CASE STUDY: Preschool Child: Ricky

  Ricky, age 4 years, arrives in the clinic with his mother. Ricky lives with his mother and father, who both work full-time, and his infant sister. Their extended family lives in a different state more than 100 miles away. Both parents are of average height and in good health. Ricky’s mother mentions that Ricky often expresses frustration, particularly in regard to food. Conflict over food occurs every day. Mealtime is a battle to get him to eat, unless his mother feeds him. Ricky’s baby sister seems to tolerate all baby foods but requires her mother to spoon-feed. Ricky’s mother is quite frustrated and concerned that he will become malnourished. Reflective Questions 1. What additional assessment information would you collect? 2. What questions would you ask, and how would you further explore this issue with the mother? 3. In what ways does the distance of the extended family influence this family’s approach to health promotion? 4. What factors would you consider to determine whether malnourishment is a factor in this family?  

Sample Solution

1. Additional assessment information that I would collect includes Ricky's daily eating and drinking habits, a list of all the foods he likes to eat and does not like to eat, his overall activity level and how much time he spends outdoors or being active. Additionally, I would ask questions about nutrition education within the family, any signs of physical or emotional stress exhibited by Ricky, as well as any dietary restrictions due to allergies or other medical conditions. Finally, I would want to gain an understanding of how the parents approach mealtime for both Ricky and his baby sister.    
Stage 4 lessons within the relatively new curriculum of Computer Science, and how literacy and numeracy can support learning in order to provide a fully inclusive learning environment. The delivery school in Sherborne where I am employed is rated ‘Good’ by OFSTED (2017). It converted to an Academy in 2012 and holds approximately 1580 students aged 11-18. It has a relatively low number of students who have English as an additional language and the free school meal/pupil premium percentage is approximately 13% lower than national average (Gov.UK). For this assignment, I will use my Year 10 Computer Science class. This is a predominately male class with one female student. Their target grades range from grade 3 – 8, with the majority of students at the upper end of this range. The data for this class can be seen in Appendix A. The subject content for this assignment is Python Programming, looking at how the incorporation of numeracy and literacy supports learning in this topic. All subjects to some degree use literacy and numeracy. Particularly having awareness of this in Computer Science is very important. Computer Science especially ‘has deep links with mathematics’ (DfE, 2013). Students are required as part of the OCR (Oxford and Cambridge) GCSE Computer Science Specification to complete a programming task which involves planning, reviewing and evaluating their programs. Lacking the basic literacy and numeracy skills would hinder students’ ability to complete this task. The OCR syllabus states students must be able to apply Computer Science related mathematics confidently (OCR, 2018, p.8) and have the understanding of key mathematical elements laid out in Appendix B. In the aims of the National Curriculum for Computing it says that students must be able to ‘understand and apply the fundamental principles and concepts of computer science, including abstraction, logic, algorithms and data representation’ (DfE, 2013). This not only relates to the programming activities, but the syllabus clearly lays out that it includes both practical and theoretical contexts, and the use of computing-related mathematics within those contexts (OCR, 2018, p.31).
 
 
A detailed break-down of each lesson for this assignment can be seen in appendix. All the activities support literacy and numeracy (Appendix xx) . These lessons were conducted o