For my Observation, I am observing my nephews play amongst themselves and their friends at the park. All 4 children are between 3 and 5. Whilst at the park I see them talking about where they’d like to go play first of what game they’d like to play. I hear that they agree on going to the swings.
There is 3 swings total, one of the boys offers to push the rest of the boys on the swings until someone else gets off. This shows the executive function in one of the boys because it shows that they can make goals in which they can, later on, be rewarded. This also shows that at least one of the boys can exhibit self-control. In the text, we learn that Executive function is an umbrella-like concept that consists of several higher-level cognitive processes that are linked to the development of the brain’s prefrontal cortex (Santrock, 2017).
Executive functioning skills are a set of abilities that are essential for thinking through and completing tasks constantly. These are the skills that allow us to problem solve, initiate and complete tasks, and keep ones’ attention through the completion of a task.
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Executive functioning skills are necessary for tasks such as getting dressed daily and becoming ready for the day, completing homework, or any other tasks we might do daily. These skills are needed for every multi-step activity we face. The boy that offered to wait and to push some of the boys however quickly loses interest in the activity and goes to sit on the side and play with the woodchips. A few minutes pass by and the boys who are on the swing get off and start to run toward the sandbox yelling about who is going to get there first and be “king of the sandbox.” The one boy who was playing with the woodchips staggers behind but eventually joins the other boys in the sandbox.
While in the sandbox one of the boys gets aggravated that someone took his toy. He begins to get visibly upset, showing signs of aggression. He begins to pound the sand in frustration and then begins to scream and cry. The boy begins to take his anger on one of the boys and starts to push one of the younger boys around. In the text, we learn that boys are more aggressive than girls. Aggressive responses to being frustrated are a normal part of early childhood, but children are increasingly expected to manage their emotions and control their behavior (Roy, 2019).
Young children have a harder time understanding what other people are feeling and how emotions work. They don’t have an “advanced” sense of emotions. For young children, everything is either happy or sad to them. Therefore, they might not be as good at recognizing how their behavior is making another child feel. They may literally have a hard time ‘using their words,’ so hitting or other signs of aggression becomes an easier solution when they are frustrated.
According to Zhen Chai, it is generally accepted that challenging behaviors serve some sort of communicative purpose, to gain access to something desired; for example, adult attention or a specific toy, or to escape from something aversive; for example, a difficult task or a structured activity (Zhen Chai, 2018).
A child who hits and shoves to access a toy is reinforced for that behavior each time the other child relinquishes the object, increasing the likelihood the child will hit and push the next time a toy is possessed by someone else. In this way, the consequences of the challenging behavior influence whether the child will use the challenging behavior the next time a set of similar circumstances arises.
Throughout my observation, I noticed that the boys may fight of beginning to be aggressive but it is often quite quickly resolved because another boy decides to share his toy or share the activity he is currently participating in. I thought that this was something important to mention because it shows that most of the boys their age should also be following certain aspects of this behavior. Whether or not all boys display this type of behavior may very well depend on the child’s environment and their own personal development.
