I work as a Center Leader in a Mainstream Preschool that runs full-time and Part-Time Childcare Services to Children aged 2 Months to 6 Years Old: Advanced Diploma in Early Childhood Intervention Research Paper, NIEC, Singapore

Post-Diploma Certificate in Early Childhood Special Education

Child Study Project

Task 1

My Story

I work as a centre leader in a mainstream preschool that runs full-time and part-time childcare services to children aged 2 months to 6 years old. My duties are to ensure the well being of my staff and children. I also have to look into the holistic development of a child, i.e. physical, intellectual, emotional, social and spiritual. I am also in charge of assigning staff to the respective classes they will be teaching every year. Thus, this year I assigned Teacher E and Teacher L to the Kindergarten 2 classroom.

When teachers are assigned to a class at the beginning of the year, they face new children with different behaviours and attitudes. As for Teacher E and Teacher L, who has been teaching the Kindergarten 2 classroom for the past 7 months, they have been feeling very overwhelmed and frustrated about classroom management due to the challenging behaviour of Rohan, which disrupts the entire class.

Rohan is a 6-year-old boy in the Kindergarten 2 class who exhibits challenging behavioural issues such as screaming during a lesson and naptime and hurting his peers and teachers by scratching or hitting them.

Both Teacher E and Teacher L have tried talking to Roshan gently and firmly, but it has not been helping much in Rohan’s behaviour. Both Teacher E and Teacher L have shared how they feel incompetent of not controlling Rohan whenever he acts out.

As educators, it has been stressful for them to always be on the lookout to ensure that Rohan does not hurt his peers. Teacher E shared that she feels embarrassed and fearful whenever she needs to call a parent to explain and apologize for Rohan’s actions.

Teacher L mentioned that she is lost in not knowing what she must do to protect her students in class. She also said that she has transformed into a fierce teacher because it is only when she talks to Rohan in a firm tone that he listens and stops screaming or hitting his peers. Even that is only for a few minutes, and then he starts to scream to get his teacher’s attention.

The frequent occurrence of Rohan hitting his peers has caused his classmates to shun him away. They also isolated him during playtime as they fear that he will hurt them. Rohan’s screaming during lessons and classroom activities have caused the teachers to have disruptive classes as they spend more time addressing the behaviour of Rohan and not on classroom instructions. This has also impacted other students as they lose their attention and interest in learning.

There could be many reasons for Rohan to behave in this manner. Hence, as a centre leader, I want to work with Teacher E and Teacher L to acknowledge the behavioural issues of Rohan and come up with strategies to assist Rohan in managing his behaviour and coming about with a positive change.

Task 2

1.What is the issue that I would like to investigate?

From my story, I would like to investigate

1. What is disruptive behaviour?
2. The causes of disruptive behaviour
3. Developing a framework, collaborating with the teachers to address Rohan’s disruptive behaviour.

2. Why is this issue a concern to me?

As a centre leader, it is my responsibility to ensure my staff’s well being. As my staff have voiced out that Rohan has been disruptive in class, and this has impacted their emotions and also their morale, I have to collaborate with them to find out how they can become more effective in being able to bring about a positive change in Rohan that will allow them to feel competent and successful.

Another role as a central leader is to ensure that every child has equal opportunities for well being and learning. Thus, I have to address the disturbance in the classroom to minimize discomfort and disruptions of all children’s learning and daily activities.

3. What do I want to change by doing my research on this child?

I want to help the teachers work with Rohan to help him self-regulate and respond or react positively rather than aggressively. I also want the teachers to learn about reactive and proactive strategies that they can implement in their classroom not only for Rohan but also for the whole class to have a harmonious classroom community.

4. Background knowledge of the child and areas of concern

As Rohan is not diagnosed with any medical conditions, it is only through classroom observations that I am finding out more about Rohan and his behaviour. I am yet to find out what could be the reason behind his challenging behaviour and develop strategies for/with the teachers to help him self-regulate and have a better relationship in class.

I am unsure of his environment outside of school, which I will need to question and clarify to get a holistic picture of Rohan’s presentations.

5. Some topics I might read upon to have a wider perspective about this concern

As I am looking more into working collaboratively with my teachers to develop a framework to impact Rohan, I would read up on articles that talk about

1. Coaching and mentoring.
2. Self-regulation
3. Living in a classroom community
4. Building an environment that encourages positive behaviour.
6. My principles and beliefs about children that grounds what I do as an early childhood professional

“It is important for early childhood professionals to realize that the behaviour they observe every day give them clues as to what is happening in the brain.”

Thus, what I do is grounded by the idea that there is a reason for everything that children do, including what society deems negative behaviour.