The Quiet Child - Presentation Version

• Psychology
• Special Education

The Quiet Child

The Quiet Child

Just the firs reason that come to mind

What is quietness a symptom of?

 To raise awareness of what an extroverted act it is in the first place to go to school. All day long, you are in a classroom full of people with constant stimulation. Even for introverted kids who really like school, it’s still a very overstimulating experience.

My goal here is simply to raise awareness of what an extroverted act it is in the first place to go to school. 

All day long, you are in a classroom full of people with constant stimulation. 

Even for introverted kids who really like school, it’s still a very overstimulating experience.

‘We need to get quiet kids to speak up. They’re hindering their chances of life success - and some of them are just being rude’

‘We need to get quiet kids to speak up. They’re hindering their chances of life success - and some of them are just being rude’

• Do they really need fixing?  Or do they need accepting?

Why I think this is an issue

Munro's teaching blog

According to her blog entry of January 21, 2010 (since removed), she wished she could put on their report cards:

“the kid that has no personality.”

“She just sits there emotionless for an entire 90 minutes, staring into the abyss, never volunteering to speak or do anything.”

Hogs v Logs

Radiators and Drains

Report

1. Despite being a fairly quiet soul
2. after a little nudge she can be relied upon to offer thoughtful and considered responses, and I would therefore love for her to challenge herself to participate more readily
3. Niamh has been a quiet but well-engaged student
4. Niamh goes about her work in her own quiet way
5. I would love Niamh to contribute more to class
6. She works quietly and industriously.
7. Niamh is a quiet pupil who works well in lessons
   
8. Niamh is fairly quiet and reserved,
9. Niamh is quiet and even though she engages well she clearly lacks confidence

Actual evidence of performance and learning

1. Her prep is always completed on time and shows an admirable attention to detail.
2.  Niamh embraces enrichment projects
3. Has a great eye for detail 
4.  Niamh takes care over the presentation of her work and produces work of a good standard. 
5. Niamh is bright and conscientious young lady.
6. Attempts each task set to the best of her ability.

So should we and can we reframe?

• You can see it in lessons, certainly read it in reports and hear about it at parents evenings  teachers will repeatedly remark upon quieter children. 
• "Oh isn't she quiet? Isn't she shy?" Being an introvert is like having a disease. As if “quiet” and “reserved” is a synonym for illness and outsider.
• Introverted children (and adults) should be celebrated and supported in their unique tendencies, rather than being made to feel like they need to conform to extroverted norms. 

Analogy

• Dyslexia can affect memory, organisation, time-keeping, concentration, multi-tasking and communication. All impact on everyday life. All of which makes the day exhausting.
• 
  
• The experience of the school day for an introvert is equally exhausting and increasingly so, with the push for ever increasing contributions and clubs, and the reduction of downtime and private spaces

Well-being

Anxiety

Social Support

Depression

• Introverts are more prone than extroverts to have low self-esteem. 
• They also have less social support, which can be problematic while suffering from depression. 
• Experts have also found evidence to support a relationship between introversion and anxiety. 
• 
  
• In 2002 a study published in the Journal of Psychiatric Research found that 74% of the depressed population are introverts.

Cause and effect

Maybe the depression is not because of being introvert, but rather how the introvert is treated?

A better way

• "Being an introvert has no bearing on how happy or successful you will be as long as you approach it correctly. You can never be completely satisfied with yourself if you consider yourself an introvert and believe that is the worst thing in the world. 
• However, if you accept yourself as an introvert and are content with your life, nothing is stopping you from reaching your objectives.
  
•  Let us try to preach what we teach, Acceptance is not just a word it’s a lifestyle that we adopt by being conscious about the people around us."
•  Chitwan Khare

Misunderstanding quietness

• Introverted children can sometimes be misunderstood and misconceptions about introversion can lead some to try and get the child to be something that they are not.
  
• Because they may be quieter than their extroverted peers and not as outgoing, introverted child can be mistaken as being shy or lacking confidence. 
• Whilst this may be the case for some, it’s not the case for all. 
• Just like some extroverted children can equally be shy and lacking in confidence.

Recognise Qualities

• Introverted children have a vibrant inner world and fruitful imagination. 
• In a classroom or social environment, they may appear withdrawn or less engaged than other children – which is not at all a sign of distress

One note

Recognise Qualities 2

• In some ways, introverted children may act more maturely than their peers.
• Enjoying time alone can lend itself to a healthy feeling of independence. 
• This makes introverts deep thinkers who are often several steps ahead of their peers when reflecting, considering their values, and assessing the world around them. Introverted children are less impulsive than their extroverted peers. 
• They tend to consider a new situation before participating. 
• In social settings, they observe a dynamic before diving in, whereas they may be active contributors to conversations, jokes, and playtime at home because they feel comfortable. 

Other than "they need to talk more what might be done for the quiet ones?

Instead of the child changing maybe a change of approach is better

Be the teacher who connects with the student in the back row thinking amazing thoughts that he’s uncomfortable sharing aloud with 25 classmates."

Relationships

Introverts

 

“feel at their most alive and their most switched-on and their most capable when they’re in quieter, more low-key environments.”

create quiet times

Consider Class Environments

• Grizzly Youth Academy, a 22-week charter-school program in San Luis Obispo, California, targeted teens who had a “history of school failure” at a previous school.
• Asked what she thought facilitated her success, one student responded: 
• “The structure—I can concentrate here.” 
• 
  
• Acknowledging her tendency to get distracted, the student noted that there was “absolutely no quiet time” at her former school, and she now appreciates the disciplined classes and quiet study hall sessions. 
• “I’m like a completely different person now.”

Quiet Time

Should we rethink

1. Chaotic lunch times

2. The lack of the use of quiet spaces during breaks

3. How we define participation

4. The language we used around introverts

5. Is vocalising the way to improve performance?

6. Does vocalising really = attainment

Collaboration is important but..

•  Several recent studies offer the latest evidence that students who engage in cooperative learning tend to outperform those immersed in traditional learning approaches—namely lectures. 
• But cooperative learning doesn’t have to entail excessively social or overstimulating mandates; it can easily involve quiet components that facilitate internal contemplation.

Quiet Time

Suggestions for Lessons and Learning

Focus

1. Avoid setting a social standard for what is normal

Tasks

2. Avoid setting only one type of task to gauge engagement

Written Responses v Oral Responses

Preferences

3. Consider a Paradigm Shift? 

Consider great questions rather than lots of answers

1. Maybe we could think what about what is meant by class participation and start thinking of it as classroom engagement instead. 
2. Participation often ends up rewarding quantity, so you get students raising their hands for the sake of talking, and that’s not really in anybody’s interest. 
3. True engagement recognises that there are a lot of different ways to engage with the material and with other students.
4. If you think more broadly about it, a student who’s a good listener or who gives one really great, reflective comment is just as valued as the one who’s always raising their hand

Question Quality

Remember

Research suggests that the majority of our teachers believe that the “ideal student” is an extrovert. 

 many of our greatest thinkers were introverts. Charles Darwin, Albert Einstein, George Orwell, Steven Spielberg, Larry Page, J.K. Rowling: none of them would have made “ideal students.”

Is it possible to reverse the stigma against introversion for children so that the next generation doesn’t grow up with the secret self-loathing that plagues so many introverted grown-ups today.

Shift Thinking

“Together is how we do everything. 

Learn. Work. Play. Live. Together.” 

Everything, that is, except quiet introspection, free of cost and distraction.

Encourage but do not require oral participation

• The use of oral performance in the classroom is a valid and important instructional strategy. 
• However, what is valuable and beneficial to some children is not necessarily so to others. Forcing highly apprehensive, ethnically divergent, or skill deficient young people to perform orally is harmful. 
• It will increase apprehension and reduce self-esteem. Thus, the teacher should permit and encourage oral performance but never require it from quiet students.

Provide alternatives to oral performance

• It is almost never necessary for a student to perform orally to demonstrate learning (the notable exception being oral communication instruction). 
• The teacher should develop alternative methods for the student to demonstrate achievement. Allow students the choice of oral or written forms whenever possible. Even the teaching of reading does not require oral reading in front of peers. 
• Many reading experts now argue that oral reading is the least beneficial element in the traditional reading program.
• The quiet student is placed in a very bad position when oral performance is the only alternative to demonstrate achievement. Her or his inadequacies in oral performance are interpreted, incorrectly, as low achievement in other areas.

Avoid restrictive seating assignments

• Classrooms have high, moderate, and low interaction areas. 
• The highest are near the front and center. The lowest are along the sides and in the rear. One of the potentially most harmful things a teacher can do is to force a quiet student to sit in a high-interaction area of the class. 
• While the student is not likely to talk any more in such an area than if he or she were seated elsewhere, the threat of communication will be felt much more consistently. 
• Under such pressure it is more difficult for the young person to concentrate on the subject matter being taught, and learning will decrease. Allowing students to select their own seats avoids harming quiet students.

Avoid grading on particpation

• Class participation should be sought and encouraged, but penalties for non-participation should be eliminated. 
• Remember: A student who is listening is more likely to be learning than a student who is talking. 
• Grading which is based on participation not only penalizes students who are afraid to communicate but also unduly rewards those students who are very verbal. Evaluation should be based upon what a student knows, not how much a student talks.

Types of Quiet Child

How might question children be categorised?

Types of Quiet Child

1. Low intellectual skills

2. Skill deficiencies

3. Social Introversion

4. Social Alienation

5. Ethnic or cultural Divergence

6. Communication apprehension

7. Low social self-esteem

  1. Low intellectual skills

Teachers perceive quiet children as less intellectually capable.

some children who are verbal when they enter school become quieter when they discover they are not as good at school work as their peers

This is actually only a small minority

2. Skill deficiencies

Many children have inadequate communication skills. Some of these have late developing language and speech production but are severely deficient in social communication skills. Many are verbal during the pre-operational stage of their development but become quiet as they approach adolescence because they become sensitive to their communicative inadequacies. If not overcome, this may become a life-long problem.

Helping

Skills deficency program

Refer to the others with expertise

3. Social Introversion

Socially introverted people prefer being alone to being with others. Social introversion appears to be a fairly firmly established element of an individual's personality which is developed in the preschool years and continues throughout adult life. Social introverts typically can communicate when they want to but more frequently choose to remain quiet.

Helping 1

Most social introverts do not have a problem. While those of us who are extroverted may think they do, they are not likely to agree with us. Teachers should take steps to avoid causing the social introvert a problem in the classroom, but they should not try to change the young person's personality. 

Helping 2

Not only are teachers not qualified to engage in such psychological manipulation, but also, if they try, they are treading on dangerous legal ground and are likely to produce a very hostile young person. The answer, then, is leave the social introvert alone.

4. Social Alienation

Some young people, particularly as they reach the secondary school years, become alienated from their society and its values and goals. They are likely to be quiet in the classroom (or absent!) because they see no rewards forthcoming from communicating. These young people are, by far, the most difficult for the teacher to help.

 

Helping 1

It is virtually impossible for the classroom teacher to help the socially alienated. Professional help is needed, but even that provides no guarantee for success. Many socially alienated young people have the potential to move from the point of being non-social to being antisocial.

Helping 2

A well-meaning but unqualified teacher can hasten this transition by inept interference. The answer, then, is leave the socially alienated alone. They have a problem, but we can't solve it.

5. Ethnic or cultural Divergence

The North American society encompasses a wide variety of ethnic and cultural groups. Among these there is great diversity in communication norms, language, accent, and dialect. When a young person is placed in a classroom in which he or she represents a minority culture, the person is likely to become very quiet. While such persons may have adequate or even superior communication skills to survive in their own subculture they may be extremely deficient in the skills needed in their new environment.

Helping 1

The first step is to become acquainted with the cultural norms for communication of that young person. This will enable the teacher to distinguish between behavior that is normal for that young person and what would otherwise be seen as disruptive behavior (e.g., back channeling by many black students). 

Helping 2

The second step is to assure the young person that her or his communication is acceptable to the teacher. While it is desirable for all students to learn so-called "standard" speech, a young person's speech pattern is very central to that person's personality. 

Helping 3

Third, every effort should be made to encourage other students to accept the communication patterns of this type of young person. Nothing can be more painful than jeering by peers. The teacher should never tolerate such behavior. 

Helping 4

Finally, the teacher should consider the presence of the ethnically/culturally divergent an opportunity to broaden the education of all of the students. Encouraging the ethnically or culturally divergent young person to discuss an idea or issue from the vantage point of her or his culture will strengthen self-esteem and also make the young person more socially acceptable to the peer group.

6. Communication Apprehensive

Communication apprehension is an individual's level of fear or anxiety associated with either real or anticipated communication with another person or persons. As many as one young person in five may experience communication apprehension, generally, across all or nearly all communication situations. Many others have apprehension about one or more specific communication situations, the the classroom being but one environment which can produce this feeling. People who are anxious or fearful about communicating generally become quiet or avoid the situation entirely if they can. Although some young people enter kindergarten with a high level of communication apprehension, the number of highly apprehensive young people does not reach adult norms until around the fourth or fifth grade level.3

Helping

The young person with high communication apprehension can be helped. The method that has been found to be most effective and to require the least professional training for the teacher is systematic desensitizations. Giving this type of quiet young person increased speaking experiences or even providing communication-skills training is more likely to make the problem worse than to be helpful. Both approaches can be very helpful, but only after the fear and anxiety problem is overcome.

7. Low social self-esteem

Many young people, particularly during adolescence, feel that they are incapable of relating successfully with others in their environment. This feeling is most probably generated by a combination of the factors we have discussed above. Such young people typically consider themselves to be "shy" and remain quiet in most social situations, the classroom being a social situation for people of this age group.