Ashley McKee

10-7-2021

Potential Development- Preschool

My time spent at Potential development was so enjoyable. I love working with kids and

these kids were so sweet and cute. I was placed with 5 boys ages 3-5 and they were all at

different levels of functioning. We spent the day doing learning activities, playing on the

playground, and playing in the classroom. It was interesting to see how they set the day up and

incorporated learning activities that were still considered fun for them. They had a scavenger

hunt out on the playground and each kid had to find one apple. They then went back inside and

the kids each got a plate of sliced apples with caramel drizzled on it and they got to put

toppings on them to eat and they all loved doing that. After that they did a painting activity and

used more apples as stamps and dipped them in colors and stamped them onto their paper.

These activities kept the kid’s attention and made the day go by so fast.

The role of the educator in the care of the child with developmental delays is to teach

them within their realm of learning. Each child in the classroom I was in was at a different

developmental level and the role of the teachers was to keep them on track with their learning

activities and make sure they are progressing. It’s also important for the teachers to care for

them emotionally too because these kids can be hypersensitive to things, so the teacher has to

keep a close eye on all of the kids to make sure they’re all behaving and getting along. There are

physical and psychological needs the teachers must care for with the kids too. A physical need

is changing their diapers and feeding them. Every kid but one had on a pull-up and the teachers
had to periodically take them to the bathroom to change them and let them go. There was also

breakfast, snack, and lunch time that the teachers had to assemble the food and make sure

each kid sat down and ate it. Some needed assistance eating as well. There are also

psychological needs that these children need as well, such as working through different

emotions. A lot of autistic children have trouble working through their emotions in an age

appropriate manner. It’s essential that the teachers help calm them when they start getting

upset and find ways to prevent those things from happening. Structure is also key for these

developing kids, so keeping a schedule can be very beneficial.

The age group is was with was 3-5 and developmentally for their age they should be

more verbal than they were. Kids with autism sometimes have a harder time developing

language and some aren’t verbal at all. Another thing was out of the 5 students, 4 wore pull-ups

and developmentally but this age they should be going to the bathroom on their own.

Throughout the day they did various activities and some kids were more antsy then others and

whenever they would get up to start running around, I would grab them and sit them on my lap

which helped a lot. They seemed to focus more when they would sit with me or one of the

teachers. On the playground they were running around, and we just let them do whatever they

wanted but when they played with each other we had to ensure that it was kind behaviors and

play, not aggressive.

I really enjoyed my day at Potential Development and liked seeing how the teachers

chose to teach the kids and seeing how the kids interacted with one another. It was a great

experience and really helped enforce the things were learning in Peds class. I really want to

work with kids so this was great experience to see kids at different developmental levels.