The child who is the focus of this study is named Charlie.

His birthday Is February 11

and he just turned five. He has light brown hair and hazel eyes. He is average size for his
age. Charlie is male and of caucacian descent. Charlie is a talkative smart and
wonderfully imaginative little boy. He!s very friendly and gets along very well with other
children. He loves su"erheros aliens and dinosaurs. Charlie shares toys with his
classmates e#tremely well and rarely gets in arguments with them he is very easy going.
I chose to make him the subject of my study because his "ersonality is delightful and he
is very vocal and easy to talk to. He makes me laugh every day I observe in his class
because he says the funniest things. He has also been attending at the center I observe at
since he was si# weeks old and his older brother went there as well so the center staff
are very familiar with him and his family.
Charlie is a member of a four "erson family. His "arents are married and seem to get
along well together. He has an older brother $le# who is in second grade and just turned
eight. They are a white u""er%middle class family. His father works for &aterford &ater
and his mother is a bookkee"er for Cranbrook museum. They also have a dog who
Charlie often com"ares to my service dog. His "arents are very well%s"oken and educated
"eo"le. His mother signed the "ermition sli" for the child study without 'uestion and said
she was ha""y to let me observe her son.
Charlie is very healthy. I believe he did have one minor cold and one case of the flu in
the time in which I have observed him and his class. His mother had "renatal care
throughout the duration of her "regnancy and Charlie!s birth was uncom"licated and
routine. He met develo"mental milestones on time walked at a year old etcetera.
Charlie has e#clusively attended his current Childcare Center (ea"in! (izards. He started
going there at si# weeks old and has never gone anywhere else. He started out in the
infant room then "rogressed through the toddler classrooms and this year and the year
before he has been in the "reschool "rogram. (ast year their grou" was larger so he was
with just three%year%olds but this year the amount of "reschoolers is much smaller so he
is in a mi#ed class of both three and four%year%old children. The ratio right now is 1 adult
to 1) or 1* children de"ending on the day. &hen Charlie was an infant and toddler the
ratio was one adult to four children. Charlie will be going to +indergarten in the fall.
(ea"in! (izard!s "hiloso"hy is as follows, (ea"in! (izards takes "ride in assisting every
child to grow academically emotionally and socially. &e work with the child and family
to make sure we
are meeting the needs of every child we care for. Charlie!s "arents are very involved in
the "rogram. I often see his mother talking with his teacher about Charlie!s "rogress
making suggestions and volunteering to hel" with activities when she is available.
-e"ort,
.hysical.
Charlie is develo"ing like most other ty"ical five%year%old boys. He runs and climbs on
e'ui"ment during outdoor "lay time and does not seem to have any "hysical delays or
difficulties. He can jum" ho" on one foot kick a ball run walk while holding onto
objects walk backwards and loves movement games like the Hokey .okey and /imon
/ays. Charlie sometimes needs to be urged to be active. He is content to sit at a table and
draw "ictures or "lay with "lay doh. &hile outside this is not usually too much of an
issue but there are times where he will just sit on to" of a "lay structure and not move
much. I think that his instructors should come u" with games "romoting "hysical activity
to hel" get him moving since he enjoys "artici"ating in them and they hel" to encourage
him to be active. He does love to be chased either by other children or his instructors so
that might be a good activitiy to hel" kee" him active. He also would really enjoy "laying
games like 0hide and seek0 and 0duck duck goose0 so those are some activity e#am"les
which could be im"lemented.
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Charlie gets along very well with his classmates. He interacts wonderfully and actively
engages in coo"erative "lay. /ocially he seems to be right on target for his age. He shares
reasonably well with his classmates but does occasionally become "ossessive over a
"referred toy but those situations are relatively rare and easily resolved. He "refers to
"lay with other children rather than alone. He has a grou" of friends he tends to gravitate
to the most in his class "articularly a little girl named 5allorie they do everything
together. .hoto $1 is a "icture of Charlie and 5allorie together. $s demonstrated in
observation notes number one two and si# Charlie has no "roblems socializing with his
classmates. He carries on two sided conversations "artici"ates in coo"erative give and
take "lay and enjoys the com"any of others. I think it is always eneficial to "lan and
im"lement activities that "romote and su""ort social develo"ment $ctivities in which
students are encouraged to interact together to achieve a common goal or to discuss what
they have done together. For e#am"le I would like to "lan an activity where the
instructors hide various laminated flowers with letters "rinted on them all around the
classroom and the children have to find them and "ut them in their matching flower "ots
which would have matching letters "rinted on them. This would hel" encourage
communication between the children conversations about where to find the letters and
coo"eration with each other as they work together to find each flower and match their
letters to the one on the matching "ot.
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Charlie is right on target in terms of cognitive develo"ment. He can count to )8 knows
his $9C!s and the signs for them because of their al"habet sign language song this class
sings every day and can write his name. He "articularly seems to enjoy numbers and I
often have heard him counting as he "uts blocks and cars back in the bucket as he cleans
u".
$s demonstrated in observation note four Charlie!s counting is great but he does need to
"ractice writing. $s shown in the "ictures of Charlie!s tracing work :labeled tracing
work; this center does a considerable amount of tracing work which while beneficial
shouldn!t in my o""inion be the main writing "ractice they get. They did do a very cool
activity when they were redoing the flooring in the "reschool classroom. They had the
kids "ractice writing their names on the subflooring before the u""er floor was laid. This
activity is shown in the "icture labeled 0Charlie writing his name on the floor.0 I believe
that some activities should be im"lemented to hel" with fine motor skills. .laying with
"lay doh would be a great o"tion to do with Charlie and his classmates as molding and
building with it automatically strengthens their hands while they are having fun. These
muscles are the same ones that will be res"onsible for coordination when writing and
drawing. /tringing and Threading beads is also an e#cellent activity to hel" with fine
motor skills. I believe that increasing fine motor activities and also having the children
"ractice actually writing the letters rather than just tracing them will be a good a""roach
to im"rove Charlie and his classmate!s handwriting.
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I believe that Charlie is develo"ing ty"ically in the area of language develo"ment. He
s"eaks in full sentences and "aragra"hs. He does not have a lis" and the great majority of
the words he s"eaks are intelligible and easily understood. He does however have a
tendency to substitute words with similar sounding ones if he cannot "ronounce them
correctly. For e#am"le in the "icture of him wearing an $l"ena shirt :labeled $l"ena
shirt; he calls it a jalo"ena shirt. This is in my e#"erience fairly ty"ical for his age and I
think all that is needed is "erha"s a gentle correction and a demonstration on how to
correctly "ronounce the word he is mis"ronouncing. Charlie also has a tendency to take
very loud dee" breaths before s"eaking and seems to get out of breath when he is talking.
This usually ha""ens when he is in front of the class s"eaking so nerves may be a factor
in it. &hen he is nervous he occasionally tends to have a difficult time getting the words
out and articulating what he is attem"ting to say the word 0um0 is inserted fre'uently in
his "hrases. I think that a gentle reminder to him by his teacher to slow down and breathe
may be all that is needed to hel" rectify this issue.
$..-1$CH T1 (3$-6I67
I believe that Charlie is definitely ready to go to kindergarten in the fall. He is curious
about the world around him shows initiative and works well in grou"s. He is eager to
learn about and discuss a variety of different to"ics and ideas and while he is
"artici"ating in "roject time I often hear him s"eaking with other children not only about
the subject they are working on itself but about how it connects to his own uni'ue
e#"eriences. 1bservation note si# demonstrates how he not only works well with other
students but also a""roaches tasks and activities with increased fle#ibility imagination
and inventiveness .
I would like to im"lement an activity to su""ort a""roaches to learning for Charlie and
his classmates. This activity would re'uire = different art stations to be set u" one for
scul"ting with "lay doh one for "ainting or drawing and one for making beading
"rojects. I would like to allow the children to choose which station>activity they would
like to "artici"ate in thereby strengthening their ability to make choices and com"lete the
tasks they would like to do. If Charlie or his classmates finish at one station and would
like to move on to the ne#t I would allow them to do so that allows them to "ractice
making inde"endent creative choices as well.
C-3$TI43,
Charlie has 'uite the imagination. He will go on and on about his fantasy worlds he!s
created within his mind. He has a 7odzilla doll which he takes everywhere with him and
often talks about the adventures they have together. In a "icture I!ve included he is
slee"ing with 7odzilla during na" time and he told me how 7odzilla "rotects him at night
and kee"s all the scary monsters away. This is shown in the "icture labled 0na" time with
7odzilla0 He loves to build things. He will s"end a lot of time in the block area building
different things and then coming u" with lots of different scenarios to include them in.
He loves to use and describe objects in different ways he has a good gras" on that key
develo"mental indicator. $s demonstrated in notes three five and si# he loves to
"retend that an object is something else. &hen he "lays with other children he is often the
ins"iration behind the games they "lay and the leader. Charlie would definitely benefit
from activities which can enhance his creative develo"ment. His center does a lot of
drawing activities :as shown in the "ictures of 0Charlie!s .ond book; but I think some
activities like asking Charlie and his classmates to make u" stories like having the teacher
begin the story and going around the grou" asking each child to contribute something
would be a great idea to encourage creativity. I believe that creativity needs to e#tend "ast
just "rojects which can be taken home to the "arents it needs to be scaffolded during
"lay as well. I "ersonallly believe that creativity is not necessarily always tangible? what
creative games and scenarios children create in their minds is just as im"ortant as a
"icture they have drawn.