Playtime Peer Relations: An Informal Observation

Behavioral Observation notes for May 1, 2016 11:30am

• It appears that recess , or a lunch break has begun, children are running and walking out to the playground

• This is a small private school, and I see fifteen to twenty children on the playground.

• I see one adult male playground monitor, who seems to allow the children to facilitate their own play.

• The playground is all concrete; there are basketball hoops, jungle gyms, swing sets, red rubber balls, soccer and basketballs.

My first personal observation is of an Asian boy, approximate age, 5-7 years old.

• 11:30am I notice the young male run on to the playground, he immediately goes for the red rubber ball. He kicks and attempts to dribble the ball for good minute or two, without regards for anyone around.

• 11:32am He stops playing with the ball for a moment, runs over to the fence and looks out into the street, then runs back to the ball and begins dribbling.

• 11:33am the playground monitor says something and the children respond by moving towards the monitor, the boy I’m watching continues to play until the playground monitor says something else.

• 11:34am the children began to line up, and proceeded to pass by the playground monitor, who handed them something.

• 11:35am - 11:40am the young male sat on the ground near other students, and it appears that he was eating something.

• 11:41am the young male got up and tossed what may have been trash into the waste can and promptly went back to retrieve the red rubber ball.

• 11:42am - 11:45am young male was kicking the red ball like it was a soccer ball and female student approached him. It appears that she wanted to play with him. The young boy seems as if he had not heard her request and continued to play....

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...interested in finding out if there may have been any language barrier between the young Asian male and the young Latina girl. Perhaps communication was a determining factor in the lack of cooperation from the young male ,regarding sharing the red ball. I would like to know if there were any familial stresses in either household. The strength of observation is that you get direct access, as opposed to utilizing some means of self-reporting. Disadvantages of observation are: you have to have time and money to complete a proper study, and you have to be careful to record what actually happened, not what you wanted, or expected to see.

Actually, watching children in action was insightful for me, it reinforced the facts that not only are we shaped by familial interactions, but socially we are also shaped by our peers and friends, at home, school and on the playground.