This is a reflective activity. Close your eyes and breathe. Take a few minutes to relax.
Think about a child in your life who you are close to. It may be your own child, a sibling, relative, or a student. If you are not currently connected to a child, think about yourself as a young child.
Imagine that child at play. Picture them playing. What are they doing? Are they alone or interacting with others? What makes them happy? Excited? Calm? Frustrated? Where do they like to play?
Create a biographical snapshot. On a single 8-1/2 x 11 page, describe the child:
- What is this child’s age? Family details? Cultural background?
- Describe this child’s unique characteristics, special interests, personality.
- What are the “sparks” that motivate this child to learn or try something?
- Does this child like to work/play alone or with other children or adults?
- What is one specific strength of this child with regard to learning and development?
- What challenges this child right now? What do they need to work on?
- What are the child’s two strongest multiple intelligences? How does this child learn best?
Look at the Activity Plan you are developing. Would this lesson speak to this child? What changes would you need to make to better support this child?
Complete: Decorate the borders of the 8-1/2 x 11 page in any way that you like (collage, paint, crayon, colored pencil. Take a picture and upload it here.
JOnette Julien
Knowing an Individual Learner
11/20/21
In the infant room where I currently work there is a child with some learning disabilities, and I would use his initials SG as his name. When he arrived in our room in August, it was a bit challenging for me and the other teachers. SG is not an infant, he is a toddler, he is about 19 months, but he is very underweight, he does not walk, he scoots on his butt, he does not form words either. SG requires a lot of help and one on ones are needed and very necessary with him.
SG and his family are Italian, he has older siblings and a mom and dad who cares for him very much. They want nothing but the best for him and since he started to attend the school, they have seen progress. Mom mentions that she is aware that her son is delayed but has taken steps to get him the help that is needed. From OT and PT they have now joined in to SG journey to move forward, and prepare him to go into the toddlers room.
SG being that he is unique, he does not express himself as some other toddlers do, because his speech is not formed. SG when he is on the move and because he scoots, he pushes whatever and whoever out of his way. When he is hungry he screams and throws himself down on the floor. And if you try to soothe him when he is upset like that, he will try to bite, or scratch you. He would play a little with the other children but it turns into a fight.
By now we are aware of these outbursts and what they actually mean. I noticed that SG likes to read when I sit him down and open a book and start to read, he gives me his undivided attention. He smiles and he watches me and he loves to look at the pictures. I realized his love for books, watching him as he sits on the floor, opening a book and going through page by page and smiling. Now I just started to have some reading time with him and the other infants. It would help them build language and SG is engaged and not having any tantrums.
SG and I have our ABC walks. That’s something I created in the class to help the students walk. As they are holding my hands and engaging in walking we sing the ABC song, and SG refuses to walk sometimes but when we sing ABC he starts to move forward. Due to the lack of the use of his legs he needs to build the muscle in them to get strong enough to stand up and walk on his own.
SG loves his snacks, fruits, and vegetables. Now a lot of the things he loves would tie into my theme curriculum and activities. For SG and his uniqueness, I would have to implement nature walks to keep him engaged in the activities. For him it would be alot of books, and videos, I have to be careful with certain hands on things because he throws and he puts everything in his mouth. Being this is new for both me and him, we would have to work together.
Ariella is 4 years old. She is the only child of her divorced parents, both of Caucasian descent, who split her school pick up and drop off schedule. Ariella feels very comfortable with it and never complains about which parent brings or takes her to school. The parents live not far from each other in Brooklyn.
Ariella is always in a good mood and funnily claims being older than 4. She loves donuts and the only way she would cry is when, for some reason, she cannot get them, and all that causes her disappointment. She then claims noisily with no hesitation “Nooo! I want donuts!”.
Ariella always has her own opinion and rules on how to play, either in one place or another, by joining other children and change the rules as soon as she is a part of the game and being confident about her leading role and speaks about it openly when asked.
Ariella is very active and does not like to wait long and be in one place. For example, she cannot stand the process of making line, she thinks that she herself is better at establishing order. She will come to all the children and introduce the rule that everyone should stand in line, because we are preparing to go out, or we cannot talk while we are eating, because we may get a sore throat and cough. However, she teaches us this while eating. She must take care of all the children and make sure that everyone complies with the order. She knows very well that children should listen to their parents and teachers, but she, as she said, only listens to herself.
Ariella is very smart, easily masters new lesson, poems or songs. Ariella’s family is bilingual, so she speaks two languages by mixing words together in Russian and English, though the meaning is always correct. She loves to have fun, so much so that at the New Year’s show she just had fun dancing with her dress only and she was very happy.
She is thin, tiny but restless. She is so active that she is being called ‘’grasshopper’’. Her mother says she wears clothes of a 3 years-old child, but sometimes she has them too big. Ariella has a very good sense of humor, she suddenly hugs and kisses you, and when you ask her what happened, she responds firmly and lovingly “because I love you”. By the time these words are uttered, Ariella is already busy with other things and may be teaching someone how to behave or even play with food at the table.
Ariella is very talkative, has a rich vocabulary, tells long stories and always knows much, ‘’everything’’ as she says.