Home Situation
Ellie is the youngest in her family. She lives with her Mum named Kay and Dad named Mark, Brother Jon and sister Lucie aged 15 and 7. They have a cockatiel and a budgie. They live in a detached house quite close to her school. Her house is on quite a busy road with two main roads and shops nearby. Her house has got two big gardens in the front and back, with a slide and playhouse in the back garden. Ellie is part of an extended family as her Grandparents, Uncles, Aunts and cousins all live quite close and she sees them quite a lot. There are a few other children that live down Ellie’s street but Ellie prefers to stay in and play with her sister.
Social Development
Ellie likes to be with people but can get quite shy around people that she doesn’t know. Ellie is a very friendly child and will play with anyone who is friendly back and is willing to play when she gets to do/play what she wants. Ellie will often get moody or upset if she doesn’t get her way and is quite bossy when playing games. Ellie can be clingy to her brother as I think she looks up to him. Ellie gets on well with her sister; they play together a lot, and rarely argue. Ellie owns a lot of dolls that she enjoys to play with. Ellie enjoys imaginative play; she enjoys dressing up with her sister and playing games such as ‘Mums and Dads’. Ellie is a happy child who laughs and smiles a lot. Ellie understand the concepts of right and wrong, good and bad etc. She has good manners as she says please and thank you. Ellie likes to be the leader and to go first in games; she will get quite moody if she doesn’t. Ellie co-operates easily with people.
Physical Development
Ellie’s fine manipulative skills are at the stage they should be. Ellie uses both of her hands to do tasks. Ellie can point at objects and pick up small objects using her thumb and index finger, She can grasp objects and pass objects to people, point at objects, pick up small objects using thumb and index finger, poke objects and clap. She can walk for long periods of time without becoming tired and is able to walk upstairs using one foot on each step. Ellie can curl her tongue and whistle through it. She can walk along a straight line; she can also run normally and on her tiptoes, skip, jump, hop, catch and kick a ball although the ball doesn’t always go in the direction that she wishes it too. She can feed and dress herself but cannot do up laces on her trainers and sometimes struggles with the buttons on her coat, Ellie can go to the toilet alone.
Ellie is able to hold pencils using a fine pincer grip and she is able to pick up small objects, this shows that Ellie is just about at the right stage for a child of her age. Ellie is able to draw simple pictures of people and objects.
Ellie speaks with quite a babyish voice but she can hold quite a grown up conversation with an adult.
Intellectual Development
Ellie is able to count to 18 but after that she gets the numbers is the wrong order.
Ellie has a lot of dolls, which she likes to play with, she also likes to draw and colour a lot.
Ellie can identify a few colours and write them, such as red, yellow, purple and blue. She can also write her name and she knows the difference between right and wrong, e.g. she knows colouring on the wall is wrong and colouring on the paper is right.
Ellie likes to ask a lot of questions, sometimes because she is trying to wind up her brother and other times because she is curious about objects, people or what’s going on in the world around her.
Emotional Development
Ellie is a happy child who laughs and smiles a lot.
She likes to get her own way, and if she doesn’t then she will shout, scream, cry and stamp. Overall though Ellie is generally a happy child who does not cry a lot, even if she hurts herself she just tends to laugh and carry on with what she was doing.
From my introductory visit I now know that Ellie is a shy girl but she knows me quite well and is a very friendly and happy girl who shows a wide range of both positive and negative emotions. Ellie enjoys all types of play but seems to prefer imaginative games. Ellie loves to draw and do other creative activities, especially those that encourage and involve imaginative development and play.
From what I have seen of Ellie, play is still a very important part of her day so I am choosing PLAY as my broad area of research.
