Event Sampling

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Upon initial analysis, this behavior may be seen as proof of the shyness Lucrezia’s teacher had mentioned, but it may also point to a quest for independence. According to Erikson (Macleod-Brudenell & Kay, 2008) at around 3 years of age, the psychosocial stage of ‘initiative vs guilt’ begins. Here the child is focused on achieving individual competence and “is becoming more assertive and is more able to organize her/his behavior around a goal” (MCI, undated a, p54). I would say that in this instance, Lucrezia’s goal is to play with the doll’s house, following her own agenda and in order to do so she pushes away those who might distract her from her goal.

Immediately after these two events, Claudia (3:3) sat next to Lucrezia and took some of the puppets away (event 13). Lucrezia responded by telling her, in an assertive way, to stand up and go away. It was not the first time I saw a child being so jealous of the toy s/he is playing with, but Lucrezia gave me an explanation of her behavior: she said she didn’t want Claudia to play with her (or alongside her, sharing the same toy), because she was “playing properly” on her own. Perhaps her reaction was driven by the inner love for order (Montessori in Standing, 1998) that children naturally exhibit: it could be that Lucrezia didn’t want to spoil the equilibrium she had created in her own play scenario with the dolls and the house. Looking at an earlier event (# 10), where a child approached Lucrezia to show her a drawing, Lucrezia simply looked at her briefly and went on playing. It seems that on this occasion, she did not feel her play to be disrupted or disturbed.

It would be useful to also look at the interactions Lucrezia engaged in with the adults in the classroom. During the 2 ½ hours of the observation, she talked a total of four time to an adult – either the teacher or myself. On one occasion she asked the teacher for more puppets, and on the other three occasions she sought our attention in order to share an achievement with us; when she finished eating a pear, coloring in the flower, and when she had set up the doll’s house.

As a result of this observation, I had the chance to take a closer look at Lucrezia’s social interactions and to begin to see what was behind, and perhaps beyond, the labeling of her as a timid and withdrawn child.

At her age (3:1), she is still learning to play together with other children, and begin to co-operate and share with them (MCI, undated a). Over the course of the observation, she did interact with other children and adults, even if she did not seek out or initiate as much interaction as other children would. It must also be remembered that Lucrezia has only been attending the nursery for 6 weeks, and this is therefore a relatively new environment. “When exposed to new social contexts and unfamiliar play partners, children may revert to less mature forms of social behaviors than they demonstrate with familiar others” (Barnes, 1995, p253). Perhaps however, her behaviour recorded here is as a result of her unique disposition (MCI, undated a); it may simply be that she takes a little longer to settle in to a new setting than would be expected.

It would be interesting to continue to observe Lucrezia’s social integration into the new environment in order to furnish more information on this area of her developmental progress.

PERSONAL LEARNING

I think that when seeking information about a specific aspect of a child’s behavior, the event sample method is the best to use. Here the observer focuses only on the occasions the specific behavior is displayed, considering the context, the interactions (verbal and not verbal) and the related consequences of the behaviour (or event).

I am still finding it difficult (as a new member of staff) to focus only on 1 child without being distracted by the rest of the environment, or feeling that I am neglecting the other children.

In order to get reliable evidence from your observation, “you need to be continually aware of what your child is doing” (MCI, undated b, p40), which I found challenging. It was also hard to hear all of the verbal communication within the noisy classroom.

I can imagine that it must be difficult to not let personal opinions and attitudes about the child colour the evaluation of the behaviour or skills recorded, but, because I am new to the nursery, I do not know the children well enough to allow prejudices or prior knowledge bias my assessment here.

I appreciate that under the right circumstances, an event-sample observation can be an useful method to carefully investigate a behavior or something that regularly happens in the classroom, and I hope that in time, I will improve my skills with this technique of observation.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Barnes, P. (1995) Personal, Social and Emotional Development Milton Keynes: Open University