Essay Sample on Student's Growth Plan for Childcare Course Success

Introduction

As a student of a childcare course, it is essential to create a growth plan that will help sharpen skills in the current class by gaining skills and knowledge for the roles and responsibilities ahead. To achieve these individual results, I established specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and timely goals that would incorporate smart choices, thus assisting my effort and increasing the chances of attaining these results.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Order now

Pursuing a childcare course entails that close association with children from various backgrounds; therefore, I needed to understand how children learn and behave. Each child has a unique way of learning and behaving, depending on the surrounding environment (Fuller and Garcia, 2010). To achieve these personal goals, I focused my attention on a boy whom the teachers complained of his ill-mannered temperament to understand the teacher's and the child's perspective.

Therefore, I took time to observe and evaluate the attitude of the teacher towards this child, and also assessed the child's response towards the teacher's character. It was clear that this teacher disliked the child, and the child felt it. As a result, the child played upon the teacher and everyone around. It was vital for me to understand the learning and behavioural process of children, to attain this goal, I had to develop new skills and change my attitude. These personal goals assisted me to only focus on the good traits the child had during our conversations. These goals were relevant as they were within my learning experience borders. It was through the knowledge I had on the learning and temperament patterns in children that assisted me in guiding the interaction with the child. At the end of this experience, I had to materialize the reason why the teacher saw an ill-mannered child and the reason behind this behaviour within that year.

Assessment of Key Piece of New Knowledge Acquired During the Year

People's opinions, especially those in authority, influence the characters of those under them. For instance, labelling theory proposes that human behaviour is influenced by the way other society members label them (Becker, 2018). The labelling theory explains the variety of social behavior among groups; for instance, the child labelled as mischievous. The labelling theory suggests that individuals who are labelled as misfits by society are more likely to engage in such behavior just because of this label (Becker, 2003). It indicates that there is no intrinsically criminal trait. Labelling theory plays a vital role in understanding human behaviour. Individuals in power establish a real definition of criminality. Thus, deviant behaviour among children is not a set of an individual's traits but rather a process of interaction between deviant and non-deviant and the interpretation of criminality (Plummer, 2011). With this knowledge in hand, I positively labelled the misfit the child and influenced him into exhibiting positive character.

Evaluation of Key Skill Improved Over the Year

Dealing with children requires fulltime dedication of personal time in guiding their steps as they explore their various interests (NICHD Early Child Care Research Network ed., 2005). During the year, I noticed that children enjoy asking questions on areas that highly interest them; there are drawn by the urge to learn. Therefore, as a part of their growing experience, I needed to concentrate on improving my listening skills.

Listening is the ability to accurately receiving and interpreting messages during a conversation. Listening is fundamental for effective communication. The absence of effective listening distorts the intended message, thus leading to misunderstanding (Miller, L., 2003). Therefore, as a facilitator of these children, if I had poor listening skills, it meant that communication would break down, and the children would be easily irritated and frustrated.

Throughout the year, I was a facilitator to these children, providing them with special training on the various ways of exploring their interests. My listening skills led to improved personal satisfaction and increased information sharing between the children and I, in turn, increasing creativity and innovation. Listening required me to concentrate and focus my effort, both physical and mental, to understand these children. Children mostly communicate using stories (Bennetts and Flynn, 2002); thus, I needed to pay attention not only to these 'stories,' but how they framed them, their language and voice application, as well as their body language. This listening process entailed being aware of the non-verbal and the verbal messages to show my interest in what was being communicated.

Evaluation of the Key Form of Communication Improved Over the Year

Over the year, I used several different ways of sharing information with the children as well as the teacher. I used nonverbal, visual, written, and verbal; however, verbal was the primary form of communication. Verbal communication entails using language to transfer information through speaking (Webster and Wong, 2008). Verbal communication was the most common form during one-on-one conversations, meetings, and playtimes. Verbal communication was vital as it was efficient and time conscious. Verbal communication was helpful as it assisted the children to support their written and nonverbal communications.

Most children at a tender age experience difficulty in oral communication, especially when trying to express their emotions (Wilson, 2008). One of my primary roles during the year was to develop their verbal communication skills. I trained them in various ways of using strong and confident speaking voices, especially when speaking in a group setting. Also, I taught them how to avoid using filler words such as "like," "um," and "yeah," during our one-on-one conversations.

References

Becker, H., 2003. Labelling theory. Key ideas in sociology, pp.134-139.

Becker, H.S., 2018. Labelling theory reconsidered 1. In Deviance and social control (pp. 41-66). Routledge.

Bennetts, L., and Flynn, M., 2002. Improving the classroom listening skills of children with Down syndrome by using sound-field amplification. Down Syndrome Research and Practice, 8(1), pp.19-24.

Fuller, B., and Garcia Coll, C., 2010. Learning from Latinos: contexts, families, and child development in motion. Developmental psychology, 46(3), p.559.

Miller, L., 2003. Developing listening skills with authentic materials.

NICHD Early Child Care Research Network ed., 2005. Child care and child development: Results from the NICHD study of early child care and youth development. Guilford Press.

Plummer, K., 2011. The labelling perspective forty years on. In Langweiliges Verbrechen (pp. 83-101). VS Verlag fur Sozialwissenschaften.

Webster, J., and Wong, W.K.P., 2008. Comparing traditional and virtual group forms: identity, communication, and trust in naturally occurring project teams. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 19(1), pp.41-62.

Wilson, F.L., Baker, L.M., Nordstrom, C.K., and Legwand, C., 2008. Using the teach-back and Orem's Self-care Deficit Nursing theory to increase childhood immunization communication among low-income mothers. Issues in comprehensive pediatric nursing, 31(1), pp.7-22.