My First Encounter With José
The school day in my kindergarten classroom begins with circle-time.
During circle-time the class recites the pledge of allegiance, goes
over the calendar, and recites the alphabet and Spanish poems. During
this time the children also have a chance to speak freely about
themselves, where they have gone, or any topic of interest to them.
One morning during circle time, approximately three weeks after the
start of the 1996-1997 school year, a new student came to school with
his mother. The new student was José, a tall, brown-eyed, six
year old, Latino boy. Since I was busy with the rest of the class,
the classroom assistant conducted a brief interview with
José's mother to acquire necessary information. During the
interview, José sat next to his mother. After giving
José the opportunity to observe for a while, I asked him to
come join the class. José did not respond to my request. In
fact, he did not even look in my direction when I called his name.
After the interview was over, he was still not responding to the
invitation to join the other children. Instead, he sat at a table
with his head buried in his arms. A parent helper attempted to
comfort him by talking to him and coaxing him to join the other
children, who were now at their tables doing their morning reading
work.
José s behavior during his first hour in my classroom did not
seem unusual to me. After all, he was in a new and unfamiliar
environment. However, a couple of hours later when he was still not
participating, I decided to be more direct in trying to involve him.
I gently took him by the arm and led him to his new seat. Instead of
sitting in his seat, he sat down on the edge of the rug. The children
were all watching José, the new member of our community, as I
asked him to stand up and come closer to the group. He refused to
join the class. As he continued to refuse, I recognized this as a
potential confrontation and so as not to compromise my authority, I
decided to let it go. Instead, I told him that I would speak to him
later.
Eventually, José assimilated into the classroom routine. At
first, because the environment was new and unfamiliar, it did not
strike me as unusual that he did not answer or verbalize when I
helped him with his morning work or when I gave him directions.
Several times over a few days José raised his hand in response
to questions I posed to the class. Yet when called upon to answer, he
would not respond. It was then that I realized that José
rarely spoke at all. José did not respond verbally to
questions or comments directed at him by myself or by other students
in the class. Additionally, José did not repeat the pledge of
allegiance, the alphabet, numbers, or short poems. He rarely made any
verbal output in school. He did not talk to me or to anyone in the
classroom. In fact, for the two months I knew José, he spoke
directly to me only once. This occurred as I was watching him
painting a cat. José turned to me and said "Yo tengo un gato"
(I have a cat) in a barely perceptible voice.
My Inquiry About José
José s lack of verbal interaction was intriguing, yet
troubling. I did not understand why José, a kindergarten child
who appeared to have normal academic skills and who did not have any
obvious speech impairments, did not participate in a verbal way in my
classroom. My experiences with José motivated me to conduct a
teacher research study in my classroom to see if I could affect his
verbal output. I wanted to take some action to try and establish a
verbal relationship with him. My goal was to have José
establish a genuinely verbally interactive relationship with me, his
first teacher. Therefore, my action plan revolved around the
question, "What can I do to increase the verbal interaction of a
child who does not repeat pledges or poems and does not respond to
questions?
Since I wanted to learn as much as possible about José, I kept
a teacher journal wherein I recorded on a near daily basis my
observations, thoughts and feelings, and the verbal interactions of
José. I interviewed José's mother, informally spoke to
José s brother on several occasions, and I asked the School
Speech Therapist to spend some time with José to assist me in
understanding the reasons for José s limited
verbalization.
I also assessed José s academic skills on an informal
day-to-day basis. Mostly, I learned about his skills by keeping a
portfolio of his work over a two month period. I kept track of his
fine motor development as evidenced by coloring, writing his name,
and writing the letters of the alphabet in his morning work. My
kindergarten classroom consists of a variety of language abilities in
Spanish and English. Therefore, I was also interested in determining
José s proficiency in English and Spanish.
A Reward System
I decided to implement a reward system wherein each response
José made during circle time would be rewarded with a sticker
in José's own personalized "star book." I decided I would
implement my plan for ten school days and at the end if José
had a total of eight stickers he would be rewarded with a small toy
and also a candy treat. I chose this particular positive
reinforcement strategy because it had been successful with other
children in the past. In the following paragraphs I include journal
entries about the reward system.October 22, 1996: I introduce my plan
to José today by explaining to him that while the class is on
the rug during circle-time, I will give him a sticker for his star
book each time that I see him repeating a rhyme or pledge. When he
has ten stickers I will give him a giraffe pen and a candy bar. At
this time I also attempted to elicit some conversation with him. I
mentioned that the giraffe came from Wendy's Restaurant, and asked
him if he had ever been there. At first there was no response, then
he ever so softly said "McDonald's." I asked him if he had ever been
to Burger King and he nodded "yes." I ask him what he liked at
McDonald's and he replies in a whisper "hamburgers." I told him he
could put a sticker on the cover of his star book because he
responded to me. I will remind him of the "game" tomorrow just prior
to circle-time.October 23, 1996: We begin the game today. I reminded
José of the reward for repeating poems/rhymes along with the
other children. All did not go well.
While I was reminding him, away from the other children, he continued
to look away from me. This Action Research Plan is much harder than I
had anticipated. I expected him to have responded minimally by now
because it has been over two weeks since I have been trying to engage
him verbally, but he made no response at all. He also seemed
distracted during morning exercises. October 29, 1996: I am
discouraged and afraid I will be completely unsuccessful with the
reward system I am using. José has not earned a single sticker
up to this point and he also strongly resists repeating anything,
although I often take him aside and ask him kindly to repeat. I am
not sure which approach to take with this child but I confess that I
have not been entirely consistent. I have tried both approaches:
stern and scolding, kind and patient. Any success achieved will
clearly require much more time and effort than I anticipated. I
incidentally ask José if he was afraid of me and he nodded
"yes." I ask him if he liked me and he shakes his head "no." (At this
point I told him I will not hurt him and would like him to talk to
me. I asked him for a hug, as I do with the other children to show
them warmth and support. He hesitated but then complied with a stiff
and rigid physical demeanor.) Nodding yes and no are the only
responses I can evoke from him. However, my classroom assistant
reported he spoke very softly the few times he has spoken to her, as
has been the case the few times he has spoken to me.October 30, 1996:
As usual this morning I showed José the star book and reminded
him that he will earn a star if he repeats the pledge. I reminded him
that if he does not participate during circle-time by singing and
repeating the poems and songs, I will have to place him in the
time-out chair during playtime, his favorite part of the day. Then I
asked him if he would try to sing along, and he nodded affirmatively.
In fact, he did move his lips somewhat during the pledge and
recitation of the Spanish kindergarten poems. I considered this
progress because this is the only time I had witnessed a response
from him. I planned to remind him that I expected the same tomorrow.
I decided that due to his effort, there had been some success and he
picked out a sticker today to put it in his star book. I hope I will
be able to build upon this. My minimum goal is to have him repeat the
pledge of allegiance along with the other children. I believe I would
be asking too much at this point to try to get him to speak to me
personally. I'm trying to be consistent in my plan.
Learning About José
I felt that in order to understand José's verbal behavior, I
needed to learn as much as possible about José's past
experiences, his interaction with others and his daily life. I tried
to get information from different sources, including different
members of his family, my classroom assistant and the school speech
therapist. Information from Family:October 16, 1996: The classroom
assistant reported that José speaks at length to other
children in the class at lunch time but apparently attempts to avoid
her observing him speaking.
I talked to José s older brother and he reported that
José is very verbal at home.October 23, 1996: I spoke to
José's mother. I don't feel as if I gained her trust and
confidence. In any case, I asked her to meet me tomorrow at 8:35 a.m.
to discuss my inquiry. I am hoping she can offer some insight into
José's complete lack of verbalization and interaction with me.
My plan is to ask her about his school experience last year in Puerto
Rico. I want to know how and whether he interacted with other
professionals, e.g. doctors, nurses, etc.; whether he has always been
non-responsive to "strangers." I also want to know to what she
attributes his lack of interaction with me. Finally, I will show her
the star book and explain the game. October 25, 1996: José's
mother and I met and she explained to me that José was in
kindergarten in Puerto Rico from September 1995 through April, 1996,
from 12:00 p.m. until 3:00 p.m. The family moved to this country
shortly thereafter. José's mother said that when they were in
Puerto Rico he insisted on coming home for lunch daily and would not
eat in the school dining room with the other children. She referred
to him several times as being a "timid" child. When asked if
something traumatized him in the past, something that would cause him
to withdraw verbally, she said "no," and that he had always been
non-verbal "like his brother." When asked why she thought José
did not respond or repeat in class, she reiterated that he was timid.
She told me that José said to her one day, "Ahora no voy a
hablarle a la maestra porque ella me regano." (He was not going to
speak to me because I scolded him.) She told me that his teacher in
Puerto Rico insisted on his moving physically from one place in the
classroom to another place, and when he would not move and she
physically moved him, he bit her. I ask her to speak with José
about the importance of responding/repeating in school, and also to
practice his name and letters with him at home. She said she would.
Information from Speech Therapist:
The speech therapist informed me that he also had a difficult time
eliciting any verbal response from José, beyond a nod of the
head. I told him I would be interested in recommending José
for speech therapy. The therapist suggested that José would be
better served by a recommendation to the school counselor
instead.
Information from Class Observations:October 24, 1996: José
reacted strongly and positively when I introduce a new game called
"Early Birds." In fact, he was sitting next to me and, as I explained
the game, he became increasingly captivated by it and could barely
refrain from touching the box. He elbowed me, communicating
non-verbally that he wanted to be the first to try it out. I
subsequently chose him to be a player.October 25, 1996: In the
afternoon, during playtime, I took José aside and attempted to
interact with him by asking him what his favorite toy/game was. He
gestured with his chin toward the play dough. I asked him a few more
questions but he did not respond and he was clearly distracted by his
desire to play.October 28, 1996: Today, the day after I spoke with
José's mother, I noticed that during circle-time José
maintained eye contact with me for a short time. I suspect that his
mother had discussed the goals we talked about at our meeting, and
she had clearly influenced him, but in which way I was not entirely
certain.
I closely observed and later determined that José's only
language was Spanish. Because the main language of instruction in my
classroom is Spanish, I determined that the problem was not a lack of
language comprehension. Also, the fact that the mother's first and
only language is Spanish helped to rule out the language factor.
Additionally, the family reported no speech/language problems in the
initial kindergarten interview or on the forms where a question is
specifically posed as to whether the child has any language
disorders.
José's Departure:November 5, 1996: José had been absent
from school for several days. Today, José's mother came to the
classroom with her older son and asked for my name and room number so
she could go to the school office to get dismissal papers for
José because the family was moving back to Puerto Rico. She
had come to Philadelphia in April and reported that she did not want
to raise her children in the North Philadelphia environment. I gave
her the information she requested, sent some Halloween party candy to
José, wished her luck and began to think about where my should
go from here. Obviously, José's departure from my class puts
an end to my case study about him. However, the topic I was studying
by observing José is still relevant for me as a teacher.
Reflections About My Learnings
My reflections about my experiences with José lead me to
believe that his lack of verbal interaction was not due to a
cognitive delay or academic difficulty. Instead, I believe that
José's lack of verbal interaction might stem from
social/emotional factors. José appeared wary of trusting
non-familial adults. José's behavior indicated to me that he
did not seem comfortable with me and did not trust me. Additionally,
José did not establish any clear relationships with the other
children, the classroom assistants, specialist teachers, or the
parent/helper.
My belief that José's lack of verbal behavior might be
influenced by social/emotional factors was also strengthened by the
fact that not once during my two months of working with him did I
ever witness his expressing any emotions, negative or positive.
Anyone who has daily contact with five-year-old children for an
extended period of time will rapidly conclude that this is very
unusual. Emotional expressions of anger, sadness/tears, joy,
affection for the teacher, demands, and detailing of the child's
wants and needs are minute-to-minute occurrences.
I feel certain that had I been allowed to continue to work with
José on a daily basis, earning his trust and allowing him to
get to know me as an experienced and sensitive teacher, I would have
made more progress in reaching him.
Due to the fact that I was unable to engage José in repeating
the pledges, poems and the alphabet during the course of my inquiry,
I wish I had had more time with him. I recognized a problem, but for
lack of time, I was unable to resolve it. In addition to the more
time, the solution to the problem would have required additional
teamwork with his mother and the intervention of a school counselor.
I recognize that José's move back to his homeland made this
approach impossible. However, I feel certain that given a whole
academic year, José would have grown accustomed to me, he
would have adjusted to the classroom community and routine, and I
would have been able to increase his level of verbal interaction.
The development of a positive, trusting relationship with a child's
first teacher and first learning environment is very important. A
kindergarten teacher must be thoughtful in her reactions and
responses. I am very aware that the first learning environment sets
the tone for the lifelong school experience. First impressions are
indelible and first learning experiences follow a child throughout
his or her life. My inquiry has made me more sensitive and aware of
several things. For example I will now consider a variety of factors
when I encounter a non-verbal child with no apparent speech problem.
I will consider the child's family background and prior experiences
with teachers and other professionals. I will also consider the
child's social/inter-personal competence.
In the future, given another child with similar issues, I will not
significantly change my strategy but rather continue to elicit verbal
interaction with the child, perhaps supplementing it by pairing the
child with another classmate in a word game of some kind. I will
clearly need to start with a small goal, like repeating passively,
and work my way up to a give-and-take verbal exchange. Finally, this
study has impacted me as an early childhood education teacher by
stressing the importance and necessity of supportive social services
in the school, such as the school counselor. In the future, I am sure
I will encounter other students similar to José. I will not
have all the answers for how to best serve them, but I will be guided
by the insights and questions that this study has raised as I seek to
learn with them and about them.