Jenna Trumble

ECE 252

Due: 03-14-2021

Cognitive Observation

Part A

I observed the child Guido who is 4 months old. When the caregiver is watching the infant hold

the rattle, she decides to use Guido’s hand to make the toy spin. When the caregiver stops using

the infants hand Guido flaps his arm to make the toy spin. Guido then puts the toy against his

head, rolling the toy. Guido also responds to the caregiver by trying to move the toy when the

caregiver says to try it on his own and repeating the motion of his hand.

I think that Guido is on the end of stage 2 with also some qualities of stage 3. This would also be

sensorimotor. Guido’s actions to moving his arms would be less involuntary which would make

sense because he moves his hand/arm the way the caregiver moved it for him. He is also moving

into stage 3 because he will respond to the caregiver when she tells him to try again and move

his hand/arm the way he was shown how to do so. Although Guido does not seem to always

respond to the caregiver, he does respond randomly by how he moves. The caregiver tells Guido

to not use the toy on his head and to be careful he then does not put the toy back to his head.

However, Guido was not sitting up in this video so it would be hard to say if he could dump

things out of a container, he would need strength to do so.

I think that putting the toys by the caregivers feet in a bin would help the child fully master stage

3 by being able to dump out the toys and learning about cause and effect. If he dumps the toys

out, then they will no longer be in the bin.

The caregiver is fostering growth in the child by showing the child how to do a task and asking

them to repeat the task. This allows the child to be shown what must be done to complete the

task. If the caregiver were to not ask the child to repeat the task or talk through the task, then the

child would not understand what is going on and the child would not be able use their muscles on

their own. Because if someone just moves an arm the child could be using no muscle because the

caregiver is using their muscle to move the child's hand. The toy that Guido is using also allows

large motor and fine motor skills because Guido can use his arm to move the toy or use his

fingers to move the toy.

Part B

I observed Jonah who is 19 months old. Jonah watches what the other little girl does when asked

to be a frog and copies what the little girl is doing. The caregiver asked him to be a frog and

Jonah stood still for a little bit then when the little girl started to be a frog, he started jumping in

place copying the little girls' movements. When Jonah is jumping, he also flails his arms in the

air. The caregiver then proceeds to tell the children good job. Jonah also responds to the

caregiver by jumping when she asks him if he can jump however, he does not respond to the

caregiver telling him to get lower to the ground. Jonah also starts bouncing in place and only

starts to jump after he sees the little girl jump like a frog.

I think that Jonah is in stage 6 or preoperational stage because he is engaging in pretend play by

jumping like a frog. Jonah also shows that he is able to understand what is being asked and
respond verbally. When the caregiver asks him “What does the monkey say?” Jonah responds to

the caregiver with a monkey sound. Also, by Jonah showing that he understands what different

animals can do shows his cognitive development growing. While he might not be able to

remember right away what a frog can do, he is able to watch what the little girl is doing and copy

what she is doing. Once the caregiver reacts to Jonah jumping like a frog Jonah can learn that his

motion is correct and can retain the information that a frog jumps.

The next step for Jonah would be to show him what a frog looks like and show him a video of

how a frog moves or go outside and show Jonah a frog and where it lives, how it moves, and

what it looks like. Showing Jonah, the real animal will help him understand that it is a living

thing and isn’t just in a book. I think it would also help Jonah if he was separated from the little

girl in the room because while she does create a sense of knowing how a frog moves, Jonah does

not have the self-confidence quiet yet. I think that getting Jonah to have more self-confidence

would help him be more concrete in the decisions he makes.

The caregiver is fostering growth in the child by focusing on Jonah to make sure that he knows

how a frog moves. While the little girl goes off to jump like a frog the caregiver focuses on

Jonah to make sure that he understands a frog's movement. The caregiver also asks the child

what sound a monkey makes which helps Jonah go through his memory and respond with what a

monkey makes. By the caregiver asking Jonah if he can respond to a question is very important

because by this stage, he should not be repeating what the caregiver is saying however, he should

be responding to the question which he does.

Part C

I observed Chase who is 25 months old.

Stage 6

Extensive imitation of words

Chase repeats one new word however, he does not repeat up to 5. He is however guiding the

conversation and the caregiver is responding to him or repeating what Chase says. The caregiver

tells/ shows him what a cutting board is and Chase repeats the word cutting board. Chase is able

to repeat new words which means he can complete the step however the caregiver did not give

him enough new words.

Attempted imitation of familiar visible schemas

Chase does grab the food that is familiar to him and hands them to his mother however, he does

not start to hit or wave the play food. The food that he picked up was watermelon and tomatoes.

There was plenty of other options of food for Chase to pick up however, he only stayed with

what was familiar to him. I would say that he halfway completed the step.

Familiar invisible gestures

The caregiver does ask for Chase to eat the play food and Chase repeats the action that the

mother had been doing. Chase successfully completed the step.

Imitation of unfamiliar gestures

Chase is familiar with picking up the play food. He is also familiar with tearing apart the tomato.

Chase successfully completed this step.

Imitation of unfamiliar gestures invisible to the infant

It is hard to say whether the child knew certain actions beforehand because I don’t know the

child and it is only a short video of the child playing. This would be inconclusive because I am

unable to know how much Chase already knew.

Deferred imitation of new actions

I do not think that there were any unfamiliar actions with Chase playing in with the play food.

Chase did not successfully complete the step.

I would give Chase more play food that he might not know so that he can learn new foods and

words. Even if the caregiver was able to ask Chase about the other food in the bin, I think that it

would help him identify more foods. Chase grabbed foods that he was comfortable with saying

and pulling out. I would like to push Chase to try grabbing new foods, whether that be by taking

out the foods that he knows and putting new foods in or keeping one food he is familiar with in

and putting new foods in. So, Chase is able to be confident in what he picks he can start with a

food that he is familiar with and then ask about the new food or try to observe the new food. By

helping Chase learn more about foods he might be more interested in trying new foods as well.