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Introduction
The observation for this report was done in the infant room at the MSU Child
Development Labs. This classroom currently does not have a head teacher so various CDL
workers were observed with the children, all ranging in age from birth to eighteen months. The
purpose of this lab report was to observe the current skills of the children in the infant room in
the physical and social/ emotional domain, along with determining whether children are being
supported through their current learning activities, or are ready to progress to more advanced
activities. This observation was also to determine whether any observed child requires extra
support in the classroom. Six children, ranging from three months to fourteen months in age,
were observed during varying times of the day both in the classroom and outside. A checklist of
expected and emerging skills was developed to observe the children in the classroom. A
checklist was used because, according to Mindes, this is an effective method in recording skills
and attributes of children in a classroom (Chapter 3). Further, the checklist provided a reference
of expecting skills that could be observed in the classroom given the age and developmental
Figure One: Checklist for Infants Physical/Motor and Social Skills for infants at the CDL
Figure 2: Percent observed physical/motor skills in infants at the CDL
For the physical domain, the children observed who had the opportunity to demonstrate
the physical skills on the checklist were fairly adept at doing so. Half of the children observed
were able to pull themselves to a standing position and to rock or roll themselves back and forth,
and two-thirds of the observed children were able to sit without any support. The skills that
these children showed less mastery in were rolling from their stomach to their back, standing
while holding onto an object, and crawling. Just over a third of the children exhibited these
For the combined social/emotional domain, the children observed who had the
opportunity to demonstrate the specific skills did so a vast majority of the time. The skills that
the children exhibited two-thirds of the time were copying movements and facial expressions,
responding to others emotions, and showing self-calming behaviors. A skill that was exhibited
over half of the time is clinginess (or attachment) to certain caregivers. The three emerging
skills for this domain are handing a book to a caregiver to express the desire to be read to,
Interpretations
The data observed tells us information on both the individual child and about the skills
related to the domains of learning that were observed. Child 1 showed high levels of skill in both
physical and social/emotional domains. The child did not get the chance to look in a mirror or
hand a book to the teacher. Perhaps this means that the child is more interested in the physical
domain than the social domain. When looking at Child 2, one can infer that this child is more
developed in the social domain than the physical motor domain. This can be interpreted because
skills involving physical function were not seen but most social skills were seen once or twice.
All motor and physical skills were seen in Child 3. Some skills such as looking in the mirror
were only seen by one observer, with being clingy with a familiar adult being seen by all three
observers. This means that he/she has the ability to perform a variety of tasks. Child 4s results
were varied. Some skills such as standing were not observed by anyone while the skill of being
clingy with familiar adults was seen by all three observers, which means teachers are very
important to this child. This tells one that the child is still developing in the social and physical
domains. Child 5 showed skills in all of the categories except for two relating to the physical
domain. Three observers saw him/her copying facial expressions and movements which means
that this social skill is the strongest skill the child showed. This means that the physical domain
for this child is still developing. All skills that Child 6 had the opportunity to complete were
seen by at least one observer. This means that this child is well rounded in the physical and
social domains however; none of the skills were seen by all three observes. Even though the
child is well rounded, there is still room for more development. This information can tell
From the graph, one can see how the class is developing across domains. Overall the
percentages of skills seen were higher in the social domain than the physical domain. Perhaps the
classroom is set up more to encourage the social domain or maybe this is the domain that
teachers focus on more. The skill that was seen the most among the physical domain skills was
sitting up on ones own. This makes sense because it is a skill that comes before standing and
taking steps. Crawling, standing while holding on, and rolling from the back to the stomach are
skills that all got 39%. These are the least developed skills in the physical domain. These are
developmental skills that the teacher could help support children in doing.
Many things can be interpreted from looking at the collected data relating to the social
domain. The three skills that were observed the most were having self-calming behaviors,
coping movements and expressions, and respond to others emotions and seeming generally
happy. It is interesting that all of these are related to emotional behaviors, and not social ones.
This could mean that teaching about feelings is a focus of this particular infant classroom. The
least developed skill shown by the bar graph is pointing to show interest. This is not something
relating to emotions, but instead is a communication skill. Not all of the children had the
opportunity to look at themselves in the mirror or to hand a book to a teacher, but those who did,
did so less than half of the time. These could be activities that that do not catch the interests of all
of the children. Overall the data can tell one about the developmental skills in each child and
Follow-up Plan
Based on the data collected by our group, it would be beneficial to support this classroom
with their social development and communication skills. A majority of the emerging skills
observed were skills that required the children to communicate with each other and caregivers.
A specific learning objective from the Michigan State University Childrens Curriculum in the
language/communication domain that fits with the emerging skills observed would be Use
appropriate body language (eye contact, body position, and gestures) to alert a listener to their
A wonderful way that this objective can be taught to the children in the infant class would
be by modeling it for them frequently during organic social interactions. Caregivers should use a
wide range of gestures, make eye contact with the child they are speaking to, and model active
Reflection
Many things were learned from this lab. One was able to create a checklist and all of the
criteria on the checklist. The checklist was then implemented in the infant room and
developmental skills of children was assessed. The checklist yields many pieces of important
information about the children and the two observed developmental domains. It can tell how
many times each child displayed each skill. This system of observation is useful in seeing which
skills have developed in each individual child. Its downfalls are that there is no context for the
events that have happened. This makes it hard to tell what has caused the successes and the areas
for improvement. The information from the checklist can be used in making a plan for
Center for Disease Control and Prevention. (n.d.). CDC Milestones Checklist.
Mindes, G., & Jung, L. A. (2015). Assessing Young Children. United States: Pearson.
Hannahs Data
Infant room from 9:35-10:35
Transition time and Outside time
Rolls Sits Stan Take Roc Craw Pulls Copies Respo Clin Hands Poin Has Look
from with ds, sa ks ls to a moveme nds to gy book ts to self s at
stoma out holdi few bac (9) stan nts and others with when sho cal self
ch to supp ng step k ding facial emotio famil want w min in the
back ort on s and posit expressi ns, iar to som g mirro
(9) with fort ion ons often adult hear a ethin beh r
Child Age
out h (9) seems s (9) story g avio (6)
and initial
holdi (6) happy (12) inter r
ng (6) estin (2)
on g
(12) (18)
Morgans Data
Observed Thursday 9/28/17, from 1:50 - 2:50 pm
Physical/Motor Skills (Months) Social Skills (Months)
Rolls Sits Stan Take Roc Craw Pulls Copies Respo Clin Hands Poin Has Look
from with ds, sa ks ls to a moveme nds to gy book ts to self s at
stoma out holdi few bac (9) stan nts and others with when sho cal self
ch to supp ng step k ding facial emotio famil want w min in the
back ort on s and posit expressi ns, iar to som g mirro
(9) with fort ion ons often adult hear a ethin beh r
Child Age
out h (9) seems s (9) story g avio (6)
and initial
holdi (6) happy (12) inter r
ng (6) estin (2)
on g
(12) (18)
Child 3 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
Age: 16 m
Child 4 1 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 N/A 0 1 1
Age: 9 m
Child 6 N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A
Age: 14 m
Total 4/5 4/5 2/5 2/5 3/5 4/5 2/5 3/5 3/5 2/3 1/1 2/5 4/5 2/2
Number
Percent of 80 80 40 40 60 80 40 60 60 67 100 40 80 100
Observed
Amandas Data
Observation: 10:30am-11:30am
Lunch time
Roll Sits Stan Take Roc Cra Pulls to Copie Respo Clin Han Points Has Loo
s with ds, sa ks wls a s nds to gy ds to self ks
from out holdi few bac (9) standin move others with boo show calmi at
sto supp ng step k g ments emotio famil k someth ng self
mac ort on s and position and ns, iar whe ing behav in
h to (9) with fort (9) facial often adult n interest ior the
Child Age and
bac out h expre seems s (9) wan ing (2) mirr
initial
k holdi (6) ssion happy t to (18) or
ng s (6) hea (6)
on ra
(12) stor
y
(12)
Child 5 1 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 1 N/A 1 0 1 1
Age: 10 m
Child 6 1 0 1 1 1 1 1 N/A 1 N/A 1 1 1 N/A
Age: 14 m
Total 3/3 3/4 2/4 4/4 3/5 4/5 3/5 3/3 4/5 2/3 3/3 3/6 6/6 3/3
Number