January 11, 2023
I have chosen two children to observe and work with in my Special Needs Practicum. A little girl named E, who experiences large feelings and faces challenges expressing them and will often start hitting, kicking, and screaming. I want to take the time to observe her, see what leads up to those feelings, and find ways in which I as an ECE can best support her within the classroom. Another child I have chosen is a little boy named D, there have been concerns expressed about his development socially and academically. He recently turned 3 and faces many challenges within the classroom when it comes to following instructions and socializing with his peers. Within my practicum, I want to support him the best way I can and reflect on how we can create an environment to which both of the children, and each child in general, can thrive to their fullest potential.
January 12, 2024
Today, I observed and worked with D and as I mentioned, D has challenges socially as well as following instructions. Today, D asked me to join in an activity with him where we played with blocks and built a house. There was a friend who wanted to join in and asked D if he could put a block on the house, D did not respond but continued engaging with me. After I welcomed our friend and encouraged him to share his ideas and thoughts, D joined in and was very excited to participate with his friend.
I want to ensure I’m not pushing D too much to which he is uncomfortable with the social interactions. In my practicum I want to mainly support D, and provide support and encouragement. Next time, I want to observe more before I step in.
July 16, 2024
Pedagogical Commitment: I want to ensure that each child receives inclusive and well-rounded care that best suits their needs and wants.
Each child is unique in their own way, and each comes with their own strengths and weaknesses. It’s important to be mindful of the child’s background and home life as in addition, no two will be the same.
A child I’m paying particular attention to has frequent outbreaks during transition times. These cause stress on the other children, and the educators, as well as create a situation where she cannot calm her own body as she gets incredibly worked up. My hope and goal is that each child feels welcomed and excited to come each day, so I’ve been trying different techniques to assist her in finding ways to relieve her feelings without putting educators and other children in harm’s way.
Today, she had a particularly hard time with the bathroom transition, I wanted to assist her to the best of my ability, and I wouldn’t have taken her to the bathroom had she not told me she needed to use the washroom. While in the washroom, she began kicking, screaming, and hitting, which resulted in the children within the washroom being brought outside to aid them from harm’s way.
What I remember learning in previous ECE classes is to not interact with a child when they things have escalated, give them the time and space they need as they are only human and right now they are learning to regulate their emotions. An area I want to work on is acknowledging exactly when she starts experiencing her emotions, and prevent it escalating, such as taking her for a short walk around the center.
January 24, 2024
Today I tried a new technique learned in ECED 3350 which is mapping the children we have chosen to focus our practicum on. Today I tried it with the little girl E. E struggles with expressing her emotions in really big ways, oftentimes which include kicking, hitting, and screaming. The mapping technique allows us to observe how the children interact with other children and how other children interact with them. In addition, we get to observe how the child is during transition times, which has proven to be one of the more challenging times for E. During this mapping observation, I noticed that she becomes really busy and unsure once transitions start happening, it causes her to panic a little bit in which case if it’s one she does not want to participate in, such as going outside, she will try to run away, scream, and kick. Upon noticing when she starts to feel frustrated, I gave her the sand timer to take a moment to herself before asking her to continue with the transition. The sand timer is set for 2 minutes and she was able to read a book or play with a toy. Once the sand timer was done, she knew what to do right away, she put her toy away, the sand timer was put on the teacher desk, and she followed instructions for getting ready with her friends.
I feel like this technique worked really well for her. It gave her a timeline which she had to follow, she received clear instructions on what to do, and was ready to participate with her peers.