Fifteen-Minute Observation

On February 15th, a fifteen-minute observation was conducted in the toddler room of the Buffalo State Child Care Center. For this observation, my subject was a child named Tommy

In terms of gross motor skills, Tommy was able to use the strength of his trunk and legs to properly sit on the chair, providing stability. He remained upright while his feet were flat on the ground as he ate his food. Tommy maintained head control as he looked around the room, looked down at his plate, and moved his head up to eat. Tommy was able to rotate his torso from left to right as he looked at the observers surrounding him. His neck was noted to turn to allow more range of motion as he scanned his environment. Postural control was noted during the observation as Tommy demonstrated trunk stabilization that allowed for coordination of his hands as he ate. Tommy was

observed to turn his body, bend over his seat, and pick up a carrot that fell to the floor. He was able to maintain control of his body and sit back up to continue his meal. Body awareness is defined as mindfulness to body posture, one’s own body parts, laterality, directionality, and its movements (Simons, Leitschuh, Raymaekers & Vandenbussche, 2011). Tommy demonstrated appropriate body awareness as he was able to navigate his arms to retrieve food while maintaining stability on the chair.
In regards to fine motor skills, Tommy was observed to use his left hand to grab pizza from his plate towards his mouth. He was noted to use his left hand to keep his food in his mouth when he took big bites of pizza. Tommy used a fork on his right hand to pierce into carrots and tomatoes, indicating bilateral control of his hands. He demonstrated a transverse palmer grip while he held the fork with his right hand. There were instances where Tommy was unable to manipulate the fork pierce the food, and chose to use a pincer grasp to grab on to vegetables. According to research, pincer grasp in typically developing children, occurs around 12 months (Sacrey, Karl, & Whishaw, 2012). While drinking, Tommy was observed to use both hands to grab his cup of milk and bring towards midline to drink from it. Tommy’s use of hand-eye coordination allowed him to bring the various foods from his plate into his mouth with control and precision. According to research conducted by Carruth, B. and Skinner J. (2002), a child Tommy’s age is expected to use their fingers to feed themselves soft and chopped food. This was noted as Tommy was observed to eat small chopped food and bring it to his mouth repeatedly.
Research has explored the notion that there is a relationship between motor and language development (Oudgenoeg-Paz, Volman, & Leseman, 2012; Howen Visser, Putten, & Vlaskamp, 2012).

During the observation, childcare staff was noted to use vocabulary specific to the meals the children were eating. When Tommy finished his vegetables, one childcare staff member asked if he would like more carrots. The use of semantic context throughout the meal, enhances the language the child already has as the content of the words are understood. Although Tommy did not vocalize, global communication was observed as he pointed and nodded his head to the foods he wanted. Global communication should be targeted during mealtime by offering different choices that will require the child to express his wants, provide objects that are out of reach, exposure to vocabulary specific to the environment. It should be noted that the children had limited opportunities to communicate as they were engaged in mealtime. This observation was helpful in providing information regarding the relationship between children’s motor, sensory, and language

development.