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Child/Family Observation Paper Sarah Walker Morgan O’Leary PSYC 2103: Human Growth and Development October 13, 2011 AM Introduction This paper is a child/family observation and assessment of a child in the life-span development stage of early childhood, so between the ages of 2-6. In the early childhood stage, children are entering the “play” years. They have vivid imaginations and rapid growth in language and cognitive development. Observation in the assessment of a child is very important because that is how you get to know a child better.
While observing how a child interacts with their peers, adults, and how they behave in different settings, you are getting to know the child without speaking to them. It also provides us with information by helping us to determine where a child stands in his or her development. In this paper we will provide a brief overview of two prominent theories of physical, cognitive and social development in early childhood and how they relate to the subject we observed. Observation Summary For this project, we went to an arcade called Fun City on September 22, 2011 at 4:15 in the afternoon. The observation lasted right at 50 minutes.
We observed a caucasian little boy by the name of Mason. We determined he was Caucasian because he was light skinned, has blonde hair, and blue eyes. He seemed to be middle class, he was wearing nice, clean jeans and a polo shirt with sketcher tennis shoes. We based his age on his height, weight, verbal ability as well as his cognitive thinking skills. Because after a child turns 2 years old they tend to grow about 2-3 inches and about 5 pounds each year and because he weighs approximately 40 pounds and is approximately 36 inches in height we estimated him to be around 3 ? years old.
In our assignment we covered milestones in physical, cognitive, and social development. In Physical development we looked at the development of fine and gross motor development (Berk, 2010, pp. 171), as well as physical growth (Berk, 2010, pg. 165). Mason displayed well developed gross and fine motor skills for his age. Another reason that the child fits into early childhood development is his height and weight. (Berk, 2010, pp. 165). When looking at cognitive development we looked at Piaget’s Theory/Stages of cognitive development (Berk, 2010, pp. 173) and Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory (Berk, 2010, pp. 79). Throughout our observation it was apparent that our child fell into the preoperational stage of Piaget’s cognitive development, specifically the development of make-believe (Berk, 2010, pp. 173). Mason demonstrated Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory through private speech (Berk, 2010, pp. 179). When playing some of the arcade games, Mason would talk himself through the steps of how to play the game. The last area of development we looked at was social development. Within social development we focused on the development of self-concepts (Berk, 2010, pp. 199) and the emergence of self-esteem (Berk, 2010, pp. 99). 3-4 year olds self-concepts are very concrete. They tend to focus on things that are observable like, their name, appearance, possessions and everyday behaviors. In the emergence of self-esteem, 3-4 year olds cannot distinguish between they are actually good at and what they think they are good at. They usually state their own abilities as higher than what it may be. Learning Outcomes Sarah’s Learning Outcomes After doing this project I, Sarah, learned that early childhood focuses on the development of a young person who can take care of his or her own body and interact with others effectively.
By observing, I noticed many things about children that I would normally not take the time to see. I learned that early childhood is a time of tremendous and rapid growth across all areas of development. I learned that the importance of development in early childhood needs to be stressed to parents because it impacts those children later in life. We were assigned a task to provide examples of how children act and react throughout the growing process. Still, we had to keep in mind that everyone is different, much like a snowflake. Later on in their lives, these children will realize they have a choice of who they want to be.
To me, there is no “by the book” method for that. Morgan’s Learning Outcomes After doing this project I, Morgan, learned that there is more to children than just being. How fast they develop is amazing. The little boy we observed was about 3 years old and it’s just fascinating at how much children at his age know and feel. Early childhood, I feel, is the most important step in growing up as a child because there is so much development going on and it can forever effect the way that they are as children, adolescents, and adults. At this stage it is important that the child has both fine-motor skills and gross-motor skills.
As we found in our book girls are more prone to be better at fine-motor skills, and boys at gross-motor skills. Playing different games and doing different things with your child will help to improve their motor skills so that we can help our children of both sexes to be great at both fine and gross motor. Parental contact and that child/parent connection is so important at this point. Nurturing your child can also help their development, but it’s always good to get them around children their own age; especially if they’re the only child. References Berk, L. (2010). History, Theory, and Research Strategies.
In Berk, L. , Exploring Life Span Development, 2nd ed. (pp. 164-223). Boston, MA: Pearson, Allyn & Bacon ? Appendix A: Sarah Walker’s Child/Family Observation Notes Observation Date: September 22nd, 2011 Observation Time: 4:15 Observation Duration: 50 minutes Estimated Age of Child: 3 Years old Child’s Life Span Development Period: Early Childhood Estimated Socioeconomic Status: Middle Class Other Notes: Mason walks in to the arcade with a gentleman that appears to be his dad. Mason waits impatiently as his dad pays for tokens. Mason takes his ball cap off his head and hands it to his dad.
Mason sits down and takes off his shoes and places them in the shoe bin side by side. Mason runs to the jungle gym and climbs up the slide. Mason interacts with dad by yelling his name and telling him to watch as he goes down the slide. Dad asks Mason where his friend is and Mason replies, “He’s in there,” while pointing at the jungle gym. He was playing near the table we were sitting at. He comes over and says, “I’m Mason. I’m 3 years old and I’m a big boy. These are my shoes and I can put them on all by myself. They are my red shoes. ” Mason asks if he can play the arcade games.
Mason went over and played a game called spider stomp, he jumped with both feet together on the red bellies of the spiders. He finished playing and then skipped to the next game. Mason picked up tokens out of his dads hand individually and placed them into the games. Mason asks his dad if he can have his tickets. He climbs up on the ticket counter to look at the prizes. His dad asks him if he sees anything he likes. Mason nods his head and points to a blue jump-rope. Mason climbs down off the counter. Mason waves his arms back and forth as he walks from one arcade game to another.
Dad asks him what game he wants to play, he ran to a game said, “this one,” and climbed up on the stool in front of it. When dad put the quarters into the machine mason said, “No dad. You play too. ” After playing the game Mason takes his arms out of his sweatshirt and swings his sleeves around. He puts his arms back in his sleeves. Mason skips over to one of the arcade racing games, he starts talking himself through the steps of how to play the game. He yells at his dad, “papa, papa, PAPA! ‘ trying to get his dads attention. He looks at the game and notices that he needed two coins and he then asked his dad for two coins.
He then tells himself, “okay we are going to place the coins in the hole. ” He explains to himself that he needs to sit in the seat and put his hands on the steering wheel. His dad comes over, sits down at the car game and places Mason in his lap. Mason spins the car steering wheel and watches the screen of the little Mario car very intently. When game is done Mason hops down and runs over to the skeeball machine. Dad places quarters in the game and the balls roll down. Mason waves his arms and smiles as he waits for the balls. Mason takes the balls one at a time and rolls them gently and straight up the alley way directly into the holes.
After the game is finished the tickets come out child gently pulls the tickets out and hands them to an adult. !” One of the games that Mason asked to play was Guitar Hero. Mason walks over to the game and waits to play. He starts playing an air guitar and jamming out to music that sounds like he has made up. He picks up the guitar, holds guitar correctly, places strap of guitar over his head, and starts banging fingers on the buttons. Mason puts guitar down, walks to another game, pushes the buttons, looks at his dad and says, ” I did it. ” Another child comes over to the game that Mason is playing and tries to push the buttons.
Mason pushes the child’s hands away and says, “No, not yet. It’s my turm. ” Mason climbs on top of the game and sits there for 45 seconds before an adult gets him down. Mason goes over to another game, pushes a big red button and tells his dad, ” I want to do this one. ” Mason went over to play a water gun target game with his dad, he climbed up onto the stool and grabbed the gun, and aimed at the targets. At the end of the game he hadn’t knocked down as many targets as his dad, he still turned to his dad and said, “Look dad, I’m really good! ” We then ended our observation as a lot of what was happening was repetitive.
Appendix B: Morgan O’Leary’s Child/Family Observation Notes Observation Date: September 22nd, 2011 Observation Time: 4:15 Observation Duration: 50 minutes Estimated Age of Child: 3 Years old Child’s Life Span Development Period: Early Childhood Estimated Socioeconomic Status: Middle Class Other Notes: I observed a white little boy by the name of Mason. He looked to be about 3 years old based on his verbal ability as well as his cognitive thinking skills. He has blonde hair, blue eyes, weighs around 45 pounds and is about 36 inches in height. Mason speaks clearly, is content, not clingy, good temperament.
Mason came into Fun City with an adult male. Mason waits impatiently as his dad pays for tokens. Mason takes his ball cap off his head and hands it to his dad. Ran to the play place. Mason takes off his shoes and puts them in the cubby-holes. Climbed up the ladder to the slide. His Dad asks Mason where his little friend is and he told him, “He’s in there,” while pointing at the jungle gym. He was playing near the table we were sitting at. He stood up and told us like a big person, “I’m Mason. I’m 3 years old and I’m big. These are my shoes and I put them on by myself.
They are my red shoes. ” Mason and parent walk over to play the arcade games. Parent holds child up to see arcade game. Mason followed his dad’s directions well. Mason went over and played a game called spider stomp, he jumped with both feet together on the red bellies of the spiders. He finished playing. He had won tickets he pulled them out of the machine, turned around and handed them to his parent. He then skipped to the next game. Mason picked up tokens out of his dads hand individually and placed them into the games. Mason asked dad if he can have the tickets he won.
Mason’s Dad asks him what game he wants to play, he ran to a game said, “this one, I want to play this one,” and climbed up on the stool in front of it. Parent turned around and said, “Mason where are you? ” Child responded, “Over here. I wanna play this one. ” When dad put the quarters into the machine mason said, “No dad. I want you to play with me. ” After playing the game Mason takes his arms out of his shirt and swings his sleeves back and forth. He puts his arms back in his shirt. Mason and his dad played a couple games that I couldn’t see because of where I was sitting. He yells at his dad trying to get his attention.
He looks at the game and sees that he needed two coins and he asked his dad for two coins. He then tells himself, “okay we are going to place the coins in the hole. ” He tells himself that he needs to sit in the seat and put his hands on the steering wheel. His dad comes over, sits down at the car game and places Mason in his lap. Mason spins the car steering wheel and watches the screen of the little Mario car very intently. Mason hops down and runs over to the skeeball machine. He did pretty well. While playing he could grasp the balls and roll them up the alley way without any help.
He had very good hand-eye coordination. After the game is finished the tickets come out child gently pulls the tickets out and hands them to an adult. Mason asked to play Guitar Hero with his dad. As Mason walks over to the game he starts playing an air guitar and jamming out to music that sounds like he has made up in his head. He picks up the guitar for the game, holds guitar the way it is supposed to be held, and starts playing the buttons with his fingers. Mason gave up the game and let another child play with his dad. He went over to another game and started playing. He told a child, “No, it’s my turn.
I see it first. ” Mason climbed on top of the game and sits there until an adult got him down. Mason goes over to another game, pushes a big red button and tells his dad, ” I want to do this one. ” Mason went over to play a water gun target game with his dad, he climbed up onto the stool and grabbed the gun, and aimed at the targets. At the end of the game he hadn’t knocked down as many targets as his dad, he still turned to his dad and said, “Look dad, I’m really good! ” At that point we decided to end our observation because the child was doing a lot of the same things.