Running head: OBSERVATION 4

Observation 4: The Four Domains of the child

Alba Figueroa
Raritan Valley Community College
Associate Professor Kimberly Schirner, M. Ed.
April 24, 2018
OBSERVATION 4 2

EDUC 212 Foundations of education

_____________________________________________________________________________________

I. Observation #:
Observation 4/ The four Domains of the child

II. Grade Level and Subject Area:

Kindergarten

III. Setting:
Classroom type: inclusive, general education: school setting private KinderCare
suburban: 1 educator, 11 students.

IV. Pre- Observation:

Prior to completing this observation, I have been thinking about the different
kinds of students there are in a classroom. There are no two students who are the
same. Every child is their own person which makes it so much more fun and
interesting when studying them. From experiences with children I have learned
that the number one trait to have in order to be able to communicate well and
understand each other is through patience. From my own experiences when I was
a in elementary school my classmates used to think I was not social because I did
not really talk in kindergarten but it was only because I did not know much
English which did not help me communicate more efficiently. From my
experiences this really made me struggle in other aspects like learning my
alphabet and the different sounds each letter makes. Keeping in mind all of the
domains to be able to observe the child according to Galende Sanchez de Miguel
and Arranz, “confirmed that the quality of the physical environment has a positive
effect on the development of theory of mind abilities in 5-year-old children”
(2011). Having read this, I will also look at my surroundings to see if the child’s
behavior or domains are being assessed accordingly.

V. Data:
Physical Development – when the teacher asks for the student to pick the center
they would like to play in he was picking up the puzzles in the beginning of the
year when I started going. The child would sit on a table and pick the superhero
puzzle. He was so focused on completing the puzzle. He did not ask for help and
just focused. If there was a missing piece in the puzzle he would make sure it was
clear to everyone he has found it and will try to look into the other puzzles to put
it in the corresponding one. When the student is holding a pencil, he has a very
strong posture to write. He will sit straight when he is required to write. As seen
on appendix one the child has good motor skills in his writing. He has written his
name in all capitals; his letters are legible.
Social Development-The child was sitting in between his classmates on a table
putting together building blocks. There were three other kids. One of them was
holding on to the box along with a lot of the other blocks. The other child who did
not have as many blocks told on the child who was hogging onto the box that he
OBSERVATION 4 3

was not sharing. The child I am observing was not arguing with any of them but
kindly offered to share his blocks as well. He was minding his own business while
the three other kids were arguing over the box of blocks that the other child had.
The child understood that what he had to play with was a fair amount. One day
we were going outside and all the kids had been called to get their jackets because
it was chilly outside. While all the kids were running around while the others
were still trying to put on their jackets the students realized that the rest of the
students were misbehaving, realizing that he took control over the line they were
forming and told them all to hush if not they weren’t going to be able to go
outside. While observing the child I was also able to see how the other students
trust him. They are not afraid of him but confide on him. All the students in the
class have no bad complaint about him but instead they actually try to play with
him when they are interested in what he is doing. While the teacher was
instructing the students to use their napkins carefully while eating their snack to
avoid crumbs on the floor the student rapidly noticed he couldn’t move around in
his chair as much if not there would be crumbs on the floor and would have to
pick it up. We were all outside and the student was playing with his friends on a
small playground they have, he was running around with them playing chasing
when one of the other kids were playing too rough. The students immediately
started to avoid that child because he was causing conflicts in between them
instead of playing. When he noticed that he could no longer avoid the child he
came and told the teacher how rough the other child was being with them and was
not letting them play correctly. The child was outside and the playground was wet
so he had fell face first while chasing the other kids in the class in play. When the
child fell in the puddle came over to the teacher crying that he had fell. He did not
blame it on anyone. He spoke to the teacher, relaxed for a second and went right
back to playing with them.
Cognitive Development- the student is very enthusiastic when it comes to
working on words and the theme the teacher brings up to them. When the teacher
brought up the theme about dinosaurs he participating left and right. He started to
give some hints to the other classmates on his table about the different types of
dinosaurs. One of the other students on his table was talking about queens and
their role in the movie frozen, the student I am observing at the moment was
listening and engaging into what she was saying. He started to talk about other
queens in cartoons which lead to a whole conversation on the topic that was about
castles, princess, queens and princes. The student does not go against what a
certain student believes. He does not get into another student’s conversation with
a teacher if they are getting in trouble. One time, there was a student who called
another girl students ugly and immediately realized that what he said was not the
right thing. He did not tell the student himself that he was not saying the right
thing but instead looked at the teacher to make sure he had realized what was
going on. He did not blur anything out but instead used the higher authority in the
classroom to correct what he had herd. The student will ask before grabbing any
type of manipulatives, even if he is told not to ask. As I was in the classroom
today the teacher decided to have some fun with the kids and he asked the class
who wanted to collect the papers from everyone so there were two who raised
OBSERVATION 4 4

their hands. So, he picked both and wanted to have some fun with it, challenged
the kids to see who got more papers. The teacher counted them out loud and each
of them had 6. The teacher did not ask anybody how much that adds up to but the
child I am observing quickly added them up and knew that 6 plus 6 equals 12.
Emotional Development- Last week the child was feeling upset, he kept going
back and forth from his chair to the teacher crying. He kept shoving his face on
the teacher’s chest so that no one would see him crying. The teacher kept trying
to figure out why he was crying because it is very uncommon for him to be
expressing his feelings like that. Even though, he did not want to tell the teacher
what the issue was he kept going back to playing with his blocks. The child was
content while playing with his blocks and had other students playing with him.
VI. Analysis:
Reflecting on what I have seen in the child and their 4 domains this child is very
independent. As I had mentioned in the data section the child really enjoys to play
with building blocks and puzzles. According to the development checklist of 4
domains the child should be using physical activities to develop gross and fine
motor skills. As I was looking into the different manners in which one can tell if a
child’s physical development is performing at average I have read a very
interesting article. This is a study combined both by Nath and Szucs that say, “In
a study of 5 to 7-year-old children found that construction play with LEGO
helped develop visuospatial memory and that this was a determinant of better
mathematical performance” (Nath and Szucs 2014). While observing this about
the child he loves to play with LEGO type blocks which actually helps him with
his mathematical performance and also builds up his imagination to create
something out of different little pieces. Moving on to the Cognitive development
according to the checklist a typical student as a 5-year-old will be using language
as a communication tool and can recognize others perspectives. The student’s
cognitive development is on the typical stage. The child shows self-regulation and
does not depend on the teacher to help him on writing a word, he will spell it as
good as he can. As I was researching a child’s typical cognitive development I
had come across a journal written by various pediatrics that say, “Children need
certain skills as they start school including the ability to attend to and persist with
tasks and regulate their emotions we conceptualize these skills as dimensions
underlying “self-regulation” (Sawyer 2014). As this doctor has said that kids at
the age of 5 need to have some skills already before entering a school in order to
persist in what they are presented with the students will have self-control. After
reading this section in the article I realized that it had a lot to do with the way that
the student I have chosen to observe acts in the classroom. He is very self-
regulated, he controls his actions and is always careful in what he does or says.
There is rarely anytime where he does something out of the norm because he is
aware of the good and bad consequences according to what he is seeing going on
around him in the classroom. While analyzing the child’s social development he
is very communicative with his peers. His social skills match to the
developmental checklist that specifies a child will understand concepts of right
and. The Checklist also says a child will rely upon rules to guide behavior and
play and provide child with structure and security. This being said a child will be
OBSERVATION 4 5

protective of his peers. The child is not a harsh student who will say something to
hurt his peer. He is always looking for different ways to play with what he likes
and for those who want to play with him to like it as well. As I have stayed a little
extra time in the classroom pick up time comes around and parents one by one
little by little start coming in picking them up. I have always noticed that at least
only one parent of each child comes in the classroom to pick them up. In many
occasions I have noticed that the child’s parents both come to pick him up. One
time they both sat on the chairs with the kid and started playing with him and
interacting with the activity that the child was interested in. As I am writing about
the individuals social development his parents have a lot to do with it because
they show support to him and have like a team waiting for him at the end of his
day. Both parents talk to the teacher to follow up on how their child is behaving
and performing, very socially active family. As one of the pediatricians was
saying, “The family home and nonparental childcare environments are the key
caregiving settings in early life, where children learn how to relate to others and
to regulate their emotions and behaviors” (Lynch 2014). This clearly shows how
the care and attention they give their child is benefiting him in social
development. If there is a strong social environment outside of the classroom
there is a high chance that the child will also bring that along with him to a happy
environment like in school. Last but not least is the emotional development stage
in this student is impressive. Going back and forth from the checklist and what the
student is performing I noticed he is not suffering of emotional development. For
his age he is in the appropriate stage of emotions. The checklist states that self
esteem is based on ability to perform and produce. The child will use alternative
strategies for dealing with frustration and expressing emotions and sensitive to
other’s opinion about themselves. The student in the classroom shows trust upon
his teacher. A child will communicate through emotions. Reading through an
article that talks about the importance of good emotional skills for kids attending
preschool the author talks about, “Child starts understanding emotions that he
experiences, understanding emotional clues, and starts realizing the effects of his
way of expressing emotions on reactions he will receive from other people
(Seifer, 2001). My student realizes what others behaviors and actions cause in the
classroom so he then doesn’t act upon them and behaves better or doesn’t even
say anything because he is avoiding getting in trouble. The child will not act out
when something is not being done his way. According to all these 4 domains the
child show efficiency in all of them.

VII. Recommendations:
Looking at the 4 domains as an educator I would make sure that my students are
able to feel comfortable in my class first before anything else. After numerous
times that I have researched the 4 domains I can say that the child I have decided
to observe follows all the expectations. Using the information, I now have due to
all the observing and research I think that there is only one thing I would
recommend. Have the teacher support his emotional development just a little
more. Reinforce his good behaviors and promote good behavior through comfort.
There is an article that talks about the importance of emotional skills in a
OBSERVATION 4 6

classroom especially in early childhood that suggests us as educators should have

emotional education in the preschool. As some of the authors said in the article,
“Therefore, educators should be aware of how much importance the development
of emotional skills regarding emotions that have an important place in expressing
the behaviors shown by children and their way of self-expression and they should
give place to the emotion developing activities in their educational programs”
(Havighurst, Harley and Prior 2004). Having a strong foundation in a classroom
with having your students feel comfortable with you and the peers will help
develop even better human beings in the future. The only thing I suggest the
educator do in the emotional development of this child is try to have him involve
himself with his peers a little more. Let him know that he is allowed to tell the
teacher something when he is not feeling well or is feeling happy. Regardless, of
what it is the teacher should be an open notebook to all of them. In the three other
domains the child has shown great skills and knowledge. Growing at an awesome
rate cognitively and socially. As an educator just keep challenging them to their
fullest potential and provide that lovely learning environment.

VIII. Post Observation

During this observation I have learned so much. I learned that there is just so
much more than just teaching up front in the middle of a bunch of little ones.
Getting to know how each student functions and how developed they are in their
domains sounds so challenging when I can only imagine it for 24 students or
more. Learning how to teach those different kids. None of them will be the same
or be at the same level cognitively, physically, emotionally or socially developed
the same way. Appreciating each of their learning skills come to play. At first,
when I walked into a classroom I never thought that having to know these 4
domains would have been so important when it comes to teaching them. Knowing
all of this information will help me build up skills to better understand my
students and be able to provide for them everything they need to succeed. Not
only succeed but also give them that confidence, that internal drive to keep
learning and want to keep persisting.

IX. Citations:

Barreto, F. B., Sánchez de Miguel, M., Ibarluzea, J., Andiarena, A., & Arranz, E. (2017).
Family context and cognitive development in early childhood: A longitudinal
study. Intelligence, 6511-22. doi:10.1016/j.intell.2017.09.006

Gialamas, A., Sawyer, A. C., Mittinty, M. N., Zubrick, S. R., Sawyer, M. G., & Lynch, J.
(2014). Original Article: Quality of Childcare Influences Children's Attentiveness and
Emotional Regulation at School Entry. The Journal Of Pediatrics, 165813-819.e3.
doi:10.1016/j.jpeds.2014.06.011

Saltali, N. D., & Deniz, M. E. (2010). The Effects of an Emotional Education Program on
the Emotional Skills of Six-Year-Old Children Attending Preschool. Educational Sciences:
Theory And Practice, 10(4), 2123-2140
OBSERVATION 4 7

X. Appendix: 1