Edec538 Child Study Final

Early Childhood Cognitive & Language Development: Logan MacChesney, Age Five
Sonoma State University; EDEC 538 Spring, 2014;

Professor Johanna Flip-Hanke
Child Study
Early Childhood Cognitive & Language Development
Subject: Logan MacChesney, Age 5
by Kelli Scott
Introduction:
Logan MacChesney is 5 years old. He will be 6 years old on August 8th.

He has one 10-year-old sister named Sage, his father is a local chiropractor, and his
mother is a public elementary school teacher. The family of four lives in a small
house in Castro Valley less than 2 miles away from extended family. This year
Logan is in Transitional Kindergarten at Growing Years day care, where he goes
about 4 days per week. While his parents are working, his grandparents who live
very close pick him up from TK and care for him and Sage until the end of the day.
He will go to Kindergarten at Chabot Elementary school in Fall 2014.
Logan and I are first cousins. His mother is my mothers younger sister.
Both Logan and myself have been raised through early childhood under the day
care provision of our maternal grandparents, Bonnie and Zoli.
Our grandparents are professionally experienced child care providers. They
used to run a day care business through their home when their daughters were in
early childhood through high school. This business provided local teachers
affordable, family-like care for their young children, and provided my grandparents
the opportunity to be more readily available to care for their daughters while
earning an income.
Grandma and Grandpas house remains a peaceful, central location for our
family to congregate or rest, for myself to visit and study, and for my young
cousins to spend time while their mom and dad are at work. This semester, my
grandmothers house provided an easy, supportive space to observe Logans
cognitive and language development for this study.
There are several different spaces where we spent our time over the course
of the semester. In our grandparents house there are two communal living spaces
separated by a dining table are and open kitchen. The large, carpeted family room
is a sunny area with a messy shelf and closet full of day care toys and games, a
big TV and two couches, and a brick fireplace with a brick hearth large enough to
fit three brown sitting cushions. This family room includes the entrance to and
from the backyard and a small washroom cluttered with kid-friendly storage and
spare play clothes and tooth brushes. Behind the house is a generously spacious,
fenced-in backyard with a wooden deck, a small lawn and an encompassing
garden. There are several old day care toys that remain in the backyard for
Logan to play with, including a rickety metal swing set, plastic baseball bats and
balls, toy shovels and buckets and a red metal tricycle. There are some cautions in
and around the house to look out for, naturally, like adult gardening equipment in
the backyard, indoor carpeting and furniture that must be respected, and a messy
garage and backyard shed where the children are not generally allowed to walk in
without permission. The children are allowed to go in the front yard and to
neighbor childrens homes or backyard with permission. The house is on a hill on
a small cul-de-sac street where there is very little traffic, making it a relatively safe
area to play and ride bikes. Because my grandparents have lived there since my
mother was a child, they are also familiar with almost every family who lives in
the surrounding homes. The general safety and familiarity of this family home
makes it a comfortable and appropriate setting for guided play time together with
my growing little cousin.
Additionally, Chabot Elementary School where Logan will go to
Kindergarten and the local public park are walking distance from my grandparents
street, so Logan and I walk to the park together when we have lots of time and
great weather. When we go for a walk, we discuss cautions and safety rules to
remember, like bringing a jacket and water, looking out for cars, and what to do if
we meet a dog or a person we dont know. Although there are many concerns to
be had in this day in age about going out into the world of dangers with a small
child, I do my best on these walks to focus our time and attention on the nature that
blossoms in our grandparents neighborhood, the benefits of exercise and family
togetherness, and questions we have about our environment.
Behaviors & Development:

Logan himself is blossoming naturally from the discoveries of pre-schoolage magical and egocentric thinking and self-regulation skills, gradually into the
ability to see that there are different points of view and that many new things can
be accomplished and noticed by attending to them and talking about them.
Reasoning & Representational Thinking:
Memory:
Self-regulation & Attention:
Language Acquisition:
Significance of Behaviors:
Scientists who study executive function skills refer to them as the

biological foundation for school readiness. They argue that strong working
memory, cognitive self-control, and attentional skills provide the basis upon which
childrens abilities to learn to read, write, and do math can be built (Ref. 2, pg. 4).
Explanation of Activities
Lesson Plans:
Environments that foster executive functioning are characterized by adultchild relationships (both within and outside the home) that guide children from
complete dependence on adult support to gradual assumption of the executive
role for themselves. Such environments neither expect children to have more
advanced skills than are reasonable for their age, nor do they treat them as if they
had no executive capabilities. Growth-promoting environments provide substantial
scaffolding to help young children practice emerging skills before they are
expected to perform them on their own. Enhancing the development of executive

functioning involves sensitive, responsive caregiving and individualized teaching
in the context of situations that require making choices, opportunities for children
to direct their own activities with decreasing adult supervision over time, effective
support of early emotion regulation, promotion of sustained joint attention, and the
availability of adults who are not under such pressure that they cannot make time
for children to practice their skills. (Ref. 2, pg. 6).
Cognitive Lesson:
Home-made Banana Bread (Science Concepts & Flexible Thinking)
Objectives:
1. To discuss where food comes from and how food is prepared!
2. To practice routine and executive functioning via participation and scaffolding
preparation tasks
1 To introduce math concepts and demonstrate flexible thinking by slicing and
sharing the banana bread.
1. To practice metacognitive thinking by discussing the learning process
Procedure:
This activity is intended to be a fully-engaging time of conversation,
scaffolding and creativity. Begin with 1) What do we already know; and 2)What
are we going to learn? questions and end activity with 3) What did we learn?
discusstion.
Follow (secret) home-made Banana Bread recipe - Engaging in conversation
topics:
-Are these spotted bananas still good to eat?
-Are bananas healthy for our bodies? Why?
-What is your favorite food to make? Do you know how to make any food?
-Who cooks the food you eat?

-How hot is the oven?
-How much sugar should we use? Lets look at the recipe.
-Can you please help me peel the over-ripe bananas and mash them in a bowl?
Prepare together: ASK permission together to use Grandmas kitchen.**
Clear space and gather all ingredients - measuring cups, mixing bowl, step stool for
Logan and aprons, etc. (music or camera optional).
Provide helpful tasks for Logan and reminders of what is happening: Allow
the child to measure and mix ingredients, and describe what we will do next as a
team.
Clean-up procedure - Discuss What did we learn? questions while
providing helpful clean-up tasks. Make a game (always!) out of cleaning together
by singing, having a (safe) race, re-assuring how helpful and productive we are,
how delicious our bread will be.
Dividing the bread: When the banana bread is done and cooled, together
decide how many people we are going to share it with and how to divide it.
Language Lesson:
Activity Journal (Language Acquisition, Memory & Creative Expression)
Objectives:
Reflection:
Conclusion:
References:
1) Bjorklund, David F. Childrens Thinking. Cognitive Development and
Individual
Differences. 5 Ed. Belmont, CA, USA. Wadsworth, Cengage
Learning.
2012, 2005. Print.
2) Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University (2011). Building the

Brains Air Traffic Control System: How Early Experiences Shape the
Development of Executive Function: Working Paper No. 11.
<http://www.developingchild.harvard.edu>
3) Copple, Carol. Growing Minds. Building Strong Cognitive Foundations in
Early
Childhood. Adapted from C. Copple & S. Bredekamp, eds.,
Developmentally appropriate practice in early childhood programs serving
children from birth through age 8, 3d ed. (Washington, DC: NAEYC, 2009),
271-81. Copyright 2009 NAEYC.

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Early Childhood Cognitive & Language Development: Logan MacChesney, Age Five

Sonoma State University; EDEC 538 Spring, 2014;

Logan MacChesney is 5 years old. He will be 6 years old on August 8th.

Behaviors & Development:

Self-regulation & Attention:

Scientists who study executive function skills refer to them as the

expected to perform them on their own. Enhancing the development of executive

-Who cooks the food you eat?

Differences. 5 Ed. Belmont, CA, USA. Wadsworth, Cengage

2012, 2005. Print.

2) Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University (2011). Building the

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