Format for Observation Paper

Class/section: FHS 1500-004

Your Name: Sydney Edwards
Assignment: Observation 1

Background Information
Childs age: 33 months
Name: Nick
Location: Youtube videos
Brief Nick is at daycare playing with other children his age in an inside and
Description: outside environment.

Physical Development

The first thing I noticed about Nick besides that his would still stumble when he
walked or ran. That showed me that he had developed gross motor skills, which is
actions that use many parts of the body, producing large movements (Berger, 2016,
page 101). He also seemed to not be as developed as the other kids in the daycare
because he was in three year old class and Nick was not yet three years old. Compared
to the other children around Nick he looked to be physically as many of the other kids
which, by looking means he most likely is in the right percentile for height and weight.
Percentile is a point ranking scale of 0 to 100. The 50 th percentile is the midpoint; half
the people in the population being studied rank higher and half ran lower (Berger, 2016,
page 90).

Cognitive Development

Since Nick wasnt quite as old as the other kids in his class he didnt have as good
of vocabulary or language skills. I observed this when he was babbling or talking in
incomplete sentences to those around him. Nick is most likely into the naming explosion
development of his language skills. Naming explosion is a sudden increase in an infants
vocabulary, especially in the number of nouns (Berger, 2016, page 121). Another thing I
notice about Nick is when a child squealed at him and he squealed back at them. That
social referencing and could go under social development as well but its when, seeking
emotional responses or information from other people. (Berger, 2016, page 146).
Social/Emotional Development

While observing Nick interaction with the children around him and the caregivers
I noticed that before he did something new to him he would look for reassurance from
the caregivers. According the textbook this attachment as launching pad stage. The child
looks for praise or comfort from there caregiver as they explore further into their social
world (Berger 2016, page 139). Another thing that I noticed about Nicks social
development is that he would watch the other kids play. This is known as on-looker play,
which, is when a child watches other children play (Berger, 2016, page 207).

Reference List

Berger, K. S. (2016). Invitation to the life span (3rd ed.). New York, NY: Worth Publishers.