Running head: Child case study

Child case Study Kelsey Pugsley Ivy Tech Community College

Child case study

CASE STUDY REPORT

Outline for Written Report (Respect confidentiality throughout report) Student(s) Name(s) Kelsey Pugsley Inclusive dates of study June 10, 2013 July 19, 2013 Childs name Kalvin School Playtime Child Care Childs Age/Birth date 4 years old April 18, 2009 Age group 8 months- 8 years I. Reason for choosing this child. Describe how you happened to choose this particular child. For example, physical appearance and/or behavior may have caught your attention. II. Childs outstanding characteristics, including a brief physical description (limit to one page) III. History and Background. This section includes information on the childs family; socio-economic status; ethnic/racial background; and prenatal, infant, and toddler periods. IV. Physical and Motor Growth and Development V. Cognitive Growth and Development (social/emotional) VI. Social/Emotional Growth and Development VII. Summary and Interpretation A. In what ways has the child you have been observing changed since you began your observations? B. In which aspects of development is the child most advanced for his age? In which areas does he show the slowest development? In which does he appear to be typical? C. If you were assigned to work with this child as a teacher, what kinds of experiences would you plan to facilitate his development? D. How well do you feel the preschool program in which the child is enrolled is meeting his needs? E. What other conclusions and/or recommendations would you make? VIII. Portfolio of Childs Work Keep in mind that this must be reproduced electronically A portfolio is a collection of a childs work that represents the childs most typical work over the period of time studied. There are no specific rules about how a portfolio should look or exactly what it should contain because it will vary for each child. Some of the kinds of items that might be included are: Concrete products such as drawings, paintings, and writing samples Dictated stories and conversations Photographs and/or videotapes of dramatic play activities, block structures, constructions made with Legos or other manipulatives, sand and water activities, group projects You, as well as teacher, should select the items to be included. The portfolio is a personal collection of the child(ren)s work. The contents should be discussed with the child(ren) in conferences held at regular intervals during the course of your study. In this way, the portfolio becomes a collaborative effort that is valued by the child(ren).

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I chose this child to work with and focus on for my case study for multiple reasons. He was the first boy to come into the daycare on my first day. He seemed outgoing and energetic. He came right up to me and asked who I was, what I was doing here, and began talking to me a lot. He was interested in knowing what I was going to be doing at the daycare and why. He was very friendly to me was attached to me the whole first day. My mentor also suggested him to me because she thought his parents would be good to work with. She also thought that his parents would be good about getting information and paper work back with me in a timely manner. This child is an energetic, friendly, fun child to be around. He is four years old. His family at home consists of his mom, dad, nine year old sister, one cat, and one dog, which is new to the family. He had blonde, straight, hair. It is cut fairly short. He is average height compared to the other four year olds in the center. The boy has hazel colored eyes and smiles a lot. He enjoys outdoor play and gross motor activities. He participates in circle tine very well and is very actively involved. He knows his number very well and all his letters. He can write his name and name shapes and colors. This child tends to play or be interested in playing with boys, rather than girls. He is very loving and caring. He clings to mommy in the mornings when he is dropped off for the day. Child was born on April 18, 2009. The child is a four year old male. The childs mothers name is Mary. Mary is 31 years old currently. She was twenty three when she had her daughter and twenty seven when she had her son. The fathers name is Herb. He is 33 years old currently. He was twenty five when his daughter was born and twenty nine when his son was born. The childs sister is an eight year old girl. During the pregnancy the mother developed Gestational Diabetes. She had a normal pregnancy other than the diabetes. This was her second pregnancy. At the time the parents had a four year old daughter as well. With this pregnancy, the mother was induced and delivered the child naturally, other than the pitocin, used to progress the labor. The mother works at a bank as an electronic payments clerk. The father works as a railroad signalman. The family is of the Caucasian race. The home consists of the mother, father, sister, and pets. The child has had a pretty healthy life. He was a very happy baby and loved playing with his sister. She was a lot of help. The parents say the child developed at what they believe to be average or normal rates. Mother says talking may have developed at a little earlier than normal rate. The child sleeps in his own bed, in his own room. His normal night starts at 9pm and he sleeps through the night until about 6:30am. While at daycare, the child takes naps from 1-3pm as well. He is easy to get to bed and to wake up. The child has been in daycare since he was one year old. He has been at the same facility the entire time. Child has had some discipline problems, mostly at daycare. This is one of the struggles the parents are dealing with today. This just recently became an issue over the last 6-8 months. The parents use spanking and taking things

Child case study

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away as their discipline methods. They also use rewards for good behavior. The child normally plays well with other children. He plays with his 8 year old sister often. At the daycare there are a mixed age range of children that he plays with there as well. He also plays with family, neighbor children, and friends outside of daycare hours. The child is interested in things such as vehicles, trains, trucks, bulldozers, outdoor play, and animals. The family goes on walks, bike rides, and other outdoor outings often. The family also reads stories to the child and watch movies as a family. The child really likes to go visit his grandma and he does so often. He also enjoys dancing to music. The childs favorite foods are pizza, chicken nuggets, and French fries. The childs preferred learning styles are to do activities, watch sister, and the daycare has taught him a lot. This child is competent in gross motor skills based on my findings. He is very active and interested in large motor activities. He prefers to play outdoors as opposed to indoors when given the option. He can run quickly, skips well (only missed one step in a twenty second period), and can run backwards. The child can throw a ball far in the wanted direction, can catch a ball repeatedly, he can balance on a beam and ledge. He can kick a ball with accuracy. The child has shown he can climb, but rarely does so. He has climbed up slides and ladders on rare occasions. The child likes to swing for a short amount of time daily, loves to ride bike and outdoor riding cars. This is what he spends most of his time outdoors doing. However the child doesnt show us that he can jump higher than 5 inches vertically from a standing position. Child can jump 3 and 1/2 feet from a standing position. The child struggles with somersault, and needed help getting all the way over. Child shows confidence well during large motor activities. During play, the child shows reasonable caution, especially when riding bikes and cars. The child has not demonstrated climbing up trees or ropes. During fine motor activities the child often shows interest and wants to participate. He shows coordination during building with blocks, and other manipulatives, when using writing utensils, and when writing. Child can cut with scissors and uses and plays with clay easily. The child can write his name and has done so multiple times throughout the semester. He knows all his letters by sight as well. This child has shown to be interested in new activities and ideas on occasion. He is very opinionated and can come up with logical outcomes for certain problems or activities. The child asks multiple questions throughout the day about activities or things observed. The child shows some interest in using new materials and doing new things. The child tries to problem solve occasionally as well. Based on what I have observed, the child is competent in language development and understands fully. He is very good at communicating his feelings and needs. The child talks in complete sentences, holds conversations with other children and adults. His vocabulary is right on target or

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typical when compared to other 4 year old children in this facility. The child loves to read stories, have stories ready to him, look at picture books, and play games. He is very active and involved during circle time. He stays interested in the new materials introduced daily. He enjoys using small manipulatives to play with, make patterns, and count with. He likes to use tools to measure and explore with. The child has shown to be happy most often of the time. He enjoys musical activities and dance. He frequently asks for specific songs he would like to dance to. Child participates actively in musical activities and art projects. He is competent in taking and waiting his turn. The child often shows interest in new things and shows enjoyment. The child has shown to work independently. This child also has shown to take lead over an activity more often than not. The child plays with friends daily, and has certain friends that he plays with more than others. The child enjoys group activities based on how well he performs in group play. He gets along and plays wells with majority of the children (mixed ages). He tends to play with the boys that are his age more often though. He does well with knowing and respecting the rules at the facility. The rules are gone over daily. Overall, my time spent working with this child has shown and taught me a lot. I have learned through observing, note taking, listening, gathering artifacts, and etc. A. In the beginning of the semester, the child was very excited to meet me and interested in the new person (myself). He had frequently asked for help on the swings and over the period of time I have been here, he can now swing without help. The child has been able to be more focused during group activity and participates more than before. The child still doesnt prefer to paint anymore than what he did at the beginning of the semester. His drawing of people has become much more dominant in the features. B. Based on my observations, this child seems to be more advanced in the gross motor and fine motor developmental areas. He doesnt struggle or have very many obstacles during motor activities. The child is less advanced in the social studies areas, because he hasnt shown mastery in a lot of the developmental areas within the social studies realm. I would say the child is typical in social and emotional skills, cognitive development, and music and art. C. If I were to work more with this child, I would work more with the social studies Foundations and try to do more activities to help master some of these skills. I would also try to do more things with painting and art to get the child more involved. I would also create new experiences in most areas of development because new experiences make learning interesting and more fun. D. The program in my opinion is doing and working well for the child. The only areas I feel that are struggling for the child is when he becomes bored, he begins to act out and not listen to the teachers.

Child case study

E. The only thing I would change or make different would be to make sure this child is kept busy and has a few options of activities and things to keep him and the other children from becoming bored. I think this child is right on track developmentally and has shown improvement over the period of time I have been here.