Child Interview
An interview I conducted with two children, a child of 5 years age and 11 years of age. This was aimed at further r understanding the motor development and the physical skills of a child at a particular age. As a child grows into early childhood, their world will begin to open up. They will become more independent and more focused. The basic skills that children use and their behaviour at this stage is what I am interested in.
I interviewed a 5-year-old male preschool child. His name was Avyn, and he is physically big in height and weight for his age. This showed the state of his health and diet to be good. His family is monogamous in structure. He lives with both of his parents. The kid is from my neighbourhood, and thus we have associated together for a while. I conducted the interview in our community children centre to get a clear interaction of the child with other children.
Egocentrism: this is the ability of a child to view situations from his own point of view. A child tends to think that everyone feels the same as he feels. With the case of Avyn, I found this to be so evident. He saw everything he did to be correct. He communicated in such a manner that he was so confident with what he was saying.
Animism: this a believe that non-living objects such as toys and cartoons are actually alive. I found this to be correct as a teddy bear in his parents’ vehicle to be alive. He had a name for him and referred to it as a ‘he’.
Pretends: this is the ability of a child to be a person he isn’t. I found this to be true with Avyn as he a time pretended to be a policeman when playing with other kids.
I finally concluded that at thinking is focused as a state rather than transformation. This is because the child failed to explain what happens to materials but simply the state it is in at the current moment.
My second interview was with an 11-year-old female middle school child. Her name was Alice; her physical and height status showed that she is well taken care of. She lives with her parents in a monogamous family structure. She also lives with her two siblings. The child is also from my neighbourhood, and we already had interacted. I conducted the interview in her home.
Language development: at this stage, language development was very evident. She had the ability to describe his friends, school, and even parents with a perfect speech and asking questions. This is exactly how it is theoretically.
Class inclusion: this is the ability of a child to categories objects into different categories. During the interview, we both watched a video clip on car racing. She was able to count the vehicles and further categories them in terms of colours.
Thinking development: theoretically, it is expected that children of this age should demonstrate abstract thinking. This is evident to be true as the child could understand video clips. The child could also watch a whole movie and understands it .
In conclusion, children at this age show the integration factor. The children are shifting from childhood to young adults, teenagers. This is clearly consistent with their age. The thinking factor is changing positively and facilitates the child integration.