Category: Child Observation

Concerning one or more examples from your reading on this module, critically assess the value of infant observation for psychoanalytic thought.

Introduction

Within this essay, I will be discussing the many reasons why infant observation is vital for psychoanalytic thought and psychoanalysts in general. Some of the points I will be discussing within the essay are, what exactly infant observation is, the idea of self-reflecting for training child psychoanalysts, and how psychoanalysis advances through infant observation.

What is infant observation?

In simple terms, infant observation is observing a child under the age of two. The more scientific way to describe what infant observation is would be ‘infant observation is the study of the earliest formation of the psyche (Rustin, 2006). Infant observation is seen as a fairly new concept within the world of psychoanalysis as it had only ‘been part of the training course for child psychotherapists at the Tavistock Clinic since 1948 (Bick, 1964). This means that the idea of observing infants has only been around in terms of psychoanalysis for less than 100 years. Then in 1960 infant observation was added to the curriculum within the Institute of Psychoanalysis, and this was added to the first year of the course (Bick, 1964).

The way that a training psychoanalyst would conduct a full infant observation is by observing ‘infants and their mothers or other caregivers, in natural settings, usually the home, conducted regularly, preferably for an hour each week for the first two years of an infant’s life (Rustin, 2006). During this visit, the person observing the family will be watching for many things. The main thing that they will be looking at during the observation is the ’emotional development of the infant in her family setting’ (Brown, 2007). They will also be looking at their movements, language skills, relationships with family and friends, and their eating habits. The structure in which the observation is conducted is very important for the overall outcome of the research that is being conducted. The reason that the observation is conducted at the same time each week is because ‘the method allows one to observe the evolution of particular behavior patterns or changes in how the same situations are handled over time’ (Urwin, 2007). Conducting the research over two years enables the observer to see if there are any patterns within the relationship between the mother and child. It can also show if there are any emotional difficulties for the mother or the child and try to establish a reason as to why this has happened. Esther Bick says in one of her journals ‘that paying attention to such observable details over a long period allows the student to see not only patterns but also changes in the patterns (Bick, 1964).

Some psychoanalysts conduct infant observations within a consulting room for clinical research but unfortunately, they will not get the same results that they would get from observing the infant within the home. The term clinical research is defined as the ‘accumulation of knowledge and understanding achieved by psychoanalysis in the consulting room (Rustin, 2006). The reason an observer will not get the same results within a consultation room is because naturally, a child is going to be more comfortable and consistent within its own home and familiar surroundings especially as they start to get older. Therefore, this method is predominantly used for older children rather than infants.

The observer and their research

The observer can come across some difficult challenges within their research and this could be for many different reasons. The first reason that I think it could be hard to be an observer is because of the bond that is created between the family and the observer. Spending such a long period with a particular family they are naturally going to create a bond and become attached, they are there every week for two years. They will see this baby progress from being a newborn to walking and talking. Those are very big stages within an infant’s life, and the family. The observer will also see the stress and emotions the family goes through as the infant progresses through the stages of development, alongside seeing all the happy times and excitement. It will be like the observer is another member of the family. Joanne Brown also says ‘It is sometimes argued that infant observations can become a source of explicit support for some mothers’ (Brown, 2007). This is because they are there on such a regular basis and as I previously mentioned they see so much within the family.

During the visits, the observer is there to watch and analyse how the infant is progressing through the first two years of their life, but they are also observing how the attachment with the family members, predominantly the mother has an impact on the infant. Therefore, it is valuable to be understanding of the mother and her struggles as well as her achievements. All of what the observer sees within the family home will enable the advancement of psychoanalytic research. Therefore, seeing the child’s relationship with the mother in the early stages and observing this closely could enable more understanding into why, once the infant becomes older, they struggle with certain emotional difficulties such as relationships and friendships. Michael Rustin describes how mothers who ‘prefer to hold their babies on their laps in a facing outwards mode, to holding their gaze or cuddling them with affection (Rustin, 2006) can put them at risk of developing conditions such as Autism. This is only one of the reasons why infant observation is critical to the advances of psychoanalytic thought. Michael Rustin makes a critical point when he says ‘one cannot so easily locate a discrete domain of the unconscious or the inner-worldly in observed infants as one can in child psychotherapy (Rustin, 2006). Therefore, the observer needs to make sure they keep a professional yet friendly relationship with the family because the advance of infant observation is critical to psychoanalytic thought. This is also because psychoanalysis is based on unconscious thoughts, and what infants do is predominantly unconscious thought. Another important reason that it could potentially be hard for the observer is that they could start to notice over time that there is some intergenerational trauma happening with the family. Doris Brothers says ‘Once established, they tend to coalesce into patterns of relating so inflexible and resistant to change that they profoundly affect parent-child interactions over generations’ (Brothers, 2013). Therefore, the observer constantly watching the family is crucial because they can pick up on these things. It can then also lead to advances within that area of study. It is ordinary practice for the observer to just be watching the entire hour that they are there, and this is because they don’t want to potentially miss something important with the infant whilst they are taking notes. Then once the observer leaves and they write up their report on the session they make sure to mention all details of the observation. This is even down to the way the infant breathes whilst they sleep. The reason for this is because every little thing an infant does is for an unconscious reason as that is their way of communicating without words.

For an observer who has spent multiple previous years studying the development of children and potentially psychoanalysis itself, it would be difficult for them not to make premature presumptions about the family or use theories to justify the infant’s behavior. Joanne Brown says, ‘the observation method discourages the premature use of theory, is it nevertheless underpinned by a particular theory of mind’. This is predominantly because other contributing factors can make the relationship difficult such as postnatal depression. Esther Bick says, ‘the depression in the mother and its impact on the observer as well as on the baby and other members of the family (Bick, 1964). The difficulty of making premature assumptions or theories regarding the family or infant is that naturally once you start to fixate on something those are the signs you will see the most. Whereas, if you keep an open mind and don’t try to fit a family into a certain theory or category you are more likely to make advances within the world of psychoanalysis. This could be because you either find out more concrete information about a current theory or potentially find out something that has not been established as an individual theory yet. This could then be crucial to the advances of psychoanalysis.

Introduction

When the topic of literacy occurs, literacy is commonly associated with the learning of reading and writing. But within Early Childhood, literacy can be seen in more than just reading and writing. Early Literacy consists of children gaining knowledge about reading and writing before they achieve these milestones. Literacy can be developed in more ways than one, which could be singing, playing, talking to peers/adults, as well as reading and writing (Cedar Mill Community Library, 2019). Literacy can be assessable to children at all times and one of the biggest factors that help develop children’s literacy is their families. An observation, child named M has been observed to see the impact of family literacies on M. The observed child is two years and seven months old and is the older sister of her baby brother. She has been attending Child Care five days a week and is very interested in books. Every day she will always bring at least one book from home to read at the Child Care. Her mother and her father are Indonesian but they are very fluent in English. All of the observations have been taken, as she was at the childcare in a play-based educational setting. Within this essay, there will be two observations of the focus child performing literacy activities with their analyses on how they are important to the child’s literacy development and an evaluation of the observation’s connection to the families’ literacy practices and their importance.

Documentation

Observation 1

M was inside the Toddler’s room at her Child Care and standing next to the table where there were some egg cartons, paper, and colored pencils. M grabbed the egg carton and a green colored pencil and started poking the pencil on the bottom side of the egg carton. As she was doing this, she told the observer “Look! Making eyes” “Green color” and when she poked holes two times in one place, she told the observer “Two eyes” (Figure 1). After that, she realized that there were holes in between the place that the eggs were put in so she put the pencil through one of the holes, lifted it to show the observer, and said “Wow! I put it through!” “Push push” (Figure 2). After playing with it a little, she noticed the paper on the table and started to draw circularly. As she was drawing, she turned to the observer and said “Look drawing” and as she continued circularly with the green pencil that she was holding onto earlier, she said “I drew apple!” (Figure 3) and then went on draw a ‘rainbow ice cream’ as she had told the observer. After drawing, she saw the egg carton, grabbed it put it on the table with the bottom side facing upwards placed the green pencil and a pink crayon into the middle of it, and stated to the observer that it was her rainbow train (Figure 4).

Analysis

M shows a wide range of good literacy developments within this observation. M shows the observer that she is a very active learner and her social skills are so developed that she showcases them to the observer in a good manner. She shows good development in learning outcomes one and three. Specifically learning outcome 1.1 by showing her confidence and feeling safe and secure to express her thoughts (ACECQA, 2018) and feelings comfortably with the observer. This also links to learning outcome 3.1 as well as she shows good developments in her social wellbeing (ACECQA, 2018). To develop well in literacy, children need to be able to have resources and be able to interact with the adults/peers around them (McLachlan, Nicholson, Fielding-Barnsley, Mercer & Ohi, 2012), which can be seen with M as she is continuously interacting with the observer throughout the whole experience. She is also constantly using oral communication which can also be accepted as literacy development. This activity was part of free play time so she chose to do these activities herself which showed what she is naturally drawn to this could be seen from a Developmental view to show that playing is what comes naturally to a child and the observer did not interfere with how she went on with her activity (Fleer, M., 2013). The observer watched, interacted, and encouraged the focus child’s play. With the child’s interest in this activity, we can recall from the parent interview that she does enjoy drawing and this activity can be accepted as a literacy practice because she is expressing all that she hears, sees, and feels onto the paper and it helps people like the observer to see the extraordinary aspects within the ordinary things of our lives (Giamminuti, S., 2013).

Observation 2

M had brought two books with her from home and she brought them outside with her along with another that is from the Child Care. The books were ‘Koala Lou’, ‘That’s Not My Monkey!’ and ‘Please and Thank You’. She first sat down on the mat and showed the observer her books and said “I bring from home” “These are my books”. She first opened up the ‘Koala Lou’ book and just looked through each page (Figure 4). Then she stated to the observer that she likes ‘Please and Thank You’ more. As this was happening, another child came and got her book, so she traded it with ‘Koala Lou’, which is from the Child Care, and got her own book back. She then opened up the ‘That’s Not My Monkey’ book and showed the observer the monkeys, the mouse, and the dragonfly by pointing them out one by one (Figure 5). She then looks at the observer and says “Not my monkey!” as the book has different fabrics within it for sensory experiences, she touches the soft material and says “Feels soft” “Look at this!”. When she goes onto the ‘Please and Thank You’ book, she quickly flips through the pages and then the same child from before wants to take a look but she says “Hey! No!’ and takes it back (Figure 6). She then gets up with the books in her arm and looks like she is going to go play with her friends, the observer asks if she wanted her to put her books in her bag and she replies with a yes and then says “In my bag” as she gives them to the observer before going off to play.

Analysis

With this second observation, M is continuing to show good literacy skills in another way with her passion for books. She is a child that brings her books to the Child Care every day and she chooses the books herself. Her mother in the interview said that she picks which books she wants, and she does the same for her bedtime story as well. She shows a lot of the learning outcomes with this observation as well with her feeling safe, secure, and supported by showing how comfortable she is with the observer by trusting her to put her books away when she didn’t want any of her peers to touch them, which connects to the learning outcome number 1.1 (ACECQA, 2018). It also shows that she is experiencing the feeling that she belongs which is the Early Years Learning Framework, which states that the sense of belonging is very important for children to know where, and to whom they belong (Australian Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations, 2009). She also showed her good social and communication skills by interacting with the observer and constantly talking to her. These two skills connect with the learning outcome 3.1, which is all about the child’s social and emotional wellbeing, and learning outcome 5.1, which is for children who communicate efficiently with those around them (ACECQA, 2018). Learning to read can complicated but if a child is showing great interest in books, that could be a good predictor for their future. If they are at least looking at the pages and going through each page that could give them the recognition of printed materials (Smith & Pellegrini, 2013). Due to M having such an intense interest in books both at home and in Child Care, this can also be another indication that they will succeed in literacy practices (McLachlan et al., 2012). What can also be seen is that M has been a good example of a child that has brought their virtual backpack filled with prior knowledge from the way that she shows exactly where the animals are and says exactly as they are (McLachlan et.al, 2012).

Further Analysis

For a child’s literacy practices to develop well, the children need to be surrounded by the appropriate resources that the children can reach at all times but also need guidance from their peers and adults to reach high levels of literacy development. Vygotsky (1978) stated in his theory about Access and Mediation that children need the tools and resources but they also need guidance as well to thoroughly understand how to use the tools and resources that were given to them (McLachlan et. Al., 2012). This implies that children will not develop a rich literacy practice unless the children have the resources and support from their social life together (McLachlan et. Al., 2012). There is a common saying that says that parents are their children’s first teachers and the saying can be accepted as right because children model whatever they see from their caregivers. This means that families take part in a critical role in a child’s development, especially their language and literacy development (Otto, B., 2010). This implies that a child’s literacy and language development are closely connected to their family’s literacy practice which is a strong indicator that the child could succeed well in literacy if these two components go hand in hand with one another (McLachlan et. Al., 2012).

Reading for example, if a child tries to read by themselves, they could learn but there is a higher chance that if the caregivers are engaged with their child and the reading the child going to learn much better with the interaction (McLachlan et al, 2012). From the interview, the observer was able to gain insight that the parents always read to her during bedtime and that she chooses the books that she wants to read. This shows that the parents are giving her freedom to choose which encourages the reading also from the interview the parents expressed that when doing any kind of activity, the families go according to ‘how she feels’ and follows her way which means that they adjust themselves according to her rather than forcing her into something that she might not like doing (McLachlan et. Al., 2012). Storybook reading also engages the child to label the pictures within the book which connects them to the actual objects that are all around them. The labeling was seen in Observation 2, where M showed the monkey, the mouse, and the dragonfly without the observer asking about them. So it could be said that perhaps Mum has asked her about the creatures in the book and M has instantly labeled them and now expresses them easily (Heath, S.B., 1982). Reading books to children also benefits the children by improving their language and reading (McLachlan et. al., 2012). Studies have shown the positive impact that storybook reading has given children by building a foundation for their school-based literacy where stories will be read continuously (Saracho & Spodek, 2010). Studies have reported that when the child has an early start to literacy with their parents reading to them, the child would be at a higher level with their emergent reading levels. By the time the child has started formal school, their literacy levels would already be high (Otto, B., 2010).

Literacy could be seen as withdrawing as well. As a child is drawing, the child’s creativity can be seen but also with this activity, the child is learning through play. As stated above, when the child knows how to label objects within the book, children do the same with their drawings. Even though educators might not always be able to understand what a child has drawn the educator can encourage them and write down their names to familiarize the words with the child. This would make the environment welcoming for the children (Millikan, J. & Giamminuti, S., 2014). Withdrawing, the children could be showing you their representation of the object that has been drawn (Vecchi, Cavallini, Fillipini & Trancossi, 2011). This is another way that a child could try to speak with other than verbal communication (Millikan, J. & Gimminuti, S., 2014).

Conclusion

In conclusion, the development of a child’s literacy development starts from early childhood and in ways that may not seem like they are not learning at all but just playing all day. However, they are not, whether they are conscious of it, for example, their educator has chosen a specific activity with intentions or while they are playing with their friends, drawing, talking to their peers/ adults even if they are singing or dancing as well. Literacy is not bound to only writing and reading though they do make up most of the developmental learning. Throughout this investigation, it can be understood that M and her family have a good family literacy practice going on at home. She is encouraged to make her own choices and is proud to show her books and read them. The family has a set storybook reading session that is always done which could indicate that in the future, this could help M with her literacy development and also be ready for the formal school itself because the same would be done there as well. Though mum and dad have said during the interview that she does watch videos online, most are watched through the TV and as that plays, M still interacts with her family or multitasks by watching TV and doing an activity at the same time. It is also seen that she constantly has support and guidance around her whether she is at home or in childcare, so she is continuously developing her literacy skills and adding new knowledge to her virtual backpack every day. Even as M draws or plays with something, she instantly connects it to something that could be quite similar, for instance, during Observation 1, she poked two holes and instantly labeled them as eyes. With all of these aspects, it can be seen how important family literacies are and their impact by seeing M’s instant labeling with objects within books and drawings, her communication with others like her parents, educators, and peers, her passion for reading and books themselves by choosing and bringing them to Child Care every day and the shared book reading with her parents has created within M herself.

Child Development Early Socialisation

The nature versus nurture debate is probably one of the oldest debates in psychology. Genetic inheritance (Nature) and environmental factors (Nurture) are the two central explanations of human development and behavior, these include personalities and traits. For example, some children act the same way as their parents, Could this be a similarity caused by genetics? or could it of been something learned from their parents and the environment they lived in early childhood?

There are ways to investigate the effects that nature and nurture have on development and behaviour, Examples of this can be found through twin studies, usually used to investigate nature, and adoption studies, generally used to investigate nurture.

In adoption studies, they look into the traits the adopted child shares with her parents and stepbrothers and sisters, and because there is no biological connection between them, any shared traits are proof of nurture. If there is information available about the biological parents, and then it is shown that the child shares more traits with the adoptive parents, then this backs up the evidence that these traits are due to nurture.

The Genain quadruplets (1930) are a great example of how nature can be investigated. All four identical (Monozygotic) sisters had schizophrenia, this shows that there is a schizophrenic gene. Their parents also suffered from mental illness, which also shows evidence of schizophrenia being due to nature. (Rowe. J 2016)

The relationship bond involving a child and their primary caregiver is known as attachment. Attachment, which is formed in the early years of child development, has an impact on a child, such as development, sense of self, and relationships with others in the future. The development of attachment is based on two main theories behaviouralist and evolutionary. Behavioral psychologists explain attachment in the form of classical conditioning. Evolutionary psychologists suggest attachment behavior is truly selected and passed on as a result of genetic inheritance.

John Bowlby (1969) proposed that babies gain attention from their mothers with pre-programmed behaviors such as crying, smiling, and being vocal as a way to guarantee survival. Bowlby viewed attachment as monotropic, believing that babies attach to one figure only, he considered this to be predominantly the mother. He believed the continuous presence of the mother was particularly important, suggesting that a child’s relations in later life would reflect the primary relationship with the mother and that through the internal working model, social interaction would be dependent on how an infant internalizes attachment formation. The ‘critical period’ for a child’s social interaction between the ages of 18-24 months. Bowlby suggests that there are four defining features of attachment:

Schaffer and Emerson (1964) believed the main caregiver is the person who responds to the infant’s needs the most, it might not always be the mother or the person who spends the most time with them. This is known as ‘sensitive responsiveness’. They found that the infant could form multiple attachments by the age of ten months.

In a longitudinal study of sixty babies from Glasgow that Schaffer and Emerson conducted over eighteen months, the interactions between them and their caregivers were analyzed. This study aimed to find the age at which attachments start and how intense these were. They measured the strength of attachment by observing the infant’s separation and stranger anxiety. They concluded that human attachments develop in three stages:

Asocial (0-6 weeks) This is short-lived. Attention-seeking behavior such as crying and smiling is not directed at anyone in particular, suggesting attachments could be made with anyone.

Indiscriminate attachment (6 weeks to 7 months) is Similar in that the child seeks attention from anyone and is happy to receive attention from anyone. Preferences are shown to familiar faces that elicit a greater response from the infant.

Specific attachments (7 to 11 months) The Child is primarily attached to the main caregiver. If they are separated the child becomes distressed and the child is wary of strangers. (See later notes on the Strange situation).

Ainsworth (1969), a student of John Bowlby, created a new procedure for studying attachment types in infants this procedure was known as the strange situation classification. Babies and young children haven’t developed the skills to express feelings in words, the strange situation is a method that measures the security of an attachment in one to two-year-old infants. This is a participatory observation, that lasts approximately 20 minutes, where a researcher observes the behavioral responses of an infant to a sequence of situations.

There were eight stages, each stage lasted approximately 3 minutes.

1. Mother and the baby
2. Mother, the baby and stranger
3. Stranger and the baby
4. Mother returns
5. Stranger leaves
6. Mother leaves, leaving the baby alone
7. Stranger returns
8. Mother returns, and the stranger leaves

The infant was scored on these four measures when it was just mum and baby in the room.

• Proximity and contact seeking
• Contact maintaining
• Avoidance of proximity and contact
• Resistance to Contact and comforting

While the infant explored the environment her exploratory behaviors were also recorded.

There are three attachment types, Ainsworth reported that all infants displayed one.

• Secure attachment – infant shows distress when the mother leaves the room,70% of children fall into this category, happy when the mother returns, they avoid the stranger when they learn but friendly when the mother is also there.
• Ambivalent attachment – Ambivalent attachment to the mother 15% of children fall into this category, display intense distress when the mother leaves, are significantly scared of the stranger, and reject contact with the stranger even in the mother is present.
• Avoidant attachment – Show no interest when the mother leaves the room, 15% of children fall into this category, play happily with a stranger and the child doesn’t seem to notice the mother return to the room.

Albert Bandura (1961) investigated if social behaviors, in this case, aggression, could be acquired by observation and imitation, he did this through a controlled experiment on 72 children aged 37- 69 months.

Bandura conducted this experiment to demonstrate that learning can occur from observation of a model, and that imitation would occur when the model had left the room. Also to show that boys would be more aggressive than girls, that the children who observed the non-aggressive model would be less likely to act aggressively, and that children would be more likely to imitate models of the same sex rather than models of the opposite sex.

In this experiment, the adult model repeated acts of physical and verbal aggression three times over toward the Bobo doll. This included repeatedly punching it, hitting it with a mallet, and kicking it.

The results of the experiment supported three of the four aims. The children who observed the violent model were likely to imitate the same behavior they had seen when the model left the room, the boys took part in more than twice as much physical aggression than girls, and both the boys and girls in the non-aggressive group showed less aggression than the control group, however, the boys who had seen the model of the opposite sex behave non-aggressively were more likely than those in the control group to show violence. Boys who saw adult males behaving violently were more influenced than those who saw female models behaving violently. The experiments found that in the same sex aggression groups, boys were more likely to imitate physical acts of violence while girls or more likely to imitate verbal aggression.

The Bobo doll experiment showed that children can learn social behaviors, such as aggression, through the process of observation learning, and through watching the behavior of another person.

Introduction

Child N weighs about 28 pounds and is 34 inches tall. Child N is a male child and is 3 years old. He is cute and chubby with brown hair and brown eyes. The observation took place at Discovery Preschool where my aunt’s child is enrolled. I arrived there at 10 am on Thursday and completed my observation at 10.50 am. The child N was placed in a classroom with 10 other children at the ages of 3 to 4 years old and with two teachers. The classroom was decorated and the walls had creative posters, also with art projects. The classroom was divided into different areas of playing, storytelling, and eating. There were playgrounds for children to run freely and there were cars, swings, and toy houses for the children to play.

Observation

As I started to do my observation, child N’s social interaction was different than what I had observed within 45 minutes. At first, when he was introduced to me, he walked towards me and started to talk without any fear. His interactions with his teachers were simple and understanding. For example, if he wanted something he asked the teacher. Also when he went outside, he asked his teacher to push him on the swings. The cognitive development and language skill was shown during the observation. Child N was able to pull and push the car when it got stuck and he performed this task multiple times during the observation. Throughout the observation child N spent a great time watching other children play and he learned through his playmates what to do and what not to do. For example one of the children fell from the chair and immediately child N got off the chair. He was able to have conversations with only simple forms of sentences, such as “hungry” while pointing to his stomach. He also said “sit down”, or “fall”, when his playmates would stand on the chair on the table. While playing with the toys he made different sounds.For example “beep beep”, when he was playing with the car. Child N also observed and repeated the words his teachers would say, such as “play”, “eat”, and “outside”.

The child’s physical movement was also observed which was categorized as gross motor skill. Some of his physical movements were observed inside the classroom and some were observed outside in the playground. While we were inside child N was climbing the stairs and going down while making some noise. Also, there was a track for the cars which was tall and Child N started to play while sitting down. Then he couldn’t move around so he started saying, “Move J J”, meaning that the teacher should move the track so that he could go somewhere else. When playing with the cars I also observed that whenever the car would get behind the basket, he would try his best to find it and if he wasn’t able to find it, he would scream. He also played with toys that were in animal shapes such as butterflies, spiders, snakes, and others and he kept saying “ew”. While the children were inside the classroom, Child N was talkative and he only sat for 2 minutes and started to move around and play with his toys while others were sitting for a long time.

Then after 20 minutes, the children went to the playground, and child N was seen pulling and pushing the cars. When he was riding his bike he would use either his feet or the pedals to move himself forward and backward. He was climbing, sliding, and jumping around with his friends. At one point child N and the other three children started to run for a few minutes, in which child N was the second fastest runner. He was playing different games while other children played one or two games. He would watch his playmates and would go and play on his own. During the observation at the playground, one child fell off the swing, and immediately child N went to her and said “Ouch” while pointing to his knees. Child N’s fine motor skill was shown when the teacher gave all the children paper and crayons to draw. He was able to draw two people, which showed that his drawings were changing from scribblings to “first representation forms of drawing”.

Language Development Observation

• Start Time 05:00 p.m.
• Finish Time 05:20 p.m.
• Method Used Pre–coded method
• Number of Children Present 3
• Number of Adults Present 3
• Permission Obtained from Parent
• Description of Setting

This observation took place in TC’s house. It’s an attached house with a large front garden and is located next to an open field.

• Immediate Context

This observation took place in the kitchen. TC is sitting in the kitchen doing his homework and talking to his mother.

• Brief Description of the Child

TC is a 6-year-old boy. He is in first class and has two older and two younger siblings. He is talkative and enjoys school.

• Aim of Observation

To get a better understanding of the linguistic skills of a six-year-old.

• Rationale

Observe children to assess their linguistic skills and plan developmentally appropriate activities.

Introduction:

I will be doing an observation of a six-year-old boy to observe his linguistic skills throughout the evening for around 20 minutes. I will be carrying out the observation in TC’s home, which is an attached house with wide surroundings – this will be easier to carry out because TC will be more comfortable and talk freely whilst at home.

I will be using my Child Development, second edition, Flood, E 2013 book page 140 as a reference to successfully carry out my observation and the pre-code method to successfully record TC’s conversation.

I carried out the observation on 23/10/19 starting at 05:00 p.m. until 05:20 p.m. – I will be also including my observation front sheet that has further details.

Evaluation:

My aim in this assignment was to assess the linguistic development of a six-year-old boy for 20 minutes whilst at TC’s home. ‘’Language is any form of communication, be it spoken, written, or signed. Language consists of words and a system of combining them. All human languages have five rules that organize and order them: phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics’’’’ (Flood, 2013, page 122).

One of the key stages of a six-year-old child is fluent speech, correct grammar, and pronunciation. (Flood, 2013, page 133). TC spoke without any problems and was aware when he shortened words like ‘gonna’ or ‘sissy’ instead of saying ‘going to’ or ‘sister’. I found that TC’s language development was within the norms. When asked after the observation was done was, he aware that he was saying ‘gonna’ instead of ‘going to’, TC replied with ‘’Yep, just being lazy’’.

Children aged six can read simple story books independently and can relate a story in sequence but may concentrate on minor details rather than the bigger picture – (Flood, 2013, page 133). Whilst TC was doing homework, he seemed to read the questions perfectly but kept forgetting so he would re-read them.

During my observation, TC said ‘’How many days is that?’’, TC knew what a plural sentence was and when to use it, he added the ‘s’ to ‘days’ unconsciously. This is a good example of nature because he learned from the people around him. ‘In the nature debate, Noam Chomsky believed that children are born with a language acquisition device (LAD)’ – Flood, 2013, page 130.

In the nurture debate, Jerome Bruner believed that the child the adult provided the child with a language acquisition support system (LASS) – Flood, 2013, page 132. During my observation, TC pronounced words that his mother would say – for example; fab, gonna, and sissy. This is an example of nurture because the child has learned from the adult.

Personal Learning Gained:

I learned a lot during this assignment as it was completely different from the previous assignment I completed (physical development). I have learned how to pre-code and discuss the cognitive skills of a six-year-old boy.

The observation went smoothly, the only thing I found difficult was keeping up with TC. He is a fast talker, so I had to rush my handwritten pre-coding.

Recommendations:

• I recommend that the parent continue to read to TC at night to further develop cognitive skills and expand their imagination.
• Continue to have open conversations with TC to further their learning and language development.
• If TC struggles with sounding out a word – I suggest sitting down with them and helping them sound out the word instead of telling him the answer straight away.

References:

1. Flood, E (2013), Child Development for students in Ireland (2nd edition) Dublin, Gill & Macmillan.
2. Minett (2014) Child Care & Development, 6th Edition, UK, Hodden Education.