Observing a Child at Elementary School Recess

A Child at Elementary School Recess

This observation is of a 10 year old male child during his lunch recess

at an elementary school located in the South Bay area. The student participates

in a day treatment program for children with emotional/social difficulties. The

length of this observation was approximately forty five minutes. For the purpose

of confidentiality this student will be referred to as John. In the first

section of this observational analysis a brief description of the program which

John participates in will be given. This will be followed by an analysis of

John's activities during the observation.

Observation

The day treatment program John participates in is located on the campus

of a public elementary school, and is supported by a local private mental health

agency. In general, children referred to this program experience some form of

emotional and/or social deficit. In addition to John, there are nine other

students enrolled within the program at present. John currently attends a

mainstreaming class three times per week, where he has developed several

friendships with his peers.

This observation began as the students in the day treatment program were

let out for recess following lunch. After leaving the class John ran to the

designated play area with another student. The designated play area of the

playground where the students of this program are restricted to consists of a

"jungle bar" set ; This play structure consists of "monkey bars" with tall

vertical poles for sliding down attached at each end, three parallel bars of

varying height, and horizontal bars constructed in a ladder fashion for climbing

on. Additionally, the designated area includes a tether ball court, and a

balancing beam constructed in a "Z" shape. The staff has restricted the students

of the program to this area due to these childrens' limited abilities to

demonstrate social skills, and in order to better supervise the group during

recess activities. However, other children at the school are not restricted from

this area and interact freely with the children from the program.

After John had arrived at the play area he immediately jumped onto the

parallel bars and began to swing back and forth, and launched himself into the

air landing awkwardly almost falling down. John preceded to jump up onto the

"monkey bars." John climbed abo...

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...g with a

group of peers on the basketball court can be viewed through the behavioral

paradigm of social learning theory. It could be argued that John (being somewhat

socially handicapped) viewed the staff in a social context with other children.

Furthermore, John observed this social contact as possibly beneficial to him

(e.g., a chance to make friends outside of the program). The staff acted as a

model of those behaviors appropriate to the situation (i.e., cooperation,

helpful, outgoing, etc.), and John molded those behaviors once he was involved

with the group. And again, depending on the value John might place on such

interactions, this might potentially motivate similar social behavior in the

future.

In conclusion, it would appear from this brief observation that John is

approximately at a normal developmental level according to Erikson. John seems

to be attempting to gain mastery of those skills which he has difficulties with

(i.e., social interactions and motor skills).To aid him, John is using the staff

as a model to determine the appropriate skills needed to meet his goals, and is

using external cues such as the staffs praises as a guide of his abilities.