Matthew is a six year old primary age child who at the time of the study was entering year two at his local state primary school. He is the younger of two boys and lives with his family in a south-eastern suburb of Melbourne, Australia.
The other participants included in Matthew’s Case Study are his parents and his former Grade Prep Teacher who has also been nominated as a Family Support Person.
Case Study: Matthew (6 years)
I’m really good at maths. I’m proud of my maths. I’m the only people in the grade that knows seven times tables, seven times eight – fifty six, three times ninety seven – two hundred and ninety one.
I’m sort of best at pluses but it turns a little around for times. So I’m thinking it’s times, like ninety seven plus three, and I’m like you might need to add up three ninety seven’s and stuff
I’m really good at some sports. I’m proud of…I’m getting better at swimming because I’m improving a lot. I have done pretty well at all sports. I’m really proud of myself for all of those things…I play T-ball. I don’t know why I’m supposed to be good at it, but I’m really good at it for some reason.
I’m good at planting things. Someone just told me how to plant then I just…do tu do tu do and I’m planting. I’m thinking…races (but some people think I’m slow). I really think I am good at…do well in races, but some people don’t think I do well in races.
I’m good at helping other people. I’m good at doing jobs. I’m like Natty because he is sensible like me. I’m similar to Murray because…not just that he likes me…he is smart and knows lots of stuff, same as John. I’m like children that are not in my class – like Ray (Grade 2) – we are the same in maths games. I finish my work quickly. I always stick to the class rules. I’m good at ‘Brain Gym’, other kids don’t like it.
If someone wanted to learn more about me they would need to ask ‘Are you good at work?’ and ‘Do you like your school work?’. (I choose to work on a computer on my own because)… okay, say I’m on the computer, and I’m playing this game called beach cricket, a game called beach cricket…and then what happens is, you then click somewhere, then you click it a few times, and then you hit the bat, and swing, and then you press it, and then they say ‘Matthew, Matthew, we need you for something here’ and then I muck it up. Then they don’t really need me for anything.
I don’t give up… It’s just in me. I learnt my times tables first, but my brother taught me. So I went in athletics, and they said ‘okay.’ And then I went into level five in athletics…Yeah, and then they gave me times tables, and I said ‘what’s this for Sir?’ And then he said ‘its times.’ And I said
‘what’s times?’ And he said ‘times is groups of.’ So then it was easy.
I’m gonna play cricket when I grow up. They wouldn’t drive me out, they wouldn’t get me,
because…they wouldn’t kick me out because they wouldn’t think I’m so good because I’m so tall. I reckon I’ll be really tall when I grow up…so they’ll think I’m too tall, and I can’t operate the bat to the ground, when the ball is going really low to hit the stumps.
My favourite things to do alone are practice sports like hitting the ball into the net, practicing pitching in softball, practice other sports, footy games by myself and play games on the computer. The most important things to me at this time in my life are my parents, because they look after me, so I won’t be lonely, my brother, because I do lots of things with him, to stay healthy, get lots of sleep, people at school, and my peers, they help me.
I like sports. I like family – auntie Margaret., uncle Nathan., dad, mum, my brother, myself, nanna, uncle Jason., auntie Bea. And Uncle David. I like TV, books and reading. I love food. I don’t like mushrooms and olives.
I had to do something in the talent quest…and I did jokes. This one that I’ve got in the newspaper is
‘When do you put a frog in your sister’s bed?...When you can’t catch a mouse.’ I’ve got a new favourite thing now…I’ve gone into AFL world. I went into AFL world…AFL world is, you know where Federation Square is?...You just walk about two kilometres forward, and you’re there…and when I was about maybe, say this is the road here, I was like here, and I was like ‘Dad where’s AFL world?’ And he said ‘take a step closer, look up, that’s AFL world.’ We had to go downstairs, get lunch, then back up to AFL world.
(Showing newspaper article) This is me in the newspaper with my other friend Murray. It says ‘(we) have the audience and themselves in fits of laughter with their stand-up act’. This award is for being the best in the school. In a way it has a reason for something. Always doing his best work at helping others. Matthew always has a lovely smile and a hug.
(My family members think that the greatest thing about me is)… I behave really well, and I don’t give up and stuff. When like say I’m playing footy for Victoria or something, and we’re losing seventy two to eighteen or something. So all I do is, just I don’t give up…Even if it was something like the grand finals or something.
My favourite things to do with a friend are playing running games, having races, playing on the monkey bars, playing cricket, footy, soccer sometimes with my brother and other people, watching movies, and playing board games. I choose to play board games (with friends) because you can’t really play on your own. When you play on your own you get confused who you are and stuff. The running games, I love doing that with a friend because when you say ‘oh, I’m racing myself’ you don’t really know if you’re racing…and then if you count the seconds you’re racing, you might be counting faster one, slower one. So one that’s slower wins.
When choosing a friend I look for people who’ve got lots of friends because so then their best friends can play with him and then I can join in whenever I want. I like lonely people because they don’t have any friends and they don’t have much people to play with. I know Colin likes me because he plays with me and likes all my games. I do like playing with people, but somebody in my grade always goes to play with me, and then they say they’re the boss…and like people say ‘oh don’t let him play, even though he’s my friend.’ And the person isn’t his friend, or something like that. But I don’t let Dan play, because he’s a slug…No. He’s not sort of my friend, Dan.
I know Matty likes me, I don’t know how we got to be friends, but we’ve stayed friends and stay near each other all the time. Murray likes me because I can help him at work and sometimes I go to play at his house. My friend Murray is a good friend because he is kind to people. He always shows my stuff to people…things I’ve already bought, and he knows that other people don’t know about it. So he says ‘oh, yeah that’ and he says like ‘that’s Matthew’s dinosaur that roars’ or something. He always tells the truth and he is always a good boy in class.
(I choose people who have lots of friends because)…oh, I don’t know. It’s just that I don’t have many friends to play with, because I don’t have many friends to play with. Even though they’ve got lots of friends, some people say ‘no I’m playing that’ and they might not be your friend.
Helping others is hard (at school) because sometimes they don’t understand what I’m asking them to do. For example, if I say “write ‘there’”, they don’t spell the right word. I have trouble getting the grade 1 children to follow the rules when we pick teams at lunchtime because they just want to be with good players only and not have even teams. They like things about me because I do fair stuff.
Like other people don’t really do that…even with sides at footy. All the fair things that I do is I let people choose people at footy, instead of just saying ‘you’re in that team, you’re in that team, you’re in that team, you’re in that team, you’re in that team…they like choosing it…lots of people like being
on someone’s team. Like there’s a kid called Steve and he likes not to be on Jay’s team. He’s getting better… I don’t really care whose team I’m on.
I’m different…to some people because, we can’t get along with each other. People who are really sensible get along with each other. They don’t like swear…they don’t, we’ve got strikes like warnings. Each strike four you’re out, into the Principal’s office…strike four Principal’s office.
They don’t touch the board. See, people can, people like you. And that puts strikes on people.
People in my grade are at my age…..it’s very hard. People in my grade that are my age just learn stuff from me, lots of stuff. I learn my times tables from my brother. I was the first one in the whole grade to learn times. I say to Murray, because he knows a lot of stuff, ‘What’s one times one’ and I didn’t know what ‘times’ was yet…and he said ‘I don’t know, because I don’t know times’…and then I said ‘its groups of.’ Then I asked him the next day, ‘What’s two times two?’ And he said ‘I don’t know what ‘times’ is.’ Then when Mrs B explained it to him, he understands. (Researcher: So it gets a bit frustrating for you, does it, when you’re trying to teach someone, and they just don’t understand what you’re trying to say?)…Yeah.
(If I was going to organise a special club at the school)…the special club would be called The Mighty Nine Players. I’d call it that because I can’t think of much other names…Brooder Balmy Army!
Yeah, I’d name it that. And then we’d like, every day we’d go around the city, and we’d see around the place if there’s a big plasma screen, and we’d watch the plasma screen, and we’d say ‘Brooder Balmy Army, Brooder Balmy Army’...and we’d like call out, and have things together and all that.
At school I like P.E. – it makes you fit. I like Maths – it makes you smarter. I go to Mrs J’s room for maths. I get invited into to Mrs J’s grade 2 for maths – not because I’ve been naughty. I like Art – you get to paint. I like L.O.T.E. – because you get to learn a different language. I like other stuff – swimming. I like writing stories – made up stories – because you can make the ending whatever you want. Like in the story ‘Rapunzel’, you can make her with no hair (like in the joke Joe said at the Talent Quest). I like making up fake stories…like Little Red Riding Hood – Little Bad Riding Hood, and the Good Wolf. We did buddies. In the buddies we do, the people from four five did a
story…like one of my buddies did Jack and the Beanstalk, Jack and the Beanstalk. And then I’m like
‘he was looking for weetbix.’ Instead of trading a cow for money, he traded it for weetbix…and my other buddy did The Three Little Bears, and it was like, The Three Little Bears instead of smelling porridge, instead of Goldilocks smelling porridge, she smelt coco pops…and did you like that thing?
‘Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair.’ ‘I don’t have any hair.’ Because I’m, you know, bald!
I like how the playground and courtyard is set up. I like lots of things about my school. I like how teachers set up their plans, how and where they go out. Some teachers are really kind. I like to work by myself. I like it when the work is really easy because when it’s hard, my teacher makes me help Susie and she is really annoying because she can’t even write ‘there’.
Skipping monkey bars is hard. My teacher uses me for lots of jobs – especially if children are naughty, she gets me to take them to another room. This (award) is for being best in your class and this is for bring an excellent presentation for the news telling and for being an excellent helper in the classroom. I’ve got awards for Star student award, Best in the grade, Chess Club, Calli sports, Helping hands where you clean up, Teddy Bear reading award, Good Attitude award, Good work award, Froggy…Award – that means best in telling the truth, Super writer.
Case Study: Matthew’s Parents
Occupations: Primary School Teachers
Matthew was very different. When Matthew was born, the nurse handed him to me and said ‘I think he’s already three months old’ because he was big, he was ten and a half pounds. But when you pick a new born baby up – he just stood up, he stood up on my legs, and he held his neck up, and he was ready. I reckon when he was about a week old he laughed, and they reckon kids that age don’t laugh
but it was no doubt at the time that he laughed. All the way through he’s just always assumed that he could do what his big brother does…and he could.
Its things like crawling…Matthew just went…he took one step back…and said, ‘That’s not working’
and did it again, until about two weeks and he could do it. He didn’t have to ‘trial’, he didn’t have to wait for that approval. He doesn’t have to revise things. He doesn’t have to test it. Matthew walked at 12 months.
Matthew had whole conversations with himself and others by 2 ½. He could recite all the
Collingwood football player’s names and their corresponding numbers at age 2 years. He could sing the Collingwood theme song at 2 years. Matthew would sing all the football theme songs basically at two. He watched others intently in early years. At 3-4 years, Matthew listened to my reading of the
‘Harry Potter’ series while we were travelling around Europe. He had the ability to follow the story and remember pertinent details from one book to the other without picture cues. He learned to read from Gravestones in England in 2003-2004 at age 3 ½ - 4 years.
Matthew has got very high oral language, terrific oral language. He gives detailed explanations of events in his day. Matthew remembers fine detail of events. Matthew comprehends advanced vocabulary when reading. He is very much the entertainer. Matthew always listens attentively and worships his older brother (still) so seemed to be able to communicate very early. He tells animated stories. Matthew can give a commentary of whole slabs of AFL football matches. He can play a whole football match by himself – role playing the players, commentating out loud, calling umpires decisions, signalling goals or points and doing after-match interviews with the players. Matthew understands things well enough to teach others, particularly in regard to sports – especially football.
Matthew has really good…rhythm and eye-hand coordination. He started playing cricket, and he’s just got a natural swing. The tennis coach said…he just has this really natural ability to the rhythm.
Matthew learns by watching. If you put him with the best cricketer in the world he would copy them and do a terrific job. He mirrors what he sees. Matthew is actually a brilliant cricketer, he just has this really lovely flight, and he’s a great bat in softball too.
Matthew’s got very, very high mathematical pattern and order and awareness. When he was 4 ½
…he wanted to play tennis at this place…and he goes fifteen --love, thirty --fifteen, and he goes forty-five--thirty, then he got up to a hundred and ninety-five, and went up to two hundred and ten--a hundred and ninety-five. I’m going ‘he’s typically not a 4 year old, he’s organizing two people’s score in his head, counting by fifteens, and he’s four and half years old. He was working at two things at once. Matthew uses a variety of strategies to achieve tasks – and often uses unusual
methods to compute answers. For example, I asked him what 13 x 6 would be. He quickly answered 78 and explained that he knew 15 goals was 90 points and just subtracted 12 from 90. Matthew can already do fractions to eights. He developed number and computational skills quickly once formal learning began when aged 5.
Matthew’s handwriting is quite beautiful…and his teacher has often shown me his diary. There’ll be a full account of what we did on the weekend. And you know sometimes that’s getting fairly
scratchy, because his brain is going so fast. His drawings are quite immature. You will still need to tell him ‘Is this person going to have any arms? or ‘Does it have any fingers?’ Things like that. He’s actually very immature in those sorts of things. Matthew’s very good with the computer, working the mouse around. He can do whole slide shows. Matthew’s very musical. He sat down at the keyboard the other day and worked out the Collingwood theme song just by ear, just working out the notes. He learns songs very quickly.
Matthew is very considerate of the feelings of others and seeks to help those in need. He just shows initiative in those sorts of things, he’s just a leader in that respect. Matthew doesn’t like to let family, friends or teachers down… he loves to please. I remember when he was little, the way that you could really get to him is if Nanna would be disappointed in him. If Nanna was going to be disappointed, that was the worst punishment that you could possibly do. He also (has) terrific empathy…very
moral as far as…what’s expected…and he will get quite huffy if kids are not doing the right thing.
Matthew will tell on people, if they don’t do the right thing.
Matthew’s got…terrific inter-personal skills. As an example, last Friday night we went to a pub for dinner, and when we were in the pub his mum said ‘Would you guys like and ice-cream on the way home? Apparently on a previous time when I wasn’t there they had bought three ice-creams and one of them fell to the ground and his mum said ‘Well I won’t have it.’ Well the very first thing Matthew said was, ‘I wouldn’t be having an icecream at this time of night. You won’t miss out.’ Well it had been months since we had an icecream, but actually to have that…stick in his mind…that his mum
Matthew’s got…terrific inter-personal skills. As an example, last Friday night we went to a pub for dinner, and when we were in the pub his mum said ‘Would you guys like and ice-cream on the way home? Apparently on a previous time when I wasn’t there they had bought three ice-creams and one of them fell to the ground and his mum said ‘Well I won’t have it.’ Well the very first thing Matthew said was, ‘I wouldn’t be having an icecream at this time of night. You won’t miss out.’ Well it had been months since we had an icecream, but actually to have that…stick in his mind…that his mum