CHILD OBSERVATION PART A Students will complete an observation of a typical developing infant (age between 6-12 months), toddler (age between 14-30 months), or a preschooler (age between 3-5 years) in one of his/her naturalistic setting (e.g., home, licensed early childcare programs, or family day care programs). The child who you observe cannot be a child with whom you have lived or are living. Students will complete the following steps in order to write the paper in narrative/essay form: 1. Choose an infant, toddler, or a preschooler to observe at any home, day care center, family day care, or preschool program. Find out the times of day that you can conduct your observations. You may ask the parents, caregiver/teachers to get this information. 2. Make up a name for the child similar to his original name for confidentiality purposes. 3. Give a description of the childs physical characteristics, cultural background (ethnicity/race). You may ask the teachers or parents for this information. 4. You must observe the child for a minimum of 6 hours You are to observe the same child in 1.5 hour increments on four different days (once per week). You need to be patient and pay particular attention to the childs behavior. Write exactly what you see and hear, and not what you think or feel. Do not interact with the child. If the child approaches you and wants to interact with you, politely inform the child that you are working and that you cannot talk or play right now. 5. Look through your observational lens and pay particular attention to the subjects developmental domains (physical development (gross & fine-motor), cognitive, language, social/emotional, creative/aesthetic). Use the domains as subheadings to organize your writing. See an example on the next page of an infants, a toddlers, and a preschoolers development in the social/emotional domain. Social/Emotional Development An Infant (6 months): Haley is on the carpet area, laying down close by to the caregiver. She has a musical rattle in her hand. She shakes and bangs it to make the musical sound turn on. The caregiver presses the button on the rattle, and a musical tune is played. Haley smiles and coos at the caregiver. She kicks her legs, swings her arms, and wiggles her body. The caregiver picked up Haley and put her on her lap. Haley began to clap her hands and smiles at the caregiver. Special Note: When observing an infant, the creative/aesthetic developmental domain does not apply. It does only for toddlers and preschoolers. Toddler: Johnny is sitting on the carpet area, and is reading a picture book with scents. As he looks at the pictures, he scratches the sticker on the page. He then brings it to his nose and says, fower. (flower). Another child walks up and grabs his book. Johnny began to scream, and he tried to grab the book back. He cried, Mine! Mine! He pushed the other toddler, who fell back. Just then the caregiver intervened and both children began to cry loudly, and both of them tried to climb on the caregivers lap. Preschooler: Sehaj enters the dramatic area; she puts on a necklace, stands near the mirror, looks down, and twirls her hair with her fingers. Then turns to another child and says, Do you want to be the mommy? The child answers, No! Another child close by said, Can I be the daddy? Sehaj responds by saying, Sure! I am hungry daddy; can you cook dinner? The other child started to grab some strings of yarn, and put them in a saucepan. Then he started to stir the yarn with a wooden spoon. Sehaj asks, Daddy what are you making? The other child told her that he was making spaghetti. Then they both sat down and pretended to eat the spaghetti. Sehaj told the other child, This is Yummy! Soon after Sehaj got up and went to the painting table. Grading Sheet for Child Observation Paper Observational data includes necessary components ? Developmental Domains (motor, cognitive, language, social/emotional, and creative) ? Physical description of child (including age, sex and race/ethnicity) ? Name of the setting (home, licensed early education program, or a family day care program) ? Consent form attached for off-campus observations (on-campus no consent form needed) 20 points _______ Observational data depicts accurate and thorough details ? Observation data is objective/factual and not judgmental ? Behavioral skills are identified age-appropriately 30 points _______ Knowledge of Conventions ? Mechanics of writing: capitalization, punctuation, and spelling. ? Narrative displays organized and smooth linkage from one idea to another ? Exhibits skillful use of vocabulary that is precise, purposeful, and relevant ? Paper appears to be proofread before submission to Instructor ? 4+ pages; doubled- spaced, Times New Roman, 12-point font, and with one inch margins ? APA style title page (10 points will be deducted for 5 or more mechanical errors) 25 points ______ If it is possible by the sixth page be the observation as a made up child.
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