Child Observation Projects
Introduction
The act of observing a child in a domestic situation seems to be moderately straightforward. In this exercise, more than five observations were made. The child's parents were informed of the observation project and they willingly complied with every detail made available. The child chosen for this project is a 4-year-old girl (my nephew). She is the only girl in a family of four siblings. The girl spends most of the time with her mother, who works from home due to the covid-19 pandemic. The current covid-19 situation did not impact the child's wellbeing because she behaves normally. Her father is a medic who caters to the needs of the covid-19 patients hence they rarely meet with the child. The child is energetic, friendly, and talkative. Most of the time, she gets along with strangers and her peers love her. Before the covid-19 pandemic struck, the child had already attended six months of nursery school. As stated earlier, the child adjusted to the home setting, and many hours at home did not impact her mood and joyous playfulness. However, her mother turned her room into a playing ground where the child could indulge in co-curricular activities. This particular child was chosen because of her age group and the easy-going attitude that she has towards other people. Thus, it is easier to make observations and come to a conclusive discussion if the child used for each discussion is active. Also, the child is accessible and within reach.
General Impression
During the morning hours, the child is active and talkative. She wakes up and engages her mother in screaming and running sessions. She tends to disobey everything her mother tells her to do. For instance, she wants to play instead of taking breakfast. Her mother had to forcefully feed her breakfast. It is fascinating to observe how she engages her mother and even runs away whenever her mother approaches her. At the very start, the child tends to try out everything in the morning hours and this explains the underlying reason behind her uncooperativeness. One of the underlying reasons which makes a child exhibit stubborn behavior is the need for independence. A child is a human being, and even though some of her traits are not fully developed, the need to explore the world comes first. Exploration is synonymous with finding meaning and ensuring that there is certainty around her surroundings. Each morning the child would wake up to a new beginning and a zeal for life. Children normally do not know how to express themselves fully hence the need to show adults that they are capable of doing everything on their own (Santrock, 2015). Also, the child exhibited normal toddler behavior such as throwing tantrums, kicking her mother, and other aggressive behaviors which can be associated with toddler mannerisms. Such aggressive behavior might be a way of indicating the child would like to have her away with whatever she is doing. In the long run, aggressive behavior normally ensures that the child has her way or found an alternative way. Most of the time, aggression is said to be normal among most toddlers. In this particular toddler, aggression was a way of expressing her thoughts and wants. Whenever the baby became aggressive, her mother ensured that she gave her daughter a reason to settle down and engage in another activity. For example, the child was not supposed to enter the kitchen area while her mother was cooking because of the fire.
In the afternoon, the child seats at the art and craft section. She takes black crayons and utters some words before proceeding to draw some images on blank paper. She then picks up an orange crayon and puts it back in the crayon box. After some time, her mother assists her in coloring and drawing. After time elapses, she looks at her drawing paper and then draws two small circles on her face. The child seems interested in arranging everything around her and she ends up putting the crayons back into the box and cleaning the table on which she was working. This was due to the lack of concentration in one activity. Whenever the child lost interest in one activity, she immediately switched to the next one. Sometimes, her mother had to ensure that her daughter remained seated until the entire exercise was done or halfway done. The concentration of the child was fickle. One minute she was coloring a drawing and in the next, she was running around the house. Sometimes her routine was depended on her sleeping patterns. It is vital to note that the child could not retain one activity for more than one minute. She jumped up and down whenever her mother was feeding her and sometimes walked away from her mother and played with her doll.
Specific Behavior
Description of the Behavior
Whenever the child did not get her way, she became temperamental. Temperament is a manner in which the child reacted to the people around him. The child was temperamental whenever she did not have her way. Temperament was away the child handled her emotions and related behavior. For the sake of coming up with more ways of engaging the child, the parent had to come up with more than to engage the child's interests (Santrock, 2015). For instance, the child was allowed to run in and out of the house. All the rooms were accessible for her amusement. Also, her parents did not encourage her to interact with technology thus, most of the time, her actions revolved around eating, sleeping, going to the toilet, laughing, and even crying. A home setting is designated to contain the child from the outside world due to the pandemic. Some of her emotions went high whenever she felt like sleeping and other people around her could not tell exactly the things she wanted. She could then cry and later fell asleep. It is vital to note that her mother taught her how to go to the toilet and also wash her hands due to the impending covid-19 pandemic. As a child gets used to a certain pattern she is most likely to come to terms with her social life and settle in. for instance, the child knew lunchtime from breakfast and ensured that all her needs were met with little to no supervision.
Concept Illustrated In Class
From the observation one of the concepts that stands out is socioemotional development in the toddler’s life. This is because she knew her way around the house, her actions were predictable most of the time and she later learned to tailor her behavior based on observations. Besides, at four years old, the child's cognitive brain is still rapidly developing (Santrock, 2015). Therefore, a child’s experiences will dictate how she manages her emotions. For instance, whenever her mother denied her a chance to eat dirt she would cry her heart out and then walk away if she is not given an alternative thing to engage in. Also, the child develops close relations with her siblings even though she rarely interacts with them due to social distancing enforced in the home.
Due to the limited space, the child tried to come up with ways of learning about her immediate surrounding. Her social and emotional progression was impacted by biological and initial experiences. Coupled with genetics and other childhood experiences which influenced her perception of the home setting and experiences. I simpler terms, the child's experiences shaped the way she adapted to the home setting.
In most cases, toddlers rely on their parents or guardians for their social and emotional development. Due to the controlled and restricted home setting, the child had to develop a strong relationship with her family members. For instance, she allowed her siblings to feed her and then engage them in playing fights (Leckey et al., 2020). The fact that the toddler became more social and interacted with more people, is an indication that she was leaning to develop her skills based on her current needs. For example with no other toddlers around and with the limited movement, she had to make do with whatever she got. As a child grow up, her perception tends to change because of her experiences. It is in this developmental stage that the child gets to form a personality and shape the reality around her.
Underlying Reasons for the Toddler Behavior
Socioemotional development emerges from the home setting context which facilitated the observations. For instance, as stated earlier, the toddler made the most use of her morning. In the morning, she was active and tried to do as much as possible. She could even try to take breakfast while playing with her toys. Her mother had to force her to calm down and focus on eating first before she could engage in other activities such as playing cards and drawing. This is an indication of experiences and cognitive development brought about by socioemotional developments changes (Shrestha et al., 2020). Whenever socioemotional development is explained, it is easier, to think that it relates to reading and singing alphabetical songs in a certain order. However, in this particular context, the child's social experiences shaped how she did her things. Also, the child was no bound by official rules and regulations hence her emotions and interactions never involved official exercises such as drawing painting, and coloring certain surfaces. Even though these official activities were never ruled out, the child engaged in activities such as washing the house, singing to toddler songs on YouTube bay channels, and other things. In the meantime, one can make use of other nonverbal cues such as jumping up and down to draw out a conclusion from the on-looking adults. Toddlers tend to come up with creative ways of engaging with adults and it up to the adults to be able to keenly and accurately interpret the toddler language.
The Reason the Behavior Demonstrated the Concept
The toddler was jumpy and active. At times, she was temperamental and this was underpinned by her socioemotional development. More so, an active child uses her behavior to respond to the people around her. Therefore, this is an indication of the combination of social and emotional development. Also, the child is trying to get used to the home setting which she tried to make use of and understanding. It is vital to note that her world revolved around the home setting, she did not get a chance to interact with the outside world due to the pandemic (Decker, 2020). Also, the child came up with creative ways of keeping her stay-at-home lively. For example, she was allowed to play with baskets, clothes, and other objects that other people would not term as toys and enjoyable. All these activities are connected to the child's wellbeing can be said to have been derived from her experiences. Her playfulness and active nature are tied to exercises she did in the past and the closeness she experienced with her close siblings and parents. In simpler terms, the child's behavior stems from her experiences with her parents and siblings. Her actions are oriented towards her immediate social context.
In summary, the toddler is a happy child who wakes up and immediately finds something to at the moment. Socioemotional development is developed from her parent's interaction with the child in the past and the general interactions helped to shape the child's moment and observations. It is interesting to communicate with the child while at the same time retain her concentration because she is used to engaging in more than one action. Aided by her mother the child relied on her parents and sibling for emotional support and even entertainment. This helped to shape her mood and also defined her outward behavior. Due to the covid-19 pandemic, most of the observations took place within the house.
References
Decker, C. A. (2020). Child development: Early stages through age 12. Goodheart-Willcox Company, Incorporated.
Leckey, S., Selmeczy, D., Kazemi, A., Johnson, E. G., Hembacher, E., & Ghetti, S. (2020). Response latencies and eye gaze provide insight into how toddlers gather evidence under uncertainty. Nature Human Behaviour, 4(9), 928-936.
Santrock, J. (2015). Essentials of life-span development. McGraw-Hill Higher Education.
Shrestha, M., Schwinger, C., Hysing, M., Chandyo, R. K., Ulak, M., Ranjitkar, S., ... & Strand, T. A. (2020). Agreement Between Mothers and Fieldworkers While Assessing Child Development Using Ages and Stages Questionnaires, in Nepal. Frontiers in Psychology, 11.
