s observation, i observed at the same daycare facility that i used for my infant observation report. For this report, i observed in the “toddler area”, which is the room infant will be moved to when they are able to walk. I observed a child in the age range 1-2 years old. I will refer to this child as Toddler B in my report.
The child’s Environment
This observation took place in the main building where toddlers and preschool aged children are separated into different classrooms. The toddler classroom was designed to have centers located around the room. these centers are areas that are separated into toddler sized activities. When walking in the room, there is a table with 6 blue chairs and to the left of that is a little bin with toys in them. On the right wall there is ABC’s and a poster that says “keep your imagination blooming read!, there is also other posters such as teacher awards, recognitions. Plus a to-do list for the toddlers. There was colors next to the windows and above that was cardboard with an allergies sign. In the middle of the room is a blue rug where they are able to dance , and to the across from that is where they keep they bookbags and coats. In each of these centers, the toddlers can strengthen their gross and fine motor skills and can show what they have learned through social learning.The Social Learning Theory is a theory proposed by Albert Bandura and this theory focuses on learning from observing others (Woolfolk & Perry 2012).
Physical Development
Toddler B had transitioned from the cephalocaudal growth gradient, or “head to tail” growth, towards the proximodistal direction of growth, from the central axis of the body outward (Hauser-Cram, Nugent, Thies, & Travers, 2014). Her body was beginning to catch up to her head and she had a lower center of gravity allowing her to walk, skip, jump around without falling. She was very stable on her feet and demonstrated her gross motor skills. These motor skills involve use of the large muscles of the legs, arms, back and shoulders, which are used in sitting, walking, running, jumping, and climbing (Hauser-Cram, Nugent, Thies, & Travers, 2014). She could walk without falling, skip and hop around the room, and had great balance. When the music played, she was the first one to go to the blue rug and dance. Also, during snack time she could pull out her chair and sit unassisted. She also was very excited to coloring time.
She demonstrated her fine motor skills when she was playing at the housekeeping center. Fine motor skills involve the use of the small muscles of the fingers and hands, for activities such as grasping objects, holding, cutting, drawing, buttoning, and writing (Hauser-Cram, Nugent, Thies, & Travers, 2014).. She also grabbed a sheet and used her fingers to try and open and flatten the sheet on the floor. When playing at the kitchen playset, she would grab fake food and grasp them in her hands or between her thumb and finger tips. She would use these gestures and move the fake food from plate to plate and sometimes into a picnic basket. She also held a plastic spoon with a piece of play food on it and tried to feed the other toddlers. During snack time, she held her cracker between her thumb and finger tips. She did not drop her cracker and did not have difficult feeding herself.
Cognitive development
Jean Piaget’s Theory has four stages of cognitive development. He believed that all children progress through these four stages in order from Sensorimotor (birth- 2 years), Preoperational (2-7 years), Concrete operations (7-11 years), and Formal operations (11-12 years and older), without skipping any stages or regressing (Sigelman & Rider 2015). Toddler B was transitioning from the sensorimotor stage into the preoperational stage. By the end of the sensorimotor stage, the former infant, now toddler, is capable of symbolic thought using images or words and can then plan solutions to problems mentally (Sigelman & Rider 2015). Before transitioning into the preoperational stage, toddlers experience the sensorimotor substages known as tertiary circular reactions and internalized thought. During the tertiary circular reaction substage, toddlers begin to try new strategies to achieve goals such as trial and error and cause and effect. Toddler B used this sub stage when playing with the toy fire truck. She would pull or push a lever that was attached to the fire truck to see what would happen. When entering the preoperational stage, toddlers will begin to use their symbolic thought to engage in pretend play, language development, and to solve problems. Toddler B did a lot of pretend play while I observed. She played with baby dolls and took care of them like a caregiver would, she says things like goodnight baby mommy loves you or give it kisses.
Cognitive development is also expressed through language. Toddler B demonstrated most of her language development at the library center. She enjoyed flipping through pages of different books and pointing to different people, places, and things and making up her own story. Even though she is unable to use sentences with multiple words, she can use telegraphic speech. Telegraphic speech is the early combinations of two, three, or more words. Toddlers all over the world use two-word sentences to express basic needs (Sigelman & Rider, 2015).
Memory is another function of cognitive development. Deferred imitation is under the internalized thought substage of Piaget’s sensorimotor stages. This sub stage usually occurs during 18-24 months of age (Woolfolk & Perry, 2012). Deferred imitation refers to the ability to remember and imitate after a period of time. Toddler B in my opinion demonstrates deferred imitation when she pretend plays and when she interacts with other toddlers. When she pretend plays, she imitates the actions of an adult and when another toddler in the room began to cry, she tried to console her like the caregiver did.
Socioemotional development
Attachment is a term that describes the emotional bond between toddlers and the adults who care for them (Woolfolk & Perry, 2012). Children can be categorized into attachment types. These types are, securely attached, insecurely attached:anxious-resistant, insecurely attached: avoidant, an insecurely attached: disorganized-disoriented.Toddler B in my opinion would be categorized as a securely attached toddler. I was only able to observe her for about 30 minutes but she would freely roam the toddler room and was not bothered by strangers. When the teachers had to step out of the room to use the bathroom or get other kids she did not show much concerns, but did watch the door as the caregiver walked out of it. Temperaments refers to the unique personality and characteristics of a child that influences how the child reacts to environment stimuli and includes the dimensions of emotionality, sociability, and activity level (Woolfolk & Perry, 2012). Many psychologists are aware of the nine dimensions of temperament: activity level, approach/withdrawal, intensity,threshold, adaptability, rhythmicity, mood, attention span persistence, and distractibility(Rothbart, 2007). Toddler B was very active and sociable. She played with toys for a great amount of time before moving on to another toy or area. Temperaments are categorized as a child being easy, slow-to-warm up or difficult. One study suggests that a child with an easy temperament, tends to be linked to warm and responsive parents (Porter et al., 2005). Toddler B had an easy temperament. She had characteristics like adaptability, soothability, sociability, etc.. Temperament characteristics can be seen in newborns and measured in the fetus (Rothbart,2007). Temperament is consistently related to important social behaviors such as empathy and conscience (Rothbart, 2007) The child was a little shy or nervous but then became very active and excited to be around the other kids. According to research theories from multiple sources, and what little time I had to observce Toddler B, I would say that she is reaching her toddler milestones like she supposed to be.
References
Hauser-Cram, P., Nugent, K. J., Thies, K.M., & Travers, J. F. (2014). Development of Children and Adolescents. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Porter, C. L., Hart, C. H., Chongming, Y., Robinson, C. C., Olsen, S. F., Qing, Z., & … Shenghua, J. (2005). A comparative study of child temperament and parenting in Beijing, China and the western United States. International Journal Of Behavioral Development, 29(6), 541-551. doi:10.1080/01650250500147402
Rothbart, M. K. (2007). Temperament, Development, and Personality. Current Directions In Psychological Science, 16(4), 207-212. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8721.2007.00505.x
Sigelman, C. K., & Rider, E.A.(2015). Life-span human development (8e). Stamford, CT: Cengage Learning.