Observation of Social Development

ED 231

Childs Name: Gabriel

Age in Years & Months: 4 Years, 5 Months

Date: 2/24/14

Complete the observation in the following way. Watch the child without interacting for the first 10 minutes. It is certainly helpful if the child is interacting
with another child during this observation. After the first 10 minutes, you may interact with the child for the remaining 10 minutes. You will be focusing on
social development. Be aware of using detail and looking objectively. Record your observation notesas you observe.
When you have FINISHED, use the list below to locate indicators of development that match your observations. After locating the appropriate indicators, record
each indicator in the first column. Use the 2nd column to record the observation that provides evidence of each indicator. It is very likely you will have more than
one observation that provides evidence of an indicator. In the 3rd column, record your impressions of the childs interactions.
Your goal is to use your observations as evidence of the indicators of social growth.
Developmental Indicators

Responds to questions
asked by teachers

Observation Evidence
Be sure to record all observations that support each indicator.

When I arrived all but 2 of the children were still napping.

Gabriel was playing by himself at a table with the magnetiles.
The teacher went and sat with him and asked what are you
building? Gabriel responded Im gonna build a house for the
police to live in. The teacher then asked what are the police
going to do in the house? Gabriel said They are having a
meeting to plan how to catch the bad guys.
While building towers the teacher brings out a tape measure
and reminds the kids how they had talked about measuring
earlier that day. She gives Gabriel the tape measure and asks
can you measure your tower?. Gabriel measures his tower
and the one Will is building and responds Its 7 inches tall

Describe how your observations

relate to Social skills, Socialization,
and Social responsibility, as
described in Chapter 14 of your
Kostelnik text. Make sure to
address all three.

This relates to Gabriels

social skills. He is
learning to socialize
with a familiar adult and
figuring out how to
appropriately interact
when a teacher asks a
question. He is already
doing a very good job of
this.

and this one is only 6 inches.

Tells adults about events

that happened at home

While still sitting at the table playing with magnetiles Gabriel

tells the teacher about what he did last night (Monday night).
He says Yesterday I went with my dad and we were gonna
watch Scooby Doo but first we went to the store. Then when
we got back we watched Scooby Doo and my mom said I got
a little scratch on my face.

This also relates to

Social skills. Gabriel
brought up these
converstations on his
own. Knowing how to
start a conversation is an
important part of
children learning to
interact with others.

Interacts easily with one

or more children/
Cooperates and plays
with other children

After more children had woken up from their nap Will was
playing at a table near Gabriel. Gabriel called over to him
Look I built a jungle with a really big door. He then put
some plastic people inside the structure he had built (made of
magnetiles) and said Will can you see this? Do you want me
to put more in? Following this Will came to Gabriels table
and they began to play the game together.
While playing with the plastic people with Shay and Will
Gabriel separated with people into piles by their colors. Blue
was the police, Red was superman, and Green was Batman.
He then said to Will and Shay You (Will) can be Batman, Ill
be superman and you (Shay) can be the police.
When playing with cars and ramps Gabriel ,Will and Shay
decide to have the cars race down the ramp. Gabriel says I
can race this car and you (Shay) can race this one. Then you
(Will) can race after us. They take turns racing the cars down
the ramp and then decide to make a traffic jam on the ramp.
They hold the cars at the bottom so they cant go down the
ramp and Gabriel and Will stack up the cars all the way up the
ramp. Then Gabriel says to Shay (who is holding the cars)
Ok let go now, and all the cars crash at the bottom.

This could relate to both

social skills and
socialization. Gabriel is
learning social skills by
interacting appropriately
with his peers and by
playing games which
require them to
collaborate. He is also
learning socialization
because he is figuring
out the rules of society
(the classroom in this
case) by playing with
the other children and
acting appropriately
toward them. This is
also very good for
developing friendship
skills for Gabriel
because he is learning to
have positive
relationships with those
around him.

This relates to learning

Waits for turn

When playing with Shay and Will with magnetiles and plastic

people Gabriel and them were taking turns stcking up the

plasic people on top of the magnetile structure. After Shay
finished making a stack Gabriel said Now its Wills turn and
after that its my turn.

Suggests silly and funny

ideas

Plays simple games

Works cooperatively
with another child

Asks politely to borrow

materials/ Says please
and thank you

While playing with the toy cars and ramps Gabriel start telling
silly jokes to Will and Shay. He says I have smelly toes
and I like to smell them sometimes and One time I smelled
my dads socks

After building a structure with Will and Shay using magnetiles

Gabriel talks about the game he want to play. He says We can
pretend there are bad guys and our guys have to fight them.
Shay and Will also contribute ideas and Gabriel says (pointing
to the yellow plastic people) Ok these are the bad guys They
continue to play this game for a while and pretend that their
plastic people are knocking over the bad guys and making
them fall off the table. This continues until the teacher asks
them to play something else because the game is getting too
violent.

After playing with the magnetiles and plastic people Gabriel,

Will and Shay move over to play with the toy cars and ramps.
They work together to build a long ramp for the toy cars to go
down. Gabriel helps pick out pieces from the box to add to
the ramp and gives them to Will. He also holds the ramp up
so Will can connect a piece to the bottom of it so it wouldnt
fall over. Last Gabriel connects some pieces to the end of the
rmap to make it longer.

When playing with the plastic people at the table Gabriel was
building a tower with a color pattern (red, blue, red, blue) with
the plastic people. He had a lot more red people than blue
people, and Shay had a lot of blue people. Gabriel said Shay
can I please have some of the blue ones?. Shay agrees and

socialization again. By
waiting for his turn
Gabriel is again
practicing the customs
and rules of society and
the classroom. This is
something he will use
for his whole life in and
out of the classroom.

All of these contribute

greatly to the learning of
social skills. Using
humor is a skill that is
important for interacting
with others. Learning to
plan and play games
with others will help
Gabriel have positive
relationships with other
children and will make
interacting with others
much easier for him.
Being able to work with
another child and share
the responsibility of
doing work is an
important social skill for
Gabriel to learn in order
to do well in school and
later in life.

This again relates to

both social skills and
socialization. Having
good manners is an
important social skill

gives Gabriel some of the blue people. Gabriel says Thanks

Shay, you can have some back when Im done.

Helps clean up, even in

areas where he/she did
not play

After playing with the Magnetiles and plastic people Gabriel

helps clean up the tiles and put them back in the basket. He
then picks up the basket and puts it back on the shelf without
being asked to. Later he helps Maya clean up the kitchen
areas even though he had not played in there that day.

when interacting with

others in all areas of life.
It is also an important
value to have so that one
will be able to gain
respect from toerhs in
the world.

This relates to social

responsibility. By
helping clean up even
when it isnt his mess
Gabriel is learning to be
a contributing member
of the classroom. This
skill will carry over into
other areas of his life as
well such as at home or
eventually in a job
setting.