RMIT Early Childhood: Conversation Analysis Report on John's Behavior

This report presents a conversation analysis of a 23-month-old child named John. The study examines John's verbal and non-verbal communication, interactions with family members, and behavioral patterns during a conversation. The report includes an introduction outlining the aim of the analysis, a section providing background information on John, and a description of the observed conversation. A critical analysis section discusses John's behavior in the context of various pedagogical theories, exploring his curiosity, concentration levels, and cognitive abilities. The analysis also considers his preferences, sharing behaviors, and interest in music. The report draws on the works of various authors to support the analysis. The conclusion summarizes the findings and reflects on the author's improved understanding of child behavior and pedagogical practices. The report emphasizes the importance of building positive relationships with children and their parents. References and an appendix are included.

Running head: Conversation analysis report
Conversation analysis report
A case study of John, 23 months old child
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

Conversation analysis report 1
Table of Contents
Introduction:...............................................................................................................................2
About John:................................................................................................................................2
A brief observation from the conversation:...............................................................................3
Critical analysis of the observation:...........................................................................................3
Conclusion:................................................................................................................................5
References:.................................................................................................................................7
Appendix:...................................................................................................................................9

Conversation analysis report 2
Introduction:
The aim of this report is to carry out a critical analysis of the pedagogical behaviour
of a child when a conversation took place between the child and the mentor. For this case, a
little boy, John (changed name) is the selected child whose behaviour will be analysed basis
certain pedagogical theories and concepts. In the view point of Van Manen, (2016), a child in
his 2nd year shows all the characteristics which show that the child is at the learning phase or
has the potential of learning. It is that time when he starts to speak and starts to understand
the things around him. As a result of this, it becomes very crucial for the parents to think of
all the possible ways to protect the baby from any situation that would incline the child to
learn something that of poor taste. At the same time, the child shows different types of
behavioural symptoms those are important to keep a track as that might shows certain
delicate signs and evidences of the child (Collinson & Tourish, 2015). Thus, it is not only the
verbal behaviour analysis of the child but the non-verbal and body language of the child will
also be studied and analysed. A detailed discussion and analysis of the behaviour of the child
will be carried out in this report.
About John:
John is a 23 month old infant who shows all the characteristics of the child of his age.
He runs, shouts, plays and shows all other skills that could make him an active child. He is a
healthy child who has just started uttering a number of words which are the common words
and phrases like Mumma, Dayda, cycle, garden and other such things. He is a cheerful child
and likes to play with his toys in his garden (refer to the appendix). He listens to his parents
and others but at the same time, he is equally demanding as well and asks for things like
chocolates, drinks and others. He also plays with his friends but at the same time, it has been
found that he is extremely curious and keeps asking different questions to satisfy his thirst of
gathering knowledge.

Conversation analysis report 3
A brief observation from the conversation:
A conversation took place between John and me in presence of his parents. The aim
of this conversation was to understand the behaviour and the ability of John as a child. It was
a brief conversation as he was too busy in his play and did not give us the scope to ask him
questions rather he kept on asking questions from his end only. However, simple questions
were asked to him regarding his liking and bonding with other members of the family (refer
to the appendix). He was very prompt with all the questions being asked and at the same
time, he showed certain signs and non-verbal languages those helped in understanding the
major characteristics of him as a child.
Critical analysis of the observation:
It has been identified that John could not utter too many words or could talk by
addressing long sentences or phrases. Thus, as an adult we have to understand what he wants
to say. Looking at the behavioural aspect of John, it was found that John is a very active child
and it was very difficult to ask him to stay at a place and answer our queries but he kept on
moving here and there and was little reluctant to answer our queries all at a go. As
commented by Jones (2017), children who show such active behaviour are very curious to
know about various things that they look at or get accustomed with. They have the urge and
curiosity to know and understand the things happening around them. There is always a
question swirling around their mind that makes them more active than other children
compared to those who do not asks much questions to others. At the same time, Loy et al. ,
(2017) commented that children who do not stay calm and composed and listens to what they
have been asked, lack certain level of concentration and this can lead to the situations of utter
negligence and avoidance of serious things.
Few questions were asked to understand his view point on the various things. For
instance, it was asked whom he loves more, his Mom or his Dad? This was asked to

Conversation analysis report 4
understand if he keeps the ability of comparison and understanding what he likes more than
the other. In this case, we obviously got an answer from John when he stated that he loves his
Dad more. The reason for the same was much evident because he clearly stated that his Dad
always take him to play but on the other hand, his mother only offers him food and forces
him to eat. This is a common behaviour among the children and in the view point of Le et al.,
(2016), children often do not consider them to be their friends or companion if the person is
not acting according to the wishes of the child. Feeding the children is a different course of
action because when the parents consider that a particular food is necessary for their child to
be health, the child could not agree with the course of action and always thinks that the one
who is feeding him forcefully do not love him. Similar thing was recognised when it was
found that between his Dad and Mom, John selects his Dad because his Mom always forces
him to eat things those are not liked by him. The next answer signifies the same thing when it
was asked who do he think loves him more, he straight away said that his Dad because his
Dad accompanied him in play and his Mom perhaps not (Riddle et al., 2016).
Later, in order to understand his cognitive abilities, few questions were asked to
understand how well he can speak or has grip over words and phrases. This is why he was
asked to sing a song for us. John showed much enthusiasm to sing and he hopped a little
during his signing as well that showed his likeness towards the song or that particular activity
(refer to the appendix). In the view point of Barlow et al., (2017), we can easily assume a lot
of things from the verbal and non-verbal activities of children. Their happiness towards a
particular activity can be seen by the way they react to it. It is not always that they would
utter words to express their happiness and joy. The same thing was observed when he was
asked to sing a sing. He could not deliver the correct wordings of the song but could easily
rhyme to the music of the song. This verbal and non-verbal behaviour of John clearly gave us
the idea that he is very fond of song and music and could spend a lot of time in the same

Conversation analysis report 5
thing. This automatically shows his interest on this activity. Considering this point,
Trevarthen, (2017) highlighted the fact that liking singing and dancing at the toddler’s age is
a common thing because the music and the dance with vivid and colourful dresses
automatically brings that interest in a person. Thus, the liking of singing and dancing among
the babies are common and cannot be considered as a sign of having interest in that particular
genre (Rowan, 2017).
Later, in order to evaluate his nature in terms of sharing and caring, he was asked if he
was ready to share his toys with me. At that point of time, he was sitting on his 3-wheeled
cycle holding a toy that looked more like a dragon (refer to the appendix). It seems to be his
favourite toy as he was not letting it go at any point and was keeping it glued to his chest.
Even after looking at such symptoms, I asked if he is ready to share his toys with me, but as
expected within a second, he replied that he is not interested and would not share his toys
with me. If the discussion point of Messer, (2016) is concerned, children are often selfish
with what they like and do not want to share it with others with a fear that they would not get
the thing back. However, this act changes as they start growing up and starts recognising
people. However, Hawkins et al., (2015) also highlighted that it is not always the same case
for every child, but it also happens that a child shares his things with the one whom he likes
and is not ready to share things to someone who is a stranger to him. In fact, if the children
play together in a group, it has been observed that the children share toys and food with each
other. One of the other reasons could be that the child wants to get the toys of the other
person.
Conclusion:
The detailed conversation analysis of the child taken as a case study gave a lot of
ideas about the behaviour of a child and how they react to things around them. Their
behaviour could only be understood once a conversation was initiated and when there was a

Conversation analysis report 6
scope of spending considerable time with the child. It was when both the criteria were
fulfilled; I was able to understand a lot of things about John. This way I have improved my
ability to understand children and how to act with them at different situations. Various
concepts and theories of pedagogy have been discussed and a critical analysis has been done
to understand the different views of the various authors. It has been understood that
children’s behaviour is not very predictive but a child does whatever makes him feel better.
As an adult, teacher or parent, we have to read the pulse of the child and think of all the
possible ways to carry out a good bonding with the toddler. This would definitely help me in
future in my career where I will be able to evaluate the verbal and non-verbal activities of the
children. In addition to this, it is equally important to maintain a positive relationship with the
parents of the toddlers as well. This entire conversation and the learning from it would help
me to achieve my long term goals in my career path.

Conversation analysis report 7
References:
Barlow, J., Bennett, C., Midgley, N., Larkin, S. K., & Wei, Y. (2017). Parent–infant
psychotherapy for improving parental and infant mental health. BJPsych
Advances, 23(4), 216-216.
Benmayor, R. (2018). Emotion and pedagogy: Teaching digital storytelling in the millennial
classroom. In Beyond Women's Words (pp. 89-100). Routledge.
Collinson, D., & Tourish, D. (2015). Teaching leadership critically: New directions for
leadership pedagogy. Academy of Management Learning & Education, 14(4), 576-
594.
Hawkins, E., Madigan, S., Moran, G., & Pederson, D. R. (2015). Mediating and moderating
processes underlying the association between maternal cognition and infant
attachment. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 39, 24-33.
Jones, N. B. (2017). An Ethological Study of Some Aspects of Social Behaviour of Children
in. Primate ethology, 347.
Le, H. N., Gulenc, A., Gold, L., Sarkadi, A., Ukoumunne, O. C., Bayer, J., ... & Hiscock, H.
(2016). Utility‐based quality of life in mothers of children with behaviour problems:
A population‐based study. Journal of paediatrics and child health, 52(12), 1075-
1080.
Loy, J. H., Merry, S. N., Hetrick, S. E., & Stasiak, K. (2017). Atypical antipsychotics for
disruptive behaviour disorders in children and youths. Cochrane database of
systematic reviews, (8).

Conversation analysis report 8
Messer, D. J. (2016). Mastery, attention, IQ and parent-infant social interaction. In Mastery
motivation in early childhood (pp. 19-35). Routledge.
Riddell, R. P., Fitzgerald, M., Slater, R., Stevens, B., Johnston, C., & Campbell-Yeo, M.
(2016). Using only behaviours to assess infant pain: a painful
compromise?. Pain, 157(8), 1579-1580.
Rowan, C. (2017). Maternal–infant attachment. In The social context of birth (pp. 175-193).
Routledge.
Trevarthen, C. (2017). The function of emotions in early infant communication and
development. In New perspectives in early communicative development (pp. 48-81).
Routledge.
Van Manen, M. (2016). The tone of teaching: The language of pedagogy. Routledge.

Conversation analysis report 9
Appendix:
Me: So John, tell me about yourself, do you like to play or study?
John: Play.. With Dadda and Samantha (his cousin)
Me: Who loves you more, Mom or Dad?
John: Dad.
Me: Why do you think Mom does not love you more?
John: She tells me to eat and not to play
Me: Do you go to school?
John: No
Me: Can you sign me a song?
John: Sings a song in gibberish tone.
Me: Would you like to share your toys with me?
John: No. This is mine. This is my dino.
Me: Will you share your toys with your friend?
John: Yes. I will give it to Jamie, Brine.
Me: Do you know colours?
John: Hmm.. I know red, orange and blue
Me: Would you like to have an ice cream with me?
John: Yes yes…. Strawberry…