Luckey 1

To Be a
Kid Again
Kendra Luckey

Dr. Doris M. Van Auken

Psych 207-01 (1:00-1:50)

Observation Paper #1
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Kendra Luckey

Life Span Psychology

February 27, 2015

Social Behavior of Young Children

On February 13, 2015 I observed at Saint Marys ECDC from 8:30 to

10:30 am. I first entered the building and was informed that I would be

observing the 3s and 4s, later being told that the entire class was of the

age of three to four years old. The class was a mix of male and female

children who were comfortable with observation students do to the

frequency of visitors.

Upon entering the room I was greeted by the teacher and

introduced to the assisting teachers in the room. Within five minutes into

the observation a young girl asked my name and then became

uninterested. With this question sparked everyone elses interest of my

presence. A young girl approached me asking my name and then

introduced herself, her name was Ella. Ella was very interested with what I

was writing and why I was in her class room. Ella spared no information

when telling me about her life. She wanted me to know almost everything

about her and to be interested. When I told Ella I needed to observe the
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rest of the class she did not accept that reasoning. Ella continued to talk

with me and ask me to read her small childrens books. After a while a few

other children approached me and attempted to make conversation with

me. Ella was not pleased when this happened. She became jealous of the

other student receiving attention and began to talk louder, shoved her

way closer to me, all in attempt to be the center of attention.

While observing Ellas behavior it has been noticed that is can be

directly linked to Jean Piagets theories. In Piagets studies he states that

a child between the ages of four to seven become very curious and

interested in reasoning, also known as intuitive sub stage. With this sub

stage a child is under the impression that they have all of this knowledge,

but is unaware of how they got it. This sub stage is a good reason why

Ella found it so necessary to engage me and ask a lengthy amount of

questions. Ella was able to identify many situations, but was unaware of

how, or why she knew that information (Cherry).

Another reason of Ellas attention seeking behavior is explained in

B.F. Skinners work. Her behavior can be sparked by the term rule

governed behavior. This complex first starts by understanding a simple

verbal demand, and then their understanding of verbal demands grow

and evokes a variety of behavioral responses. With this being said the

understanding of Ellas behavior can be that she has such a vast variety

of these verbal commands and feels confident with her knowledge of

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these that she finds it important to show everyone her capabilities. With

this reasoning it can be understood more easily why she found it

necessary to be the center of attention and a social distraction (McLeod).

Ella was not the only child I encountered that day. A boy by the

name of Jake also caught my attention. Jake was a male student in the

same room as Ella, however their paths never crossed. Jake was more

interested in being alone and had no interest in interacting with my

observing. Throughout the day I observed several situations with Jake that

involved several other students that helped show me his social

challenges.

The first situation observed involving Jake was in the early morning.

Jake was building a large tower with magnetic shapes. After building the

tower to an almost unmanageable height for his age it collapsed, with this

Jake became enraged. He swiftly stood up, began screaming, and threw

his fist in the air at a young girl. Though she didnt seem alarmed

everyone else began to take notice of Jake. This situation was not the last

through the day. After approximately thirty minutes Jake was in another

play group. He was working with the same magnetic shapes when he was

approached by another young man. This little boy tried to begin playing

with Jake. Jake was uninterested in the young boy playing and told him to

leave. The boy refused to leave. With his refusal Jake became infuriated

again and shoved the boy. The shoving sparked a fight between the two
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boys. The fight was quickly broken up, but with these observation it is

easy to understand that Jake is incapable of communicating in a normal

social setting.

Piaget would say Jakes behavior is reliant on the stage he is

mentally in and not a behavioral issue. Jake would fall under Piagets

preoperational stage, otherwise thought of as the pretend play stage

(Fiore). Jake falls under this category by the justification that he can

understand what pretend play is but lacks the ability to hold logic or see

perspectives from other people stance, meaning he is incapable of seeing

how or why the other boy wanted to play with him, or the toys. Piagets

studies share that Jake will grow out of this behavior and be able to

progress as he moves on in life (Cherry).

Both children are similar in the fact that they share similar social

challenges. While Ella seeks for attention and wants to be the center of

everyones world. Jake is interested in being alone. He often gets upset

very easily but both childrens conditions can be easily explained using

the psychologists approach.

Observing these two situations show that there are a variety of

personality types and social abilities. When looking blandly at both

children it may seem as if they have personality or behavioral issues, but

rather with psychologist reason they are just in a different stages of social
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development. As time progress and the children mature they have a

bright future of being able to communicate in an effective way, and will

have the ability to interact socially with other people in a normal manner.

Work Cited

Cherry, Kendra. "Piaget's Stages of Cognitive Development: The 4

Stages." About Education.

N.p., n.d.Web. 11 Feb. 2015.

McLeod, Saul. "B.F. Skinner | Operant Conditioning | Simply Psychology."

B.F. Skinner |

Operant Conditioning | Simply Psychology. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Feb.

2015.
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Fiore, L. B. (2011). Life Smart: Exploring Human Development. McGraw

Hill.