For my child development study I am going to observe how a child shows their physical, emotional, social and intellectual development and skills. I will observe this child over a year and record their improvement of these skills.
Introduction
For my child development study I am going to observe how a child shows their physical, emotional, social and intellectual development and skills. I will observe this child over a year and record their improvement of these skills.
Physical Description
I went to the child's house on the 20th of February a 13:00pm, I was there for about 2 and a half hours. Her name Is Hilary and she is 3 years, 3 months and 3 weeks and 2 days. She was born on the 20th of November 2001. Hilary is 3ft 4 inches (101cm) and weighs 2 stone and 3lbs (31 lbs). The average height and weight of a 3 year old is 94cm and 31 lbs, Hilary is a normal size chid because she weighs 3 lbs and is only 6cm taller than the average height. Her face is round and she has chubby cheeks. Light brown freckles dot around her face and around her nose. She has dark brown almond shaped eyes and a small button nose. Hilary has a mixed race complexion and dark brown hair tied back into twists to keep it out of her face. All of her primary teeth have grown, her first tooth was her top front incisor, and her last was her back molar just before her third birthday. Hilary has big feet, she is a small size 4 and has many different shoes. Her fingers are long and she has wide palms.
Personality
Hilary is a very friendly and out going child, when I went into her house for the first time she came up and sat beside me and showed me her 'Noddy' book. By doing this it showed that she isn't really timid or shy of new/unfamiliar people. I asked Hilary what she was scared or frightened of and she told me she was scared of the dark and lions. When she said lions she squatted her legs and shouted raahhhh very loudly. Hilary was very lively, when I asked her what nursery rhymes she new she started to jump around energetically while she sung them. She sang 'Humpty Dumpty', 'Ring of Roses' and another song that her grandmother had taught her from Nigeria. However when I asked her to do a small activity which involved small muscles she became quite and relaxed. From both these activities that I asked her to do, It showed that she has two ways in which she can behave; a calm way when involving fine motor skills and energetic way when involving gross motor skills. Hilary showed her demanding and quiet jealous personality when her younger sister would come over and try to join in with the activity that I was doing with Hilary. Her temperamental side showed when she slouched off with her arms folded, I then had to go and convince her to play another game so she would be happy again. Also after we had been playing for a few hours she became a bit irritable and tired, and started to be bossy and greedy telling me that she 'can do it herself'. that made her become easily bored and distracted as well. By this time it was time for me to go home, I told Hilary that I had to go so she cam and gave me a hug. That showed that even though she was irritable and tired she was still affectionate enough to give me a hug before I went.
Family Background
Hilary is one of two siblings, her younger sister is called Chanella. Hilary is 1 year and 2 weeks older than Chanella. Because there is such a small age gap between the two children they get on very well. Hilary is like a role model to her younger sister. This was showed by Chanella copying things that Hilary would do, I noticed this when Hilary would run around or even pick up a ball Chanella would copy her. I asked Tabara why she had her second baby so soon after Hilary was born. Her reason for this was because she wanted Hilary to have someone to play with so that she wasn't lonely , and she didn't want to have kids that were years apart. Also she said that they may learn quicker if they were near enough the same age and Hilary could set an example for Chanella. I could tell by the way Hilary and Chanella played together that Tabara and her husband, Charles, had made the right decision. Although there is no sibling rivalry there is a bit of jealousy that was shown when Chanella was involved in an activity that Hilary did not want to do. For example, when I threw a ball to Hilary and she didn't catch it, Chanella would pick it up and Hilary would go off with her arms folded in a mood. However, I feel that the girls will encourage each other in many ways regarding their development. Hopefully they will continue to get on well.
Family Group
Hilary's family is a nuclear family. There house hold consists of a mum, dad and two children (including Hilary herself). Tabara, the mother, also has her mother staying with them while she is over on holiday from Nigeria. Both Tabara and her husband, Charles, work full time, but only while Tabaras mother is staying with them. Whilst they are at work, Hilary attends a local pre-school and a Sunday school on Sundays. Here she will be surrounded by children her own age and qualified professionals. Both types of school that she attends will have a positive effect, because Hilary will be encouraged to develop in a positive way. Neither one of the parents are closer to Hilary than the other, this is a good thing because therefore Hilary has equal levels for her parents to be a role model. Hilary's family does spend a lot of time together, they went to Nigeria last summer and are going again in Easter. Every Saturday if it is a nice day then Hilary and her dad will go to the park and spend some quality time. This will have a positive effect because they Hilary will bond with her father and will be improving her skills. Such as; when Hilary would be climbing a slide that would improve her physical skills.
Home and Local Area
Hilary and her family live in a two bedroom detached house In a small area called Enfield, Enfield is a small town with a town centre and a few churches. In the centre of Enfield there is a town, a park and a library. Hilary shares a room with her younger sister, Chanella. There is a lot of room where Hilary can run and play outside; in her back garden there is a 5ft fence to keep Hilary safe and secure, the safety features are a gate at the bottom of the stairs, However at the back door there is a broken window and a old chest of drawers which are not safe for Hilary as she could seriously injure herself. There are loose twigs hanging off of the trees and if Hilary was running she could cut of scratch her self, even her eyes could be damaged. They parents should cut away the loose twigs and put all the unwanted rubbish in the bin away from their children. In the living room it is a bit safer; the rugs are stuck to the floor to prevent Hilary from falling over and hurting herself. She comes from a stable home. Hilary has a lot of educational toys which could be crucial at her age as she attends both pre-school and Sunday school. These toys include counting books, building blocks, musical pianos, abacus's, reading books and jigsaws. Going to a pre-school is a positive effect because she will be learning a lot, improving her physical, social, emotional and intellectual skills and making new friends.
Hilary has a lot of toys, some that she still has from when she was younger. This is partly because she has a younger sister and she uses a lot of them to play with her. These toys include the simple cuddly toys such as teddy bears and other soft toys. She has a alphabet toy which is attached to a number screen and it has wheels on it, this is very good for her learning and development. Hilary has a range of different books, some which are quite babyish and tell a simple story but most of them are ones that include numbers, letters, puzzles and colours. This is good for Hilary and her development as well. She has more educational toys than she does fun toys, but her parents are very persistent in her learning and education. One of her favourite toys that she plays with a lot is a small tricycle which is yellow and red, she rides it when it is a nice day with her dad and her younger sister. She has a small shopping trolley which she plays 'shops' with is also one of her favourite toys.
Physical Development
I referred to the text books I have been provided, to see if Hilary is able to do the milestones at her age of 3 years, 3 months and 3 weeks. These books include ' The development coursework guide for GCSE' By Valerie Hall and Heather Brenand, and a 'Child development comprehensive text for GCSE' also by Heather Brenand and Valerie Hall. Hilary's development on physical skills is at a crucial point because she attends a pre-school.
Physical Development
I referred to the text books I have been provided, to see if Hilary is able to do the milestones at her age of 3 years, 3 months and 3 weeks. These books include 'The development course work guide for GCSE' by Valerie Hall and Heather Brenand , and a 'Child Development Comprehensive text guide for GCSE' also by Heather Brenand and Valerie Hall. Hilary's development on physical skills is at a crucial point because she now attends a pre-school and Sunday school where she will learn a lot about her development. Attending the pre-school and Sunday school will also speed up her learning.
Physical development is when a child uses his/her muscles, both gross and fine, to improve the way that they do things. E.g. by learning how to ride a tricycle.
Growth development is the way the child changes in their appearance, e.g. by growing taller.
Gross motor skills
At 3 years and 3 months the child that I am studying should be able to walk and run forwards with out bumping into things, walk on tip toes, kick a ball and throw it over arm. Be able to catch a ball with extended arms, pedal and ...
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Physical development is when a child uses his/her muscles, both gross and fine, to improve the way that they do things. E.g. by learning how to ride a tricycle.
Growth development is the way the child changes in their appearance, e.g. by growing taller.
Gross motor skills
At 3 years and 3 months the child that I am studying should be able to walk and run forwards with out bumping into things, walk on tip toes, kick a ball and throw it over arm. Be able to catch a ball with extended arms, pedal and steer a tricycle or push wheeled toys with her feet. Can be able to show spatial awareness, by manoeuvring around objects, walk upstairs with one foot on each step and can hop on one foot (may be able to change foot from left to right) Also she should be able to walk side ways or skip. She should be able to open doors and walk in a straight line when told to.
Gross motor skills are the way a child uses his/hers larger muscles to convey activities, e.g. using arms and legs muscles to ride and steer a tricycle.
Hilary is able to do a range of things and activities with her larger muscles of her body. I asked her mum, Tabara, how long she had been able to crawl. I was told that she had been able to crawl since she was 6 months old. Hilary has been able to walk ever since she was 13 months, I also asked this question to Hilary's mum. When Hilary was climbing the stairs I noticed that she walked up them with one foot on each step, this showed that she has mastered a skill linked to her age. She used her muscles in her arms and upper body when I threw the ball to her and she tried to catch it, however, she never caught it. Hilary could throw a ball, she threw it under arm, however she was not able to catch it. She did have slight co-ordination when playing with me in this ball activity but found it difficult to catch. Hilary's balance was very confident, I asked her to stand on one leg and she counted to five and then put her leg back down on the ground. Although her confidence was weakened when I asked her to hop and she wasn't able to do it. Hilary was unable to skip or climb, but she is encouraged by her dad who takes her on regular visits to the park and on to the climbing frame.
But she is able to go on the slide by her self as I was told by her parents, even though I didn't see it. Another milestone that Hilary can do at her age is walk sideways, she can do it going from a straight line to diagonal I know this because when I was playing out side with her and asked her to do it she done it. Although I done it with her to show her how to do it at first. Hilary can run confidently, she showed this when I asked her to have a race with her sister, Chanella. She is quite competitive and she concentrated really hard to win. I distracted her from the other activities to find out if she was able to tip toe. We were playing hide and seek and I told her to sneak up on the person in stead of shouting out their name. Hilary listened to what I said and tip toed. A milestone that Hilary is not yet able to do is ride a tricycle, this is partly because of the weather conditions at the moment.
Fine motor skills
At 3 years and 3 months Hilary should be able to hold a pen, pencil or crayon having some control of how to draw shapes etc. She should be able to draw a V and a T shape and a face, showing a little bit of detail. Also, she should be able to colour in more neatly and within the lines with an improved tripod grasp. She should know how to use scissors safely and build with up to 10 bricks. Should be able to undo and do zips up on her clothing and take her clothes on and off. When eating she should be able to use a spoon and a fork neatly.
Fine motor skills is the way the child uses his/her small muscles to do activities. E.g. Colouring in or playing with play dough
Hilary is able to use her smaller muscles as well as her larger muscles to do things. Fine motor skills were easier to observe from Hilary because she enjoys doing smaller activities. I concluded that this was probably because she attends schools that will be teaching her to write, draw etc. She is able to pick up small objects such as a television remote control or a pen. I know this because I asked her to pick them up, she held them in a palmer grasp. Hilary can also place things down carefully, she waits until the object is on the floor to let go of it. This shows she is gentle and respectful of objects and belongings. Hilary can build with up to 10 bricks, but she does not build them in to a tower. I know this because I watched her as she built them into a T shape.
As Hilary attends Sunday school and pre-school she is now learning how to hold a pen properly. School teachers and her parents have encouraged her to hold her pen in a tripod grasp with a proffered hand. Her proffered hand is her right. Hilary can draw stick people I know this because she showed me one of the pictures that she drew at school. They are not completely recognisable yet but she can draw their had, arms and legs along with V shapes. She is also able to do dot-to-dots with numbers or letters to symbolise where they are. I completed a range of jigsaw puzzle activities with Hilary while observing her, the maximum of pieces she was able to do was 8. Hilary was confused on where to put the pieces and how they fitted in. To help her I showed her where they would go and she would push them in. In Hilary's house the door knobs are much taller than Hilary so she cannot reach them. However, when given some help she is able to turn then.
While we were out playing in the garden I asked Hilary to put her coat on. She was very confident when doing up her zips and buttons, her concentration was very strong while she done this and it took her about 3 minutes until she was finished. I asked her mum if Hilary was able to put on her own clothes. She said that Hilary could put on her socks, vest and some pairs of loose trousers. Her teachers at pre-school have also taught Hilary to use scissors creatively. She had shown this by making shapes out of card and coloured paper at school which she showed me. They weren't complicated shapes, but they included an oval and a square.
Sensory Development
At 3 years and 3 months Hilary should be able to thread large beads and listen eagerly to stories wanting to hear them over again. She should be able to name some shape, colours and letters.
Sensory development is the way the child uses his/her sight, touch, hearing, smell and taste skills to help them to learn.
Hilary uses her sensory development to explore and express a lot of her thoughts and new learning. Her sight skill is helped by Hilary reading a lot of different books that have a lot of different shapes, colours and sizes of writing. These include her 'Noddy' book which is about the size of a A4 sheet of paper and has lots of colourful, big pictures with small writing. Also her jigsaws help her sight skills because they are challenging and finish to being different types of objects and colours. Her touch skills is improved by Hilary playing with different types of objects and shapes, her big yellow ball and her small round tennis ball both have different textures. Play dough helps Hilary to discover new shapes of her own, it is soft and very easy to mould. The shapes that Hilary makes are not anything in particular, they are just shapes that Hilary experiments with that improves her imagination and problem solving. Her hearing is encouraged by Hilary watching a range of educational videos about numbers, counting and the alphabet.
Not all these videos are educational, she also watches 'CBBies' on channel 1 every morning. However some of these programmes teach her things about sounds and the noises animals make . Hilary's family encourages her to eat a lot of different foods, partly because of their culture there are a lot of varieties. While I was at Hilarys house she took some medicine because she had a cold and to my surprise she took the medicine with out any fuss. That showed that she doesn't really mind if she has to try something new; food wise. For Hilary's sense of small development there was not a lot of things that helps her development. However, Hilary has a teddy called bear which she sniffs when she is asleep. This showed that she knows that sense of smell on her bear, whenever Hilary's mum washes the bear she wont cuddle it straight away and cries when she goes to bed at night. This is because Hilary is so familiar to the smell of her bear that she feels she's lost with out it. This could cause problems in the near future when her parents may try to wean her off of it.
Intellectual Development
Language
Hilary's vocabulary at 3 years and 3 months should be of a wide range with long sentences and some improved adult speech. Asking questions about everything; when, who, why, what, where. She may use incorrect endings such as hurted, sheeps. She should be able to express her feelings thoughts and ideas.
Language development is the way a child improves their speech as they grow up.
Hilary's speech is very clear, this helps her communication to be at a good level. She doesn't have any speech problems such as stuttering. Telegraphic speech still plays quite a big role in Hilary's language development. An example of this would be that when Hilary's mum and dad left the room she said 'mummy, daddy gone' this sentence can be improved as Hilary grows older if she has encouragement. If I asked Hilary to do something she would do it, this showed two things. Firstly that she is not timid around me and secondly that she listens to other people. Hilary used her hands to communicate with me at one point while she was telling me a story. She used her arms to flaps them about as if they were crocodiles jaws. Hilary understands lots of different words, but she can also use a few of them on her own. To prove this she said to her mum 'can I have a biscuit?' and her mum said 'yes you can have a biscuit'. this shows that Hilary is being encouraged by her family to expand her vocabulary.
By including the same words that Hilary used in her mums answer she is being encouraged because the question is also included in the answer. The words that Hilary knows are household objects, numbers, alphabet, toys, characters and family names. She said to me 'there were four yellow ducks, three flowers and a hat' when I was looking at her 'Noddy' book with her. That shows that she knows how to put sentences together. However some times when she told me stuff her endings would be wrong, I can use the example of when Hilary said 'I hurted my self' the ending of the word hurted was incorrect. This sentence can also improve as she grows older. Her parents encourage Hilary's development by having educational toys such as abacus's, alphabet books, different types of books and videos.
Cognitive
At 3 years and 3 months Hilary should be able to understand the concept of the past, present and future; one and many of something, cause and effect. She should know how to count up to 10 and describe her thoughts, enjoy imaginative play and like making music and listening to it.
Cognitive development is about how young children express their development through their mind, organisation and thinking skills. Cognitive development also includes; reasoning, object permanence,, creativity, imagination, concentration, problem solving, memory and conceptualisation.
Hilary knows about lots of different cognitive development skills. Her creativity is shown when she colours in her colouring book, this is an individual way of expressing her self. She has educational books, which as rated for her age, that help her understanding of the alphabet and numbers. These books also include lots of bright colours. Hilary knows the alphabet but only up to the letter F ad she knows her numbers until number 15. This is her conceptualisation part of cognitive development when she is able to understand things form books.
Hilary is also able to understand how something changes through size or shape, she showed this by pointing out to me on her book that one ball was bigger than the other (object permanence). I asked her why they were different and she replied 'that one bigger than other one', we went through the whole book that had different activities and she understood most of them. This showed that she had the ability to learn the information that was within the educational book.
She does not yet understand the concepts of the past, present and future. While looking through some of her toys I found a jack in the box, Hilary took it and started to wind it up from the side. I asked her to tell me what had happened and she said 'popped out' and then she pushed it back down into the box. This shows that Hilary does have an understanding for reasoning with the cause and effect of an object. Her problem solving skills were shown when she was doing a jig saw puzzle, this was quite a complex problem for Hilary at her age. This showed that she had identified the problem and now had a solution.
Social and Emotional Development
At 3 years and 3 months Hilary should be able to go to the toilet on their own during the day and should stay dry at night time. After using the toilet she should be able to wash her hands on her own, however she may have difficulty drying them properly. Hilary should be able to want to become independent by wanting to dress herself, and use a fork and knife to feed herself.
Hilary understands how to hold a knife and fork to feed her self, but she held them the wrong way round, her fork was in her right hand and her knife was in her left. I knew this because whilst I attended my observation Hilary was having lunch. Hilary knows how to use the toilet on her own but has to be reminded to flush the toilet and to wash her hands afterwards by a member of her family. I no this because I asked Hilary's mum about this social skill. She can wash her hands on her own when told to. Hilary doesn't usually wet the bed when she is sleeping and most of the time stays dry through the day. I could not observe this so I had to ask Hilary's mum about this milestone. Hilary is a well behaved child and is friendly towards most people, she was welcoming towards me when I first went into her house. She has learnt to share quickly because she has a younger sister who is 2 years old, this was a good thing because she learnt to share from a young age.
By learning to share she also knows when it is some one else's turn to play with a toy, both of these skills were shown when Hilary and her little sister Chanella were playing with a small drum. Hilary was quite happily sitting there patting the drum when her mum asked if Chanella could have a turn now. Considerately, Hilary pushed the drum across the floor towards Chanella and picked up another toy that was close to her. Hilary is a very sweet and loving child and has very good manners, she knows to say please and thank you when she is given something or is taken some where. She is not a very shy child and enjoys attention from every one. When I went into the house she was not timid of me and showed me some of her toys. I asked Hilary's mother If she got along with the children at nursery, 'Hilary did not settle in to nursery easily and it took her a bit of time to get to know the children and get along with them. But after a few days she was fine' this is what her mum told me. This showed that Hilary can be timid of people but maybe it is more likely to be people that are younger than her or the same age rather than older people. When Hilary was younger she used to have the odd temper tantrum, this was when she was about two years old. I know this because I got told by her mum. Every child goes through a stage when they become objective to every thing that a parent tells them to do and a slightest upset can cause a tantrum. Hilary gets lots of chances to meet other children and adults. She attends a nursery 5 days a week, goes to Sunday school and goes to church with her parents at weekends. She also goes out on regular park visits with her dad at the week ends when It is a nice day.
Date: Monday16th May 2005
Age: 3 years 5 months and 3 weeks
Place of visit:: House
Time: 6:00pm
Length: 2 hours
People Present: myself, Hilary, Hilary's younger sister, Hilary's grandmother
Aim
My aim for this visit is to observe how Hilary uses her physical development. To see how she uses her fine motor skills I will do colouring and drawing activities to see how she holds her pen e.g. pincer or palmer grasp and the way she draws, when drawing I will use coloured pencil and crayons to see how she writes and what letters she can write. By doing some leaf printings with Hilary I will learn if Hilary knows what the leaf is like e.g. colour, texture. This activity is a fine motor and sensory skill. I will draw shapes and do dot-to-dots with Hilary to see how easy she finds it to join up the dots and what shapes she can draw, this is fine motor skills. For sensory skills I am going to do a play dough activity with Hilary which is a sensory skill, I will observe if she knows the colours of the play dough etc. For gross motor skills I will do a small obstacle course and a hop-scotch activity with Hilary, this will show me if she can run an jump etc. I will also do a throwing and catching activity with her. Hilary's milestones for her age are:
* Can walk and run forwards with precision
* Can walk on tip toe
* Can throw over hand
* Pedals and steers a tricycle
* Can hop on one foot
* Can manoeuvre around objects showing spatial awareness
* Holds a crayon with more control and can draw a face
* Can colour more neatly and more within the lines
* Uses improved tripod grasp
* Knows the name of some colours
* Can match 3 or more primary colours
* Can put together large jigsaws
Planning and Organisation
All activities will be done in Hilary's house.
For my first activity I am going to be doing a colouring, writing and drawing activities with Hilary. This will help me look at her fine motor and sensory skills. In Hilary's house I will prefer to do this in a well lit and quiet area because hopefully this will help Hilary concentrate more. For this activity I will need:
* Some plain white paper and some coloured paper
* Some colouring pencils ready sharpened
* A few colourings from colouring books
For safety I will watch Hilary closely to make sure that she does not put any of the equipment in her mouth, I will use non-toxic pencils and will make sure that the surface I will be using will be clean and protected. My aims for this activity will be to find out how Hilary holds her pen e.g. Palmer grasp, pincer grasp, what colours she will know, what letters she can write, how she colours in, e.g. small or wide, what things she can draw, if she knows what letters or drawings are in a picture and does she need help. I will keep evidence of what she has done in this activity. My expectations from this activity are, from her milestones, that Hilary should have an improved tripod grasp, be able to draw a face with two features and know three or more primary colours.
For my second activity I am going to do a play dough activity with Hilary. This will help me to look at her sensory skills. It would be good if I was in a quiet room with a good flat surface because I think that Hilary would be able to concentrate more. For this activity I will need:
* A few pots of coloured play dough
For safety I will watch Hilary close when she is playing with the play dough she does not put it in her mouth or stick it in her ears and nose, make sure that she will wash her hands after using it, I will use non-toxic play dough, make sure that Hilary wears protective clothing and also that the surface I will be using is clean and also protected. My aims for this activity will be to observe how Hilary moulds the play dough, does she know the colours of the play dough, what does she say about the texture and smell, what shapes does she mould it into, can she share with her sibling and does she make any facial expressions when playing with it. My expectations for this visit will be that Hilary should know up to four different colours of the play dough, she should be able to begin to use her language skills to describe what the play dough feels and smells like, concentrate for longer periods of time, understand the concept of cause and effect when the play dough Is moulded, and enjoy making make-believe food with the play dough.
For my third activity I am going to do a leaf printing activity with Hilary. This will help me to look at her fine motor skills and her sensory skills. This activity would be more interesting to do with Hilary if I done this out side because it would give me a chance for me and her to look at the variety of leaves that are in the garden. For this activity I will need:
* Some plain white and coloured paper
* Some ready sharpened coloured pencils and crayons
* A variety of leaves
For safety I will watch Hilary closely to make sure that she doesn't put any leaves in her mouth, I will make sure I use non-toxic pencils and crayons, I will make sure that if I am in the garden with Hilary that there are no loose plants or objects e.g. garden tools. My aims for this activity are to observe if Hilary can understand how to start colouring over a leaf using paper, to see how long her attention span is, if she enjoys this activity and how she holds her pen. My expectations for this visit will be that Hilary can hold a colouring pencil and crayon quite steadily, she can colour over the leaf quite easily and neatly, she will know the colour of the leaf but maybe not the different shades.
For my fourth activity I am going to do a obstacle course activity with Hilary. This will help me to look at Hilary gross motor skill development and her spatial awareness. This activity would be good if it was done in Hilary's back garden because it is open so Hilary could run around and it would be good for the objects I will be using. For this activity I will need:
* Several items for Hilary to climb over/under e.g. chairs, boxes, plastic tunnels, pillows, tyres
For safety I will make sure that any objects I will be using will be safe and not breakable. I will also make sure that the objects I am going to use are able to let Hilary climb over or under them safely making sure that nothing will hurt her. My aims for this activity are to observe if Hilary knows how to climb over or under the objects, does she struggle? How she shows her spatial awareness and what gross motor skill she uses the most. My expectations for this activity are that Hilary should be able to run through the obstacle course with out precision and should be able to manoeuvre around the objects showing spatial awareness and cause and effect.
Predictions
Looking at Hilary's milestones and the activities I done with her, I researched in my GCSE coursework book and made predictions on what I expected Hilary to be able to do. At Hilary's age her fine and gross motor skills should be well developed.
I expect Hilary to be able to use an improved tripod grasp or a mature pincer grasp, have a wide vocabulary, but may use the wrong endings such as drawed and writed. She should enjoy different types of play such as creative and pretend. When drawing she may draw a near circle with one or two features, or even a circle or potato shape with arms and legs.
Walking on tip toe and hopping should be easy for Hilary to do, climbing stairs or onto objects should be easy as well for Hilary to do. She should be becoming better and more skilled at throwing, catching, bouncing and kicking a ball. Hilary should be able to ride and steer a tricycle quite well and walk up and down stairs easily. Listening and making music should be enjoyable to Hilary.
Observations
When I first went into Hilary's house on my second visit she noticed me straight away and gave me a great big hug, her grandma was looking after her while her mum was working. The first thing that she showed me was a drawing that she had been doing earlier that day. It was of a lady bird.
This gave me the impression that Hilary enjoyed doing creative activities which was good because that way she would enjoy my colouring, writing and drawing activity. I sat down at the table in Hilary's dining room and asked her if she would come and sit next to me for a little while, reluctantly, she came over and sat down. With her came her younger sister called Chanella, like in the last visit, they are very close and do most things together.
I got out some ready sharpened pencils and plain paper and put them onto the table. Hilary immediately started picking up the colouring pencils, I thought this was a good time to ask what colours she knew out of them. She knew the colours red, orange, pink and purple. However she got confused between the colours green and blue, I helped her to pick out which colour was blue or green by starting to sound the word. She understood and gradually began to know them by herself. I repeated the test of what colours of the colouring pencils she knew every couple of minutes when drawing, colouring and writing. By knowing the colours this shows me that she can recognise them which is a sensory skill.
I started a colouring activity with Hilary first because I saw that she had an interest in the colouring pencils and creative activities. I had prepared a few images from some colouring books so I could see how Hilary colours in when doing it inside lines. I gave her three to choose from and set them out in front of her. She pointed at the first one and said lively 'Winnie the Pooh', I handed it to her and she smiled eagerly. I asked her what colour she was going to colour Winnie the Pooh in and she said 'orange' I asked her why and she pointed to a book which had a bear on it. Although, this bear was not Winnie the Pooh she still showed that she knew what colour Winnie really was.
After that, she got stuck into colouring him in, she held the pen in a pincer grasp right at the bottom of the pencil. Her colouring lines are long and close together, Hilary can colour in the lines quite well. She concentrated on colouring in this picture for around 5 minutes but then after a while she got lazy and started to become messy and go out of the lines. This was when I lost her concentration. I put this colouring to one side and asked her if she knew what was in the other picture, with out any hesitation she pointed out the ice cream and screamed (lolly's in the kitchen', this showed she recognised the ice cream. While I was in Hilary's house she kept mentioning cats, dogs and lady birds and she got very excited when I had a colouring of a cat. I asked her if she wanted to colour it in but she turned her head and said no, when I asked why she said cats mine. I didn't quite understand what Hilary meant by that but I left it and carried on with a different activity.
I put away the colouring pages and brought out some plain paper, I told Hilary that we were going to do some drawing and writing. I could see she was getting a bit restless so I quickly distracted her attention by saying there was a cat out side, this delayed my activity for a few minutes but it made Hilary want to do the drawing. When I said this Hilary ran to the back door and pointed saying 'cat...meow' making cat noises and squashing her face against the window. After a few minutes of distracting her, I gradually persuaded her to come back to the table and start to draw with me. She picked up a purple colouring pencil and sat there staring into space. I asked her what she was going to draw and she said a lady bird. Slowly, she started to draw a circle. Then she asked me nicely to help her draw the rest. I took her hand along with the pen and slowly guided her hand to draw the ladybirds body and its spots. After we had finished she picked it up she went to show her grandmother, she was very praising towards Hilary and clapped her hands to show she had done well.
To see if Hilary can share when doing colouring activities I sat her and her little sister Chanella next to each other and gave them one piece of plain white paper and colouring pencils. Hilary was not bothered by Chanella joining in and handed her a blue colouring pencil and started to colour in. Both of them colour with very wide lines and spaced out. I have kept their colouring that the did together.
When it came to writing Hilary was very puzzled as she didn't no how to write many letters at all, although she did know her full alphabet. I also helped her to write her name as well as draw a ladybird. So I once again took her hand and helped her to write her name. She was very happy once she had finished writing and kept saying the letters even though she couldn't write them on her own. I asked her grandmother if she got help to write when she was at school or at home. She replied that when Hilary attends school she does a lot of writing activities but with the teachers help and that she finds it difficult on her own.
To help put the colouring pencils away when we had finished I asked Hilary if she wanted to play a game. Joyfully she said 'yey' and sat on the chair. I had a race with Hilary to see who could pick up the most pencils the quickest, letting her win to show how she reacts when achieving some thing. I shouted happily 'you won' and she clenched the colouring pencils in her fists and gritted her teeth at me.
After everything from the colouring activity was put away, I took out a few pots of play dough and set it out onto a protective clothe which I put on the table. I had got Hilary to go and put on some old clothes just in case any of the play dough got stuck on it. When she come back trotting down the stairs, she plonked on to the chair again and stuck her finger into the nearest bundle of play dough to her. She looked and me and frowned. I asked her what was wrong and she said 'yucky, soggy', this showed what she thought the play dough felt like. I picked up a piece of play dough and asked her to squish it in her hand, she picked it up by a pincer grasp and slowly hesitated to place it in the palm of her hand.
Eventually with some encouragement she squished it in her hand, her face was all screwed up which showed that she didn't really like the feel of the play dough. So I decided that may be she would prefer it if we made stuff with the play dough, I started to show her how to roll it into balls. She watched me while I made a couple before she picked up another piece and began to roll them herself. I didn't have a wide range of colours for play dough, so I didn't get her to identify the colours because she had done that before with the colouring pencils.
After around 10 minutes we had made about 20 play dough balls and had none left. Hilary had rolled the play dough into quite large balls. So I decided that we could make imaginary play and make food out of them. I told Hilary that we were going to do this but I don't think that she quite understood what I meant. To show her an example of this I took two balls of play dough, one big and one little, and squashed the little one on to the bigger one. I put it in the palm of my hand and said 'this is a fried egg'. She took it out of my hand an looked at it for a few seconds. She picked up some play dough and started to squash it in to her hands like she did before. I don't think that she completely understood what she was supposed to do so I didn't want to carry on with this activity and moved on to the next one.
I thought it would be a good idea if I did some leaf printings with Hilary because I already knew that she enjoyed doing colouring, drawing and creative activities. I did this in the back garden because Hilary's mum has quite a few trees at the back of her fence that fall onto the floor. Hilary went and put on her little Barbie Wellington boots on because it had been raining and the soil was quite soggy. We were not going to colour over them in the garden because it wasn't nice enough weather so we could sit down on the floor. So we managed to find a couple of different kind of leaves that were dry and took them inside. I asked Hilary if she knew what colours the leaves were and she said green. I think that she knew they were green straight away because there were no other colours around for her to get confused with, although she got confused with blue and green before.
I had to prepare the leaf underneath the paper ready for Hilary to colour over because she did not know how to do it. Once I had done that I gave Hilary a blue colouring pencil and she scribbled onto the paper, she got confused when the shape of the leaf started to print underneath the paper. But then she smiled and carried on, this showed that she understood the concept of cause and effect. She coloured over the leaf in big wide scribbles but that made it easier for her to see the printing of the leaf when she coloured in. Hilary did enjoy this activity because she enjoys colouring in and she concentrated on colouring for around 10 minutes. Hilary done 3 different leaf printings with 3 different leaves.
I wanted to see how Hilary climbed over or under obstacles so I set out an obstacle course in her front room because the weather out side was not good enough. I moved all harmful objects to the side, however, the bigger objects such as the sofas and tables were not completely out of the way. I collected some card board boxes and used them as tunnels, used dinning chairs to climb over, and used pillows to jump on. I also made room so that she could run in and out of them when I asked her to.
Firstly I asked Hilary to climb over the chair and then to jump onto the pillow, she pushed her self up onto the chair and then jumped onto the pillow from the chair. I did a few short tasks with Hilary before asking her to do the whole obstacle course in one go. She found it easy to climb, crawl and jump on the objects. Finally after finishing doing the short obstacle courses I asked Hilary to do the whole thing. She ran to the card board box and crawled through it, she climbed over the few chairs and jumped onto the pillows. She understood what I had told her to do which shows she listens to commands and she ran round the obstacle course without precision.
This was a different activity to do with Hilary because she usually prefers to do creative activities by using her fine motor and sensory skills. However I was pleased because she paid attention on this activity for around 15 minutes which showed that she did enjoy it. After I had finished this activity I packed away the pillows and chairs ect. That I had been using and said good bye to Hilary. She came over and said that she didn't want me to go but gave me a hug any way. I said thank you to her grandmother for letting me observe her and left.
Evaluation
Physical
Hilary enjoys doing smaller muscle activities e.g. colouring and drawing, so the activities that I did were mostly using her fine motor and sensory skills. My first activity was colouring, Hilary loves to draw. She can control her pen in a pincer grasp when drawing and colours neatly with in the lines. For my second activity I done a drawing with Hilary, she had fine muscular control when she was drawing a lady bird. I helped her to write her name. My third activity was play dough, Hilary was not very keen on playing with the play dough at first because she didn't like the feel of it. But when I started to roll the play dough Hilary joined in, she was able to roll the play dough in to little balls but wasn't able to make the food out of the play dough. However I don't think she understood what to do. We went into the garden and were picking up leaves ready to do my fourth activity, Hilary used her fine motor skills to pick up the leaves. My fifth activity was an obstacle course in Hilary's front room, Hilary enjoyed this activity. She was able to climb, jump and crawl over the obstacles.