Child Observation Survey

Running Head: CHILD OBSERVATION REVIEW

Child observation review

Lisa Doars

Child observation review

Children come in all shapes and sizes; each one is different and special in their own way. The development of children at this stage would fall into the pre-operation stage as founded by Piaget, as well as fulfill Vygotsky's four basic principles. Both children observed were in the approximate same age group, Christian, a five year old male, and Amyia, a six year old female. Both children were observed in their home environment with other peers and adults in attendance. Amyia's observation took place at a special event, her birthday party; Christian's observation was a more casual setting.

We found these assessments hard to compare, especially since the two children are so developmentally different; this review was similar to comparing apples to oranges. The differences between the two observations were quite evident due to Christian having a developmental handicap, living with Autism. Amyia is a healthy six year old with no known developmental or emotional handicaps. The ability to speak words or sentences was not a skill Christian had been able to master yet, and needed therapy for this and other developmental skills. However, each child was able to command attention, yet, such was done in a very different manner for both.

Amyia's personality was one where she could command her friends to do as she wished, while Christian was able to do the same with temper tantrums, grunting, and just pointing to what he wanted from people. Biologically, both children were on par for their physical age, though the comparisons are harder with one being a boy, and the other a girl. If Christian were a normal child without autism, it would be easier to determine if the differences in the other areas of development are related to his diagnosis, or related to him just being a male, since males seem to develop slowly than females in some areas, such as fine and gross motor skills (Berk, 2004). Other than those mentioned we did not find any real similarities in their level of development, especially since Christian is an only child and Amyia has an older sibling whom she could imitate.

Christian would have a hard time in the birthday setting, as he lacks the social skills and as , there would be a problem with the noise levels, and he would not comprehend everything, because there is literalness in his understanding of language, as is common for autistic children (Connor, 1999). For example, in the potato race, he might not understand he is supposed to actually put the potato on the spoon, and to also run with it all the way to the finish line. In his familiar settings, everyone is aware of his limitations and he would not have any problems, but in the party setting, he would be lost.

Amyia seemed to have full command of her linguistic skills, as she was able to order her friends around, and they followed. This behavior might be learned from watching her mother or other female family members modeling the same "leader-like" behavior. Though she may be intellectually and cognitively more advanced than her counterparts, this too may be attributed to her upbringing and heredity, and not to her age. She appears to have the cognitive, as well as, the fine and gross motor skills, which are appropriate for her age group, as she was able to run around and have run playing the potato game with her friends, as well as, maneuver the spoon and potato with the awkward agility a child her age would possess, according to the skills outlined in the text, Development through the lifespan (2004).

The emotional level of each child was observed, and Amyia seemed to be quite content as she interacted with her guests, and she was a little ahead of some of her friends in emotional development. All of the girls at the party were around the same age, but it was evident which were the younger ones, and which did not have either older siblings or were the youngest of their perspective family. The older six year olds delighted