Observation #2

Class/section: FHS 1500

Your Name:
Li Li
Assignment: Observation 2
Background Information
Childs age:
4-5 years old
Fictitious name: Joyce
Location:
Eccles Early Childhood Development Lab School (4626 South Redwood
Road)
Brief
There were about 15 children in the classroom with three teachers. They did
Description:
story time and then went outside on the playground.
Physical Development
During early childhood, childrens arms and legs are lengthened and fat becomes to
muscles (Berger 2014, p.167). Children in the first two years of life have a rounder face, shorter
limbs, larger head and a more rounded belly (Berger 2014, p.168). Now that the body is
lengthened and more muscles are developed, the center of gravity shifts from the breast area to
the belly. This allows children to be more active than before. Their balance is better and they
can enjoy activities such as dancing, running, and somersaults (Berger 2014, p.168).
As soon as I started my observation, the teachers told the children its time to clean up.
Joyce was at a table with two other boys and they were putting away some picture cutouts into a
manila folder. After she was done, she started jumping up and down at first, maybe because she
was the first one to finish putting things away. Then she started hopping on one leg and turned in
a circle a couple times while keeping her balance on one leg. Later when they went out to the
playground, Joyce was one of the most active kids. She was constantly running around, going
from one group of friends to the other, and going up and down the steps of the playground.
This physical development is significant because as a toddler, she wouldnt be able to
have as good of a balance and arm-leg coordination to allow so much freedom in movement.
Joyce has not only mastered walking, but running, turning, jumping, and even sitting down on
the ground and standing up quickly is not a problem at all now.
I did notice Joyce was one of the thinner kids in the group. I hope her parents are not
worried about her being underweight because from what I observed she is so energetic. If kids
have the physical strength to run around and play then parents shouldnt worried about them not
eating enough (Berger 2014, p.169).
When kids reach 6-years-old, they brain is already at 90% weight of an adult brain
(Berger 2014, p.177). The gain in weight is greatly affected by myelination, which is the
growing of a fatty coating on the axons that speeds signals between neurons (Berger 2014,
p.178). So now during early childhood years, children are able to think and act much faster than
before, but their prefrontal cortex is still not mature enough yet for them to control their impulses
(Berger 2014, p.178). I saw this during playground time when Joyce was running around and
joining different groups of kids. Shell be playing on the slides for a couple minutes and then
shell join another group and play with the slap drum, and when her other friends are not done
playing with the drums shell get up and leave and join the hopscotch group. She seemed to be

the most active child on the playground compared to other kids. I did see other kids going from
one activity to another, but not as frequent as Joyce would. It seems like her perseveration
ability is not as mature as other kids in the class.
Cognitive Development
Early childhood is a sensitive periodfor rapidly and easily mastering vocabulary,
grammar, and pronunciation (Berger 2014, p.189). After the first 50 words vocabulary bank,
children will enter into a naming explosion period learning 50-100 words per month (Berger
2014, p.120). By the time children reach 4-5 years old their word bank can range from 3,000
20,000 words and they are constantly absorbing all the language thats going on around them
(Berger 2014, p.189).
After the children helped clean up the classroom and before they went outside they had
story time. The teachers gathered the kids onto the reading area rug and sat them down on the
floor. One teacher held up a book and started playing a CD that read out the story and had sound
effects. All the kids, including Joyce were focused on the book. The teacher didnt talk at all
and there wasnt any interaction between the kids. I did see Joyce turn back to look at one of the
teachers couple times and waved to her and the teacher did the shhh hand gesture that hinted
for Joyce to turn her attention back on the book.
Later when Joyce was outside on the playground, I saw her talking to many other kids.
But unfortunately I wasnt able to catch most of what she said because there was music playing
in the background and other kids were laughing and shouting. Just like what Ive mentioned
above, Joyce was active not just in a physical sense, but she was also an active speaker. She
didnt talk all the time with every kid, but compared to other kids she talked the most. She told
some friends to go play on the slide with her; When she was playing with her friend who
pretended to be a kitten she constantly told her friend to do different kitten tricks; Later when
she was playing with two other boys, I saw her mouth moving the whole time while the two boys
just kept quiet.
Children may not have mastered language and grammar entirely at this age, but it is
essential for parents and caregivers to give as much opportunity for them to talk and be heard.
The more exposure to a language they receive, the better they will master the language.
During the preoperational period, children start to give meaning to things they see and
words they hear instead of exploring the world through motor skills and senses during the first
two years of development (Berger 2014, p.182). Animism is when children believe nonliving
objects to be alive. Preoperational thought is symbolic and magical, not logical and realistic.
Animism gradually disappears as the mind becomes more mature (Berger 2014, p.182). When
Joyce was playing on the playground, she picked up a red plastic ball and started carrying with
her. She took it with her up the stairs of the playground structure and she put it down carefully in
a corner. I saw her petting the ball a few times as if shes putting it to sleep. Later a boy came
by and wanted to take a look at it but she pushed him away as if shes trying to let the boy know
not to disturb the red ball.
By the time kids reach the age of 7, their thinking should go from preoperational thought
to concrete operational thought, which is characterized by concepts that enable children to use
logic (Berger 2014, p.253). Animism shouldnt be as distinct when kids grow older. Parents and
caregivers can help introducing logical thinking by asking a child to describe how something

works, for example, how a ball moves, and also to give the child the circumstances to learn about
what makes a ball move and under what situations will be start rolling.
Social/Emotional Development
During the first two years of life, kids usually engage in solitary or onlooker play. But
during early childhood years we can see more of parallel and associative play and eventually as
kids mature they will engage in cooperative play (Berger 2014, p.213). In my observation, I saw
Joyce displaying onlooker play when she watched another child play with foam puzzle pieces on
the ground, but it didnt take long before she ran off to join another activity. When Joyce was
playing the slap drums, she played along with one other child. Even though they were right next
to each other and playing on separate slap drums but there was no interaction between them,
which is parallel play, until Joyce got up and said something to the other child to go back to the
slide area. And going back to the red ball, after Joyce was done playing with it, another boy
wanted the ball and Joyce allowed him to have it and left the ball with the boy and went to play
somewhere else. This is a big step in development because during the first two years its mostly
solitary play or onlooker play, but physical development allows children to engage in more social
activities.
Sociodramatic play provides children the chance to analyze social roles, learn to convey
their ideas to their friends, practice regulation of emotions by pretending to be caring, brave,
scared, etc., and develop thoughts on how they perceive themselves (Berger 2014, p.214). Early
childhood gives children more inactive play because they dont just play pretend on their own,
but now they can integrate their imagination with their friends and create a new reality together.
(Berger 2014, p.215).
One of Joyces playmates decided to be a kitten and Joyce joins her and becomes the
caretaker. At first, Joyce found a stick and throws it and tells the kitten to go fetch. The other
girl didnt respond to that so Joyce walked over to the stick and gestured for her to come over,
but that didnt cause any response from the girl either. The child who pretended to be a kitten
then started crawling to the slap drum area and Joyce followed. They were making their way to
the slap drum Joyce pets the girl and asked other kids to look at how pretty her kitten was.
Parents and teachers can provide resources and props for children to act out different
scenarios, and through sociodramatic play problem solving and emotional regulation can be
fostered. With adult supervision, sociodramatic play is a also great way to help children
understand the world around them.
Reference List
Berger, K. S. (2014). Invitation to the life span (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Worth Publishers.
"Child Concepts and Application." Pearson. Web. 23 Feb. 2015.
<http://health.prenhall.com/ball/pdf/ball_05.pdf>.