Thomson Child Study

Child Study
Sydney Thomson
Rowan University

Thomson Child Study

Introduction
For this assignment I observed a five year old girl, G, once a week, for eight weeks. G is
in a self-contained kindergarten with ten other children. To get permission to observe G I sent

home a letter to her parents and gained approval. I also sent home a parent survey in order to get
more information on Gs behavior and development at home. I created an ecological map
showing what different factors affect G directly and indirectly. I completed tasks A and B of
Teacher Work Sample to provide information about the background of which G lives in and goes
to school in as well as information about Gs teacher and her educational background. All of
these documents are included in the appendix.
I took many anecdotal notes throughout my observations and tied them together using the
five developmental domains: Physical, Language, Approaches to Learning, Cognitive, and
Social/Emotional. To determine where G is developmentally I referred to a checklist made in
class, which is also included in the appendix. For my Language Development class I had to give
four assessments to a child: Concepts About Print, Letter Recognition, Writing Vocabulary, and
a Dictated Story. These assessments can be found in the appendix with more in depth analysis of
what the assessments mean.
Throughout this paper I will analyze my notes and other information to assess where G is
developmentally. I will also include a synthesis of educational implications that can be used to
help facilitate the development of G in all domains. These implications will include the
Kindergarten Common Core Standards. At the end I will briefly reflect on what I have learned
while doing this assignment.

Thomson Child Study

Physical
The physical domain is an important domain when talking about child development. I
observed that physically G is at the level she should be for her age. One of the items on the
checklist says that a five year old should be able to throw a ball ten feet away. During gym, the
class was playing with beanbags. They were first asked to throw them in the air and catch them.
G could toss the beanbag ten feet into the air but did not catch it. G then balanced a beanbag on
her head while walking to a cone. She tried to run and the beanbag fell off. This anecdotal note

proves that G meets most of the gross motor movements on the checklist. From the parent survey
I found out that G can brush her teeth, comb her hair, and get dressed on her own. This shows
that G is independent and meets other items on the physical checklist.
During circle time, Mrs. A asked everyone to show the sign-language sign for yellow (pinky
and thumb up and rest of the fingers down). G held down her pointer, middle, and ring finger
with her other hand to keep her thumb and pinky up. From this anecdotal note I can see that G
may still have trouble with some fine motor movements. But, during snack time, G got her lunch
box and unzipped it. She then got her milk and opened it the correct way and opened the straw
on her own. This shows that G does not need assistance with all fine motor movements.
To help physical development in the classroom the teacher should incorporate more activities
that involve gross and fine motor skills. Mrs. A does brain breaks with a website called
gonoodle.com. This website has songs that tell/show the students want to do. This is a fun way to
incorporate physical movement in the day and the songs get the children thinking without them
even knowing it. Dancing is a great activity because [kindergarteners] have a lot of energy, and
they want to use it in physical activities (Morrison, 2014, p.269).

Thomson Child Study

Some implications to incorporate fine motor movement could be board games like Connect 4
or Trouble where the students need to use their fingers to play. Also activities like cutting and
gluing will help kindergarteners refine their fine motor skills. Anything that incorporates
different physical development skills is good when used in the classroom.
Language
Kindergarten children are in a period of rapid intellectual and language growth
(Morrison, 2014, p.272). Through observing I found that G is very talkative. Her parents also
suggested this on the parent survey when I asked them to describe G. This is a good sign for
language development. G meets a good amount of the language developmental checklist items.
I asked G to tell me a story, when doing the dictated story. I observed that she can talk in
full sentences and understands tenses. The common core kindergarten standards state that
students should be able to, produce and expand complete sentences in shared language
activities ("English Language Arts Standards Language Kindergarten", 2014). G can speak
in full sentences. Despite this G does have some speech issues, but this is normal for a five year
old. During a reading center Mrs. A asked G what she saw on one of the pages. G said that she
saw a pider. An aid that was helping Mrs. A said, G I know you can say that word. G then
tried again and said spider. On the next page they did the same thing and G said that she saw
drees and when the teachers asked her to try one more time G said trees. The checklist says
that five year olds may miss a few sounds that are harder to say. The way that the aid handled
this situation was good because it helps G correct herself right away and break the habit or
practice the correct way to pronounce words.

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From observing I saw that G is constantly saying and spelling her name. G was telling
everyone her full name (first middle and last). She kept saying it over and over. One student said,
thats your name! and G said Yes it is! and spelled out the first three letters of her name and
then stopped and said it full out again. This shows that she knows some letters and sounds.When
going over different alphabet things G would always pick out the letters in her name first.
G was involved in a center with capital and lower case letters. Each pumpkin was cut in half
a different way and had the matching capital and lowercase letters. G found a capital I that
looked like a lowercase l. She tried to match the lowercase l with a lowercase i because she
thought the lowercase l looked like the capital I. When the pumpkin pieces did not match G kept
trying to fit them together. Through this activity and other in the classroom I could see that G
struggled with some letters. The checklist says that G should be able to name letters and
numbers; she can do most of this. To further investigate what letters G knew and what letters she
did not know I did the assessment Letter Recognition. G scored fairly well but did not recognize
all of the letters. I also did a writing vocabulary assessment with G. She did not write many
words, but she did write her name and the letter I. To see more about the assessments refer to the
appendix.
After taking all of this into account I can conclude that G is developmentally stable in the
language domain. Working on letter recognition more in the classroom can benefit G. Mrs. A is
incorporating this a lot during independent centers when the students have to match letters and
identify different letters. Something that would be helpful would be to include activities where
students have to talk and write. For example, story telling or dramatic play will help to develop

Thomson Child Study

better language skills. Incorporating as much kid writing as possible is important in a
kindergarten classroom.
Approaches to Learning
Approaches to learning includes, curiosity/initiative, persistence, attention, self-

direction, problem solving ability, and creativity (Morrison, 2014, p.277). This domain seems to
be one of the most difficult to observe. Only being in the classroom once a week and only for
half of the day did not allow me to see G play and do activities independently.
G is given the opportunity to make a decision every day. Every morning G is called up to
Mrs. As desk. Mrs. A tells G to pick out a sticker. She then reiterates throughout the day to G
that it is her goal to get that sticker in her notebook. This gives G the decision of which sticker
she wants and to set a goal to receive that sticker at the end of the day. This incorporates selfdirection, persistence, and decision-making.
From what I have observed G meets most of the items on the developmental checklist for
approaches to learning. After a table activity G was asked to collect the crayon boxes from her
classmates. One student got up and walked over to G to give her their box. G turned away and
said, I will get it when I come to your table! She carried all of the crayons back to the shelf.
This shows that G is taking initiative and calling attention to things that should be done in the
classroom.
G got done an activity early, she flipped her paper over and drew a flower. She then drew
grass underneath the flower. She made the stem on the flower longer and said, there needs to be
dirt. She drew dirt under the grass and said, a flower grows in dirt This anecdotal note

Thomson Child Study

provides the idea that G is being creative and connecting her knowledge to different things. She

understands abstract ideas and concepts about flowers. This is part of the approaches to learning.
During the Concepts About Print assessment G asked many questions about what different
things were within the book. G realized some of the mistakes in the book and asked for help
when she could not figure out some things. With prompting and support, ask and answer
questions about key details in a text ("English Language Arts Standards Reading: Literature
Kindergarten", 2014). To implicate this common core standard more in the classroom a reading
activity where the teacher asks the students questions would help. Prompting the students and
getting them to talk is important for their development.
G approaches learning on a decent developmental level. Kindergarten is a big transition for
most children so helping their approach to learning will help ease the transitions. Encouragement
and excitement in the classroom would help G to develop more in this domain.
Cognitive
The cognitive domain is one of the most difficult domains for children to be on level
with. This is their knowledge base. The [common core] standards will include high-level
cognitive demands by asking students to demonstrate deep conceptual understanding through the
application of content knowledge and skills to new situations ("Common Core State Standards
Initiative Standards-Setting Criteria"). Children develop so quickly in the cognitive domain.
Every day the brain is making connections and pruning out information that is not used.
One of the items on the checklist for the cognitive domain is that a five year old should be
able to recall a story and tell a story. During the assessments that I gave G we did a dictated
story. G told me a story of a princess who does not have friends. She said the princess was sad

Thomson Child Study

and blue and then she got angry and turned red. G then said that the princesss friends came
over and they got along laughed and had a tea party (see in appendix). G made a

connection with the movie Frozen in her own story that she made up on the spot. This shows her
cognitive ability to connect things with one another.
One morning G came in and told Mrs. A that her mom got a baby brother today. She told
everyone that the baby is coming out today and I was at Aunt Ds last night. The way that G
has relayed this information does not quite make sense but she is cognitively aware that her baby
brother was being born. G can relay the message and understand what she means even though it
may not exactly make sense to others.
After completing a worksheet G wrote her name in a pattern of colors. Yellow, orange,
purple. Then repeated it, yellow, orange, purple until her name was written. This anecdotal note
proves that G can recognize a pattern and create one herself. This proves that G is thinking more
complexly.
An implication that can further this cognitive thinking is for G to write other words or draw
pictures in the same pattern. This will connect different aspects and different domains. There are
many activities that cater to childrens cognitive needs. Even something as simple as reading a
story could be an activity for furthering cognitive development.
Social/Emotional
Five year olds are in Erik Eriksons industry versus inferiority stage of social and
emotional development (Morrison, 2014, p.269). This is when children are learning to regulate
their emotions and become social. G meets all of the checklist items for this domain. In the
parent survey Gs parents described her as outgoing and friendly. I observed this as well. G

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works independently and takes pride in what she can do. Without directions G took out a crayon
and started a table activity. She used the crayon to trace a maze from one point to the other. She
stayed inside the lines. She then held up the paper and said, Mrs. A look what I did! Mrs. A
told G good job and to trace the maze with all of her other colors as well. G tired this activity on
her own and succeeded.
During snack time G swung around her Go-Gurt and it burst open. It got all over the floor,
table, and L. L sighed and said, you got me all dirty. G replied, it was an accident, Ill get you
a napkin, I was just trying to open it. This shows that G was concerned about L and used
problem-solving techniques to help him. This proves that G can interact socially and put her
emotions in check.
This is one instance where G could not keep her emotions in check: The teacher asked G to
go to the bathroom before gym and G said no. The substitute teacher took the marker that G was
writing with and G crossed her arms. The rest of the class walked outside for gym. After five
minutes G went to the bathroom and was able to go out for gym. G sometimes has trouble
listening to directions and following them if it is not something she seems to want to do. One
way to try to encourage better emotional control would be to model positive and emotional
responses [by] reading stories and discussing feelings such as anger, happiness, guilt, and pride
(Morrison, 2014, p.269). This will teach G a better way to express her emotions and handle
situations better.
Being that G is in a self-contained classroom there seems to be higher emotional
instances. For a five-year-old G seems to handle herself well most of the time. There are certain

Thomson Child Study

occurrences where she will lash out but any kindergartener will do this as well. Overall G is on
level for Social/emotional development.
Environmental Support
There is one main teacher in the classroom, Mrs. A. There are two classroom aids as well.

Mrs. B is in the classroom to help a boy who cannot see very well, Mrs. L aids specifically a boy
who has behavioral problems. There are many other assistants or aids that come in throughout
the day for different areas. One woman comes in to help a couple of the students with speech.
Another comes in to test the boy who cannot see. During lunch a man comes in to get all of the
lunches together and assist in any way.
G normally takes the bus to school, but sometimes gets dropped off by her parents if she is
running late. The children arrive at 9:15. After they unpack, they have a tabletop activity to work
on while everyone is going to the bathroom and getting settled. On Wednesdays the class has
gym from 9:40-10:00. After gym is circle time. Snack is at 10:30 and then either centers or a
story at 11:00. Before lunch at 11:45, the students normally have a handwriting activity or work
with letters and sounds.
The classroom is pretty cluttered. The door is at the back of the classroom. The cubbies and
coat hangers are to the right, next to it. Then there is a closed off play area with shelves and
closets. Around on the front of the room there is a smart board and a chalkboard. A round carpet
sits right under the smart board. Behind the carpet in the middle of the room there are tables for
the students to sit at; they sit in groups of three or four. Behind these tables is the bathroom and
sink. Near the smart board is Mrs. As desk, then bookshelves in front. In the classroom there is a
door that leads outside to the playground.

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Parents can contact Mrs. A at anytime via e-mail. Soon they will all have communications

notebooks so that Mrs. A can keep parents updated and involved in their childs education. There
are also conferences two or three time a year for parents to get involved and stay updated on
class activities and child performance.
Reflection
When doing this assignment I learned how to write anecdotal notes. This will be very
important for me as a teacher in the future. It was hard at first to not make the notes objective
because with children you just want to talk about the funny things that they say and things that
they do. Eventually I got the hang of it and now I can use this type of note taking in the future.
Studying one specific child was interesting I learned that eight weeks is not enough time to
see completely assess where a child is developmentally. If I had more time with G and in her
classroom I could have came up with more data and ideas to support my reasoning.
All in all I learned that observation is key when becoming a teacher. You have to study each
one of your students in the beginning of each year to see where they stand developmentally and
then proceed to figure out how you can best help them grow and transition into the next
developmental stage. Doing this project and the assessments has helped me grow as a teacher.
The things I have learned and taken away from this assignment will benefit me in the future.

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References

Common Core State Standards Initiative Standards-Setting Criteria. (n.d.). Retrieved December
12, 2014, from http://www.corestandards.org/assets/Criteria.pdf
English Language Arts Standards Language Kindergarten. (2014, January 1). Retrieved
December 12, 2014, from http://www.corestandards.org/ELA-Literacy/L/K/#CCSS.ELALiteracy.L.K.1
Morrison, G. S. (2014). Guiding Children's Behavior. In Fundamentals of Early Childhood
Education (Seventh ed., pp. 70-107). USA: Pearson Education Inc.