Describing Very Young Children’s Perceptions of a Disaster Event

• In Event: Roundtable Session 25
  In Roundtable Session: Elementary Social Studies Pedagogy

Abstract

This presentation describes findings of an investigation of the perceptions of 40 very young children (ages 4.11-5.3) following a disaster event, the April 27, 2011 tornado in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Second, it considers the descriptive capability of three methods of inquiry into very young childrens’ perceptions: physical representation, drawing, and dictating captions. As the literature on very young childrens’ understandings of disaster events is minimal, the study’s findings provide hypotheses to be explored. The children provided detailed descriptions of what happens in a tornado and of what they do in a tornado at five weeks and nine weeks post-event. Each method accessed children’s capabilities differently indicating multiple means of assessment are needed with very young children.

Authors

• Cynthia S. Sunal, The University of Alabama

• Julianne Maner Coleman, The University of Alabama