Running head: MY CHILD STUDY

My Child Study
Ashley Jordan
Ivy Tech Community College

MY CHILD STUDY

I. General Background Information

The subject is four years old female and will turn five on June 29, 2014. The subject has
an older sister that is sixteen years old; her sister lives with her dad and not with the subject. The
child's mother is 38 years old and her father is 43 years old. There are no pets that live in the
household.
After being born, the subject stayed home with her mother until she was six weeks old.
From six weeks to age two the father took care of the child at home. When the subject turned two
she attended a daycare program at Fairview Presbyterian Church. Her parents decided that
moving a child to more of a preschool type setting would be better for her and she started
attending preschool at St. Joan of Arc of Indianapolis in August 2013. The subject still goes to St.
Joan of Arc from 7:30 a.m. to 4:10 p.m.
The child has a routine that she follows everyday which is as follows: awakes at 6:00 a.m.
and watches cartoons, and then around 6:30 the subject's mother asks her to get dressed. The
subject picks out her own outfit for the day and dresses herself expect for her shirt. The subject's
mother has to usually help the child with putting on her shirt since she still struggles with this
sometimes. She is asked to go to the restroom and brush her teeth and she does this without any
assistance from her parents. Then, the subject has to sit still while her mother does her hair.
Around 7:10 a.m. the subject gets in her mother's vehicle to drive to her preschool. They arrive at
the preschool at 7:30 a.m. and she then proceeds to eat breakfast at school. The subject eats
breakfast at her preschool during the week while breakfast is provided at home on the weekends.
The child is then allowed to have free play time while awaiting for her fellow classmates
to arrive to school. She participates in activities at school including circle time, art and crafts

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time, reading, free play time and sometimes when the weather allows, she goes outside to play.
There is a consistent schedule of activities that the preschool follows but the activities for the day
tend to vary. Lunch for the child is served around 12:15 p.m. during which the child has no
problem eating the lunch that is provided at her preschool. The child and her classmates are then
asked to lay down for nap time. Nap time is from 1:00 p.m.- 3:00 p.m. and the child has no
problem sleeping during nap time. She awakes from nap time to play at activity centers that are
put out for the children in her class. She plays until her mother arrives at 4:10 p.m. to pick her up
from her preschool.
On the car ride home, the subject and her mother talk about the day's events or activities
that the children participated in. Conversation continues for about twenty minutes until the
subject and her mother arrive home. Since the child is a loner she tend to arrive home and go in
her play room to either play or find a new activity to do with her mother. Sometimes she may
color, draw pictures, or play house with either one of her parents. The mother starts making
dinner at around 5:15 p.m. that way dinner can be ready between 6:00 p.m.- 6:30 p.m. The
subject then is asked to come eat dinner. The subject is sometimes told to take a specific number
of bites in order to leave the table. She is then asked to go wash up from dinner and get her
pajamas ready for bed. After doing that, the subject takes a bath by herself without any assistance
from her parents. She finishes bathing and then brushes her teeth before heading to her room to
get dressed. She then gets dressed and is asked to get ready to go to bed around 8:00 p.m. From
8:00 p.m. until around 8:30 p.m. the subject watches part of a movie or a T.V. show. Usually
during this time the subject will fall asleep and her mother will come into her room to turn off the
television. The subject generally never has a problem sleeping and sleeps for ten hours a night.

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The child appears to be a normal child in the sense that she does not have any
disabilities or handicaps that will make her life different. The subject does not have any medial
or health conditions but she does take medication when she arrives at home. She takes a general
allergy pill called Zyrtec and has no problem time her medication. The child is allergic to
watermelon and peanuts and has to be administered a shot if she is exposed to either one of these
foods. The child was observed on two separate occasions for two hours each time. The initial
observation was conducted in the child's home in Indianapolis, IN, the child's parents were
interviewed during this first meeting. The second meeting occurred at the child grandparents
home in Indianapolis, IN.
II: Physical and Motor Development
The child's father stated that the child weighed forty pounds and her height was three feet
and five inches according to the child's last checkup appointment. Based on a growth chart
st
calculator found on aboutpediatrics.com, the child is in the 61 percentile for her weight and the
nd

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percentile for her height. There does not appear to be any problems with the child visually.

Both of the subject's parents are right handed so that would explain why the child does most of
her activities with predominantly her right hand. According to the article Ages & Stages on the
site healthychildren.com, there are various developmental milestones that a child from ages four
to five years old should meet.
Milestone

Yes

Stands on one foot

for ten seconds or

No

Comments
Mostly. Had a bit of a balance issue

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longer
Hops, somersaults

Both were easily done

Swings, climbs

Without much of a problem

May be able to

Mostly more of a intermediate level

skip
Copies triangle

Has no problem recognizing her shapes,

and other

not perfect but I can recognize which

geometric patterns

shape is which. Can draw shapes without

Draws person with

example- the moon, a star

Person has hair, a smile, eyes, hands,

body

fingers, dress and feet, with shoes, with

Prints some letters

clothing, mostly colors in the lines

Has no problem writing her name except

with the letter g and q they are confused

sometimes. Has an issue with uppercase
I. Other than that has no problem with
Dresses and

undresses without
assistance
Uses fork, spoon,

her uppercase and lowercase letters.

Still needs help with her shirt but
everything else is by herself

Done very easily

Without any help

and (sometimes) a
table knife
Usually cares for
own toilet needs

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The subject does not participate in sports at the moment but her mother has suggested that
when she reaches elementary school she will have the subject participate in basketball or another
sport that interests her. The child does not have any problems major problem with physical
activities or movements for her age. She does however appear to struggle a little bit with her
balance and skipping. This could be contributed to the fact that the child does not play any sports
or the fact that she does not play outside as much as she can. The subject drew a picture of her
family and myself with the three fingers on their hands, hair, shoes, a smile, a nose, and eyes. All
of the people in her picture were clothed. The subject had no problem recognizing her shapes and
even drew a crescent moon on her own. The child can write some letters without assistance but
gets the letters g and q mixed up. She can write the majority of her lowercase and capital
letters but struggles with writing the uppercase form of the letter i. The child still struggles
with dressing herself fully; she still needs assistance with putting on her shirt. The subject seems
to be on track in the physical and motor development areas.
III: Cognitive Development
Milestone

Yes

Can count ten or more

Has no problem, can count to 14 by herself

objects
Correctly names at least

Knows all her main colors

four colors
Better understands the

Has the concept of it. Knows yesterday, tomorrow

concept of time

No

Comments

and the days of the week. With small amounts of

time she has an issue. With hours she knows it is a

Knows about things

long time.
Knows by having to touch or get something herself

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used every day in the

home (money, food,
appliances)
Recalls part of a story
Speaks sentences of

x
x

Has no issues at all with this

She can speak in paragraphs

more than five words

Uses future tense
Tells longer stories
Says name and address

x
x
x

Without a problem
Loves to tell long stories
Can say her name and a major street she lives by,
but not the name of her street.

The subject seems to be developmentally at the same level or even above her peers when
it comes to verbalization and language skills. She is capable of counting to fourteen by herself
and knows all of her general colors of the rainbow plus more. She struggles a little bit with the
idea of time but only when there is a small interval. The child loves to recall and tell her own
stories on a regular basis. The subject can say her full name and the major streets that she lives
off of but cannot remember the exact street that she lives on. The child overall has a great
vocabulary and is advancing greatly in the language department.
The child was presented with two conservation tasks to determine her levels according to
Piaget. For the first task, the two rows of crayons were laid flat with equal number of crayons in
each row spread out in the same way. The subject was asked ,Do the rows have the same
number of crayons, or does the top row have more or the bottom row have more crayons?, the
subject said that Both rows have the same amount of crayons because both rows have seven
crayons in each row. While conducting this first task, the subject counted the number of crayons
in each row to determine her answer that both rows had the same amount of crayons. The other

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part of this task was set up so that one row of crayons were all put together and then the bottom
row of crayons were spread out in greater distance. When asked the question again, Do the rows
have the same number of crayons, or does the top row have more or the bottom row have more
crayons?, the subject responded that The bottom row has more crayons because well it is
spread out more. The subject counted both rows and still determined that the bottom more
spread out row had more crayons. The subject did not understand that the even both tasks really
had the same amount of crayons there were not more in the bottom row for the second task.
However, the subject focused on the fact that one row of crayons was longer for the second task
when really the rows had the same number of crayons for each row. The second conservation test
that was performed with the child was whether or not two glasses half way full of water had the
same amount of water or not. When the subject was asked, Does the glasses of water have the
same amount of water, this one have more (right hand side), or does this one have more (left
hand side)? The child responded after closely looking that Both glasses had the same amount
of water in each glass. A taller glass was pulled out and the water from one of the glasses was
poured into the taller glass. The child was then again asked the same question as posed in the
first part of the task. I personally poured water in the taller glass in front of the child and placed
the glasses side by side. The child said that The taller glass has more water because it is bigger
(she made motions for the height of the taller glass and the shorter glass). Right after the child
said her answer that the taller glass had more water in it I explained what I had done to the
glasses again and she still stated that The taller glass has more water. After conducting both
tests, it was determined that the child cannot conserve.
Another type of Piaget test was presented to the child and had to do with the ability to

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categorize items in a room. I asked the child to put items in her bedroom into groups, she
responded by making a Things a play with group and Things I use (or don't play with)
group. She explained that all of her toys, books, and crafts are all items that she plays with. The
subject said that I use but do not play with my television, bed, dresser, and end table. Then, I
asked the subject whether or not her toys can be broken down into other categories, she
suggested that Yes, my toys separated into princess toys, art toys, kitchen foods, and outside
toys. I personally believe that the child is able to categorize her toys into different groups
further, because in her preschool they practice categorizing or separating the classroom toys. The
child's classmates and herself practice separating toys at least once a week, so since the child
does this regularly she can easily categorize at home. The child is fully capable of categorizing
multiple groups of items because I had her categorize items in her living room too. She made the
categories Things I sit on and a Things I don't sit on. She verbally said that I sit on the
couch, floor and ottoman but I don't sit on the table, television, giant picture or lamp. After
asking the child to categorize again, I concluded that the child was capable of categorizing
several items throughout her house.
IV: Social/Emotional Development
Milestone

Yes

Wants to please friends

Wants to be like her
friends
More likely to agree to
rules
Likes to sing, dance, and

No

Comments

Walks away if her friends are mean to

her. Stays if her friends are nice.

She is her own person, does not want

to act like her friends

Listens mostly after the second time

she is paying attention

She sings by herself, dances when

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act

she is playing with dolls. Acts when

Shows more

she is playing pretend.

She mostly plays by herself and when

independence and may

she is interested in playing with

even visit a next-door

others she will ask

neighbor by herself
Aware of gender

Very aware of what a girl is and what

Able to distinguish

a boy is
Has no problem with distinguishing

fantasy from reality

the differences. She knows what is

Sometimes demanding,

play or fantasy and what is real life

She isnt demanding at all and is very

sometimes eagerly

patient.

cooperative
I personally believe that my subject is initiative versus guilt stage of Erikson's theory of
psychological development. The subject seems to take on the role of the mom when playing
house and assigns other members of her family roles. She then leads her other family members
around in activities that the family will do such as going to the grocery store, watching a movie,
or eating dinner. She is also very creative in the sense that she makes up her own story lines on
the spot. The subject led me through her story about a unicorn flying through the sky to a
magical castle. Every time I asked her if I could be the mom when we played house she said I
don't want you to be the mom because I am the mom. This statement suggested that she is was
trying to assert her power or control while we played house. When I asked if I could make up my
own story that we could play she stated Uhmm, not right now. Right now I want to play be a

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unicorn. This once again helped me determine that she was trying to be in control of the play
time. The child shows no signs of experiencing and guilt while she is playing and is leaning
towards the initiative side of Erikson's theory.
Several milestones for the child's social and emotional development were observed. The
child often walks away from her friends if they upset her instead of trying to please them. She
has no desire to do as her friends do and will sometimes play by herself. The child will agree and
follow rules but only after being told to do so two times. She loves singing, dancing, and acting
frequently. The child is much more of a loner and if she wants to play with her neighbors or
friends she will ask to do so. The child is fully aware of her and other people's genders; can
distinguish between reality and fantasy. I would say that the child is not demanding at all for her
age she may try to take control when having play time but she often will do so in a polite
manner. The child appears to be somewhat at the developmental level of her peers but is
struggling with a few categories that may be explained by her being a loner.
V: Your Reactions, Recommendations, and Application
Every child can be at different stages in development in any category. Some children
seem to struggle with ideas because of their personalities and that may or may not change later
down the road. I believe that the developmental milestones set for children at different stages can
be a great start in seeing how well a child is growing but that is just a start. As a teacher or parent
to a child we have to step back sometimes in order to view how the child is progressing because
the developmental charts after all are just guidelines for the child's age group. Based on the age
of a child their attention spans will vary greatly and we have to take that into account will
observing or conducting experiments with them. I believe that the subject has greatly benefited

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from being put into a preschool program that allows her to play with children from both genders
and that are at different developmental levels as her. The tasks or activities that are conducted at
her preschool as advanced the child's ability to categorize and will probably help her in the future
the same way.
I believe that I conducted my experiments accordingly based on the child's age. She
somewhat has a short attention span and because of that I was set back in several activities but
overall an hour and half for each session was a great amount of time to fully understand and
monitor the child. If I were to change anything about how I conducted my observations I would
have to say I would add more one more hour and half session to observe my child. Even though,
I believe I got a full understanding and great information about my subject that added time would
have made this study more beneficial to me. I may have also had the subject's mother step out of
the room if I added another session because there were several times where the subject would
look to her mom to see if what I was doing was alright. This child study opened my eyes to by
children do certain task or behavior a certain way for a particular age group. I will take this with
me into my classroom because I will study all of my children developmentally but also from a
different perspective now. I will try to work with my students to enhance their skills whether they
are verbally, socially, or cognitively based on their specific age range. I gained a great amount of
knowledge and understanding from this child study. I will apply what I have learned and use it in
my future classroom for each milestone or psychological stage I come across for each student. I
came across some useful information, websites, and tests that I can use in the future.

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Resources
Children's Growth Chart Percentiles Calculator. (n.d.). Children's Growth Chart Percentiles
Calculator. Retrieved March 9, 2014, from
http://pediatrics.about.com/cs/usefultools/l/bl_kidscn_calc.htm?
gender=2&years=4&months=9&cwt=40&chf=3&chi=5&chi_percent=0&submitButton
Name=Calculate+Percentiles
Developmental Milestones: 4 to 5 Year Olds. (n.d.). HealthyChildren.org. Retrieved March 9,
2014, from http://www.healthychildren.org/English/agesstages/preschool/pages/Developmental-Milestones-4-to-5-Year-Olds.aspx
Ormrod, J. (2014). Cognitive and Linguistic Development. Educational Psychology Developing
Learners (8 ed., pp. 25- 63). New Jersey: Pearson Education Inc.

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