Operant Conditioning

Previously I talked about classical conditioning, so today’s article is about the other type of conditioning, operant conditioning. This is a very different theory, as it talks about how we feel motivated when there is a reward and discouraged when there is a punishment (Cherry, 2024). It is a simple concept so I won’t dwell too much on it.

This theory is also applicable to wild animals, if there is food available at a farm then the animals will gather in the same place regularly to forage, but if there is an electric fence surrounding the area, they will be deterred. Animals are smart.

Naturally, I use this in my workplace. I reward children with praise or they get to do things that other peers do not, such as getting to help me with certain tasks. I ask children to sit down to quiet down when they get too rowdy or take away their privileges. We as adults also let our decisions be determined by rewards and punishments.

Of course, at some point, we need to have delayed gratification. For things like studying for the exam when you would rather play games, it can be tedious to know what is important. For folks who are more mature or self-motivated, they do not need a literal reward in front of them because they can look ahead.

References

Cherry, K. (2024, July 10). Operant Conditioning in Psychology. Retrieved from Verywell Mind: https://www.verywellmind.com/operant-conditioning-a2-2794863

Classical Conditioning

For this month, I shall talk about Classical Conditioning. This is a behaviourist approach to managing children’s behaviour, and it stems from Ivan Pavlov.

It talks about using stimuli to condition certain behaviours, and his experiment involved triggering a salivating response from dogs just from hearing a bell ring (Cherry, 2023). This was done by constant exposure of the bell with food, so eventually the dogs started to salivate without the need for food to be present. This is a theory that has been criticised for treating humans as animals and is not used in educational settings. But it does reveal itself in certain situations. For instance, a fear response can be conditioned. If a child hears a phone ring, and it is the parent screaming at the child, the child may eventually associate a phone with fear. The neutral stimulus has become a conditioned stimulus (Cherry, 2023).

Can you think of other examples?

References

Cherry, K. (2023, May 1). What Is Classical Conditioning in Psychology? Retrieved from Verywell Mind: https://www.verywellmind.com/classical-conditioning-2794859

 

ADHD

For the month of September, I decided to talk about ADHD, or Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. Here is a snippet of what I submitted for my TMA in 2020.

Next, I will move on to the three types of ADHD. The inattentive type (ADHD-I) tends to exhibit the following symptoms. These children are generally careless in their schoolwork, does not follow instructions, and is messy with their work (American Psychiatric Association, 2017). The lack of details can be attributed to their inability to focus their attention on what they are doing, hence their work often appears disoriented.

Symptoms of impulsivity and hyperactivity are overshadowed by inattention, and the child is not able to stay focused on one task or listen to instructions, and their cognitive processing takes place slower as compared to others (Roth & Marcin, 2018). These children are not as active as those with hyperactivity, because their thinking and actions are not as exaggerated. They do struggle with the processing of information because they are unable to stay focused too long on any given task or instruction. They also lack the skills to take care of their belongings or schoolwork.

It is also interesting to note that in children with ADHD, girls are more likely to be inattentive as compared to boys (Roth & Marcin, 2018). Whether that is due to the nature of boys being more active than girls, more research needs to be done to eliminate any element of gender biases.

The hyperactive/impulsive type (ADHD-HI) have the following reoccurring symptoms. They are usually very active and may talk too much or interrupt conversations while being unable to sit still as compared to regular children (American Psychiatric Association, 2017). These children have an over-abundance of energy, that may not always be appropriate depending on the situation.

Likewise, just like the inattentive type, symptoms of hyperactivity and impulsivity overpower inattentive ones, and children are unable to stay engaged in quiet activities, and always seem impatient, while their actions and speech are often out of context (Roth & Marcin, 2018).

Hence, the combination type (ADHD-C) displays symptoms from both types of ADHD. On one end of the spectrum, inattentive children think and do things slower, while hyperactive or impulsive children do so with an overabundance of energy. However, a child can exhibit characteristics from both sides, hence they are known as the combination type because they are both inattentive and hyperactive/impulsive.

Such children are disoriented with their work, and they have overtly high levels of energy. It is also important to note that not all persons with ADHD can be deemed as “inattentive” or “hyperactive”, as it depends on their type of ADHD. A person with ADHD might only be inattentive but does not speak or do actions inappropriately. Likewise, a hyperactive child might be able to focus on a single task if that task does not require the child to be quiet or still.

References

American Psychiatric Association. (2017, July). What Is ADHD? Retrieved from American Psychiatric Association: https://www.psychiatry.org/patients-families/adhd/what-is-adhd

Roth, E., & Marcin, A. (2018, April 24). ADHD: Recognizing Symptoms, Diagnosis, and More. Retrieved from healthline: https://www.healthline.com/health/adhd/three-types-adhd

Invented Spelling

Spelling as we know in school is a formal memorising of words and applying them during a written test. I do this weekly every Thursday. But the actual definition of spelling is very different.

There are 9 stages of writing, namely drawing, scribbling, wavy scribbles or mock handwriting, letter-like forms or mock letters, letter strings, transitional writing, invented or phonetic spelling, beginning word and phrase writing, and lastly conventional spelling and sentence writing (Byington & Kim, 2017). Each child progresses individually through these stages, and at first, their writing may not make much sense, I did have children at K2 who are still drawing. But that is a writing development stage, albeit the first one. I will focus mainly on invented spelling for this article.

What is invented spelling? It is defined as children using the skills and knowledge they have to show the sounds in words, so they may omit certain letters but focus on the first or last letters (Byington & Kim, 2017). They may write “juice” as “joose” because phonetically the letters do form that word, but as they reach the last stage, “Conventional spelling and sentence writing”, they will understand the difference. What we can do as educators or parents is to be nurturing and guide them along their writing development.

Environmental print is a useful tool to have to teach children writing, as it is the first writing they encounter in their environment, to learn about the use of written language in various contexts, they can even be food items especially unfamiliar ones so they can learn as this focuses on children’s interests and teach them about sight words (Xu & Rutledge, 2003). This is not that complicated, you already have these things in your house, so you can just be intentional and expose your child to these words. I like to have labels of artworks they have done pasted on the walls, to encourage them to read. It is also amusing to me that whatever I write on the whiteboard interests them.

We must never forget they are visual learners, no amount of shushing can match a reward chart, or no amount of “Can you please eat your food faster?” can match a timer counting down 5 minutes.

References

Byington, T. A., & Kim, Y. (2017). Promoting Preschoolers’ Emergent Writing. Young Children, 72(5). Retrieved from https://www.naeyc.org/resources/pubs/yc/nov2017/emergent-writing

Xu, S. H., & Rutledge, A. L. (2003, March). Kindergartners Learn through Environmental Print. Young Children, 58(2), 44-51. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/42729931

Abuse

Abuse. This is a difficult topic that every early childhood educator must reckon with. We are all humans, and inevitably because of pressure from parents/colleagues/principals/children, we can end up doing the wrong things.

There are many different types of abuse, and a few of them are domestic abuse, emotional abuse, neglect, physical abuse, and sexual abuse (NSPCC, 2024). It is quite self-explanatory what each constitutes.

In 2023 there were 147 cases of abuse, and there are many more unreported cases, and a strategy to curb this is to ensure parents and teachers can have ways to report such incidents and closed-circuit television cameras are now implemented in all preschools and government-funded early intervention centres (Chan, 2024).

Children are vulnerable, we as adults should never hurt them even if we are feeling overwhelmed. It is up to the management of schools to ensure that the school morale is kept at a positive level.

References

Chan, G. (2024, July 3). 147 child abuse cases investigated by ECDA in 2023 as confirmed cases also rise. The Straits Times. Retrieved from https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/politics/147-child-abuse-cases-investigated-in-2023-as-confirmed-cases-also-rise-ecda

NSPCC. (2024). Types of abuse. Retrieved from NSPCC: https://www.nspcc.org.uk/what-is-child-abuse/types-of-abuse/

Arts and Crafts

Constructivism is when a child learns through an active process at every stage, as they construct knowledge internally, and teachers observe children as they learn (Gray & MacBlain, 2015). I wrote this in my first post for this year. This month’s topic is about arts and crafts. I enjoy planning and executing art activities for the little ones. I especially enjoy it when the activities are more constructivist, whereby the children can be free to make mistakes and not stick to my way of doing things.

There has to be a boundary but sometimes a cookie-cutter approach to doing arts is not good. I have seen many teachers doing the same art for every single child based on the same theme. I doubt the children did most of the work themselves. Let’s learn to let go and let children be children, so they can construct knowledge on their own.

Let me share with you some ideas I have for art activities in August:

Aug: Animal Kingdom insects creepy crawlies sea creatures

6/8-Spray Painting (need artpaper, insect cutouts, real plants. spray on insects then glue on artpaper, put plants on paper and spray over then remove)

13/8-Jellyfish in a Bottle (ask parents bring clear plastic bag, clean plastic bottle)

20/8-Fork Painted Puffer Fish Craft

27/8-Paper Plate Spider Web

References

Gray, C., & MacBlain, S. (2015). Learning Theories in Childhood (2nd ed.). London: Sage.

Psychosocial theory (Erikson)

The distinct 8 stages of a person’s psychosocial development (Fenske, 2020).

I realised I wanted to do an article last month on parents but ended up rushing the article on writing. Oh well, thought I could keep the streak of p words. This is about psychosocial theory by Erikson. These articles are helping me remember my school APA citation stuff.

When a baby is just born, they are in the Trust Versus Mistrust stage, so when an adult picks up the baby when they cry, they slowly develop trust with that person. Likewise, if the adult refuses to comfort the child, the child realises that the adult cannot be trusted. The next stage is Autonomy Versus Shame/Doubt, whereby a child discovers what he or she is capable of and they continue to gain confidence unless an adult intervenes and brings them shame and doubt. For instance, if a child draws on the wall, an adult can be encouraging and guide the child’s behaviour appropriately, like teaching the child to draw on paper instead, then the child learns he or she can be a talented artist. However, if that same child is scolded repeatedly, they may feel fear and anxiety, shame and doubt in drawing pictures. Chances are, they are not so willing to draw.

According to Erikson, the Initiative Versus Guilt stage is when the child has already understood they are capable by themselves, as they use their skills to navigate the world, and the main motivator for the initiative is conscience, so children build upon the previous stages to produce actions that can bring either rewards or guilt (Santrock, 2019).

As a preschool educator, my main focus is on the 2^nd and 3^rd stages. It is interesting to see how adults’ actions play a crucial role in the lives of the little ones. We have to be careful in how we discipline them. Too much can stifle their development while too little can cause them to have no boundaries. We need to be both firm and encouraging, to allow children to develop on their own terms and we as adults are just guides for their journeys.

References

Fenske, C. (2020, September). Stages of Psychosocial Development. Retrieved from Orchard Valley Counselling Services: https://www.orchardvalleycounselling.ca/stages-of-psychosocial-development/

Santrock, J. W. (2019). Life-span Development (17th Edition). New York: McGraw-Hill Education.