Child Development Observation Essay
Introduction
Young children are intricate beings, and the development of children varies from one to the other (Rathus, 2017). Children study is a vast field that has drawn scientists, scholars, philosophers, and educators have explored for many years. Various conclusions have been made, discerning the way, the time and the reason for children’s development. This paper seeks to present a perspicacious reflection of theories on how children develop. It will give comparison and contrasts of the theories of child development and give a linkage between these theories and the observations on behavior the of a 5-year old nursery going child in Grossmont College Child Development Center.
Environment and the child observed
I observed children at Grossmont College Child Development Center in the 3 to the 5-year-old classroom on May 9, 2018, from 8 o’clock to 12 noon. Their classroom was composed of widely varied backgrounds; Hispanic, African-American, Caucasian, Native-American, and Asian. To add to the diversity, Grossmont CDC focuses on maintenance of child-oriented setting conducive for children to pick up at their own speed. At the time of observation, there were 7 teachers and 25 children in the classroom. The walls of the classroom are cream-painted, and the room has children artwork exhibitions around it for spring. There is a room for playing, a bedroom, a kitchenette, a dining section, and big preference of the children and toddler’s care teachers, a parlor. The blind spots are supervised by use of mirrors.
My focus was directed to observation of a particular child, a girl who was dressed in a brown dress, going by the name Penelope. Her age is 5 years and she weighs 40 pounds. I watched her walking up and down in the class, and eventually stopped in a simulated kitchenette, stirring a pot with one of her hands. Putting down the shovel, she thumped the table with her fingers and chuckled loudly at her friends. She then heads towards the table to find other friends making plays will dinosaur dolls and gets seated in a nearby small chair. Stretching out, she reaches for dinosaur dolls and picks up on in a single hand, the other one holds yarn ball. She then places the dinosaur doll on the ground and collects a pair of scissors to cut a piece of yarn with. Later, she asks her teacher to knot the yarn she has cut to the dinosaur doll’s neck. Placing the dinosaur doll on the floor, she stands up and walks around the classroom. She is holding in her hand the yarn akin to as though walking a dog. She then puts down the yarn as she walks on the sofa, and collects a doll from the sofa. She then sits on the ground with the doll in hand, removes the clothes on the doll and dresses it again.
Standing up, she goes to take a seat on a small rocking chair and holds the doll as she rests. She stands after a moment to show the doll how to stride. She puts the doll besides the cabinet. She then walks across the class towards outside. A teacher and 10 children are attending a class on a wooden bench outside. She heads in the direction of the bench and looks at the children in this class outside. Then she walks to the drawing table and sits on a small chair. She then proceeds to collect an ink of purple color with her hand and releases it on the white canvas, picks up a red ink and drops it on the canvas. Afterward, she goes to the sand, picks up a green rubber ball and sits on it. Later on towards noon, I watched her saying a prayer with the rest of the children before proceeding home. Essentially, I realized that Penelope had taken part in a variety of activities which seemed to illustrate many phases of development in a child comprising; fantastic play, common play, scaffold by Vygotsky and intellectual growth by Piaget.
Physical development
During initial development phases, children increase their heights by approximately 2 to 3 inches and their weights by approximately 4 to 6 pounds. However, my observation indicated that compared to boys, girls increase more both in weight and height (Rathus, 2017). For example, I observed that Penelope had gained a 5-inch height and a 2.4-pound weight in a period of 8 months. In the course of pre-school age, children take major steps in the growth of unsophisticated skills of motor involving the bigger muscles. In a certain manner, girls are superior to boys in activities that require balance and accuracy whilst boys are superior in throws and kicks. Defined skills of motor advance over time, that is past 2-3 years, restlessness in children starts reducing and start having the ability to concentrate on games (Rathus, 2017). I noticed in my observation that girls took part in less arduous activities and games like those involving dolls, for example, Penelope and her dinosaur doll while on the other hand, boys took part in arduous activities and games like football.
Cognitive development
I ably relate the cognitive development theory to my observations. The particular theory is in concomitant to the 1898 to 1980 works of Jean Piaget and this works concentrated on comprehending children’s perception of the world. It was Piaget’s believe that since infant stage, we possess a mental organization which is a basis for the consequent knowledge and learning and owing to the biological manner of maturing and experience from the surrounding, the mental developments will be progressively restructured. Piaget assumed that children actively take part in the expansion of knowledge, and adjust to their surroundings by actively looking to comprehend their surroundings. Piaget’s suggestion was that cognitive progression takes place in four phases, 0-2 years becoming the sensorimotor, 2-7 years the pre-operational, 7-12 the real operations, and from 12 years onwards the official operations (Rathus, 2017).
Piaget’s assumption was that during the pre-operational phase, which to me Penelope is, there is no mastery of capability to capture, give decisions, make inferences or discern actions by the children. It was his belief that when children are at this stage, they are seen as self-centered since they show difficulty to view things from a different perspective than theirs (Rathus, 2017). Children are also engrossed in monologues, where they will be speaking but there is no interaction between one another. Throughout the observation I had, this was quite obvious as I observed the interaction between Penelope and other children in various instances. It was Piaget’s belief that children directed their concentration on a single aspect of incidence and they are unable to see the various dimensions and incident could be having. Piaget gave this situation a term as centration and I averred in my observation this since Penelope engaged in picking and dropping ink of both the purple and red colors on the white canvas. Children also do not have reversibility since they fail to comprehend that doing something backward can reinstate what was there earlier (Rathus, 2017).
The other belief Piaget has is that children create their comprehension of the world by actions and happenings for instance playing. In the course of my observation, Penelope attempts to learn how to view some matters from varied points of view by creativity, as she requested her teacher how to knot the portion of yarn she had cut to dinosaur doll’s neck in order to style it to be like a dog. Piaget’s suggestion also was that during this stage, children are able to acquire skills as sketching portraits, language and sequester objects in a certain order (Rathus, 2017). This instance was evident when Penelope went to the replicated Kitchenette and stirred the pot using her hand. It affirms that Penelope has known that people cook using a pot. It is also evident that she has conceptualized her understanding of forms, colors, things and sketching skills.
Conversely, Lev Vygotsky likewise conducted a study on intellectual development and never saw children as personal seekers of knowledge, rather that they were learned from social interaction. Vygotsky underscored the function of language and the impertinence of interactions and associations amongst grown-ups and children. Whereas Piaget supposed that children ought not to be offered with plights and resources surpassing their development capability, Vygotsky supposed that a grown-up with knowledge can aid children to attain the skills by a term defined as scaffolding (Rathus, 2017). For instance, in the course of the observation I undertook, Penelope was aided by one of the teachers to knot the yarn that she had cut to the dinosaur doll’s neck which enabled her to create an imitation of a dog.
Language development
The subsequent theory that I reflected on during my observation is the theory on the development of the language and I based it on the theory of Vygotsky. The diction of children who are of ages in the range of 3-6 progresses from a few word-sentences to very complicated sentences (Rathus, 2017). It is supposed that while the diction of children is growing, consequently they get to understand grammar’s rules and this enables them to manage to use the various forms of a word. As I observed Penelope, it came to my attention that of the many conversations and responses she made, they were constituted of 2 or 3 word-sentences and it elicited an interest in me to get to understand the development of the language.
The theory Vygotsky came up with on development of the language proposes that children commence by recognizing that words are a representation of things, and they become inquisitive to know what things are called. It is subsequently succeeded by the self-interest or monologue phase between 4-7 years’ age, in which they frequently converse loudly to themselves as they execute tasks or come up with solutions to problems. Vygotsky supposed that the attainment of language is an outcome of both biological factors and surrounding aspects (Rathus, 2017). My observation and school-day kicked off as the children were requested to exercise on phonic sounds; and particularly for this observation, it was the symbol letter V. The child observed, Penelope, used body signs and signals and in addition sounds to practice the symbol-letter V. This encouraged her to realize the sound as well as the letter’s value. From the observation, it was apparent that Penelope had the ability to construct a sentence which was grammatically correct in particular, “good morning madam, how are you?” as she responded to salutations from the teacher amidst her fellow children.
Psychosocial domain
The third phase of psychosocial growth theory by Erik Erikson is the initiative versus guilt. This is a phase which takes place in the course of pre-school going age, ranging from 3-5 years. At this phase of initiative versus guilt, children start to affirm their influence and rule over the world by concentrating play and various social interactions (Rathus, 2017). As stated by the theory advanced by Erikson, the initial two phases of the development of children concerns themselves with trust versus mistrust, independence versus mortification and uncertainty. The third phase of psychosocial progress focused on initiative versus guilt on commencing as children reach the preschool going age. At this phase, it is pertinent for children to understand that they are able to apply influence not only to themselves but also to the world. In the course of my observation, Penelope has a tendency of portraying initiative versus guilt symptoms, as she confidently moves around undertaking her own activities independently, without requiring anyone to chaperon her like a parent.
Children in Grossmont College CDC are expected to recite a prayer thrice each day in addition to attending joint worships since it is a Christian school. Eriksson elicited concentration and focus on the pertinence of piety and religion, stressing that in case effectively attained at the initial phases, it could result in the possession of virtue of optimism, and over time, it could transfer to developed conviction and the capability to be certain without the need to aver that the world can be trusted. Eriksson’s other assertion was that religion was able to offer a supreme perception of the world, ethical beliefs and mannerism customs (Rathus, 2017). It was evident that Penelope had developed religiously since she joined the rest of the children at the culmination of the school day to recite a prayer. She had knowledge of the wordings of the prayer and enthusiastically illustrated the deeds that complemented the prayer.
Emotive development, ability to control oneself and personal restrain majorly have a basis on the value of initial connections that a child had (Rathus, 2017). For emotional relieve, I noticed Penelope at a particular instance crying and throwing herself on the floor. It happened that she was playing with the other children and a fellow child grabbed her dinosaur doll. This enraged her so much and she started crying and throwing herself on the floor. She was particularly violent when her belongings were grabbed away from her.
Play
Children take part in play either socially or cognitively. According to Parten, he views the social characteristics of play, particularly how it attributes as a personal activity to being a collective activity (Rathus, 2017). Another one is the associative play which involves the child playing next to other children while sharing it. Cooperative play as well entails children playing together using one toy (Rathus, 2017). As per Parten’s theory, children with different ages play differently as they associate in diverse social play levels. Nonetheless, play stages are not sequential and therefore there are determining factors of what type of play children may participate in which include; the level at which the child is familiar with the state, temperament and the kind of children they play with (Rathus, 2017). This was evident in Penelope’s plays and it astonished me that she engaged in all stages of play. She played both all by herself and with the other children with the dinosaur toys.
As per Piaget, mental and social aptitudes are enhanced by play and further facilitates children’s learning on expression and management of feelings. In his argument, Piaget asserts that play takes a major role in the transformation of children’s thinking process. He further states that symbolic play which occurs in the preoperational stage entails children participating in imaginary games and fantasizing while concrete operations stage entails children being able to play while abiding by the game’s rules. Piaget viewed play to be an activity for relaxation and not an activity for learning new ideas (Rathus, 2017). This is evident through Penelope playing with the yarn and the dinosaur toy, cut the toy and asked her teacher to tie the cut yarn on the dinosaurs’ neck with an intent to simulate a dog that she could walk it. This play helped her in transforming her thoughts.
Children as well are taught gender roles in the school. In my observation, I noted on how gender roles are played among the children. I noted girls playing in the simulated kitchen with toys like utensils such as pots while boys played with toys such as trucks. This signifies that girls are taught gender roles to do household chores while boys are taught to that their roles are to do hard labor work.
Reflection
Reflective practice is significant in enabling practitioners to appreciate the probable emotional effects caused by the observation and as well enhance their capability to apply the awareness in their day to day practice (Rathus, 2017). Out of this observation, I get to learn child’s development is prejudiced by environmental, life experiences and biological factors, therefore, showing that children’s development varies. As a result, I ought to keep in mind that a person’s behavior can be influenced by the surrounding environment and I should not judge them from their behaviors. To overcome oppressive practice, I have developed this self-awareness on proper ways to develop a mutual relationship with people.
As it is a requirement for a social work student to be knowledgeable about human development, it is, therefore, my duty their significance in practice. Moreover, I have to understand other people’s way of development and put other people’s life experience to relate with the normal life development which will thus facilitate my appreciation of other people’s experiences and their developments as they have an impact on their identity, personality and their view of the world.
Conclusion
In essence, early childhood development entails engagement of internal processes reinforced by external support. It is significant to be knowledgeable in child development especially for a social worker as it enhances their practice. While biological and physical factors affect a child, it is important to recognize these factors that facilitate children’s resilience. There is need that children’s unique values are acknowledged.