The aim of this observation is to observe a child during a problem solving activity and assess their cognitive skills and development

E7

"At three years old a child can sort objects into categories, but usually by only one criterion at a time, for example all the cars from a selection of vehicles, but not the cars that are red."

Babies and young children, diploma in child care and education, Marian Beaver at el, 2001, page 125.

I feel that M.B demonstrated this during this observation as M.B was able to sort out the pieces of the puzzle into various categories. First of all she picked out the four corners and then sorted between the outside pieces and middle pieces and put these into separate piles on the floor. I feel that by doing this she was actually able to sort her jigsaw pieces in a complex way as she was sorting similar objects into more specific groups.

"At the age of three years children talk to themselves during play, this is to plan and order their play, which is evidence children use language to think."

Babies and young children, diploma in child care and education, Marian Beaver at el, 2001, page 153.

I feel that again M.B demonstrated this during this observation as she spoke to herself whilst completing the jigsaw puzzle. She spoke to herself when she realised that she had placed some of the pieces of the jigsaw in the wrong places. She spoke out loud and told herself that they were the wrong way round. This does therefore show that children use language as a way of thinking.

E8 + A1

During this observation I feel that Maria Montessori's work about a child's learning was backed up by M.B.

"Maria Montessori believed that children learn best from self-chosen activity and by doing things independently (i.e. without adult interference)."

Early years management in practice, Maureen Daly at el, 2004, page 71.

I feel that this was demonstrated by M..B during this observation as she completed the jigsaw puzzle without any adult interference. From previous observations I also know that M.B learnt to do this jigsaw puzzle by herself. She has learnt how to complete this puzzle successfully by using a variety of methods such as trial and error and memory from previous experiences of doing this particular puzzle, all of which she has learnt without any help from the adult.

However I also feel that the adult played an important role in this observation by praising and encouraging M.B throughout. This would back up Skinner's theory of positive reinforcement. This is because by having the adult praise and encourage her throughout she successfully went on to complete the puzzle by herself without the adult actually doing the puzzle with her.

These two theories go to show that an adult plays an important role in helping a child to complete a task which involves the child to using their cognitive skills, without actually completing the task for them. Both of these theories are important to this observation however they cover slightly different aspects of the observation.

E9 + D1

To help develop M.B's skills further I would suggest the following two activities.

- A similar activity of a jigsaw puzzle but with more pieces. This would develop her cognitive skills further as she would be dealing with more pieces so would have to find more ways of separating the pieces into piles. The resources needed are a jigsaw puzzle with more pieces and a space for M.B to carry out this activity. The role of the adult would be to encourage and praise M.B for her efforts and maybe to help her if she became really stuck.

2- A colour sorting activity using only primary colours to begin with, then progressing onto secondary colours as she becomes more confident. This would help other areas of her cognitive skills and would also develop her colour recognition and names of each colour. The resources needed would be a variety of different objects of the primary colours e.g. a red sock, a blue car and a yellow cup. Then ask M.B to match all of the red items together, then the blue and then the yellow. The role of the adult would be to talk to M.B about the colour of each object and then ask her to match them into the various categories.

E10

From doing this observation I have learnt;

- M.B's capabilities during a problem solving activity such as a jigsaw puzzle.

- The importance of having an adult present to encourage M.B to complete the activity.

- The various methods a child uses in order for them to complete an activity which involves their cognitive skills.

C1

The advantages of this method of observation are,

- It allowed me to observe the interaction between M.B and the adult, allowing me to look at how the adult plays an important role in helping her to achieve the activity.

- It allowed me to write down lots of factual information, making it easier to carry out this observation.

- I was able to record and observe the activity and language of M.B making it easier to understand why she did the things she did.

The disadvantages of this method of observation are,

- at times I found it hard to record everything which was happening so found it easier to record in short hand and then write up immediately afterwards.

- If M.B moved around quickly or spoke quietly it would have been hard to record all of the language used and what she was doing.

Over a short period of time I feel that I gained enough factual information to carry out this observation, enabling me to meet my aims. However if I was to carry out this observation again or do a similar one I would experiment with other methods to see if I could gain any more factual information by doing so.

B1

From doing this observation it has given me a more detailed understanding of M.B's individual needs and capabilities. It has shown me that she relied on the adult present to praise and encourage her to complete an activity which required her to use her cognitive skills. This observation showed that M.B was successfully able to complete a 20 piece jigsaw but it would be unfair to expect her to be able to complete all 20 piece jigsaw puzzles. This observation would make a good baseline report as you could use it to assess her cognitive skills as well as her interaction and language skills. It would however be unfair to carry out an assessment on this observation alone as there could be many factors which contributed to her ability during this observation. These factors could include the fact that she was spending the day with her mum on her own without any of her brothers so didn't have any distractions so was able to concentrate fully on what she was doing. I feel that it would be interesting to carry out further observations of M.B during carious other activities which require her to practice her cognitive skills. It would also be interesting to see how she got on with completing another jigsaw puzzle without any encouragement and praise from the adult and see if this affects her ability in any way. Another idea for a further observation would be to introduce a new jigsaw puzzle which consisted of more pieces and see if she was to use the same methods used in this observation to complete this puzzle. I could also carry out observations of her completing the same jigsaw puzzle with various carers in the room and see how she responds to the praise and encouragement of each of these and make further assessments of her abilities following these further observations. By carrying out these further observations it would allow me to gain a more detailed understanding of M.B's skills and capabilities.

E12

Babies and young children, diploma in child care and education, Marian Beaver at el, 2001

Early years management in practice, Maureen Daly at el, 2004

Rachel Phillips observation 2 pin 04/221586 Page 1 of 5