Case Study

I did a case study on a 5 year old girl that is in kindergarten and named Sophie. I observed her at Summitville Elementary in Summitville Indiana for my ECED 120 class at Ivy Tech Community College. I had asked her teacher who would be the best child to do a case study about and she told me Sophie. The class did consist of 22 students and the teacher stated that if I wanted to choose another student she would not mind. I knew that the kindergarten teacher knew more about her students than I did, so I knew Sophie was a good choice. The teacher sent out the form for the parent permission slip and the parents had no issue with letting me observe their child. Physical Sophies mother stated that she was born on March 16, 2007, weighing 8 pounds. The mother carried the child full term and had no issues with the pregnancy or birth. Sophie now weighs 45 pounds and is 44 inches tall. Sophie has long blond curly hair and she always wears it down, blue eyes and fair skin and muscular build. Sophie has only missed one day of school so far so her mother stated that she says pretty healthy. When I had observed this child I noticed that she seemed to always know what to do when the teacher had given the class an assignment. She always raised her hand to be able to speak and never acted out. She wanted to always be first in line for everything, meaning going to the restroom, lunch, out to recess and even going home. I did notice that on one of the days that I observed Sophie, a little boy at the other table dropped his school box. Sophie sat there and was staring at the box; I am not sure if she was thinking if she should help or if she should just keep working. At one point I seen her act like she was going to get up and she scooted to the end of

her seat and went to reach down and stopped. In my opinion, I think Sophie is the type of child that loves to help others when they are in need or when something happens that she is able to help them with. I asked Sophies teacher if she thinks that she is physically developed for her age and the teacher said that Sophie is one of her best students and her parents are really into helping Sophie learn. The teacher also stated that Sophie hardly ever has to be told to mind in her class. She stated that Sophie does get very rambunctious at times. Cognitive While observing Sophie, I noticed that she is always the first to raise her hand when the teacher asks the class questions and she always knows the right answer. Sophies teacher asked me if I wanted to do any activities with her and I told her yes. The teacher asked if she would be able to pick the activities for me and I said that was fine. She decided to have Sophie count from 1-60, and also count from 10-60 by tens. She also gave her flash cards and had to the numbers in the correct order and then she had to look at certain words and tell me what they were. When I asked Sophie to count to 60 she did with no problems. Then I asked her to count to 60 by tens and she did that too with no issues, then I asked her to sort all the numbers and put them in order. As she was sorting, she keep all of them in her hands, she did not lay them out and try to find each one, she just keep flipping through until she found the correct number, and she also got all of those right too. I also had her tell me what 20 different words were and she read them correctly, she did not even had to sound any of them out and it seemed like she has known these words for a very long time. In my opinion, I think that she not only gets taught at school but I think her parents are her teachers also.

I have observed Sophie doing the normal activities that the whole class was doing and she always showed that she was listening and would be the first one done. Once she was done she would go around the room and help the other kids either clean up their desk, help them glue on their pieces of the assignment or put things away for them. In my opinion she never thought only about herself. She was always willing to help others out. When it comes to Sophie and figuring out what stage she fits into for Jean Piagets theory, it would be the Pre-operational stage. The Pre-operational stage is a stage that ranges from age 2 to around 6. Language skills virtually explode during this stage and the words in childrens vocabularies provide definitions for new developed mental schemes and serve as symbols for thinking about objects and events. (McDevitt & Ormrod, 2012). I had talked to the teacher and also she stated that she asked the same questions to the parents of Sophie for me. I asked if the teacher and the parents think that the child is right on track for her age and her learning process. The teacher stated that she is a very smart student and has no issues learning or remembering anything. The parents stated that they do try to work with the child at home and since she has a bother so close in age, 6 years old, that it helps with teaching them both. I also asked Sophie is she knows how to tie her shoes and she stated that she does and she said that she helps other students tie their shoes since they do not know how. Social/Emotional When it comes to the psychosocial development of Eriksons stages; Sophie would be in between the Initiative vs. Guilt and Industry vs. Inferiority stage. The Initiative vs. Guilt ends at 5 years of age and the Industry vs. Inferiority stage starts at 6 and Sophie is 5 years old, so she would be in the middle.

Initiative vs. Guilt is the 3rd stage of Eriksons theory, which usually starts in the preschool years. Children spend their infancy and toddler years learning that the world is a good place and that people love them. With a growing drive toward independence, preschoolers begin to have their own ideas about activities they want to pursue. When adults encourage such efforts, children develop initiative, an energetic motivation to undertake activities independently. (McDevitt & Ormrod, 2012). Industry vs. Inferiority is the 4th stage of Eriksons theory, which happens in the elementary school years. When children reach elementary school, children are expected to master many new skills, and they soon learn that they can gain recognition from adults through their academic assignments. When children complete projects and the teacher or parents praise them for their accomplishments, the children demonstrate industry, a pattern of working hard. (McDevitt & Ormrod, 2012) In my opinion, I think Sophie falls more into the Industry vs. Inferiority of Eriksons theory. I support my opinion because Sophie is in Kindergarten and the 4th stage of Eriksons study is during the elementary year. Being in Kindergarten, Sophie and the other student are to learn and mater many skills that get them ready to be able to move on from kindergarten to 1st grade. It also states that the teachers and/or parents praise the children for their accomplishment (McDevitt & Ormrod, 2012), and that is what Sophies teacher always did, not just to her but to the entire class. Every time Sophie would do something that the teacher had asked her to do she would always praise her, even after the class got done doing a project the teacher always praised them for their accomplishments. I think that the theory is very well set for Sophie at her age. In my opinion she seems to match up with the 4th theory of Eriksons. I could tell that she loved

being praised for what she had done, either doing her own work or being praised for helping the other students. While observing Sophie, I did not notice any emotional behavior towards the teacher or the school work. The only thing I noticed is that she did not like to see other children hurt or struggling. She was always there to help the other students and in my opinion she wanted them to understand like she does. I did not observe the child taking leave from her parent in the morning. While observing in the classroom the teacher does have a couple of the mothers come and help out and also she has a teachers aide in there at all times also. During my observation I did not notice that Sophie got attached to anyone, meaning she did not need to have an adult around her or to help her at all times. When Sophie needed adult approval she would just raise her hand and ask the question or give her opinion or answer the question that the teacher had asked. When the teacher would tell her to do something or ask her to quit what she was doing, Sophie would obey the teacher without any fuse or confusion. Sophie minded very well and I never heard her talk back once. If the teacher had stated not to do something or what the children were supposed to do after the activity was over, Sophie would also abide by the rules that were set, the teacher stated that she never had issues with Sophie at all. When I observed during play time, Sophie always wanted to play with the dolls; her mother even stated in the permission slip that she loved playing with dolls or Pretty Pretty Princess at home. Sophie would also pick the same girl to play with during play time or if the students had to pair up with a classmate. I never saw Sophie fight or not get along with any other student. I did notice that she would give in to the other students easy. Even if she was playing with a toy and another student wanted it, Sophie would always give it up for the other student. I

have never seen Sophie get upset, argue, fight or even talk back to anyone including other students. Conclusion In conclusion, I really did enjoy observing this child and having to think deeply about the case study. The teacher states that the child is a great student and that she things that child will go far. The child has learned so much in just the time that I have observed in the classroom and she keeps on amazing me with how young she is and what she already knows. A lot of the students were not able to answer a lot of the questions like she did and she was always willing to help them out with their work, tying their shoes, or just cleaning up. Doing this case study has taught me that it is not easy to do a study about a child but also that I learn so much while observing the child. Being able to assess a childs developmentally is very important to teaching. A teacher needs to know if the child is on the right track or if she is lagging behind, it is the teachers and parents responsibility to make sure the child is on track throughout the year. The teacher needs to have the child learn enough information to be able to proceed on to the next grade level.

References McDevitt, T., & Ormrod, J. (2012). Child development and education. (5TH ed., p. 202, 420, 421). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data.