Learning Outcome: Oral Communication

Reflection:

                                      Informative Speech Outline

Gain Attention: Imagine that you’re teaching a child a piano lesson and they are not focused or at all engaged by this activity. I remember one time I was trying to engage a child in a lesson and he told me, “Teacher, I’d much rather play Minecraft than learn this.” Well, I think a lot of our first instinct would be to snap at them and say, “Well, you don’t get to do what you want to right now.” I certainly did, but I’ve found that makes them even more defiant against the activity placed in front of them.

State your Topic: Today I will be talking about children and how to engage their attention through interpersonal communication.

Establish Importance to Audience: You may not be going in to a field that will require to interact one on one with children, but the majority of you will have to interact with young children at some point in your life or even have a child of your own.

Establish your Credibility: After dealing with children while teaching who don’t want to pay attention while I’m trying to teach them, I decided to research different ways to engage a child’s attention in what we want to teach them, as well as children with special needs, since that is a skill I will also need to have.

Preview (a sentence clearly listing the key words for the main points): I will explain the importance interaction influence in constructive problem solving to particular emotions, thoughts, and behaviors, as well as different sensory symptoms and processing of emotional knowledge and music experiences of children with special needs.

Body
I. Here are some examples of how interaction influence involves constructive problem solving to certain emotions, thoughts, and behaviors.
   A. According to Analysis of communication skill and interpersonal problem solving preschool trainees is an article from Volume 28, Issue 4 from the Social Behavior & Personality: An International Journal written Emel Arslan, Ph.D., which was published May 2010, “Constructive problem solving is related to emotions, thoughts, and behaviors in case of a problem in interpersonal relationships [. . .] The individuals in an interaction influence each other. Therefore, it is necessary for each person to pay attention to the other's problems and use a constructive way of problem-solving, to be supportive, accepting, and to initiate and maintain good communication.”
   B. Let’s say a child says “I don’t like playing piano, I’m not good at it. I don’t want to practice.” That is an example of emotions and behavior. Teacher: “Who said you’re not good at it?” “My older brother.” That is interaction influence. “What’s something he’s good at?” “Baseball.” “How often does he practice?” “He has practice every day.” You see that child is speaking his thoughts. “Well, if you practice at it every day, you can be as good at it as he is baseball.” That is constructive problem-solving, since the teacher has changed the child’s mind through influencing how the child thinks and feels about practicing.

Transition: Now that we have viewed examples of interaction influence and constructive problem-solving, let’s look at different approaches of engaging children with special needs.

II. When it comes to engaging children with special needs, you want to look at two aspects of their attention span: their sensory symptoms and how they process them.

1.       Mechanisms of Anxiety Related Attentional Biases in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder is an article from the Journal of Autism & Developmental Disorders written by Tamara May, Kim Cornish, and Nicole Rinehart, published October 2015 states that “It has been suggested that the sensory symptoms which affect many people with autism spectrum conditions (ASC) may be related to alterations in multisensory processing.”

2.    Let’s say a parent tells a teacher “My child has autism and can’t focus very long on one thing.” That is an example of sensory symptoms. A teacher could say: “If we practice allowing him to focus on this one activity for small periods of time and add on a little bit longer every session, eventually it will allow him to focus more.” That is a way to work on their multisensory processing.

Transition: Lastly, let’s about engaging children in a specific activity through their emotional knowledge and experiences.

III. In my case, I would be connecting a child’s emotional knowledge through their music experiences.

1.    Music Experience in Early Childhood: Potential for Emotion Knowledge? is an article from the International Journal of Early Childhood written by Torill Vist, University of Stavanger, published in 2011 suggests “we may also acquire emotion knowledge from our music experiences. This article investigates music experience as a mediating tool for emotion knowledge in early childhood, as revealed through qualitative interviews of adults.”

2.    A teacher may ask “Does playing this song remind you of anything?” The child may reply with something like “My mommy use to sing this to me before I fell asleep every night!” They are connecting their experiences with music. “What do you think about this song?” “It makes me a little sleepy.” That is an example of emotional knowledge.

Conclusion
Summary: Today, I have discussed interaction influence and constructive problem solving, ways to handle different sensory symptoms, and emotional knowledge through experiences.
Response: The next time you are not sure how to engage a child’s attention, whether they are feeling negative about the activity, have special needs, or just don’t feel connected to the activity put in front of them, you will know a couple tricks on how to handle this.
Closure: Taking the time to engage a child’s attention can have a positive effect on them, rather than just snapping at them. It will help them learn better in the end.