Self-Efficacy in Young Children

1. Children’s activity addressing self-efficacy.

Objectives regarding the activity.

I would like to create independent learners, work on increasing the children's self-esteem, work on improving their own thoughts and voice in the classroom.

Positive Sam Activity.

This activity involves listing and gluing items on to a paper in a pattern form. The teacher will read a story or a scenario of a young boy’s morning routine and how his thinking can improve him as a better person and build upon his self-efficacy skills.

Materials:

White construction paper for the background, to be given to each student. The teacher will give each students pieces of Sam in construction paper form.

Glue sticks

Markers, Crayons and Colored Pencils.

Cut outs Sam, the following parts of his body. Torso, two legs and two arms.

The students will be at their desk with all the materials in front of them, they will need to have their listing ears on. As the teacher reads parts of Sam’s day, they will need to glue down a different part of Sam’s body on to the white construction paper.

Introduction of the story:

Sam is a young boy around the age of 4. It’s morning time in his house. Sam's mom goes to wake him up the first time, but Sam does not get up. Then she walks into his bedroom the second time. Ask the students “What do they think Sam’s mother said to him.” Write down some of the student’s answers on a chart paper as they express what the Mother had said to Sam to get him up out of his bed. The Mother then proceeds to say to Sam “Now it’s up to you to get up, get dressed and be on time for school. Sam says to himself; I can get up and I can be ready in time for school. Sam’s is self-efficient and has positive thinking.

*Have the students glue the torso of Sam’s body down on the piece of white paper.

Next part is breakfast, Sam's mom asks him to be careful were he places his elbows. Sam accidentally spills over a cup of tea. Ask the students what they think Sam’s Mother says to Sam? Write some of the comments down on the chart paper. Sam’s mom responds to him that she gets upset when something spills something all over her table. She asked Sam to clean it up. Sam thought to himself, I need to be more careful at the table next time.

*Have the students glue on one leg.

Next Sam could not find his backpack, He had asked him mom where it was. She responds, try and think where you left it last. Then Sam thought to himself, I will find my bag. He then remembers where he had left it.

*Next have the students glue and attach an arm to the paper.

Next Sam forgets his lunchbox as he is leaving the front door. Sam felt bad for holding up his sister, but he thought to himself that he will remember to put the lunchbox in his backpack the night before so he will not forget it.

*Have the students glue and arm and a leg on to same.

Once Sam arrived at school, he thought to himself, that he has his own strengths. Sam feels good about what he can do.

*Have the students finish gluing on all the body parts. They will have to add facial features to the face and finish it up with a smile, I would ask the students if they can they relate

to any of the scenarios that were presented in Sam's morning routine. Also, it gives the students an idea of how they can do better in life. I would go around the class and ask each student what part of the story they liked the best and why. I would put a tally mark on the board to see what seen in the story received the most likes. Some other idea on questions would be, Did Sam

make choices about different things in his day? Some of his choices turned out well, some of his choices did not turn out so well.

Explain to the children that people learn to do new things by watching, trying and experimenting. Try to do somethings by yourself and see how it turns out. It just might turn out great. Bandura’s research on self-efficacy states “people may regulate their own behavior or through motivation, thought processes, affective states and actions or changing environmental conditions based around their efficacy beliefs. Perceived self-efficacy provides guidelines for enabling people to exercise some influence over how they love their lives.” (Garvis & Pendergast, 2011).

2. Erik Erikson Theory of Psychosocial Development.

Trust versus Mistrust, trust is defined as trust in oneself, trust in one’s caregiver and trust in the world. Mistrust is defined as a sense of homelessness and suspicion. This stage occurs between the age of birth through the 18 months of age. The trust versus mistrust stage is the most important period in a person’s life because it shapes our views of the world. As well as our personalities. One of the major questions regarding this stage is “Can I trust people around me? Not only does this question pertain to an infant’s life, but it also affects their adulthood. As an infant they will develop and learn to be able to trust the world or not to trust. The most critical component to an infant life is the care that they will receive from their parents or any other adult that is caring for them. The infant is entirely dependent upon their caregiver for the quilty of care and food. This will shape the childs personality. I chose food also, because the adult’s responsibility is to provide proper nutrition to the child, not fast food and convince store food. The food needs to be healthy fruits and vegetables for the child to be able to grow. During this stage children will learn to see if they can trust the people around them. For example, if the child cry’s is there a parent around to see what is wrong. When the child is scared, will someone comfort them. When the child is hungry, will the parent provide them a proper meal. When a caregiver provides all these needs to the child a foundation of trust is beginning to be established. When the child sees that their needs are consistently being met, they will be able to trust that person. When the child has fully accepted trust in their lives, they will feel safe and secure in their world. If the child does not feel trust in their lives, then they will mistrust the people around them. Some studies show that a mistrustful person has learned this from either family or social influences, it is not a genetic trait, mistrust. There are different stages of Psychosocial Development in a person’s life. I am at stage seven in my life. Generativity means making your mark on the world by caring for others as well as creating and accomplishing things that make the world a better place. One question, is how can I contribute to the world? For me it’s teaching young children to feel good about themselves and giving them positive thoughts to caring on with them. By me working with children and making an impact on their lives makes me feel and want to be productive in my students lives. I feel at this stage that Self-Knowledge and Self-Understanding play an important role in my life. Now referring to mistrust. This still comes in to play, even in the work setting. When working with such a huge number of coworkers, it's very hard to trust anyone with your information. May this information be personal or a project that your team is working on. There may be one person it that group that will lead you to mistrust them. With me once that trust is broken, it will take me a long time to rebuild the trust back up. Mistrust also applies to a young child. It will take some time to trust again. Erikson believed that a “person must go beyond the few intimate relationships established in young adulthood and become concerned with the next generation by taking his or her place in the community and aiding in its development. The adult should feel that giving ranks higher than getting, and loving ranks higher than being loved." (Bae, 1999).

3. Social Stories:

Social stories are used to improve children's social skills through a combination of visual and verbal clues. Children who have a disability like Autism or Aspersers will find social stories very beneficial to them. The teacher can teach the child skills on how to respond to cues, how to maintain a conversation and hoe to use prompting. Social stories can increase children's social acceptance and improve on their independence. Children with disables gain confidence and communication when they are playing alongside their peers. Social Stories emphasize on cognitive growth, social skills, emotional and self-regulation. Children with Autism process information from their senses differently. Some will try to filter out the noises by putting their hands over their ears. The senses that are affected can be touch, sight, smell and taste. The biggest sensory issue is noise. “Studies say that 30 percent to more than 90 percent of people with Autism either ignore or overreact to ordinary sights, sounds, smells or other sensations.” (Sarris, 2015).

The social story will be about loud noises and how it affects a child with autism.

Loud Noises

I dislike hearing loud noises. When I hear them, it hurts my ears and my head.

When people talk loudly, I get very angry with them, I want to hit them and yell at them to make the noise stop.

Instead of getting mad at them. I will use my words. I will ask them if they can please lower their voices?

I have an option to ask my teacher to help me out.

I have no control over loud noises, I will control my behavior over the noises.

I will be nice and ask kindly to please quite down.

In the beginning of the story there is a lot of frustrating because the child’s head hurts. Then the child forms aggression towards the people making the noise. Then the student turns the aggression in to a verbal yell and a physical hit to stop the noise. In the next part of the story, the student learns to control their anger and aggression by asking for help and using nice kind words to address the noise issue. At the end of the story, the child understands that the noise level can be out of their control and now they know different skills to use to cope with the noise around them.

References:

• Garvis, S., & Pendergast, D. (2011). An investigation of early childhood teacher self-efficacy beliefs in the teaching of arts education. International Journal of Education & the Arts, 12(9), 1-16. Retrieved from https://search.proquest.com/docview/898322660?accountid=34574
• Bae, Y. (1999). Human development: Theories and learning futures. Futurics, 23(3), 12-33. Retrieved from https://search.proquest.com/docview/219813343?accountid=34574
• Sarris, M. (2016, May 19). What Do We Know about Noise Sensitivity in Autism? Retrieved from https://iancommunity.org/ssc/noise-sensitivity-autism