Observation 2

Class/section

FHS 1500-001

:
Your Name:
Assignment:

Loralin Allred
Observation 2

Background Information
Childs age:
Fictitious

3 years and 11 months (approximately)

Taylor

name:
Location:
Brief

Learning Dynamics Riverton Location

This facility is a preschool for 3 and 4 year olds. I spent 2 hrs

Description:

and 15 min observing one of the 3 year old classes. This

class had 12 students and one teacher.

Physical Development
I noticed right off that Taylor was taller than all of his classmates. He
was large in stature as well. As the children gathered in a circle the teacher
had them act out movements to a silly song, jumping up and down,
balancing on one leg or hopping like a frog. Because of his growth, I could
see that Taylor was able to perform some of these large motor skills without
difficulty. Where some of the smaller students struggled a bit.

During early childhood, children slim down as the legs and arms
lengthen and fat turns to muscle.(Berger, 2014, p. 67).

The center of

gravity moves from the breast to the belly (Berger, 2014, p. 168)

As Taylor sat down to play with some toys that focused more on his
fine motor skills. I observed that he did quite well at being able to take a
small stick and connect it into a wheel and was able to eventually make what
he described as a helicopter. The task I noticed him struggling a bit with
was when the teacher had the children trace some bunny ears. He struggled
to grasp the pencil in the correct position and ended up trying several ways
to position it. Since this is just the beginning of the school year, Im sure
Taylor will improve with this skill over time. Mastery depends on maturation
and practice (Berger, 2014, p.170)
He seemed to do better when he was painting and he had a larger handled
paintbrush, making it easier to grasp.

Cognitive Development

At the beginning of the class the children were allowed some free play
time as their classmates wandered in. I noticed that Taylor had gathered
some toy animals and proceeded to line them up. As he would do so, he
would talk to the animals as if they were alive. Saying things like, here
doggie, come lay down and take a nap. Are you hungry now? Here eat some
food. As he was playing, a classmate walked over with a toy vacuum and
pretended to vacuum up the animals. Taylor did not like this and
complained to his teacher that, Sadie was trying to vacuum up his animals
and she was going to hurt them. This type of thought would fall under what
Piaget described as animism the belief of many young children that natural
objects (such as a tree or a cloud) are alive and that nonhuman animals have
the same characteristics as the child. (Berger, 2014, p. 182 )
As the children sat down to talk about the month of October and the
teacher was telling the children that Sarahs birthday was in October. Taylor
kept interrupting his teacher saying. My birthday is in November, Im going
to get a helicopter for my birthday. His teacher patiently reminded him that
they were talking about Sarahs birthday at the moment. Taylor would reply
saying, I want to talk about my birthday. Taylor was displaying a phase that
Piaget defines as egocentrism self-centeredness. Egocentric children
contemplate the world exclusively from their personal perspective.(Berger,
2014, p.182)
Taylor also showed signs that his prefrontal cortex is maturing as he
demonstrated that he had the ability to sit still and concentrate as his

teacher was trying to explain how to do a painting project. Where some of

the other students were talking to each other and laying down on the floor or
bothering their neighbor. This falls under Eriksons Brain Maturation benefits
from myelination of the limbic system, growth of the prefrontal cortex, and a
longer attention span all made possible by the neurological
maturation.(Berger, 2014, p.207)

Social/Emotional Development
I noticed an incident where Taylor demonstrated empathy an
understanding of other peoples feelings and concerns.(Berger, 2014, p.
226) While seated in circle time he noticed that two other boys were fighting
and one boy pinched the other boy on the neck. This resulted in one little
boy crying and the other having to go sit by the teacher. For the next 20 min
or so, Taylor kept seeking out the classmate who had been pinched and kept
saying Chase are you O.K? Does your neck still hurt?
During free play time I noticed that Taylor and another male classmate
were pretending to build swords and lightsabers together with some toy
sticks and wheels. They were discussing with each other how it should be
done and helping each other as they sorted out the blue and red sticks. This
type of play is called cooperative play Children play together, creating
dramas or taking turns (Berger, 2014, p.213). After they were finished they

decided to test their weapons out and had a sword fight. This resulted in a
boisterous interaction of good guy verses bad guy type of play. It then
escalated into the two of them physically wrestling on the floor. Taylor and
his classmate were demonstrating rough and tumble play it looks quite
rough because the children seem to tumble over one another (Berger, 2014,
p.214). This type of play is particularly common among male friends
(Berger, 2014, p.214) Even though this interaction was short lived because
the teacher reminded them that the classroom was not the place for that,
they seemed to enjoy playing with each other.

Reference List

Berger, K. S. (2014). Invitation to the life span (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Worth
Publishers.