CHILD OBSERVATION STUDY PROJECT 13
Child Observation Study Project
Madeline Webb
Ivy Tech Community College – Central Indiana
Dr. Arlene Coleman
INTAS Standard, Description and Rationale
Standard #1: Learner Developments
The teacher understands how learners grow and develop, recognizing that patterns of learning and development vary individually within and across the cognitive, linguistic, social, emotional, and physical areas, and designs and implements developmentally appropriate and challenging learning experiences.
Name of Artifact: Child Observation Study Project
Date: September, 18, 2012
Course: EDUC 250
Brief Description: The Child observation study project required observing a subject in early childhood in the age groups of 3-5 or 6-8. The assignment involved testing the subject for cognitive, social/emotional, physical and motor development skills through interviews, games and activities to assess the development of the child over two observations sessions.
Rationale: To document my understanding of Standard #1, Learner Development, I selected to include my Child Observation Study because this assignment demonstrates my ability to observe important developmental milestones in my future students which allow me to asses through various cognitive, linguistic, social and emotional test if there are any developmental issues. The assignment allowed me to develop a firm understanding of the different developmental stages of young children and how every child develops differently.
To teach effectively and ensure students are learning and growing, teachers must observe and record how a child behaves or completes different activities. Observation is an important part of learning, not only for the teacher, but also for the students they are teaching. The ability to be able to observe a child and notice areas of development that are lacking will allow the teacher and the student to focus on the issue and ensure that a child gains understanding and develops further in those areas.
This paper will examine the observations made of an eight year old child. Observations and recommendations will be made after observing activities that test the subject’s physical motor development, cognitive development, social/emotional development and language development. The activities administered by the researcher must be easy to assess and interpret the results as well as keeping the subject engaged and responsive to the activities. The process for this observation required two separate visits that lasted for a period of one to two hours each. The first visit comprised of interviewing the subject and asking questions to get to know them and make them feel comfortable with the researcher. The second visit was devoted to doing tests and recording answers given by the subject concerning the different subjects listed above.
I. General Background Information
The subject is eight years old, and in third grade in elementary school. There are five members, including herself that make up her family. These include her Mom, Dad, Step-Dad, and Step-Sister. The subjects parents divorced four years ago and the subject’s time is split evenly between the Mom and Dad’s houses. The initial interview was held with the Dad present around the subject’s kitchen table. The second meeting just the researcher and subject were present. I interviewed the subject at their father’s house, so the daily schedule is based on a normal day when the subject is with their Dad.
A typical schedule for the subject starts at 7:00am waking up and preparing to go school. Usually around 7:30am the subject would eat breakfast which typically was a bowl of cereal. The subject walks to school from their Dad’s house and takes 10-15 minutes. The school day starts at 8:30am with morning work. The rest of the day is scheduled below:
· 9:00-9:15 Carpet/calendar time
· 9:15 Pledge of allegiance
· 9:30- 10:30 Math
· 10:30- 11:30 Specials (gym, art, library, computers)
· 11:30-12:00 Lunch
· 12:00- 12:30 Recess
· 12:30 – 1:30 Carpet/reading time
· 1:30 – 2:30 Stations (noun sort, computer math games)
· 2:30 – 3:00 Pack up
Once the school day is over the subjects is transported to daycare in the daycare van provided. Usually the subject has time to play and socialize with other children in the afterschool program. They will also complete any homework that needs to be done and read books while waiting to be collected by their parents after they finish work. Her dad picks the subject up from daycare and takes her home where she will have a light snack before dinner and then a little while after dinner the subject may have a treat. The subject will bath at night to save time in the morning then prepare for bed by reading quietly in her room, saying her prayers and then going to sleep.
From examining the subjects daily schedule the researcher has noticed that the subject is extremely busy and the subject’s day is very scheduled. The researcher also noticed the subject eats very frequently throughout the day. Due to this observation the researcher questioned about the “snacks and treats” the subject was eating. The subjects Dad stated the snack that the subject consumes are healthy and gave examples of grapes and apples. The Dad also stated that as the subjects is very busy with school and afterschool daycare that he wants the subject to have enough energy to complete all the tasks necessary throughout her day. When discussing this with the subject, they expressed the idea that they have to have these treats and snacks even if they are not hungry. The child is developing fast and needs fuel to allow the body to function and grow properly. By giving the child snacks throughout the day, her energy levels will remain constant and they will be more likely to stay focused on tasks.
II. Physical and Motor Development
According to Rosalind Charlesworth during the ages of six through 8 years of age, children begin to place great emphasis on the development of their own physical ability and skills (Charlesworth, 2004). Children want to excel in different physical activities and take great pride in showing their abilities in front of friends and peers to increase social recognition and status (charlesworth, 2004). After researching important milestones in physical ability for 8 years olds the researcher created a checklist of activities to test the subject’s gross motor skills and fine motor skills. The information gathered came from a range of sources including Jeanne Ormrod’s, Educational Psychology: Developing Learners, Puckett & Black, The Young Child: Development from Pre-birth Through Age eight and Development in Young Children and the PBS website.
Gross Motor Skills Activities and Observations:
Activity / Yes / No / ObservationsSubject is able to changes clothes and groom themselves without assistance / X / Dad confirmed child’s ability to complete these tasks
Subject is able to throw and catch a ball, or catch a ball that is bounced to them / X / Could throw and catch the ball. Dropped a few times
Subject has the ability to ride a bicycle / X / Was a little shaky to start but gained control
Subject can kick a ball with ability / X / Can kick a ball and aim
Subject can carry out household tasks (cleaning room, making bed) / X / Confirmed by Dad of chores completed by subject
To assess the gross motor skills of the subject we changed our location to the subject’s backyard. Here the subject demonstrated their ability to catch a thrown and bounced ball, ride their bicycle and kick the ball. To assess their ability with the other two activities are asked the subject’s Dad if the subject needed help to get ready in the morning. His reply was no and that the subject had a good routine and rarely needs any help. I then asked if the subject performed any household chores. The Dad responded that the subject makes their bed and also helps to pack the dishwasher when needed, as well as get the morning paper. This shows the subject has good control over her gross motor skills and is able to complete multiple tasks that are expected of a child their age.
Fine Motor Skills Activities:
Activity
/Yes
/No
/Observation
Draws multiple shapes and figures with various implements
/X
/ /Child drew her family using different colors and drawing materials
Uses comb, toothbrush, washcloth without support
/X
/ /Her dad confirmed the child’s ability to perform these tasks
Prints letter, numbers and has the ability to print backwards
/X
/X
/Had some difficulty
Cuts shapes clearly, easily
/X
/ /The child was able to cut out shapes
The next section to observe for physical and motor development was the subject’s fine motor skills. The subject was asked to draw a picture of her family as well as cut out some shapes on a piece of paper. The drawing is attached to the back of this observation study. The subject was able to cut around the shape quite well and showed good fine motor control when coloring in the lines of her picture. Again I confirmed the other two activity areas with the subjects Dad, which he confirmed the subjects ability to comb their hair and brush their teeth without assistance.
Balance and Coordination Activities
Activity / Yes / No / ObservationGood Balance – hopping on spot, leaping / X / X / Struggled a little to keep balance hopping
Ties shoes without help / X / Able to tie shoes
Creates dances with simple rhythm / X / Did the chicken dance
To test balance and coordination I did a couple of extra activities such as hopping on one leg in a standing position. Then hopping across the backyard and leaping as far as we could. The subject did find it hard to hop up and down for a long period of time. The subject had good hand eye coordination when catching the ball as well as being able to tie their shoelaces. From my observations of these physical activities I believe the subject has developed very well in all areas of physical development for someone their age.
III. Cognitive Development
When assessing the subject’s cognitive development the researcher used tests produced by the psychologist Piaget. Piaget developed many tests and activities for children to monitor their cognitive development. There are four stages to Piaget’s theory. Due to the subject’s age, they would be placed in the concrete operations stage. Ormrod’s explanation of this stage states an “adult like logic appears but is limited to reasoning about concrete, real-life situations”(Ormrod, 2011). The researcher used two activities to test the subject’s ability to reason. The first test used 14 pennies, separated evenly into two rows of seven and is used to observe the subjects conservation on numbers ability. The following questions were asked with the subjects responses:
Researcher: Are these two rows of pennies equal? Do they have the same amount?
Subject: Yes.
Researcher: How do you know?
Subject: Because I counted and there are seven pennies in both rows.
The researcher then spaced the second row of pennies out in front of the subject and asked the following questions:
Researcher: Do both rows of pennies still have the same amount?
Subject: Yes.
Researcher: How do you know that both rows have the same amount?
Subject: because you just moved the pennies and didn’t take any away or add more.
The next activity involved using two clay balls and a kitchen scale. The researcher made sure the two balls weighed the same and confirmed the weight with the subject. Then the researcher squashed one ball like a pancake and asked the subject if they think the ball will still weigh the same. The subject’s response was uncertain and took a lot of thought before they answered question. The subject’s response was that it would weigh the same, using the same reasoning as the pennies that I did not add or take away any clay. Based on these two tests it is clear to see that the subject’s ability to form concrete operations and understand conservation has developed quite well. The subject did not seem overly confident in her ability and did question her answers but was satisfied that she was correct after weighing the squashed piece of clay.
IV. Social/Emotional Development
To examine this portion of the observation, the researcher asked the subject a range of questions to assess their social/emotional development. Children’s self-evaluations and peer relationships provide their degree of self-esteem and it is important that these skills develop well for the child to feel confident throughout their life (Charlesworth, 2004). The questions are based of Erickson’s stages of Psychological Development. Erikson theorized that there are eight stages through which people proceed over the course of development. Each stage presents a unique development task, and how an individual addresses it influences the person’s general mental health and progress through later stages (Ormrod, 2011). The subject is eight years old and is consider to be in the “Industry versus Inferiority (elementary school years)” stage. Erikson believed that this stage was essential in developing a child’s self-confidence through praise and support from teachers, parents, and peers with all activities and assignments children do during elementary school (Ormrod, 2011).
How a person views themselves can lend itself to how socially and emotionally developed they are, I asked the subject to describe themself. The subjected responded by saying “blonde, tall, silly, funky and fun”. From this response it seems that the subject has a good sense of self. They are still describing themself in a physical aspect which is another key sign of the childhood stage of development. The subject’s comment about being fun and silly, however, represents an early adolescent characteristic according to the Ormrod. After talking to the subject more they seem fairly well adjusted and are very confident in themselves and their abilities. The subject is also involved in many sports and this can also contribute to their identities and feelings of competency that explains the subjects higher level on the scale (Charlesworth).