Infant Observation Paper

The physical development of a baby in its first six months of life shows limited range of movement but the beginnings of an ability to respond to stimulus around them. They show their reaction to people, sounds and movement by turning their head toward whatever attracts their attention. They will watch an adult’s face whilst feeding, but have already begun to shows signs of recognition as they will smile when familiar people are around them either because they can see them

| 0-3 Months: * Tries to lift head. * Begins to hold objects when placed in hand.3-9 Months: * Establishes head control * Begins to sit with support from about 6 months un-supported.9-18 Months: * Is now very mobile e.g. crawls, bottom-shuffles, cruises, walks.18 Months - 2 Years: * Walks well and tries to run but has difficulty stopping.2-3 Years: * Kicks a ball, learns to jump and may learn to somersault.

I went to a family day care that my sister’s friend mother works at. I made sure to get permission from her and the parents of the child I observed. I arrived at the place around 12 p.m., I saw two caregivers and three children. There were two girls and one boy, one was a 1-year-old girl. The other girl was 3 and the boy was 4 years old. I observed a 4-year-old boy who is Hispanic/Latino with short black hair and light brown eyes. He has a light skin color, loose ear lobes and had casual clothes (gray shirt, blue jeans and normal sneakers). I asked the caregiver if she knew his weight and height, she said that he is 38 inches tall and weighed 32 pounds. It was my first time meeting him so I was surprised by how clam, but upbeat he was. I did get one child out of three who was anxious of me, the rest were mostly curious about me. He is bilingual, he spoke mostly English with me, but Spanish with the caregiver. He

Based on her reaction it appears she has developed deferred imitation. According to Piaget, deferred imitation is defined as ¨a sequence in which and infant first perceives something that someone else does and then performs the same action a few hours or even days later¨ (Piaget 166). According to table 6.1, stage six intellectual accomplishment, involving both thinking and memory appears at around 18-24 months. Based on this information, Isabella, at 20 months of age, would be within the age range for development and therefore within the norm for her age (Piaget 162).

Babies at this stage are able to crawl, sit without much support and therefore becoming

A baby has to hold his or her head up, learn to sit with support, and then without support, before he or she can stand by holding on to furniture and then

Babies will start to lift and turn their heads, using their arms to support their upper body when lying on their stomach.

|6 – 9 months |At 6 months babies may be able to balance on the front of their bodies, sit-up and move slightly more |

At 6-9 months a baby will be beginning to move their body in different positions this could be because they might not like staying in one place for too long.

          Placing an infant to sleep on its back has been a universal prevention for SIDS and may be the largest contributing factor for the decline in SIDS cases. In the last two decades, the cases of infants who died from SIDS declined by more than 50 %, with less than seven infants per 10,000 infants that died from SID. (American 1)

From birth a baby can only lie on its back, by the end of 3months they start to lift their heads and kick their feet. At 3-6 months they can hold objects and transfer them from one hand to another. They also start to attempt to put objects in their mouths. At 9-12 months babies usually become more mobile by rolling, shuffling, or crawling. They can generally sit unaided for a length of time.

The date of my observation was April 27th, 2010. It was about 9:30 in the morning when I began my study. I went to Grossmont College’s Child Development Center. The first thing I began looking for was if the child-teacher ratio was correct. The child ratio was 2 teachers to about every 8 children. The ratio was good. As I entered there was one large room that almost looked as if it could be two rooms they way it was set up. One half consisted of a large bookshelf with numerous books on it with a couch in the front of it. The other half of the room was almost like a little kitchen. It had a table with chairs around it with a sink and cabinets behind it. There were “age appropriate” toys as well as books all over the

|Physical |At birth babies lie on their backs with the head to one side by 6months a baby can roll from lying on their back to their stomach. |

During my observation at the preschool here at Harper, I looked around and realized a lot of similarities and differences it has; compared to other daycare and preschool centers. The age of children in the room I observed was ages 3-5 with one lead teacher, and depending on the ratio of how many kids showed up on that day, about three or four helping teachers. The program was set up to a very open, happy and overwhelming setting. Every furniture and object in the room had a sign saying what it was, and then underneath the typed out word was the children’s way of writing what the object was. For example, a book shelf was in the corner of the room; on the book shelf was the word printed out “Book

After observing a nine month old child for this Child Observation paper, the author of this paper has taken copious notes during the session. The purpose of this paper is recognizing the biological, cognitive and psychosocial development of the child. The author of this paper identified the background history of the child, the observation made and the development process of the child.