Child Observation Paper

The purpose of this assignment was to objectively describe an activity and the behaviors of a chosen child during an activity in order to provide the reader with a precise and unbiased visual picture of both. We will attempt to recreate the scene by notifying key things to identify the child’s behaviors and motives.
Physically, he appears to be well-coordinated and nimble on his feet. We conclude this from an event where we observed Jasper run from the snack table to the opposite side of the room, throw his body onto the taped square, and accurately land with his bottom on the square. According to Martin & Fabes (2009), it is between 2 and 3 years of age that children develop running skills, although crude. This gross motor skill develops

We conclude this because we observed Jasper turn to look at the bookshelf behind him and grab a plush octopus from the floor instead of continuing to sing along with his teacher and classmates. According to Martin and Fabes (2009), young children “have a tendency to be easily distracted” and the skill of focusing on relevant information develops with age (p.277). Cognitively, he also appears alert and to have mastered the script for the transition from snack time to circle time. Jasper is sometimes the first of all the other children to respond to the teacher’s announcement of the next activity; we notice that he is the first to dash to his square on the carpet. As children repeatedly experience their routine daily activities, they learn what Nelson (as cited in Martin and Fabes, 2009) defines as “the sequencing of events”, scripts (p.277). Transitioning from snack to circle song time is a script that has been learned through practice (Maynard & Greenfield, as cited in Martin & Fabes,

He demonstrates assertive behaviors and appears to persist and go after what he wants. He is also easily excitable. We notice that he tries to interrupt group activities by raising his hand and yelling “Teacher teacher!” He repeats “Teacher teacher!” and says it louder and inched closer to the teacher on his knees, eventually coming off his square. Technically, since she had not responded to him, he had successfully waited a few seconds until the song was finished. It was at this point the teacher responded, “Yes Jasper?” According to Martin and Fabes (2009), children must learn display rules for their emotions and what emotions are acceptable to express in specific situations. The teacher had redirected Jasper to manage his excited emotions and to wait for the completion of the