Infant Snapshot

Child; Madelyn
Age; 1 year
Placement; Infant Room

Observation:
Madelyn is sitting on her knees, after a few seconds she then sits on her bottom and starts to chew on a
cardboard book. She coughs facing another child then turns back to the book. Madelyn’s teacher says
“let’s wipe your face” and her face gets wiped by her teacher and afterwards she turns to stare at me.
After a few seconds she turns her back towards me and stares at the books on the bookshelf. Madelyn
stares at the teacher before going to sit on a C-shaped foam block. She then crawls over the C-shaped
foam block, sits, then puts her fingers in her mouth. She briefly yawns then looks at me. She starts to tug
on her hair and turns her attention to her teacher briefly before looking at me while yawning. Madelyn
crawls towards her teacher across the room and pauses for a moment before continuing to crawl and
pausing again. She stares at another infant briefly, turns back towards the teacher, then continues to
crawl towards a highchair that is between Madelyn and the teacher. She partially crawls through the
legs of the highchair then goes back and uses the highchair to stand and pulls on the straps at the back
of the highchair. Madelyn then sits on her knees and leans to the right to stare at the teacher past the
highchair. She attempts and succeeds to stand then sits on the ground again. She makes a temporary
face that displays discomfort. The teacher informs Madelyn that it is her turn to paint and picks Madelyn
up, takes her clothes off, then sits her in a highchair different than the one she was using to stand. Once
in the highchair, Madelyn turns towards me and smiles. She kicks her legs as the teacher attaches the
highchair table top to the chair. The teacher then puts a green paper in front of Madelyn and pours
brown paint on it, telling Madelyn “We’re using brown paint Madelyn.” Madelyn drags a single finger
across the paper then multiple fingers. The teacher encourages Madelyn telling her “Good job” and
“that’s good Madelyn.” After dragging her fingers again, the teacher takes the paper and Madelyn slaps
her hands on the highchair table top. She then drags her fingers across the highchair table top before
the teacher comes to clean her fingers. After her fingers are cleaned Madelyn is taken out of the
highchair and is taken towards the changing table for a diaper change. She begins to fuss as the teacher
takes her diaper off but then settles down and is calm the rest of the diaper change. After getting
changed, the teacher takes Madelyn to the sink and holds her up while washing Madelyn’s hands. She
then sets Madelyn to the ground.

Reflection:
Madelyn is very aware of her surroundings, from the moment I walked into the classroom she had
noticed me and did so throughout my observation. She has not yet begun to walk without support which
was evident as she crawled around the room and used sturdy objects to lift herself. She’s also aware of
what objects are sturdy, possibly from experience in the classroom. She had used the highchair (with a
student in it) and the side of the changing table to lift herself but did not attempt to use any of the toy
shelfs in the classroom. She was aware of her two peers in the room but did not interact with them. She
also was not alarmed when a peer was close to her. She showed enjoyment in being in the highchair
which could be interpreted that she knew something enjoyable was going to happen.
Implications for Teachers:
I would encourage Madelyn to walk more, perhaps holding her hand and walking to destinations, such
as the highchair, to help her become more confident in walking. The teacher could talk to Madelyn more
to help her language development. I would also encourage Madelyn to interact with her peers more.
Since she was not alarmed by her space being invaded, I would conclude that she has siblings but isn’t
used to playing with others yet. I would also encourage covering our mouths, while she may not fully
understand so young she will mimic her teacher and that’s a good way to help start those mannerisms.