Examples Of Infant Observation

An individual can always learn new aspects of life when they are observing an infant. This observation took place in the home of the participant. The participant is familiar with the house. During the observation the child played with her toys in the living room. The participant was a 12-month-old girl who is cared for by both her mother and father. Other participant included the child's mother and the child's aunt. The mother is a teacher, so during this observation and in the summer, they both stay at home. The participant is the only child in the household. After an afternoon nap and snack, the child sat in her mother's lap on the couch in the living room. While she was with her mother, she stayed close to her mother and made eye contact with everyone in the room. The child then got down and played with her toys in the floor of the living room. She began with the toy closest to her and began pushing the buttons while singing along with the different rhythms. The next toy she found was a child's magazine and she quickly flipped through the pages and found pictures of other infants similar to her. After a quick look around the room, she proceeded to crawl over to the nearest shelf in the living room. She began to pull her self up to a standing position and began pulling items off of the shelf and putting them on the floor. The mother quickly diverted her attention by

Jean Piaget was a biologist in the 1900s who studied the development of children's understanding. He believed that children didn't just gather information and add on it as they got older. Instead, he suggested that intelligence develops and progresses as one gets older through a series of four stages; the sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational and formal operational stage. The sensorimotor stage begins from birth until the age of 2, during this stage knowledge is limited, an infant tends to use motor activity without the use of symbols. They spend this time experimenting constantly, For example, putting things in the

Piaget claimed that children were in charge of the construction or the building of their own knowledge and that construction was superior to instruction (Gordon and Browne, 2004). Piaget thought that educators should provide a stimulating environment and have the children explore. Teachers should watch and also interact with the children, but they should let the children find and experience new ideas and knowledge on their own. (Crain, 2005)One of Piaget's major contributions is what is known as the general periods of development. He found four major general periods or stages of child development (Crain, 2005, p. 115): Sensorimotor Intelligence (birth to two years). Babies organize their physical action schemes, such as sucking, grasping, and hitting. Preoperational Thought (two to seven years). Children learn to think but their thinking is illogical and different from that of adults. Concrete Operations (seven to eleven years). Children develop the capacity to think systematically, but only when they can refer to concrete objects and activities. Formal Operations (eleven to adulthood). Young people

To complete my Preschool Atypical observation I went to Bruceton Elementary School. While there I observed a 3-year-old boy named Tucker who was diagnosed with High Functioning Autism. Tucker is a little boy who was born and raised in Preston County, West Virginia and is attending the Preschool offered at Bruceton Elementary for half a day. He is an only child who speaks only English, both Tucker’s parents are local and have been part of the Bruceton communities for years. I observed Tucker from 7:30 in the morning till his lunch at 11:30 while he participated in multiple activities showing off his development in all 5 major areas.

The preschool is located behind the Little Church of the Desert, in the small town of Twentynine Palms, CA. The school has 5 classrooms; as you walk into the doors, there are two small fenced in playgrounds. The first one has a swing set, a sand area, a movable slide, as well as a few toys lying round. This playground is used by the children in Room 1, which are 30 months. Next to it, the second playground is a little bigger. It has absolutely no shaded areas; two swing sets, a playground structure, and a sand toy area, seesaw, as well as, a little basketball hoop. The floors in both playgrounds are covered in sand. I did not enter in every single classroom, however, the one I did get to observe, was small, and had two tables as you walked it. The

Toddlers and preschoolers are at different developmental stages, and therefore require their teachers to use different approaches and techniques to further learning. I completed my observations at the Bright and Early Children’s Learning Center where I observed a toddler classroom and a preschool classroom. My observations took place from 8:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m. on the 21st and 28th of September. The first day that I observed I was placed in the toddler classroom which had two teachers, Miss Ashlynn and Miss Miranda, and six students, most of whom were two years old. In the preschool classroom there was one teacher, Miss Stephanie, and eight students, each of whom were 3 years old or 4 years old. While the rooms were physically similar, the teachers used different strategies and activities to appeal to the different age groups.

For this assessment I chose to observe my six- month old daughter, Abigail, interacting with her mother, Melissa. Abigail is our third child and Melissa is comfortable with her role as mother. Abigail was born full term and is a healthy baby. All developmental milestones have been reached up until this point. She is a happy baby.

At around 4-6 months old a baby will have developed an awareness of sound in particularly a person speaking and will turn towards the sound when someone familiar speaks for example their parents. They will start to mimic sounds and start to babble and laugh. Intellectual development is rapid and although they may not be able to speak in more than just babble, their understanding will be greater and they will become much more inquisitive. They will be able to understand simple instructions such as “point to your nose.” By a year old, they’ll be able to say simple words like “Mama” and “Dada” or words with similar sounds. They may start to develop their own language with odd sounding words for common objects that take their interest. Sometimes these words will sound similar to the name of the object particularly if their parents spend time speaking to their child and repeating the names of these objects.

In addition, during my observation, Sydney was able to demonstrate the following gross motor skills. Sydney was placed in a sitting position on the table as well on the floor and was able to sit up unassisted for brief periods of time. Although Sydney appeared to be unstable at times, her mother closely spotted her to ensure her safety. Most babies are able to sit up by themselves unassisted for short periods of time (Oswalt, n.d.). By being able to sit upright and support the weight of her head in the proper position, shows Sydney has developed her core body strength and has met this developmental milestone. In addition, while lying on a blanket on her stomach, Sydney was able to lift her chest and head. According to American Pregnancy Association, most infants at 6 months old can lift their chest and part of their stomach while lying face down (First,

0 – 18 months – Babies love to listen to language and react to the tone and content of what is said to them. They particularly enjoy songs and repetitive games, as they start to learn and predict what will happen, an example being “round and round the garden” and games such as “Peek – a Boo”. By 12 months, they are trying to speak and will often use words in isolation and they will communicate what they want by pointing at an object at the same time as saying “cat”.

Describe the locations where you conducted observations and how much time was spent observing at each site: who was there, what were they doing, when and where did you observe, how was it being conducted. Briefly describe the people and setting at each site.

Within my ten hours of observation, I witnessed an Early Childhood, Childhood, and Middle Childhood classroom. Through the duration of these hours, I visited School 17 and School 30. My seven hours at School 17 consisted of experiences within an Early Childhood and a Childhood setting. The Early Childhood hours occurred in a Pre-Kindergarten classroom setting with Ms. Mitrakos. The Childhood observations occurred in a first-grade classroom with Ms. Hordan. My three hours at School 30 involved experiences within a Middle Childhood setting. These observation hours occurred in a 6th-grade math class. My observations within both schools inspired me to continue my passion for Early Childhood Education.

Jean Piaget is one of the pioneers to child development, he was an important factor in the growth, development and one of the most exciting research theorists in child development. A major force in child psychology, he studied both thought processes and how they change with age. He believed that children think in fundamentally different ways from adults.. Piaget’s belief is that all species inherit the basic tendency to organize their lives and adapt to the world that’s around them, no matter the age. Children develop schemas as a general way of thinking or interacting with ideas and objects in the environment. Children create and develop new schemas as they grow and experience new things. Piaget has identified four major stages of cognitive development which are: sensorimotor stage, preoperational stage, concrete operations, and formal operations. According to the text here are brief descriptions of each of Piaget’s stages:

In the first, or sensorimotor, stage (birth to two years), knowledge is gained primarily through sensory impressions and motor activity. Through these two modes of learning, experienced both separately and in combination, infants gradually learn to control their own bodies and objects in the external world. Toward the end of Piaget¡¦s career, he brought about the idea that action is actually the primary source of knowledge and that perception and language are more secondary roles. He claimed that action is not random, but has organization, as well as logic. Infants from birth to four months however, are incapable of thought and are unable to differentiate themselves from others or from the environment. To infants, objects only exist when they are insight

The key to understanding children is observation. As observers, we begin to look for daily patterns in their behavior. Once patterns of behavior are recognized, the observer can then give positive guidance in securing the child’s developmental needs.