Child Development

Every individual have its own way to develop since they was a child. Some of
them might be fast meanwhile some of them might be slow, and it depends on every
individuals background or affect by other method. Although each individual have its own
ways, but we still can find some similarities of development among the child while we
having observation on them. According to child development studies, there are many
theories that show about how a child develops from prenatal until late adolescence. In
this case, we had ordered to observe any child who is between 6 to 12 year old during
the school based experience.
The student that observe by me is Khoo Yee Jie, who is a year 5 student and he
was the only Chinese student in his class. To start the observation, I have to do my
observation silently without his notification. At first, I have to find out how he mixed up
with the class, who is his friends, and how he interacted with the class which will shows
his social skill. From my observation, I notice that he have some good friends in the
class, one of the good friends is just sit beside him and he was an Indian, although Khoo
does not like others children likes to speak a lot. He was a quiet child and will be shy to
express himself especially to the stranger, but he still has integration with other races
student and not getting rejected by the class. In class, he might be the most silent
student, but he is willing to help when others need help. Besides that, he always giving
respect to the teacher by greeting when he meet any teacher. Khoo is co-operative when
I asking him for interview and show his respect on me during the interview. At the
beginning of the interview, he was shy to talk with me and I have to take some time to
make him relax and open up his mind to the interview.
From Khoos social style it shows Robert Havighursts Developmental Task
Theory that at middle childhood, children develop attitudes toward social groups and
institutions. He also learns to get along with age-mates and learning an appropriate
masculine or feminine social role that mention in Robert Havighursts theory. Khoo
always try to integrate with his classmate and never be alone although he does not like
to talk very much. From the interview, I know that Khoo likes to play badminton and it
becomes one of the skills that make him proud of. Then, we can connect it with Erik

Eriksons Psychosocial Development Theory that at school age, children begin to

develop a sense of pride in their accomplishments and abilities. Like Khoo, he has some
favourable outcome such as playing badminton that makes him belief with his skill and
make him competence.
For emotional, Khoo has a great emotional control that makes him always looks
calm and never saw him get angry or speak with high tone of voice. When he feels
unhappy, he just keeps quiet and did not release his anger to others. So, his friends
would never be his victims to release his temper. Khoos emotional control can be
explain in two ways, first is he is really a good temper person and he has been teach to
control his temper since his childhood. In another hand to say is he might be not able to
express his feeling and this could be dangerous because when the children having too
much pressure or tension and could not release it in a proper way, it might be explode.
Once it explodes, it could be a big disaster to others. Luckily, from my observation Khoo
is train to control his emotional by his parent and doesnt not able to express himself.
According to Arnold Gesells Theory, human start to develop on their emotion since they
born so it was not surprise that Khoo knows how to control his temper because he has a
good situation to help him develop becomes a good temper person.
In physical development, he is able to doing everything that asks by me. The
physical development of him is mature and ready to do everything such as control his
finger to do paper cutting with scissors and with knife. Besides that, he is able to do
gross motor skill like walking backward, can jump without losing balancing, can do more
difficult motor skill. In this age, the different part of his body grows at different rates.
Normally, his hands, feet, head and nose grow more quickly than the rest part of the
body. Such as trunks, arms, and leg will be later. The body proportion change from the
narrow shoulders of childhood to more sexually defined shapes. In this stage, the testes
and scrotum of boy will prepare to grow. In the age of eleven, boys are shorter than girls
because girls grow spurt at this stage while boys is about two years later to grow spurt.
For now, Khoo is about 159cm tall and with the weight of 49kg. This might be a bit heavy
for his weight at this stage with height of 159cm.
Khoo is much taller than others and according to Arnold Gesells theory, the
heredity and maturity are the two important factors that determine the development of

children. Moreover, the development of children is unique and differs among one
another; therefore Khoo is having a faster development in physical compare to his
friends. Different with Arnold Gesells theory, Khoo did not exhibit any unstable emotion
as he enters the stage of development because of new adjustment and adaptation.
According to Robert Havighursts theory, children at middle childhood learning physical
skills necessary for ordinary games and it proves that the theory is correct while Khoo is
learning physical skill that necessary for games like badminton at this stage.
From my observation, Khoo can do some harsh motor skill like jumping, running,
skipping and so on without any unbalancing or fall down. Moreover, the pubertal and
hormonal change makes children face evidence of sex differences in physical
development and motor performance. Like what Arnold Gesells theory says The childs
personality is a product of slow gradual growth. His nervous system matures by stages
and natural sequences. He sits before he stands; he babbles before he talks; he
fabricates before he tells the truth; he draws a circle before he draws a square; he is
selfish before he is altruistic; he is dependent on others before he achieves dependence
on self. All of his abilities, including his morals, are subject to laws of growth. The task of
child care is not to force him into a predetermined pattern but to guide his growth. From
here, we know that children are growth stage by stage just like Khoo.
Refer to development timeline, children usually knows to do emergence of formal
operational thinking and development of stronger academic subject preferences.
Moreover, they have a great interest in and time to spend on their hobbies and
collection. This theory was true while it prove by Khoo who interest in playing badminton
and surf internet. He always went out to play badminton with his mother or sister and
everyday, he must log on to the internet to do some reading or playing online games with
other. From this statement, it shows that Khoos cognitive development is higher
because he had learn how to use computer to surf internet for learning and using
computer to play games for relax himself. Besides, he also able to use different
language in different situation such as when he first met me, we speak in English and in
the interview, Im using mandarin to ask him and he is able to change his language to
mandarin to suit the situation. This is what showing in development timeline which say
that children will increase their ability to adjust language and speech to suit the different
situation.

During the interview, I have giving him some activities to do like writing, reading,
calculating and thinking. I was satisfied with the result of the activities because he had
show me he is able to finish any activities that given by me. Refer to Robert Havighursts
developmental theory, at middle childhood children developing fundamental skills in
reading, writing, and calculating. This is what I found is true through the observation on
Khoo. Besides that, children will achieve personal independence in this stage and when
I asking Khoo for his daily routine, I notice there are a lot of things that he do by his own
like iron his cloth. It shown he is developing independence on himself and could take
care of himself without helping of others.
In overall to say is Khoo develop in a good condition and health in every part of
development. He is honest and kind to everyone, although I just having a short interview
with him, he still respects me and trusts me. He is ready to offer his help to me when I
enter his class, he is the first one to come out and ask whether anything he can help me
or not. He shows his good attitude to everyone and as a teacher, I feel glad with his
performance although I did not teaching him at all.
As a new generation teacher, we should always ready to help our student in
development and not only in academic. We should take of child development because it
effect the child learning and we should not only produce the high intelligent student but
also have to make sure that our student is balancing in every part of development. To
make sure our student is balance in developing; we have to pay attention to them and try
to know what their feeling is. Normally, teacher is very fierce and difficult to get close
which makes the student cannot have the good condition to learning. When they face
problem in their study, they also afraid to ask and usually just keep quiet.
In the new generation, we should erase all the bad image of old style teacher and
giving our student a refresh image of teacher who will make them respect but not
frighten or easy to bully. A teacher is not only built our student with knowledge, but we
also build them with personality and attitude. Therefore, we should be creativity in
helping our student in development. For an example, when we met a student that having
problem in learning, we should not left him behind. We have to find out the reason
whether he is a slow learner or affect by other method. If we find that he or she is a slow
learner, we should give more concern to them to avoid them feel themselves is being

drop out from the class. We can try to offer them tuition to help them in academic or
make a recovering class for those weak in study.
For the student who having problem in social development, we can easily
identify out because they usually reject by the class and always be alone. In this case,
there are two reasons for this situation, first is the student personality have problem
while the second is the class did not know very much about this student. To solve this
problem, we can make some activities or games that involve whole class to takes part in
and sometimes we can divide the class to a few groups and make the activity that need
co-operative of the whole group member to finish their mission. Through this kind of
activity, they will know much about their friends and it is possible to make the student to
mix up with the class.
For those who are not able to control their emotional well, we can give them
counselling at first. We try to find out why they are easily to get angrily, are it their family
facing some problem and make them lose control or they do not know how to express
themselves or facing too much pressure and tension. Perhaps we can do like some of
the counsellor did to their patient by giving them some toys or picture or blank paper with
pencil and let the children arrange or draw out the image that hide inside their heart.
From the image or arrangement of the children, we can know what their problem is and
find a best solution to solve it.
Although we are not superman or superwomen, but as a human personality
builder, we should do our best to help those children who need our help and make sure
that our student always develop in a balancing way and having a joyful time to study in
the school.

Reflection
After finish the one week school base experience, I really learned a lot from it
because I does not sit inside the classroom and learn for the theory only but I can saw
the theory work on most of the children by my eyes. It was a great experience that never
think before by me and it is useful while we doing our teaching later.
During this school base experience week, I take a chance to enter the pre-school
classroom and try to asking the pre-school teacher about their experience in teaching.
Besides that, I also have time to play with the student and have fun with them that never
do by me before because I did not like the active children. Normally, the active child is
noisy and playful, for me I prefer the quiet kids and that kind of child will always take my
attention on them.
When I enter the classroom with my mentor, she teaches me a lot. She knows
every student very much and can easily point out who is weak and who is a fast learner.
In some period, she is giving test for her student and I realize that it was not easy to
teach the slow learner in the classroom. For example, I try to explain a math question to
a slow learner, it doesnt matter how many times and I had try many ways to teach him
how to do a 12 question but the result is he still dont understand with the concept of
multiplication.
It was a serious problem to us and we have to help him to follow up the class and
wont fall behind the class. As a teacher, Im totally agree with my mentors teaching style
because she knows about everyone student that she teach and who needs her help. So,
in the future when Im going out to teaching in school, I will always remember what she
taught me and the way she teach her student.

Reference
1. Http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/erikson.html
2. Http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert J Havighurst
3. Mok Soon Sang (2002), Teacher Education Series, An Education Course for
K.P.L.I: Philosophy Of Education and Curriculum Development, Kumpulan
Budiman Sdn. Bhd.
4.

Mok Soon Sang (2002), Siri Pendidikan Perguruan, Ilmu Pendidikan untuk
KPLI (Edisi Kedua), Kumpulan Budiman Sdn. Bhd.

5. Http://www.unm.edu/~jka/courses/archieve/humanistic.html