What Is The Observation Of A Child Observation

Observations of a young child’s behavior have seen to be beneficial to the observer because it allows the observer to determine what that specific child is interested in and how they react to certain situations. For my observations I observed two children who were both the age of three, one being a boy and the other a girl. One interesting fact about the little boy is that he is autistic and that these children happen to be cousins. This observation was made during a huge family get together and there were other toddlers present as well, however I’m only focusing on the young boy and girl. While observing the little girl for the first part of my observation there were quite a few characteristics that stood out to me. One of those being that …show more content…

shame and doubt stage, The reason for this is because she has already developed a healthy sense of who she is and that she is her own person. This was seen when she would tell her other cousins what to do and was seen in her independence when she wanted to eat by herself. She understands that she can do it herself and doesn’t need help from anyone. As well she fits in Piaget’s preoperational stage because she already speaks full sentences, also she’s capable of symbolic representation which was seen when she played with her cousins. One more observation viewed was when she became increasingly upset until she got her way to feed herself without any assistance, this demonstrates Freud’s theory of ID, which is the pleasure principle.The little girl knew that if she became upset all of a sudden and started to misbehave a little she would eventually get her way with her father. When it comes to the young boy he fits more into Erikson’s trust vs mistrust stage, since he’s still learning who to trust when it comes to adults. This was seen when he’d be fine with adults that he already knew and when it came to adults he never met before he would become very timid or uncomfortable. Also, he hasn’t really created a sense of self because he tends to follow others and search for guidance in order to see what to do. Even though he’s three just like his cousin, his autism has slowed down some of his cognitive development. This is also seen in the way he communicates because although his cousin is quite talkative, he hasn’t been able to talk yet. By using Piaget’s theory of cognitive development one can see how the child uses accommodation to communicate, since he can not speak yet. In order for him to communicate with others he point or uses hand gestures to