Observation Paper
Introduction
I observed a child at a Community College centre. He was a boy of the age of four to five. I enquired of his name from the caretaker and I was told he is called John Spence. John was an orphan who was neglected by his relatives and was taken by the college to raise him. John is very agile and full of energy. From the look of things, he was so comfortable with his new home since they provided him with all the basic necessities in addition to some leisure satisfaction. From my observation, John’s health is good meaning he receives proper food. I got interested to study him because he was so active and spent most of his time playing
Cognitive development
Children most of the
time pretending to be people they are not, for instance, they assume the roles
of a policeman, a superhero and might assume these roles alongside props
symbolizing the real objects. Toddlers may also design an imaginary playmate.
During this stage, children advance on their cognition concerning objects,
people and actions and through this way construct an increasingly advanced
representation of the world (Ahmad et al., 2016). Increase in the development
of the pre-operational stage results in the decline of egocentrism and the
toddlers starts enjoying the participation of other children in their game and
allow pretend play becomes more important. While observing John, I noticed he
joined a young girl in a play zone set up like a kitchen. John and the little
girl interacted and pretended to be preparing a meal and eating the meal they
had prepared. For instance, John used a wooden spatula to scoop his food in the
pan he had set in a stove. As well, john pretended to be using a coffee pot to
pour himself a coffee in a cup and then went ahead to take from the cup. After
finishing taking his food, John started washing dishes and put them away. All
over the observation period, I could see John incorporating the girl entirely
well and he related well with the little girl without any trouble. John could
scribble some letters on the ground making me infer that he was also developing
the art of writing.
Psychosocial development
In the second stage of
Erikson theory of psychosocial development Autonomy versus Shame and doubt,
children begin to develop a significant sense of personal control. The child
begins to gain some independence by carrying out certain basic actions on their
own and making simple decisions concerning their preferences. Ericson held onto
the belief that learning to control an individual’s bodily activities results
in a feeling of control and a sense of independence. Some other critical events
encompass gaining more control over the choice of food, preferences of a toy as
well as clothing type to wear. While still observing little John, I noticed he
is a social kid who associates with everybody. John is so communal and enjoys
playing a lead role. Nonetheless, he is attached to his games such that do not
want to be startled by the foster parents or anybody else. I also observed he
was reluctant to go and take his meals when called by his parents. He could be
coaxed to eat healthy and good food however when offered junk food, he quickly
cooperated. He could communicate with his playmates. John and his friends
incorporated the use of Paper frogs which was glued on to sticks. He could
repeat his play over and over again.
As stated by Rathus, at
about the fourth yeah, many children are voluntarily starting to question their
surrounding as to how, why and when (Dunkel et al., 2017). At a particular
point, he missed his own frog on a stick and requested another playmate, “Can I
get a frog stick?” John appeared to be developing suitably for his age.
Physical development
I developed the interest
to know how he has been developing. The foster parents said he has added weight
and height signalling a physical growth. John enjoyed drawing and sharing with
his friends some of his toys. On psychomotor development, I observed several
instances when music is played he could start dancing to the tune while playing
I could see him trying to stand on his head. He at some given point could play
the hop step and jump like a frog throughout my observation period.
Irrespective of showing immense gross motor skills, he also displayed fine
motor skills through his art of drawing. Nonetheless, most of his time he used overt
motor skills. As he says Zeng et al “Preschoolers spend almost more than
twenty-five hours within a week in large motor activity (Zeng et al., 2017).
John proceeded to continue dancing, jumping and balancing on logs around the
compound stationed for sitting. As per my observation of little john, it looked
like he was on track with incorporating in psychomotor oriented play.
The biblical concept of
child development
According to
Ecclesiastes 3:1, there is time for everything and seasons for all the activities
under the heavens. The scripture asserts that life is composed of different
stages. Comprehending to undertake those stages and to triumphantly navigate
the alterations they come along with is vital to living a whole life and
entirely. According to Ecclesiastes every stage of life has a purpose for its
exhibition. “A time to scatter stones and a time to gather them” the phrase
simply implies that we just live our lives and set limits… a time for war and a
time for peace. Those phrases can be directly linked with the developmental
stages in children. Centric stage in which children tend to believe that people
feel how they feel (a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them) with
time they grow and realize that it is not always them and try to reason out “…
a time to make peace”. According to this chapter, all these we do at varied
seasons of our lives according to the dictates of the changing situations. They
are obtruded on us by circumstances beyond our control. Due to the different
priorities and attitudes, we act differently at specific times during our life
and as we grow older we adapt to new changes in every stage of life.
References
Ahmad, S., Ch, A. H., Batool, A., Sittar, K., & Malik, M. (2016). Play and Cognitive Development: Formal Operational Perspective of Piaget’s Theory. Journal of Education and Practice, 7(28), 72-79.
Dunkel, C. S., & Harbke, C. (2017). A review of measures of Erikson’s stages of psychosocial development: Evidence for a general factor. Journal of Adult Development, 24(1), 58-76.
Zeng, N., Ayyub, M., Sun, H., Wen, X., Xiang, P., & Gao, Z. (2017). Effects of physical activity on motor skills and cognitive development in early childhood: a systematic review. BioMed research international, 2017.