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Matt Keefer
Professor Trice
PSYC 231-05
October 6, 2014
Child Observation Report
Timmy shows possible signs of one underdeveloped gross motor skill, climbing stairs.
Timmy should be capable of consistently doing so by age three, however he still struggles to and
resorts to crawling at times. This could be a result of a lack of standing functional play earlier in
life or late development of the walking milestone. We do not know Timmys exact age, so it is
also possible that he is simply not three years old. Timmy seems to be close to mastering the skill
however, since he only momentarily struggles with maintaining balance, so I do not foresee any
major problems in his future motor development.
Aside from his difficulty climbing stairs, Timmy shows signs of normal development in
his fine and other gross motor skills. When going down the slide face-up, Timmy is able to catch
himself and stand up, exhibiting an ability to suddenly stop and recover from rapid movement.
This ability normally develops after the age of three, which implies that Timmy could possibly
be ahead in development of this area. Timmys use of his hands to manipulate the many small
toys throughout the videos shows that he is also proficient in fine motor skills.
While Timmy only suffers from minor motor difficulties, his lack of language and
cognitive development is troubling. According to Piaget, Timmy is in the preoperational substage
of cognitive development and should be learning how to think symbolically and plan for the
future. Private speech plays a large part in developing these skills, thus most children in a play
setting would be seen talking to themselves and others. However, Timmy never speaks to himself

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or others in the video, which could be a sign of limited exposure to speech at home or slow
development.
Timmy also displays a lack of planning, contrary to expected cognitive development for
his age. Three and a half minutes into the second video, Timmy is seen collecting various toys
around him and placing them together in a mound. Instead of playing with them after doing so,
as would be expected from a child with typical cognitive development, Timmy leaves the toys
and begins playing with a ball drop toy across the room. While this could be a singular incident,
the lack of organized thought it suggests would label Timmy as underdeveloped in Piagets
preoperational substage.
Timmy seems to struggle in social situations as well. After leaving the mound of toys he
created, Timmy plays with a ball drop toy another child is using. While it may seem that Timmy
is partaking in associative play in the video, he avoids the other childs glance and makes no
obvious attempts to communicate or interact with him. Instead, Timmy chooses to parallel play,
by playing with the same toys, but without any further interaction. According to Vygotskys view
on cognitive development, being limited to this style of play is a major issue, since interaction
with others through guided participation is key to a childs learning. While Timmy might partake
in other styles of play outside of the video, it is clear that Timmy is socially limited and remains
very egocentric in his perception of the world.
The solitary and parallel styles of play that Timmy seems to prefer could also be a result
of stunted psychological development. Toddlers around Timmys age are developing a selfconcept and this self-view usually leads to children overestimating their abilities. When placed in
a large social situation, Timmy seems to stare off into space and appears socially detached from
the group. This resistance to group play could stem from a lack of self-confidence that would

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cause Timmy to fear performing in front of his peers.
While I do not find Timmys behavior indicative of dire developmental issues, he would
greatly benefit from individual attention at school and at home. Experimenting with several one
on one teaching sessions between Timmy and his teacher could help identify if the negative
cognitive signs from this video could lead to further developmental issues. These sessions could
also involve testing Timmys language skills to ensure that his vocabulary is developing at a
healthy pace.
Timmys social and psychological concerns could be addressed at both preschool and
home. During playtime at school, guided group play and additional encouragement from his
teacher could help Timmy adapt to interacting with others. Further exposure to talking at home
would likely aid in Timmys social development as well, by giving him more experience
conversing with others. Any lack of self-confidence that Timmy might be experiencing could be
relieved through increased encouragement of positive activities at school and home.
This assignment has made me much more aware of the potential significance of
seemingly minor actions in young children. I found examining Timmys cognitive development
very interesting, since I could clearly see evidence to support the validity and importance of
Piaget and Vygotskys theories. The tools I used to examine Timmys case will prove very useful
in understanding my children in the future. Assuming I dont become a paranoid authoritarian
parent, of course.