Discussion Questions
Chapter 1
Discussion Question 1
Social competence is defined as the skills and knowledge that are child needs in order to effectively interact with others and to achieve the specific goals that they have. One of the categories in Figure 1.1 is social values, where an example of this would be a prevailing traditional value which has often considered men to the main breadwinner in the household. Other types of social values would be doing a significant amount of research prior to buying something or being eco-conscious. These are specific forms of behavior that are encompassed within social values.
Three elements where Seth shows social competence are in self-regulation, where he likes reading and exploring books on different topics; positive self-identity, which affords him the opportunity to respond well to familiar verbal requests and cultural competence, which affords him a love of physical movements such as playing outdoors.
Chapter 2
Discussion Question 3
In general, the parent will pick the child up and hold them on their shoulder. There are five different techniques to soothing that can be useful - swaddling, swing/sway, shush, side/stomach and suck.
Chapter 3
Discussion Question 2
Nonverbal communication helps to regulate social interaction, because it influences the ebb and flow of interactions, subsequently benefitting the effectiveness of interpersonal relationships.
An adult touched Marco, when he howled for his supplies. Miss Synder also put her arm around Marco as he pulled the bus away from Conrad. Marco touched Ruth when he wanted to put the glue on her hands. He also wanted to put some on her hair, but this did not end up happening.
Chapter 4
Discussion Question 10
Effective praise tends to make the child, or individual feel good about themselves while simultaneously being individualized and fitting to the particular situation. Ineffective praise tends to be intrusive and offhand in both tone and content, and generally does not assist the child or individual in any form or fashion. One experience as a child was when the teacher was pleased that I had read a total of 5 books over the summer and praised me. I enjoyed the praise, and felt valued and smart.
Verbal environments do make a difference in children like Seth, as it allows children to learn about themselves through feedback and gain insight about who they are through interaction.
Chapter 5
Discussion Question 5
In order to make affective reflections more effective, it is important to ensure that I take an assessment of the particular experience and examine fully how it may have shifted by opinion and/or attitude. More effective affective reflections rely on fully understanding a situation or circumstance and its purpose.
The teacher provided a match feeling words scenario where she talked with Adriana about her feelings in a given situation; and also set consistent boundaries other than timeouts in order to deal with Adriana's aggressive behavior.
Chapter 6
Discussion Question 5
I would put myself as an 8 on the continuum of optimism. The other two individuals put themselves on a 7, and 9 respectively. The presence of optimism indeed affects one's choices in life because they have faith that the experience will be positive and lead them to accomplishing or learning something tangible.
Marco's parents were hampering his independence by speaking of the prince and not forcing him to pick up behind himself and to ignore adults, and requests from others.
Works Cited
Kostelnik, Marjorie. Guiding Children's Social Development and Learning: Theory And Skills. Cengage, 2015. Web. 10 May 2016.
