For this assignment I observed four children, all of which have been given names of anonymity in order to protect the participants. The children I observed were Molly, age 5, Bailey, age 7, Floyd, age 9, and Ann, age 12. I observed the children for a total of one hour in their home. The observation occurred on March 15th,2017, this started at approximately 2:00 PM ending at 3:00 PM. The main focuses of my observation tool place in their living room as well as their play room. Most of the time their mom was in the room with us, but during the times when she was absent, the children’s oldest sister, age 16, was in the oom as well.
Some factors that may have influenced my observations would be the fact that the kids were on Spring Break from school. Meaning, their schedule is not what it would typically be at the given time on a “normal” day. Another factor would be the time of day, since it the observation took place in late afternoon, it could affect the way the children acted, whether they are more sluggish or more hyper depending on events that could have occurred earlier in the day. Also, there were three girls and one boy, this could affect the way that they interact with one another.
Finally, the children are also in elation to me which could have made them more playful or more of the “show off” type. There was no prior information given to me before the observation began, but because of my prior connections with the family I do know that Ann has begun puberty earlier than average. Record of Observation When I first see the kids, they are all on some sort of electronic device. Whether it be an iPad or a cell phone. Ann and Floyd were on their personal cell phones and Bailey was on the phone that the kids use to play games. Molly was on the family iPad.
Ann looked up to see that I was there when I walked in but she hen proceeded to be occupied by her cell phone. The other children were excited to see me and ran to give me a hug, they were very energetic. Not long after being there, the kids go back to playing on their devices. Floyd was playing minecraft while Molly and Bailey played cooking games and dress up games. Ann was on social media chatting with her friends from school. They spent quite some time on their phone while Disney channel played in the background. Floyd sneaks into his room without anyone noticing, besides me, and comes back into the living room with one of his nerf guns.
While hiding being the entrance of the living room he sneaks around the corner and shoots Ann with his gun. Ann then screams at Floyd for him shooting her causing all of the younger kids to laugh. Ann then becomes frustrated with the laughter of the younger kids and runs toward Floyd’s r comes back out with a different nerf gun beginning a nerf gun oom. Ann war between all of the children. As the house fills with laughter and sounds of the kids running around in the house. This then begins to worry the mother and she tells them all to calm down when in the living room or to otherwise move the fun to the basement.
In the basement is where the toy room is, this causes Molly to look to Bailey and say “Sissy let’s go play Barbies”. And soon enough, all of the fun moves to the basement. Molly and Bailey went to the basement to play with their dolls while Floyd and Ann follow, which is interesting considering they spent their time in the playroom doing nothing other than being on their phones and watching tv; which is the same activities they were doing upstairs. As we arrive downstairs, the oldest sister is on the couch watching netflix. She glances up to see who is walking down the stairs, but other than that she goes unbothered.
Molly and Bailey do not pay much attention to her either, they simply run right past her and to the toys. Ann and Floyd take a seat next to their older sister on the couch. Ann begins to talk to her sister about all of the drama that she has going on in school. She starts by complaining about her most recent ex-bestfriend along with all of the other girls at school who have an impact on the current argument that she is undergoing. The conversation gets confusing as she talks about a wide variety of people and events which makes it easy to get some of the storyline confused.
The conversation extends and it s brought up that Ann has these arguments with her friends often. The older sister mentions something along the lines of “You have too many best friends for me to keep track of” and “You guys are always fighting”. Meanwhile, the girls change from playing with dolls to playing with playdough. Molly asks Bailey if she would like to play “Blind Playdough Race”. In this game, the kids close their eyes and attempt to create an object out of playdough, whoever has the closest look alike to the object desired wins.
They start by seeing who can make the best hotdog out of playdough, going on to create a snowman, and a flower. The two girls bicker when the time is up to compare playdough creations, they both think that they are the winner. During all of this time, Floyd has just remained on his phone playing minecraft and clash of clans. Discussion and Conclusion about the Children Physical and Biological Development Based off of in class discussions in regards of physical development this semester (2017), I have concluded that the children in general are all on the right track in terms general body development.
Molly is average height and weight for her age, she is very active and spent a lot of time running place to place when she as playing with her siblings. Molly is upbeat and always in a fast pace and appears to have good balance. When the girls were making their playdough creations, Molly’s were sort of hard to interpret; she, at times, had to point out what her intentions were with the art. This appeared to almost be frustrating to her, I believe that it was hard for her to see that others did understand the things she was creating without her explanation.
Bailey and Molly are about the same size, but this is not very abnormal considering they are only a little over a year apart in age (when counting months as well). Although there is not a reat deal of difference in appearance between Molly and Bailey, you can see a difference in motor skills a bit more clearly. Bailey was able to be more precise with the playdough creations and it was a bit easier to see what she was making. This is on track with Bailey’s physical development because by age seven, children begin to have a steady hand and become more detailed. Life-Span Development, Santrock).
Floyd seemed to be a bit tall for his age, he is a little shy of being five foot tall. Which is a bit much for his age, considering average boys height for an eight year old boy is approximately ‘2. If you factor in that boys grow around three inches a year, it shows that Floyd is a bit taller than what is expected. (Life-Span Development, Santrock). Since Ann experienced puberty sooner than most girls. In the past year or so, Ann has already experienced her menarche as well as the other factors of puberty.
This includes pubic hair growth, acne, and an increase in weight and height. Although she experienced puberty sooner than most, based off of the text, the average puberty age is about twelve which means that she is about average for her size and weight now. Cognitive Development Although Molly is in the later stages of early childhood, her communication skills still seem as though they are standard for the means of her early childhood stage. Molly’s language choice is not well constructed.
She still speaks in words rather than in sentences, for example, as I previously mentioned, when she approached Bailey about playing Barbies she just said “Sissy let’s play Barbies” rather than constructing a more grammatical appropriate sentence. She also has a bit of a speech impediment, Molly has a difficult time saying words that have the letter “R” in it. I wonder if this is based on her age and ognitive development or if it will be something that she faces for a large portion of her life.
The way that Molly and Bailey played with their dolls, in terms of their pretend play could easily be translated as the preoperational stage of Piaget’s Theory. This fits in well with Molly’s age, but in regards to Bailey it seems as though she is a bit behind in her stage of cognitive development. This may be due to the fact that the two are very close in age, influencing Bailey to express her imagination while playing with her sister. Floyd and Ann were both hard to interpret in terms of their ognitive development considering they typically were on their phones and not interacting with one another very often.
Their language skills are where they should be based on their age. Socioemotional Development Molly interacted with others very well, she was very enthusiastic and playful. I was not, however, able to see how to interacted with strangers. Again, reflecting on the playdough game, Molly became very competitive with her older sister in thinking that her playdough creations were the winner of the game. As well as when the kids began to play with nerf guns, he would try to be heavily involved in the game, even though it was hard for her to keep hold of the nerf gun.
She did become a bit upset when she would miss her shot or when another kid would hit her with the nerf gun. She by far enjoyed playing with toys more than playing games on an electronic device which I found to be a very unique and interesting quality based on the technological advances of today’s society. Bailey interacted well with her siblings, she mostly spent her time with Molly but I believe this to be due to their closeness in age and both being girls. Bailey has a very outgoing personality and also prefered ? articipating in imaginative activities rather than being on an electronic device.
Floyd kept to himself for most of the time that I observed these children. Aside from begining the nerf gun fight, he remained on his phone playing minecraft. He seems to have a more introverted personality when he is around his sisters. This may have to do with the fact that he is the only boy in the family and he may feel as though he cannot relate to the activities he participates in. I would assume that his actions may be different if he were playing with friends from school rather than his sisters. Ann shows signs of extremely fickle friendship patterns.
It is evident from the conversation that she had with her older sister that she is in arguments often and there is a lot of drama in her friend group. She bonds with her siblings well, although she does not spend her time with them consistently. This may be due to the fact that she is much older than the younger kids, and still a bit younger than her older sister, or in layman terms, she is at an awkward age. She seems to have a more outgoing personality, excluding the fact that she did not spend time being heavily active with her siblings, she mentioned many friends in the stories she told about school.
This leads me to believe that she is more outgoing with people of her age range. Combining the things that we have discussed in class with my overall observations was a very interesting task. developmental psychology can be related to many activities of daily living. Not only can you use developmental psychology to analyze events that are currently happening, you can also us it to make a prediction on the future. Based off of my observation I can concur that the children l observed are all on a successful path to development.