Positive Communication Improvement

Melissa Swan
St. Bonaventure University

Introduction
Student R has trouble communicating when something upsets him, he crys instead. It is
important that Student R learns how to communicate correctly when something upsets him so he
can effectively tell people why he is upset so he can learn to solve the problem. Student R will be
taught different things he can say instead of crying when something upsets him. He will also be
shown the importance of saying what is bothering him and how it will help him to get the things
that he wants.
Student R is three and a half years old and is in preschool. He has been attending day care
since he was two months old. He is not labeled as having an exceptionality he does show having
a lower social and emotional level than his peers. The preschool is in a suburban area with seven
other children in the class that range from three to four years old. Student R lives with mom and
dad. Mom and dad are involved in Student Rs life and want to help Student R to become a more
successful student. They actively participate in activities to that the student is interested in.
Literature review
We communicate to get things we need, want, and ask about things we don't understand.
Communicating effectively is an important part of everyday life. When we were first born we
communicated by crying to let those who take care of us that we need something. As we grow
we learn to talk and start to communicate in other ways than crying. Preschoolers are at the age
where they are still learning to talk and how to communicate effectively. It is important for them
to learn young how to communicate so it does not effect them social and emotionally.
Infants communicate by crying when they want something or need something (Locke,
2006; Oller, Buder, Ramsdell, Warlaumont, Chorna & Bakeman, 2013). Toddlers and young
children also cry when they want something but start to learn to talk and start telling people what

they want. This can create social and emotional problems. Preschoolers can have difficulty socially and emotionally because they are still learning language skills (Gunter, Caldarella, Korth,
& Young, 2012). Children that have difficulty socially and emotionally can lead to behavior
problems and lower peer acceptance (Gunter, Caldarella, Korth, & Young, 2012; Smith & Walden, 1999). It would be important to make sure that young children such as preschoolers learn to
communicate their feelings to help them work on social and emotional skills so they can be more
successful students.
Children understand happiness faster than sadness, fear and anger. (Wang, Liu & Su,
2014). Children like to be happy and will understand how to get what they want first. Teaching
students about emotions using happiness first so they can then apply the other emotions to making someone happy will be on of the best ways to teach young children about emotions. Young
children want to see everyone else happy and can see when their peers are distressed and try to
make them feel better (Farver & Branstetter, 1994). They want other people to be happy as well.
Children like to play and can learn through play. In Mizokawas (2011) study the students were able to understand play crying more than non-play crying. Through play the students
are able to apply what they learn and pretend they are crying as well. Allowing young children to
play while they learn makes it more fun for the students to learn and will be able to understand it
more.
Communication is a key part to get through life, if no one understands what you then it is
difficult to get the things you need. For young children such as preschoolers learn about emotions best through play (Mizokawa, 2011). The emotion young children should learn about first
is happiness because they understand it first and connect with it first (Wang, Liu & Su, 2014). It
is important that young children effectively communicate so they do not have trouble socially

and emotionally and can make friends (Gunter, Caldarella, Korth, & Young, 2012; Smith &
Walden, 1999). Communicating effectively at an early age such as preschoolers is important so
they work on social skills.
Intervention
Before the intervention the student would cry and not say anything when something upset
the student. Student R cried when another student had a toy he wanted, when he wanted to sleep
next to another student but couldnt, when he was not first to do something, and when he wanted
something but couldnt get it. Student R would cry instead of telling the student or a teacher what
he wants. He had trouble communicating what he wants and would cry instead.
Student R would cry two to three times a day when he would get upset. He cried three
times on Monday, two times on Tuesday, three times on Wednesday, three times on Thursday,
and two times on Friday. See Attached Table 1.
The students participated in a lesson where the students discussed feelings. First the
teacher asked the students what makes them happy and what they do to be happy. The students
then answered with various things such as playing outside, painting, and playing with toys. The
teacher then asked the students what things might bug/upset them. The students had some trouble
with answering things that upset them. The teacher than had the students act out different situations such as someone taking a toy taken away from them, then asked the students what they
should do. The students then gave different answers such as asking for the toy back, telling the
teacher and getting the toy back themselves. The teacher then showed them a poster of a bug and
different ways you can respond when something is bugging you such as: please stop, I dont like
when, I feel mad when, and Im upset because. The teacher then had the students practice different situations such as wanting to be first to do something, someone taking their toy away and if

someone says something not nice to them. The students then practiced the different ways to respond when something bugs them. The teacher then reminded the students that to be happy they
need to tell what is bothering them so they can be happy.
Research shows that children understand happiness faster than sadness, fear and anger so
it was decided to start the lesson going over what makes them happy so they can connect being
happy to things that make them unhappy so they can become happy (Wang, Liu, & Su, 2014).
Mizokawa (2011) also found that children understood play crying more than non-play crying so
it was decided to have the students act or play their emotions out and how to respond to these
emotions so they can understand it better and hopefully remember it more.
After the intervention the student the student only cried zero to two times a day. As
shown in Table 2 Student R cried two times on Monday, once on Tuesday, two times on
Wednesday, once on Thursday and zero on Friday. The students number of crying in a week
decreased after the intervention.
Reflection:
I learned how to more effectively teach young children about their emotions and help
them recognize those emotions. I learned in Wang, Liu, and Su (2014) studies how children understand happiness first which makes sense and is a good thing to keep in mind when teaching
students about feelings or emotions. Young children understood play crying more than non-play
crying in Mizokawas (2011) study. Young children dont understand when people are sad as
easily or first. When trying to have a child understand that you make someone sad may not work
as well as telling them trying to make someone happy. In this class I have learned how important
it is to understand where the students came from and their background to better understand what
their needs are.

The intervention was effective. The number of times the student cried reduced to about
half. Student R showed being more capable of being able to tell his peers and adults when something was bugging him and did not cry as often. Every time the student did cry the student was
reminded that to be happy he needs to tell what is bugging him. He then told the teacher what
was bugging him so they could fix it together. The student started to understand more and more
that if he does communicate what is wrong than he can find a way to be happy. This approach
will help Student R overtime because he will see how it does work more effectively than crying.
This intervention has helped Student R with other ares s such as socially and emotionally. Student R crying less made it easier for him to socialize with friends because more of the other children are more willing to play with him. It has also helped him emotionally because he is
now able to understand when he is upset and now trys to do something to change it. After more
time has passed he will improve even more and his other skills should improve as well.
Conclusion
Student R had trouble communicating when he was upset and would cry instead. He
would cry about two to three times a week over things such as someone taking his toys, he
wasnt the first to do something, or he wasnt chosen. The intervention was a lesson to teach
Student R how to respond when something was bugging him. The lesson started with the students talking about things that make them happy because thats what young children understand
first (Wang, Liu, & Su, 2014). This worked because people want to be happy. Since the student
was learning more ways to be happy and found that it worked he was more likely to continue to
do the things he learned. The intervention was successful, the student only cried zero to two
times in a week. The number of times Student R cried also decreased as the week went on.

References:
Farver, J., & Branstetter, W. (1994). Preschoolers' prosocial responses to their peers' distress.
Developmental Psychology, 30(3), 334-341.
Ferrier, D., Bassett, H., & Denham, S. (2014). Relations between executive function and
emotionality in preschoolers: Exploring a transitive cognition-emotion linkage.
Frontiers in Psychology, 5, 1-12.
Gunter, L., Caldarella, P., Korth, B., & Young, K. (2012). Promoting social and emotional
learning in preschool students: A study of strong start Pre-K. Early Childhood
Education Journal, 40, 151-159.
Locke, J. (2006). Parental selection of vocal behavior. Human Nature, 17(2), 155-168.
Mizokawa, A. (2011). Young children's understanding of pretend crying: The effect of
context. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 29, 489-503.
Oller, D., Buder, E., Ramsdell, H., Warlaumont, A., Chorna, L., & Bakeman, R. (2013).
Functional flexibility of infant vocalization and the emergence of language.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 110(16), 6318-6323.
Peterson, C., & Noel, M. (2012). I was just screeching!: Comparing child and parent
derived measures of distress. Stress and Health, 28, 279-288.
Smith, M., & Walden, T. (1999). Understanding feelings and coping with emotional
situations: A comparison of maltreated and nonmaltruated preschoolers. Social
Development, 8(1), 93-116.
Tenenbaum, E., Amso, D., Abar, B., & Sheinkopf, S. (2014). Attention and word learning in
autistic, language delayed and typically developing children. Frontiers in Psychology,
5, 1-9.
Wang, Y., Liu, H., & Su, Y. (2014). Development of preschoolers' emotion and false belief
understanding: A longitudinal study. Social Behavior and Personality, 42(4), 645654.

Appendices:

Lesson plan

Unit essential questions:

What are you feeling?
Lesson question:
What do you do when you are upset?
Lesson objective:
The students will be able to give different responses when something upsets them such as: please
stop, I dont like when, I feel mad when, and Im upset because.
Assessment:
The students will be assessed by their responses when they act out when something upsets them
and what response they give.
NYS or other appropriate standard(s) addressed:
Opening:
First the teacher will ask the students what makes them happy and what they do to be happy. The
students then answered with various things such as playing outside, painting, and playing with
toys.
Procedure:
- The teacher will then ask the students what things might bug/upset them.
- The teacher will then have the students act out different situations such as someone taking a
toy taken away from them, then asked the students what they should do.
- The students will then give different answers such as asking for the toy back, telling the teacher and getting the toy back themselves.
- The teacher will then show them a poster of a bug and different ways you can respond when
something is bugging you such as: please stop, I dont like when, I feel mad when, and Im upset because.
- The teacher will then have the students practice different situations such as wanting to be first
to do something, someone taking their toy away and if someone says something not nice to
them.
- The students will practice the different ways to respond when something bugs them.
Closure:The teacher will then remind the students that to be happy they need to tell what is
bothering them so they can be happy.
Materials:
Bugging me poster, toy

Pre-data:
Table 1

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

9AM
The student
cried when another student
took the toy that
he wanted to
play with

9:30AM The
student cried
when he was
not could not sit
where he wanted for circle time

10AM
The student
cried when
another student had a toy
he wanted

8AM
The student
cried when he
was told to try
breakfast

8:30AM
The student
cried when
he was not
the first one
to wash his
hands

12:30PM
The student
cried when he
wanted to sleep
on a cot but
someone else
took it

10:30AM The
student cried
when there were
no more shapes
to stand on in
line

10:15AM
The student
cried when a
toy was taken
away from him
by another
student

11AM
The student
cried when
another student went
down the slide
first

11:30AM
The student
cried he was
not allowed
to paint before lunch

12:30PM The
student cried
when he
wanted to
sleep next to a
friend but the
cot was already used

12:45PM
The student
cried when the
book he chose
was not chosen to be the
book read out
loud

3PM
The student
cried when he
was not first to
wash his hands

Number
of times
the student
cried:

Total:

13

Pre-graph:
Graph 1

Number of Time Student R Cried Each Day

Number of Time Student Cried Each Day

0
Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Days of the Week

Thursday

Friday

Post-data:
Table 2
Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

10AM
The student
cried when
another student took a
toy away
from him

12:30PM
The student
cried when
he could not
sleep next to
his friend

11AM
The student
cried when
he could not
stand on a
shape

10AM
The student
cried when
he wanted a
toy another
student had

12:30 The
student cried
when because his
book was
not chosen
Number of
times Student R cried

Friday

Total

3PM
The student
cried when
he was told
to eat snack

Post-graph:
Graph 2

Number of Times Student R Cried

Post-data of number of times Student R cried

Pre-data of number of times Student R cried

0
Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Days of the Week

Thursday

Friday