Interaction Analysis in Early Childhood

Question

Task

Prepare a report on interaction analysis undertaking two videos related to early childhood.

Answer

Interaction Analysis 1
Interaction Transcript / Running Record

Name- Finger Painting

Duration- 2.07-3.07 seconds

The first video is named as “Finger Printing” that demonstrate fingerprinting activities with two children who belong to the age of group – 2- 5. Their speech functions are developed and they enjoy playing with the paints. The educators are also interactive and try giving ideas to both children about different designs that can be made with colors and paints. It seems that name of the boy is Mike while the girl is called Clemmy. Mike is more interested in rubbing the paint on the table while Clem first puts paints on the hands and obtains fingerprints. The time-lapse chosen is 2.07 to 3.08minutes of the video when Clem sees Mike is enjoying swishing the paint on the table, she tries it too and both the children and the educators are continually interacting with each other. The verbal interaction is talkative speeches amongst each other while non- verbal interactions include laughter, looking at each other, trying and intimidating each other’s actions and reactions. After the children are bored while playing with single colors, Mike says that more colours on the table will be enjoyable. The educator notices it and brings two colours that are red and white helps the children in swishing the colours on the table. The teachers help both the children in designing and writing names and alphabets on the paint.

Critical Analysis
Play activities are often considered as of vital importance in learning and development. It is not only fun for the children but it provides opportunities for exploring, observing, experimenting, and solving issues. The child up to 5 years of age requires support and encouragement as doing taking on his own might lead to learning wrong procedures. Time spent by the educators on playing, talking, listening, interacting help the child in learning life skills that include communication, thinking, solving issues, adapting to the external environment, and adjusting with peers and other children (Valerie & Sandie, 2018).

In the early childhood days, the interactions with the teachers and peers are most influential on the growth and development of the child. Classroom talks are one most focused learning opportunities in the early childhood days (Hamre et al, 2012). It is often seen that the classroom interactions often start with the Initiation Response Feedback pattern in which the response is generally initiated by the teacher, which is further followed by the child and again closed by the teacher after following (Bateman & Church, 2016). In the video vignette 1, the activity starts with the teacher pouring paints on the table and allowing children to create ideas through the splashed paints. Clemmy is seen creating different designs however, Mike is seen rubbing, despite efforts from educators he likes splashing the plants. Thus, it can be said that in this classroom scenario IRS model is reflective. Also, cognitively challenging situations, using abstracts, texts that are decontextualized help in promoting child language, cognitive and social development (Hamre et al, 2014). Similarly, the teacher in the video vignette 1 also uses several broken texts and abstracts for promoting cognitive development of both the children. Furthermore, teachers in high-quality classroom environment help in promoting positive while preventing negative ones (Bateman & Church, 2016). In the high-quality classroom environment (like presented in the video vignette 1, the minimum time is spent on basic management and transitional activities thereby the educators often engage the children in interesting activities and plays. For instance, the educator in the video vignettes1, children are engaged in splashing paints on the table encouraging them to try new designs and alphabets thus promoting positive behaviours. In a well-organized classroom environment, the children are also taught about behavioural expectations (Hamre et al, 2012). Thus, the children occupy enough time in the activity which eventually helps in their learning. The educators act as instructional support as they help in creating the opportunities that can be easily understood by the child (Valerie & Sandie, 2018). The educators also create an environment that further stimulates language development skills.

EYLF Outcomes
The five learning outcomes of the EYLF Framework are created for the integrated learning and development for children aged birth to five years. In the video vignettes 1 all the outcomes could relate (Australian Department of Education and Training, 2019.). In this view, the first outcomes depict that the "Children have a strong sense of identity". In the video vignette, both the children can recognize their identities they work as a team and also independently. Mike does not copy Clemmy while he also does not take help from the educator as he believes his method of playing to the best. They work as a team to gain higher enjoyment both the children mix colours. This outcome is evident as Mike and Clemmy both have secure attachments with the educator; they are also able to communicate their requirements for comfort and assistance.

The second outcome demonstrates that children are connected while they also contribute to their world. In the video vignettes, the contribution of children is depicted while the instructor is acting as a helper for promoting learning through playing. The educators create environment through which children are able to enjoy, care, and build respectful relationships. In the second outcome, it was depicted that the children listen to ideas while also respecting varied ways of doing things, however, this was not relatable with the video vignettes as Mike never listened to the educator's ideas of doing things another way.

The third outcome depicts that children exhibit a strong sense of well being thus in the video, both the children are seen playing without harming themselves or each other. The children demonstrate trust and confidence while also sharing humour, happiness, and satisfaction. Both Mike and Clem (short for Clemmy, the educator also calls by this name) can make choices as to how they want the paint to occur. They also display genuine affection and respect for each other as well as the educator. Outcome 3 demonstrates that children possess a strong sense of well being. This outcome is evident when they can recognise while also communicate their physical requirements like hunger, thirst, comfort, and others. They are happy while they also stay connected to others like the children in video vignettes.

The outcome 4 demonstrates that children are confident and involved. As per the EYLF standards security and sound wellbeing helps them in gaining confidence in experimenting and exploring new ideas (Australian Department of Education and Training, 2019.). However, partially could be related to the video as Mikewas confident but was not open to exploring ideas given by the educator. He splashed paint on the table and tried mixing it from starting to end of the video without seeking any support. On contrary, the Clem was open to trying out new ideas apart from paint her hand and pasting prints and mixing colours with Mike. The outcome of EYLF demonstrates that children are effective communicators thereby they use language while also engage in play for imaging and creating roles. They can use creative arts like drawing, painting for expressing their ideas. Both the children in the video showed examples of this outcome as they expressed their ideas by mixing and creating designs from splashed paint.

Interaction Analysis 2 Interaction Transcript / Running Record

Name- Fishing – Connecting with Community

Duration- 1.16- 2.17 seconds

The video vignette2 is named as Fishing – Connecting with Community which depicts a connection with the community through fishing activity. There are 6- 7 children in the boat of the garden and the educator helps the children in imagining the scenarios. It seems the activity is designed as the children and the educator are going on a picnic, travelling through the waterways in which they see sharks, dolphins, and crocodiles. The time-lapse for the video is 1.16- 2.17 seconds when one of the children jumps off the boat, the educator is very active to denote this incident with the activity as she says that Daniel has jumped into the water. This one minute is selected as the educator responds to the child who says “OOO” as he has seen the crocodile. All the children are interacting with the educator and happily discussing the experiences. The educator explains the children to quiet and alert so that the crocodiles are nearby. The educator empowers the children by asking whether they have reached the destination while she also continually asking them what else they can see in the water and actively responds to each of the answers given by the children.

Critical Analysis
All the individuals connect with the environment and the larger communities. Healthy relationships as well as social support systems are important for lifelong wellness (Hall & Stevens, 2015). The interactions with the environment start from the childhood days. Not only have they helped the child not feeling lonely while they are also considered important of the healthy development of childhood. The positive connection, socially helps in the healthy development of physical and emotional well being. In Small children up to 5 years of age, learning are initiated through examples that are witnessed by them (Bateman & Church, 2016). That is to say when they observe positive relationships or they are supported emotionally in later stages cognitive functioning and emotional skill sets are developed as the child grows from a baby to toddler or teenage and adults, social network changes. In this view, the video vignette tries to connect the children with the external environment where they will encounter deadly sharks, crocodiles, and dolphins. Thus, making the children aware of good and bad things that prevail in life thereby building their emotional and cognitive skills (Booren et al, 2012). For the young children creating social relationships outside their familiar surroundings becomes important. The video vignette can be explained as the perfect example of connecting the children with the community. At the starting of the video as the boat rides, one of the children comments that the river is bumpy this helps to develop skills to cope with uncertain situations.

It is often that the activities are designed for the children to engage them in parallel when kids interact with each other, thus helping them to move forward with the social connection (Bateman & Church, 2016).In the activity (when one of the children gets down) the children respond to the educator but their interactions with each other are less. However, they respect each other as they do not exhibit any kind of actions that might hurt other individuals. The children react neutrally when one child gets down and another child gets up the boat. As the educator welcomes this passenger, the children also adjust and adapt.

It is said social relationships like friendships help in developing viewpoints, rules of conversation, and behaviours that are appropriate according to the age groups (Valerie & Sandie, 2018). In this video vignette 2, the friendly relationships amongst the children is not clear as they mostly seen interacting with the educator. The efforts of the educators can be seen for making activity interactive as she is responding and interacting with them, also continually asking each of them about their observations and imaginations. The children respond one by one or collaboratively but do not talk to each other. This might be as the group may be new so the bond of friendship was in the initial stages.

EYLF Outcomes
The EYLF framework is largely dependent on the three major aspects that include being, belonging, and becoming while children’s learning is dependent on the five outcomes designed (Australian Department of Education and Training, 2019). However, the children in the video were able to build secure attachments with familiar educators while they openly expressed their ideas and feeling in their interaction with peers and educators. Connecting with and contributing with the world, the children in the video vignettes were responding to diversities of the environment that included bumpy rivers, the prevalence of deadly water animals, offloading and unloading passengers, and others.

In this view, the outcome 3 demonstrated social and emotional well being. In the video vignette, the children are seen collaborating and cooperating while driving the boat, responding to the educator, turning around, and seeing which passenger is offloading and unloading from the boat (Australian Department of Education and Training, 2019). Outcome 4 demonstrates that children are confident and involved learners. It depicts that the children transfer and adapt what they have learned while their resources their while connecting with individuals and technologies. In this view, the children in the video did not satisfy outcome 3 of the EYLF framework, they did show not curiosity as they knew that boat will reach the path and they will have a picnic. No challenges of reaching the goals were provided in the activity that would help the children in developing creativity and enthusiasm. However, the children were able to imagine the scenarios but did no show wonders or reflexivity.

It seemed that children have been given this activity, several times so they knew the ending and we're not curious about the activity to unfold. The outcome 5 depicts children as effective communicators as they interact verbally and non- verbally with other individuals while they also engage with texts and obtain meaning from it. They utilize the information and communication technologies for accessing information, investigating ideas, and representing their thinking. Additionally, the video vignette showcased this example each of the children could easily communicate verbally and non- verbally with the educators and as well the children. They presented their ideas when the educator by imaging the different animals that could be seen in the river. At the starting of the video, the rough rides of the boat were exclaimed as "bumpy rivers" by the small children.

Interaction Analysis 3 Interaction Transcript / Running Record

Name- “Interacting with Babies and toddlers”

Duration- 3.15- 4.15 seconds

The third video vignette is named as “Interacting with Babies and toddlers”. Several educators are seen in the video handling a small group of toddlers and helping the child to learn while engaging them in different activities. The analysis is done at 3.15-4.15 seconds of time lapses on the teacher that is sitting on the table and helping the children to engage with the clay- doe. There are three children on the table who are provided with a green colour dough and some plant leaves. The teacher nicely roles the dough in round balls and provides it to the children, she also pins the plant leaves on the dough for the child. She also smells the plastic leaves while giving it to the child; she provides various ideas like sticking the different animals and types of plants on the clay-doe. She engages the child by making her smell the leaves while also providing different animals at a time. The items that can be harmful to the children like the empty plastic container is also removed from the table later. The teacher helps the child in understanding the differences amongst two leaves, while the dislike of the smell is exhibited through facial expressions while happiness is portrayed through a smile or saying "baah- baah”.

Critical Analysis
The toddlers are in a unique stage of development in the early childhood days (Lanna et al, 2016). These early childhood days embark on the development of autonomy, self- regulation, capabilities through the interactions with the adult that might be parents or the educators (Tong et al 2012). The interactions in early childhood that are conducted with parents, siblings, family members form important fundamentals for demonstrating children about their world (Bateman & Church, 2016). This descriptive study was undertaken by Booren et al, (2012) depicted that children’s interaction with the teachers is high in structured settings by teachers that are in a large group. In a free choice or child-directed setting, the child interactions are positive with the peers and in the tasks. The conflicts amongst small children generally arise during break hours or recess while gender differences are also observed within small groups (Tong et al, 2012). It is said that child from birth up to 5 years of age learn through various interactions in classroom or preschool settings (Valerie & Sandie, 2018). The extent of the activity is one of the components of classroom settings that are misunderstood by the designer of the educative environment. Activity settings like large, free choices and meals might support or constrain the interaction pattern of small children (Booren et al, 2012).

Also, concepts of belonging are vital for the existence of humans, along with learning foundation. The sense of belonging is directly related to the development of children’s cognitive, emotional, psychological, and sense of identity. About this, a sense of belongingness of the child by the teachers can be seen in the video vignettes. The teachers share a bond with the child, helping her every time she fails, thus building of belongingness that will nurture positive attitudes.

EYLF Outcomes
The EYLF outcomes also depict that children possess a strong sense of identity (Australian Department of Education and Training, 2019). These are learned by the children through their interactions and relationships with communities, places, things, actions, responses, and others. In this view, the children in the video vignettes are establishing a sense of identity with the educators as they can communicate their needs using nonverbal communication. For instance, the toddler responds to the educator by smiling at her when she receives a toy or a leaf. The toddler can builda secure connection with all the educators they are interacting with.

The EYLF outcome 2 reveals that they are children are connected and contribute to their world. Thus, develop a sense of belongingness towards the groups and communities while they also tend to reciprocate the roles and responsibilities. However, this outcome cannot be fully related to the video vignettes as they toddlers and are assisted by the teacher to crawl, stand, and perform activities. They can note each activity that is going around them as they stare and look at the same.

Outcome 3 of EYLF depicts that children become string in social and emotional wellbeing while they also take responsibility for their health and physical well being (Australian Department of Education and Training, 2019). The child in the video vignettes has become socially and emotionally strong as she is not crying or fighting with her peers. The child is engaged in her activities and with the educator. She is also able to make choices about the play activities and toys according to her interests. The toddlers in the video vignettes also use their sensory capabilities for responding to the suggestion provided by the educators.

The Outcome 4 of EYLF demonstrates that children are confident and involved learners thus they develop a range of skills that include problem-solving, inquiry, researching, and others. The child in video vignettes expresses her interest by accepting or rejecting things given by the educator. She also shows exploring behavior by looking at the leaves or animals that have been stuck on the clay- doe, they also give back some of the props to the teacher thereby initiating and contributing to the play.

The Outcome 5 of EYLF demonstrates that children are “effective communicators “thus they interact verbally or non- verbally with acquaintances (Australian Department of Education and Training, 2019). The children depict themselves as “effective communicators” as engaging in enjoyable interactions through verbal and non-verbal interactions. Non – verbal interactions are visible when the child takes the clay-dough, try putting the leaves, toys, and animals while also staring at the educator for prompting to reshape the clay- dough if it has flattened. The teacher helps the child in understanding the differences amongst two leaves, while the dislike of the smell is exhibited through facial expressions while happiness is portrayed through a smile or saying "baah- baah”.

Early childhood is considered to be a sensitive and unique age group as the children learn and imitate things, situations, behaviours that surround them. The classroom environment enables the child to explore his surroundings and develop positive attitudes (Bateman & Church, 2016).

References
Australian Department of Education and Training. (n.d.). Belonging, Being & Becoming. https://docs.education.gov.au/system/files/doc/other/belonging_being_and_becoming
_the_early_years_learning_framework_for_australia_0.pdf(Accessed 23 Sep 2020).

Bateman, A., & Church, A. (Eds.). (2016). Children’s knowledge-in-interaction: Studies in conversation analysis. Springer.

Booren, L.M., Downer, J.T., and Vitiello, V.E., 2012. Observations of children's interactions with teachers, peers, and tasks across preschool classroom activity settings. Early Education & Development, 23(4), pp.517-538.

Hall, R., & Stevens, R. (2015). Interaction analysis approaches to knowledge in use. In Knowledge and Interaction (pp. 88-124). Routledge.

Hamre, B. K., Pianta, R. C., Burchinal, M., Field, S., LoCasale-Crouch, J., Downer, J. T., ...& Scott-Little, C. (2012). A course on effective teacher-child interactions: Effects on teacher beliefs, knowledge, and observed practice. American Educational Research Journal, 49(1), 88-123.

Hamre, B., Hatfield, B., Pianta, R., & Jamil, F. (2014). Evidence for general and domain?specific elements of teacher-child interactions: Associations with preschool children's development. Child Development, 85(3), 1257-1274.

Lanna, L. C., & Oró, M. G. (2016). An analysis of the interaction design of the best educational apps for children aged zero to eight. Comunicar. Media Education Research Journal, 24(1).

Tong, L., Shinohara, R., Sugisawa, Y., Tanaka, E., Yato, Y., Yamakawa, N., ... & Japan Children's Study Group. (2012). Early development of empathy in toddlers: Effects of daily parent-child interaction and home?rearing environment. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 42(10), 2457-2478.

Valerie, T. & Sandie, W. (2018) An investigative case study into early childhood educators' understanding of 'belonging'.European Early Childhood Education Research Journal, 26:1, 37-49, DOI: 10.1080/1350293X.2018.1412016

Appendices
Transcript conventions
Figure 1: Interaction Transcript 1

Figure 2-Interaction Transcript 2

Figure 3: Interaction Transcript 3