Amanda Amsterdam

Hannah Saferman
Morgan Edwards

Lab 2: Checklist Observation of a the Infant Room at the CDL

Introduction

The observation for this report was done in the infant room at the MSU Child

Development Labs. During the observation, the lead teacher, Ms. Diaz, was not present, so

various CDL workers were observed with the children, all ranging in age from birth to eighteen

months. The purpose of this lab report was to observe the current skills of the children in the

infant room in the physical and social/ emotional domain, along with determining whether

children are being supported through their current learning activities, or are ready to progress to

more advanced activities. This observation was also to determine whether any observed child

requires extra support in the classroom. Six children, ranging from three months to fourteen

months in age, were observed during varying times of the day both in the classroom and outside.

A checklist of expected and emerging skills was developed to observe the children in the

classroom. A checklist was used because, according to Mindes, this is an effective method in

recording skills and attributes of children in a classroom (Chapter 3). Further, the checklist

provided a reference of expecting skills that could be observed in the classroom given the age

and developmental stages of the children.

 Amanda Amsterdam
Hannah Saferman
Morgan Edwards

Figures and Graphs

Figure One: Checklist for Infants Physical/Motor and Social Skills for infants at the CDL
(0- Child did not perform skill when given the opportunity, 1-3: how many times skill was
observed during all observations, N/A: skill was not observed)
 Amanda Amsterdam
Hannah Saferman
Morgan Edwards

Figure 2: Percent observed physical/motor skills in infants at the CDL

Figure 3: Percent observed social skills in infants at the CDL

 Amanda Amsterdam
Hannah Saferman
Morgan Edwards

Data Summary

For the physical domain, the children observed who had the opportunity to demonstrate

the physical skills on the checklist were fairly adept at doing so. Half of the children observed,

exactly 50%, were able to pull themselves to a standing position and to rock or roll themselves

back and forth, and two-thirds, 67%, of the observed children were able to sit without any

support. The skills that these children showed less mastery in were rolling from their stomach to

their back, standing while holding onto an object, and crawling. Just over a third of the children

exhibited these skills, when given the opportunity to do so.

For the combined social/emotional domain, the children observed who had the

opportunity to demonstrate the specific skills did so a vast majority of the time. The skills that

the children exhibited two-thirds of the time were copying movements and facial expressions,

responding to others emotions, and showing self-calming behaviors. A skill that was exhibited

over half of the time, 56% is clinginess (or attachment) to certain caregivers. The three emerging

skills for this domain are handing a book to a caregiver. One can infer that this is to express the

desire to be read to, pointing to interesting objects, and looking at oneself in a mirror.

Interpretations

The data observed tells us information on both the individual child and about the skills

related to the domains of learning that were observed. Child 1 showed high levels of skill in both

physical and social/emotional domains. The child did not get the chance to look in a mirror or

hand a book to the teacher. Perhaps this means that the child is more interested in the physical

domain than the social domain. When looking at Child 2, one can infer that this child is more

developed in the social domain than the physical motor domain. This can be interpreted because
 Amanda Amsterdam
Hannah Saferman
Morgan Edwards

skills involving physical function were not seen but most social skills were seen once or twice.

All motor and physical skills were seen in Child 3. Some skills such as looking in the mirror

were only seen by one observer, with being clingy with a familiar adult being seen by all three

observers. This means that he/she has the ability to perform a variety of tasks. Child 4s results

were varied. Some skills such as standing were not observed by anyone while the skill of being

clingy with familiar adults was seen by all three observers, which means teachers are very

important to this child. This tells one that the child is still developing in the social and physical

domains. Child 5 showed skills in all of the categories except for two relating to the physical

domain. Three observers saw him/her copying facial expressions and movements which means

that this social skill is the strongest skill the child showed. This means that the physical domain

for this child is still developing. All skills that Child 6 had the opportunity to complete were

seen by at least one observer. This means that this child is well rounded in the physical and

social domains however; none of the skills were seen by all three observes. Even though the

child is well rounded, there is still room for more development. This information can tell

teachers what skills to focus on with each child.

From the graph, one can see how the class is developing across domains. Overall the

percentages of skills seen were higher in the social domain than the physical domain. Perhaps the

classroom is set up more to encourage the social domain or maybe this is the domain that

teachers focus on more. The skill that was seen the most among the physical domain skills was

sitting up on ones own. This makes sense because it is a skill that comes before standing and

taking steps. Crawling, standing while holding on, and rolling from the back to the stomach are

skills that all got 39%. These are the least developed skills in the physical domain. These are

developmental skills that the teacher could help support children in doing.
 Amanda Amsterdam
Hannah Saferman
Morgan Edwards

Many things can be interpreted from looking at the collected data relating to the social

domain. The three skills that were observed the most were having self-calming behaviors,

coping movements and expressions, and respond to others emotions and seeming generally

happy. It is interesting that all of these are related to emotional behaviors, and not social ones.

This could mean that teaching about feelings is a focus of this particular infant classroom. The

least developed skill shown by the bar graph is pointing to show interest. This is not something

relating to emotions, but instead is a communication skill. Not all of the children had the

opportunity to look at themselves in the mirror or to hand a book to a teacher, but those who did,

did so less than half of the time. These could be activities that that do not catch the interests of all

of the children. Overall the data can tell one about the developmental skills in each child and

about the skills in general.

Follow-up Plan

Based on the data collected by our group, it would be beneficial to support this classroom

with their social development and communication skills. A majority of the emerging skills

observed were skills that required the children to communicate with each other and caregivers.

A specific learning objective from the Michigan State University Childrens Curriculum in the

language/communication domain that fits with the emerging skills observed would be Use

appropriate body language (eye contact, body position, and gestures) to alert a listener to their

intent and to convey emotion (MSU Childrens Curriculum).

A wonderful way that this objective can be taught to the children in the infant class would

be by modeling it for them frequently during organic social interactions. Caregivers should use a
 Amanda Amsterdam
Hannah Saferman
Morgan Edwards

wide range of gestures, make eye contact with the child they are speaking to, and model active

listening when a child is attempting to communicate with them.

Reflection

Many things were learned from this lab. One was able to create a checklist and all of the

criteria on the checklist. The checklist was then implemented in the infant room and

developmental skills of children was assessed. The checklist yields many pieces of important

information about the children and the two observed developmental domains. It can tell how

many times each child displayed each skill. This system of observation is useful in seeing which

skills have developed in each individual child. Its downfalls are that there is no context for the

events that have happened. This makes it hard to tell what has caused the successes and the areas

for improvement. The information from the checklist can be used in making a plan for

improvements. There are many pros and cons to using a checklist.

 Amanda Amsterdam
Hannah Saferman
Morgan Edwards

References

Center for Disease Control and Prevention. (n.d.). CDC Milestones Checklist.

Mindes, G., & Jung, L. A. (2015). Assessing Young Children. United States: Pearson.

MSU CDL. (n.d.). MSU Working Children's Curriculum (Draft)

 Amanda Amsterdam
Hannah Saferman
Morgan Edwards

Appendix (Individual Checklists)

Hannahs Data
Infant room from 9:35-10:35
Transition time and Outside time

Physical/Motor Skills (Months) Social Skills (Months)

Rolls Sits Stan Take Roc Craw Pulls Copies Respo Clin Hands Poin Has Look
from with ds, sa ks ls to a moveme nds to gy book ts to self s at
stoma out holdi few bac (9) stan nts and others with when sho cal self
ch to supp ng step k ding facial emotio famil want w min in the
back ort on s and posit expressi ns, iar to som g mirro
(9) with fort ion ons often adult hear a ethin beh r
Child Age
out h (9) seems s (9) story g avio (6)
and initial
holdi (6) happy (12) inter r
ng (6) estin (2)
on g
(12) (18)

Child 1 0 1 1 1 0 1 1 1 1 N/A 1 1 1 N/A

Age: 14 m

Child 2 n/a 0 n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a 1 1 1 N/A 0 0 N/A

Age: 3m

Child 3 0 1 1 1 1 0 1 1 1 1 n/a 0 0 n/a

Age: 16 m

Child 4 n/a 1 n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a 0 0 1 N/A 0 0 n/a

Age: 9 m

Child 5 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 1 N/A 1 0 N/A

Age: 10 m

Child 6 0 1 1 1 0 0 1 1 1 1 N/A 1 0 N/A

Age: 14 m

Total 0 5 3 3 2 1 3 4 5 6 n/a 3 1 n/a

Number
 Amanda Amsterdam
Hannah Saferman
Morgan Edwards

Percent of 0 83 75 75 50 25 75 67 83 10 n/a 50 17 n/a

Observed
0

Morgans Data
Observed Thursday 9/28/17, from 1:50 - 2:50 pm
Physical/Motor Skills (Months) Social Skills (Months)

Rolls Sits Stan Take Roc Craw Pulls Copies Respo Clin Hands Poin Has Look
from with ds, sa ks ls to a moveme nds to gy book ts to self s at
stoma out holdi few bac (9) stan nts and others with when sho cal self
ch to supp ng step k ding facial emotio famil want w min in the
back ort on s and posit expressi ns, iar to som g mirro
(9) with fort ion ons often adult hear a ethin beh r
Child Age
out h (9) seems s (9) story g avio (6)
and initial
holdi (6) happy (12) inter r
ng (6) estin (2)
on g
(12) (18)

Child 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 N/A N/A 1 1 N/A

Age: 14 m

Child 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 N/A 0 1 N/A

Age: 3m

Child 3 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
Age: 16 m

Child 4 1 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 N/A 0 1 1
Age: 9 m

Child 5 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 1 1 N/A N/A 0 1 N/A

Age: 10 m

Child 6 N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A
Age: 14 m

Total 4/5 4/5 2/5 2/5 3/5 4/5 2/5 3/5 3/5 2/3 1/1 2/5 4/5 2/2
Number
 Amanda Amsterdam
Hannah Saferman
Morgan Edwards

Percent of 80 80 40 40 60 80 40 60 60 67 100 40 80 100

Observed

(Lucia was napping when I went to observe

Amandas Data
Observation: 10:30am-11:30am
Lunch time

Physical/Motor Skills (Months) Social Skills (Months)

Roll Sits Stan Take Roc Cra Pulls to Copie Respo Clin Han Points Has Loo
s with ds, sa ks wls a s nds to gy ds to self ks
from out holdi few bac (9) standin move others with boo show calmi at
sto supp ng step k g ments emotio famil k someth ng self
mac ort on s and position and ns, iar whe ing behav in
h to (9) with fort (9) facial often adult n interest ior the
Child Age and
bac out h expre seems s (9) wan ing (2) mirr
initial
k holdi (6) ssion happy t to (18) or
ng s (6) hea (6)
on ra
(12) stor
y
(12)

Child 1 N/A 1 N/A 1 1 1 1 1 N/A N/A N/A 1 1 N/A

Age: 14 m

Child 2 N/ N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A 1 1 0 N/A 0 1 1

Age: 3m
A

Child 3 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 N/A 1 1 1 1 1 N/A

Age: 16 m

Child 4 N/A N/A 0 N/A 0 0 0 N/A 0 1 N/A 0 1 1

Age: 9 m

Child 5 1 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 1 N/A 1 0 1 1
Age: 10 m
 Amanda Amsterdam
Hannah Saferman
Morgan Edwards

Child 6 1 0 1 1 1 1 1 N/A 1 N/A 1 1 1 N/A

Age: 14 m

Total 3/3 3/4 2/4 4/4 3/5 4/5 3/5 3/3 4/5 2/3 3/3 3/6 6/6 3/3
Number

Percent of 100 75 50 100 60 80 60 100 80 67 100 50 100 10

Observed
0
Amanda Amsterdam
Hannah Saferman
Morgan Edwards