Gladys Armenta

Child Dev. 201

Child Case Study Report

In the Daley College Child Development Lab School there are two classrooms.

There are both Head Start that serve children ages 3-5. I have been observing in the

West Room with Ms. Ortega and Ms. Nancy. There are 17 children in this classroom. I

decided to observe a 5 year old boy named Jaiden. He is tall and slim. He has brown

eyes and brown hair. His mom is the one who drops his off and picks him up from

school. She started working by the end of my observation, but still continues to drop off

and pick Jaiden up. The classroom is located on the first floor, main entrance is

adjacent to it with security.

The classroom is designed into areas that include dramatic play, block area,

sensory area, library, manipulatives, and computers. In my time of observing Jaiden I

never saw him using the computers. The classroom has two rugs, one in the library

area and the other in the block area. This is also where they do morning large group

time and story time. Jaiden seems to be distracted during story times and group times,

he tends to lose interest. Also, Jaiden seems to walk around the classroom a lot.

Jaidens strengths are being independent. He does things for himself. When he

arrives he moves his picture to the school section from the home section. On February

1st, teacher tells him good morning and thumbs up for remembering his picture. Mom

goes to sign at the daily health check area Jaiden walks over to toy area, goes to the

manipulatives area looks around but then walks away. He goes over to his mom and
says bye mommy, she hugs him and says bye. Jaiden walks over to the sand table,

plays by himself.

On February 4th, when painting wheels on paper plates, Jaiden wants to paint

more. The teacher tells him to wash his hands because everyone is painting two. He

walks away but comes back and takes a seat in the art table. He shows interest and

teacher asks if he wants to paint another one, he says yes and gets to paint again.

Jaiden shows his plate to a girl next to him and tells her look what I made. Jaiden

spends much time in the Lego table and block area building. He has built tall towers and

added toy people figures on it.

Jaiden shows cognitive development when completing puzzles. On February

24th, the teacher grabs a bin of shapes and asks Jaiden what colors they are as she

holds up a shape. He names the colors the shapes are correctly. Then, the teacher

points to a square and asks him how many sides it has. He counts the sides of the

square, to four. Afterwards, the teacher asks Jaiden to look for a blue marker. He goes

over to the bins of markers and picks out a blue one, and brings it back to the table.

Teacher tells him to draw, he draws and teacher points as Jaiden counts.

Jaiden likes to talk about his interests. He tells a story about a shark. Jaiden says

the shark has a line in his back and is blue. It has sharp teeth and eats people. In the

water people scream shark Jaiden yells. Jaiden uses his arms to gesture flapping

motions. Teacher replies thats really cool. Jaiden then goes to the library area.

Jaiden can draw circles and lines. On April 5th, Jaiden is at the white board and

draws a circle with his left hand, then switches the marker to his right hand and draws
lines on top for hair and makes eyes and a mouth. Jaiden then goes to the library area

with two other boys, sits at the table and draws. When he finishes, he gets up to show

his picture to the teacher and says its a dinosaur. Teacher replies what kind is it?

Jaiden says a T-Rex, the teacher tells him I love it. Jaiden then walks away.

Jaiden needs some improvement when it comes to story and group times. On

January 25th 2016 Jaiden is moving around, playing with his shoes and moves from side

to side. When they return from physical activity they go back to rug area for a song.

Jaiden doesnt participate in the hand gestures. He sits and has his hand on his cheek,

then plays with his shoe. Jaiden is still learning how to write his name. He knows how to

write some letters correctly, but others needs improvement. He doesnt write his name

completely yet, he adds letters, and doesnt print letters e, n, or d correctly.

There is room where he can improve with his socializing. Jaiden sits quietly on

February 1st, and listens to the teachers conversation with the other children. On

February 4th Mom and Jaiden walk over to table where other children are playing, mom

tells him to say hi, good morning but he doesnt. She grabs Jaidens hand and waves.

Then, Jaiden goes to the table and plays with a boy. They talk, a girl comes over to the

table. Jaiden calls the teacher and says the girl is playing at the table. The teacher says

thats okay she can play there, Jaiden grabs his toys and pulls him towards him, and he

gets up and goes to another table.

I observed Jaidens play behaviors and I lined it up with Ericksons theory of

initiative vs guilt. During the ages of three and continuing to age five, children assert

themselves more frequently. These are particularly lively, rapid-developing years in a

childs life. During this period the primary feature involves the child regularly interacting
with other children at school. Central to this stage is play, as it provides children with the

opportunity to explore their interpersonal skills through initiating activities. Children

begin to plan activities, make up games, and initiate activities with others. If given this

opportunity, children develop a sense of initiative, and feel secure in their ability to lead

others and make decisions. If this tendency is oppressed, by through criticism or

control, children develop a sense of guilt. They may feel like a nuisance to others and

will therefore remain followers, lacking in self-initiative. It is at this stage a child begins

to ask many questions as they wonder why. Too much guilt can make the child slow to

interact with others and may inhibit their creativity. A healthy balance between initiative

and guilt is important.

I observed an occasion when there was an art activity where the children had to

paint a wheel on a paper plate, and there was a sample already done. The children

were to paint two plates, then move to another area so other children could paint.

Jaiden wanted to paint more so he insisted to paint another one and would come back

to the art area. He ended up painting three plates of wheels. I think that the children

should be encouraged to do as many art activities as they like to, without a limit.

Jaiden tends to not participate much during story times or discussions, so when I

saw him raise his hand on April 5th, and not get called on I was disappointed. Jaiden put

his hand down, then tried again and wasnt called on again. I think that if Jaiden was

called on it would have encouraged him to participate more often. It would have made a

positive impact on his self-esteem. Jaiden walks over to block area and pulls out a bin

with cardboard boxes and other materials, the teacher tells him he cant play inside the

block area because there are too many people there already. Jaiden puts the box away
and leaves the area. I think that this could have a different approach. Instead of the

teacher telling Jaiden from another area that it was full, she could have went over and

helped him take the box of materials to a table where he could still play.

Even though there is a routine to follow daily, I think different activities could have

been introduced. I saw some of the same things being done over again, being too

repetitive in my opinion. A change could have been done during story time by using

flannel boards to tell a story. Another way is to have the children acting out a story

themselves or by using puppets to tell a story. More songs with movement incorporated

in circle times. Doing songs like hockey pokey, happy and you know it, freeze dance, or

even musical chairs. In my opinion, group meetings were only for morning discussions

and story time. This didnt provide opportunity for the class to be together and have fun

activities to interact with each other during group times.

In summary, this experience of observing one child throughout the semester was

rewarding. I saw how a childs acts in various situations. Although, I don't think that this

classroom was an appropriate fit for this child. I didn't see modifications Jaiden needed

like when it came to his writing. The program days are short and I think a longer hour

center would be beneficial to him, since he will be starting kindergarten in a few months.

I also think that there was too much free play time and not enough activities going on.

More directed, engaging activities could help in art, writing, and during large group

times. In my opinion, I would have liked to observe more music incorporated in the

classroom. Interest of the children could have been part of the lesson planning more.

Like several children have talked about animals in the classroom. After all, The goal of

early childhood education should be to activate the childs own natural desire to learn.