Class/section: FHS 1500-004

Name: Mary Helms

Assignment: Observation 3
Childs Age: School age (6-12 years)
Relationship: Unknown child
Location: Riverside Park, 739 N 1400 W, Salt Lake City, UT 84104
Brief Description: I decided to watch a little boy, with his mother's permission, while he
played with some newly-made friends on the playground at Riverside Park, a local
children's park in my neighborhood. I will refer to this boy as Bob so as not to reveal his
secret identity!
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Physical Development
Bob was engaged in active play with the other children on the playground. He
showed the appropriate immediate benefits and personal risks that a child his age
should be experiencing (Berger, 2014, pg. 245). He showed that he was capable of
problem-solving when he and some other boys solved the problem of who was to go
down the slide by creating a line and going down one by one in that order. By learning
how to solve little problems as a child he can learn to solve even more difficult problems
he faces as he gets older. But there was also signs of active play issues as he played
on the playground. He and his friends were roughhousing and he ended up scraping his
elbow. Though he did get patched up quickly and was properly treated, if him and his
family were to do nothing for him he may have ended up not doing well healthwise.
I also noticed that he seemed to be overweight compared to the other children he
was playing with. There are many factors that could have caused him to be obese even
though I did not personally see them myself. He could be influenced by family, friends,
society, even genetics (Berger, 2014, pg. 247). Whatever the cause it seems to have
affected his energy levels for he cannot keep up with the running children very well.
There were times when Bob would go get himself a drink from a water fountain
when he was thirsty and tie his shoelaces all by himself. By doing these things I could
tell that he was caught up with his physical development when it came to self care
(Berger, 2014, pg. 244). When he is older he can use these skills to take care of himself
hygienically, financially, and just overall.
Cognitive Development
Bob has also learned how to use his brains interconnections to deal with social
situations. By using these interconnections Bob has decided whom he played with, is
able to empathise with others, and decide between fair and wrong (Berger, 2014, pg.
255). He chose a group of boys to play with because he saw that they were playing
games that he had interest in and he felt he could relate to them because of their similar
age range. Whenever hm or his friend would feel hurt or betrayed he would express his
feelings and insist on correction for the wrongdoing.
Surprisingly Bob didnt have the attention span I thought a child his age would
have by now. Whereas most children are able to use selective attention effectively, Bob
would easily get distracted and this caused some frustration within the group of friends
(Berger, 2014, pg. 256). No matter how much he tried, he could not focus his attention.

Though I do not know his personal medical history, I have seen children behave like this
when they have some form of mental issue that affects attention.
Bob is a bilingual child and can speak English and Spanish. He appears to be
from a hispanic family whose main language is Spanish so he could speak it very well
for his age. His english on the other hand didnt seem to be as advanced and articulate
as his spanish. From this I can infer that he may be or has learned a majority of his
English through school programs such as ESL (Berger, 2014, pg. 261). One thing I was
glad to see was that he had learned enough English to communicate with other children
well enough to get his point across.
Social/Emotional Development
Bob and his friends had one thing in common, they were all boys. This did not
surprise me for boys of their age tend to play with only boys. They would ignore all of
the girls on the playground and would exaggerate their opinions on how girls were
yucky, and other childish insults. I believe this is due to Freuds idea of latency
(Berger, 2014, pg. 285). It is very typical for boys and girls to only hang out or play with
the same gender because they can relate to each other at that age period.
Sadly, Bobs difference in weight it seemed to put a toll on him when he would
play and interact with other children. Its not that he was so obese that he couldnt
possibly talk to them, but he was very shy. He appeared to compare himself to the other
children and become anxious enough to limit his ability to play and socialize (Berger,
2014, pg. 2286-287). With his self-esteem lowering on the playground I couldn't help but
feel a bit sorry for him. Whatever has influenced him into believing he is not as good as
other kids, hopefully as he ages he can improve on his self esteem.
With his friends in mind he did show that he was acting accordingly when it came
to child culture (Berger, 2014, pg. 304). They could talk about things that they liked,
related to, and stories that have been passed down from generations of children just like
themselves. They all wore modern-day clothes that has T.V. characters that are popular
for their age group. By creating this kind of cultural phenomenon with a group of similar
children you social interactions become strengthened and you feel like you are one with
a group of people.

Reference List
Berger, K. S. (2014). Invitation to the life span (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Worth
Publishers.