Hey I’m nine not six! What it’s like to look younger than your age

1. Hey I’m nine not six! What it’s like to look younger than your age Anna Carlini and Emma Barry

2. Why we chose this topic • We’d noticed that two girls in our year who looked very small for their age seemed to be treated differently • We wondered if there were special reasons for this and if so why this was • We were curious about whether being small affected their behaviour • And whether other people behaved differently towards them

3. We thought about ethics • How the girls would feel about being ‘observed’ • Whether our research would make things worse for them • Whether it might make things better because more people would understand

4. Getting consent • We talked to them about what we wanted to do and why • We talked to them about how they felt about being in our research • We talked to our teacher about what we wanted to do • We talked to them about changing their names when we wrote about our findings to protect their identity. We chose Kaz and Rose as names

5. How we collected our data • We observed them for two weeks in the playground and recorded everything into a dictaphone • We interviewed them about some of the things we had seen • We interviewed them about how they felt about being small for their age particularly about advantages and disadvantages

6. Here is an extract from our observation data… • … She’s yelling louder than the others. • She’s crouching down, • She’s yelling more. • Yelling more loudly than the others. • Yelling even louder. • She’s crouching down again. • Kaz is hanging onto people, • She’s gripping onto them. • Yelling loudly again. • Still yelling loudly. • More yelling loudly. • More loudly than the others. • More loud yelling. • She’s being picked up and carried like a baby by one of the group. • Someone else has picked her up now. • Someone else has picked her up and is rocking her. • They are holding her by her middle and swinging her around. • Kaz is hanging onto people. • The group are playing tag. Every time Kaz tries to run someone catches her. • Kaz is gripping onto them, hanging on their arm. • She is still gripping onto them. • Kaz has to stand still because she’s caught. • She’s yelling more loudly than the others to get free. The others aren’t yelling to be got free. • Someone has come straight away to get her free. • Kaz is being hugged now. • More hugging. • More hugging. • No-one else in the group is being hugged. • No-one else in the group has been hugged for the whole of break time. …

7. Analysing the data… • We looked for themes and patterns in our observation notes • We looked to see if there were any similarities or differences between the two girls • We did the same from the interview data

8. We found some themes • There were a lot of similarities in their behaviour • The similar themes we noticed were…

9. 1. Being treated like a cuddly doll: e.g. • Being hugged a lot • Being picked up • Being swung round

10. 2…. Attention seeking: e.g. • hanging on to people • gripping on to hands and arms • clinging • yelling lots and lots and lots

11. 3. Small physical size: e.g. • Crouching down • Ducking • ‘hiding’ behind other people

12. Interview findings • They didn’t like being ‘babied’ • They didn’t like younger brothers or sisters being thought older than them • They didn’t like being bullied by children who were younger than them • But they did like being able to get into adventure playgrounds when peers were refused because they were too big • …And… they did like being given a lollipop in the chip shop!!!

13. Final thoughts • Although this was only a small study we think we learnt a lot about what it’s like to be much younger than your age • We think that adults might not have found out the same sorts of things that we did because the girls might not have told them what they told us and.. • Because we understand better than adults what goes on in the playground so our observation was different

14. Thank you for listening….