2007wk1

Play Leader Contact Form

Child's ID number: 2007: Week 1

Leader's First name Jen

Last name Haik

E-mail haikjen@eden.rutgers.edu

Enter the date of today's Session : 2/19/98

Time of day when session started: 4:33

Time of day when session ended: 4:53

Information about the child you played with

Date of birth February 3, 1993

Sex: __ Male _X_Female

Child's ID number: 2007

Describe the mood of the child when you began to work with him or her:

She was very excited to play with us, she was in a very happy mood. She loved the camera and was not shy around it at all.

Please describe the physical conditions that apply to your child today. Today the child had a little trouble concentrating at times, but it was not really a problem.

What was the name of today's activity?

Today's activity was Magic Painting.

How did you begin this activity?

We had all materials out and ready to go so that we could get started right away. She immediately wanted to stick her hands in the paint. I told her that she fist needed to think of something to draw before she could begin. She thought of something. I then asked her if she could tell me what the picture looked like in her head of what she was going to draw. All three of her pictures included at least herself and her one friend.

Did you lay out the materials?

Yes, we laid out all materials so that they were easily accessible to her.

What was your opening line?

My opening line was, Can you think of something to draw? She said yes and then I asked her what her picture in her head looked like.

How did you ensure that the child made connections between his/her remembered experiences and the current experience?

In order to make sure that she was making connections, I continually asked her questions about what she was doing and who she was drawing.

Now describe what you did to make this happen:

I pointed things out and asked many questions as she went along.

How did you model describing your behavior and your internal thoughts? What did you say and do?

My thoughts were displayed to her through my questions. She heard that I was interested in what she was doing. It made her and I both think about what was going on in the picture. I had to try to figure out what she was thinking and so did she.

How did you encourage the child to describe his/her behavior and internal thoughts? What did you say and do?

After she drew something and many times while she was drawing, I was constantly encouraging her to describe to me what she was doing. This kept her and I thinking about what was going on.

In describing his/her behavior and internal thoughts, what did the child say and do?

She would tell me what things were, but not in a fantasy type way. She is very literal in her descriptions of things. She would tell me that it was her friend, or a rainbow, or whatever, but she would not really give too much more detail.

How did you describe your strategy in accomplishing the task? What did you say and do?

I made sure to be persistent in encouraging her to describe what she was drawing. I paid full attention to her throughout the entire project. This shows the child that your interest is them and in return, they cooperate because they know that you care about what they say and do.

How did you encourage the child to describe his/her strategy in accomplishing the task? What did the child say and do?

I encouraged her to describe her thoughts as she was drawing about what she was doing. She always had a plan for drawing each picture. She knew exactly what she wanted to draw and how she was going to do it.

How did you get the child to "suspend disbelief" and buy into the situation?

When I told her that we were doing magic painting, she did not know what it was. I told her that we were going to fold her picture in half and that we were then going to open it up. I asked her if she had any idea about what she was going to see and she said no. She probably figured that the picture would still look the same when we opened it up, but it did not.

In getting the child to suspend disbelief, how did you present the situation to the child?

I told her that we were going to fold her picture in half and then open it up and see what it looked like.

In getting the child to suspend disbelief how did you behave as a model?

I made sure to be excited about doing it so that the child knew that this was not going to harm her picture. I'm not sure if she thought that the picture would be different because she seemed very surprised when we opened it up. I modeled excitement and enthusiasm to the child and asked her what she thought would come out when we folded it over.

In getting the child to suspend disbelief, how did you coach the child? What did you say and what did you do?

I asked her to try and think about what she would see when we opened it up. She did the folding and pressing down with my help. I think this kind of made her realize later why things that she had drawn on one side of the page were now on both. She was a full participant so she more fully understood the activity than if I folded it for her and then opened it myself.

Evaluate how well the child was able to suspend disbelief? What data did you observe to lead you to this assessment?

She was able to suspend disbelief very well. I could tell that she had no idea what her picture was going to look like. Her belief was suspended because I think she thought that everything would stay the same when it was folded. When we opened the picture together, she seemed so excited. She noticed right away that her friend was now in two places. When I asked her where it came from, she said my hands and I asked, when we folded it, and she said yes. She then understood what the purpose of the folding was. It made things on her picture reproduce themselves and sometimes form other shapes. One shape that she had drawn looked like a butterfly when the page was folded and opened, she was so excited.

Please describe the ways in which your child acted imaginatively today.

She was able to imagine her pictures in her head and describe for me what she was going to draw. Also, she saw a butterfly in folded paint in her picture.

Please describe the ways in which your child acted creatively today.

Her pictures were very colorful, she created many different things in her paintings. She named her paintings which takes creativity, but she would not tell a story.

The outcome of any play session is a result of the interaction of the child, the leader, the activity, and the materials. Please try to assess the impact of each of these variables individually and in interaction in determining the outcome of today's session.

The child was very cooperative. She did the activity and was very enthusiastic and excited about it. I being the leader, presented the activity as being fun so she wanted to do it. All materials worked well and she really seemed to enjoy the activity. She loved seeing where things had moved to on the other side of the paper when she opened it up. I was very encouraging with descriptions so she had to always be thinking about what she was doing and describe to me what she was doing. She did not seem to mind this at all. The only thing that she would not do was tell a story about any of her pictures. She only likes to tell things as they are. She told me everything that was in her picture, but no story. She created three drawings. For the fist two, she used her fingers instead of the spoons to manipulate the paint on the paper. I really tried to get her to use the spoons, but she was determined to use her fingers. I allowed her since she really wanted to. On the third painting, she did use the spoons, but it really did not seem to make much difference which material the child used to get the paint on to the paper. Overall, the activity went very well, she did a great job and seemed to have a good time.

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Material on this site created by Helane S. Rosenberg, Ph.D. and Yakov M. Epstein, Ph.D. in conjunction with their forthcoming book titled Play for Success. All material on this site is copyrighted and may not be reproduced or cited without written permission of Helane S. Rosenberg, Ph.D..

Last revised: February 14, 1998