Ashley Matthias

Teaching 3730

Professor Vic Levy

December 1, 2010

Developmental Assessment

During my Block I placement I had the opportunity to observe several children, but

spent much of my time taking a keen interest in observing one particular child. This child, who

for the sake of this paper we’ll call Jack, blended in quite nicely with the crowd at the beginning

of the placement; however, after learning the dynamics of the classroom, and the various levels

of intellectual, physical and social development, began to draw more and more of my attention.

Upon first inspection Jack can very easily fall into the category of a ‘typical’ third grader.

He enjoys playing legos during free time, he completes homework with relative ease, and he

occasionally gets caught talking when he shouldn’t be. Just like Jack, the classroom he was

observed in is fairly typical of a third grade classroom. The walls are decorated with children’s

artwork, the most exciting part of the day is recess, and the children wine when the teacher

distributes a test. There were no exceptionally outstanding features of the classroom; and

likewise, there were no critically important learning tools missing. It is interesting to note that

this school is fairly small, and Jack was a member of a classroom that only consisted of 12

students’ total. Perhaps this is why Jack’s uncommon behaviors slowly began to catch my eye

and gain my attention.

Physically, Jack appears to be equal to his peers in size and shape. There is nothing in

his physical appearance that would make him stand out in a crowd of his peers; however, there
are slight differences in the way he carries himself and level of physical activity he is

comfortable with. Jack would much rather play games that involved small, controlled motor

skills versus large, often unpredictable motor skills. For example, one of his favorite free time

activities is legos, an activity that he could complete individually or parallel playing with a few

other children; however, he really has a difficult time participating in gym class where large

motor skills are often required. He doesn’t voluntarily participate in any gym or recess activity,

and often does anything he can to play as little of a role as possible. His large motor skill

coordination is clearly developmentally behind his peers.

Jack’s cognitive development is very interesting, too. The two core subjects I observed

Jack in were reading and mathematics. While I don’t doubt he knows the subject matter (I

graded several homework assignments and assessment pieces which proved he knows the

subject matter), he has a very difficult time verbally expressing what he knows. This was the

first developmental difference I noticed in Jack and the other students. He has an incredibly

difficult time answering questions when call upon during a class discussion. He can’t seem to

find the words to express himself and the idea he would like to share. This usually results in a

clear display of frustration, which many times has at least one or more of the following signals:

hands covering face/eyes, throwing hands onto desk, slamming books, vigorously shaking head

in ‘no’ manner or curling up into a ball within his already confined desk space. Despite any

teachers best efforts to keep him calm and help him talk through what he is trying to express,

he completely shuts down in what seems to be an effort to remove himself from the situation.

During these times Jack never makes eye contact with any persons in the room or witness to

what is happening.

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 As mentioned before, he undoubtedly knows the content and even goes as far as trying

to perfect much of the time. For example, to correspond with a story the class read in reading

each child was asked to make a square design to be later placed together to form a class quilt.

He was unsatisfied with several versions of his quilt square and re-started several times before

he was told he was not allowed to take any more quilt squares, he needed to finish one that he

had already started. After an obviously display of frustration he finished his, but made sure

everyone knew it could have been better if the teacher would have allowed him to take just

one additional quilt square. Not surprisingly, his ended up being one of the most proficient

squares completed, exceeding the expectations.

There is evidence that Jack is developing his concrete operational thinking. Seriation,

transitivity, classification, decentering, reversibility, and conservation all seem to be

developmental concepts that he has a good and growing grasp on. However, Piaget also

discussed the elimination of egocentrism in the concrete operational stage. This process hasn’t

been completed in Jack’s case. He has a very difficult time considering others around him and

understanding that the world doesn’t, in fact, revolve around him. Piaget did outline a rough

timeframe as to when these developmental stages usually take place, and Jack has a few years

to go before he is beyond the average. There is still time for this development to take place in

the average predictable timeframe for Jack.

Jack’s interaction with others is also quite interesting to observe. When he is with peers

he plays the role of ‘expert’ in almost every situation he enters into. When he talks to peers he

seems to talk down to the other children as if they don’t quite understand without his

assistance/input. This is most definitely not the case. Contrarily, when talking to teachers he

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has a completely different persona. He acts as though he knows nothing and needs one on one

attention to even make any progress with any given task. For example, on a test he didn’t

understand the directions and just wanted the teacher to tell him the answer. When she told

him he would just have to re-read the directions do his best and try to figure it out he was

almost reduced to tears because that just didn’t seem possible without help. This situation is

tricky because if the directions truly were unclear then the teacher should have clarified;

however, no other students seemed to have trouble with that particular question which was

extremely similar to ones they had been practicing both in class and in homework.

The one thing I didn’t get to observe was a story or situation where there was an

abstract concept to grasp/understand. I wish I had this opportunity because I think it would

have been interesting to observe him try to make sense of it. I’m not sure if he would have

understood the concept or not. The closest thing I observed was a few jokes told by other

students, many of which he didn’t understand because of often times not concrete/literal

meanings.

In the relatively short amount of time I spent observing Jack I discovered he has a

relatively reasonable self-concept. He knows that he is one of the more academically achieved

students in the class as far as assessment grades are concerned, and he also realizes he isn’t the

best dodge ball player in the class. In other words, he is beginning to understand his strengths

and weaknesses. Along with beginning to distinguish and compare himself to his classmates he

is developing a sense self esteem. It is interesting to note the areas in which Jack is most proud

are those in which he completes individually, rather than accomplishments that are

collaborated upon.

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 Emotionally Jack isn’t reserved or afraid to show emotion, whatever it may be. All of his

classmates (and teachers) have seen him show signs of sever frustration, joy, resentment,

caring/compassion and sorrow. The only difference between Jack and his peers is that he tends

to show his emotions in extreme ways. For example, our society (for better or worse) typically

teaches young boys to keep from crying in all possible situations. I saw other boys tear up in

class; however, they tried to keep the situation contained and attention away from them. Jack,

however, will make all of the sobbing and hysterical noises that would come along with a two

year old throwing a ‘temper tantrum.’ His actions draw attention to himself. This is the case

several of the ways he chooses to emotionally express himself.

There is no shame in showing emotion, especially at such a young age; however, in such

extreme cases like this it is a case where proper ways to deal with various emotions haven’t

been realized or learned. This may be a result of Jack’s personality type. I am unsure of the

pressure coming from outside sources, but the pressure he places on himself to perform every

task as near to perfection as possible is overwhelming. As a result Jack suffers from extreme

anxiety. Jack is no-doubt a Type A personality.

Erickson discussed developmental stages where children develop psychosocial skills in a

specific order. Two of the stages I observed were the development initiative or guilt and the

development of industry or inferiority. Successful completion of each of Erickson’s eight

distinct stages results in healthy personality development and successful interactions with

others.

From what I observed I would conclude that Jack hasn’t developed personal initiative at

this time. He never initiates conversation or play with peers. He would much rather complete

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tasks individually than participate with others. When required to work in small groups his lack

of self initiative has made him a follower at this point in time. Jack, however, has become quite

industrious in his individual tasks. He receives praise and encouragement from teachers and

peers to continue expand his achievements. Again, in most situations this industrious behavior

is completed individually.

Jack’s social relationships are limited in the school environment due to the fact that

communicating specific ideas is difficult and the desire to be alone in completing tasks isn’t

inviting for other students. Right now other students just go about their business and leave him

alone to do his own thing. Because the students are fairly young, he doesn’t seem to have any

labels from his peers, but I wouldn’t doubt that he begins to receive some in the next few years

as they head towards middle school. The interactions he has with teacher seem more favorable

when they are one on one versus in small groups or class discussions. Unfortunately, this isn’t

possible in all situations and leads to situations that are frustrating for Jack, the teacher, and

the entire class. I truly believe in Jack’s perfect world he would be in a one on one classroom all

day, every day.

Jack seems to have achieved several of the developmental milestones for children his

age; however, his is severely lacking other social and emotional developmental areas. At this

point in time it’s best that Jack is required to attempt positive social interaction with other

children, because it will only get harder as he and his peers get older. I think Jack will continue

to develop socially and emotionally; however, the pressure he paces on himself and the anxiety

that results from it may cause problems in the future. The world isn’t a perfect place and he

needs to begin to understand the sometime imperfection is perfection.