Early Childhood Education: Learning Behaviors and Developmental Outcomes

This assignment explores the learning behaviors and developmental outcomes of early childhood education through the case study of Ethan, a three and a half year old boy. The study aims to relate Ethan's skills in activities with the Early Years Learning and Development Outcomes. The article also includes a learning plan for Ethan and a new activity to fill the deficiency found in his learning.

Running head: EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION
EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION
Name of the Student
Name of the university
Author’s note

1EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION
Introduction
According to Victorian State Government Education and Training (2017), early
childhood period of life of a child has a significant impact on their developmental and learning
phase for children. Since, from birth for up to 8 years, children’s brain undergoes a huge
development and change. This is the time, when children have maximum opportunities to
develop specific neural pathways of learning. However, at this time, the children are more
vulnerable to negative experiences. The following assignment is based on the activity displayed
by Ethan, a three and a half year old boy who studies in kindergarten school. The assignment
mainly aims to relate the skills displayed by Ethan in the activities with the Early Years Learning
and Development Outcomes.
My study child and his learning documentation
My study child is Ethan who is 3 and a half years old and study in kindergarten. One day
I noticed him playing with toy cars in the outdoor area with his peers. I was fascinated by some
of his learning behaviours in particular how he is enjoying while in a group. Initially he was
playing alone with his car at one side of the garden. After a while he was joined with two of his
friends. In the presence of his two friends, Ethan was happy as he shared his toys cars and
included then in his play. This showed a sign that Ethan is connected with and contribute to their
world (community) and enjoys being in group.
Another day, Ethan was observed to engage with his sand pit tools including red colored
midi spade, maxi spade, rake, bucket and sieve. He was very creative in his abstract sand figures.
Moreover, I observed his strong sense of wellbeing in a range of social skills and dispositions.
Ethan is capable of receiving and seeking assistance while making abstracts with his sand pit

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tools. I found him making small houses via taking assistance from his teammates. He started via
making the different parts of the house and then ensemble them to form a completed structure.
He also exchanged his ideas with his friends so that they too can help him out. Though his
friends were taking or frequently moving out from the play, Ethan was focused and confident
and he only stepped out once he completed the entire house made of sand. I also observed how
he is safe guarding his tools of sand pit from damage while allowing others to use it but with
cautions. This displayed a strong sense of managing emotions and impulses in order to cope up
with day-to-day stress.
I noted on another occasion that Ethan is playing with his toy dinosaur. He was talking or
communicating with the dinosaur in his own language and at times making a specific grant. I
think he is trying to make an imaginary voice-over for the toy dinosaurs. This represents the
power of effective communication and verbalizing.
How and what has Ethan learned?
As observed from the above mentioned documentation, Ethan undertook a process of
problem solving skills and experimentation while playing with sand pit. This is because, he
stated with a chunk of sand and slowly and gradually transformed it into a house. In this learning
experience, Ethan displayed a range of skills like ingenuity, creativity. This is because, he
utilized his team mates, took their help with a cleaver approach towards the process of making
sand-house. He also displayed a strong sense of well being. According to Victorian State
Government Education and Training (2017), wellbeing defines having a good mental and
physical health along with attachment, positive effect and a sense of self-regulation. This
signifies that the child is able to manage emotions in a productive manner while building

3EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION
resilience and persistence for being confident and adaptable. Ethan is also connected with and
contributes to their world. This is because, Ethan enjoys being in groups. According to Victorian
State Government Education and Training (2017), children who are firmly associated to their
world, participate in day-to-day routines and experiences and employ proper opportunities to
contribute to the decision making process. They also assist and display concern for others while
learning to respect for those who are different from them and practice in an inclusive manner of
resolving conflicts. Here Ethan was found assisting his friends in making the structures through
sand pit and playing with the toy cars. This further highlighted that he is aware of understanding
fair play and how to contribute in a group. Ethan is effective in his communication as well and
this have observed in both the group play activities and while he was playing alone with his toy
dinosaurs. Communication is the basic skill for the children. Children communicate from birth
via using gestures, movements and non-verbal clues which get transformed into sounds assisted
communication and verbal clues in order engage in a relationship with others. In the entire three
activities Ethan displayed active skills of communication in both the three task. In the first task,
while he was playing with his toys, Ethan was interacting with his friends in the domain of
direction of the car, car sounds. In the second task, Ethan was found interaction with his friends
in giving direction of how to make structures of sand pit. This also displayed his skills of co-
ordination like managing the resources and utilizing it in a proper manner in order to achieve the
desired outcomes.
Ethan also displayed his art of making an imaginary voice like dinosaurs. According to
Strait et al. (2012), children learning frequently occur in the presence noise. This presence of
different types of noise helps children to identify the different between noise and thereby helping
them to strengthen perceptual and neural enhancements. So this signifies that Ethan is exposure

4EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION
to different types of noise and this has helped him to act innovatively in framing an imaginary
sound of dinosaurs.
During my observation, I also recognised his increasing disposition of persistence.
Irrespective of the interruptions coming from his flocks, who were either leaving the entire act or
asking his to do something else or distracting him, Ethan stayed focused in his activities and
keeping up his creative standards. According to Zelazo and Lyons (2012), early childhood is
marked by substantial development in the domain of self-regulatory skills which supports school
readiness and socio-emotional competence. Evidences from the developmental social cognitive
neuroscience highlights that the skill of maintaining concentration or staying focused act as a
function of changes in the dynamic interaction between regulatory processes and at the same
time, cast an impact of the behaviour. Further mindfulness training will help Ethan to maintain
sustained concentration while decreases the sense of anxiety and stress.
A learning plan for Ethan
I have realized that Ethan has been showing an active interest about cars and keeps on
asking questions about the type of cars and every time tries to relate with the vehicles he sees
outside. He can understand the difference in the different types of the vehicles such as cars,
trucks, bicycles but has not developed concepts of speed or distance. Furthermore I have also
found out that Ethan shows no interest is taking care of the toys after he is finished with the
playing, not does he shows any interest in cleaning them. Hence I have tried to implement
activities like toy car washing to foster the sense of cleanliness and care of his own things. While
observing Ethan I have found that he shows apprehension while talking about cars and hence I
found that Ethan would enjoy any sort of activity with cars and such an activity will also teach

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Ethan how to clean things. Throughout the learning it can be seen that Ethan explored color and
the sound during playing with the cares. Ethan was also found to ask questions about cars
whenever he sees one and tries to link with the cars he was washing. As stated by (Piaget
2013,p. 35) incorporating the knowledge of cleanliness and hygiene from childhood and taking
care of things is an important gesture. Furthermore early child hood activities like this would
increase the concurrent development of the cognitive skills (Australian government, Department
of education and training. 2014). This would integrate the foundation of movement that a child
will carry throughout the life. A child who is physically active learns habits in the early
childhood that increases their chance of remaining physically active throughout their life
(Harding et al. 2013.p.14). Such activities can help the child to develop physically, socially and
emotionally. The group activity would also foster the sense of team work in him that would serve
him in future and this cleansing habit would provide a lifelong commitment to cleanliness and
hygiene (Case-Smith 2013.p.32)
Tool used: Toy cars, brushes, skin friendly soaps, wet towels, dry towels, soapy water, and a tub
for washing the toys.
Number of children participated: Ethan and seven other children of the kindergarten.
Supervisor: The class educator.
Activity: Each of the child was given two buckets, one filled with the soapy water and the other
filled with soapy water and the other filled with clear water and a dry towel and two brushes.

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The new activity
It is evident from the previous activity that the Ethan is interested in jeeps and cars and
displays an active interests in parts of the cars, making of the cars, collection of different types of
vehicles. However Ethan did not show much interest in the preservation of the toy cars that were
littering around and also did not show much interest in maintaining cleanliness and hygiene.
Hence the chosen activity to fill the deficiency found in the learning of Ethan related to
cleanliness is the washing of the toy car along with other children in the kindergarten.
Documentation: Ethan and seven other children of the kindergarten was taken to the field along
with the tools required for the toy washing. Two educators were accompanying Ethan and his
companions. Each of the children was assigned to carry one toys and a washing equipment. Each
of the children were told to sit in short tools and start the washing. The educator first
demonstrated the way to wash the toy with the help of brushes soapy water. In one of the tub the
educator put a bit of skin friendly dish soap to make the soap lather, in the other tub clean water
was kept for the washing. A bottle brush and a tiny nipple brush was used to clean the detailed
structures and the wheels of the toy cars. After the washing the toys were made towel dry. All the
washed toys are kept in the dry clean tub. After the washing the clean toy tub is then taken to the
room.
Reflection
I have found that reflecting on and evaluation is an important part of the childhood
learning and it is the heart of the maintenance of a learning culture. It is my belief that my
extensive planning, proper demonstration, assessment and evaluation have enhanced learning in
Ethan. I have tried to gather information, views and perspective of Ethan and has used it for

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decision making. During the implementation of the practice I fetched help from the other
educator to manage all the other children accompanying Ethan, as collaboration with other
members helped to create an inclusive environment for the child that would enhance the learning
in the child. I have researched and have brainstormed through a number of early childhood
frameworks that has helped me to adopt a professional way of teaching the toddlers. I believe
that my learning strategies have enhanced the learning capabilities in Ethan. After the activities it
can be found that Ethan was showing more interest in keeping the tables and the classroom. His
awareness regarding the cleanliness of his sitting place has increased. I was also successful in
identifying some of the areas of improvement in terms of her learnings. I believe that I had to be
more careful while evaluating the learning of the child. During the cleaning session I did not
supervise Ethan about how much time he is taking to wash the cars and whether he is enjoying
the thing or is merely doing the process out of pressure and in fear of punishment. However
when I asked him about his feeling she responded in a joyful manner. I have also identified a
mistake in part of my documentation, that is I did not keep a video recording of the whole
practice as an evidence of Ethan’s learning, which could have been used later on to analyze his
learning more accurately.

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References
Australian government, Department of education and training. 2014. The early years learning
framework in action. Retrieved from: https://docs.education.gov.au/node/33535
Case-Smith, J., 2013. Development of childhood occupations. Occupational therapy for
children, pp.56-83.
Harding, J., Meldon-Smith, L. and Sheridan, M., 2012. Play in early childhood: From birth to
six years. Routledge.
Piaget, J., 2013. Play, dreams and imitation in childhood (Vol. 25). Routledge.
Strait, D.L., Parbery-Clark, A., Hittner, E. and Kraus, N., 2012. Musical training during early
childhood enhances the neural encoding of speech in noise. Brain and language, 123(3), pp.191-
201.
Van Hoorn, J.L., Monighan-Nourot, P., Scales, B. and Alward, K.R., 2014. Play at the center of
the curriculum. Pearson.
Victorian State Government Education and Training. 2017. Victorian Early Years Learning And
Development Framework: For All Children From Birth To Eight Years. Access date: 4th June.
Retrieved from: http://www.education.vic.gov.au/Documents/childhood/providers/edcare/
veyldframework.pdf
Zelazo, P.D. and Lyons, K.E., 2012. The potential benefits of mindfulness training in early
childhood: A developmental social cognitive neuroscience perspective. Child Development
Perspectives, 6(2), pp.154-160.