Notebook Observation

A child develops through its whole life. They can develop; physically, linguistically, intellectually, socially and behaviourally. “Physical development is the way in which the body increases in skill and becomes more complex in its performance” [Meggitt, 2000, Page 2]. Twenty five days after conception; the body of the chid has developed immensely from the small fertilised egg. Up to birth the foetus mainly develops physically however once the child is born the child then begins the long process of development. Not only do the gross motor skills and the fine motor skills develop on the baby, but the sensory development also widens on the child.

|Development Theory. |themselves. They will begin to play ball, enjoy climbing |Intellectual development – Delays to motor skills will delay |

"Ever since I was a child, I have had this instinctive urge for expansion and growth. To me, the function and duty of a quality human being is the sincere and honest development of one 's potential"(Bruce Lee). I think this quote pertains greatly to how children grow up. The Assignment purpose was to observe a child between the ages of 2 and 16. Human Development is important because it shows what you can identify. For example, if there is anything wrong with your child or if your child is more developed than others. Plus, there is so much that you can learn from observing the child from how they react in their environment and around people. If you know what to look for in human develop it greatly helps in knowing what to do with a child when you least expect it.

Children’s development can be grouped into four different aspects: physical, social and emotional, intellectual and language.

Physical activity encourages children and young people to develop all their physical skills and to practice the skills that they already have. Your role in supporting a child’s physical development will be to ensure that the child has a wide variety of experiences of being in a safe environment. Any setting should offer a wide range of equipment that can be used both indoors and out. It is considered important that children are given opportunities to develop their gross motor skills indoors as well as outdoors. Such opportunities may be provided by designated areas such as soft play area or by activities such as drama.

Motor skills involve movement of muscle in the body (John, 2009). These are larger movements such as crawling, running, and jumping (John, 2009). Most of the gross motor development occurs during childhood (John, 2009). Gross motor skills have two principals that determent how a child will regularly develop (Center of diseases Control and Prevention, 2016). Head to toe development this means the upper parts of the body will develop before the lower parts of the body (John, 2009). Children develop these skills throughout play (John, 2009). A tree year old Toddler can be very active therefore participating in activity that require movement, coordination, and balance can be beneficial to help a toddler to develop their motor skills (Jan, Beth & Melissa, 2012). A 3 year old child can throw a ball but catching it is more difficult. They start walking with good posture similar to an adult; they can also walk backwards (Jan, Beth & Melissa, 2012). A 3 year old can run which required strength and balance, during running they should be able to rotate their trunk and swing their arms (John, 2009). By the age of 3 a child walks up and down stairs alternating their feet without support which is possible because their balance has increase (John, 2009). A 3 year old child also learns to jump from a step and learn to jump forward (Center of diseases Control and Prevention, 2016). They start hopping at the age of 3 ½ and also can stand on one foot (Center of diseases Control and Prevention, 2016). Skipping requires sequencing and rhythm which makes it more difficult this include step and hop patterns.

The child that I am observing is a five year old boy named, Alberto. His birthday is on January 5, 2010. He is an only child and lives in a single parent household. Alberto has a puppy as a pet, snails, and aquatic frogs as pets. Alberto is of average height in his class and is physically fit, however, he needs to work on his gross motor skills. I did learn that Alberto lives in a neighborhood that has issues with violence and with apartment buildings I which he lives I one of them. Our textbook states, “Play only diminishes when social and cultural factors negatively impact it” (Sluss, p. 9). Issues such as Alberto’s neighborhoods often prevent children from playing outside. Therefore, it is crucial that as educators find alternatives to promote play for Alberto. It is very important that the school Alberto attends promotes active play as part of their curriculum. The Child Center that he attends is called Bright Start Learning Child Care Center.

As you can see there are tons of activities that relate to motor development that help us with everyday

Gross motor skills are usually associated with physical and kinetic advantages, but the social gain may be just as important for a child’s communication skills. Children all over the world use play to associate with other children, which usually is one of their main sources of social development at a young age (Goldstein, 2012). Unfortunately, many kids come from low-income homes and do not have the opportunity to involve themselves in sport or physical activities, which could lead to declines in physical development, thus affecting their gross

First, “foster a secure attachment.” This means building a positive and close relationship with the child. Second, “break larger cognitive challenge.” This means breaking complex tasks into baby steps so that it is achievable for the child to do. Third, “give non-threatening (but clear) feedback about failure.” For example, when a child does the task incorrectly, you want to correct them in a positive manner. After they complete the task incorrectly, show show them what they did wrong and then show them the correct way. This ensures that the child will learn in a positive manner. Fourth, “continue helping until the child has fully mastered the concept before moving on.” This means don’t move onto the next step until the child has completely and fully understand the task given. Lastly, “set a framework for the learning task and build in motivation.” The last scaffolding technique talks about the teacher telling the child what the purpose and goal of this concept or activity. These five following techniques are great ways to effectively scaffold, allowing the child to fully learn/master the new task they are given (Belsky,

A study conducted in Iran based on this found an increase in motor efficiency and overall motor development when selected exercises were performed by the group.  J.P. Piek, L. Dawson, L.M. Smith and N. Gasson (2008) found that children with poor motor proficiency are less likely to have active lifestyles and tend to prefer more sedentary activities (as cited in Asian Journal of Sport Medicine, 2011).

This paper focuses on the importance of occupational therapy in early childhood grades. Children begin to develop fine motor skills from birth; however, not all children develop at the typical rate. Public school provide services for children who may have developmental delays, illnesses, deformities, or injuries that have affected their ability to use their fine motor skills. Children with special needs may qualify for occupational services to develop their fine motor skills. Occupational therapy focuses on strengthening or developing better use of motor skills through sensorimotor and play therapy. These types of therapies help children improve muscle tone, gain self-confidence, and achieve academic success, allowing the children to use those skills for hygiene, play, and schoolwork. This paper also will review works of literature, written by researchers with the focus of fine motor skills and occupational therapy benefits.

The early childhood years for children are a crucial time for cognitive and social development. Unfortunately, impoverished children are at a greater risk for cognitive and social deficiencies. Previous studies conducted on scaffolding shows that it can support cognitive and social development. Scaffolding is a process when one person supports another in reaching a goal. Typically during the scaffolding process one person is more experienced and the other is inexperienced, such as a tutor and an apprentice. Scaffolding research is also supported by Lev Vygotsky’s zone of proximal development, which involves skills a child is developing, but may need assistance. Scaffolding can occur through verbal and non-verbal language. In

According to chapter 12 of the book, Play at the Center of the Curriculum (5th Edition) written by Judith Van Hoorn, Patricia Monighan Nourot, Barbara Scales, Keith Rodriguez Alward, I have learned play can foster children to develop many skills such as physical, cognitive concepts language, social and emotional. In this chapter, these authors discussed the importance of different types of outdoor play such as physically active outdoor play, outdoor nature play, and child-initiated outdoor play. Physically active outdoor play contributes to children’s healthy development because it fosters children physical development, including a child’s whole body in practice and skill development. For example, children will run, balance, jump, hop, skip, gallop, walk, climb, swing, skip, throw, catch, grasp, crawl, push, and pull heavy play props. While playing outside, children will learn best when their whole body is engaged in active physical play. In addition, children at play area making sense of the world, and through play children will have the enjoyment, self-expression, and social interaction. In this chapter, the authors (2010) also mention that as children play outside, they will have an active physical exercise in spontaneous play, they also will experience the cognitive and social demands because the physically active play will stimulate children to think, speak, and negotiate with their playmates as well as their teachers. Moreover, the physically active

Immediately upon walking outside I noticed multiple children walking around and playing with toys. For the ages I saw most of the children seemed appropriately developed in the physical domain. The older infants/ toddlers could all walk, though there was a boy who seemed to struggle more than the others. This little boy had to concentrate intensely when trying to walk, and compared to the other children he was much slower when moving around the play yard. Overall, the children were appropriately developed. I saw this in the way they walked, played with toys, and how they interacted with each other.