Artifact:

Child Case Study

For my case study I chose a three year old little girl. I chose her because when I discussed this with my mentor I asked her what parents she believed would be alright with a case study being conducted on their child. She gave me a list of 4 children and I chose child A. Shes shy, playful and funny so I thought she would be a great child to work with. I also noticed her shy demeanor and her separation anxiety toward her parents. This was very interesting to me so I wanted to observe her to see how often she does this and if she is only shy in certain situations. She has light colored eyes, which match well with her blonde hair color. She wears her hair long and likes to keep it down. She is very tan; Im assuming she likes to play outdoors. Ive been told she swims a lot and enjoys it very much. As I stated earlier this child is very she and speaks quietly. She does however seem to be less shy around the children. She does a lot of observing and will sometimes does this before she will participate in an activity. Child A is very athletic when she goes outdoors. She runs, swims and rides the bicycles very well with plenty of stamina. However, if I were to ask her to do an activity outdoors she refuses. Finally she is very caring and is very gentle with the other children. She really likes to feed the babies and talk to them; this includes the infants in the daycare. She talks very sweetly to them and they really enjoy her.

Child A was born on September 21, 2007. She was delivered at 36 weeks due in part to her mother being put on bed rest at 34 weeks from premature labor. Her weight was 8lbs. 8oz. and she was 21in. long. There were no major health complications. When she was 8 mo. Old she had tubes placed in her ears and at 2yrs old her tonsils were removed. Other than these hospitalizations there were no major health complications, according to her mother. She displays a healthy interest in other children and plays well with them. I have observed he in parallel play, imaginary play, physical activities and games with the other children. The ages of the children she usually plays with at home are 5-8 yrs. Her favorite toy to play with at home is baby dolls. Child As physical and motor growth developments seem to be right on track. She is very physical when she plays outdoors swinging, sliding, running and riding bicycles. These activities are great physical exercise and she has plenty of energy and stamina for them. Riding bicycles seems to be her favorite activity outdoors. She will alternate riding toys and ride them with the other children. I would say physically she is very healthy which is wonderful. Her large and fine motor skills are good as well. She does have some trouble with scissors but this is not unexpected at her age. I observed her using pencils and paintbrushes. Child A does very well with this. She uses her thumb and index finger 90% of the time and has no trouble drawing writing and painting on paper. She is also able to do puzzles, stack blocks and squeeze paint and glue from bottles. Finally I observed her running and skipping outdoors. Taking all of these aspects into consideration her fine and large motor skill are right on track and she does very well.

When it comes to cognitive development she does very well with creativity and problem solving. She also can answer majority of question asked. She has a large vocabulary and is very smart. I asked her a series of questions like her birthday and to say the ABCs. She would only say her ABCs if another child said them with her. When she told me her birthday she replied September 20 to the 1st. She could not tell me the year. Her social/emotional skills seem to be on track. She interacts well with the other children playing with them, asking them question and pretending. I observed her playing cars with another child. They pretended to drive and she got out of the car to open the pretend garage door. Emotionally Child A is very caring and loving. When it comes to the other children especially the babies she tries to care for them. She usually has trouble separating from her parents and does not want to participate for a period of time after she arrives. I believe this is separation anxiety. She is also very shy especially around adults. This is something she may grow out of. Since I began observing her she has slowly started to talk to me. If I worked with Child A I would help her work on easing her stress while her parent leaves. Maybe we could sing, or talk about why she gets so upset. She is getting great care at Precious Little Angles because they are patient with her and do not push her to do the activities she does not want to do. Child A is a very smart, sweet, loving and caring child. She was a wonderful child to work with and I know she will do well in the future. I have enjoyed working with her and wish her all the best.

Case Study Self Assessment

Amber Peterson
Doing this case study was such a neat experience for me. I enjoyed the child I worked with and feel like I learned a lot about this specific child and childrens development in general. I learned that there are so many different ways to observe children. I had known before my practicum that all children are different in heir development and personalities but had never looked deeply into the development of a typical child. I am used to the development of an Atypical child due to me having two children with Autism. I also observed that all children like to learn but learn differently. 98% of the children I worked with worked well with hands on activities. My mentor was wonderful. She helped me a lot by telling what I could improve on and what she liked about my activities. When I needed help with the children she was happy to lend a hand. Sometimes it was hard to keep the little ones interested. When it came to flexibility she was great. If I needed to move an activity or needed to work with Child A separately she had no problem with that. She helped me figure out what works best to met with the parent and let me know when the parent was ready to set a time to talk. She was good about answering whatever questions I had about Child A even helping me fill out a questionnaire telling me what she had observed about her. When I was doing this case study I needed to make sure I found the time to do it in between all the other projects. This was difficult but I figured out that right before lunch was a good time to work with Child A.

With her I needed to be patient because from the beginning she was hesitant to do any activities with me or even talk. I decided to ask her the day before if she wanted to work with me the next day. After a couple of times asking she starting saying yes. She still didnt want to complete some of the task but did much better. In order to complete this case study I needed to take plenty of notes, which I squeezed in whenever I could. I also needed to assess Child A development. I did this with observation and developmental checklist. Some were provided and some I found online. I worked with her for short periods of time, about 5 to 10 minutes. This is because she would get bored easily or not want to do the activities. She did not like me focusing on her or looking at her for a period of time. During this case study I planned to learn what it was like to do an assessment on a child and gain the experience needed to eventually do assessments. This is because my career goal is to do ABA therapy which requires using assessments. I also planned to gain the knowledge of planning and assessment, researching tools and using different forms of documentation to understand the growth and development of a specific child. I believe I have accomplished this and am better prepared for future opportunities. The case study was a good experience for me. I had a good time doing it and enjoyed the child I worked with. I am very happy leaving my practicum knowing I was able to get experience I will use in the future.

Case Study Anecdotal Notes

Fine and gross motor skills observation June 21, 2011 Child A is doing a hand puzzle. She is very good at looking where the pieces go. She holds the pieces well in her thumb and pointer finger. She puts a piece in one spot and notices it doesnt fit so she moves it to the right place. She finishes the puzzle in 10 minutes. It took her a little longer since she stopped and talked to the children. Fine and gross motor skills observation July 12, 2011 She is drawing on a blank paper with crayons. She made a square and circle but was unable to make a triangle. She gripped the crayon the proper way and had no trouble. She held it the wrong way 50% of the time. She asked to use scissors and held them upside down. With help she was able to cut the paper. It seems that she uses a squiggle make to represent words and names not writing any letters. She could not write her ABCs. Fine and gross motor observation July 12, 2011 She paints with a paint brush using her fine motor skills. She grasps the brush very well and squeezes the paint out of the bottle. When they get done painting she washes up then they go outside. She gets on the swing using her gross motor skills pumping her legs so she can swing. When she gets off the swing she runs up and down the playground and skips. Creative observation June 10, 2011 Child A is making a picture using construction paper and paint. She wanted black paper and blue paint. She used the paint to make globs on the paper then spread it out with the paint brush. She said look Mrs. Amber. I asked her to tell me about her picture and she said it was a pony. She used her imagination and thought of what paper and paint she wanted to use ahead of time. Creative Observation June 14, 2011 Child A is playing with the baby dolls. She picks what doll she wants. Now she is taking the doll to the chair. She holds the doll like a baby and starts to talk to it. Are you hungry? Here you go baby. She them pretends to feed the baby. I ask her what she is doing and she sa ys she is feeding the baby. I asked her what the babies name is and she said Nanna. She then goes over to the cabinet to get clothes and dresses the baby. She plays with the doll for about 10 minutes before moving to another toy.

Creative observation June 16, 2011 She is working on a craft Brenda got out of the cabinet. She looks at all of the stuff on the table. Brenda asks her if she wants paper and she says yes. When she gets the paper she starts to add the glitter stickers that were on the table. She put them random places on the paper. Then she gets the glue and puts tons of glue on the paper. She then asks for the glitter putting a lot on her paper. I ask her what she is making and she says nothing. She makes a pretty picture but gets bored with it quickly and asks to get up. She then moves to the block area where a few children are already playing. Cognitive observation June 17, 2011 For this observation I asked Child A to say her ABCs. She said them up to letter K but could not finish. When she got to the letter J she said tat ta and for the letter K she said ka. She seems to have trouble pronouncing certain letters and words. She only said the alphabet because another child said it with her. At first she refused to do it and waited for the other child to start before she joined in. I also asked her if she could count to 10. She said no. I told he she can count and to please count for me. When she finally did she counted to 10 using her fingers. She said 1, 2, 10 holding up 1, 3 then 5 fingers. She had the right idea but seemed to get mixed up. Cognitive observation June 20, 2011 Today I decided to ask Child A some more questions. I asked her how old she is. She said three but held up 2 fingers. Then I asked her when her birthday is and she replied 20 to the 8th September. However she could not tell me the year anytime. I asked her for the year she said September. So she knew the month and the day but not the year. Cognitive observation June 23, 2011 This observation I thought I would give Child A a piece of paper and ask her to write a few things. First I asked her to write as many numbers as she could and then her alphabet. She was not able to complete this task she just made a couple of scribble line and then refused to so anymore. She did tell me one of the squiggly lines was he daddys name. This observation confirms my thought that everything including names, letters, numbers even animals are mostly represented by squiggly lines. Occasionally she will use circles. Later in the day she was doing a puzzle she had taken over to the table. She is taking all the pieces out. Now she is organizing them. She tries to put them in one piece at a time. She puts the piece in the wrong space 80% of the time. However is able to find the right spot eventually.

Language Observation June 24, 2011 Child A is playing with a baby doll and carrier along with another child. She moves closer to the other child since they are putting the baby into the carrier. She asks the other child can I see? Let me see. Can I feed the baby? She decides to go get another baby and carrier so she will have her own. She says Mrs. Amber look at my baby. I told her she was beautiful and asked her what her name was. She said Meme Then she says look how pretty. And then goes to play with the other child. Self-help observation June 24, 2011 She goes to the bathroom because she is told she needs to wash her hands before lunch. She steps onto the stool in front of the sink and turns on the water. She then gets two pumps of soap and washes her hands for about two minutes. Then the assistant teacher says rinse your hands Child A. So she rinses her hands and gets a paper towel to dry them. When she is done she goes to the other restroom and throws the towel away. She did a very good job washing her hands. I saw no problem with this task. Self-help observation June 27, 2011 It is after lunch and time for the children to brush their teeth. The teacher has to call Child A because she is distracted by a toy when she gets up from the table. She goes to the restroom using the big potty herself, pulling down her pants, wiping and flushing. She then washes her hands and proceeds to brush her teeth. She does a good job and remembers to rinse the toothbrush. Finally she put the toothbrush up and went into the daycare to play. Self-help observation June 29, 2011 Child A is putting on sunscreen for when they go out to play. The teacher put some on her hands and she applied it to her arms and legs. Outside she goes into the shed and looks at all the riding toys. She finds the one she likes by moving the others out of the way. Then she pulls it out of the shed onto the drive way. She struggles a little bit but eventually gets it where she wants it. At the end of outdoor play she puts the bicycle back into the shed with a little help from the teacher. Social emotional observation July 8, 2011 The children get out the dress up clothes and Child A goes around to each child asking will you wear this? Then she tells one of the children hey take that off. Right after that she goes over and sets beside a child that is playing on the rug. They set parallel and pretend they are driving a car. They open and close the doors and pretend to turn the car off and on. Child A says hold on I gotta get the garage door. So she jumps out of the pretend car opens the garage door, jumps back in and says lets go.

Language observation July 13, 2011 She plays in the sand box and is very quiet even though there are three other children playing. When she finally does talk she yell. Happy birthday to peer Happy Birthday to peer, I needa stir mine up, Hey peer can I see that real quick when you get done playing with it? I need to stir it back up. She then sings happy birthday again but stops and says oh wait I need ta light it then she makes click sounds for the lighter then continues to sing happy birthday. Language observation July 6, 2011 She has a conversation with another child. Child A: Hey you wanna play dolls. Other child: Yeah! Lets go! Child A: K. which one? Other child: That one. Child A: K Child A: Lets rock her. Child A: Shes sweepy Other child: Put her here. Child A: No! Social emotional observation July 13, 2011 Child A swings the other children. She asked before if she could swing them. She does this for about 2 minutes. She suddenly starts to chase a child who is running and then laughs. She quickly returns to swing and ask the teacher to push her back. Whoa she says this repeatedly as she swings. She asks the teacher to push her again because she stopped. She says I wanna do high up in the sky. Push my back. She also asks the teacher You tired? I also observed when she came in this morning. She was very attached to her mother not wanting her to leave. She was very she for the first 15 minutes. She also did not want to talk or participate with others. She did not want to answer any of my questions. Eventually though she did start to interact.

Social emotional observation July 12, 2011 Child A is upset because she just arrived and her mother is leaving. She follows her mother and tries to go outside with her. Every time someone asks her a question she just shakes her head or digs her head into her mothers leg. When her mother finally leaves she goes over to the table and sets down. She just watches the other children being very quiet. Every time the teacher asks her a question she puts her head down and doesnt answer. Finally after about 10 minutes she goes over to a group of children and plays in the block area. She starts to laugh and get involved with the other children. Eventually she is talking and participating with the teachers and students. Physical development observation June 30, 2011 Child A is average height for her age. She has light colored eyes and long hair. She wears her hair down majority of the time. She is very tan from swimming and playing outside. Her mother says she enjoys swimming a lot. She appears to use her right hand as her dominate. She walks and run normally and is able to do all physical activities expected for her age. She has lots of stamina. She is a healthy weight and looks healthy. She is very shy and seems to have anxiety sometimes. Observation June 21, 2011 Hey I wanna see somethin in there. Hey Brenda I want a different bike. Griffyn is on the playground. She goes over to the outdoor toys. She tells the teacher she wants to see everything. I want one of those. She finally comes out with a big red bike. She sees another child has the same car and rides after her. She stops to observe the child then rides beside her. Classroom observation June 23, 2011 Today Child A arrived with her dad so she did not want to stay. She cried and tried to leave with him. He left after about 15 minutes. After he left she started playing right away. She and another child pretended they were going on vacation. Now no one can get in our garage, Let me start our car, I locked it so nobody could get in it, Get out of our car, I need to unlock the garage and I had to get my phone were some of the word I heard Child A say. She played very well with the other child.

Resources for Parent

www.talkingchild.com www.mayoclinic.com www.2.ed.gov/parents/earlychild/ready/resources.html www.awareparenting.com

Child As work samples

Child As work samples are from the scribbling stage and preschematic stages. These categories are 2 to 3 years of age.

Scribbling Stage

The scribbling stage begins when a child is between 18 months and 2 years old and usually ends when he is around 4. Art therapist Eve C. Jarboe explains that despite the title, scribbling shows the child's growing hand-eye coordination. The child can often tell his caregiver what he is drawing, but if it looks like something else, the child will change the name. He incorporates more recognizable objects and details into his drawings as he grows older and his motor coordination develops. (see Reference 2)

Pre-Schematic Stage

The pre-schematic stage occurs between the ages of 4 and 7. According to the Artroom website, children in the pre-schematic stage begin to use geometric forms in their drawings. They employ a random or emotional use of color that does not correlate with real objects. People are often drawn with their arms and legs extending from the head, and they are usually shown face-forward and smiling. The Artroom site says that children place objects and details according to emotional significance and delete those that they consider unimportant. (see Reference 3)

Child A showcased both of these stages in her work samples. She did very well and seems to be on track with her development according to her drawing and the stages or art.