Eva Leon

EDUC 121 - 12 P- Summer

Ch & Adol Dev.

Professor Taylor

Early Childhood Observation

Introduction
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My subject for this assignment is going to be a four year old boy, who I spend a lot of time with.
He is actually going to turn five in October. The child’s father is 32 and works full time. The
child’s mother is 30 and also works full time. Since both parents work full time, the subject was
enrolled in a childcare facility. Before COVID-19, the subject would attend child care Monday
through Thursday and stay with his grandparents on Fridays. The subject and I spent a lot more
time together than just an hour, and here are my discoveries.

Physical Development

The subject is able to walk down the stairs fairly easily, but enjoys using his bottom and sliding
down the carpet that is on the stairs. The beginning of our time together started with a game of
tag that lasted about ten minutes, and we played in a empty kitchen. This kitchen in particular
has an island right in the middle. So I’ve observed him running around that island like nobody’s
business so I know he can change directions easily. Another part of our time together included
playing with his many toys. Although the subject would much rather pick up a Barbie, he does
know how to throw a ball. The subject can throw the ball all day but once I threw it back to him,
he just squeezed his eyes shut and threw his arms out in front of him hoping he magically catches
the ball. The subject loves to get active and run around so he learned how to skip early. It took a
while because explaining your right and left limbs to a four year old can be hard, but mother
simply compared the subject to Mario from Mario Bros and he got the hang of it after some time.
During our play, we weren’t used blocks but they weren’t traditional big blocks we tried with
Jenga. The subject did fine when we started with three pieces. But when the fifth piece was
added to the mix, he started to get frustrated when they wouldn’t keep steady. The subject has
always been interested in colors, shapes and letters. Drawing is a great way to work on fine-
motor development. A variety of cognitive with fine-motor control in the development of
children’s artful representations (Golomb, 2004). Since the subject was about 2 years old his
mom put a chunky marker in his hand and encouraged him to draw in those dotted workbooks.
The child can write shapes that are similar to the letters that spell out his name. Although the
subject can identify the alphabet, he sometimes draws the letters backwards. Until children start
to read, they do not find it useful to distinguish between mirror-image forms, such as a b and d or
p and q (Bornstein & Aterberry, 1999). Although the subject doesn’t cut straight lines at all, he
still uses scissors to cut large pieces of paper into smaller pieces of paper. The subject loves to
pick out his outfits, but his little fingers haven’t been able to get the hang of buttons yet. I know
the child is on the right track developmentally because according to Understood.org, By the end
of the fourth year, most kids can alternate feet on the stairs, jump with two feet, use door
handles, control big muscle movements more easily—they may be able to start, stop, turn, and
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go around obstacles while running. They can also log roll, do somersaults, skip, and trot. By this
age they can also throw and bounce a ball. Children at this age can still jump over objects and
climb playground ladders. Most of the time they are also able to pedal and steer a tricycle or
bike. With that being said, I think the subject’s behavior is typical.

Cognitive (Intellectual) Development

Disney princesses are the subject’s favorite toys. He loves reenacting scenes and pretending to be
certain characters from the famous movies with his dolls. These activities are also known as
sociodramatic play, children display awareness that make-believe is a representational activity-
an understanding that strengthens over early childhood (Rakoczy, Tomasello, & Striano, 2004;
Sobel, 2006). Preschoolers who devote more time to sociodramatic play are rated by observers as
more socially competent a year later (Lindsey & Colwell, 2013). And make-believe predicts a
wide variety of cognitive capacities, including executive function, memory, logical reasoning,
language and literacy (including story comprehension and storytelling skills), imagination,
creativity, and the ability to reflect on one’s own thinking, regulate emotions, and take another’s
perspective (Berk & Meyers, 2013; Buchsbaum et al., 2012; Carlson & White, 2013; Melzer &
Palermo, 2016; Mottweiler & Taylor, 2014; Nicolopoulou & Ilgaz, 2013; Roskos & Christie,
2013). In addition to playing with dolls, during COVID his mom had to get creative with
entertainment and created a “fairy island”, outside with twigs and rocks and a little paint. This
can also be regarded as egocentrism. Egocentrism is responsible for preoperational children’s
animistic thinking- the belief that inanimate objects have lifelike qualities, such as thoughts,
wishes, feelings, and intentions (Piaget, 1926/1930). In fairy island, the subject can choose all of
the props. He chose big rocks, little rocks, and all different sizes of sticks. The subject also can
count by rote up to fifty nine.

Emotional Development

Gabriel hasn’t had much practice sharing toys or his parents for that matter, since he is an only
child. Only children tend to be less well-accepted in the peer group, perhaps because they have
not had opportunities to learn effective conflict-resolution strategies through sibling interactions
(Kitzmann, Cohen, & Lockwood, 2002). One thing that the subject is wonderful at is cheering
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people up, even if someone is pretending to be sad or hurt, he will still come over and hug you.
This makes sense because children between the ages of two and six attain a better understanding
of their own and others’ feelings, and emotional self-regulation improves. I think since Gabriel is
an only child that he feels the need to show everyone around him all the things he knows. So he
does take pride in his capabilities and shares them. The child is also a very kind child. It actually
amazes me how helpful the subject wants to be. If I ask him to sit tight while I do the dishes he
will not sit down unless I allow him to help rinse them. I think this comes from him watching his
mother clean frequently, and he thinks it the right thing to do. Which makes sense because
around this age, more often experience self-conscious emotions and empathy, which contribute
to their developing sense of morality.

Social Development

I marked both yes and no because although much of his play is by himself or with his parents,
and cousins, before COVID when he was going to daycare he would play with about two or three
kids at a time. However he will usually stick to small groups. The subject enjoys playing with
small groups of children because he is very clingy. I think it is easier for him to cling to less
people. I remember when he was in childcare he would only ever include one child every day
when he told us about this day. In addition to who is his buddy that day, the subject also tells us
about what kinds of games he would play with his friends. His mother knows that it is important
to encourage play. Like I’ve said before, the subject spends a good portion of his play alone.
When the subject is just playing by himself, and is asked if he’d rather sweep the house with me,
or continue to play by himself, he would drop what is it he’s doing and sweep the house with me.
Along with wanting to be helpful, the subject is very bright and will oftentimes suggest for us to
go stretch on the grass in the front yard, or go play outside with his toys or a ball. Whenever the
subject catched the ball or finishes cleaning with me, I will give him a sweet as a reward. It is my
version of person praise. When Gabriel was about 2 he didn’t like to share, but as he grows he
loves to share and play with others. Which allows friendships to develop into mutual
relationships based on trust. Children tend to select friends similar to themselves in multiple
ways. And as a matter of fact the subject only refers to his cousins as his best friends. As far as
gender typing goes, the child knows he is a boy, and that I am a girl; but as far as gender roles he
has not yet explored that. His parents steer away from outdated gender roles (blue is for boys,
pink is for girls etc). More experts are advocating interventions that help parents and peers
become more accepting of children's gender-atypical interests and behaviors (Bigor, 2007;
Conway, 2007 ; Hill et al., 2010).
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Ethical Development

The subject knows to clear his plate and take it to the counter when he’s done eating, or he
doesn’t get a sweet. Of course his mom put this rule in place. Like many things in a child’s life,
the subject’s mother has control over the routines in his day. When this rule was first put into
place, the subject's mother wanted him to take his plate all the way to the sink but the child
doesn’t like to put his plate there because of the drain (he’s scared of the (food disposal). So the
subject and his mother both decided on the counter as common ground. When children of parents
who engage in joint decision making when possible are more likely to listen to parents’
perspectives in situations where compliance is vital (Russel, Mize, & Bissakerm 2004). When
the subject does something like breaks something, or talks back to his mom, he will blink really
long and look down. He knows he shouldn't speak to his mother in such a way and he knows also
by the eye he gets from his mother. Gabriel is actually good at keeping secrets, I pretended to
secretly eat one of his mom’s fruit snacks. I asked him to keep it a secret and when his mom
came back into the room he just giggled and didn’t mention anything. This could be seen as
autonomy. While one the journey for even more signs of autonomy, adolescents rely more on
themselves and less on parents for decision making. Warm, supportive parenting that balances
connection and separation, makes appropriate demands for maturity, and provides consistent
monitoring predicts favorable outcomes.

Conclusion

I plan on utilizing all of the information above in my practice as a developing teacher by keeping
in mind this experience when I am approached by a child that may not be as lucky as my subject.
The child is on the right track and it is absolutely wonderful, but after completing this child's
observations I realize that I experienced almost the exact opposite upbringing than my subject.
My new personal knowledge on early child development has helped me realize how important it
is to observe your students because their actions are a reflection of what their at-home life is like.
After the teacher understands why the subject is acting a certain way or is perceived in a certain
way, the teacher is able to adjust their teaching to better help said students. I think teachers and
students should get to know each other more often in order for them to avoid any
miscommunication, or rumors. Observing your students means you care about their success and
drive. That should always be applied to teachers all over the world.
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Bibliography

Revel, revel-
ise.pearson.com/courses/5ed97328e4b0442ccfdba273/pages/aff645bee0025494bce4b96a9
03f4c49537cc0fb9-id_toc2?source=contents.

Morin, Amanda. “Developmental Milestones for 4-Year-Olds.” Understood, Understood,

20 Apr. 2020, www.understood.org/en/learning-thinking-differences/signs-
symptoms/developmental-milestones/developmental-milestones-for-typical-4-year-olds.
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