Observing Communication

For this assignment, we were asked to observe the communication between adults and  children. The purpose was to see if the interactions supported effective communication strategies that we have learned over the course of the week that works best with young children. So below you will find my observation.

For this observation I chose to summarize the interactions between an adult and child from a movie. The movie that I chose to view was Matilda. Matilda is about a little girl who is the youngest child of a car salesman and a BonBon eating mother. Matilda, as a young child exhibited extraordinary skills and abilities. Seeing that Matilda was different from the rest of the family, her mom and dad did not pay her any attention and she spent a lot time alone. During this time alone Matilda taught herself to read and she developed a love for books, because they allowed her to escape the madness in her world. Matilda longed to go to school and soon her parents allowed her to go and she met a young teacher that she could relate to. At the school Matilda and the rest of the children were treated unfairly by the very mean headmaster named Ms. Punchbowl.

What I noticed in this movie is that Matilda's home life did not support her development. She had a yearning to learn and her parents did nothing to help build and promote her development. At home her social skills were not guided by loving and caring parents and she did not receive positive and loving interactions from her family. Her language was not supported by her parents, because they did not sit and talk to her and she had no interactions with her brother. He treated her just like the parents did. When Matilda inquired about certain things her parents did not support her curiosity and her ideas where not allowed to be brought to life in a way that she could make sense of it.

Based on what I know about communicating with young children, I feel that Matilda's communication skills were not strengthened by her parents. Children need to be talked to by caring adults that will help them to develop language and that will help them to add more words to their vocabulary. Matilda's parents barely spoke to her and when they did speak to her it was very indirect and brief. Luckily, Matilda was a bright and     highly intelligent child for her age and she possessed special skills. If she did not possess these particular set of skills, I fear that she would have lacked the language that would have allowed her to communicate effectively with her peers. Without being given the language to express herself, Matilda probably would have trouble building relationships and expressing herself. If children are never given the proper words to use, then he or she will have a difficult time learning about the world around them. Language is our main form of communication and for young children their first interactions with language begins with the adults in their home environments. I imagine that Matilda probably felt terrible that her parents did not pay much attention to her and that they would rather watch television than sit and talk or read a book to her. Even though Matilda is a fictional character, the chaos that existed in her home life was not. Children everywhere experience the same kind of environment that Matilda grew up in. Her parents could have done better with the way they communicate with her. They could have supported her language by allowing her to fully express her ideas and thoughts and given her the proper language that allowed her to fully expressed herself. In the video from this week, Lisa Kolbeck, supported the children's communication and language by listening attentively as the child shared her ideas and thoughts. She also provided the language that supported her idea and she asked her questions that caused her to think critically and open her mind up to more learning about her idea (Laureate Educaton, 2011). The parents could have easily read to her more and talked to her about what it was that she was looking at in the books and given her language that supported what she learning.