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Observation Assignment-Focus child Joyelle & Gemma

Pacific Oaks College

HD 450 Reflective Teaching

Carla Franklin, MA Adjunct Faculty

November 22, 2017

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Observations

Focus child: Joyelle, female, age 4.2, African American

Physical appearance: dark medium length hair, taller than most female peers in class, no

visible disabilities observed

*At morning arrival (Monday 9/11), Joyelle (4.2) enters the classroom with her mother. Teacher

confronts mother and they begin to speak to each other. Joyelle holds on to mom’s leg as she

talks with teacher. As mom prepares to leave, Joyelle begins to cry and holds mom’s leg tighter.

Mom picks her up and holds her in her arms. Mom kisses Joyelle, speaks to her then puts her

down. As mom puts her down, she folds her legs, refusing to stand up on her own. Again, mom

speaks to Joyelle then Joyelle puts her legs down and cries some more. Teacher tries to help

mom by taking Joyelle by the hand and says, “would you like to say bye to mom in the

window?” Joyelle lets go of mom, holds on to teacher’s hand and walk toward the classroom

window together. After they wave to mom, she stops crying and puts her thumb in her mouth and

begins sucking her thumb. Teacher takes Joyelle by the other hand and walk toward the table

and sit down for breakfast.

*During free choice play, Joyelle (4.2) goes toward the dramatic play area and says to another

child “you wanna play?” the other child responds and says, “ok, you be the baby and I’m the

mommy and he’s the daddy” as she points to a male child playing near the pretend stove.

*At lunch, Joyelle (4.2) gets her personal milk from the table, using her fingers takes the plastic

wrap off the straw then attempts to poke open the milk container. Joyelle seems to struggle

poking the straw through the milk container. After attempting several times, she says to the
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teacher “I can’t do it” as she gives the teacher her milk and straw. Teacher asks, “do you need

help?” Joyelle nodes her head up and down.

*During work time (Tuesday 9/12) Joyelle uses colored pencils and using her right hand and a

tripod grasp

Reflection on Observation

For observation one, I am going to refer to Sigmund Freud’s theory of Psychosexual

development. Although I have some reservations about Freud’s theory, I do agree that for my

focus child and this particular observation both theory and observation relate to each other.

Since I started observing Joyelle in September, I have observed that in times of distress she uses

thumb sucking as a coping mechanism to help her regulate her feelings. In observation one,

Joyelle is noticeably upset as her mother prepares to leave her at the center. Joyelle cries, holds

on to her mother’s leg, refuses to stand up and mom tries to reassure her by giving her lots of

kisses. At the end, after mother leaves she comforts herself by sucking her thumb.

In Sigmund Freud’s theory of Psychosexual development, the first stage of development

is the oral stage. In the first year of a child’s life, Freud states that children receive their main

interactions through their mouth, so while in this stage infants arise pleasure through oral

stimulation through actions like sucking and eating. Freud believed that because the infant is so

dependent on others that they learn to develop a sense of trust or mistrust in this stage of

development. The conflict in this stage is the weaning process. The weaning process is teaching

the child to become less dependent on their caretakers. Freud believed that if the child was

unable to “wean off” then the child would have issues with dependency or “oral fixation can

occur” (www.verywell.com).
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When applying this theory to Joyelle’s observations, we can say that an “oral fixation

occurred” during the first stage of her development. We could conclude that she did not

successfully exit this stage of development thus the thumb sucking is still occurring, she is

learning to trust her teachers and working on “weaning off” the dependency of thumb sucking.

Although Joyelle is past the age range of the first and second stage of development in Freud’s

theory we have learned that children may enter other stages of development without successfully

exiting the previous stage of development. Since Joyelle’s first observation in September, she is

slowly progressing through these first two stages of Freud’s theory of development.

Observations

* While playing outside in the climbing structure, Joyelle (4.2) stops her play and sits next to a

crying child and rubs her back

*While waiting in line to go outside, teacher talks to a child in line and asks how she got red

marks on her face, then Joyelle standing next to the child says, “cause she happy” Teacher

replies, “happy? Why is she happy?” Joyelle says, “cause she’s happy to see me”

*Joyelle plays and interacts with other children in dramatic area. Children pretend to “cook”

then use dishes and pretend to feed each other play food

*As Joyelle enters the classroom, she hugs her mom, then kisses her mom and hugs her again,

reluctant to let her mom’s arm go, mom says, “ok I’m leaving now” mom kisses Joyelle again,

and she lets her arm go and says to Joyelle “good job, I’m so proud of you” as she walks out of

the classroom, Joyelle looks at the door then walks toward the teacher and stand by her side
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*At work time, during a table activity the children work on a name and letter identification

puzzle. Joyelle completes her name puzzle then as the teacher points to each letter Joyelle pauses

identifies uppercase J and lowercase o

*Personal observation- 14 weeks into the school year I have observed Joyelle becoming more

independent from her mother. Several weeks ago, Joyelle was still having some anxiety

separating from her. Now, Joyelle at times, can separate from mother without crying and is

content saying good bye at the door. She is interacting more with peers and participates in

pretend play. She is still working on stopping thumb sucking and acknowledging to use her

voice to speak to her peers.

Observation Reflection

The second reflection relates Joyelle’s observations and John Bowbly’s attachment

theory. This theory pertains to social development. John Bowbly, along with theorist Mary

Ainsworth, believed that a child’s interactions and relationship with primary caregivers “play a

major role in child development and continue to influence social relationships throughout life”

(www.verywell.com). Bowlby and Ainsworth, both believed that the attachments were critical

indicators into how children form attachments and relationships with caregivers and peers.

These attachments form “a secure base for exploration” and allow children to feel safe and

secure when forming relationships, and exploring new environments.

When studying John Bowlby’s attachment theory and Joyelle’s observations, we can say

that she Joyelle has successfully formed a secure attachment with her primary caregiver and

teachers. The above observations states that “she (Joyelle) is interacting more with peers and

participates in pretend play.” This is an example of “a secure base for exploration.” The above
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observations continue to state that Joyelle pretends to “cook,” she is shows empathy for a crying

child by rubbing her back, and feels more comfort separating from mom during morning

transitions. These observations are examples of positive results from building a secure

attachment with primary caregivers. Through observation we can assume that Joyelle feels safe

in her new school environment, feels confident that her needs will be met and is capable of self-

soothing herself in times of distress.

Observations

Focus child: Gemma, age 3.5, female, Latina

Physical appearance: short medium length hair, no visible disabilities observed, shorter than

most children in class

*Gemma appears to be a happy child, she interacts well with children and staff; she is playful

and talkative in small and large group settings

*As Gemma (3.5) arrives in the morning, the class was sitting on the carpet during a large group

activity. One female student teacher introduces herself and says, “Hi I’m Simone, what’s your

name?” Gemma responds with a smile, “my name is Gemma”

*While playing in the dramatic play area with two female peers and one teacher, this interaction

happens with the teacher

Gemma-“I’m making coffeecake for you”

Teacher-“oh, thank you, how are you going to make the coffeecake”
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Gemma-“like this” as she picks up a small bowl, gets a pretend sugar box, turns the box around

and pretends to read the words on the box, pretends to pour “sugar” into the bowl, puts the bowl

into a pretend blender then shakes the blender while making a loud buzzing noise

Then Gemma gives the teacher a pot holder

Teacher-“what’s this?”

Gemma-“it’s for hot”

Teacher-“it’s for hot?”

Gemma-“ya, like this” as she places the pot holder on the teacher’s hand, puts a plate on top of

the pot holder then pretends to put a “cake” on the plate

Teacher-“yum, you’re a good baker, this cake is delicious” as she pretends to eat the cake

Gemma-“ya” and smiles

*As Gemma was putting the “ingredients” into the bowl she counted out 10 scoops of “sugar”.

Every scoop she added into the bowl she added one, counting from one to ten correctly

Reflection on Observations

This next observation is very interesting and so much can be discussed about this child’s

cognitive and social/emotional development. The first theorist that will be discussed is Albert

Bandura. He developed the Social Learning Theory. According to Bandura’s social learning

theory, he believed that children can gain new knowledge and skills by observing and modeling

someone else’s behavior and/or actions. For example, in the observation above we can apply

Bandura’s theory when Gemma picks up a pot holder, places it in the teacher’s hand and says

“it’s for hot.” By observing someone else’s actions, Gemma learned that pot holders are used to
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hold objects that are hot. Gemma acquired a new skill by observing someone else’s actions. In

Bandura’s theory “observation plays a critical role in learning” (www.verywell.com).

The next theorist is Lev Vygotsky. He development a sociocultural theory that has some

similarities to Bandura but Vygotsky stressed the importance of hands-on experiences. The

sociocultural theory is a cognitive and social process that helps children master new skills when

helped by older individuals with more knowledge. This process he called, the Zone of Proximal

Development. By interacting with older individuals, Vygotsky believed children “progressively

learn and increase their skills of understanding” (www.verywell.com).

This is important because when we study Gemma’s observations, we can say that she has

gained “new skills of understanding” when she talks to the teacher about putting “ingredients”

into a bowl, she looks at the box and pretends to “read” the labels, and then puts all the

ingredients together into a blender and mimics loud noises, like a blender. All these actions

Gemma demonstrated during play in the dramatic area, confirm her knowledge she gained from

observing older individuals in the kitchen either cooking or baking. Another skill which is

importance to acknowledge is the one-to-one correspondence that Gemma demonstrated during

her “baking” experiment with the teacher. She correctly counted one to ten while scooping

“sugar” into her bowl.

The above observations are all different and each very valuable when studying how a

child develops. Observations can be useful information and a nice guide to a child’s cognitive,

physical, emotional, and social development. Theories can be useful to know how a child

organizes information, and how they use that information to solve problems within their

environment. Theorists can help our understanding in particular areas of development. Their

theories serve as a guide to monitor a child’s progress and development throughout their life.
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The above observations on Joyelle and Gemma help me understand their level of

development and serve as a guide to help me address the areas where they may be lacking or

falling behind. I can monitor growth or a decline in development using these observations. They

help me build lessons plans, and activities to increase their knowledge and build on skills they

already acquired. Observations are a great assessment tool when used accurately. Through my

time observing Joyelle, I have seen a growth in her social-emotional development. She interacts

with peers and adults on a more consistent basis. She engages in pretend play and is learning to

use her words to express her needs and wants. Her physical and cognitive development have

also improved. I look forward to see how much more is will develop throughout the year.
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References:

Cherry, Kendra. (2017). Retrieved from https://www.verywell.com/child-development-theories-

2795068

Cherry, Kendra. (2017). Retrieved from https://www.verywell.com/freuds-stages-of-

psychosexual-development-2795962

Cherry, Kendra. (2017). Retrieved from https://www.verywell.com/john-bowlby-biography

Cherry, Kendra. (2017). Retrieved from https://www.verywell.com/albert-bandura-biography

Cherry, Kendra. (2017). Retrieved from https://www.verywell.com/lev-vygotsky-biography