Child Observation Essay

Child rumination EssayObservation of upstart tikeren wholeows for a naturalistic insight into modernster sirement, which such(prenominal) experimental methods dissect to provide. The method of bill to a fault means fri supplantly workers kindle develop skills that would usually be difficult to learn, such(prenominal)(prenominal) as observing without plectrums nones a practice that is applicable in a professional friendly work role. Tro advant shape upously up and Miles (1996) emphasise the importance of poster as one of the foundational skills true in social work, relating to the social workers role in making judgements, decisions and beguile the issues of race, gender and sexuality whilst making important decisions regarding peoples welf atomic come in 18.The utterance took place across 5 weeks involving 5 variant mirror image sessions, allowing the tike to be disc e genuinelywhere across a variety of different periods during the day. The contemplation use up was found upon the Tavistock method emphasising non taking nones, meet completely engrossed into the observation and placing importance on the perceiver recognising their know takege play offions and responses to what demeanours and dynamics may be displayed. The Tavistock model encourages observers tosee what at that place is to be seen and non suppose for what they think should be thither(p. 2, Reid 1999).This encourages the observers use of non-judgemental perception and not creating inferences intimately mock upuations based on instinct without evidence.Whilst the Tavistock model traditionally uses weekly observation across the first year of a babys birth this observation was across 5 weeks. It would be hugely beneficial from a electric razor increment perspective to observe a newborn infant for a year, still I can imagine the process to be rattling emotional. I found it difficult to complete my hotbyes to the peasant I was observing, as I had becom e a relatively constant fixture in the kidskins livelihood. similarly from the process of observation I felt as if I had begun to spot the boor, as I had watched her intently and picked up upon habits, favourite activities and began to recognise and pick up her personality traits. The age of the child be observed was as well genuinely different from the Tavistock model, but I smelling that observing a child at the age of amongst 3 and 5 was incredibly useful. Observation of newborn infants can certify social workers of adjunct nurture and the actually first milestones. thus far an older child can start to inform social workers of the way children interact with oppo nonpluse adults, develop speech and how children themselves rival to some former(a)(prenominal)s and the wider ecological system (Bronfenbrenner 1990) which can help inform practice, especially devise work with children.The use of the Tavistock model in addition helped me understand the usefulness o f not taking notes, and I think it is a skill I train develop and already put into practice when working with children. Due to breeding how to perceive what is going on round me and what is occurring for the child I fetch been able to transfer this to listening to children talk about their home life (specifically in wishes and feelings work) whilst cosmos able to observe the childs body language. I entertain made it a point to not take notes when talking to a child, so that they feel I am fully foc utilise on their story.The observation took place in an early on eld association, in a Roman Catholic School in a deprived reach of Suffolk. The takes mission statement is to educate young people to meet the scrap of life courageously, to use their abilities to the full and to live the values of Christs gospel and thither is an emphasis on a Catholic command, including religious iconography in all branchrooms, regular prayers and a prayer garden in the instill grounds. C hildren are as well as encouraged to take their first holy communion and assure mass regularly. The civilise it self is recognised as good by Ofsted, and whilst its main(prenominal) student population is from the nearby area and would describe themselves as snow-clad British, there are a small, scarce growing, population of ethnic minorities. This includes Philippines, Korean and Polish and due to the high incident of non-English spill the beansing erects the instructs website offers a study service. The Ofsted report also discusses that the naturalise has a higher than average number of pupils with special educational needs.The area is predominately working class, with an increasing problem with unemployment and poverty. Whilst it is well evidenced that children growing up in deprived areas are much at risk of health problems (McLeod and Shanahan 1993) and at wideer risk of vary types of abuse (Aber, Bennet, Conley and Li 1997) the child for this study is maturatio n within the considered radiation pattern boundaries, is not know to social services, and is white British.I fortunately already had links to the cultivate due to previously completing work experience- I was and so already kn profess by members of staff, and had already gained their trust that I would be acquit in a professional manner. I approached the school and the school agreed to the observation study. I was then invited to come in and speak to a potential parent as she brought her child in to school. The instructor had chosen this child as she had no teachingal concerns, describing her as average, the child, siblings and other family members were also not cognise to social services and come from a stable family. I approached the mother as she entered school and explained the project to her, she was provoke and expressed no worries or issues with her child being the subject of the child observation. I was very surprised at the ease of permission, as there is a prejudic ious stereotype regarding social workers (Gibleman 2004), however when I promulgate to the parent of the child she said that she understood that everyone needs to learn. This made me feel corroborative regarding the observation as I wasnt like a shot challenged or questioned and the parent did not necessitate for any feedback on the child victimisition which I was initially concerned may be asked of me.I completed the observations on a Tuesday at a variety of times. Due to starting at the end of September I started my observation at 9am as C (as the observation subject shall henceforth be known) had merely just begun school and was not yet attending full time. As time progressed I was able to complete observations during the afternoons. I chose the observation to focus on as C disperseicipated in a range of activities that come forthed to install numerous facets of child development, including imaginary play, shared play, scaffolding (Vygotsky 1978) and cognitive developm ent (Piaget 1964). I chose not to use the first observation I completed, as C cried for the just about part of the observation and was very unresponsive to any task the class instructor had set and refused to participate in any activities, instead she remained on the lap of a teaching assistant. Whilst this in itself obviously indicated a great deal regarding development of attachment this essay would then primarily be focused of attachment rather than the other aspects of child development. The observation I get to focused on was the second observation I completed, and is indeed still relevantly soon after C had started school, I could and then begin to make inferences related to Cs first relationships with her couples and could observe how these developed across the following observations.Analysis of ObservationThis observation was the second observation in the series of five. I chose it as I felt the child demonstrated a range of facets of development, including participati ng in shared play, fanciful play and I began to understand more than about the childs individual personality. expression developmentLanguage and communication development begins very early, with very young infants using eye contact and changes in the infants behavioural state in order to communicate their needs to adults. These responses begin to become more composite and reciprocal between adult and phencyclidine and the child begins to learn sounds eventually developing language, an important tool in communicating to adults (Sheridan, Sharma and Cockerill 2008).The observation and school day began with the children asked to practice phonic sounds in this observation the letter O. C (the child) used gestures as well as sounds to practice the letter, encouraging C to recognise the sound and value of the letters, however by 4 historic period and 3 months Cs language development was such that she could already redo sentences, engage with other children and instigate ventures and jokes (Pecceci 2006) This is evidenced with C postulation another(prenominal) child to play the row your boat game. C is demonstrating her grasp of tortuous sentence structure using relative clauses (Clark 2003). Similar evidence of developed language acquisition is Cs ability to ask grammatically class questions, for example when she asked for draw C demonstrated that she had developed an understanding of adjuvant verbs.Social and emotional developmentPlay is a central part of a childs social development including solitary play (mastery play, generative play), positive play, locomotor and sociodramatic play.C participated in a range of play declaratory of gender stereotypes for example playacting brides with a friend, pretending to be a kitten again with a friend, all examples of imaginative and co-operative play.Piaget (1965) discusses the importance of consort interactions to the childs chaste feelings, values and beliefs. In the above examples C is engaging in pl ay where the twain children involved are expressing their interests and intrusts (i.e. interest in animals and the desire to contain a pet kitten) when the same interests do not exist, an disequillibrium occurs (DeVries 1997) and capable on the value of the relationship, the child may try and re-establish equilibrium, which is wherefore Piaget offers peer friendships, and ultimately peer play is essential to a childs operational and co-operational development. C participated in a game with three boys, which involved building a structure. C had to work with her peers, this game was more structured and therefore more implicit rules which is how Piaget (1965) explains the development of childhood moral values.Alternatively Vygotsky (1978) believed that the life hanker process of development is dependent on social interactions and this leads to cognitive development, which is also known as the zone of proximal development. C worked with three other students to work together to b uild using the wooden planks, C unconquerable the problem of where to put the planks to build the most sound structure singly problem solving.thither is also an emphasis on play tip to the development of an imagination. This can be evidenced in C becoming a kitten, and behaving as a kitten would- licking her hands as paws etc. Vygotsky (1966) argues that all play involves the creation of an imaginary situation, liberating the child from hard-nosed situational constraints, ultimately Vygotsky implies that childhood play and the transition to adult imagination are both rule bound, and this first develops through imaginative play as observed in C.Emotional development, self-regulation and containment for the most part derive from the quality of the childs early attachments (Bowlby 1969). Cs mother bought C into the classroom and C appeared reluctant to set aside her mother, but she was comfort by the teacher and waved goodbye and did not appear to be maladjusted. This observati on was completed at an early salute of the child attending school full time, therefore a certain come in of separation anxiety could be expected. However C was easily comforted by the teacher suggesting C had developed a secure attachment to her mother but was able to leave her without being anxious. This has important implications for Cs emerging adjustment at school. Granot and Mayse slight (2001) suggest that those children with secure attachments adjust to school better than those with disorganised, avoidant or ambivalent attachment styles.Intellectual and cognitive developmentPiaget (1957) theory of child cognitive development states that the child constructs and understands the orb around them by experiencing discrepancies from what they already know and what they begin to discover. There are 4 gunpoints of development, which Piaget discusses sensorimotor, pre-operational, concrete operational and formal operational. Due to Cs age (4 geezerhood 3 months) Piaget (1957) would describe C as being in the pre-operational stage mentally makeing objects and engaging in symbolic play (seen throughout the observation).The pre-operational stage also links to Piaget and Inhelders (1948) stages of massing. C demonstrated that she was in the later stages of the unreal incapacity stage of draw C had drawn a circular, closed(a) figure with limbs but these were not in proportion, C has also not grasped a sense of perspective and the human figure did not moderate the background feature in Cs case a bathtub. The celluloid incapacity stage of drawing runs parallel to the pre-operational stage hence why the picture was also in 2D, as C could only draw from her perspective replicating a bathtub from her inwrought mental representation.However Vygotsky (1966) theory of cognitive development varied from Piagets (1957) and he placed a greater importance on the cultural and social environment of the child being a vital part of the mental synthesis of knowle dge. Learning through interactions with their peers, and the expectations, beliefs and traditions of their own cultures.Vygotksy (1966) also placed an importance of peer collaboration, as well as adult assistance in promoting the zone of proximal development, also known as the scaffolding process (Wood, Bruner, and Ross 1976). Scaffolding is very much used a teaching strategy and can be seen with C and her classmates. The teacher demonstrated the letter O and asked the children to transcript both sound and movement, providing boost and reward when the task was done well. In this situation the teacher also split the task of recognising O down first explaining to the children, then asking the children to sound the letter out, before drawing on the whiteboard and asking the children to copy the writing action. C was then asked to draw the letter on a piece of paper, using the technique previously used by the teacher. C did this task well, suggesting the success of the scaffolding tec hnique.In this observation C also began to demonstrate the begins of the development of theory of mind. Perner, Lang and Kloo (1999) suggest an intellectual and developmental discharge in a child of around 4 geezerhood of age, including the acquisition of theory of mind and self- chasten. In this observation C and another child hid from a boy, they hid behind the shed, and therefore developed the understanding that if they hide from another that he will not know where they are. However Perner Lang, and Kloo (1999) also suggest a link between acquisition of theory of mind and self-control, but in the hide-and- want game the ii girls called the childs name and giggled, suggesting their executive control has not yet fully developed virtuous and ghostlike developmentAs previously described the school is a Roman Catholic school, and there is religious iconography in the classroom, including a picture of Mary and savior on the wall. The children are expected to pray three times a da y as well as attend mass, collective piety and religious assemblies. There is also a greater emphasis on religious education starting from the early years class.Whilst the childs family are not religious, it is important to consider the impact that such a religious education may have on the childs invention of self and their moral, religious and spiritual development. Eriksson (1964) drew attention to the importance of religion and spirituality, emphasising that if successfully resolved at an early stage it can bring about the virtue of hope, transferring over time to mature faith and the ability to believe without evidence that the man is trustworthy (Roehlkepartain, Benson, King and Wagener 2006). Eriksson (1964) also asserted that religion could provide a transcendent worldview, moral beliefs and behavioural norms.Cs religious development can be witnessed through her joining in the prayer at the end of the lesson time. C knew the words to the prayer and actively demonstrated t he actions that accompanied the prayer. Whilst I only witnessed 5 sessions, if following the true Tavistock method, there may be more evidence of how C develops religiously, and whether attending a religious school affects her later outcomes in life as it has previously been suggested that religious schools have better discipline, school harmony and less racial discrimination (Jeynes 2002).Cs moral development was also demonstrated some(prenominal) times during this observation. On several occasions C helped out adults, as well as listening to the teacher and following instructions when asked. C did not demonstrate any behaviour that may have been construed as mean or selfish. The fact that C tidied up when asked would suggest that C has reached the pre-conventional level of moral development (Kohlberg 1971). C is responsive to the rules of the classroom and aware of the consequence of not following instructions. It could also be argued that Cs willingness to help at milk time coul d be seen as evidence of Kohlbergs stage 3 (1971), with C beginning to participate in good behaviour, to please and be approve by others. However Kohlbergs (1971) theory is considered to be gender biased with females typically scoring lower than males, Gilligan (1982) argues that females and males have differences in moral development. Without doing further observations it is not clear how C may continue to develop morally and how she would react to Kohlbergs moral questions.Concept of selfSchool is an incredibly important surface area for a child developing its own concept of self, for it is the first time the child begins to identify itself in relation to a number of characteristics such as gender roles and racial identity. C is beginning to develop an internal model comprising of personality, self-esteem, stability and self-efficacy (Markus and Kitayama 1991).C is marking the beginning of her concept of self, by already demonstrating preferences for the type of play, peer relat ionships and her interests. She showed an interest in artistic activities such as painting and drawing (also seen in future observations) and mainly compete games with girls, however she did also participate in a game of construction with boys.However more children in early childhood cannot express their concept of self instead seeing the mind, self and free will as physical body parts (Damon and Hart 1982). This lies with children believing that animals, plants and some nonliving objects also possess a mind, whilst this did not occur in this observation C clearly demonstrated this belief in a future observation believing a soft toy had feelings and thoughts of its own.How the child experiences their worldI felt that during the observation that C had a positive experience. Whilst she was initially reluctant to leave her mother, as soon as the teacher had led her into the classroom C appeared to forget about her separation anxiety and immediately became involved with the class.C appeared to do well at the educational task, and when she was give free time to choose a task she participated in several activities including playing with other children but also drawing on her own. She was very giggly appeared happy during the observation rivulet around and playing.However as Piaget and Vonche (1929) go the difficulties in using the observation method to understand how the child experiences the place and the culture within the school, as C does not spontaneously communicate her thoughts and feelings about her experience, and rather it is the observer who makes these judgements.Analysis of the observation as a seriesLanguage developmentC was the age of 4 years and 3 months when completing the observation, she has therefore begun to manage the concept of language and was beginning to experiment with more complex sentence structure and asking more complex questions. As would be expected of a child between the ages of 4-5 C was also developing her receptive skil ls and demonstrated an understanding of spatial concepts (McLaughlin 2006). For example the teacher asked C to retrieve the box of string of beads, which was behind the mantle and next to the green box of letter shapes and C was able to do this. She demonstrated that she could follow step-by-step complex instructions as well as the spatial concepts of behind and next to.However whilst C is developing what would be considered normally she also still has difficulty in pronouncing close to longer words. For example C was playing a pretend game of hospitals with one child being ill and C playing the nurse, however C had difficulties in pronouncing the word hospital and instead pronounced it hopital. Children between the age of 4 and 5 are still developing their linguistic skills and word distortions do occur, and it is expected that in time C with encouragement from parents and teachers will be able to progress (Owens 2005).Cs continued behaviour continued to be much along the same l evel as the first observation and I was not surprised at her perfunctory mistakes, as she is not yet linguistically competent and neither would she be expected to be at the age of 4.Social and emotional developmentAs already discussed, the quality and nature of Cs early social interactions with her primary caregivers gives a template for future social relationships and is also intact to their general social and emotional development (Fabes, Gaertner and Popp 2006).During this observation and the other observations C appeared to have a very good temperament, disregarding the first observation C remained friendly and happy to be interacting with other children. During the 4th observation C was observed to share her own personal toy she had bought in for show and tell because another child had forgotten theirs, thus suggesting C is becoming socially competent and the beginnings of empathy.Sanson and Hemphill (2004) suggest that temperament has the potential to model several behaviour s including how children interact with peers and adults. This in turn suggests that C is able to self-regulate her own emotions. As Eisenberg Cumberland, Spinrad, Fabes, Shepard, Reiser (2001) suggests, those children who are able to self-regulate are more credibly to seek out peer relationships and therefore are recognised as more socially competent. This was evidenced in Cs relationships with the other children in the class. C was observed to share her toys without pressure from adults, and she demonstrated an emergence of the understanding of others wishes and beliefs.Fabes, Gaertner and Popp (2006) also suggest that the development of social competence in school age children can be evidenced through the reciprocal relationships between peers, with positive interactions and the maintenance of social contact. once more during the observations I did not observe a negative interaction between C and another child.However I was only in the classroom for an hour a week, it is very lik ely that C had not completely developed socially, and is likely to have had negative experiences with some of her classmates. There may also have been the added effect of tec bias, with the children realising that I was observing and therefore modifying their behaviour.Intellectual and cognitive developmentlead of my observations were completed first session of the morning and included the routine of the demo and phonics and schooling to link the letters with the sounds of the letter and introducing an action to help the children represent this therefore using all aspects of learning (visual, auditory and kinetic). During one of my observations I arrived after lunchtime and before the children were again allowed to choose an activity. The class teacher had planned a numeracy session, with the children sitting on the carpet. The teacher would use an abacus and ask the children to count the beads along with her. I observed C and she participated in the task, and was able to count t he beads. The teacher then moved three beads across and asked C how many beads were left to which she was able to move 7.This is concurrent with Piagets (1980) pre-operational stage described previously. This is also suggested by Gelman and Gellistel (1978) who identified two types of quantitative knowledge. The first being numerical reasoning and the second being numerical abstraction. Numerical abstraction ability is the process by which the child can abstract and represent numerical value. I observed C doing this when she was asked to move two beads on the abacus and work out how many were left, again an activity she was able to complete, indicating the development of counting principles and basic numerical abilities.As C was in the very early stages of her school life, there is very much an emphasis on play rather than schoolman activities, as this begins to be introduced later in the school year, therefore much of the evidence of Cs intellectual and cognitive development aro se from the occasional structures activities and her interactions with peers and adults.Moral and spiritual developmentPiaget (1965) suggested that moral development was a gradual process, running parallel to the stages of intelligence with each stage characterized by a different process (i.e. the pre-operational stage already discussed). He suggested that children go through a heteronomous stage guided by societies rules and boundaries which can be seen as very much enforced by school. As the child matures this becomes more main(a) as these rules and values become an ingrained part of the child.C is learning the rules of the classroom, and these eventually become fairly implicit (though occasionally children need reminding of the basics). frequently I observed the class teacher telling the children to sit still, be quiet and to raise their hand when answering a question. Considering the age of C she did not break rules frequently. Occasionally I observed the teacher rebuke C if she was giggling and talking to a child sat next to her (not peculiar behaviour for a 4-5 year old child) and C would stop the behaviour. There were children in the class who did not respond to verbal warnings and they were either asked to sit on their own in a corner, or as a more severe punishment sent to another class. C was therefore able to see the consequences of other childrens behaviour and realise that this could be utilise to herself if she did not follow the rules. Bandura and McDonald (1963) also evidenced the influence of social musical accompaniment upon a childs moral development. They found childrens moral judgements could be altered using reinforcements and social modelling, much the same as teachers use during lesson time.Concept of selfC continued to display a marked preference for playing with children of the same sex. Whilst she would occasionally join in with boy games such as playing with cars and construction games she demonstrated an overall preference f or playing dress-up (she participated in a dress up game in two other observations, including dressing up in an apron and playing out a cooking scene) and taking an interest in animals- expressed through enactment, picking a story about a tiger and through drawing (I observed C drawing a picture of herself walking 3 dogs.)As I found out when observing C, with the exception of her dad, she comes from a predominately female family. She has two older sisters who have also previously been at the school who are twins. Due to the predominately female environment that C has fully grown up in, it may be her preferences for gendered stereotyped activities may be wise(p) behaviour, with children often learning perceived sex roles from parents and older siblings (Fauls and Smith 1956).Again it is difficult to discuss Cs concept of self, as it is largely based upon my observations. Whilst these observations were largely free of judgements it was difficult for me not to say how C appears to be developing in her concept of self. She appears happy and content during her time at school (excluding the first observation) as she could be quiet she had begun to establish good relationships with other children and appeared to be developing healthy self-esteem and positive self-concept. I felt this was due to her close and supportive relationship with her mother and class teacher both of whom appeared to take an interest in her work, encouraging C when she had done something well.How the child experiences their worldOnly during the first observation did I feel that perhaps C might not be enjoying her school experience. During the first observation, conducted in very early September starting at 0900 C was what could only be described as very distressed when her mum dropped her off in the morning. She clung to her mums skirt and was crying refusing to let go. The teacher took her had and led her in to the classroom and then arranged for her to be sat with a teaching assistant, who had the child on her lap. When C was encouraged to sit with her classmates she refused and began to cry again.This suggested that C was displaying separation anxiety (Bowlby 1973). However as Bowlby (1973) discusses this reaction will largely be due to a new and antic setting, considering it was one of Cs first days at school C was finding herself surrounded my new people without the knowledge that her primary caregiver was there so she could explore whilst having a secure base to which to return.However as I progressed through the observation series C began to make into her surroundings and the new routine of school life. I observed two more sessions at the beginning of the day and C gradually became less distressed, though she still said goodbye and gave her mother a cuddle, suggesting a continuation of the secure attachment.Process of observingExperience of being an observerI initially felt very nervous of the whole project, though I felt this was largely down to the difficul ties in securing not only a place to observe but also approaching a parent of a child who was going to be comfortable complete to allow a student social worker to observe. It is widely known that many people, especially parents of small children, have developed judgements of social workers largely due to the portrayal in popular media (Gibelman 2004). Fortunately I have very good links to the school I chose to complete my observations in having already completed work experience a few years ago, therefore there were no problems in securing a placement as they already knew and had built up a level of trust.The early years teacher introduced me to a parent, and I was expecting the mother to ask me lots of questions regarding the observation, whether they would be allowed a copy of my observations etcetera but the mother simply say that it would be fine and that another of her children in the school had also been previously been involved in a study similar. I must have accidentally e xpressed my surprise at the ease of getting accede (I also thought that due to the age of the children many parents wou