Expectations:
As I will be visiting Harris after quite some time, I expect him to be shy and not really open up. Once Harris becomes comfortable around me I expect him to smile and talk to me.
As I am focusing on Harris’s Intellectual development I will be conducting the activities I mentioned in my aims. The first activity I will observe will be the construction of building blocks, it says in the child care and development book that “a child of 2 should be able to build a tower of bricks” I think Harris should be able to do this as he enjoys playing with Lego and also the fact that Harris may have improved his fine motor skills. Not only will I expect Harris to use his fine motor skills while building a tower with Lego but also I expect Harris to use telegraphic phrases such as “me build tower” ect. In the child development second edition book it states that “a child of 2 years will start to begin using telegraphic phrases”. I will make sure I write down what Harris says so that at the end of the project I can see how his language skills have progressed or regressed. My second activity involves reading. Some of the expectations I have for the reading activity are from the child development second edition book for example “a child aged 2-3 should be able to sit for longer periods of time” I think that Harris will not be able to sit for a long period of time as he tends to fidget and move around a lot. For my last activity which is a painting activity I expect Harris to enjoy himself because he will be able to express himself and enjoy the different colours. As Harris is 2 it says in the child development second edition book that “A two year old child will attempt to hold a pencil in a primitive tripod grasp”. I think Harris will attempt to hold the pencil in a primitive grasp but may struggle as he is not used to holding it.
Observation
The visit took place at my house where I conducted all 3 activities the first activity Harris did was the Lego activity. I asked Harris whether he would like to build a tower he replied saying “Harris build tower” As expected in the child development book Harris used telegraphic speech to convey what he would like to do. It also shows that he is aware of his identity and knows his name. Harris used his fine motor skills to pick each individual brick and stacked them on top of each other. Harris showed that he acknowledges what is said and therefore did as he was told. As time went on Harris got bored so I decided to join in and play with him, Harris was more than happy to let me play with him. This shows that Harris is not egocentric and is at the cooperate stage of play.
For my second activity which was the reading activity Harris and I as well as his mother sat down on the floor and looked through the book it was a colourful book where you had to find objects such as ‘cars’. Harris managed to sit down for 10 minutes and search for items I asked him to find when the book had finished Harris asked me whether we could read it again. This shows me that Harris has done what is expected for his age group the child development second edition states “a child aged 2-3 should be able to sit for longer periods of time”. As the activities involved different concepts Harris was able to differentiate the different coloured balls in the book when I asked Harris “where is the blue ball?” Harris would correctly point to the blue ball but when I asked Harris “where is the big car” Harris wasn’t able to point to the big car this shows that Harris isn’t aware of his concept of size.
The last activity I had planned was the painting activity I expected Harris to show happy emotions because I thought the colours would excite which is exactly what happened. Whilst painting I noticed that Harris kept choosing the blue paint which lead me to believe that Harris’s favourite colour is blue. After painting for 10 minutes I wanted to observe Harris’s writing skills so I decided to bring out the multicoloured wax crayons. I thought Harris may not like to draw with crayons but he did and as it says in the child development second edition book “A two year old child will attempt to hold a pencil in a primitive tripod grasp” Harris used his fine motor skills to attempt the grasp and drew lines and scribbles. After 5 minutes Harris got bored and wanted to read the book. To see how good Harris’s memory was I asked Harris to find the book and bring it to me. Harris was excited and found the task fun he immediately started looking in his bookshelf for the book, Harris used his gross motor skills to run and look for the books also he used his fine motor skills when turning the pages to make sure he was holding the correct book. When Harris could not find the book he became sad and angry this shows that Harris has developed emotionally and understands that the book is no longer near him. It also shows me that it may take Harris will need to look at the book a lot and remember what it looks like.
Evaluation
When I had carried out all the visits with Harris I was surprised that he was able to do things that I thought he may find difficult for example I thought Harris may not be able to sit down for a long period of time but surprisingly he enjoyed that activity the most. Before I conducted my visit I gathered some expectations from the child development second edition book. The expectations were;
- “A child of 2 should be able to build a tower of bricks”.
- “A child of 2 years will start to begin using telegraphic phrases”.
- “A child aged 2-3 should be able to sit for longer periods of time”
- “A 2 year old child will attempt to hold a pencil in a primitive tripod grasp”.
Intellectual
As this was the main area I focused on during my visit all my activities involved learning and understanding different concepts. Harris executed the activities in a different way than I expected. The first activity which was the Lego activity involved language skills as well as being able to use fine motor skills. Harris managed to complete the task he was given by me this showed that I planned a suitable activity for Harris’s ability. I used the child development second edition book to help me find suitable aims for Harris’s age I used milestones for a two a year old. Whilst Harris was playing with his Lego blocks I asked him a few questions such as: “where is the big block”, “Which is the yellow block”. I asked these so I could so how well Harris has developed his language skills. When Harris replied to my answers he used telegraphic speech which is expected for a two year old. I decided to look at Harris’s language skills because during my other visits I will see how well his language skills have improved. The second activity was the reading activity, One of the milestones was that “A child aged 2-3 should be able to sit for longer periods of time” I thought Harris would not like the activity because he tends to move and fidget a lot but Harris actually enjoyed this activity more than I expected I will now try to include more activities like this as he enjoyed it. One of the reasons I think Harris liked the activity is because when I asked him to find me a certain object from the book and he found it I gave awarded him praise for it this is like the behaviourist theory- Burrhus F Skinner believed that positive reinforcements encourage children to repeat the experience and develop learning. My third activity was the painting activity one of the milestones were “A 2 year old child will attempt to hold a pencil in a primitive tripod grasp”. As I expected Harris did manage to hold the pencil in this grasp. Harris got bored quite quickly which tells me I need to plan a more interesting painting activity next time.
Physical Development
My main area I focused on during the visit was intellectual development. I did also take into account of other developments such as physical development because it will help me see more clearly how Harris has developed during my visits. I think the Lego activity was the most helpful for me in understanding how well Harris has developed physically. In the child development book it says a child of 2 should be able to build a tower of 5-6 blocks, Harris managed to do this with ease. When I asked Harris to carry on building he managed to build the tower with 15 blocks this shows me that Harris is ahead in physical development. I will keep this in mind for my future visits as it will allow me to plan activities according to Harris’s ability. During the reading activity I thought Harris wasn’t going to enjoy it but he actually enjoyed it more than the other two this shows me that I need to do more research and see what Harris likes and dislikes. During the painting activity I realised Harris didn’t enjoy the activity I already knew this but I managed to find out that he can use a mature pincer grasp. I will need to make the painting activity more interesting for him so that I can gather more knowledge about his physical development.
Social development and Emotional development
Whilst conducting the 3 activities I noticed Harris was able to share his toys and took things in turns. It says in the child development second edition book that a child aged 2 “still finds it hard to share”. I will use this information and see how well Harris plays with other children. Harris still does not enjoy leaving his mother or father as he suffers separation anxiety. I will have to base my activities around this and make sure Harris is comfortable and has his parents around. During the book activity I noticed Harris does not like to lose because when he couldn’t find the book Harris started to get angry and sad. I think during my next few visits Harris will be more independent because I will try to base my activities that encourage joining in play.
Things Harris has developed on since my last visit
I have noticed that Harris is more comfortable around me and has improved in all his developments. For my aims I got some milestones from the child development second edition book.
- “A child of 2 should be able to build a tower of bricks”.
Harris managed to build a tower of 15 which is more than a 3 year old can do this shows that he is ahead in parts of his physical development.
- “A child of 2 years will start to begin using telegraphic phrases”.
Whilst conducting the activities Harris communicated with me by saying things such as “Harris build tower” this shows that Harris is doing what is expected for a two year old.
- “A child aged 2-3 should be able to sit for longer periods of time”
I didn’t expect Harris to be able to do this but he did and enjoyed it.
- “A 2 year old child will attempt to hold a pencil in a primitive tripod grasp”. During the painting activity I noticed Harris used this grasp but didn’t particularly enjoy the activity.