U3 Observation

Background Information

Person’s age: 5-6 years old

Fictitious Name: I will call the child “Austin.” (The name has been changed for privacy
purposes.)

Location: A childcare facility in Taylorsville.

Brief Description: There were seven children, two adults, and several “centers” where
children . . .

Biological Development

In the course material, many of the biological development ideas for this age were about
nutrition, weight, and body mass index (BMI). At this stage of life, nutrition is very crucial for
healthy and normal growth, physically or mentally. Something I never had to opportunity to
learn, is that 8% of 2-5 year-olds and 18% of 6-11 year-olds (Berger, 2019, p. 158) struggle with
obesity. Austin seems to be in the healthy range for his age as he does not suffer from obesity
and tends to look quite lean. Some parents are not aware that kids aged 2-5 typically have a
lower BMI due to a decrease in appetite, therefore children in this age range need more nutritious
foods and fewer sweets in order to help them healthy (Berger, 2019, p. 159).

BMI is a notion that derives the health of a person based on their ratio of height to weight. It
doesn’y bother to take into account what percentage of the body is muscle, fat, or even organs. If
we examine a pro athlete, they may have a BMI of 35 (which is considered obese) when in
reality the makeup of their weight is actually based on how much muscle they have built to
perform the best they can at the sport they love. The same can be true for kids, especially aged 2-
5 (as mentioned above). Some children have pickier palates towards sweeter and more dense
foods, however, and BMI could skyrocket due to this. A child in this age range should look lean
and more like an adult body with roughly ½ of the body being the legs (Berger, 2019, p. 158).
Austin appears to fall into the given category, and his amount of energy should prove that he is a
healthy child with nutrition in abundance.

Cognitive Development
Symbolic thought is the concept that children understand the connection between words and
objects. For example, Austin was playing with a long tube with what appeared to be a funnel at
towards the bottom of it and started singing into it, practically like he’s playing the trumpet.
There is an obvious connection that he has made between the word “trumpet” and the action of
putting the smaller end towards his mouth with the “bell” (funnel side) facing out, mimicking the
shape of a trumpet.

The concept of perseveration was a little difficult for me to grasp until I did more research and
started to watch videos about the topic. Perseveration varies from kid to kid, but it is essentially
the idea that a child may be too engulfed with one task or thing that it obstructs the movement to
the next object or task that they are attemptin. To me, perseveration is essentially the stage before
the brain has wrapped around the idea of multi-tasking. Some children may see sharing toys a
struggle due to this concept (Berger, 2019, p. 163), but their brain hasn’t had the opportunity to
develop to the point of releasing one toy to allow a peer to play with it. The idea of letting a toy
go can be very difficult for an egocentric child.

Approaching the end of the observation, I witnessed Austin playing with the trumpet-like toy
attempting to play with a few peers. When they became disinterested he started talking to
himself, even mumbling about how he will improve the trumpet-like toy. This action is called
private speech, and it’s basically a child trying to figure something out in their head or aloud. A
conversation with themselves about things, if you will. Some kids may use this as an opportunity
to comprehend something that they don’t quite understand yet (Berger, 2019, p. 170).

Psychosocial Development

Austin seems to be quite a contentious playmate from what was observed. He seems to exhibit
louder behavior than the other children. This could mean he may be searching for attention: this
could be either extrinsic (external) or even an intrinsic (internal) motivation surfacing. During
the observation, Austin began playing louder as some of the kids drifted away from him, getting
bored of the toys they currently had or just wanting to find someone else to play with. He started
searching for a reaction from the other children in the center that could bring the center of focus
back to him, as he enjoys feeling needed by his peers. This has a similar connection to a four-
year-old who only brush their teeth with a toothbrush that vibrates and sings a song they really
enjoy (because this creates a positive connection) while also using a toothpaste that tastes good
to them (typically bubble gum for a child, but it may not matter depending on the child.) (Berger,
2019, p. 196). Overall, I think his search for attention from others is an extrinsic motivation
because it doesn’t affect his creativity, innovation, or emotional well-being (Berger, 2019, p.
196).

Another major observation I saw with Austin was his incredible self-concept; self-concept is
how someone could potentially themselves, how they’re reacting, and consciously being aware
of it. He has a definitive grab on who he is, what his motivations are, and how he wants to
conduct himself. Austin displays confidence throughout the entire observation that none of his
peers apparently display. His display of confidence seems to stem from him being more
hardheaded and not wanting to know what his peers think about him. For example, while he was
playing with one of his playmate ontop of the play structure, he had the audacity to “share” the
trustart a small game of keep-away. The poor playmate in this scenario was obviously laughing
and not taking it too seriously, but he was trying to display his dominance over her by feeding
the power to himself. It was astonishing to see how each kid’s self-concept varied so heavily
from one to another, even though this was an observation directed at Austin. His actions are
likely affected by his parents and how they handle themselves (Berger, 2019, p. 194). All-in-all,
he has a great grasp of who he is and has a very high confidence level for his age.

Reference

Berger, K. S. (2019). Invitation to the life span (4th ed.). New York, NY: Worth Publishers.