Reflection on Chapter 10 & 15

Chapter 10

Within last decade our society has become much more diverse. Government at the National, State and local levels have introduced new interventions to improve the early childhood literacy development.

I have spent most of my life in Pakistan and view this from a different cultural perspective. I care for young children from all around the world; China, India, and Russia. Similarly, my other team members are from Nepal and Mexico. It is important to have a diverse group n the class.Because when children are among children from different cultural backgrounds, who feel shy as well to the environment, they do not feel alienated.

Teachers should learn some words and short sentences from their students’ parents. A child from another culture and language can feel comfortable and be relaxed . if he hears familiar language in unfamiliar environment and finds it easy to adjust. I use to care for a Chinese girl who did not speak any English. In her home parents spoke Chinese. In the case of this Chinese girl it was difficult to learn English and Chinese . She did not want to socialize or participate in any activity accept painting or art work. I asked the mother if she can give me some Picture book for children with words in English and Chinese. Sharing bilingual story books worked very well in our group.. I also used my computer to translate English into different languages for the purpose of communicating with bilingual children. In turn I learned a few words in Chinese and other languages. This strategy worked well with the child and she felt happy and confident. She looked at me with surprise and happiness when I used some words in Chinese. I started using words in Chinese to other children and she liked the idea. This girl started telling children words from her book of pictures.

I asked the parents about their holidays and about their culture. Late in the week we did art work related to their holiday.s Children learned new words and had variety of art work to express themselves. As it is mentioned in this chapter, “ Elley (1997) showed that vocabulary knowledge was developed incidentally from listening to stories in school, even when there is no explanations from the teacher.”

Chapter 15:-

Pretend play has been under consideration by researchers in the field of childhood development since 1920’s. pretense play has roots that lead to piaget’s work and observations .Pretend play has always been a source of expression for children and source of information for the teacher. As Piaget(1946/1962)did the observations of his own child, a 15 month old who used a fringed cloth as a pretend pillow and pretended being sleeping by blinking her eyes time to time,Piaget’s observations that pretense play begin somewhere around 12 and 15 months were confirmed by later researches (Nicholich, 1977). .Pretend play has always been a source of expression for children and source of information for the teacher. .An adult/ teacher can learn a lot about the child’s cultural, domestic environment and social background as well as their mental state through their pretend play as Piaget showed through his observations.. Through pretend play children get engage into social interactions and develop language and literacy skills. From the age of 18months to 2 yrs very important changes occur in children

1) increase in the frequency of pretend play

2) lessening of solitary pretend play.

At this age pretend play is valued and encouraged. By the 2^nd yr children involve familiar adults or siblings/ friends, replica objects such as dolls and toys in their pretend play.

I asked one of the the parents during my practicum interviews about the importance of play. I asked “ What do you play with your child or what does your child likes to play indoors?” and how they play with their children“When weather does not permit to go outside?”. Most of the parents of girls said she likes to play tea party games and baby doll pretend games. In the sample of people I interviewed, boys preferred to portray their dads. It is important to get children engaged in pretend play and to teach them the values to develop communication, language and problem solving skills. Children express their dreams and desires through pretend play.

In my day care I observe children show their feelings, as they pretend play with toys showing one toy in mom or dad’s character and one as themselves.They do pretend play as the baby is sleeping and every one has to be quite because the baby is sleeping, changing diaper, feed time all this kind of pretend play exposes child’s home environment and their state of satisfaction with their surroundings. Additionally , children learn about cultures from pretend play as children in my care copy me , and wear my scarf and pretend to be me, use some of my language words that they hear from me. In a diverse environment children learn about different cultures through pretend play.We can teach children through pretend play as well, because they will remember more when they get involved in some pretend play and learning becomes more enjoyable and memorable event.

I wanted to teach a child that a super hero game could be positive and not played as harshly and rough. This way no one gets hurt. I got invoved  in a superhero pretend game with children and incorporated little mellow approach to playing. As a result they liked the idea and adopted it.

Adult participation in pretend play with children is also of importance to a child because usually you switch roles in it and learns how a child feels and children learn how an adult feels. As I explained earlier children take my scarf and pretend to be me (the Teacher)and I take over their role and pretend to be like  one of them. It’s fun  learning experience. It was an interesting chapter regarding Pretend Play. I hope to see benefits of pretend play in children’s development as I work closely with them.