Diving into the child’s world... by Imelda Graham
On the Ning Nang Nong Where the Cows go Bong! And the monkeys all say BOO! There’s a Nong Nang Ning Where the trees go Ping! And the tree tops jibber jabber joo On the Nong Ning Nang All the mice go Clang And you just can’t catch ‘em when they do! So its Ning Nang Nong The cows go Bong! Nong Nang Ning the trees go Ping! Nong Ning Nang
to explore further in this area so that you and the children with whom you work and play in the future will have experiences that will be forever imprinted on your hearts and minds. The age group covered is mainly primary school age, however each child’s development will vary considerably, so we usually refer to stages of development and keep the age ranges quite broad. An example of the type of experience that I mean is the use of the poem quoted above, ‘On the Ning Nang Nong’ by Spike Milligan. Reading this with a group of four to five year olds for the first time is fantastic; when I have done this in the past, I often can hardly help laughing just from the rhythm of the words, while a child who is mastering their language development and beginning to play with words is often fascinated by the sounds, the made-up words, the whole lilting fun and the sight of the adult obviously enjoying it too. Language is one important aspect of a child’s development. Typically, the main areas of development are broken down into SPICE: this is:
the mice go Clang!
• Social
What a noisy place to belong
• Physical
Is the Ning Nang Ning Nang Nong! by Spike Milligan
Why dive? Understanding the stages of development of a child helps to open a two-way door between our world as adults and the child’s world. We often say that communication is important and yet it is only when communication has to be thought about and considered carefully that we realise the opportunities and challenges presented to us, especially when communicating and working with constantly morphing children as they grow. Understanding the developmental stages through which children pass facilitates better communication, whether expressed through words, art, music, poetry or any medium. In this article, I will highlight some of the key changes that are happening for the children that artists in residence, and other artists, often are working with on projects. By providing this small level of insight, I will hopefully encourage you 32
• Intellectual / Cognitive • Emotional with some of these naturally grouping together in practice. No one area can be totally separated from the others, however a rough guide can be given, along with the typical ways in which activities can be linked to these areas.
Physical development Some of the physical changes that children experience at this stage are growth spurts; motor skill development; self sufficiency in personal care; puberty. Growth spurts happen periodically, the obvious one for example is in infancy. However, as a child moves to the middle years of childhood they often experience more of these, with arms and legs shooting out of clothes at an alarming rate often in a short space of time. For example, a ten year old boy may go on summer holidays one shape, and return afterwards
with a new shape. The impact of this can be first and foremost clumsiness as the boy adjusts to the new demands of this body. Self consciousness also will affect him, perhaps he now towers above his mates and wants to shrink down and be more like them. Adults working with children going through such a phase can support them, for example, by unobtrusively being aware and making it easier if they are temporarily clumsy, making sure there is enough space between tables, that jars of water or paint are not likely to be knocked over thus adding to the child’s self-consciousness. Motor skill development is still proceeding in these middle years, with gross motor skills still developing up to and including adolescence. Motor skills are the control over their bodily movements, broken down into fine and gross – fine being the detailed movements of fingers, hands, and gross being the large body movements used in walking, jumping, running and games such as tennis. Often a child will have developed a good sense of their body, and be displaying early proficiency with their large movements only to have a temporary setback when a growth spurt occurs.