Child Growth and Development CHDV 100 Observation Assignment: Domains of Development SLO: CHDV 100 Identify the

e typical and atypical physical, cognitive, and social-emotional development of young children from conception through adolescence. PLO 1: Demonstrates the ability to integrate knowledge of (the needs, the characteristics, and multiple influences on) development of children (birth to age eight) as related to high quality of care and education of young children. For this assignment you will be observing a preschool aged child between the ages of 3 and 5. A list of potential observation sites can be found in the Observation Tab on the course home page. It is not required that you do your observation at one of these sites; however, if you choose to observe at a different site, please contact me so we can discuss the site you have chosen. Students may not observe their own children as it is often difficult to remain objective. This observation will give you a better understanding of each of the three Domains of Development. These domains include the childs physical, social-emotional and cognitive development. Remember, in studying the young child it is essential that we look at the whole child. In your course readings you will learn how a childs progression in one domain is both influenced by and influences development in the other two domains. The three domains of development are very much interrelated. I often challenge students to name something that happens in one domain of development that does not have at least a minimal effect in the other two domains. So far, no one has been able to meet this challenge! Lastly, it is important to remember that a childs development is sometimes uneven, or what we call asynchronous. It is not uncommon for children to develop skills and abilities within each domain at differing rates. Your textbook and other course readings frequently refer to milestones of development, or skills that children development during various developmental timeframes. Remember that although a childs development progresses in a sequential manner, the speed at which this occurs varies from child to child. The required format for this observation begins on page 2 of these guidelines. It is REQUIRED that you follow this format. **If you are unable to answer a question(s), based on your observation notes, you must still address the question by defining the concept and providing an example (provide your own example. Do not use the same examples provided in the text). Remember, this observation must be saved for your CHDV210 Professional Portfolio. Prior to be submitted to the portfolio, this observation may need to be revised to meet the VVC Child Development Professional Portfolio expectations. Please let me know if you have any questions. DeeDee

Childs First Name: Jay Childs Age: 4 Years

Please complete each of the following. Remember (as stated in detail above), if you do not observe what is being asked, then you should still discuss the concept and provide an example of what is being asked. DOMAIN: Physical Development
1.

Appearance and growth: Describe the childs body build, posture, heights, and weight. (2 points) Jay has a strong body build. He is thicker than most of the children in his class. He has a good posture, he does not slouch. Jay is about 40 inches tall.

Gross & Fine Motor Skills 2. What types of play did you observe the child engaging in? Based on your observations of this play, determine which parts of their play involved Gross or Fine Motor Skills and list them accordingly in the space below. (4 points) Gross Motor Skills
1. Riding a bike 2.

Fine Motor Skills 1. Cutting 2. Inserting string through holes 3. Gluing sticks on paper 4. Painting

Running

3. Kicking 4. Throwing

3.

Does this child seem to prefer large or fine motor skill activities? Why do you say this? (2 points)

This child prefers large motor skills. During the days that I observed him, he rarely involved himself in activities that required him to use his fine motor skills. He was usually playing with large blocks or at the

home area. He hardly ever came to the art center, but the one place he never visited while I was there was the writing center. While he played outside, he spent his entire time playing tag or riding the bikes.

4.

Describe the gestures and facial features used by the child to communicate. (2 points) Jay used a lot of facial expressions while he interacted with students and teachers. He mainly used negative expressions. When Jay was not feeling something, I could clearly read it in his face. When he was angry it was also very easy to tell. Excitement was also readable in his face. As soon as he heard something or saw something he liked, his eyes would widen.

5.

Describe at least 4 indications of good health that you can see by observing this child. (2 points) Good health that I observed in Jay would be that he was very active. Any chance that he would get to run, he would. Another indication would be that when he played, he kept playing. He wouldnt get tired and have to take breaks or ever complained about being sick. Jay also seemed to have good eyesight and good hearing. Lastly, Jay had a good appetite. He always finished his snacks.

Physical Development/Concluding Thoughts: Write a brief summary of your overall impression of this childs physical development. In this summary, use specific information from the text and course readings to explain what you observed. Based upon my observation, I believe that the development of the child I observed is typical. According to the book the basic developmental trends are represented in motor development (Martin & Fabes, 2006, p. 165). Jays gross motor skills appear to be developing first at this point in his early life. The book also states that by age six they throw and catch balls, climb, and swing with ease. Jay is only four years old, but I observed him doing most of these activities. Although the child I observed spent most of his time actively playing, I did observe his fine motor skills. The book says that fine motor skills are very apparent in preschool and they follow a pattern (Martin & Fabes, 2006). Jay knew how to manipulate his hands well. I saw him putting string through a paper with small holes and cutting paper. These activities show that Jay has control over hand-eye coordination and can use his small muscles precisely (Martin & Fabes, 2006). It also seems as if Jay has good nutritional habits. He doesnt seem to be undernourished or malnourished. Over all Jays physical development seems to be on track.

Domain: Cognitive And Language Development

1. How does the child show curiosity? Is the child showing interest in a new situation? Describe a time when a child was curious. (2 points) Jay gets really excited when he hears something he likes. He starts to yell and jump up and down. Even if its during circle time, he gets really hyped up and starts saying he wants to do it or play with it. When one of the teachers was introducing a new activity, he kept interrupting her, and said he wanted to do it, even after they told him to wait until she was done talking. 2. When they are challenged some children will stay with an activity for a long time. Give an example of the length of this childs attention span. (2 points) Jay tends to get frustrated rather quickly if he cant do something. I think he has a pretty long attention span but it depends more on his mood and how things are going for him. Jay was trying to make a necklace for someone but the holes were too small for him to fit his string through. After a couple of tries, he threw the materials and started crying. One of the teachers made helped him make the holes a little bigger so he could put the string through. Jay constantly starts crying if things dont happen the way he wants them to. 3. Watch and describe how the child participates in problem solving. Did the child learn by trial and error or by another approach? Was the child supported by another child or an adult? (3 points) During the times that I observed this child, he usually always said teacher I need help. If something didnt work, he would ask the one of the teachers. The teachers always helped him. Sometimes they would try to make Jay solve things himself. 4. Look for evidence of symbolic representation. Did the child use one object to represent another? (2 points) Jay involved himself in pretend play sometimes. One time him and the other children out on mickey hates and said they were going to Disneyland. They started riding rollercoasters.
5. Give an example of a child using classification or seriation in an activity or in play. (2 points)

When Jay was asked to create a pattern with different shapes, he ordered his shapes by color, not by shape. He aligned all of one color and another until he was done. 6. Describe an example of the child showing centration in his/her thoughts or actions. (2 points) While Jay was making a necklace, he kept choosing the biggest objet to put through the string. He wanted to put a lot of stuff in there and soon ran out of string. Instead of choosing the smaller objects to fit more in his necklace, he wanted all of the big things. 7. Cite an example of egocentric thinking. (2 points) During snack time Jay was lightly tapping another child on the arm. The other child said that he didnt like it and the teacher told him to tell Jay how he felt. Jay responded with but there is nothing wrong with touching, Im not hurting you. Jay thinks that there is nothing wrong with touching, therefore he assumes that the other child feels the same way. 8. How does the child describe object(s) she/he sees, or hears? Quote the child directly. (2 points) Im going to make a big and tall pumpkin teacher! 9. Listen carefully to the childs sentence length and vocabulary and look for examples of overregularization. (2 points) Jays sentences are short but descriptive. Jay said, teacher she spitted on me!

10. Listen carefully to a childs sentence length and vocabulary and list the parts of speech which you have heard him/her use. (nouns, verbs, adjectives) Give example/s (in quotations) of the childs sentence. (3 points) I want to go super super fast! Teacher when it was easter we saw a big bunny and my mom took a picture of us! Cognitive/Language Development Concluding Thoughts: Write a brief summary of your overall impression of this childs cognitive/language development. In this summary, use specific information from the text and course readings to explain what you observed. According to Jean Piagets theory of cognitive development, Jay is at the preoperational stage of development, at this stage they and mentally represent objects and people and manipulate these representations (Martin & Fabes, 2006, p. 270). This seems to be correct, he is engaging himself in symbolic representation and he is still unable to conserve. He cant tell whats real and whats not real. Jay is also very egocentric. He expects all of the other children to see things the way that he does. He doesnt take into consideration that they may have a different opinion about something. According to the text egocentrism is when they assume that their own perspective is shared by other people (Martin & Fabes, 2006). In m observations, I would say that Jays development of language and cognition is typical.

Domain: Social and Emotional Development

1. Did the child express intense feelings with words? Describe an incident. What other means did the child use to express his feelings? (2 points) No, he did describe some feelings with words but not intense ones. He would cry, scream and kick or throw things. 2. Which of the following types of play did the child spend time in? Provide an example(s). * Unoccupied, * onlooker, * solitary, * parallel, * associative, * cooperative. (Partens Theory of Play) (2 points) Jay would usually take part in either associative or cooperative play. When playing with blocks, Jay was sharing and interacting with other children but he was making a castle and the other kids were making a school. An example of cooperative play would be when the Jay and other children were playing inside and they were all going to Disneyland. They were wearing hats and following each others commands.

3. Describe 3 traits of temperament exhibited by the child. Cite behavior to support your descriptions. Does s/he seem to be a leader or a follower? (3 points) It seems as if Jay has the difficult temperament. He is constantly crying, he is very active and his emotions seem to be irregular. They usually skyrocket very fast. Most of the time Jay seems to be a leader. He usually says what goes and gets very upset when it doesnt go how he wanted it. Even when he joins a group of children that already have something going on, he changes it up to the way he wants. 4. What evidence do you see of the child acquiring initiative or guilt? Look for things such as creative play, unusual ideas, reaction to rules, conforming. (2 points) It seems like Jay acquires mainly guilt at home. Jay is always asking for help. It seems as if hes afraid to fail. But when things are changed he doesnt conform. He usually just throws a fit. 5. What dramatic play activity does this child seem to enjoy? (2 points) Jay doesnt really engage in dramatic play. The only time I remember seeing him at the house area was when he was playing Disneyland. 6. What evidence did you observe for the development of gender awareness? (2 points) Jay seems to be aware of gender. I like blue cause Im a boy and you like pink cause youre girl 7. Does s/he accept responsibility for small jobs or does s/he attempt to avoid responsibility. Cite an example to support this inference. (2 points) Jay tries to avoid responsibilities. During clean up time he has to be told a multiple amount of times to clean up an area. 8. Describe a situation where the child shows empathy for another child. (2 points) Jay was sitting down next to a child who wasnt feeling good instead of playing with his other friends. 9. What evidence do you see of the childs prosocial development? (2 points) When a child was showing separation anxiety, Jay was trying to help the child cheer up. He was offering puzzles and defending her from other children. 10. Provide an example of how this child avoided or resolved conflict with another child. (2 points) It seems as if Jay doesnt avoid conflict and doesnt deal with it very well. He usually proposes things to his advantage. For example, while playing tag, a child was counting and others were hiding. Jay wanted to count, but I guess the other children didnt want him to. He kept saying guys its my turn to count its my turn. When the children didnt listen, he went up to them and started pushing them. Social-Emotional Development Concluding Thoughts: Write a brief summary of your overall impression of this childs social-emotional development. In this summary, use specific information from the text and course readings to explain what you observed. I think that Jays social emotional development is atypical, especially with aggression and conflict resolution. Jay has good sense of self-concept and gender awareness. Self concept is an individuals beliefs about the attributes and capacities possesses (Martin & Fabes, 2006, p. 300). Jay usually participates in cooperative play which is the highest level of social play (Martin & Fabes, 2006, p. 329). What I consider atypical is the way his emotional regulation. This is the ability to alter his emotional response to a situation (Martin & Fabes, 2006, p. 308). He cries, he yells, he spits, he hits, he kicks, he pushes, and he throws things. He doesnt know how to adequately express his negative emotions.

Interrelationship of domains of development:

All of the domains affect one another. For example, if he is not able to control his body then he has not yet acquired his gross and fine motor skills. If he doesnt have the right physical development then he wouldnt be able to play and interact with the children in his class. That would then impact his language and cognitive development because since he cant play with his friends he will not be able to acquire the skills that children learn off one another. He would have poor language skills and cognitive skills compared to all of the other children. That would then directly affect his social and emotional development. Because he doesnt have the cognitive or language skills to have friends or keep friends.. He would probably confront children a lot and wouldnt be able to get along with them. Since he hardly ever has the chance to play with them, he wouldnt know how to handle these situations.

Concluding Thoughts (5 Points) Write a brief paragraph in which you discuss:

This assignment helped me put together things that I already had a foundation on. I learned exactly how each domain ties into the others. I also learned that children have levels of emotional intensity, from low to high. Another thing I leaned was the difference between empathy and sympathy. Lastly, I learned about love withdrawal.