After observing and interacting with my three year old little girl I have gained knowledge about

her learning style and needs, as well as her strength and weaknesses. Observing K in her natural
environment I came to the conclusion that she has a visual learning style. She would walk up to
the schedule board and read off of the schedule as to what comes next. Ks needs vary depending
upon the time of day but I observed she needed to take an afternoon nap or she would cry more
often in the afternoon. Also, while playing with others she would sometimes shove them away to
get what she wanted and if she did not get it, she would cry. K was very strong in the cognitive
and language and literacy domains. When asked to read a book with me individually or even in
the group she was the only child that never got up and when engaged in the book, she would
answer questions that I may have asked. Some of Ks strengths include being eager to learn. She
never once did not want to do my activities. She is also able to express her needs or wants very
well. When she was ready to play something else, she would take my hand and have me follow
her. K also would ask me to read books to her during exploration time. During my language and
literacy lessons, as well as a few others, she was able to go back and retell a part of the story to
me or relate it to the activity in some way. Most of Ks weaknesses involved working or playing
with other children. When I first started to observe K I thought I had identified one of her
weaknesses as not being able to transition well, but I later observed this was only short living.
Once acquainted in the routine of coming into the center she was able to say bye to her mother
without getting upset. After about two weeks into my observations, K was showing me a whole
different area that needed work. Sharing with other children with toys or books or even teachers
set this child off into a tantrum. Another area that she was weak in was change in schedule.

Having a special event did not go very well with this child. She would start crying and would not
stop until somebody came over and helped her figure out what was going on.
While trying to decide what my little girl needed to work on the most, developmentally, I had
decided that she needed to work on her interpersonal skills although while assessing her I saw
many areas that needed improvement. Interpersonal development involves the child having skills
such as playing together with friends and conflict resolution with others. K was very good at
playing by herself or one on one with a teacher. When it came to other children and them
cooperatively playing together, there was always a tantrum to be seen. My plan to work on this
behavior is to first start an ABC chart. This will help me identify the antecedents, behavior, and
consequences. By doing this I will be able to determine if it is a certain child that she does not
get along with, that is part of not wanting to work with others. I will also see if the environment
could be changed based on what happens in this chart. After completing the ABC chart and
hopefully being able to identify some of her triggers, I will then proceed to incorporating in my
lesson plans activities and stories that have to do with sharing, working together, and expressing
how we feel. At three years old, this is a learning phase for sharing, and taking turns. Modeling
this behavior to the children by getting on the ground and playing with the blocks and using kind
words and gestures, will lead them to wanting to do this to. After I remove myself from the area
the children will eventually learn how to cooperatively play. This is called scaffolding. By me
giving support and modeling the behavior that I want and removing myself in time, the children
will be able to have the skills necessary to play together. I believe that the last thing I can do for
this child is to let her have tucker the turtle time. While this does not always work unless you
have constant use of it, this will help the child breathe and think about a way to solve her
problem at hand. Reading and re-introducing the book would be helpful to all the children so the

child is not singled out as well. While reading a story I will call on K more to tell me how certain
characters felt when her/his friends did something to them. This will encourage her to emphasize
with others.
From this assignment I have learned that in order to help a child, you need to know that the best
way to do so is by paying a little extra attention to her. Through my many observations of K I
realized that she needed to learn more social skills. To do this, one of my ideas was to put her in
the same activity as somebody that has already developed these skills, such as a teacher, or
fellow child. This is called the zone of proximal development. While playing together the teacher
or child can demonstrate the desirable behaviors and hopefully K would pick up these behaviors
and be able to demonstrate them on her own. Lev Vygotsky views interaction with peers as an
effective way of developing skills and strategies (Mcleod, 2012). Although I would have to stay
by the child to make sure the appropriate interactions were made, I believe that the child could
learn through others. By making sure that all things I can change, such as the furniture, groups of
children playing together, I will be better able to rule out environmental factors that may cause
the children to act out. Although Piaget and Vygotskys theories were similar in some ways, I
believe that Vygotsky had said that play actually facilitates cognitive development (Fox, 2015).
Through playing with other children the child would be able to learn through play, essentially.
This is being done at the center where the children are encouraged to freely play with whatever
they want so that the engagement with other children and the environment will lead them to
learn.
In my future classroom I believe I will be using assessment on a daily basis. Along with
observations of daily play, I will be doing screenings to see where the childs needs need to be
strengthened. Working with the zero to three population, I believe I will be using the information

I have to upload on to the teaching strategies gold, which is an assessment program that gives us
information based on the things that they are doing and saying. Assessment will become an
everyday tool that I will utilize. By using the assessment piece I will be able to better manage my
classroom behaviorally, setting up the environment properly, and better gear my future lessons
for the needs of the children (UCONN, 2015).

References
Fox, J. (2015). Back to Basics. Retrieved from
http://www.earlychildhoodnews.com/earlychildhood/article_view.aspx?
ArticleID=240:
http://www.earlychildhoodnews.com/earlychildhood/article_view.aspx?
ArticleID=240
Mcleod, S. (2012). Zone of Proximal Development. Retrieved from Simple
Pscyhology: http://www.simplypsychology.org/Zone-of-ProximalDevelopment.html
UCONN. (2015). Retrieved from Assessment: http://assessment.uconn.edu/why/