Infant/Toddler Observation Assignment

Infant/Toddler Observation Assignment

Your assignment begins by reading Chapter 5. You will need to apply information from the text to your observation write-up.

You will observe an infant or toddler between the ages of 1 month and 18 months for at least one hour. The child MUST be less than 18 months of age for this observation. It can be your own child, a neighbor, your niece or nephew, or a child at a daycare center.

In the heading of your paper include the following information:

Observation date and time:

Facility/Location where the observation took place:

Location of observation (inside, outside, living room, park etc.):

Age of child:

(Note: You do not need to include the child’s name for privacy)

1. Describe the child’s physical appearance. Does the child appear healthy? What makes you think so? Be specific and descriptive. (Be objective and non-judgmental – avoid saying things like “the baby is a beautiful and chubby healthy one year old”).

2. Describe how the child moves. Give examples of how he/she uses his/her body to move through space. (i.e. crawling, walking, scooting)

3. Give examples of gross motor skills you observed. What does the textbook say for infants and toddlers of this age? How does the child compare to what the textbook identifies as age-typical.

4. Give examples of fine motor skills that you observed. What does the textbook say for infants and toddlers of this age? How does the child compare to what the textbook identifies as age-typical.

5. Provide three examples of sensory perception the child uses while involved in activity during your observation. What does the textbook say about those sense modalities and their development in infants and toddlers? How do they compare to what the textbook identifies as age-typical?

6. Describe any eating behavior observed. Did the child request any foods? Did he or she get what was requested? How did the child feed him or herself?

7. Would you evaluate the child to be within normal range for physical/motor development in his or her age group? Why or why not? Use the textbook for comparisons.

8. At the end of your write-up include 5 samples of your observations.

Your observation should be no more than 2 to 3 pages. Your observation must be proofread for grammar and spelling. If your observation is hard to read because of grammar and spelling errors you will receive a deduction of 5-15 points. No attachments will be accepted. Please review the OBSERVATION WORK SAMPLE on the class site for this assignment and Observation Grading Rubric.
OBSERVATION WORK SAMPLE
Date: October 10, 2015 from 1-3:00 p.m.
Location: Home, living room
Age: 13 months
1. Emily seems to be relatively proportional to her height, although the top of her head/forehead seems to be slightly larger than the rest of her body. Her face, legs, and arms are very “round”. Her skin looks soft and is not blotchy or red. Her hair is thicker in certain areas and thinner in the back. Her eyes are large, round, and are not crossed. Since she doesn’t seem to have any abnormal physical characteristics, I think that Emily is a healthy infant.
2. When waking up from her nap, Emily holds her head up and looks around for a minute before trying to get up. She puts her hands down on the floor with her head facing down, lifts her butt up, and pushes off the floor with her hands to stand up. Her method of getting up is consistent with the proximal-caudal order of development such that she relies more on her arms rather than her legs to stand up. Emily uses a lot of hand and arm movement such as clenching her fist and waving her arms around. She can hold her upper body upright and can sit down after standing without being supported. She is also able to stand on her own but uses the couch to maintain her balance. Similarly, she walks short distances but always from one couch to another with a waddling or swaying motion. When she plays with her mother, she crawls all over her, grabbing onto her, and falling on her.
3. The gross motor skills Emily demonstrates are walking and crawling. She alternates between crawling and walking but seems to prefer walking. According to the textbook, 90% of infants master lifting their head when lying on their stomach, sitting unsupported, standing while holding onto objects, crawling, and standing without holding onto objects before 14 months. Emily has mastered all of these gross motor skills except for standing without holding. Although she is able to stand on her own, she sometimes uses furniture to help keep her balance. Since Emily is 13 months, her inability to stand completely on her own is age-typical. The textbook also says that gross motor skills develop in a proximodistal and cephalocaudal direction. Emily’s mastery of sitting up and crawling rather than standing demonstrates this. Emily is also able to walk short distances, which is also normal for 90% of infants under the age of 14 months.
4. Emily is able to hold onto her milk bottle, grab and clench toys and food, grab with both hands, feed herself with her hands, use her finger to point, and use the pincer movement when picking up food. According to the textbook, all of these fine motor skills are age-typical. Emily is even able to point to her mouth and nose when her mother asks her where those body parts are. This demonstrates stage four of Piaget’s secondary circular reactions, such that she is able to anticipate what her mother wants and deliberately responds to her. It also demonstrates cognitive maturation such that she shifts from focusing solely on herself to others. As the textbook states, infants from 8 months to 1 year become more attuned to the goals of others.
5. Emily is extremely attentive to her mother’s voice and actions. She fixates on her mother’s face when she speaks to her, a behavior that is typical by 2 months. According to the textbook, infants are sensitive to the voices and faces of their caregivers. She also seemed to mimic her mother’s feelings and expressions. For instance, when her mother put her head down and frowned, Emily also frowned. She is also very expressive on her own, smiling and laughing when her stuffed toy dog made a barking sound. Since the social smile emerges at 6 weeks, laughter at 3 months, and responsive smiles by 4 months, Emily is within the normal range of infant visual-perceptual ability. Her perception of sound is demonstrated in her response to music. She became excited when her mother played Disney music and tried to sing along, although her “singing” was mostly babbling rather than actual words. Her babbling did have intonations which demonstrates a developing ability to distinguish rhythm, cadence, and patterns of syllables. It also suggests that she is trying to imitate actual speech, an act that is normal at 12 months.
6. Emily ate sliced strawberries from a bowl. She grabs the strawberries from the bowl with one hand, sometimes with a fist but mostly using the pinching motion. Her motor coordination is unrefined as she seems to be putting her fingers into her mouth instead of just the strawberry. She offers the strawberries to her mother by stretching out her arm towards her mother’s mouth.
7. Emily appears to be within the normal range of physical development for her age group. She is able to perform both fine and gross motor skills typical of infants under 14 months including: reaching, grabbing, pinching, sitting up, standing, walking, feeding themselves, babbling, staring, smiling, and laughing. She also attempts more advanced motor functions such as walking on her own. In terms of sensorimotor intelligence, Emily seems to have mastered stage 4 abilities and to be developing stage 5 and 6 abilities. For example, Emily demonstrated an understanding of object permanence, a stage four characteristic, when she played peek-a-boo with her mom. She also demonstrated anticipation of her mother’s reactions by fixating on her mother’s expressions before and while performing an action, another characteristic of stage four. She also performed independent actions such as feeding herself (stage five) and deferred imitation when she held her mom’s cell phone up to her ear (stage six). All of her actions suggest that she is mastering age-appropriate motor milestones and is on the path to advancing her motor and cognitive abilities.
8. Five Samples of observations:
1:30 p.m. – Emily sits on the floor of the living room with a bowl of sliced strawberries. She reaches into the bowl with her right hand and picks up a strawberry with her fingers. She holds the strawberry with both hands, picks at it with her finger, and stares at it. She puts the strawberry into her left hand, holds it with a fist, and grabs another strawberry with her right hand. She stretches out her right arm towards her mom’s face. Her mom says “hmm, thank you” and opens her mouth to eat the strawberry. Emily stares at the strawberry in her left hand for a few seconds and puts it in her own mouth using her fingers.
1:50 p.m. – Emily plays with a stuffed toy dog and gives the dog a hug. Her mom laughs and says, “Did you just hug coco?” Emily stares at her mom, babbles, and pats the toy. She hugs the toy dog again, looks at her mom, and smiles. Her mom laughs and praises her, saying, “Very good. Be gentle.”
2:07 p.m. – Emily sits on the floor with the soles of her feet touching each other in a triangle shape. She clenches a blanket with her fists and hold it up to her face. Her mom asks, “Are you playing hide-and-seek?” Emily looks at her mom for a few seconds with wide eyes. She raises the blanket so it covers her face and throws it down, smiling and looking at her mom. Her mom responds with a shocked face and exclaims, “Where is Emily?” Emily does this three times, each time looking at her mom and smiling at her mom’s response. On the third time she loses her balance and falls forward while throwing the blanket down.
2:20 p.m. – Emily’s mom sits next to her on the floor. Emily crawls over to her and grabs onto her mom’s leg. She smiles at her mom and starts to climb onto her lap. Her mom laughs and asks, “Where are you going?” Emily continues to smile and reaches for her mom’s face. Her mom moves her head away from Emily’s reach and laughs. Emily tries to stand up on her mom’s legs, climbing to reach her face. Emily seems to be very entertained. She smiles, laughs, and shouts while waving her arms around.
2:50 p.m. – Emily grabs her mom’s cell phone with both hands and holds it up to her ear. She babbles something that sounds like “hello?” while staring at her mom. Her eyes are wide, her mouth is making an “O” shape, and she has a surprised look on her face. She stares at the phone and begins to shake it. She alternates between staring at the phone and then at her mom. She doesn’t seem to know what to do with the phone.