Observing Communication

I was unable to observe an adult and young child communicating in a real-life setting, so I viewed this type of interaction in a book called Helen Keller. An account of my observation was the story of Helen Keller when she was a healthy child until she became both blind and deaf due to a nearly fatal illness (brain fever) or (Historians believe that Helen had contracted either scarlet fever or meningitis) at the age of 19 months until she died on June 01, 1968 at her residence at the age of 87 after suffering from a heart attack. First, I learned and noticed that Helen was a wild child because she would break dishes, and then slap and bite her family members. Secondly, I learned and noticed that Helen Keller meets with Alexander Graham Bell when he advised that her parents write to the director of the Perkins Institute for the Blind and several months later the Kellers finally heard back from the director who had found a teacher name Annie Sullivan for Helen Keller. Thirdly, I learned and noticed that Annie took a job for the course of her life as a teacher to Helen without no knowledge and understanding of formal training to teach a deaf-blind child at the age of 20 (Annie) when she arrived at the Keller's house on March 03, 1987 and Helen called it the day as "my soul's birthday." Fourthly, I learned and noticed that Helen and Annie went through tough times such as battle of wills when the the teacher and pupil were very strong-willed and often clashing, Helen's breakthrough of learning how read and write, fame for Helen and Annie when they became famous overnight due to Annie sending in regularly reports on Helen's progress to the director of Perkins Institute and then he released Helen's story to the press, Helen and Annie go on the road. Lastly, I learned and noticed that Helen Keller was the spokesperson for this newly formed organization called the American Foundation for the Blind (AFB), and then afterwards Helen lost Annie (the teacher) because of health deterioration over several years when she completely lost her sight (blind) and could no longer travel.

The connections between what I observed and the effective communication strategies presented in this week's resources was that Annie Sullivan did present an equally irresistible challenge when she dealt with Helen being confused and her doubtful family. Annie was successful in the end when she teaches Helen how to communicate with other their language by including its purpose, power, and how it promotes children's thinking (Rainer, J., & Durden, 2010). Annie taught Helen self-control which help her to be more open to learning. I feel as though nothing should have be done to make the communication more affirming and effective.

My thoughts with regard to how the communication interactions that I observed may have affected the child's feelings and/or any influences it may have had on the child's sense of worth was that Helen was actually affectionate sometimes, but at the same time she had a devilishness side when she smashed continuously to smash the dishes and and bites people. Helen, at heart was a child that desires to be loved and hopes to understand the world in which Annie opens up the door to that world. My insights on how the adult-child communication that I observed this week compares to the ways in which I communicate with the children is that they tend to throw tantrums when things go wrong or they cannot have their way and that is when I find a method/strategy to punish them to let them know that this is the consequences of acting out. What I have learned about myself this week with respect to how well I talk with and listen to young children is that I am easily to get bored sometimes with our conversation because they tend to rumble off or they be like do not worry about just forget it. I can improve by thinking positive when it comes to our conversation because they could teach me something new or I could suggest to them to tell me something exciting that happened to them that day.

Reference:
Rainer Dangei, J., & Durden, T. R. (2010). The nature of teacher talk during small group activities. YC: Young Children, 65(1), 74-81. Retrieved from the Walden Library using the Education Research Complete database. http://ezp.waldenulibrary.org/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ehh&AN=47964033&site=ehost-live&scope=site