CECS 5300- Research Activity #7 (Week 14 - 15)

Task:            Spend 30 minutes doing something for yourself. [It is nearing the end of the semester and I'm sure you're exhausted.] Write how you feel about this experience.

This is one of my interesting research activities in this class. You may ask why this activity is my loved one, and the simple answer is because I have shared my son to complete it with me. As you all know that children are smarts, and we obviously learn from them as much as they learn from us. The key factor is how we understand them to establish an effective communication. In this activity, I was trying to find out a way that I can understand my son’s behavior and guide his behavior to satisfy our shared goal. Also, I selected a very busy environment with many distractions to see how these factors influence the communication between us.

Let me give some information about the study. My 4 year old son was the only participant in this study. He likes toys more than anything else. I selected Wal-Mart Supermarket as a research site, and the black Friday as a busy time. My experiment was designed with two major tasks. The first task was to ask my son selecting a big LCD TV for me, and the second task was to buy a toy for him as a reward. I assigned the first task to my son, and the second one was assigned to both of us. He was not sure about it. I told him many times that he should select a big and nice TV for me if he wants me to buy a nice toy for him. While I was driving, he was asking me a lot about his toy. He was asking specific questions like “how big”, “what color”, and “what can I buy”, etc. I told him that we have to buy the TV first, and then we can buy the toy. I was trying to remind him from time to time about the task, but he ignored everything. He was very excited about the idea. However, he didn’t ask me anything about the TV. When we reached the Wal-Mart, I stopped him at the entrance and reminded him about the task, he replied “Ok Daddy lets go”

We entered Wal-Mart, and he opened his eyes widely to see many people and kids with toys in everywhere. He went to the toys and started looking for a toy. I stopped him again, and I said you have to select the TV first. I enforced him walking with me to the electronic section. He was crying and nagging. I told him select the TV first. Here when I enforced him to select the TV, he started asking me about the size and color. I told him a big black TV. He selected a 46” TV, and I told him that wasn’t a good choice. I asked him to find another one, and here he started crying. He was very distracted, and failed to do the task.

I realized that he could not do it. I decided to change the plan. I told him if you buy the toy first, can you select the TV for me. He replied yes, we bought the toy and returned to the electronic section. I asked the same question, but he was busy with his toy. I took the toy from him because he didn’t listen to me, and I told him that he should select the TV. He started crying loudly. I asked him to select the TV if he wants his toy back, but he was not able to control himself because there were many other children with toys around him. At the end, I gave him his toy and selected the TV by myself.

From this research, I have learned a lot from my son. I have learned that children in this age cannot control their behavior especially when they are excited or distracted by environmental events. My son was very excited and like a deaf person. He could not listen to me and follow my instructions. I was trying to grab his attention but he was very concerned about toys and only toys. He was distracted with the crowed and the huge number of toys around him. He could not concentrate to perform the assigned task. After changing the plan and asking him to select his toy, I realized that my son followed my order and performed the task successfully. I believe that he did a good job because the task was changed to satisfy his need. However, he failed to select the TV for me even after he got his toy, and I think because he was not very interested in performing this task. After all, I hypothesize that the level of excitement and interests play a big role in establishing a successful communication with children and adolescents. This preliminary study shows some factors that influence children communication, and it gives some hints about children behavior in a busy and very distracted environment.