Observation #1

FHS-1500
Professor Jarvis
Jessica Gallegos
2/6/15
Background Information
Childs age: 18 Months
Fake name: Kam
Location: Storybook Caf 1538 East 3300 South
Description: There were four adults and five children. There is a play area with different
activities that the children could play at and interact with each other. They also served snack
Physical Development
In the first of my notes abut Kam I observed that he is really good at walking, climbing and
running. All of these actions are a good use of his gross motor skills, which by definition in the
book are, Physical abilities involving large body movements or deliberate actions that
coordinate many parts of the body. (Berger, 2015, pg103) Using his gross motor skills he was
climbing into and out of all the play houses and running around with the other small children. He
is a chubby baby which makes him very strong, the book states that, Overweight babies master
gross motor skills later than thinner ones. (Berger, 2015, pg. 104) This is evident in Kam
because he was able to climb faster and run faster than some of the children there who were the
same age but thinner.
Kam also had really good fine motor skills, when one of the workers announced that they were
going to start a story time with snack and all the kids got their fruit bowls and Babybel cheese,
Kam sat down with his snack and unwrapped the wax covered cheese curd with ease. He also
used the little plastic fork they gave him to stab at his fruit and eat it. I was impressed that he
took the time to eat his food so carefully as most the kids there were just eating the food with
their hands. The book does say that pincher movements and self-feeding are fine motor skills that
begin to develop more in this stage of development (12-24 months). (Berger, 2015, pg105)
Overall Kam seems to be healthy and ahead of the average stage of development for his age.
Cognitive Development
Kams cognition development was very keen as well. He had a good understanding of the little
tasks we asked him to do and where things belonged. For example, when we asked him to go
clean up before coming to snack he made sure all the toys he was playing with were back in the

bin and then he let us help him wash his hands. He also had an encounter with the sink where if
he turned the water all the way on it slashed him in the face. Something he did not enjoy so after
it happened twice more, he learned to turn the water on slowly. This is an example of, the little
scientist coming out because he was doing things in active experimentation with trial and error
results to experience and learn. (Berger, 2015, pg. 116)
The next thing about Kams cognitive development that I noticed was his language. While he is
still young he tends to use a lot of descriptive words in the form of holophrase, which is a single
word that is used to express a complete meaningful thought. (Berger, 2015, pg.121) An example
of this is when he saw the section of the playroom that had a large ball-pit with a slide. He
simply pointed at the ball pit and squealed, BALL! So while this was a single word, I knew
that what he was really saying was he wanted to go play inside the ball pit with all the balls. He
used a lot of single-word holophrases through the day such as, Food, Wawa (water), momma,
green, etc. to express himself and ask for things which is normal for a child his age.
Social/Emotional Development
Kam seems to be on the track for his emotional development. I saw an example of this when we
were at the caf. His mother needed to go to the restroom and when she got up to leave he got
really clingy and started crying when she tried to detach him from her leg. This is something that
is common for a child his age. The books says separation anxiety is an infants distress call
(Berger, 2015, pg. 133) It is something that the child does because they do not want to feel alone
and have to face strangers.
Another example of his emotional development was when Kam and another child both reached
for the same soccer ball. When the other child got to the ball first, Kam started crying and
kicking his feet. This is also something that a child his age and state of development would do
because, ...emotions appear apparent in the form of temper tantrums. Toddlersscream, cry,
and do something physical (Berger, 2015, pg134) I think that he is good at interacting with
other children and expressing himself in the situations he is in for age.