Child Study Project

EDEC340

Carolyn Dorrell & Carol Perkins

12/1/16

By: Parker Areheart

 Physical Development & Caregiving Routines

In my practicum I am observing a young white male named child B. Child B is about

twenty seven months old being born on August 29th in 2014. I did not find out much information

about his birth except that his mom gave birth about a week before she was due. Child B is the

youngest of three siblings. He seems to be developing just fine with height as he is thirty five

inches and at twenty six months that is in the fiftieth percentile. With his weight though he is

struggling as he is below the five percentile as he only weighs twenty three pounds. From what I

have observed child B seems to have really good eating habits and eats well in the classroom.

But his parents said that he does not like to eat meat so that might be a contributing factor to his

weight, but other than that there has not seemed to be another contributing factor to his weight

unless that factor has to do with something going on at home.

Child B displays a pretty consistent diet for his eating habits but not so much consistent

with his sleeping routines. When Child B eats he is able to self-feed by using his hands and he

can also use utensils. When he eats he can get pretty messy especially around his face and hands.

The first time I came to observe he spilt his milk all over himself and had to change his clothes.

His favorite food is pasta and he loves to eat that with almost every meal. At the same time he

hates meat so he might lack some nutrients that are provided from meats. Of course there are

other means to get that kind of nutrient from as well. His nap times are very inconsistent when he

isnt at the children center. His parents have said that Child B hates naps and that he tries to

avoid them for as long as possible by keeping himself busy. His nap time at home ranges from

about three to six forty five. He has no consistency in taking naps. Also he tends to wake up at
about six or possibly even earlier every morning during the week and goes to sleep at around

seven forty five to eight.

 Small & Large Motor Skills

Large motor skills are skills that are used through the development of the larger muscle

groups. The larger muscle groups are responsible for activities like running, jumping, throwing,

skipping, etc. Child B displays many instances that show his development in his larger motor

skills. The first day I came on to observe Child B on October 18th, I noticed that he was kicking

around a ball during their outside play time. During another observation on November 1st, I

noticed that he was able to throw a football and pretty accurately too. Of course his hands were

too small to grab the ball with one hand so he had to throw it with two which is a little

unorthodox but it still works especially since he is so young and still learning how to do these

activities. According to Wittmer & Pederson, Toddlers can throw and kick a ball. (pg. 246).

This correlates with one of his biggest interests, which is playing with balls. Im not surprised

that a football was one of his most prominent choices to play with.

I believe every time I visited (Oct. 18th, Oct. 25th, Nov. 1st, Nov. 15th, and Nov. 22), Child

B displayed his ability to ride a bike. He was able to ride the bike using the pedals and also with

pushing his feet across the ground. According to Infant & Toddler guidelines, uses a riding toy

with or without pedals. (pg.31). Another goal Child B was able to reach is the way he is able to

climb upstairs. This accomplishment happened on the Tuesday of November 25th. He was

climbing up the stairs because he was going to get on the slide because he greatly enjoyed it.

According to Infant & Toddler guidelines, Uses a riding toy with or without pedals. (pg.31).

On November 22nd, Child B was able to finally accomplish a very noticeable small motor

skill. When he first started using my pen to color on a sheet of paper he didnt know how to

grasp a pencil. Overtime he would watch me write with it and then finally decided to write on the
piece of paper with a full hand grasp and According to Infant & Toddler guidelines, toddlers can

Scribble with a fat crayon on a large piece of paper while holding the crayon with a full-hand

grasp. (pg. 32).

 Cognitive Development

There are many characteristics that can describe a child that is in Piagets preoperational

stage of cognitive development. The characteristic that suggests that Child B seems to be in the

preoperational stage is that he is able to use objects has a pivot. On November 11th, Child B used

the kitchen area as a house for his animals. He would use the oven as a certain room, the sink as

a pool, and all sorts of other areas. In the Infant and Toddler textbook by Wittmer & Pederson

they state that a pivot is when a child uses one object to represent another.

Child B would always take my lanyard and my ID off of my neck. Once he would get it

he would look at the clip and try to unclip it so he could get the picture part of the ID away from

the lanyard. Observation after observation, Child B finally decided to take the lanyard to a

caregiver and asked them to help him undo the clip. On November 22nd, the caregiver was able to

show Child B how to unclip it. After this happened Child B played with my lanyard for about

thirty minutes without any distraction after that. In Vygotskys theory of Zone of Proximal

Development there is always a time in a childs development where scaffolding is present.

According to Wittmer & Pederson, scaffolding is the social and instructional guidance for

students learning new concepts. (pg. 58). The caregiver helping Child B out is a prime example

of scaffolding because they were giving Child B instructional guidance to take off the ID to the

lanyard by clipping it off.

On November 22nd, Child B was going through objects and picked out these rings with

numbers on them. During his play with those rings he tried to stack up the rings starting with the

number one all the way to number ten. He was never able to reach all the way up to ten because

the rings would always topple over, but his number order was always correct. According to the
infant and toddler guidelines, toddlers at ages 24-36 months can stack rings on a base in the

correct order. (pg. 45).

 Language & Literacy Development

Child B seems to be advancing in language development pretty efficiently. He speaks

English and likes to use his hands a lot when referencing objects. His language skills are

proficient for a two year old. On November 1st, Child B came up to me and asked me what is

dis? He was referring to an object he was holding. According to Wittmer & Pederson, Toddlers

may begin to ask why/what is this? (pg. 224.). Even though he didnt exactly say this he still

said dis and for him to be able to create a three word sentence is huge. Child B did have a fast

mapping error. On the same day as above (11/1), Child B was holding an object and said tusuf.

I believe he was trying to say too soft but it came out wrong. He was then able to correct himself

and got it right.

On November 15th, Child B climbs on top of the playground equipment and says its

cold up here. A little later after he goes down the slide and starts saying the slide got me wet.

These are two instances where Child B was able to construct a sentence of two to four words.

According to Wittmer & Pederson, Toddlers are using two to four word sentences. (pg. 224).

There are also a lot more instances where Child B was able to construct these type of sentences.
 Social & Emotional Development

In a flexible temperament a child should be able to transition between activities pretty

easily and dont let a change in their schedule affect them as much as another child would be

affected. Child B was able to display a flexible temperament. On October 18th, Child B was

playing with a construction hat. Then Child F came up and snatched the hat away from him

causing Child B to get distressed. The caregiver comes over and introduces him to a new toy.

Child B then becomes very interested in that certain object and begins a new play setting.

According to Wittmer & Pederson, The easy or flexible child tends to have easy adaptation

to new experiences (pg. 118). Child B was able to transition pretty easily after the teacher

introduced him to something else. The careteacher introducing Child B to a new toy is an

example of goodness fit parenting. She was able to meet the needs of Child B according to his

certain temperament. The careteachers at the childrens center do a very good job of making

themselves available to the children and treating the children with respect according to the

childs temperament.

In Eriksons theory of psychosocial development he has 8 stages. I believe that Child B is

in the second stage which is Autonomy vs Doubt/Shame. This happens because almost every

instance in which he was playing he would do it by himself. When Child B was playing with his

baby doll on the first of November he was playing independently. There was also another

instance on October 25th when he was playing independently at the kitchen center. According to

Wittmer & Pederson, Toddlers discover that their actions are their own and enjoy

independence. (pg. 53). Child B really enjoyed playing by himself and got very excited when he

was able to accomplish something while playing.

 Child B describes himself by his family. He seems to describe himself a lot more by the

presence of his family. He talks about his brothers and what they do a lot. There is some

independence about him so I believe he is starting to create more of an identity to himself. He is

starting to gain some confidence around other children as well because at the beginning he was

very slow to warm-up around certain individuals and now he is getting better and establishing

himself in the area. With this said, Child B still seems to linger around the caregivers. He doesnt

like for them to be out of his sight while he is playing. Whenever he plays, even if he is playing

independently, he continuously looks around every now and then for the caregivers. I remember

observing him on the 1st of November riding his bike. While he was riding his bike he would

never go out of sight of the teachers and would always turn back if he couldnt see them. He does

seem to find comfort when engaging with the teachers if he is distressed.

Personally I have not witnessed any of his fears, but his parents wrote that he was scared

of vacuums. This fear is pretty age typical for a 27 month old child. Usually his calming

techniques are too go up to a careteacher for comfort, but sometimes I notice that whenever he is

distressed he picks up a book and looks at the pictures. His parents say that he likes to carry

around his stuffed fox when he gets distressed.