James Jones was a premature baby born through a caesarean section, due to this, he was kept in a neonatal unit. James missed out on normal skin to skin bonding, that a new born and mother usually have. This could have affected his emotional development as he may have been less likely to be as attached to the mother. “The possibility that postnatal separation of the human neonate is stressful and results in harmful effects that may persist across the lifespan” Moore, ER (2007). The bond may not be as strong as it would be, if he was home where he had a family that were supportive, instead of in the hospital for four weeks.
James developed slowly compared to other children his age, children from 9-12 months should be crawling according to Meggitt (2006). James completely missed out on crawling, and there are theories that suggest a direct link between children who don’t crawl and learning difficulties, such as dyslexia and ADHD. This is due to the lack of a reflex called “symmetric tonic neck reflex”
James’ gross motor skills slowly developed as he walked at 18 months- the very latest age of the average 9-18 months, anything longer than this would be something to be concerned about. James did not crawl therefore he missed out on a lot of gross motor skills development that happens during the crawling stage. Children learn to balance during their crawling stage, shift their own weight, move their legs in a quick motion, use their arms to hold their body upright, use co-ordination etc.
At 3, James was referred to the community paediatrician as it was becoming clear he was lacking in most areas of development as his speech was delayed, he had issues kicking the ball, was emotionally troubled and avoided eye contact which was a problem for each of his physical, intellectual, emotional and social development. James proved to have more social issues as he preferred to play alone which is an unusual trait for a child at his age. At this stage the paediatrician began to help James make development progress by doing a neurological assessment. A neurological assessment tests the reflex and nervous system and James showed a startled response to loud noise and touch retained, which is linked to primary reflexes persisting long after their normal time span.
James was assessed by an Educational Psychologist during Nursery School and during this time James showed limited interaction with other children and playgroup staff. Due to this, James was then referred to an Occupational therapist and a Speech therapist. A statement of Educational Special Need was given to James.
The occupational therapist began to help James develop by giving him designated massages on his hands and feet, the reason for this is to try improve balance (his balance was immature, could be due to retained ‘moro reflex’) and to encourage his fine motor skills. James’ parents also began some treatment at home that works alongside the speech therapist to encourage 4.2 of the Early Year’s Foundation Stage ‘active learning’ in James’ everyday life as it involves other people for sustained periods EYFS (2012) . Vygotsky (1896-1934) believed that children learn through their environment, and if James is continuously doing these tasks and programmes it will begin to make a change as he is learning in his school environment as well as his home environment.
James was assigned a classroom assistant on a one to one basis, Vygotsky has said that the one to one will help James reach the Zone of Proximal Development, as he will be able to develop as the classroom assistant will be able to recognise the child’s current knowledge and what the child is able to learn and understand without pushing the child too far and making it too stressful on the child.
With the one to one basis James started showing improvement in his social development as within two months he began initiating play outside and showed more interaction in the classroom. James’ attention span began to grow longer as he was more focused during circle time. This is an obvious improvement as James found it difficult to sit still previously as he preferred to be on the move, he was restless beforehand.
James’ physical development also started to improve as he was able to practice using his gross motor skills as he began to progress in climbing, throwing and catching. This may also be because James see’s other children in the playground doing this activities, Bandura states that children copy behaviour and often have role models. Bandura says that children see, children do, and James could see the other children climbing and taught himself how to climb. However, James still struggled with turn taking, he didn’t understand it as he previously found it difficult to share. The classroom assistant can further support James in this by practicing throwing the ball forwards and backwards between them, as this will encourage turn taking with the ball.
James will continue his one to one support with his classroom assistant as he goes into primary school, the classroom assistant will further support James by ensuring his health and wellbeing and needs are being met. The classroom assistant must ensure his physical development is showing improvement by doing fine motor skill tests such as ‘pinching’ where the classroom assistant will have James pick up his pencil or pick up a coin off a table. The classroom assistant can also test his gross motor skills by having him run, kick a ball or hop. James’ intellectual skills will be met if the classroom assistant keeps building on his attention span and memory is being improved as they are James’ biggest weaknesses.
The professionals and James’ parents still need to work on James’ social development as it was reported his interaction with his peers stayed limited. The classroom assistant will have to extend the attention span of James as it’s still not on the same level as the other children in his class. They will need to improve his memory because he still finds it hard to retain information. In order to move forward the classroom assistant can work with James’ parents and give the parents tasks to do at home, such as getting rid of distractions, this could be as simple as just turning off the TV while James is doing homework. James’ mother is on a career break and therefore is at home to help further support James on the level that he needs .The classroom assistant can also do things such as puzzles and jigsaws at the back of the classroom and time him with a stopwatch, therefore each time they can see if there is improvement in concentration or not.
To conclude, the professionals and the parents helped James make development progress by doing various things, this included the neurological assessment provided by the community paediatrician, which proved he has problems with his reflexes. They then helped him develop by giving him massages on his hands and feet and also the speech therapist gave his parents a program of treatment to be done at home that conjoins the work the speech therapist was doing herself with James. The Educational Psychologist helped by leading James to the occupational and speech therapist and the classroom assistant helped make developmental progress with James by encouraging social development as he came out of his shell, also his physical development as he was climbing and throwing. The classroom assistant also helped improved his co-ordination. James went from a withdrawn child with speech problems to a child that initiates play with improved attention during circle time with the help from the professionals and his parents.