My blog is going to be full of my thoughts, reflections, doubts, questions about my experiences as a student taking Teaching Practicum I. I am so willing to discover lots of interesting topics about children and this blog will help me to reveal what is inside children's mind.
Iliana and Jc's turn and the last class came finally!! :D
Warm up and Presentation
The class was about the parts of the body! I came late to the class, and most of the class had begun :( but I hearded that the begining of the class was terrific!! The students sang the "How are you today"song very enthusiastically along with the teachers! The song was the same, but yesterday I did not know if they used the video-song. The fact that they were more enthusiastic than the rest of us in previous classes, and they were all moving around!
Practices
Then, the next thing I saw is that Iliana was using two different flashcards with the "Yes, I do and No, I don't!" and she was asking them if they had three mouths, hands, heads, eyes, ears, nose, etc. They had to respond according to what they had in the page Ileana gave them. They actually responded, but with a bit of difficulty. Though, they actually had fun and with the page and they responded.
I liked very much the Jc activity in which they had to roll the dice and a number and color was shown. In the wall the numbers and colored pages were pasted and according to the number and color they had to go and unstick the paper. The paper showed a picture and then Jc asked them: What is this? I thought that the students were not going to be able to say the answer of the picture, but they did. All the students had the chance to at least roll the dice
twice and discovered more items under the numbers.
I did not agree with the directions Jc gave when he gave the students a ball and said: "Put the ball behind your arm". I did not like because I think that not everybody was able to do it, I think this instruction is complicated to understand and is complex. But and instruction like: "Put the ball on your head", would suit the activity. The Simon says activity was very good managed and speaking of discipline I think that Jc controled the ones that were misbehaving and by doing this the activity could continue. They liked it, but then he felt that they were kind of bored doing the same, so he speed up the activity.
King Simon and Jc
I liked the part in which Jc sang with the children and he shake the different parts of the body. All the children were very happy to sing and they were not shy to move around with Jc. This gave them the opportunity to review the target vocabulary and more importantly, Jc could noticed that most of vocabulary was remembered and internalized by the children. Both were very energetic and managed the class so nice! Jc needed Iliana's help along the class. We disscussed that this is not good for him, because at the end of this he and everybody else will be alone giving classes. I know that he and most of the classmates had not had much experience in this field, but it is better to know that we failed, but we can then learn experience from this and put our best to succed next time of teaching.
Time to end English Class!!
Chatting after a long day!
Stickers
Snack time!
Imelda's development!!!
Following up my case of study, I think that when she is working in the activities, she works and follows the instructions. She is able to work in groups or individually. She liked very much to move and even thought she does not sing like every word of the last song, she follows the river of singing!! At the first contact of English she had, she told me that she was not undestanding anything the teacher Luis and Gloria said! I saw her very frighthen and not willing to participate. I just saw that she is very shy to participate actively, thus it is simply important that when the teacher wanted Imelda to participate, the technique is to call her by the name. This way, they wake up and know that we want their cooperation or attention in the activity.
Hello! It is nice to meet again in the blog! Hoping that you are reading and following me in this adventure! In this opportunity, my classmates Cristela, Gisselt and Monica had to develop a topic called "At home" which they had to present vocabulary related, plus a review of the first class that Luis and Gloria did. I will develop my thoughts, comments to improve on or suggestions for them to take into account for further classes. We have to remember that the group of students were 15 and their cognitive abilities varied which is good because we can absolutely develop a series of activities prepared for their multiple characteristics. WARM UP The first thing that I noticed is that they used a video-song "hello" to welcome the students. I think that this was so useful for them to start thinking that it is time to learn English! I think that Gisselt use it properly giving the students the chance to be happy and chant a little. The lyric is easy to understand. However, I think that the song was not played enough so they can enjoy more the song. This would have been enhanced if the group of the teachers had song at least four times the song and more important let the children to sing and move along with them. PRESENTATION
Giss presented the class. She used a power presentation. I think that it was so nice designed and because this was for children, it had to be simple and so clear. Students were paying attention to it while Giss was eliciting or giving the presentation. I liked the fact that she called the child's name if the student was not paying attention to her or was distracted. This is an excellent technique to implement! I will use it next time. PRACTICE This stage is so important because in here we are able to see that students are capable of practicing what they had just learnt. Giss gave the students boxes to each of them and students had to use their pencil or pen to do the activity. Giss was saying: "The pencial is on the box", "the pencil is in the box", so that each preposition was used. I think that what was complicated to do for a child is that they did not know how to identify the front and the back of the box. For me, in order to put this in the box, Giss could have put a door at the front of the box, pretending to be a house; this may have helped the children, because some of them were confused whether the pencil will be put behind the box or not. This is significative but not so much of importance. Then, it was a chart that the prepositions were there with a proper draw so the students could identify each preposition. They had the chance to practice more, and Giss asked them "where is the ball?" and they said: "the ball is on the box", pointing to the draw that accompanied the prepo. This was so useful! I think that even though they are good readers, some were not and the drawing guided them to identify each prepo according to the actual draw or picture. The next activity that I liked and that it was under debate on the class, was Cristela's kinestetic activity.
She developped and managed it well. I think that she could have done better if the control of order was manage, but children were so energetic that moment that sometimes even when you said "behave!", they did not behave, they just wanted to move around the room that they even scream of joy! I said that this activity was under debate, because someone said that they just followed the oldest children to move and look for the preposition. The prepositions were sticked in the floor with the word and a picture of it. They just moved, but I think that was went wrong is that it was not observable in itself if the children were just copying the movements of the oldest children or they actually got the information. Then, the practices were related with the alphabet, the numbers, colors all of these gave the children the chance to recycling all the vocabulary they had learned in the first class. Then, I also liked Monica´s activity in which students were given a sheet of paper with a drawing of a room. This room contained elements of the vocabulary of the classroom, like ruler, book, toys, etc and the new one. Monica said: Where is the doll? and she called a girls's name or boy's name for the answer. Then, the boy or girl had to grab the object that was named and put it on the exact place that teacher Monica mentioned.
MY CASE OF STUDY: IMELDA MARIEL ABARCA
Well, I have reached this part where I want to update you about my case of study. This means that I observe this girl and how she manages in each activity. It is really interesting to note their advancement in the learning process. First, I can say that Imelda is a quiet student, though this does not mean that she does do what the teachers asked her to respond or do. In fact, she answers to the questions she is asked by the teachers. Sometimes she is helped by Maritza, an older girl. She is very active and responsive in the activities, wheter the activities are quiet or moving. When Giss was presenting the topic, Mariel was writing on her notebook and one can think that she was not paying attention to Giss and to the lesson. However, when Giss asked her something like "Where is the pencil?" She said the prepositon only and Giss completed the sentence. I think that she is learning even when she knows she is the youngest in the group, she is very capable of participating in any activity.
Me pareció una gran idea que el primer contacto que hiciéramos con los niños fuera de manera libre, interactiva y en nuestro idioma. Queríamos saber con esta clase Diagnostico cuales eran las habilidades que nuestros niños tenían, en que eran buenos, si tenían conocimiento del idioma Ingles y que les gustaba hacer en general.
En la fotografía, podemos ver que les gusta el trabajo en equipo y que son capaces de realizar tareas que requieren esta habilidad. Unos se comportaban solidarios y se ayudaban mutuamente para concretar lo que se les indicaba. Muchos también sabían muchas palabras en Inglés y se notaba que habían disfrutado el aprender esas palabras. Esto es un indicativo positivo para que nosotros los de la práctica continuemos sembrando ese gusto por el idioma. No es sencillo cuando a un niño ya grande no le gusta aprenderlo, es aún para el profesor más difícil que el alumno se involucre en la clase. Por esto mismo, nuestra tarea como bien lo explicó teacher Yanni, es la de que ellos se muestren agradados por nuestras actividades en las clases, que se interesen aún más y que podamos darles todo lo mejor de nosotros cuando estén con nosotros en las prácticas.
La tarea que estamos viendo en la foto, requirió que se involucraran todos en el armado de un rompecabezas. Yo pude notar que estaban muy entusiasmados con la idea y también cuando mi compañera Iliana los integró en grupos de cuatro para que armaran un salvavidas y ayudar a Peter (un huevo) a que no se quebrara.
En esta otra foto, mi compañero Luis esta iniciando la clase y todos estan muy atentos a las indicaciones. Este grupo de ninos es bien variado tanto en conocimientos, destrezas, energia y area académica. Por ello, es que necesitábamos conocerlos en unos aspectos y ver de que manera ellos son capaces de desenvolverse en las actividades que se planearan en el futuro.
También quiero compartir que para mi fue muy bonita experiencia estar con ellos al final de esta sesión. Propuse que ellos pudieran expresar de manera breve lo que sentían de la clase que habían tenido con todos nosotros en la universidad. Todos esperaban que las siguientes clases fueran divertidas, así que eso es lo que nos tenemos que proponer para puedan aprender jugando.
Friday, September 13th, 2013. The first class just came! The two classmates that were going to start the English classes were Luis and Gloria. So, let's go! First, Luis went directly to the point. I think that this is not good for the students who are not in touched and familiar with English. They just started and begun to teach the lesson. Luis presented it and he used very good materials for me. This helped him to develop the class, but the flashcards were not made for standing still (hard paper), the sheets of papers were weak and obviously you can have problems with it. Then, I guess when it is your first contact with children you are not accustomed to error correcting them and you may fail with your tone of voice, too. Thus, this elements could bring serious or not so problems with the children, because they tell everthing and then they no longer go to classes. Then, I just remember that they had a matching activity. Students had a strip of paper with the word of any of the vocabulary target and the only thing was to put it under the picture that corresponded. They did it, but they just went and sticked the strip of paper. He missed out the order of participation and this way he could have corrected or helped the students. Some of them who are leaning to read in the mother tongue seem very lost and could complete the task with peer help. Then, I also remember that Luis called out names of the objects of the classroom, and some of them raised the object like pencil, pen, eraser. They were lost in a moment but they were able to demostrate that they were remembering the vocabulary. They also asked the colors, numbers. Gloria worked with the topic of alphabeth. I think that she was doing nice because she projected a special energy and then when an activity just seemed not to
work she immediately adapted it and continue with it. I think that she had to reflect on the way of modeling, giving short and clear instructions at the moment of explaining them. By doing this, she will have the opportunity to get better results in her activities and she will notice that students will get the message. She also wanted them to make a line, but they did not understand so they took too much time in making it. I think that she must reduce their teacher talking, so that next time they do more (Ss) and let them practice more.
MY CASE OF STUDY This is Imelda Mariel Abarca. She is six years old. In the picture, she is younger... she has always been extrovertive in her family environment. She is in preschool, she is barely learning how to write and read; knows a few letters and how to write them.
The group that we have is mixed and diverse in knowledge. They have different ages and they have multiple and nice knowledge of the target language. What I see from the official class that started on September 13th, is that the children were kind of shy to participate and seem lost. This is not a general truth, because they liked to participate even when they did not understand most of what Luis and Gloria (my classmates) were saying. They implement their body language to transmit the message, examples, modeling and they finished with the practice of the lesson. I have to talk about how I perceived my case of study and I would like to discuss first what I saw as let's say, disadvantegeous or problematic with Imelda. 1. Since she is begining to recognize how to read words in our mother tongue (Spanish), she is not able yet to read in English. At the begining of the class, Luis elicited like 8 new words (vocabulary of the classroom) and I saw that she was copying the words but I bet she was wondering what those words meant. The rest of the group was able to read them easily, because the rest of the children are between 7 and 10. What she did at the time she was not getting into the task, is that she approached me and told me that she could not understand anything and that I was the one who had to translate for her. I just told her that she was going to learn and that she was going to do everything good. 2. I also felt that she was not that into the activities that my partners were developing. Maybe she felt left behind and she did not pay attention as she was supposed to. When they were sitted on th floor, Imelda put herself at the back and was doing something else. I believe that a better order with the 15 students could have helped the SS and the T when developing the activity. We all have to be aware of this. They have to feel that they are part of the learning or games, if not they will be bored and will not participate.
These are the two thouths that I had in mind to explain. However, there are positive actitudes that were present in this day. They participate in every activity, most of the kids learnt the lesson, the activities that my classmates prepared were actractive and and they reached confidence in this class. Hopefully, they continue like this and get better friday after friday. It is reasonably to think that the process of Imelda in gaining experience, confidence in the learning process must be continuos and intensive. This can perfectly can done or reached through the constant inmersion in the target language. It is possible. Teachers have to remember and analize how to set activities that integrate this kind of children in English classes. They are capable if the task is well set and organized for the type of characteristic they have. See you!!!
I will describe what I consider relevant facts or details of this cognitive disorder. I did some research and I will gather information from the pdf file that we will discuss later in class.
There are two types of ADD:
1) Hyperactive
2) DA without hyperactivity
DHD-I is similar to other subtypes of ADHD in that it is characterized primarly by inattention, forgetfulness. In some cases, children enjoy learning may develop a sense of fear when faced with structures or planned work, especially long or group-based that requires extended focus, even if they thoroughly understand the topic.
The inattentive children may realize on some level that they are somehow different inetrnally from their peers. However, they are also likely to accept and internalize the continous negative feedback, creating a negative self-image that becomes self-reinforcing.
If these children progress into adulthood undiagnosed or untreated, their inattentiveness, ongoing fustrations and poor-self image frequently create numerous and severe problems maintaining healthy relationships, succeeding in post secondary shooling or succeeding in the workplace. These problems can compound fustrations and low-self esteem and will often lead to the development of secondary pathologies including anxiety, sexual promiscuity mood disorders and substance abuse. This to me represent the worst decision that a normal person can do; it is not advisible to moke this people, we do not know how profound the memories of what we say can threaten them.
It affects from 2% to 11% or more to those children who attend school around the world and it is characterized by inattentivness and excessive distractibility, forgetful in daily activities, has trouble keeping attention on tasks or play activities, does not give attention to details or makes careless mistakes in school work, work or other activities, loses things needed for tasks and activities and does not follow instruction and fails to finish schoolwork, chores or duties in the workplace ( not due to oppositional behavior or failure to understand instructions).
What can teacher and parents do to fight and cope with this disorder?
Children with ADD or ADHD can be extremely disorganized. Parents should work with them to find specific places for everything and teach kids to use calendars and schedules.
Parents are advised to get children into sports to help them build discipline, confidence and improve their social skills. However, sports and physical activity boosts the brains's dopamine, norepnephrine and serotonin levels and all those neurotransmitters affect focus and attention, some sports may be too challenging and can add fustration. In order to avoid this, parents should talk with their children about what activities and exercises most estimulate and satisfy them before signing them up for classes or sports.
Besides, toddlers and preschoolers may be unable to sit still, follow even simple directions, or control impulses. They may become angry for no reason and hit their peers or siblings. They tend to be impatient, interrupting others when they are talking or playing. They may move constanty, jump from one activity to another, and have a high level of energy and a low sense of danger.
How to recognize ADHD symptoms at every age?
I have a anecdote from a teacher experiencing the ADHD:
Although Carol Stevenson didn’t suspect attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) when her son, Jacob, was very young, she still knew at an early age that there was something different about her child. As a toddler, Jacob was slow to talk and often resorted to hitting out of frustration. By the time he started kindergarten, he was speaking well, but his behavior was sometimes troublesome and disruptive at school.
“He was always playing with things, dropping his pencil, or using one pencil to flick another off the desk,” says Stevenson, who lives in Santa Clarita Valley, Calif. “He didn’t pay attention in class and would get up and walk around.” As a result, she says, he was always being redirected, reprimanded, and sent to the principal’s office.
Shortly after Jacob started first grade, Stevenson received a call from his teacher that ultimately led to a diagnosis of ADHD (previously known as attention deficit disorder, or ADD). “She said in her 30 years of teaching, he was only the second or third child she had so quickly recognized as having ADHD,” recalls Stevenson. “Essentially, she was sending out the message that it was something she doesn’t throw out frequently or lightly.”
Like Jacob, many children who are later diagnosed with ADHD show signs of hyperactivity or other red flags from the time they are very young, Parents may recall the symptoms of ADHD to be excessive for the developmental age of their child. Some mothers say they remember their hyperactive children kicking in the womb more vigorously than their other children, says Walt Karniski, MD, a developmental pediatrician and executive director at Tampa Day School, which specializes in educational services for children with ADHD. Although the fetal kicker and colicky baby theories have never been substantiated, it is clear that children with ADHD often show signs early in life.
To be diagnosed with ADHD, a child must have displayed symptoms for at least six months and those symptoms must have started prior to age five. “If a child had ADHD at age five, he also had it at age four, and anyone who has ADHD at four had it age three, though it may not have been manifested,” says Karniski. Often the first suspicions of ADHD arise when children begin preschool and have to be in a structured environment for the first time, he says. As they progresses through school, other signs of the disorder may become evident. The diagnosis also requires that the symptoms be present in several settings.
FACTS
-It is a heterogeneos conductual disorder that can respond to multiples possible etiologys; environmental; brain injury, genetic and neuroanatomical-neuroquimical.
-It can be confused with:
a learning problem
psychosocial problems
medical problems ( malnutrition, epilepsy, hearing or visual problems)
depression, anxiety, bipolar disruption.
-Its causes are unknown. It seems difficult to find a origin.
-The available evidence suggest a biochemical basis of the condition having been shown that the amount of neurotransmitters, essentially appears reduced dopamine and norepinephrine in the front brain regions of patients with ADHD.
At the school where I teach English, there is an unusual boy. He is in first grade. He is very impulsive, hit their classmates for no reason and interferes when I am talking. He walks around the classroom and apparently he cannot follow my intructions. He listens well, but I think he must be seen by a doctor or a specialist so that he get treatment. I am not the one who will diagnose him, but throughout the research I have realized that he has many of the symptoms described in here. I have to admit that I am very concern and I do not know if the teacher ( the one that is always with him) is aware of the problem he has. She is very strict and yells a lot to the children. I mean, that group of children are very problematic, since they are always running and talking but we as teachers do need to take this task seriously and not to get them more fustrated. He is always poorly dressed ( dirty uniform and he neves uses socks), I think his family is not wary of his problem. I am not saying that he has this deficit, but his teacher said to me that he acts like crazy and that maybe he has a problem, neves listens or gives importance to activities and she described him as "poor boy".
I was very shocked, at the time she said that, but our reality is that there is still lack of medical or specialized information about this deficit in our country. Salvadorian schools need more profesional intervention and maybe that way teacher will be able to recognize and then experts can handle the situation properly.
This part of the blog, will show how congnitive changes occur and behavioral, understanding how children emotionally grow and develop.
Cognitive Progresses
Children who are in the stage of concrete operations perform various tasks at a level much higher than when they are in the preoperational stage. They have a better understanding of spatial concepts, causality, conservation and the numbers.
According to the book "Psicology Development Infancy through Adolescence", the authors question the following: Why a lot of children at six or seven years old can go from their home to their school and come back without losing themselves, while this maybe difficult to do for a younger child?
One reason is that children who go through the stage of concrete operations get better understanding of the spatial relationships (Gauvain, 1993). They have a clearer idea of how far one place from another and how long it takes them to get there, plus they can remember easily the path and benchmarks that are in the way. With age, improves both the ability to use maps and models as the ability to communicate spatial information. And though a child of six years can seek and find hidden objects, they do not give instructions common to find them duly organized-perhaps because they lack the appropriate vocabulary or do not realize what is the information the other person need (Plumbert, Pick, Marks, Kintsch and Wegesin, 1994).
Inductive and Deductive Reasoning
According to Piaget, children going through the stage of concrete operations resort to inductive reasoning. From observations on certain elements of a class of people, objects, animals or events, they draw general conclusions about the class as a whole. ("My dog barks, Terry and Mike's dog also does. Therefore, it seems that all dogs bark").
While the deductive reasoning, according to Piaget does not develop until adolescence stage, and it starts with an afirmation or general affirmation about one clase and it can be applied to selected elements of the class. As for example, "All dogs bark. Puchis is a dog. Puchis barks".
It is important not to forget that the concrete operations, proposed by Piaget, start approximately about 7 to 12 years of age.
Moral Reasoning
Let us first explain that to make flourishing the children's moral, Piaget (1932) told them a story about two kids: "Once August observed that his father's ink vase was empty and, to help him, he decided to fill it in. When he opened the ink bottle, it spills out a massive amount of ink in the tablecloth. Another day, Julian, was playing with the ink bottle and it spills a bit amount of the ink in his clothes". Then, Piaget asked them: "Who was the most mischievious child of the two of them? "
The younger children who were less than seven years normaly considered that August was the most mischievious, because he made the biggest spot of ink. The children recognized that August did well and made the biggest spot by accident, while Julian made one small spot at doing what he should not have done. The inmature moral judments, stated Piaget, are focused only in the degree of the offense made by the child. In the more mature judgments, the intention is considered.
In the second stage, between 7 to 8 and 10 or 11, it is characterization goes for a major flexibility and they have certain degree of authonomy that is based on the mutual respect and the cooperation.
There is a great difference between a 4 years old child versus a 6 or 7 child, cognitively speaking, the last ones are more logical and have their own oppinions about what they see or live. I do not really know how a girl's moral behavior is, but as my opinion, I think that girls are not that mischievious than boys, they are not regularly into an argument or if they are, they fight with their girl classmates. I think boys, according to my experience in the school I go to finish my community service, they are not likely to cooperate in activities, they are always finding ways to mess around and do not want to get punished, they make up stories, excuses not to get grounded. There is certainly differences in behaviors. Girls are not that impulsive than boys, this contributes them to behave quietly. However, cognitively speaking, both genders have the same developmental changes. This has helped me to realize that is not that easy to live those changes. Children do not know they are going through many variations in the development of their brain, but they feel that they are quite different, they can feel that a partner does not like her or him and they have to behave according to their context. This is the end of the reflection! It is certain that their cognitive development is complex and intense!
Introduction
I would like to start this entry telling you that it was so much fun to produce it. Kids loved it and they were not intimidated by the camera. Since Gerardo is not that perceptive as Mariel, he just wanted to run and do the crafts or directions I requested.
BEFORE VIDEO
I prepared my cameras and the people that was going to be with me in the filming process. I'd like to say that I first, gather the material I was going to use. I just used the materials from the chapters we have been reading. I also look up for some information in the Internet, in the video I provide you the site I consulted to.
I read thousands of time those parts that I was going to use in the video, and also some of the test that experts did, as the Planfulness of Attention study, in the Attention section.
Besides, my own preparation I also asked my sister in law if she agreed to have her children in an activity about my teaching practice, and she said that it was ok.
Then, I was advise to get the children to my mother-in-law workplace. She gave me the idea, and at the end it worked. I was in my mother-in law's workplace at Cojutepeque. She works as a phycologist for those special and disable children in that place. The name of the school is Escuela de Educación Especial "General Adolfo Q. Blandon". She spoke with the head of the school to let me in and do this video. I spoke to her and she was deligheted to having me there and the other teachers were happy, too.
I was not sure if the activities I had in mind were going to work, specialy with Gerardo. He was more paying attention to the teenagers in the yard, who were in the jungle gym, so my mother in law helped me and also my boyfriend, in video you can hear a male's voice as well.
DURING
At the right side of the blog, there you have Mariel Abarca, she is 6 years old, she is preschool. She lives with her mother and father. Mariel's mother and brother live in their grandmother's house. Mariel and Gerardo's father works as a cameraman in a television network in San Salvador, so he does not spend quality time with his sons nor his wife. I was told that he only goes to Cojutepeque on Weekends. As far as I saw him with their kids, he is very nurturing and takes care of the two of them. They have had some family troubles, but they have dealt with them and they are pretty good so far.
Besides, Mariel likes to play with her girl friends and also with her brother. They do not play much outside their home, but they do it on the Weekends. She is able to write many words or phases, and I was told that she is learning to read as well, but I cannot prove it, I have not seen her doing it. As part of the education, she attends to a nearby private school in Cojutepeque, at the Montessori School. I was told that they implement the same integration of the ideal of working in groups, let the students be creative and they focus on giving the students freedom and interaction with materials and activities.
She is slim, is taller than her brother. She has long legs and arms. According to her age, she has the body complex she must have for her age. Her brain, according to the "Physical development in Early Childhood", has reached 90 percent of its adult volume. So that permits her to perform many intelectual activities, such as more reflection on thinking, ask questions, play, take objects, etc. I did not measure Mariel's height nor her weight, but we must remember that at this age girls are slightly smaller and lighter than boys.
Below, you will can see Gerardo Abarca. He is two years and three (this month he turned three) months old. He is very kind, active and energetic boy. He spends most of his time with his sister at home. His mother, Sara is not working she only goes to finish her community service at a hospital in order to finish properly her career, but in the afternoon, she takes care of the kids. In the morning, gradma and a housekeeper take care of them.
Gerardo is not three years old yet, so we can say that his brain has not reached the adult size brain. However, next year his brain will reach about three-quarters of its adult size. Mariel's brain has reach 95 percent of its adult volume. I said also, that the brain and the head grow more rapidly than any other part of the body, such as the head, the eyes and the brain than any other parts of the body. That is why, they seem to have big heads!
I am now conviced that Mariel's gross and fine motor skills are wide different than Gerardo. He presents less coordinated features, like for example, he cannot cut paper with his two fingers, he just grabbed the scissor with both hands. That was hilarious to see! He was so concentrated and committed to cut the paper. Also, he was able to open the glue and then I saw him close it without any problem. We captured him doing scribbles. As Kelloggs suggest in the first chapter, "Artistic Drawings", children at age two are able to scribble. They are drawing when they are 4 to 5 years. This means, in Gerardo's case that he is able to put the pencil in his hand; you saw him scribbling his family...there were circles, and dots. :) This is also part of his fine gross skills.
Gerardo's scribbles at two years of age
Also, in gross motor skills, he was able to step on a stair and he did not fall. He runs, throws ball at least two meter or more, jumps, he also in the video, was able to pull up the cement chair and he managed to be sitted, though he needed his grandmother's help to get down. We watched that there was a jungle gym at the school, and the children pull up and down of it without problem. In conclusion, even though Gerado is not three years, maybe he is so active because of his genes or becuase he was so pleased or happy to be at another place having fun, so I can say that he is active. Imagine when he is 3 years! Mariel has already dominated the fine and motor skills, well she performs most of the activities she was supposed to do at her age. She is now riding a bike with training wheels. Also, Mariel reproduces letters, copies shorts words. She also can click on the links (I saw her doing it in my boyfriends's computer and she grabbed the mouse carefuly and managed to click on whatever she wanted to open). This also demonstrate the fine motor skills. She draws circles, not in the video, but I saw her once. All of this if possible because first, her brain development and that she is attending school, so she learnt how to do many other skills.
Talking about Mariel's drawing in the video was portrayed her family. There you find out that she is in the Pictorial Stage, the fourth stage according to Kelloggs's studies. This demonstrate me that she can draw more in detail, she put details in her drawings and an adult can distinguish them easily.
COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
Piaget's Preoperational Stage The Intuitive Thought Substage
I asked Mariel the following question: What would you do if you were hit by a car?
She answered: "I would get appart (from the car) or I would run".
As I said in the video, she understand how that situation can be, but her ideas are still simple and lacks of more complex thought. On the contrary, an adult will respond so much different from a six year child, obviously. The point here to mention is that I wanted to prove that she was not able to answer the "What if..." as proposed in the Intuitive Thought Substage. They have difficulty understanding events that he knows are taking place but that he cannot see. Her thoughts bear little resemblace to reality, and in fact that was I wanted to prove.
Piaget stated that he called this substage intuitive because young children seem sure about their knowledge and understanding yet are unaware of hhow trhey know what hey know. That was surreal to experiment with Mariel! To sum, they know how to things are but know it without rational thinking!
Moreover, I prepared Mariel to respond to "The Planfulness of Attention Study" in the Information Processing approach. This generated gives information about how young children think and how theu thinking changes. This is important for teachers to get familiar with.
The study of the pair of houses, starts when I asked her to identify the differences of the houses. She told me right away that the B's houses were equal, she gave reasons why she thought of that and explained also that A's houses were different. According to chapter 9, it expresses that children's control of attention is still deficient:
*Salient versus relevant *Planfulness
I focus on the second one, it shows that in general young children's planning improves as part of advances in executive attention, so experimenters ask children to judge whether two complex pictures are the same, preschool tend to use other strategys, I mean they do not clearly see how is it different from one another, they do not examine the details before making a judgement. In contrast, the elementary-age children see systematically the details, and they use their eyes (scan) the windows in more detail ways, so their aswers ere more accurate. Mariel gave the differences in the windows. She was pointing where she saw a difference and gave them even names to the differences.
PSYCHOSOCIAL DEVELOPMENT
In the video I focus, well it caught my attention, how children play and what means to them to play. To adults, we only see them playing and that is all. Well, as the chapter 10 describes, "play is a plesurable activity that is engaged in for its own sake, and its functions and forms vary". Play increseases during childhood. The experts say play is healthy and even necessary to the children's development. It helps the child to channel his or her anxities and conflicts. As a child, I was always into my mom's pressure to cope with my homework, she told me that I was very lazy and I did not put much effort in my school, so what that has to do with play? When I encountered play outside I run sufficiently to be tired at night. I forgot my problems with my mom and I was free to do and act out with my dolls. I used to play with dolls, as Gerardo played with his dolls (those dolls were borrowed by another teacher at the school, so Gerardo can be quiet). He tried to get the intimate clothes of the doll to see if they were equal to him (Gender). He was so curios about that!!! He was discovering and interacting with the dolls, and as you see he was combing the hair, and getting them to the swings to continue playing. In that part we can observe him alone, not paying attention to anything else. That is what experts call "Solitary Play"; it occurs at two and three years old.
I think that maybe Gerardo also was in the "Pretense Play", when playing with dolls, maybe he was the father, cause he knows his mother combs his hair and he tried to do it, too. However, it is difficult to say it because he did not tell anything, he was quiet playing.
Mariel plays more with her barbies saying she is the doctor and Gerardo also pretends to be the patient, too.
Pretense/Symbolic Pay
They use objects in their play and pretend to be a character.
At two or three years old, kids love to play alone. (Social Play)
This type of symbolic play appears about 18 months adn reaches a peak at 4 to 5 years of age.
AFTER
Well, that is what I studied, according to chapters one, nine and ten. I really have a positive experience doing it also I liked very much to experience the results with Mariel and Gerardo. They are very different from each other and those differences make them unique. This was a nice and enriched experience that hopefully, will help me to be immersed in this ample and rich stage. Children need to be understood and we need to learn that they need our support but more importantly that we as educator can implement many things to get the best of them.
Hope you have learned a lot as I did!
Thank you for reading and watching my video!
I liked very much the Jc activity in which they had to roll the dice and a number and color was shown. In the wall the numbers and colored pages were pasted and according to the number and color they had to go and unstick the paper. The paper showed a picture and then Jc asked them: What is this? I thought that the students were not going to be able to say the answer of the picture, but they did. All the students had the chance to at least roll the dice 
