FHS 1500-004

Victoria Wagstaf
Observation 2

Background Information:
Childs Age: 21 months
Childs Name: Ethan
Location: Park
Brief Description: There were two little boys and one little girl playing
together as five adults sat to the side.

Physical Development:
The little boy that I observed at the park, Ethan, was 21 months old and weighed
30 pounds. Speaking to his mom I found out that when he was born he weighed a
little over 6 pounds. He was born a month early and had to stay in the NICU for a
couple weeks. Everything turned out fine even though he was born earlier than he
was supposed to. For a child that is 24 months old they should be about 28 pounds
(Berger, pg. 92). Ethan is younger than that and weighs more. He is bigger than
the average child but is still within a considerable range of being a healthy toddler. I
then found out that he is about 35 inches tall. Although he was born a month early,
he was 19 inches, which is a decent height for such an early baby. By age 2 a
toddler should be about 34 inches tall. Ethan is more than the average (four times
heavier than he was when he was born) and has grown more than a foot taller since
he was born. The average range in percentile is 50%. (Berger, pg. 93) Ethan is
significantly more than the 50th percentile, but his doctor says that he is not growing
at a rate that is too fast or too slow. Based of of Ethans height, weight, and
percentile, He is bigger than the average toddler is at his age.
Cognitive Development:
While watching Ethan playing along with the other kids and their toys that they
brought to the park, It was easy to see that Ethan is very smart. He was playing
with some of his Legos in the grass. He was not just smashing them together like
the other little boy was doing, but was actually stacking them together. He was not
able to build something because he still has yet to know how, but he was building in
his words, a tower. He was showing the little girl how to stack the Legos on top of
each other. In the text it says that some toddlers remember how to do certain things
and how to make certain toys of theirs work by completing an action. He knew that
if he angled the Lego just right that they could stack onto each other and build his
tower. He has been saying words since he was about a year old according to his
mother. The text says that some babies do not begin to talk until they are around 18
months old. He had passed this at a year. English speaking toddlers tend to use

more nouns than they do verbs (Berger, pg. 122), but Ethan is not only using
verbs, he is also speaking in sentences. Grammar can be discerned in holophrases
but becomes obvious between 18 and 24 months, when two-word combinations
begin (Berger, pg. 123). Ethan uses much more than just two-word combinations.
As he was playing with the other little boy and girl he would turn to the little girl,
who must have been about a year or so, and asked her you want to play my
Legos?, meaning did she want to play with his Legos. He would clearly speak in
sentences. He may not have been using correct grammar all the time, but at his age
most children speak that way.
Social/Emotional Development:
When Ethan was playing with the other little boy and girl, he was very nice to
them and gentle. They were all sharing their toys and Ethan would ofer his to
either of the other children to play with. He and the other little boy would talk back
and forth with each other, having their own little toddler conversation about
something we could not hear from where we were sitting. Ethan seemed
completely content just playing with the other two children but when his mom stood
up and went to walk to the stroller which was in the opposite direction of him, he
got concerned. This is called separation anxiety (Berger, pg. 133). Ethan did not
start crying when he saw his mom, but his eyes got big and he stood as if he was
going to go after her. Once he realized that she was not going anywhere he was fine
again and went back to playing with the other two children. Ethan got upset when
the other little boy took one of his toys from him and through a small tantrum about
it, until the little boy gave it back to him. Toddlers have an entire spectrum of
emotions so this seemed completely normal (Berger, pg. 134). The three little kids
walked to the sand box to play next and it was funny to watch when they realized
that the sand was sticking to them everywhere. Ethan would pick some up and
then would realize it was stuck to his hand and would try to brush it of on his leg
then realized now it was on his leg. This showed that he is aware that he is his own
self or more so he is self-aware (Berger, pg. 134).