This observation was mostly conducted behind a one way glass. I watched the children but they did not know I was there. The ages of the children served in that program were in the range of 18-36 months. Curriculum used in that program is considered Creative. Qualifications for staff must hold to work in this program is a Child Development Associate’s degree (CDA) or Bachelors in Early Childhood Education.
The kind of family involvement this program offers includes training, car seat safety, health dept. workshops, and home visit to help parents meet goals for their children. Parent volunteers are always welcomed. Room arrangement and choice of equipment are geared toward toddlers and their development needs. The room was open and allowed viewing of the children at all times. As the toddlers left their big square table they headed to the kitchen area also known as the Dramatic Play area for social time. It did not take them long to have everything pulled out and the teacher having them put things back up as she sings the song clean up from the Barney Show. The room consisted of a play kitchen and dress up area for pretend play with the teacher. They practiced dressing, feeding, and loving the baby dolls. They practiced cooking, serving and eating the pretend food. I loved watching the children play dress up. One male child carried around a purse as he shopped and another male child learned he had pockets. At this age children are considered object centered and this was defiantly seen during play time. Children love to imitate adults and this was true as I watched a female trying to talk on her pretend cell phone as she dealt with food in the microwave. Reading area with a living room environment where one ...
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...en became distracted by climbing; sliding and playing follow the leader on the play equipment. One male student chose to play ball by himself most of the time. After they made three laps it was race time. The teacher let them line up and counted one, two, three and they were off even the younger one joined in this activities. As the children ran the teacher encourages each one by name and they made it to the finish line with smiles and sideways look to see who might be watching. Everyone has a winner in this group. One child had a problem with their perceptual motor skill as one female bumped her head on the wall and wanted her “Mommy”. Once more the teacher was there so quick to see to the needs of this child.
What I found interesting was there was no TV, movies, or music playing. It was workers and children together playing as hard as they could play.
... and Lawrence J. Schweinhart. "Making Childcare work for Everyone: Lessons from the Program Recognition Project." Young Children 1 (1999): 68-73.
During this assignment, I needed to observe infant/toddler from birth to 36 months. The observation was for 30 minutes while the infants interact with the world. While the observation, I created a running record observation to keep track of the developmental domains. The observation took place in the ECE classroom. There were three children which were Charlotte, Loui, and Benjamin. They were placed in the center of the class where there was different kinds of toys. During the observation, Charlotte and Loui were interacting with one another. However, Benjamin wasn’t interacting at all. Loui interacted with classmates and went outside the circle to get some toys.
In this assignment I am going to describe a child observation that I have done in a nursery for twenty minutes in a play setting. I will explain the strengths and weaknesses of naturalistic observation through the key developmental milestones based in Mary Sheridan (2005) check-list and provide a theoretical explanation to support the naturalistic observation.
The facility I did my observation at was Tutor Time in Fairfield, and I arrived there at 3:15pm. When I arrived there, I could instantly see that it was a child centered program by the feel of the artwork the kids had made that were on the walls, the passing classrooms and it smelled like sugar cookies throughout the building. It was very quiet in the office area and in the halls when I was walking to the class of preschoolers.
To begin, my observation was at Webster Elementary School, a school placed in the city surrounded by houses and other schools. The specific classroom I am observing is full of Kindergarten students who seem to very advanced than I had imagined. The classroom walls are brick and white, but the classroom teacher Mrs. O'Brien does an amazing job keeping the space use for both an upbeat and educational vibe, especially for environmental print. Everywhere you look there are educational posters, numbers, and mental state vocabulary words, as well as, students completed work. To add, students sit in medium sized tables with 4-6 other students when they aren’t having whole group instruction on either
The Child Development Center of College of San Mateo provides early care and educational programs for children between the ages of 3 to 5 years old. Children are divided into classrooms with a “master” teacher, a “regular” teacher, and two or three “associate” teachers. Klara attended Classroom, “A,” a stimulating and well-resourced classroom. Klara was observed for two hours on Monday from 9 am to 11 am and for two hours on Wednesday from 9 am to 11 am. During these two hours, classroom activities consisted of “free time,” “story time,” and an outside “play time.” A “master” teacher, a “regular” teacher, and two “associate” teachers were present during observations. Additionally, a total of eighteen children were in attendance during the observed days.
There are a few types of preschool programs. First there are structured preschool programs that focus on emphasizing an actual school setting and classroom activities in order to prepare the child for kindergarten or first grade. There are also day care centers, which are not as structured as preschool centers. Daycare’s focus mainly on child’s development through social interaction with children and caregivers. Then there are head start programs that are geared to give children a foot in the right direction in order to be ready for preschool or kindergarten. The right kind of childcare can be a wonderful opportunity to promote the profound learning children experience from birth through age five (Selecting child care, 2002).
I observed at St. Eve’s Learning Center location in their preschool room. The center has a naturalistic feel to the environment and all of the staff is friendly and welcoming. The classroom displayed best practices, modern theories and research, and followed expected standards set by their accreditations.
The results of quality preschool programs can be seen early after they begin. Children learn many important life le...
For 12 weeks I observed a young pre-schooler Child C aged 31/2 years old, through my account I would give an observer’s view of Child C, three theories peculiar to Child C and my the emotions evoked in me as an observer. My observation assisted in my understanding of the changes in Child C as the week progressed over the 12 weeks.
Toddlers are the epitome of curiosity and energy. From ages 1 – 3, toddlers are always on the go and want to learn about everything in their world. As with infants, no two are alike; each toddler is unique in his or her developmental stages, and each accomplishes milestones at different times. “Although children develop at different rates, there are common stages of development that serve as guidelines for what most children can do by a certain age” (Groark, McCarthy & Kirk, 2014). As seen in the hatfieldmomof3 (2011) video, one observes toddlers at play and can determine the age of the toddlers by their actions and the milestones they have accomplished.
I gave birth to a healthy, beautiful baby girl named Luna. Jeffrey has taken quite a liking to being a big brother. He likes to hold and rocker her and helps with feeding her. Jeffrey is still a slow-to warm child. He can communicate fairly well and is now using mostly complete sentences and seems to understand most of what I say. He occasionally makes errors of overregularization. He has taken an interest in music and singsongs even though he usually repeats a certain part a lot. I encourage this by taking him to local performances of children’s musicals. Jeffrey has learned the routines pretty well and is reasonably cooperative for his age. He is rarely aggressive to adults or other children. Jeffrey’s fantasy play has become more elaborate and sometimes includes superheroes or cartoon
Morrison, G. S. (1976). Chapter 6: Early Childhood Programs APPLYING THEORIES TO PRACTICE. In Early childhood education today (10th ed., pp. 5-31). Columbus, Ohio: Merrill.
Sims, M. & Hutchins, T. (2011). Program planning for infants and toddlers: In search of relationships. Sydney: Pademelon Press.
Before taking this course I already had a prior knowledge on infant and toddler development being a child development and family relations major. I have worked hands on with children in this age range and from previous courses know a lot about their physical growth and development. I knew that baby’s had poorly developed muscles in the beginning stages of life, but I didn’t know how long it took to get the muscles to develop. When holding a child we were always taught to support the neck and never let it just flop around. It was interesting to find out that even though a baby might be able to lift its head at one month its neck muscles are not fully developed until three months. By the time a child reaches two years of age their baby fat will start to disappear and be replaced by muscle from their constant movement like running and jumping.