Alexis Fodor

Professor Bottliglieri

Educ 111

December 7, 2019

Infant Observation Assignment

15 Minute Snapshot

Placement: Infant

Child Name: “Child A”

Child Age: 12 months

Observation:

Child A crawled across the floor and into a baby car seat that was sitting on the floor. The

teacher immediately walked over to her, said “No, you can’t be in there” and then moved her to

another space in the room. Child A sat there and watched as the teacher walked to the door and

sat the car seat in the hallway. Once the teacher moved on to another task, Child A lost interest

and quickly crawled over to a jumping seat. She pulled herself up and occupied herself by

playing with the toys on the table part of the seat. She giggled and continued to spin the toys. She

then shook the seat with an angry look on her face and went back to spinning the toy. Child A

repeated this three times over a five minute span, alternating back and forth between spinning the

toy and shaking the seat. She then fell on the floor and simply observed the other kids around
her. Her eyes then fell on whom her parents called “her favorite teacher” when they dropped her

off earlier in the morning. Child A crawled over to her teacher and became visibly upset when

she saw the teacher was holding another infant. She began to scream and cry. She continued to

cry as she crawled away and back to the jumper seat. Child A squealed as she stood up and

shook the chair once again. This time, the shaking didn’t last very long. She then used the edge

of the chair to walk over towards a folding chair that was set up by the feeding table (the teacher

had just gotten up to greet another parent). Child A pushed the chair along the floor almost like it

was a walker. She stood there smiling and cooing with a big grin on her face. One of the teachers

then approached her and asked if she was ready to eat breakfast. Child A started bouncing and

squealing, but then fell over as she cannot stand on her own yet. After she was put into the

feeding chair, she quietly sat there taking in her surroundings. The bowl of strawberries

approaching her caught her eye and she began giggling and flapping her arms. She grabbed a fist

full of berries and shoved them into her mouth.

Reflection:

Child “A” seems to be very curious about her surroundings, but doesn’t engage for the

most part. She played well by herself and never really showed initiative to play with any of the

other kids in the room (granted, most of them were a lot younger than her). She showed a lot of

enthusiasm when the adults interacted with her and was able to make connections with them. She

shows good understanding of the language used around her. Even though she isn’t able to speak,

she knew that “being ready to eat” was a good thing and showed excitement towards it as she

squealed and bounced around.

Implication for teachers:

The teachers for this age group should be clued in to her curiosity. She clearly shows

interest in what they’re doing. It’s good to continue to talk to Child A in a normal voice to

continue her vocabulary and encourage her to speak. It is really good developmentally for adults

to interact with children when they babble. Since she is almost a year old, she could also start to

use toys like puzzle boards, sorting toys and other things that will encourage her fine motor

skills. They could also encourage her walking. She showed initiative of wanting to walk when

she used the chair to walk across the room. I would say that the teachers could walk with her

while holding her hand, sit down and have her practice a short distance walk to them or even get

a baby walker if that resource is easily available.

 Infant Observation Reflection

During my observation, I was able to watch not only the teacher’s interactions with the

children, but with the parents as well. I performed my observation in the morning while some of

the kids were being dropped off for the day. With that being said, I didn’t get to see a lot of

actual teaching happen, but I did have the opportunity to pick their brains a little about their

curriculum. This classroom was the first in the hall so everyone entering the building had to walk

past and a large majority of kids and parents waved through the door and greeted the teachers by

name. This made me feel as if these teachers were well liked and built good relationship with

their prior children. The parents walking in the room shared stories of the night before at home,

plans for the weekend, and other personalized interactions. Some children began to cry as they

realized their parent was leaving, but the teachers in the room had no problems soothing those

children and redirecting them into classroom activities. I was given the impression that one of the

dads wasn’t the typical drop off parent and the child seemed to struggle with this more than he

typically does. The dad looked at the teacher and said something along the lines of “How do I

sneak out? I know you’ll be able to handle him once I leave.” These interactions showed me that

the parents have a strong trust towards these particular caregivers.

The daycare as a whole had a schedule for learning each week. They would focus on a

letter, and an object (for example: L and a leaf). The infant room would do crafts or some sort of

display that went along with that central schedule. The teachers expressed to me that it is a little

difficult to do “lessons” with infants, but they try to keep up and as they get older they try to

incorporate things like color and shape recognition into their classroom even though it’s covered

more in the young toddler room.

 There was a large array of toys in the room and they were displayed on short shelves.

Things like stuffed animals, soft books, plastic animals and other age-appropriate toys were

scattered around the play areas of the room. The room was divided into two main areas, there

was a half wall separating the cribs from the carpeted toy area, and the floor under the feeding

table was tiled. The general layout of the room worked well for the environment – teachers could

see everything around the room no matter where you were.

Technology was greatly utilized in the daycare, but a little less in the infant room. Each

of the teachers had iPads with a centralized app used for communication. Teachers were able to

upload photos of their children as well as post feeding times, diaper changes, and it also allowed

for communication between parents and teacher. However, the internet was down the day I

observed the infant room – in this scenario the teachers recorded diaper changes and feedings on

pieces of paper to be sent home at the end of the day. They also had a board posted right inside

the door of important information for parents to check on daily.

Infants have never really been my preferred age group. I thought it was great to watch the

children interact with each other and even how they interacted with their teachers and the other

parents. It was interesting to watch how just a few months of age difference showed the

developmental stages in the classroom. I did struggle with the curriculum a little; it was difficult

to get a grasp around what exactly could be done with that particular age group especially since I

didn’t see a whole lot of it in action.

 Tall Cabinets for Staff’s
personal use Crib Crib Crib Crib
Clothing/Diaper Bag shelf hanging

Crib
from wall (Off ground)

Crib Crib Crib

Crib
Door (for
Glider half wall)
chair
Bouncer Foam Trash
chair Can
Play box

Shelf
Swing Changing
Seat Table

Toy Shelf
Swing
Seat

& Window
Toy Shelf

Tile floor with “U”-Shape group feeding table

Glider Glider
chair chair
Door to
hallway

Play
Sink/Cabinets/Fridge
yard
door