Lake 1

Mary Lake
Professor Westfall
ECE 252
18 March 2018
Cognitive Observations
Part A
This Observation took place at The CSN Early Childhood
Education Lab. There were three adults and six children present.
I arrived at 9:30am. The three children I observed were all in
this class.

For this section, observe a child between the age of 4 – 12

months. Brooklynn is a girl, 12 months old. She was fine when
her mother and her older sister dropped her off inside the
classroom at CSN Early Childhood Education Lab. As soon as
she was dropped off, she ran into the room and began doing
things. She had no separation anxiety. Very soon she went
outside into the play yard. Brooklynn was walking around and
hooked to her clothing was a pacifier. There were times that she
took the pacifier into her mouth and times that she just let it
hang. She was walking around pushing a toy meant to be
pushed. She was putting balls into a toy that would spiral around
inside and then fall out the bottom of the toy. She did this for
about a minute. She was picking up toys and walking around
with them and she was mouthing the toys. She was very social
and going up to the different teachers, but often she was just
going around on her own. She was climbing up onto a low
bench. As she was walking around her hands would be kind of
out in front of her acting like she was using them for balance.
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There was a bubble machine outside. The teachers turned it on

and huge numbers of bubbles began to come out. The children
all ran over to the bubbles to play with them. There was a bird
feeder in the play yard with several kinds of birds at it. The
teacher was talking about the birds and pointing out behaviors.
Brooklynn noticed the birds. She pointed to the birds as she
poked the teacher to look, and then she went over toward the
birds. Brooklynn was on the move constantly. She was a very
happy and mobile child. She was playing by herself mostly but
during the bubble time she was with the other children. There
was a big tube, about two feet in diameter. The kids crawled
through it. It was about eight feet long. It seemed to be made of
a cloth material and could push together like a clothes dryer
hose. A teacher was at one end encouraging the children to
crawl through it. Brooklynn was at the end but then she ran off
to do other things. A teacher gave Brooklynn a small cup of
water. Brooklynn was drinking that water from the cup, but
with a little help from the teacher. The building wall was made
of rough cement brick. Brooklynn went over to the rough brick
and was feeling it. She often had her tongue out of her mouth as
she was running around. She went to sit in a teacher’s lap for
about a minute, but then got down and ran off again. There was
a very low blue table and she began to climb onto the table. A
teacher took her down and she ran off again. There were funnels
that the children put sand in and it would come out the end of
the funnel. Brooklynn took the funnel and was mouthing it, and
then she mouthed the small end of the funnel and made a vocal
sound that came out the large part of the funnel. The teacher
asked Brooklynn if she got sand in her mouth. Then they went
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over to the outside water faucet and sink, and the teacher washed
Brooklynn’s mouth to get out the sand. Then Brooklynn went
over to the bubble machine and then started to dance to the
music that a dad had playing on his cell phone. Brooklynn was
standing, walking, running, squatting, and was just enjoying
herself. Jets from the airbase flew by in the sky and Brooklynn
looked up and watched them. A teacher from another school
area came over to the gate to talk to the teachers of this yard and
Brooklynn went over to the gate and the teachers acknowledged
Brooklynn by name. Brooklynn was playing with a water squirt
bottle and most of the water was going into her mouth. After the
children were taken into the classroom, a teacher got out a box
with long scarves in it and one scarf was given to Brooklynn to
play with. The teacher played music and the children would
move around to the music. The older children were following
the teacher and imitating the teacher’s movements and stopping
and resuming. Brooklynn was running around to the music
waving the scarf in the air, but she was doing her own things and
not following the teacher or imitating.

1. a. Using objective observation, state at least 2 examples

of behaviors that might help you to determine the child’s
cognitive development. Brooklynn seems to be past the stage of
knowing object permanence. First, Brooklynn is completely
comfortable when she is dropped off at the school by her
mother. Her mother said goodbye to her with a little kiss, but
Brooklynn was already beginning to move into the room and
away from her mother. Brooklynn went almost immediately to
find toys. She seemed to know that the toys were in the room
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and went to find them. She was putting balls into a toy that
would spiral around inside and then fall out the bottom of the
toy. During the scarf play, Brooklynn did not imitate or follow
the teacher and the other children in starting and stopping and
moving in a patterned way to the music. So, Brooklynn is not
yet in substage 5.

b. Which of Piaget’s sensorimotor substages do you think

this child is in? I think Brooklynn is in sensorimotor substages
4. Eight to twelve months. At this age, infants begin to
understand “object permanence”, which means that the infant
comprehends that just because an object is out of sight, it still
exists. This is significant because it means that the infant must
form a mental image of the object. Infants also begin to
differentiate between an object and the activity associated with
that object. Infants also begin to display particular behaviors to
elicit a known reaction.
2. What toys or materials do you see that would assist the
child in moving to the next sensorimotor substage and why?
The sandbox and buckets and shovels, and the different sized
balls. The sandbox and buckets so they can fill and empty and
experiment on how much sand it would take to fill different
sized buckets, and the balls to drop and throw and experiment
with what happens when they drop balls from different heights.

3. How is the teacher fostering cognitive growth in this

child? The teacher was constantly talking with the children and
involving them in what was going on and giving them notice
when they would be changing activities or stopping an activity.
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Below is a list of the different toys available, both inside and

outside.

Inside Toys:
1. Sorting toys
2. Puzzles with pegs
3. Soft books
4. Rattles
5. Stacking doughnuts made of soft pillowlike material.
6. Soft mats on the floor. One was shaped like a stair with foam
mats around it so if the children fell they would not be hurt.
7. One mat was shaped like a wave for the children to play on
and roll on.
8. One mat was separated and was shaped like a triangle ramp.
It had a mirror on one side and seemed like it was maybe for a
smaller baby to lay on.
9. There was a real fish in a fish tank.
10. There were blocks, about the size of bricks but made of
cardboard material and soft.
11. There were balls. Different sizes.
12. There were some dolls and a doll bed.
13. There was a little table and chair like a kitchen table and
chair.
14. There were some rubber goulashes/boots
15. There was a play kitchen and a play stove with knobs that
could be turned. There were some play bowls and some pans
with lids.
16. There were toy shelves with small toy people.
17. There was a toy drum.
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18. There were pictures of birds on the walls.

19. There was at the children’s level, on the walls, things that
had different tactile feels to them and the children could pick
them off the wall and feel them and put them back onto the wall.
It was Velcro that kept them on the wall.
20. There was a play table that was sunken. It had empty
plastic bottles and lids and there were slits in the bottles and
tongue depressors and the children could put the tongue
depressors into the slits in the bottles.

Outside Toys:
1. There was a bubble machine that would make huge numbers
of bubbles for the children to play with as the bubbles came out.
The machine was up on a shelf, so the children didn’t have
access to the machine.
2. There was a sandbox with buckets and shovels, cars, digging
machines, dump trucks, a table to sit at inside the sand box.
3. There were rocking toys that the children could get on and
rock.
4. There were rolling and pushing toys of different shapes.
5. There was an area that had a rug with pillows on it. The rug
was on a cement area.
6. There was a bird feeder with real birds flying into the yard to
eat at the feeder.
7. There were a lot of small soft toys the children could pick up
and walk around with.
8. There were some rubber mats and foam mats of different
shapes. They had some soft tubes they could get inside and roll
in.
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9. They had a blue cloth tunnel they could crawl through.

10. There was a low blue table that the children could play on
and they could squirt water onto the table with other toys.
11. There were small watering buckets with spouts.
12. There was a low hoop that the children could come up to
and put a ball into it like a basketball hoop but not up high.
13. There were wooden shapes, one step high, that the children
could get up on and jump off into the grass.
14. There were plastic tubes that children would put up to their
mouths and make voice noises through them.
15. There were water bottles for squirting water.
16. There were small cars, a foot to 2 feet long that the children
could push around in the sand.
17. There were plastic golf clubs and plastic balls to hit.
18. There were different surfaces: grass, sand, concrete, blanket
on the grass with toys on it, a rug on the concrete with pillows
on the rug, in the sandbox there was a picnic table that they
could play on with the sand toys, an area where the birds were
with some trees and some flowers in high pots.

Part B
For this section, observe a child between the ages of 13-19
months. Nathaniel is a boy, 18 months old. While outside,
Nathaniel was playing in the sandbox with buckets and shovels.
He was participating with crawling through the tube that is about
eight feet long. When the bubble machine was turned on,
Nathaniel was very excited, and he went to try to catch the
bubbles or pop the bubbles. When the dad turned on the cell
phone music, Nathaniel began to dance and bounce around and
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move in time with the music. When the children were watering
the plants with their small watering cans, Nathaniel had one of
the watering cans and the helping dad filled Nathaniel’s can,
also. Then Nathaniel poured the water from his can onto the
plants where they were playing. When the children were
playing with the squirt bottles, Nathaniel was squirting things,
not himself or other children.
After that, the teachers and children went inside. In the
classroom was a fish tank with water and a real fish in it and
another tank, I don’t know what was in that tank. Nathaniel was
lifting the lid on the tank without the fish in it, and a teacher
came to him and told him he needed to leave the lid on the tank.
The teacher had given scarves out to the children and Nathaniel
had one and was waving it around and moving around with it.
There was a record player with some music playing and the
children were moving with the scarves to the music. Nathaniel
was quiet but very happy and easy going. Other children were
getting loud, but Nathaniel just kept up his own easy going way.
Nathaniel had the scarf on his face like he was hiding but he
could see through it. During the song time, he played with the
teacher. Nathaniel came up behind Brooklynn and gave her a
kiss on the back of her head. Nathaniel came over and was
looking at the different colors on my book. When a silly moving
song was on, the children, including Nathaniel, would move
around and then when the song stopped the children would
freeze. The children were being taken over to the area where
they were being served lunch. The parents had brought food for
each of their children and the food was put onto different color
trays. When the children were inside, playing, the dad, who was
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there helping for the day, put on a song on his cellphone. The
song had no words, but it was lively, and the children began to
dance around. Nathaniel was dancing around like the other
children.

1. a. Using objective observation, state at least 2 examples

of behaviors that might help you to determine the child’s
cognitive development. During the song time, he played with
the teacher. When Nathaniel was playing with the teacher he
was imitating actions, without understanding the need for
actions. Nathaniel was playing in the sandbox with buckets and
shovels. When Nathaniel was playing in the sandbox with
buckets and shovels he was, in the beginnings of active
experimentation and search for novelty (unique ways to explore
their environment.)
b. Which of Piaget’s sensorimotor substages do you think
this child is in? I think Nathaniel is in sensorimotor substages 5.
Twelve to eighteen months. New means through active
experimentation - beginnings of active experimentation and
search for novelty (unique ways to explore their environment) -
“little scientist” - more able to adapt to new situations using
familiar methods and discovering new methods of acting upon
the environment - deciding which of techniques available is best
suited to particular goal they are trying to meet - search for
hidden object even after series of moves or from being hidden
previously, imitate actions without understanding the need for
actions.
2. What toys or materials do you see that would assist the
child in moving to the next sensorimotor substage and how
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would they help? The play kitchen and a play stove with knobs
that could be turned. There were some play bowls and some
pans with lids, and the play table that was sunken. It had empty
plastic bottles and lids and there were slits in the bottles and
tongue depressors and the children could put the tongue
depressors into the slits in the bottles. These would be used as a
basic puzzle. Nathaniel would be entering beginning stages of
pretend play, play with containers.

3. How is the teacher fostering cognitive growth in this

child? The teacher was reading to the children and playing with
them, in the form of dancing/acting out the commands of a song
that she played for the children.

Part C
For this section, you will be utilizing a child between the age of
20 – 27 months Vin, a boy, 20 months of age.

1. Using the one of the Piagetian scales. Begin on the 2nd

half of the scale chosen. Assess what step the child is at
currently by administering each step and writing how the
child responded, whether they successfully completed the
step.
Piagetian Infancy Scale 4: Development of Causality Effort to
prolong interesting inputs

5. Continuing an interesting performance by touching the

giraffe toy.
a) Obtain the infant’s attention and spin the giraffe toy 2 times
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b) Stop abruptly & leave both the giraffe & your hand within
child’s reach.
c) Observe the infant’s reaction to the stopped giraffe.
d) Repeat three times and each time observe child’s reaction.

Vin’s Reaction: I pushed the pump/plunger post on the top of

the giraffe toy that causes the toy to spin balls inside. The
plunger is the head of the giraffe. As soon as I began to pump
and spin the toy, Vin reached over and began to push on the
plunger that made the balls spin inside. He did not wait for me
to stop. He recognized how to make the balls spin and he did it
without waiting for me to stop.

6. Continuing the performance of an interesting object by direct

action on it.
a) Turn on the toy pink cat without permitting the child to see
how it is done.
b) Touch the pink cat 3 times (then turn it off) and leave cat and
hand close to the child.
c) Observe child’s reaction when the performance stops.

Vin’s Reaction: The toy cat has a battery inside and when
turned on, if the back of the cat is pushed, a song with a strong
beat plays. If the nose of the cat is pushed, it makes a meow
sound. I pushed the back of the cat and it began to play the
song. Immediately, without waiting for me to stop, Vin began to
push the back of the toy and the toy continued to play the song.
As I, then, pushed the nose, Vin immediately pushed the nose
and made the cat meow. I turned off the cat. Then Vin pushed
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it and it did not make a sound. Vin did not reach for my hand or
push the cat to me. Vin just looked at me with a puzzled look
and sat there. Then I turned the cat on. Then I said to Vin to try
it again. He pushed on the back and it played the music.

7. Objectification of Causality – Recognizing another person as

an independent causal agent.
a) Spin the hollow ball 3 spins.
b) Leave the ball and your hand within the child’s reach when
the ball stops spinning.
c) Observe his reaction after ball stops spinning.

Vin’s Reaction: I have a plastic ball with another smaller ball

inside. When spinning the big ball, the small ball also spins
inside. I spun the ball three times and Vin reached over and
grabbed the ball and tried to spin it. It started to spin, but his
spinning technique caused the ball to be pushed and it shot off
the table. I brought the ball back to the table and he took it and
just analyzed it.

8. Recognizing independent causality with objects

a) Present the infant with the friction toy car, which, when
activated, prolongs its activity for a while.
b) Demonstrate the action of the toy car once.
c) Observe how the infant plays with the toy car.

Vin’s Reaction: The toy car needs to be pulled backward on the

table to wind up and then go forward on its own. I took the car
and put it on the table and pulled it backward. I released the toy
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car and it went forward on its own. Vin grabbed the toy car and
began to push it forward. He did not pull it backward first. I
then took it and pulled it backward on the table and released it.
Again, it went forward. Vin grabbed it again and pushed it. He
did not pull it backward first. He did not seem to understand the
backward moving of the toy that caused the toy to move
forward.

9. Representative Causality – Searching for independent causes

of spectacles.
a) Present to the child the toy hammer that produces a spectacle
while it is in action.
b) Turn on the toy hammer without the infant seeing the process
and hit the toy hammer on the table to make the sounds.
c) Turn off the toy hammer secretly.
d) Observe the infant’s behavior when the sounds stop.

Vin’s Reaction: The toy hammer has a battery and on-off

button. When on, the toy hammer makes a boing silly sound
that continues for about 2 or 3 seconds after it hits the table like
a hammer. I turned it on without Vin knowing. I hit it on the
table in a hammer motion. The boing sound came out. I turned
it off secretly and put it down and Vin picked it up and began to
bang it on the table. I told him he would be able to pound the
nail into the table with his vigorous pounding. He didn’t seem
interested that the toy did not make the boing sound.

10. Attempt to activate causal mechanism after demonstration.

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a) If the infant looks for a way to activate the toy hammer, show
him how it works. Carefully and obviously, turn on the toy
hammer while he is watching. Show the child the procedure.
b) Again, Hit the table with the toy hammer to show the child
the object in action. Turn off the hammer visibly.
c) Lay down the toy hammer and observe the child’s behavior.

Vin’s Reaction: Vin did not previously indicate he wanted the

toy to make the boing noise. I then took the toy and showed Vin
the on switch. He grabbed the hammer before I could bang it to
make a noise. He immediately started to push the on switch.
Then he banged the toy and it made the sounds. I showed him
that it had a light on the front when he would bang it and he
looked at the light. I also showed him that if he banged the
opposite side of the head of the hammer, it would make a
different noise and immediately he banged it on that opposite
side and was making that noise.

My observation is that Vin did not by himself seem to

understand that a toy made noises or moved by doing
something. He did not seek my help to make it move or make it
make noise. He did look at me funny without asking anything
or taking my hand, in the case of the turned off cat.

When I showed Vin the on switch of the toy hammer, he then

became interested in the switch and possibly recognized the
causality of the switch with the sounds.
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2. What toys might you offer to the child to facilitate

her/him to the next level and why? (Next step on scale or
next cognitive level) During the preoperational stage, children
also become increasingly adept at using symbols, as evidenced
by the increase in playing and pretending. For example, a child
is able to use an object to represent something else, such as
pretending a broom is a horse. Since during this next stage the
child is increase in playing and pretending it seems like almost
any of the toys at Vin’s school would be helpful to assist him in
pretending one toy is a different toy.