's growth. Respect, fairness, variety in culture, and active learning are all encouraged under the Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF). Kids may choose from a variety of learning activities according to their interests and developmental stages thanks to the center's child-centered teaching techniques. Among the methods used by the center's teachers are play-based learning, intentional teaching, and spontaneous learning (Sandilos et al., 2018). Children's learning is scaffolded and equipped with particular information and skills through intentional education. Children's social, emotional, cognitive, and physical development all increase with play-based learning. Unexpected educational opportunities encourage Amelia's amazement and curiosity.

The significance of modeling and observing in human behavior is underscored by Albert Bandura's social learning hypothesis (vonSalisch et al., 2022). Here, Amelia's ability to process new information is demonstrated through her color experiments. Furthermore, Amelia's schooling aligns with Vygotsky's theory of social constructivism, which emphasizes the importance of learning and growth via interactions with one's environment and other individuals. Vygotsky contends that social and cooperative learning activities in the classroom help kids succeed academically. Amelia's reaction to the evaporating water and her later color experiments are two instances of how her curiosity was aroused and her learning enhanced. She would have learned more if she had collaborated with her peers on more experiments. According to Piaget's constructivist theory, kids learn and grow when they actively engage with their environment. As mentioned, Amelia experimented with what was available to learn about her environment(vonSalisch et al., 2022).

Different teaching strategies, particularly the use of play in the classroom, have an impact on Amelia's learning and development. She has a tremendous desire to play, especially creative play, as adults have seen. In addition to other cognitive and social-emotional skills, children's creative play is essential for the development of their language, creativity, problem-solving, and emotional regulation skills. Amelia's extroverted nature allows her to seize unscheduled teaching opportunities. For instance, the center promotes family participation in their children's education and enables families to introduce their traditions and practices to the kids. Rakap et al. (2018) state that the EYLF concept of being linked to family, culture, and community reflects in this practice the significance of children's social and cultural environment in their learning and development.

Furthermore, Amelia's instructors follow the EYLF principles by using a play-based approach to instruction (ViolaPenttinenet al., 2020). Play-based learning increases children's interest in the learning process and desire to learn because it allows them to engage in activities that are personally relevant to them. Amelia's instructors support her in using her imagination and creativity to improve her linguistic and cognitive abilities. Amelia's instructors, for instance, motivate her to describe her experiences, make up tales, and have discussions with her friends in order to involve her in activities that advance her language and communication abilities.

Additionally, different teaching strategies, particularly those that include play into the classroom, have an impact on Amelia's learning and development. Adults have seen that Amelia has a great desire to play, particularly role-playing games. In addition to other cognitive and social-emotional skills, children's creative play is essential for the development of their language, creativity, problem-solving, and emotional regulation skills. Amelia's extroverted nature allows her to seize unscheduled teaching opportunities. She has been able to broaden her knowledge and skill set thanks to these experiences (Sandilos et al., 2018). For instance, the center promotes family participation in their children's education and enables families to introduce their traditions and practices to the kids. Rakap et al. (2018) state that the EYLF concept of being linked to family, culture, and community reflects in this practice the significance of children's social and cultural environment in their learning and development.

A child's emotional development depends on the interaction that the instructor has with the students (vonSalisch et al., 2022). For kids to learn in a safe and secure environment, they need to have positive interactions with peers and adults. Youngsters who have a close bond with their caregivers are more inclined to explore, take chances, and absorb information from their environment. Youngsters who have positive peer relationships gain competence and confidence in social situations.

Conclusion

I am a vital part of my students' academic, emotional, and social development as a teacher. Amelia's excitement to explore new things made me realize that it is my responsibility as a teacher to foster interest in my pupils and curiosity-driven learning. As a teacher, I've discovered that a variety of elements, such as the learning context, the educational techniques used, and the developmental features of the children, affect their learning and growth. I've learned from watching Amelia how important it is to give kids play-based learning experiences that are relevant to their interests and developmental requirements. My sense of readiness for teaching has increased as I've learned more about how kids learn and develop. This has enabled me to create lesson plans that take into account the advantages and disadvantages of each individual student. The first obstacle I encountered in comprehending a child's education and growth was the unique variations among the kids. It's challenging to design a curriculum that works for every child since they all have different interests, abilities, and preferred ways of learning. It takes time to construct successful lessons, so teachers must identify these differences, adjust their methods, and design tailored lessons for each student.

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