Reflection Three: Infants Technology

Date: 23/08/2012

At my centre, I have noticed the infants have being very active in physical activities where they feel free to move around in their environment and enjoy themselves. Today our centre manager brought in some new plastic buckets and tennis balls for our infant room. This caused excitement amongst the infants because they knew it was something new. They really notice anything new that we get in the room and are always ready to investigate. I placed the buckets and balls on the floor for them to explore and sat down beside them. Two of the infants, A and B were right in there grabbing the bucket to check it out. A was more interested in playing with different coloured and sized balls. A took the ball in one hand, then he placed it in my hand which were cupped, and then he went to get some more balls. I realized that he was trying to see how many balls can fit in my hands. B stood there and watched what A was doing. A has  given B a bucket with balls and B finds it more interesting to tip the balls just like A did before, “Modeling is a process through which children learn how to behave by copying (modeling) the behavior of others”(McNaughton & Williams , 2004, p. 124). She too picked up more balls and started placing them in my hands. If the ball gets out of her reach, she would let out a scream of excitement and grab the ball and puts it into her mouth again. I decided to extend their testing and learning a little further by making a gap between my elbows so that when they placed the balls on top it would roll down and fall through the gap. I encouraged them to go find more balls and place them in my hands. They did this few times placing the ball and it kept on falling. Later A realized that there was a gap, and she came closer and pushed my elbow to fill the gap. According to Piaget’s theory, infants develop their cognition by using their senses to explore the world. Through this they invent their own ways to solve sensor motor problems, like crawling and grasping so that they are able to look for their toys (Santrock, 2008). I found the different shaped and coloured balls great for the infants. It proved different textures, touching, pressure senses for them to play with. Through technology, infants seem to be learning different coloured objects at a time and observation enable them to gain confidence to explore as a learning opportunity. By encouraging A and B to place the balls in my hand they were learning about capacity, the amount that can fit in my hands. They were also observing and experimenting by placing the balls and seeing what happens, then trying to solve the problem that was occurring. By talking to them about what were happening but not quite giving them the solution, letting them experiment, try and solve it themselves was quite useful way of learning for them..By going through the play with the balls, they were also learning about Maths and science, and developing their gross motor skills, while they went and picked up the balls and came over to place it in my hands. This learning experience and technology enable children to solve problems and build confidence in their future life. (Smorti, 1999) suggests that “using a process approach to technology it is doing that is important rather than the product” (pg.6)

I love the way that they were interacted and explored objects using their five senses. The activity promotes the development of concentration skills, through the exploration of interesting objects (Ministry of Education, 1996). These infants also develop their social and language skills as they interacted with sharing the resources. . According to Te Whaariki, children feel that they belong in the centre when their play is valued (Ministy of Education, 1996).Through active interaction with A and B it provides them with opportunities to learn by trying out ideas, and making sense of the world They were interacting with me while I was talking to them about what they were doing and what was happening with the balls, Child A and B had few words which they communicated. As children use technology such as the computers they only use their hands and eyes coordination where as doing things on their own encourage them to use variety of strategies work things out. As stated by Ministry of Education (1996, p. 88), “Children develop the confidence to choose and experiment with materials, to play around with ideas, and to explore actively with all the senses. By encouraging them and giving then positive reinforcement I was adopting B.F Skinners behavioural theory, where I was encouraging them to pick the balls and keep on trying and they repeated the action. (Bird,L & Drewery, 2008).

References:

Bird,L., & Drewery, W.( 2008). Human development in Āotearoa: A journey through life       (2nd ed), (pp.38-47). Auckland, New Zealand: McGraw Hill.

 MacNaughton, G., & Williams, G. (2009). Techniques for teaching young children:  Choicesin theory and practice (3^rd ed.).Melbourne, Australia: Addison Wesley Longman

Ministry of Education. (1996). Te Whāriki: Hē Whāriki Mātauranga mō  nga

Mokopuna o Aotearoa: Early childhood curriculum. Wellington: Learning

            Media.

Santrock, J.W. (2008). Lifespan development: International student edition (12th ed.).Boston, Ma., United States of America: McGraw Hill.

Smorti, S. (1999). Technology in Early Childhood. Early Education, No. 19 Autumn 1999, 5-10.