Maria Elena Godinez

Professor Jarvis
FHS-1500
8 February 2015
Observation 1
Observation One

Background Information
Childs Age: 22 Months
Fictional name: Abigail
Location: Local babysitter
Brief Description:
There was only one person in charge of seven children some were around
Abigails age, others were around 3-4 years old, and there was a three month
old baby. I observed for 3o minutes as they work together on play time. I also
observed them as they were having story-time.

Physical Development
Abigail seemed like a very adventures child. She thought she had to
touch every little thing, such as turn the TV on, mess with the furniture,
touch whatever was on the table, and she liked opening and closing the
refrigerator every minute. In the text it talks about tasting and smelling
function at birth and rapidly adapt to the social world, (Berger p. 102). While
other kids were playing on the floor with toys and coloring Abigail rather do
walk around to see what she could find. Abigail seemed to be perfect its
norms were where they should be as it explained in the textbook is an
average, or standard, for a particular population, (Berger, 2010, p. 92). Her
height was normal she seemed like a very healthy baby.
Abigails motor skills were great too, she was walking great she at
times would fall down though but she would react really quickly and new she

had to get up and continue to walk. In the book it said that its normal for
them to fall often but that does not stop them they average between 500
and 1500 walking steps per hours so that by the end of the day, they have
taken 9000 walking steps, (Berger, 2010, p. 104).
Cognitive Development
In my opinion Abigail had well developed cerebral cortex than the
other kids around her age. According to Piagets periods of cognitive
development from birth to 2 years the period of Sensorimotor is when infants
learn that an object still exists if it is out of sight, (Berger, 2010, p. 29). She
easily noticed that I was watching her the whole time, I would sometimes
walk away and she would immediately follow me. Whenever she approaches
to me she would try to pull me by my sweater to take me back to the fridge. I
thought it was a little bit weird because I was just a stranger to her eyes.
According to the stages of attachment, 8 months to 2 weeks classic
secure attachment infants greet the primary caregiver, play happily when
the caregiver is present, show separation anxiety when the caregiver leaves,
(Berger, 2010, P. 143). This tells you how secure she is compared to the
other kids because it seem like they were afraid of me since they never seen
me before. When Abigail took me back to the fridge she pointed at it wanting
me to open it, so I opened it she looked inside for about 2 minutes. I couldnt
understand what she was trying to get. So I closed the fridge and she then
started crying I had no idea what was going on so I opened it again, she
pointed again then I see a sipping cup with her name on it I grabbed it and
said is this what you wanted? she seemed confused and stood there for a
while then I repeated myself again an she finally took the cup. Abigail had a
very active brain in the textbook it mentioned that it is important in
determining what a child knows or does not know (Berger, 2010, p. 119).
Therefore, she knew what she wanted and had to do something to receive it.
Social and Emotional Development
As explained in the textbook social learning is a major extension
of behaviorism, humans are social beings, they learn from observing role
models, (Berger, 2010, p. 28). As I was observing and deciding which child to
observe only one caught my attention. As the lady in charge introduce me,
all kids showed no physical emotions almost everyone said Hello but only
one smiled and that was Abigail. One example of Abigails emotional
development is that she is past stranger wariness because in the textbook it
said that many 1 year olds fear not only strangers but also anything

unexpected, (Berger, 2010, p. 134) she was not scared of me instead she
kept looking at me and smiling.
Abigails social development was normal I thought. During story time
(10 page book within 3 minutes) she sat down quietly and listened to the
story they had a little stuffed animal that needed to be passed around she
did great while other kids wanted to keep it. Even though Abigail likes to
wonder around she also likes to socialize with other girls, she plays well and
shes good when it becomes to sharing. When it came to clean up time
Abigail kind of struggled because she did not know what to do. I could tell
the she was getting frustrated as I read in the book it said that when
something eagers them so much they yell, scream, cry, and do something
physical, (Berger, 2010, p. 134) she kept on hitting herself, the instructor
played a good role because she took action taught her how to put things
away.

Reference List
Berger, Kathleen Stassen. Invitation to the Life Span. 2nd ed. New York:
Worth, 2010. Print.