preview

Child Study Paper

Better Essays

Child Develop. 10
17 April 2009
Child Study
Introduction
The Child Study data I have gathered comes from the observation I have completed at Mission Bell Elementary School. Mission Bell Elementary School is a local school in Riverside. In the P.M preschool class there are 24 students, one teacher, and one assistant. The child I decided to observe is names Zoe. Zoe is 4 years and 10 months old. I immediately was drawn to Zoe because she had such a big personality, was very social, and smart. I am glad that I choose to observe Zoe because she was able to make my observation process smooth and easy. While observing her I had to pay close attention to her biosocial development, motor skills, cognitive skills, communication skills, …show more content…

This is one of her favorite activities because it allows her to run around and get out her energy. Zoe favorite game, and only game she plays, are the computer games. Zoe will avoid such games as board games but will go and play on the computer when she can. The games on the computer help her to learn how to control an object such as the mouse and pointer. This helps Zoe in the development of her fine motor skills. Zoe’s favorite table game is play dough. The play dough station is always the first station that Zoe goes to if she is picked to go their. At this station Zoe again uses her fine motor skills to create all different types of objects with her play dough.

Cognitive Skills While closely observing Zoe’s cognitive skills she showed evidence of Piaget’s preoperational stage. Zoe’s cognitive development is shown through her make-believe play. “Piaget believed that through pretending, young children practice and strengthen newly acquired representational schemes.” (Berk, 2007, P 227). When Zoe plays with her play dough she pretend that she is making pizza. She begins by taking a handful of play dough and placing it on the table, she then get a small rolling pin to roll the play dough out flat. Once the play dough is rolled out completely flat she uses little Lego’s to represent the pepperoni that tops most pizzas. Next she takes the finished pizza and puts it on the side of the table and

Get Access