Man/lamb
Key/tree
Cup/duck
Horse/fork
Shoe/spoon
House/cow
Plate/plane
Emotional Development: According to Pamela Minett I expect Ruby to be shy towards be at the beginning but become friendly towards me, probably quicker than in the introductory and the first visit. I expect her to still be affection to familiar people and as quoted by Mary D Sheridan in her book “From birth to five years” I expect Ruby to be “emotionally labile and closely dependent upon adult’s reassuring presence”.
Social Development: I expect Ruby to be shy (see emotional development) and to explore any toys we use more. I expect her to get bored more quickly than previously as by this age she is “physically restless and intensely curious regarding people, objects and events.” This means I may have to change the activities because she may become restless with the one I’m doing. If I get Ruby’s mum Deborah involved we may see how Ruby reacts to sharing and taking turns even though she will make a fuss.
Planning and Organization
I decided to do the Toy discrimination test after I found the kit in a cupboard. My sister was tested with this and diagnosed with deafness and I was then checked as well. I decided to do with Ruby because I wanted to see how she reacted to it. The version of the toy discrimination test I used (Mccormick) is supposed to be for children for the ages of 18 months. I knew Ruby was ahead of her age for walking to I wanted to see if she was ahead in any-thing else.
Observation
I was greeted by Deborah and Ruby as the opened the door to let me in. Ruby pointed at me and tried to say my name. It wasn’t very clear but you could tell she was trying to say my name. Deborah said hi and offered to get me a drink whilst I showed her and explained the toy discrimination test to her. Whilst Deborah was making herself a coffee and getting Ruby and me a cold drink I sat Ruby on the floor and placed the objects of the toy test in front of her. I explained briefly to her in easy language what I was going to ask her to do. She didn’t make any sign of understanding what I said and looked up at me shyly. She asked me what something was so I pointed to each object and told her what they where and asked her to repeat them. She couldn’t pronounce all the words but she made a good attempt. For some words she replaced them with other words for example duck was replaced with “quack quack”. Deborah came into the room to give me a drink and left to answer the telephone. As Deborah left Ruby got up and followed her. I called to Ruby to come back which she didn’t but when Deborah told her to go back she did. I started the test by asking her to give me the cow which she did and the duck which she did. She followed several of my instructions like “put the cup on the plate” and “put the shoe in the cup” without any difficulty. When I asked her to give me the lamb she picked up the key and threw it across the room. From then on she was un-cooperative. If I asked her to give me an object or do some-thing with it she would pick up the correct object but not do what I asked. She made a tower of bricks which was 3 bricks high. When she tried to add any more bricks it fell down. After another 5 minutes I left as Ruby was going to have dinner. When I left I said “bye – bye Ruby” to which she replied “bye” and she waved back at me.
Evaluation
Physical Development: I saw Ruby sit up unsupported for a long time and I saw her walk out of the room and down the hall way to the phone and back again without stumbling or falling over and without help. I saw a fine manipulative skills being used on many occasions though much of them where pointing or the tripod and pincer grasp and many of these objects where small. Ruby should of learnt to sit unsupported at 1yrs old because according to Pamela Minett a child of years old “is now able to sit unsupported for a long while and is able to turn side-ways and stretch out to pickup a toy”. This means Ruby is not behind target and is doing what she should be able to do now. As I’ve already stated that Ruby is ahead of “average” according to Mary D Sheridan and the quote used in the expectations section. But according to Pamela Minett “ the average age which babies can walk on their own is 13 months” so Ruby isn’t better or much better than average as I expected. It also says though that “at first they are unsteady and they cannot turn easily or turn corners” at 15 months. Ruby is capable of doing what a 15month person is with the bricks so is therefore slightly ahead of the “norm” according to Mary D Sheridan. Also she didn’t need a demonstration which ,according to Mary D Sheridan ( “build a tower of two bricks or more after demonstration”), a child of 15 months does. I saw her use the pincer and tripod grasp which I’ve seen at every visit and she should of learnt to do those grasps at the age of 9 months according to Pamela Minett.
Intellectual Development: For several of the instructions I gave (eg. Give me the duck, put the cow on the plate) Ruby did what I had asked her to do which is normal and as I expected as quoted by Mary D Sheridan to “point to familiar persons, animals or toys when requested.” I was surprised to see that Ruby knew what the some of the words where as Dr. B. Mc McCormick (inventor of the toy discrimination test) stated at 18 months the words that most average 18 month old children would get wrong (see expectations). I repeated the instructions several times and she got them right. Therefore, according to Dr. B McCormick Ruby has a vocabulary above what is expected of her age.
Emotional Development: Ruby wasn’t as shy with my as I expected. According to Mary D Sheridan at 15 months should be “emotionally labile and closely dependent upon adult’s reassuring presence” so because Ruby was there for most of the visit it could of because she wasn’t worried about me whilst her mum was there.
Social Development: Ruby wasn’t shy towards me as expected (see emotional development) she became bored and uncooperative after 15 minutes. This is normal for the age of the child according to Mary D Sheridan as she said in her book they become “physically restless” very quickly.
