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Early Childhood Observation Paper

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“I know”, talkative, and energetic are three words that describe my five year old nephew, Landon. First, let me tell you a little bit about him and his family! Landon is an only child that lives in a development with a lot of other children. His mother, Jessica, travels for work and is gone most weekends and some week days too. Kyle, his father, is a car salesman and works long days. Landon is often dropped off at daycare by one of his parents and then taken care of after kindergarten by a babysitter. At home he also has three dogs and is very interested in playing baseball. Physically, Landon is tall compared to his aged peers and still has what people call baby fat. Landon’s father was also tall for his age when he was five this information …show more content…

Animism or the belief that all things have powers or a soul is very predominate at his age (Hess, 2017). He will say things like the grass is casting a spell or the trees have a force field. These are all examples of animism in his preoperational stage. The neighborhood kids that are all about his age can be seen playing games in someone’s backyard and pretending the trampoline is the evil monster and the trees and bushes are they’re friends. This is a larger scale observation of animism. When I babysit Landon there have been several times that we are driving down Eisenhower in Hanover and he will say “Oh look McDonalds” or “Chick-Fil-A”. He is not recognizing them because of the building it is all because he has connected the concept of the symbol to the place, he is showing the semiotic function (Hess, 2017). Within this Piagetian stage egocentrism or the inability to differentiate between self and others is also very common (Hess, 2017). Like an example used in class, when Landon and his father go mother’s day shopping at this stage Landon is telling his dad that he wants to get his mom Legos or the new nerf gun that he saw on television. He thinks that whatever he likes his mom would want too. Just in the last year or so has Landon begun to really engage in pretend play and also the ability to represent an object with something else (Hess, 2017). He …show more content…

He is also beginning to realize and take into consideration the actions and words of others. He is in Erikson’s initiative versus guilt stage of development (Bukatko, 2012 p.27). When Landon is trying to complete a task he is stuck on that task until he either gets it done or is willing to ask for help which is a big part of these stage. He is also setting more goals for himself by wanting to do things like bating the baseball or being able to jump or run the furthest. Landon is on the edge of changing into the industry versus inferiority of Erikson’s stage where he will transition into acquiring the skills to perform school work and become educated. He is in kindergarten right now where he is beginning to acquire the beginning skills needed for him to succeed in the classroom (Bukatko, 2012

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