Leadership of Children Peer Groups - Essay Example

Leadership of Children Peer Groups Leadership of Children Peer Groups Leadership can be referred to as the process through which a person can use social influence in order to get the support of other individuals in a group in order to accomplish certain goals. Leadership styles usually vary depending on the type of group that is being led. The leadership style will also depend on the particular leader and their characteristics. When in a group that is meant to serve some purpose, leadership is always a very important thing. One type of such groups is friendship groups. This paper aims at discussing the leadership of friendship groups. This study involved six sessions. The first session was referred to as nomination and it involved the participants choosing members of their class whom they would want to be friends with and those that they would not want to be friends with. The second session involved involving the members in different activities in order to see the difference in the reaction given in terms of age. The third session called the cohesion involved making the members do some activities together in order to observe if there would be coherent and the factors that most led to cohesion. The fourth session was referred as the acceptance and rejection session, which involved seeing what led to both acceptance and rejection among children and how they react to them. The session that followed, studied the attraction factors among children of this age. The final session gave each of the children a chance to be in charge of an activity in order to study their leadership capabilities. There are a number of things that led to the choice of this type of group for this paper. One reason is that a group of friend is likely to be characterized by cohesion. They are likely to have an easier time coming into conclusion during the process of decision making. This will mean that decision making will be easier and will take less time. Another thing is that there is going to be an easier time in the distribution of responsibilities. Given that friends would have some knowledge of each other’s capabilities and strengths, they will always find it easier on settling on which one of them is responsible for which responsibility. Peer relationships start emerging as early as when people are just a year old. As early as 3 years old peer relations become clearly evident. As children grow up they begin to form networks of relationships with their peers. As these networks increase relationship problems such as loneliness, bullying, and victimization usually arises. For peer nomination, it was discovered that when told to nominate those that they would wait to be friends with and those they did not wish to be friends with, it was noted that some of the class members got allot of positive response from their classmates while the other got a very minimal positive response (Locke & Vu, 2014). Other majored in the list of negative responses while others did not get any response at all. For children in preschool it was discovered that children who were involved in a social grouping were less prone to externalizing themselves as compared to those who were less involved in group activities. Some children are likely to be more adored by their peer while others are less adored. This is depicted in the difference in nomination either positively or negatively. It has been discovered that having friends have a positive impact on children. In children friendship can come with benefits such as ego support, emotional security, validation, intimacy, and affection (Klenke, 2008). Friendship also offers a forum for the development of social competence. Those people with less social nomination are less likely to have social affiliation among their peers. This study is likely to involve children of both genders. This will help in knowing how gender can affect the manner in which children relate. The group will consist of a total of twelve children, the gender distribution being made on an equal basis. The aim of the group will know the things that affect how people relate at their age. Given that the group members are children it will be extremely important for the person in charge to assume total control and make sure that all the activities of the group are carried out in an orderly manner (Duffy & Nesdale, 2010). The sessions totaled to six with each session being an hour long. The children that were involved in this study were all in second grade. Among children it was noticed that they are likely to be more attracted with people with the same characteristics as them. For instance, during the social nomination activity, it was noted that most of the participants gave people of the same gender as theirs positive nomination. There was also some difference in the female friends, groups and the male friends groups. Girls were discovered to prefer being in small groups with intimacy and close relationship being given the highest priority. Things were rather different with boys at this age. The boys were observed to prefer involving themselves in large group with much emphasis put on the activities that they involve themselves in and loyalty. It was also noticed that age was also another influencing factor of how children relate with their peers (Locke & Vu, 2014). It was discovered that younger children showed some traces of solitude as some of them would prefer playing with themselves. There are a number of things that someone can do with the bid of organizing and leading a group of children in a school setting. The first thing will be to find some activity that is appealing and interesting to most of the children if not all of them. In this case it will be important to have it in mind that the most appropriate activity to be chosen would probably be a game. In choosing a game you should make sure that the game that you choose is should be that that is popular among children of that particular age (Frazier, Atkins, Olson & Lyon, 2009). It will be advisable for someone to choose a game that has high levels of physical involvement. Through the social nomination activity someone can be able to know which one of the group members is likely to play a leadership role in the group. The child with the number of positive nominations is likely to have an easy time getting the group members to corporate. On the other hand the massive positive nomination might also be negative because they might be people who will do as the group members want, whether or not it is what is good for the group. However, for children these ages those having more positive nominations are more suited for the leadership (Fullerton, Morales & Winckler-Zuniga, 2013). The concentration span of children of this age is known to be generally. Therefore, you should make sure that you constantly try new activities so that you keep the children interested in what is being done by the group. This will help in keeping the children concentrating on the group work for longer than they would have been if you opt for using a single activity for the whole period. The other thing that you should make sure that you put into consideration is accepting ideas brought forward by the children. You should make sure that you put in a plan that will allow the children to bring up ideas that might help in the decision making process. This will help in making the children feel like they own the decisions that are made in the group. When they feel that they are a part of the decisions that is made in the group their participation and willingness to participate will increase. This will eventually reflect on the outcome of the activities that the group is involved in. The results are likely to be better compared to when they are not involved in decision making in any way. There are a number of things that I could point out at as my strength during the process of leading this group. One of such was my ability to effectively communicate with the kids. Another thing that really helped is being able to show patience to the group members. However, my shortcomings were that sometimes my persuasive abilities could not really work with the children and sometime my sense of humor could not really make sense to the group members. It is clearly evident that handling friends, groups among children is very different from doing the same for grownups. This can be seen in the difference in the things that bring children together and those that bring grownups together. There is also difference among children dependent on the age and gender of the children who are members of the group that is being handled. Given that the children involved in this activity were of second a number of differences were noted in the way they relate in relation to children that are either younger or older. The group organization technique that is discussed in this paper is good for children of this age. References Klenke, K. (2008). Qualitative research in the study of leadership. Bingley, UK: Emerald Group Pub. Duffy, A.L., & Nesdale D. (2010). Peer Groups, Social Identity, and Children’s Bullying Behavior. Griffith University Frazier, S.L., Atkins, M.S., Olson, L.H., & Lyon, A.R. (2009). Same-Sex and Other-Sex Peer Reports: Unique Contributorsto Understanding Children’s School Adjustment. J Psychopathol Behav Assess (2009) 31:152–158 Locke, J., & Vu, J. (2014). Social Network Profiles of Children in Early Elementary School Classrooms. Journal of Research in Childhood Education, 28: 69–84 Fullerton, E.K.,Morales M.D., & Winckler-Zuniga, M. (2013). Strategies for SupportingChildren’s Developing Friendship Skill. www.ChildCareExchange.com Read More