Case study assignment

Case Study - Early Childhood

Introduction

At an inner city child care centre, the children who attend have diverse cultural backgrounds. Within one “room” there are issues of biting. The following children are in this “room”. Ajit and his family have only recently migrated to Australia. He had no English language when he started at the centre. When he was enrolled only his father talked with the staff at the centre. Ajit is very quiet and seems quite nervous. He mostly watches the other children playing. Another child, Max, aged four, has recently started. This is Max's first experience in a group setting. At the centre Max spends a lot of time in the bathroom. Lucy, who is three, is temporarily in a wheelchair and loves to be involved in all aspects of the centre including outside play.

Discussion

The group/class in question is made up of culturally and linguistically diverse people like Ajit, Max and Lucy. Ajit is having a hard time adjusting in culture of a “foreign” country as his mother tongue is not English and he has spent early years of his life in different culture and has spoken different language. Max is shy and seems not quite open to the feedback of his peers that's why he try to avoid situation with them by locking himself in a bathroom and spending as much time as possible there. Though Lucy is a special child who cannot stand on her own feet but she is quite normal psychologically and spends her time in school just like normal kids do by participating in all the activities that takes place in a classroom.

Educational needs of Ajit

Before determining the educational needs of Ajit who has culturally and linguistically diverse background, we first need to figure out whether his nervousness and less participation in the class activities is related to the language, English language, which others can speak well but he cannot as English is his secondary language, or it has to do something with his learning disability. By talking to his parents about his previous academic performance in his previous school in his homeland, we can easily figure out his actual problem. If Ajit did well in the past in his previous school, it means root-cause of the problem is the secondary language, English language. If he has always been like this, it means his educational need is special attention on the part of his teachers in order to enhance his learning, comprehension and communication skills (Banks, 2003).

Educational needs of Max

Max is facing a problem of loneliness. Apparently, he is going through a difficult transition between his home setting where he may be the only child of his parent and lives unaccompanied there and the educational setting which is quite social as compared to his home setting. Educational needs of Max are adaptation to two or more diverse set of values, rules, behaviour and expectations. Max has recently entered into the new environment (school) which is proving to be intimidating for ...