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Johanna Hernandez

ECE 252 Section 1001

Prof. Brecheisen

Play Observation

1) Description

For this observation, I observed four of my nephews and nieces at my cousin’s house

while they played with each other in the living room. They're average ages were from 12 months

to almost 24/27 months and also in between those months. There were about 16 adults present at

that time, some outside, others inside the house just chatting and mothers glancing over to see

how and where they're children were at. There were also children of older age along with a few

teens present.

2) Cognitive Play

A) Some play materials that were available for the children were; Mega Bloks, other

building blocks of different colors and shapes, wooden toy cars, stuffed animals,

baby dolls, wooden boards with cut out shapes to put in, and also ride-on cars(one

pink and one red).

B) 3 choices made by the children were the ride-on cars, Mega Bloks and stuffed

animals.

C) The amount of time that each child played with the choices of toys were; 30

minutes almost 40 with the ride-on cars, 1 hour to 2 ½ hours while playing with

the Mega Bloks, and 25 to almost 30 minutes with each different stuffed animal

that was provided for them.

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D) Some indicators that showed me that the children were engaged with the toys

were that they would giggle, smile, some looked focused when playing and also

some would clap their hands and look up and smile at someone that would be

watching them play.

E) Some things that the children were learning while playing with these choices are;

learning how to steer a wheel on a ride-on car for children, how to construct

buildings with blocks, and how to treat a stuffed animal as if it were alive or how

they would sound like.

3) Social Play

A) 1 out of 4 children would rather engage in solitary play with Mega Bloks than to

have/join the others in playing together.

B) One child is interested in playing with a ride-on car, but does not interact with

others or shares. Another child is also using the other ride-on car and is also

engaged in playing with the other ride-on car, but is not playing with others also.

C) The play materials did help determine the level of social play to see if the children

would want to interact with others or if they rather play by themselves.

D) Some of the adult interaction that happened would either engage the children to

play more and be more excited and others would stop playing and see what the

adult was doing with the toys provided.

4) Conclusion

A) What I learned from this observation was that at times some children would

walk/crawl up to an adult/teen and show them the toy as to almost asking them to
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play with them. Other children would also play with each other most of the time

than play by themselves.

B) Two recommendations for play activities/materials would be the Mega Bloks and

the ride-on cars. Some actions from the caregivers were to celebrate or encourage

the child when playing.