The child I observed was a seven-year-old girl in Year 2 who sat on the second highest ability table in a mixed class. While not in school, she lived a substantial distance away meaning she travelled to and from school by car and was often the first child to arrive in the morning and the last to leave in the afternoon. I will focus on the social and emotional development of this child who, from now onwards, will be referred to as C. I carried out two types of observation: these being narrative observation and time sampling. I chose to do both because the strengths of each help to support the weaknesses of the other. The main weaknesses of time sampling are that it causes the observer to miss potentially important behaviours that occur between the times the child is being observed and that the context of the behaviour is not recorded meaning that no cause and effect can be seen. It is because of these weaknesses that I chose to perform a narrative observation as well; this type of observation has ample detail and focuses on the whole of a scenario: that being the cause of a behaviour, the behaviour itself and the result of the behaviour. These strengths make up for the weaknesses of time sampling however, narrative observation also has weaknesses. Narrative observation is very time consuming and, especially when done for short periods, can be limited in the breadth of information gained. Whilst having done both of these observation helps to limit the impact of their weaknesses, there are still flaws in them. Together they gather information that while moderately useful, is limited in what can be gained from it as they lack the combined breadth depth that could have been gained from carrying out more observations. I feel that it ... ... middle of paper ... ...t over a longer period, such as a term or a year, it is quite possible that, while she currently appears to be slightly behind her milestones, she could reach and even exceed these. More thorough observations could also have provided more insight into the causes for C’s development which would have been especially helpful when suggesting strategies to enhance her learning. As it is, I believe C has suffered from forming an insecure attachment as an infant and this has affected her emotional development and that she may suffer from at some dyscalculic tendencies, which has an impact on her perceived cognitive development. Even if she is in no way dyscalculic, the methods I have suggested to help would, with no doubt, help to improve her maths ability and, if used throughout her whole education could help give a vast improvement in her overall cognitive development.
Berger, K. S. (2012). The developing person: through childhood and adolescence. (9th ed.). New York, NY: Worth Publishers.
Child observation is relevant in social work because social workers deal with problematic situations, in which students have the opportunity to observe and reflect the characteristics of a child’s development in terms of physical and mental change. Observation has an important role in children’s play it shows the development progress as well as the child’s thinking about events.
During this assignment, I needed to observe infant/toddler from birth to 36 months. The observation was for 30 minutes while the infants interact with the world. While the observation, I created a running record observation to keep track of the developmental domains. The observation took place in the ECE classroom. There were three children which were Charlotte, Loui, and Benjamin. They were placed in the center of the class where there was different kinds of toys. During the observation, Charlotte and Loui were interacting with one another. However, Benjamin wasn’t interacting at all. Loui interacted with classmates and went outside the circle to get some toys.
Child development is an amazing thing to watch in the way that children interact with one another and how they perceive the world that surrounds. While doing our research of child development we began to observe a group of kids ranging the ages 1 – 12. During these observations we noticed traits such as attachment, comfort, and love. Through the following examples we will proceed to observe development in our environment and explain its relativity to the text
Observation is very important in young children 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.
When and how does the child cooperate with other children, does she share, take turns, negotiate or help the other child with tasks?
While completing my practicum this last semester I observed an seven year old boy named J. J is a second grader in a mixed first and second grade Montessori classroom at Sandhills Primary School. He is smart and excels at science. J is also on the autism spectrum. He is the first born to his twin brother. They are not in the same class due to different academic levels, but they have a very good relationship. In comparison to his twin J seems to be more advanced academically and physically. While Kidwatching J I was able to learn a lot about the way that he thinks and learns. Throughout this paper I will discuss J’s physical, affective, and cognitive development.
There are few fields within the child development science. One of them is represented by the psychoanalytical theory, which looks at the child emotional development within the context of social interaction and early attachments. This framework is called psychosocial as it looks on the emotional and social aspects. Running in parallel and influencing each other there are two more main areas, cognitive and physical. Although I am focusing on the aspects of the psychosocial development, it is important to remember that all these areas are being affected one by the other, where the development of the emotional skills plays central role in a regular development of cognitive and physical skills.
Children are brought the child care development center to provide daycare for the working parent. Upon arrival, an assessment is performed on the children. Their hair is checked for the presence of lice. Their eyes, ears, nose, and mouths are checked for redness or discharge. The presence of a cough should also be noted. General appearance is assessed for cleanliness. Their shoes should be closed toes to protect their feet from injury. The children can be dismissed from the center for lice or presence of infection to prevent the spread to others. If lice are present, the child should obtain treatment and return to school the day after treatment was received (Bohl, Evetts, McClain, Rosenauer, & Stellitano, 2015, p. 231). The parents of toddlers
Jaylan's brother appeared to be smiling when the QP arrived at their home unannounced and went to get his grandmother from upstairs.
For 12 weeks I observed a young pre-schooler Child C aged 31/2 years old, through my account I would give an observer’s view of Child C, three theories peculiar to Child C and my the emotions evoked in me as an observer. My observation assisted in my understanding of the changes in Child C as the week progressed over the 12 weeks.
The environment I observed seemed to be very put together and organized. The staff responsible for each age group all had great communication with each other. They had great communication with the parents also. They kept a chart of each individual everyday keeping track of when they ate and if they had any positive/negative occurrences. For infants, they also keep track of when they were changed. The room I first observed was very inviting. The teachers had good attitudes, and they really seemed to care for the kids. The room had soft mats on the floor to help cushion the fall if the infants fell. The teachers were very aware of the what the kids were doing at all times to make sure they did not get into anything they were not supposed to. I loved how the staff interacted with the kids. They would sing and make train noises to them while changing them.
Observation is important as the practitioner can find out what the child is interested in and what motivates them to learn alongside their progress and how they behave in certain situations, additionally at the same time it identifies if children need assistance within certain areas of learning or socially (DCSF, 2008). Furthermore the observations check that the child is safe, contented, healthy and developing normally within the classroom or early years setting, over time the observations can be given to parents as they show a record of progress which helps to settle the parent and feel more comfortable about their child’s education. Observations are not only constructive within learning about an individual child, they can be used to see how different groups of children behave in the same situation and how adults communicate and deal with children’s behaviour (Meggitt and Walker, 2004). Overall observations should always look at the positives of what children can complete within education and not look at the negatives and all observations should become a fundamental part of all practitioners work alongside reflection (Smidt, 2009).
In my study I only observed a mixed sex pair of siblings. Where the sister was older than her brother. The mother and the two siblings were observed in the family's home, in their living room, instead of a playroom laboratory. I started the observation at 5:00 PM. Five minutes before I started my study I explained to the mother that she would have to interact with the children for almost an hour. Then I told her that she would have to leave the room for around the same time, so that the children may interact without her presence. I also explained that after the children were done playing together alone that she would have to come back and ask them to put their toys away. This was the order that the activities were executed and my observation was completed by 7:00 PM. I recorded all of their actions by keeping written notes. I had the mother's permission to record their activities. The mother was only aware of this, the children did not know that they were being observed.
Recently, I went to The Happy School, a preschool in my hometown of Smallville, California, to pass the morning with the students there. In the time I spent there, the children, ages 3 to 5, engaged in unstructured play, and sat in a circle for calendar time and reading aloud. The preschool is primarily child-centered in terms of its organization, meaning it incorporates a lot of child directed activity, and less structured, or adult directed, learning (Berk, 2008). I watched the group of about twenty children with the intention of studying them as a whole, but I found myself compelled to watch two children in particular, Addison and Jack, because they displayed particularly intriguing behavior. (p187) THESIS, what behavior, theories etc.