Comparing Two Preschoolers Research Paper

For a seven-year-old child, this is a time for when they experience huge developmental changes and their learning process starts to grow intensively. This is where we will see the child in their second year of school, it is a crucial time for noticing red flags that can hint to developmental delays. A developmental change that can be seen is fine motor. Fine motor refers, “to the movements we make with small muscles of the hands” (School Aged Developmental Milestones, n.d.). When we are looking at a seven-year-old child, who is probably in second grade, they will be using these fine motor skills in tasks such as, writing inside the lines, cutting paper and staying on the

Her fine motor skills are typical for her age group. For example, when she was drawing with chalk on the cement. She uses her left hand more frequent than her right hand. She also knows how to pick up a fork and feed herself. From what I observe she is still working on these two fine motor skills. Her Gross motor skills are developing typically for her age group. For example, she knows how to go up and down the stairs without holding on to the railings. Another example in, my observation, of gross motor skills is when she was at Chic-Fil-A she was able to climb up the stairs, slide down the slide, run, jump, and walk on tippy toes. From what I observe she is still developing in these areas of her gross motor skills. Some motor activities she enjoys is throwing balls, riding a bike, coloring, and dancing. Her eating habits seem to be good according to her mother. Her favorite snack are grapes. At this time the child does not have no feeling or opinion about her physical

From the short observation I did at Starpoint School it seems that Alexandria (name changed for privacy reasons) is developing at the same rate as her classmates, give or take a few activities or tasks. This whole classroom of twelve students whom are between six and eight years of age are typically developing alongside other groups of children I have come into contact with around the same age groups. Alexandria’s motor skills seem to be what one would consider normal for her age. When playing outside, she was running and jumping all around the play sets and throwing balls towards other classmates in a game that most of the children were engaged in. When throwing the ball, she was, for the most part, accurate on the technique of throwing a

Secondly, I assessed the toddler’s gross motor skills by walking with her. I observed her while walking on her own and how she picks up objects off the floor. The toddler was able to walk by holding both of my hands without falling. She could walk alone and without assistance while maintaining her balance, even if I only held one of her hands. Since, the

The child is able to follow straightforward instructions after demonstrating tasks of drawing a horizontal line, using child safe scissors illustrating up and down motion, and properly holding a pencil while drawing. The child had difficulty with a slight

Alexander, Enrique, and Alexis are the names of the children I observed. They have different gross motor skills and fine motor skills. However, their differences are in the sophistication of each ability. Alexander, who is 7 years old is very active. He was jumping and trying to count by jumping on the tile floors to see how many there were across the living room. He is developing typically to his age. What has influenced this level of physical development is the amount of myelin in the brain increases and raises the speed at which electrical impulses travel between neuron. Which, makes massages reach muscles more rapidly and control them better. Enrique, in the other hand, his physical development is more sophisticated than Alexander’s.

motor skills normal her age. Because she is able to maintain good balance while sitting and is able to

She was able to answer when asked and to describe a ball as rounded and the family picture frame as big and “that’s mom and dad”. She is able to say a few words with different endings proven by saying “I went to a farm last week” and “I ate egg”. While she can follow some directions, such as to sit and clap hands, she did not react when asked to close the door. For her gross motor skills, she also scored above the cutoff. She is an active child and enjoys playing with her parents and other girls. Although she is able to stand, walk, and run properly, her ability to hop up and down and to jump was not fully met. This might be related to her enjoying indoor plays, and she can be advised to develop lower extremity strength by playing more outdoor activities. For her fine motor skills, her ability to use scissors, to put puzzles, to draw shapes, and to get dressed are observed. Despite she needed some assist during the performance, she scored way over above the average of same aged children. Most time of observation was put in problem-solving section. Although her development appears to be on schedule, she needed more time process the directions and the questions given by words. In the personal-social section she also was in above the cutoff. It was least scored section for her ASQ, but she did well performing hand washing, dressing up, and brushing teeth with some

As children’s bodies become more streamlined and less top-heavy, their center of gravity shifts downwards toward the trunk. As a result, balance improves greatly, paving the way for new motor skills involving large muscles of the body. (Berk, 1999) During the preschool years until approximately age seven, fundamental motor skills develop including the locomotor skills needed to run, jump, hop, and skip. Also the object control skills such as throwing, catching, and kicking are developing. By the age of six or seven, children begin to integrate two or more of these skills. Though all children will not develop these skills at the same age, they will follow the same sequence.

As children progress through the early stages of their lives they will continually reach milestones that are somewhat of a tracker as to where they stand in their development, but at the same time it’s important to remember that even though there are suggested milestones as to a maturing task for a specific age and month, each child may mature differently than the next. One part of this progress that children will continually develop through in the early stages of their lives is motor skill development, which is the use of their larger and smaller muscles to perform adult like tasks. More specifically this development can be categorized into fine and

Despite the low scores in certain areas, Victoria scores well above the cutoff score for the gross motor domain in the ASQ-3. Her family is not surprised that she received a 45 in this domain because she shows signs of being very active during her daily playtime and during the observation. An infant or toddler’s surrounding environment can be vital contributor to their success in the gross motor domain because “outside space, inside space, daily activities, fine and large motor toys, and child and family characteristics... can predict motor and cognitive success later in life” (Wittner & Peterson, 2013, p. 238). On a daily basis, she asks her father or sisters to come down to the garage area and supervise as she rides her tricycle or pushes a wagon around for an hour each day. She also often asks to go to the park so she could play on the playground structures that she does not have access to at home. During the observation, Victoria demonstrated the ability to push her body down a slide

“Fine and gross motor development occurs as the body grows physically, in a process called motor development, emphasizing that it is all about the movement” (Coppel 39). On “Moving parts of the body” Jazzlyn scored a level 4 because during gym time Jazzlyn ran up to one of the beach balls in the gym and kicked it to me which was on April 18 at 10:45am. How Jazzlyn is able to kick the ball is through coordination and practicing movement patterns. Why Jazzlyn kicked the ball is to test her physical strengths and do something to an object through movement. The next anecdote is “Moving the whole body” which Jazzlyn scored a level 5. During outside time Jazzlyn jumped up and down on the squishy spot on the ground out front in the playground that has like wood shavings which was on April 11 at 8:55am. How Jazzlyn was able to jump up and down was through using her legs and pushing off the ground with both feet and she really knows how to balance as well. Why Jazzlyn jumps is to challenge herself and to push her limits and test her strengths. On the next anecdote “Moving with Objects” Jazzlyn scored a level 4 because on April 11 at 9:50 Jazzlyn saw one of the cars in the gym and ran over to it and sat down and began pushing herself around the gym. How Jazzlyn is able to propel herself on the car is through coordination and trying to figure out how she can manipulate objects with her movement. Why Jazzlyn is able to move objects is because she finds satisfaction through intentionally moving objects and learning how to move the objects from one location to the next. The final anecdote “Moving to music” Jazzlyn scored a level 5 on April 3 during morning circle time Jazzlyn’s teacher put on a dancing song which had the children skate around the room, hop around the room, gallop around the room, and walk around the room. How

The child observed for this paper, Brooks, demonstrated both physical and motor development and cognitive development throughout the entirety of the observation. First looking at the physical and motor development, both his fine motor and gross motor skills were on par with those also found in his age group. There is a massive increase in the fine tuning of fine motor skills from early childhood to late childhood due to the “increased myelination of the central nervous system [which] is reflected in the improvement of fine motor skills” (Santrock, 2016, p.146). Brooks demonstrated his increase of fine motor skills on numerous occasions, as when he used a pincer grip to pick up and hold his pencil between his pointer finger and thumb both times

She was proud that she was chosen for this assessment, and told her sisters that she was special for being selected. I began the assessment with the Personal – Social section of the exam and according to her mother’s report S.G. was capable of performing all the tasks except preparing cereal. S.G.’s mother informed me that although she is able to pour the cereal in a bowl, she does not allow her daughter to pour the milk due to concerns of making a mess. As I was interviewing the mother regarding S.G.’s abilities, she would also chime in, and inform me that she can do all the things I asked, and even offered to demonstrate. S.G. expressed her love for her favorite board games Hungry Hungry Hippo and Ants in the Pants, which she loves to play with her best friends and sisters. S.G. successfully passed at least three items to the left of the age line, and all the tasks in the boxes the line fell through. Because she passed we moved on to the Fine Motor – Adaptive

Fine motor skills refer to the ‘small muscles’ in the hands. Proper development of these muscles is crucial for children to succeed academically in writing and self help skills. According to the National Childcare Accreditation Council (NCAC), “Fine motor skills form an important foundation for the acquisition of many other skills, including literacy, numeracy, self-help and the ability to perform many everyday tasks” (2008). Children start to develop motor skills from birth, and the ways in which children’s muscles develop will later affect their motor function. Caretakers often look for the typical milestones that infants develop; however, infants acquire development at different rates benefiting child growth. From birth through the early grades (preschool to second grade) children are constantly using their fine motor skills to eat, dress themselves, and in social settings such as school. These skills link to infancy development and are factors in knowing how well children will succeed. The following sub-topics address fine motor development and the importance of occupational therapy interventions: