To What Extent Do Young Children Differ from Older Children in their Interactions Linguistically, Socially and Emotionally with Adults in Close Family Relationships?

Methodology

Project Design

In the following research study, the researcher or observer has adopted a quantitative research design to determine how young children are different from older children in their interactions with adults socially, linguistically, and emotionally in close family relationships. According to Maxwell (2012), the qualitative research design is a subjective, formal, and systematic process for acquiring information or data about the world; presented in theoretical form, and examined using the patterns or trends. On the other hand, Hennink, Hutter, and Bailey (2010) stated that qualitative research design is used to understand underlying opinions, reasons, and motivations. Moreover, it is stated by Creswell and Poth (2017) that the qualitative research design considers the emotions and views of people and incorporates them in a study. The qualitative research design enables the investigator to collect data from participants while taking interviews and observing them in the natural phenomenon.

In particular, the qualitative research design is concerned with the event, patterns, and relationships of participants with the natural phenomenon (Corbin, Strauss, and Strauss, 2014). The reason behind selecting this project design is that it is useful during the early phases of research when the researcher or examiner may be uncertain of what will be examined or what to focus on. Best and Kahn (2016) stated that the qualitative research design is the essential research design as it gives the researcher the freedom to let the research outspread more naturally. Another benefit of qualitative research is that it gives the researcher more rich and detailed data in comprehensive visual evidence or written descriptions. There are different approaches to qualitative research design that can be used by the researcher, such as case study, observation, focus group, and interviews. In this particular study, the researcher has adopted the observational research approach. In the words of Ritchie et al. (2013), the observational research approach is an essential method of qualitative design in which the researcher is determined to observe an event and its underlying reasons and trenRegardings to this, the researcher has used an observational research meter to analyse the difference between young children and older children in terms of their interaction with adults of close family relatives of different social, linguistic, and emotional behaviour.

Data Collection and Analysis Techniques

In this study, the researcher has adopted the observational research approach to determine the difference between young and older children about their interaction with adults. The researcher has used the observational technique for collecting the data to be interpreted. Flick (2014) stated that the observational approach is the essential type of data collection method in qualitative research design in which an investigator observes consistent or ongoing behaviour. In particular, observational research is prevalent in psychology or social science. The observational approach for data collection is typically divided into participant observation and naturalistic observation. In naturalistic observation, the researcher does not intervene in the research. Naturalistic observation is particularly studying behaviours that happen naturally in natural contexts. On the other hand, participant observation is also an essential type of observation in which research intervenes in the environment. More importantly, participant observation refers to interfering in research to observe behaviour that could not be accessible by others.

In the following study, the researcher has used a naturalistic observation approach to collect data by observing subjects present in their natural environments. The rationale behind selecting a naturalistic observational approach is that it helps the researcher to observe natural behaviour without alerting subjects regarding the observation (Mehl, Robbins, and große Deters, 2012). Since, the researcher was determined to analyse the difference between emotional, linguistics, and social behaviour of young and older children while interacting with adults in close family relationships thus; the researcher preferred to use a naturalistic observational approach for collecting data through observing video-recorded observations of sic children with the age group of 2 months, 4 months, 2 years and 8 months, 3 years and 5 years old. All of the six children were observed in the period of 2 weeks in different positions of their natural environment. The researcher recorded these observations in six short videos with a total duration of 45 minutes. The researcher used a naturalistic observational approach in this study to best collect data from young children. They are unable to participate in the research and give any response to the researcher.

After collecting data through observing subjects in six short videos, the researcher was determined to analyse the collected data or observations. Regarding this, the researcher used field notes or coding of observation notes which entails description and details of observation made by observing videos of children. In addition to this, field notes are then analysed based on the thematic analysis in which observations are analysed through three different themes, including linguistic behaviour, social behaviour, and emotional behaviour of young and old children while interacting with adults in close family relationships. Vaismoradi, Turunen, and Bondas (2013) stated that thematic analysis in the observational approach refers to examining, pinpointing, and recording themes or patterns within the collected data. Themes are trends across data sets that are significant to the detail of a phenomenon and are related to particular research questions. The researcher used field notes or observational notes and made themes to analyse the difference between linguistic, emotional, and social behaviour of young children and old children while interacting with adults in close family relations.

The time was quite enough for the researcher to acquire the expected results. However, results might be improved if the videos’ time interval would be extended from 45 minutes to 1 hour. One of the researcher’s research limitations was that the children were feeling disturbed while recording videos for more than 2 continuous minutes; hence, the video was recorded in different intermittent intervals.

Findings and Summary of Key Findings

Based on field notes, three different themes have been made to analyse the difference between young and old children in terms of their emotional, linguistic, and social behaviour in interaction with adults in close family relationships as mentioned demonstrated below:

Difference between Young and Older Children in terms of Linguistic Ability

Based on field notes, it has been identified that the infant of 2 months lacks emotional, social, and linguistic ability to interact with their parents and relatives. However, children of 4 months can communicate with their parents and relatives by touching, smiling, and babbling. It has also been identified through videos that 1 year and 2 years and 8 months old children have developed their linguistic abilities or competencies to communicate with their close family members or relations. A study conducted by Hart (2013) supported this observation. It stated that children in the first and second years of their lives are likely to interact with their peers to communicate their feelings and emotions. Furthermore, Weisleder and Fernald (2013) stated that the development of linguistic ability promotes children’s early relations with their peers and family members. In this regard, children’s observation revealed that the 3 years and 5 years of children have completely developed their linguistic abilities to communicate with their close family members. However, young children are more likely to communicate with their parents than other relatives and tend to talk back immediately to parents than to other relatives. On the other hand, younger children have been more communicative, open, and opinionated with their parents. They feel shy and hesitant while communicating with relatives as compared to older children. It is stated by Siller, Hutman, and Sigman (2013) that younger children are more communicative and interactive and make better eye contact while interacting with their parents than older children and feel no distraction during communication.

On the contrary, the observations made through video recording revealed that older children are likely to respond only a few words like “Okay”, “yeah”, “no”, etc. Although older children have developed sufficient linguistic abilities, they are more responsive to other relatives than their parents and found more verbally courteous with other family relations. In this regard, Durand (2011) stated that older children are likely to keep their opinions and beliefs while interacting with parents and relatives.  It has also been determined that older children usually avoid eye contact when spoken to peers and family-like rolling eyes and look away or downward.