Eguen 1

Kayla Eguen

Professor Cheryl Westfall

ECE 252

November 19, 2017

Social Emotional Observation

Part A

Emotional

1a. Record an objective observation of a display of fear (include exact age of child and

setting).

A 2 year old boy named Malik is outside in the playground and is walking towards the

toy cars and another child is running in the same direction behind him. The child running behind

him is running with his head down, when he runs into Malik. Malik falls to the ground and starts

to whimper and look around. Then he gets up and starts walking towards the toy cars again.

1b. How is this handled by the caregiver?

The caregiver went up to the child that ran into Malik and said, “you have to look where

you’re going” and asked Malik if he was okay.

1c. Was the response appropriate or inappropriate? Why or why not?

I think that the response was appropriate but she could have explained to the child why he

needed to look where he was going, because he could hurt someone, or get hurt himself. Since

Malik was okay and didn’t cry, I think it was appropriate.

2a. Record an objective observation of a display of anger (include exact age of child and

setting).
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A two-year-old boy is in the classroom playing in the kitchen area. He’s playing with a

spatula when another two-year-old boy grabs the spatula in his hand and starts to pull it. They

tug on the spatula back and forth, and the boy who was originally playing with it starts screaming

really loud.

2b. How is this handled by the caregiver?

The caregiver asked him to use his words and not to scream.

2c. Was the response appropriate or inappropriate? Why or why not?

The response was inappropriate because the caregiver focused on the child’s reaction to

his anger and did not focus on the fact that he was mad. She did not acknowledge his feelings she

just told him to use his words and not to scream.

3a. Using the nine temperament traits, observe and give examples of EACH in ONE child

(you may need to interview the caregiver/parent to answer some). (Include exact age of

child and setting)

Child: two-year-old named Zoe

Setting: Daycare

Activity Level: She was very active. She would run back and forth on the playground, and then

stop because she hears a car and start looking around for where the car is. She never stayed in

one area for too long.

Rhythmicity: When it was time to sit down for snack she would not sit still. She kept getting up

and socializing with other students and the caregivers.

Approach-Withdrawal: She has a high approach point, she approached me as soon as I got

there and asked me to help her put on her jacket. She’s very comfortable with experiences.
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Adaptability: She was also adaptable, she didn’t cry when it was time to go outside. She put her

jacket on and lined up to go outside. When she got outside she played with everything she could

see and find.

Attention Span: She has a short attention span. She is constantly moving from playing with one

object to another. She was running to the other end of the playground, when she saw the toy

stove she immediately stopped and started playing with the stove.

Intensity of Reaction: She laughs loudly, I did not see her cry. She’s a very intense child though

so she may cry loudly when she does cry.

Threshold of Response: She’s distracted by thing but doesn’t react to light, sound and touch in

a distressed way.

Distractibility: She’s very curious and so she gets distracted easily by the things she’s curious

about, but remains focused on the thing that she is curious about for a while. For example, when

there was a bus driving by, she heard it and climbed up on the table to look over the fence to see

the bus go by. She stayed on top of the table until the teacher’s made her get down because it

was dangerous.

Quality of Mood: She’s always smiling and happy. She’s a very joyous child.

3b. In which of the 3 temperament categories would you place this child and why?

The 3 temperaments categories I would place her in are activity level, approach-withdrawal, and

distractibility. I would place her in these categories because these are the traits that she displayed

the most during my observation and when talking to one of the caregivers it appears that she’s

always like that.

3c. What advice might you give to the caregiver/parent of this child based on your

assessment?
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The advice that I would give to the caregiver is to find out what things she likes and are curious

about and maybe ty to expand her education by spending more time exploring the things that she

is curious about. If she’s curious about buses maybe arrange for her to go on a bus and

experience what it’s like to be on a bus, in a safe setting. Also, I would suggest introducing

active activities that she could participate in so that she’s not running from one activity to

another because her interest isn’t being expounded on.

Part B

Social

1. Record an objective observation of a child displaying Erikson’s “trust vs. mistrust”

(identify exact age of child and whether positive or negative).

The boy that I observed was 2-years-old and displayed a positive sense of trust. He was

driving in his toy car and then go out of his car and rant to the other side of the playground and

put his head inside of a car that one of the other children was sitting in their car, parked. Then he

runs back to his toy car and backs up his car, gets out of the car again and runs back and forth on

the playground.

2. Record an objective observation of a child displaying Erikson’s “Autonomy vs. shame

and doubt” (identify exact age of child and whether positive or negative).

The child that I observed was 2 years old and it was a positive observation of Erikson’s

Autonomy vs. shame and doubt. Malik went up to his back pack and points to his sippy cup. He

starts pulling on the top of his sippy cup and begins to whine. The teacher come up and asks if he

wants his sippy cup, he shakes his head up and down. The teacher then gives him his sippy cup

and he walks to the table, sits down and drinks from his sippy cup.
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3a. Record an objective observation of a guidance situation between caregiver and child

(due to individual action). Give exact age of child.

A two-year-old boy hits one of the other boys in the classroom with a soft toy. The

teacher asks the boy to be polite and not to hit him. The boy then starts stacking the blocks with

the boy he was hitting.

3b. How is this handled by the caregiver? Was the response appropriate or

inappropriate? Why?

The teacher asked him to be polite and to not hit the other boy with the toy. This response

was appropriate because it reminded him of the need to be polite as well as the class rules. It

worked and the boy began to play with the boy instead of hitting him.

4a. Record an objective observation of a guidance situation between two children (due to

interaction between children). Give exact age of children, both must be in appropriate age

range for assignment.

When lining up to go outside a two-year-old girl pulled another two-year-old girl’s hair

who was standing in front of her.

4b. How is this handled by the caregiver? Was the response appropriate or

inappropriate? Why?

The teacher comes up to them and says, “No! We keep our hands to ourselves, we don’t

pull hair.” She then separates the kids and has them line back up in a different order to go

outside. This response was appropriate because it reminded the girl of the rules of the class.

What would have made it more appropriate though, was if the teacher had explained to her how

it made the other girl feel, or even ask the other girl how it made her feel to have her hair pulled.

That way the girl who pulled her hair could see that it hurts the other girl’s feelings, and the
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lesson is more likely to stick and she’ll remember it because it will make her realize that other

people have feelings too.