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Abigail Vautaw

Child Case Study




Sandra Harper
ECE 1414
31 March 2014
Jemal Larkins


Abigail L. Vautaw, known more commonly by her nickname, Abby, is an adorable
2 and a half year old girl. She was born on the 10
th
of October in 2011. She has silky
blonde hair and big blue eyes. She is exactly 35 inches tall and weighs 29 pounds.
Abby has an amazingly sweet demeanor, she also tends to be a little shy at times and
can gets very giggly when she is having a good time. I chose Abby as my case study
student because I have become very close with her and her family over the time she
has spent in our center. She has an infectious little laugh and smile that melts your
heart. I also chose Abby because we both started at the center around the same time.
Shortly after I got a job there she joined one of the classrooms. I thought it would be
interesting to see where she has gone in her development from the time she started, up
until where she is now.
Abby was an only child for the first two years of her life until about six months
ago when she became a big sister. Her brother Henry was almost born 6 months ago
and almost came exactly on her second birthday. Abby absolutely loves having a little
brother and is very helpful with Henry at home. She also lives with her mother and
father, Bonnie and Michael, who love their daughter dearly. They describe Abby as
Gods gift to us and that shes perfect!, they wouldnt change a single thing about
her. Dad also added that Abby can be quite stubborn, just like her mother! Michael
Vautaw works as an Account Manager and Bonnie Vautaw is a Risk Analyst. Their
family is Caucasian and they are of an upper-middle class status. The most recent
change in their family has been the birth of their son Henry, which has brought even
more joy to their lives. Although there have been those positive changes with the new
baby, there have not been any negatives changes, tragedies or concerning problems to
occur. Their current parenting style is much of a relaxed approach, although they
strongly believe in an attached approach while raising their children as infants. Bonnie
believes that it is important to spend at least the first six months to a year with your child
at home to focus on establishing strong family bonds.
While pregnant with Abby, Bonnie suffered from gestational diabetes. With that,
her pregnancy was considered to be high risk which was scary for the parents-to-be.
They were relieved when the pregnancy went all the way to full term. Mom had a
smooth delivery and there were no complications. Bonnie and Mike were ecstatic to
meet their eight pound, ten ounce, 20 in long beautiful baby girl. Abby is now still as
healthy as can be. She has been lucky to not have any health problems or illnesses, her
family feels that they have been very blessed.
As part of her parents attached method of parenting, Abby was kept home as an
infant until she was just over a year old. She was taken care of by her loving mother and
grandmother (Bonnies mother) until she came to North Hills Childcare Center in late
October 2013. To date, North Hills has been the only child care center that Abby has
attended. She started in our Turtle room (1- 1 year old). Over the summer of 2013
she moved with the same group of children, to our Duckling room (1 -2 years old)
and moved once more in the fall of the current school year. She is now still in our
Monkey room with the rest of her 2- 2 year old classmates. Every room has been on
a one: four ratio and she has maintained the same classmates (and even some of the
same teachers) throughout her stay at our center. While attending North Hills, Abby has
experienced many new things from petting zoos and puppet shows to touring a fire truck
and meeting a dentist. Our philosophy at North Hills is to expose children to all types of
new and interesting ideas and opportunities. Abby is always ready to learn and shows
an eagerness and bravery in trying new things. It helps that her parents are very
involved in her learning experience, they have come to all over our parent-teacher
nights and class picnics and activities.

PHYSICAL
Abby enjoys all areas of fine and gross motor play and excels greatly in them.
Abby can move in nonlocomotor ways, she loves to dance by bopping and swaying her
body to the beat of the music. She can also move in locomotor ways and loves to dance
and march up and down the classroom doing spins and turns. While dancing, Abby can
successfully label the direction of her movements (up, down, stop, etc) which she
demonstrates while listening to songs such as The Freeze, where she yells out freeze!
and stops until the music comes back. Abby also does well with following along with the
movements being suggested such as The Hokey Pokey or Jump Up and Down (see
Observation note # 5). Abby also enjoys time spend outside on the playground where
she can climb up and slide down the slide (see Picture #5). She also shows her physical
abilities while playing in our gross motor room with all the climbing and gymnastics
equipment (see Picture #6)
SOCIAL EMOTIONAL
Abbys level of social emotional development is very strong. This is an area that
she does very well in, especially since becoming a big sister. She does very well with
taking care of her own needs and has very positive self-help skills. If there is ever
something she needs done and is not able to accomplish her goal without the help of an
adult, she is sure to communicate with her teachers about needing help to do things
herself (see Observation note # 1). Another area that Abby has made great
developmental progress in would be her ability to solve social conflict. As many children
her age are unsure of how to communicate with other children the feelings they have
when they are angry or frustrated, Abby uses her problem solving skills to express her
needs. She knows that using her words is key in solving her problems and makes sure
to speak to her friends politely and without using violence (see Observation notes # 4).
COGNATIVE
While learning about nursery rhymes, there was an art activity for Ba Ba Black
Sheep where the children were given numbered bags and several wool type materials
(cotton, packing peanuts, popcorn, etc). Abby was able to not only recognize her
numbers, but also count out the correct amount of wool pieces for each numbered bag
1-3 (see Artwork Example #1). Abby is also frequently heard demonstrating her ability to
count objects as she counts out loud for each step she is walking up or down (see
Observation Notes #3). On many occasions Abby can be found building large block
towers with Legos, waffle blocks, and other materials. This shows her ability to fit things
together and take them apart. One day Abby was playing at the art table and used a
color wheel sheet to sort out the different colored scrap materials by color (see Artwork
Example #2), she also does well with matching, as she enjoys pairing up the different
patterned socks from the bin in the house area (see Observation notes #8). It is very
apparent that Abby knows her daily schedule and does well with knowing what comes
next in the daily routine. She follows the consistent flow of the day and help remind
others of what is coming up next. She is always prepared and ready to start the next
activity with positive self-confidence (see Observation Notes #6).
LANGUAGE
Abby can be quite shy at times, but one thing she loves to do is sing. She can be
heard participating in group activities at Chapel, and especially during circle time. Most
days at circle time she is one of the few students giving suggestions for songs to sing.
She knows almost all the words to many songs and displays her language development
with her ability to get up and sing along out loud (see Picture #1). Along with singing at
circle time Abby also loves to sit and listen to stories, she often describes the pictures
she sees in books and pretends to read books herself. She is capable if reading and
verbally labeling many symbols such as letters (A is for Abby) and all her shapes. The
other day, during her evaluation, she was shown many shapes (triangle, square, circle,
rectangle, oval, diamond, heart, star, octagon, and pentagon) and was able to name
every single one (see Young Toddler Shape Evaluation Sheet).
APPROACH TO LEARNING
At North Hills Child Care Center, the classes do much of the daily planning in the
morning as the day is starting. Although this is a practice seen every day in the
preschool classrooms, Abbys class does not follow a planning routine. This may be due
to the fact that she is in a toddler room (2-2 1/2 ) and the age range tends to have a
hard time in planning for the long term. Instead, the children are frequently asked about
what decisions they would like to make throughout the day. This helps get them started
with the idea of planning out their activities without overwhelming them with too many
expectations. Asking more often helps them to remember their goals and keep on the
tasks of their choosing. Abby displays a great deal of self-assurance when making
decisions about where she would like to play and what materials she would like to use.
She knows what her interests are and can pick out an activity and prepare for it without
hesitation (see Observation Notes #9). Abbys self-confidence also allows her to be
comfortable in dealing with social conflict. When there is trouble with sharing toys or
taking turns on a desired activity, she knows how to get her point across in an effective
and acceptable fashion by using her words and her manners (see Observation Notes
#4).
CREATIVITY
Abbys use of many different art materials and imaginative play shows how
creative she is. She can be found using all types of art materials from paint dotters to
crayons (see Pictures 7, 8, and 10). When working on an art project she is very
imaginative, one time she was using celery to paint on her paper. Her teacher said I
wonder what Abby painted a picture of and Abby said beautiful flowers! (see Artwork
Example #3 and Picture #11). Abby also enjoys making art that she can give to her
parents, she chose to make a bracelet for her mom (see Picture #2) and she made a
clay piece that she said was for her baby brother (see Pictures 3 and 4). Abby enjoys
sensory and art projects and does well with working and manipulating all of the different
materials we have in the classroom.
CONCLUSION
Through working with Abby I have discovered that she excels in many areas of
her development. She is able to demonstrate success in many different KDI areas.
Abby shows her healthy physical development by moving in locomotor and
nonlocomotor ways, demonstrated by her elaborate and inventive dance moves. She is
able to take direction of the descriptive words she hears in the many songs we listened
to in class. She identifies and moves correctly to words such as tiptoe, march and
spin. She also choses the correct motions for directional words like up, down, or
stop. Abby certainly enjoys feeling and moving to the beat of any song.
When it comes to social and emotional development Abby proves every day that
she is learning the proper skills to achieve her own goals of independence. She is not
only able to, but takes pride in caring for her own needs. She is able to use the
bathroom all on her own, she always cleans up after herself at meal times, and she
knows how to put her things away and get ready for the day. She even helps other
children in accomplishing their goals when they need help. Abby is also building the
proper verbal and social skills to be able to handle her own social conflicts, she has the
ability to express herself positively and shows little frustration when attempting to get
her point across to the adults and other children.
As far as cognitive developments, Abby is showing a lot of new strengths in the
areas of counting objects, sorting and matching objects, and anticipating a sequence of
events. She knows her daily routine and can remember and describe what activity
comes next in the classroom. She loves to count things out loud and can even match
the correct numbers to the amount she is counting out. Abby has also shown a
development of seriation skills as she is beginning to understand the concepts of
compare/contrast and building patterns.
The area of development that Abby has shown the most progress in would be
her language skills. Over the past few weeks her verbal skills have become much
stronger. She is starting to put many more words together and her pronunciations have
become increasingly fluent with much more clarity. She demonstrates these momentous
changes when reading symbols out loud. She can name and recognize many letter,
shape and number symbols. She can even read her own name and find where her
things are or where they belong by looking for her name on different items. She also
enjoys reading and listening to different stories and describing what she sees in the
illustrations.
When it comes to approaches to learning Abby is very independent and shows a
great deal of self-confidence. She is able to make her own decisions and branch off
from the group to find where she enjoys working. She knows what she likes but also
makes an effort to discover new materials. When Abby sets a goal for what she would
like to do for an activity she knows how to follow through with it. She sticks to her plans
and even when she has to wait for her turn for something she knows how to solve those
minor social setbacks and is always a good sport with the other children. If ever there is
a conflict she does well with communicating and resolving issues there may be with her
fellow classmates is a calm and caring way.
Creativity is one of the areas Abbys skills continue to grow. She absolutely loves
to use all different mediums to create works of art. Some of her favorites are play dough
and painting (and of course glitter). Her creativity can be seen in almost everything she
does. Her dance moves, art work, and imaginative play show her wide array of artistic
abilities. Whenever there is music playing you can find Abby up in the middle of the
room singing out loud and swinging her body to the beat of the music. She especially
like days where the shaker instruments are brought out for the children to play with. She
does well with active role playing and has a great time imitating the specific actions and
sounds of many animals and objects.
RECOMMENDATIONS
Further developing Abigails many skills would not be a difficult task to take on.
Abby has shown a love on learning, discovery, and skill building. She enjoys new
activities and never has trouble meeting her goals.
An idea to keep Abby on track with her physical development would be to try
getting her to work the muscles groups that she is not using as much right now. Abby
loves to dance, going out on the playground and doing climbing activities would be a
good way to get her moving in ways she usually does not try. Another way she could
use her body to continue her physical development would be to find new songs with
more complex movements and directions to them. This would get her to use her body in
new and interesting movements by doing a fun activity.
Since the birth of her baby brother, Henry, Abby has become increasingly self-
efficient. She has learned so many new skills and she enjoys doing them. Giving her
more opportunities to continue these self-help behaviors would be a great way to
increase her social emotional development. Abby already enjoys helping out with
cleaning tables, can dress herself (including putting her shoes on), and cleans up her
work area without being asked. Things like pouring her own milk, putting her clothes
away at home, and getting herself ready to go outside would be great ways to expand
these skills. She also has a love for helping others in the classroom as well as with her
baby brother at home. Giving her a variety of age appropriate responsibilities in the
classroom and at home with her brother would be an encouraging way to develop her
skills for helping others.
Abbys cognition can be further developed through the continuance of fun and
interesting projects and activities. Abby has been making great leaps in her
development of cognitive skills and her learning as really taken off. To continue her
success in this area she would benefit greatly from the introduction of pattern
development. As Abby has shown her ability for sorting and matching, she has begun to
show signs of pattern recognition. Giving her activities that help demonstrate and
practice simple patterns would be a great new milestone for her to reach. Setting
realistic goals for her to reach is always a helpful tool, Abby does well at making goals
for herself and can verbalize these goals in the activities she is attempting. She not only
sets goals for herself by also completes them with the best outcome she possibly can.
She takes pride in her learning so making a time to have discussions with her about
what she did and how she accomplished it would be a positive way to get her to recall
her actions for the day and see where she made connections and what objectives she
met. This would also help her in strengthening her language skills. Getting her into a
discussion format and allowing her to take initiative in the conversation would be a great
way to improve on her speech and language. Language skills would also be supported
by continuing to read in the classroom and encouraging Abby to talk about the story,
who was in it, and what happened. Explaining simple concepts and stories will help
Abby with her communication skills.
Giving Abby a chance at a planning time would be a great way to improve on her
approaches to learning. She does well with making decision on the short term about
what she would like to do and what areas she would like to play in, but adding a point in
the day where she can make a more long term plan for herself would help her set bigger
goals and reflect on her decisions afterwards. She would have the ability to learn her
own personal schedule and anticipate what she will be doing as the day goes on.
Abbys creativity skills are a very easy subject to expand on. Abby loves all things
arts and crafts and is open to using all different types of materials. Add new and exciting
materials to the classroom would give Abby the opportunity to further her creativity.
Another way to develop her creativity would be to give her more of a chance to do free
art. Making her own projects without having a pre-determined idea of what it is
supposed to be would be very useful and help her make her own decisions with her art.
Open access to all materials would be a great experience and would be something
Abby would fully enjoy. Including real life materials into the classroom, instead of just
plastic toy replicas would also allow Abby the chance to explore her imagination and get
her to think creatively.



My time spent with Abigail over the past few months has been wonderful. It is
amazing to see how far she has come since her first day and how much she has been
learning. I will always have a special place in my heart for her and look forward to
supporting her through her continued growth and development. She is truly a
remarkable child. I would like to thank her parents, Bonnie and Michael, for allowing me
to spend the time with Abby, for being so open and patient with me, and for always
keeping an interest in my class and assignments. Your help and encouragement have
helped greatly! I would also like to thank Shannon Richardson, Abbys teacher, for not
only allowing me to drop into the classroom whenever I could fit it in my schedule, but
also for making feel as though I were part of your class. Last, but not least, I would like
to thank our Director, Cheryl Mueller, for being so understanding and supportive as I
balance becoming a new lead teacher and at the same time completing a pretty hefty
load of classes. Your consideration and reassurance has been an enormous help in
keeping me calm through such a busy time.

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