Running Head: SOCIAL-EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT 1

Observation #2: Social-Emotional Development through Play in Preschoolers

Kendall Munson

Santiago Canyon College

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Observation #2-Social-Emotional Development through Play in Preschoolers

The report below contains the observations, assessments, and supportive

recommendations for the social-emotional development of preschoolers through play. All

observations were conducted over the course of one hour using a Running Record at the Child

Development center at Santiago Canyon College. For the first half of the observation time, the

focus was on one child and detailed notes were written in ten minute segments followed by a

five minute break after each to gather thoughts regarding the individual’s social-emotional

development in play. The second portion of the observation was conducted on a different child

and followed the same pattern of ten minute detailed writing segments with a five minute break

after each to further look at the child’s social-emotional development through play. All

assessments and support were analyzed according to the Preschool Learning Foundations,

DRDP, and class textbook.

Social-Emotional Development through Play for Individual Child

The first section entitled Making Connections refers to the observations on an individual

child aged four. The first observation segment began at 10:00 am and ended at 10:10 am. From

around 10:11 to 10:15 am consisted of a five minute break to review observational notes taken

prior. The second observation segment began at 10:17 am and ended at 10:27 am, with a five

minute break taken after. The child observed will be referred to as Child A. Any other peers

recorded within the observation will be referred to as Other. The second section entitled Social

Play​ ​refers to a different individual aged three. Prior to the third observation beginning, a brief

switch in classroom took place so that the observations on a child younger than four could be

done. The third observation segment began at 10:38 am and ended at 10:49 am. The 5 minute
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break took place from 10:49 am to 10:54 am. The fourth and final segment began at 10:54 and

ended at 11:04, followed by a five minute break.

Making Connections

Utilizing a pre-made Running Record, the goal of the observation was to look at Child

A’s social participation, both individually and collectively. All observations will be assessed and

supported through the use of the class textbook and DRDP.

Observe. ​Child A is at table with six other classmates and one teacher intern. Different

color markers and action figures, one plant, and other toys are out on table. Child A grabs toy

snake, points toy at another student and makes a hissing noise. Child A grabs different toy

(action figure doll) and begins to draw it, looking back and forth between paper and figure. The

child closes the red maker cap, places it down, and grabs orange marker. The child picks up the

snake again and traces it by placing marker around edges of figure. The child does not talk to

other peers and observes other peers drawing. The child looks to teacher for a few seconds, but

once acknowledged by teacher, looks back to paper. Observes other children talking. Child A:

“I’m done” when closing purple marker cap. Stretches toy snake and wraps toy snake around the

neck of the action figure doll. The child stands up and walks to the couches. The child then walks

to two female students by dollhouse. Child A: “Can I play with the dolls?” ,Other child: “No.”,

Child A: “But, but everyone else is playing.” Child A then walks away to nearby chair. (After

five minute break). Child A holds card with stickers in hand. Other child: “Can I see?”, Child A:

“No, I don’t know” and quickly steps to side waving card in hand around. Child A looks to other

child walking away. Child sits in chair by dollhouse, stands up, and walks to brown couches.

Two other students pull her into a hug. O: “Got you!” Child A: “Noooo, I saw you”. Child A
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returns to dollhouse, sits in same chair as before. Child A stands and places sticker card on

nearby bookshelf. The child picks up the card and returns to chair by dollhouse. Child goes to the

first peer and waves card in front of their body and sits back to chair by dollhouse. Wipes hair

out of face. C: “Guys you can't have any”, and places sticker card inside dollhouse briefly. Uses

card to then knock down toys on top of dollhouse. The child then places card in the hoodie of

another peers jacket and wipes their face with the card. The peer grabs a sticker card and puts it

down Child A’s shirt and puts it in the face of Child A. Child A walks to bookshelf, squats, and

grabs binoculars from lowest shelf. The child returns to chair by dollhouse and looks at peers

through binoculars. C: “Are you okay?” Child pats peers back and says “Hello, you still here?”.

Highlights: Away from table activity, child heavily engaged in associative and parallel play

activities. Associate: shared common activity of playing with dollhouse and sticker cards. Not

much loaning or borrowing. Child acts as they wish. Tried to draw attention to self when playing

with other children.

Assess. ​Child A spent an equal portion of the observation segment working alone and

engaging with peers. Due to this, an assessment can be conducted under both aspects of

social-emotional development in play. If a child is engaging in onlooker play, it is typical for the

child to watch other children play but not get involved (Nilsen, 2017).​ ​When at the table with a

group of peers and one adult, the child engaged in onlooker play when waiting for attention from

the adult. The child did not verbalize a need or desire, but instead waited for the eye contact of

the adult and resumed the activity they were previously working on. Child A dedicated a solid

portion of their time engaging in Associative Play. Associative Play is defined as, “[children]…

talking, smiling, and offering objects —all corresponding to associative play” (Nilsen, 2017).
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When engaged in playing with the sticker card with peers by the dollhouse, Child A

played and conversed with those around them and discussed topics both related to and not related

to the activity at hand. This is a prime example of associative play relating to the observations of

Child A. Child A both sought out other children and was approached by others. In both

instances, Child A responded verbally to their peers when asked for an item in Child A’s hand

with either yes or no affirming statements. As far as patterns of social play is concerned, Child

A’s actions changing in regards to the gender of her peers was not noticed. For any peer of any

gender, Child A showcased their ability to go between various play activities with others. This

was seen when Child A engaged in talking about the sticker card over by the couches with one

peer and returning repeatedly to the dollhouse with another set of peers. According to the DRDP,

a child is in the building stage of social development when playing with a peer for a short while

(DRDP, p. 29,2016).​ ​Child A did so with two different groups of peers and was able to bounce

between different activities without missing a beat. Based on the observations of Child A, it can

be concluded that they are in the earlier, building in relationships and social interactions with

peers.

Support. ​Child A had a fine sense of the layout of the classroom, purpose of each

activity they participated in and had pre-established social relationships with peers. Environment

is a huge factor in a child’s development in any domain. From what I observed, the couches

placed throughout the classroom were in some spots were potentially unsafe for the age group of

the classroom. Several students, including Child A, would abruptly bump into or trip over

couches. I would suggest moving them in corners and not in places where walking room is

already limited. Towards her peers, I would recommend that the child continue to have the social
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time to engage with peers as the exchanges felt and seemed authentic and comfortable. An area

in which Child A could grow developmentally would be in her adult interactions. The child is

currently at the later responding stage in which they “show a preference for familiar adults and

try to interact with them” terms of relationships and social interactions with familiar adults

(DRDP, PG 28). It would be encouraged to have the child be able to verbally express their desire

for an adults help/attention. If/when the adult notices the child glancing in their direction for a

long period of time and then looking away, my recommendation would be that the adult say,

“Would you like my help with that?” or “Can you tell me what you’re working on?”. This can

aid the child in understanding that they are being seen and have the potential to their needs can

be both heard and understood.

Social Play

Observe. ​Child B jumps up and down while watching other peers slide toy cars down

roof of dollhouse. The child picks up the cards and hands it to peers and jumps up and down

while clapping hands each time. Child B excitedly screams, “Here, heeeeere!” and “baby” when

handing back toys to peers. Child B fiddles with toy on top of dollhouse and waddles in place

with side to side motions. Looks at other children nearby and while doing so, squats to the

ground, places hands on floor and pretends to eat food off floor. Child B stands back up. C:

“Excuse me” to other student. C: “I found my…” and trails off. Child B scratches back of head

and looks at ground. Child B leans over toy shield. The child walks to picture wall and claps

hands. The child then leans against wall with one hand and places other hand on ground while

leaning and looks at pictures. Child B bends down to look at middle of wall with birthday

cupcake picture on it. Other students nearby. Child B does not engage in conversation. Child B
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crawls, stands up, walks to couches with arms extended outward. The child returns to the picture

wall , sits on floor with other students. C: “Coo”. Child B bends in front of teacher aid. Child B

grabs toy dinosaur from shelf, shows teacher. Teacher shakes dinosaur foot and says to toy,

“How are you today?”. The child shows toy again. Teacher places toy phone to ear and says,

“Hello”. Child B slides phone screen up to reveal keyboard. Slides phone screen up and down.

The child plays hide and seek behind wall with peer and excitedly screams. Other child walks

away. Child B places phone to ear, does not talk. Then, C: “Do you see it?” while holding up

phone to teacher. Teacher: “Oh, oh, oh! Send me a message.” Two other students nearby come

over with their toy phones. All three send each other a message. Other student takes picture of

child with play camera. Other: “Cheeeeeese!” Child B half-smiles, walks away with head bent to

one shoulder. Child B walks to bookshelf and grabs toy camera, wanders around class and snaps

pretend photos. Child B hands toy camera to crying classmate. T: “Thank you, thank you.” Child

B grabs toy camera from teacher and takes photos behind teacher, sliding lever on side of camera

to take photo. Child B looks through camera lens for about thirty seconds, takes out film, looks at

it, turning it around with one hand. The child then places film back in, stares into lens again.

Takes out film and puts it back in camera. Child B coughs (not covering with hand/elbow pit)

and picks up toy phone. Child B raises hand, holding phone upward. T: “Clean up time!”

Highlights: Onlooker: spent a lot of time looking at what others students do. Associative: would

follow suit of other kids, and then engage in similar activities. No division of labor in activities.

Minimal conversation, seemed more comfortable speaking to teacher. Parallel: plays with toys

that children nearby used, followed suit, played beside rather than with other children, did not try

to control.
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Assess. ​Child B engaged in various types of social play. At the beginning of the first

observation segment, the child engaged heavily in parallel play. With parallel play, there is

minimal social contact and entails companionship but not cooperation, affiliation but not

association (Nilsen, 2017).​ ​This was seen when Child B handed toys to the other children but did

not participate verbally or physically in sliding toys down the dollhouse roof. Child B’s actions

could also associative play, but since there was minimal social (verbal) contact, it can be

determined that parallel play had more of a role during the play activity. Child B also engaged in

parallel play when walking to the picture wall. Child B did not talk to others but their action of

walking to and examining the picture wall drew others to do the same. At this level, the child is

able to “point to picture of self on wall” (DRDP, p. 26). According to Child B’s actions through

the DRDP lens of an individual's identity self in relation to others, Child B is at the earlier

exploring stage. According to section 2.1, the child “prefered a particular teacher’s company or

assistance to that of other teachers who may be equally available” (Abbott, et al., p. 27, 2008).

Child B did feel more comfortable talking to and engaging in play with their teacher over other

peers. This state of comfortability was seen in various situations of play.

Support. ​Child B could grow in their ability to engage verbally with both adults and

peers. Although the child did talk to adults more, the conversation was still minimal and timid.

The adults promoted the idea of having Child B respond verbally and should continue to follow

the same steps. ​“... different children will display skills relevant to each social-emotional

foundation in individual ways, thus requiring care are sensitivity” (PLF, pg 18).​ As the year goes

on and the child is still unable to verbally express themselves, then referrals to a specialist would

be recommended. As for interacting with peers, the environment was set up so that groups could
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find their place and play. A suggestion could be that an adult foster more group play time in

which Child B can become more comfortable conversing and playing with others for an extended

amount of time.

Preschool Learning Foundations

The following is an assessment of Child A’s social-emotional development according to

standards and sub-strands of the Preschool Learning Foundation, Volume 1.

Observe

Child A is at table with six other classmates and one teacher intern. Different color

markers and action figures, one plant, and other toys are out on table. Child A grabs toy snake,

points toy at another student and makes a hissing noise. Child A grabs different toy (action figure

doll) and begins to draw it, looking back and forth between paper and figure. The child closes the

red maker cap, places it down, and grabs orange marker. The child picks up the snake again and

traces it by placing marker around edges of figure. The child does not talk to other peers and

observes other peers drawing. The child looks to teacher for a few seconds, but once

acknowledged by teacher, looks back to paper. Observes other children talking. Child A: “I’m

done” when closing purple marker cap. Stretches toy snake and wraps toy snake around the neck

of the action figure doll. The child stands up and walks to the couches. The child then walks to

two female students by dollhouse. Child A: “Can I play with the dolls?” ,Other child: “No.”,

Child A: “But, but everyone else is playing.” Child A then walks away to nearby chair. (After 5

min break). Child A holds card with stickers in hand. Other child: “Can I see?”, Child A: “No, I

don’t know” and quickly steps to side waving card in hand around. Child A looks to other child

walking away. Child sits in chair by dollhouse, stands up, and walks to brown couches. Two
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other students pull her into a hug. O: “Got you!” Child A: “Noooo, I saw you”. Child A returns

to dollhouse, sits in same chair as before. Child A stands and places sticker card on nearby

bookshelf. The child picks up the card and returns to chair by dollhouse. Child goes to the first

peer and waves card in front of their body and sits back to chair by dollhouse. Wipes hair out of

face. C: “Guys you can't have any”, and places sticker card inside dollhouse briefly. Uses card to

then knock down toys on top of dollhouse. The child then places card in the hoodie of another

peers jacket and wipes their face with the card. The peer grabs a sticker card and puts it down

Child A’s shirt and puts it in the face of Child A. Child A walks to bookshelf, squats, and grabs

binoculars from lowest shelf. The child returns to chair by dollhouse and looks at peers through

binoculars. C: “Are you okay?” Child pats peers back and says “Hello, you still here?”.

Assess

The classroom environment set up was in favor of the those involved daily in the

classroom and for their individual and collective needs. “Social and emotional skills also develop

through the shared activities of a developmentally appropriate, well-designed preschool

environment” (Abbott, et al., p. 19, 2008) Child A seemed to know routine and was free to

choose from a myriad of intentional play centers in which social-emotional development was

encouraged. This was demonstrated by Child A’s actions of being able to go back and forth

between two conversations and set-up within both observational segments. When noticed by the

teacher, the child did not seem comfortable expressing their want/need and instead turned their

head back to the work. No discussion between the teacher and child took place.

Support
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As far as environment and set-up are concerned, I would encourage the child

development center at Santiago Canyon College to continue with the set up they have, with one

minor change. The brown couches placed throughout the classroom caused several children,

including Child A to bump into or trip over them. Safety is an extremely important priority

within the classroom, whether observing or teaching (1-1a). For teacher-child interaction, I

would suggest that the next time Child B locks eyes with teacher and immediately looks away,

the teacher try to coax Child B to express their desires. “Under the guidance of sensitive

teachers, young children [should] develop understanding of other people’s… needs and… learn

to manage their own behavior…” (Abbott, et al., p. 19, 2008). Child A and all other students in

the classroom should be able to properly express their needs and desires. Fostering the

conversation and acknowledging their actions will help promote proper social-emotional

development.

Personal Reflection

Prior to going into my second observation, I had a notch in my belt from the previous

observation, so my concerns were a little more at bay. That being said, I was slightly unfamiliar

with the Running Record observation method. I read and took notes on what it is, how it is

constructed, and how and when it can appropriately be used, but was intimidating by putting my

knowledge into practice. It is an intense and detailed observational method and ensuring that I

was utilizing it to its full effect was a priority of mine. I gained the experience of using an

unfamiliar method. As a non-participant observer, it was practical for me due to the fact that I am

not the sole person responsible for the classroom (Nilsen, 2017). Due to this, I was able to give

my undivided attention to those that were observed. The first observational segment was
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unfamiliar as I wanted to write down all that I possibly could, trying not to miss a significant

moment, quote, or action. The three following observational segments were less pressure-driven

as I was getting used to the flow and usage of this method of observation. I enjoyed having the

five minute segments in between to gather my thoughts and head into the next segment without

feeling flustered. The moments in which I had to write down my observations, however,

presented some challenges. Children are active in nature, but both children I observed moved so

fast at times that it was hard to make sure I observed and wrote down every possible detail.

Having the observation recorded would have aided me in not missing any details, but I still think

I did a fair job at writing down all that I could physically see in that moment. Being able to look

back to the DRDP and dissect what I could helped me to see that my observations were in fact

detailed. I was able to get a closer look at how the child is able to on an individual level show

“developing the understanding of people’s behaviors, thoughts, feelings, and individual

characteristics” (DRDP, p. 27). My attitudes and beliefs have strengthened. I knew from the

readings how important social development is and being able to observe, assess, and provide

recommendations allowed to me not only see its value, but also to begin to problem solve how I

can best help the children I work with in the future. Families loved to be clued in onto their

child’s day as they typically can not be there to bear witness. “Observation gives descriptive

accounts of the child’s behavior and skills from the point of view of achievement rather than

deficit” (Nilsen, 2017). Giving families a snapshot of their child’s day at dismissal time could be

a great way to key them in. If a child is struggling with hitting another peer for example, this can

be expressed to the family and tips on how they can reiterate to the child at home that hands

should be kept to themselves. Prior to having the conversation, with the family, I feel it is
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important to look at the big picture. According to Abbott et al., “[the] range of social

relationships on which children can depend may be influenced by the cultural context of the

child’s development as well as the dominant language of the adults and children at home”

(Abbott, et al., p. 18, 2008). I believe that sensitivity and respect are key. If a more serious or

repeatedly pressing issue continues to occur, a meeting can be set up and a behavioral plan can

be put in place. Before it gets to that level, however, the family can get daily check-ins to

decrease any incoming obstacles.

Conclusion

The purpose of the observation was to observe, assess, and analyze preschool aged

children’s social-emotional development through play. The methods used to gather the

information of the proceeding report were done included the utilization of a self-made Running

Record. With this tool, the observations were conducted in 4 ten-minute segments with 5 min

breaks in between each to highlight areas specific to social-emotional development. Overall, with

the observation and assessment process, a deeper understanding of social-emotional development

was acquired.
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Observational Notes
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References

Abbott, D., Lundin, J., & Ong, F. (2008). California preschool learning foundations (Vol. 1).

Sacramento, CA: California Department of Education.

DRDP (2015): A Developmental Continuum from Early Infancy to Kindergarten Entry –

Preschool Comprehensive View. (2016). Retrieved from

http://www.cde.ca.gov/sp/cd/ci/drdpforms.asp

Nilsen, B. (2017). Week by week: Plans for documenting children’s development. Australia:

Cengage Learning.