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Maggie Stewart
Dr. Loehr
PY 290
21 November 2013
Observation
For several months now, I have been babysitting two mornings a week for a family with
two young sons. My interactions with William and Henry, who are eighteen months old and
three-and-a-half years old, respectively, have offered me a lot of personal experience and insight
on topics we have discussed in class. The main things I have noticed from taking care of these
boys of the things we have discussed in class are the tendency of adults to give taller children
more leadership roles and the effects that has on the child, and the interaction between siblings.
I have noticed the tendency to treat taller children as if they are older and more
responsible in my own treatment of Henry: he is only three and a half, but he is about the height
of an average five-year-old, and I often find myself expecting more from him than he is capable
of. I tend to give him responsibilities and ask him for help with his younger brother the way I
would ask an older child. On the flip side, I also feel that I often expect more mature behavior
from him than I should from a child his age, and I sometimes find myself getting frustrated with
his behavior, even though he is just acting his age. It does not help me that the only other child
he is around when I am taking care of him is his eighteen-month-old brother; when the two of
them fight I try not to favor William just because he is the baby, but when I see that Henry has
pushed William over (which he does quite often for no obvious reason), I get upset with him
because it visually seems that he is a good bit older than William instead of just two years older.
However, I do not know if it would be any better if I were taking care of him in a class of

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children his age. Although it is possible I would be more reminded of his age by seeing children
who are the average height for three-year-olds, there is also a possibility that the contrast in
height between Henry and the other children his age would cause me to expect more of him
behavior wise and give him more responsibilities. While I know this is unfair to him and I try
very hard to remind myself that he is only three and will occasionally do things like push his
brother down and repeatedly throw the plastic golf clubs from the playground equipment, I have
seen that it really is difficult to not treat a tall child like he is older than he is.
Another thing I have noticed in the boys is the way they interact as siblings. In our text, it
says that siblings often turn to one another for comfort (Bukatko, 2008); I have seen this in the
boys plenty of times. When one of them gets hurt or upsetinterestingly enough, even if the
other one caused it because they were fighting over a toythey always go right to comforting
each other. Since William cannot talk yet, Henry often tries to explain to me what William is
doing and why he is doing it; this stems from his role as the big brother. Older siblings typically
assume the role of teachers and role models to their younger siblings (Bukatko, 2008). I see
Henry doing this quite a bit, and his parents typically reward him with a peppermint ball when he
does something nice or helpful for William in order to teach him how to be a good big brother.
In conclusion, it has been very interesting for me to learn about child development and
developmental psychology while babysitting these two brothers because I have been able to see a
lot of these terms and topics we discuss in action. I am excited to see how the boys continue
grow and develop as I babysit for them throughout the next several years.

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Work Cited
Bukatko, Danuta. (2008) Child and Adolescent Development: a Chronological Approach.
Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company.