Preschooler Observation Project 2 Jamie Smith Ivy Tech Community College

For this child observation report I observed a 5 year old boy named Abram. The behaviors I observed from the child seemed typical for his age based on 5 categories of development which included; Physical, Intellectual, Emotional, Social, and Ethical. When observing the childs physical development I watched him walk up and down the stairs, for this task Abram put one foot in front of the other per step which is very typical for this age in gross motor skills. Abram did a good job at throwing a medium sized ball to me but had a hard time catching a ball even after several tries they were all failed attempts. Abram drew his name and a dog for me as one of the tasks. When he drew his name for me every letter looked recognizable except for one of his as which he wrote backwards. The dog was not recognizable other than it was something that had eyes and legs. These were both typical behaviors as I observed other children in a kindergarten class last semester doing the same things with the letters in their name. When it came to the drawing of the dog while it was not recognizable he was in the pre schematic stage of art, the age range for that stage is generally ages 3-7. The child had all yess in intellectual development, I was very impressed when he told me exactly every step in order on how he helps fed his dogs. My dad and I get out the dog food, than we scoop out the food with a big scooper, we than get the dog bowls out and dump the food in them, my dad lets the dogs in from outside and they eat up all the food. This also tied into Abrams emotional development with his willingness to help out with chores as he told me he enjoys doing it. I noticed him imaginary play when I was writing down a note and he was playing with the ball and imagining doing a fire rescue with it. When I had out three objects and asked him

how many were there Abram just replied three without hesitation or counting out lout each object. While observing Abrams emotional development he was in all yess he shared and even waited to take turns however when we were playing a game called block buddies we had to leave as he was unwilling to work with a peer. One of the pictures in the game that required the use of the majority of the blocks and neither child were willing to work together in matching the sequence of blocks. Abram was able to be easily transitioned into a different matching puzzle game. Social development I observed included Abram listening in a group of 10 other children and participating in dinosaur themed show and tell. He took turns in passing toys that were brought in by classmates. Abram also brought in a dinosaur book and talked to the other children about which dinosaur was his favorite and which of the dinosaurs in the book ate meat and those that ate vegetation (plants). During the ethical development portion of the check list I asked him questions. Abram told me that when someone sees someone does something bad they should tell the teacher and the reason they shouldnt do it is because it isnt respectful and they should follow the rules. His teacher also agreed to this being demonstrated by him in the classroom. Throughout the observation Abram paid close attention to the rules and when he was distracted or would stray off which only happened twice, he was quick to follow directions again. This is typical for preschoolers the textbook states that During the preschool years, children gradually become better able to regulate their attention. (Kail,2012) He was not as easily distracted to other stimuli as the toddler girl I observed previously was during the observation.

Observing Abram I saw that none of his behaviors seemed unusual for his age. Abram is also meeting all of his preschool skills and is on a kindergarten level in various areas. I was told he is one of the oldest and more advanced children in the class. One of the activities we did was a Melissa and Doug shoe tying toy. Abram had mastered this skill of tying shoes which is and advanced skill, the Textbook Children and their Development explains that most 5 year-olds can dress themselves except for tying shoes, which children typically master at about age 6. (Kail,2012) This experience of observing an older child in preschool did help me to better understand the age group. In my previous observation I worked with a female child of age three, the difference in two years for their skills surprised me. I was surprised by just how much they learned cognitively such as Abram reciting the steps when feeding his dogs. Another thing that stood out was the difference on how they walked up and down the stairs. The 3 year old female put one foot in front of the other on the way up and two feet per step on the way down whereas the 5 year old male walked up and down the stairs one foot per step. The female also seemed to be more cautious when doing that task. This made me think that with age they also became more fearless with everyday skills. Both of the children I had observed were advanced for their ages of 3 years and 5 years old , however it was clear to me on how much children really do learn physically, intellectually, emotionally, socially, and ethically during the preschool years.