HDFS 2950 Lab Report 3: Early Childhood Development

Due: 3/28 by 7:30 eLCNew dropbox

Name:

Chandler Gray Nash

Score: Running Notes:

format

+Answers

/30 points -

Lab Objectives:
Lab Objectives
Students will observe childrens developmental
characteristics

Course Objectives

Chapter Objectives (7-9)

Students will learn about and develop objective observational

techniques that are accurate through opportunities to view
the principles of development through observations of
children in a laboratory setting.
Students will apply concepts learned in class to their
observations.
Define, understand and apply
Physical, Cognitive & Socioemotional development.
The impact of environment on development.
How children in early childhood are actively involved
in their development.

FORMAT: Type up the answers in 12 point font, double-spaced. The

assignment is worth 30 points total (25 points for answers and 5 points for
running notes).
FIRST: Go to the Older Toddler Classroom or one of the Multiage
Classrooms to do your observations.
SECOND: Observe ONE child and take running records for 10 minutes.
Follow the instructions for taking running records (5 points). Remember that I
encourage you to make copies so you do not lose them. Also, just like the
map you can scan it in and attach it as a separate document in eLCNew, or
you can bring it to lab.
Name (initials)
9mo___

E.

Sex of Child

Female Age_2yr

HDFS 2950 Lab Report 3: Early Childhood Development

Due: 3/28 by 7:30 eLCNew dropbox

THIRD: Use your Running Records and write a brief (1-2 paragraphs)
interpretation of your one child observations (7 points). This is in addition to
the brief interpretations you wrote on your Running Record form and should
be done once the entire observation is complete probably at home.
The female child I observed (E.) showed several concepts we
discussed in class. First, she showed signs of poor emotional
control when she screamed at a teacher who was trying to help her,
and also screamed when she was unable to get a paper towel in a
trashcan. E. also engaged in make-believe play by making a plastic
lion fly through the air. She also participated in parallel play with a
few male students and some blocks, and she also engaged in
associative play/ communication with a male student at the rock
painting station. The two discussed their rocks that were painting
and their behaviors influenced their activities.
To fully answer this section, you must identify 3 relevant concepts and/or
examples from lecture, lab, or your text that support your interpretation with
definitions. Think about what concepts you are applying in this lab and try to
identify physical, cognitive, or socioemotional developmental milestones.
Example: If you recorded, J. cried every time the teacher walked away and
stopped when she picked him up. He grabbed her very tightly once held.
Interpret what this means. What aspect of socioemotional development does
this represent? What is he trying to accomplish? What aspects of physical
development are represented by his grabbing? Be sure to briefly define your
concepts in order to clearly link them to your examples as well. Base your
interpretations in science!
FOURTH: For each type of development below, please write 1-3
paragraphs. Observe the ENTIRE classroom, not just ONE child. Observe for
20-30 minutes. Answers should include connections to lecture and the text
with definitions. Use examples and focus on what the question is asking, AND
always remember to define the concepts. (18 points).
Physical Development (6 points)

Based on your observations, describe one childs height/weight.

Include whether it is typical according to the text and to other children
in the classroom.
There is an older female child who is significantly taller than
the other girls in the classroom. She looks lean (not much baby
fat left) but she looks to be a healthy weight. She has longer

HDFS 2950 Lab Report 3: Early Childhood Development

Due: 3/28 by 7:30 eLCNew dropbox

legs than several of her younger classmates and her tummy is

flatter.
o Based on their growth, what can you hypothesize about this
childs nutrition?
Her nutrition is more than likely adequate. Her growth
does not seem to be stunted in any way and she does not
appear to be emaciated or too thin.
Based on your observations, give an example of a toy/equipment or
game that facilitates fine & gross motor skills and describe how these
skills are different from the infants.
A piece of equipment that facilitates the development of gross
motor skills is the stairs on tree house platform. In order to
reach the top, the children must walk up a set of stairs. The
children are walking up the stairs and using their hands on the
rails to balance themselves. An infant would need to crawl up
the stairs on their hands and their knees.
An activity that facilitates the development of fine motor skills
is the painting of the rocks. The children have to grip the
paint brushes and steady the rocks that they are painting in
order to paint the rock in the way they want. Infants would
not be able to successfully hold a paint brush or to manipulate
it to paint the rock where they wanted to paint it.
o Do you see evidence of effortful control or are they having
difficulty?
I see evidence of effortful control because all of the
children are succeeding on walking up the stairs on two
legs with little support from the hand rail or their hands.
The children were balancing and I saw none of the
children crawling up the stairs or using their hands on the
steps. I also see effortful control in the children when
they are running across the room. They are controlling
their patterns and I did not see any children falling while
they were running or walking.
o Compare them to other children are they developing typically?
Yes these children are developing typically. Their upper
bodies are less rigid (typical of children aged 3-4) and
they have more control of their movements and have
more balance in their walking and running.

Cognitive Development (6 points)

Define and describe a childs play using one of the concepts below.

HDFS 2950 Lab Report 3: Early Childhood Development

Due: 3/28 by 7:30 eLCNew dropbox

o Pretend PlayI watched a female child play in the kitchen area and
remove objects from the wooden fridge and place them
in the wooden microwave. She was also pretending to
talk on plastic cell phone. Another female child was in
the same kitchen area and was placing plastic food
items into a small plastic shopping basket and was
taking those items out of the basket and placing them in
the shelves/fridge of the kitchen set. These two female
children were engaging in pretend play by pretending
they were cooking food, talking on the phone, and
putting food away. This pretend play may have
stemmed from an activity that these female children
may have seen an adult engage in at their houses.
o Scaffolding:
o Animism: pretending a block is a baby even when they dont it
is a block
o Memory (sensory, working, or long-term):

Describe a childs language development using at least one of the

concepts below and describe the purpose it serves (pragmatics), with
a definition.
o Inner speech/Self-Directed Talk
Self-directed talk is when a child talks to themselves
while playing or trying to solve a problem. I observed
one male child (who was by himself) placing blocks on
top of each other and attempting to stack plastic
animals on the blocks. The child was talking to himself
while trying to figure out how to get the animals to stay
stacked without falling. Inner speech helps children
cognitively solve a problem that is in the Zone of
Proximal Development.
o Telegraphic speechI finish, talking about painting rocks and that they are
either done with a color or done painting the rock. The
child I observed (E.) used this phrase a few times while
trying to gain a teachers attention. It is a sentence
that is short and concise but gets her point across. The
grammar is not correct but the sentence was
understood by me and also by her teacher.
o Overregulation
o Semantics/Vocabulary Development

HDFS 2950 Lab Report 3: Early Childhood Development

Due: 3/28 by 7:30 eLCNew dropbox

Social/Emotional Development (6 points)

Define and describe evidence for the child being in Eriksons Initiative
vs. Guilt Stage.
Eriksons Initiative vs. Guilt stage is entered when a child has a
sense of autonomy. The child begins experiencing initiative which
is the sense of purposefulness and guilt, which is what they feel
when they do something they perceive as wrong or deserving of
punishment.
Children begin to discover what they can do with adult help
and with their peers. During my observation I watched a
small group children work together to build a wall/fence
around several plastic animals. The children were
interacting and communicating and discovering the best and
most efficient way to build the blocks around the animals.
Compare and contrast the behavior between male and female children
and describe why this may occur.
Only female children played in the kitchen area. And most of
the boys were playing with blocks or dinosaurs. I did, however,
notice some girls playing with dinosaurs but trying to put the
dinosaurs into a play house.
Both male and female children were equally interested in a
teacher reading a book and also equally interested in climbing
the stairs to the top of the tree house play set. Neither gender
seemed to prefer these activities above the gender.
This may occur because of gender stereotyping. The girls may
prefer playing in the kitchen area because thats what girls
do whereas the boys may be more interested in building and
the dinosaurs because thats what boys like. I also found it
interesting that the girls were playing with stereotypical boys
toys (dinosaurs), but placing them in girl toys (the doll
house).

o
o

Define and describe a childs emotional expression using one of the

concepts below.
Secondary emotions (shame, guilt, pride)
Emotional Control
The child I observed possibly showed some signs of poor emotional
control. She was washing some paint off of her hands when a
teacher tried to help her. E. screamed at her. E. also screamed and

HDFS 2950 Lab Report 3: Early Childhood Development

Due: 3/28 by 7:30 eLCNew dropbox

o
o

threw herself on the floor moments later when she was unable to
open a trashcan to throw away her paper towel. I believe E. was
displaying external negative effortful control when she was
screaming and throwing herself on the floor. E. did not have control
over her emotions and was not able to regulate her emotions
effectively.
Prosocial Behavior
Aggression