Child Observation Project

Kristin Westad
Dean College
April 24, 2015

Author Note
This paper was prepared for Psychology 211, Section 1, taught by Kristen Lundgren
A naturalistic observation of a preschool child was done at The Childrens Center on
Dean Campus on the 3rd of April, 2015. Because play is young childrens natural means of
interacting with the world around them, it makes sense to assess a childs development while
they are engaged in play activities. The child who was observed was a male with light brown

hair, and wearing glasses. It was indicated that he had just recently turned five years old. For the
purpose of this project, the child will be identified as Noah.
Observations
The observation started outside the Childrens Center on a damp and cloudy day. Noah
was found playing in the sandbox by himself. He sat immersed in the sand while a teacher sat on
the edge interacting with him. Noah was pretending that two rocks were dinosaurs. After a few
minutes, the rocks changed from being dinosaurs to now representing a baby rock and a
mommy rock. The teacher asked Noah, Is the baby rock big or small? Noah responded,
Smallevery baby has to be small.
After several minutes of playing by himself, a little girl, about the same age as Noah,
came over to the sandbox to play with the toys that were present. At first, they played separately,
Noah continuing to pretend with the rocks, and the little girl using some of the sand toys to play
on her own. After a few moments, the little girl came over and joined Noah in pretending with
the rocks. When the little girl started to pretend that the rock was eating, Noah stopped her to
explain the rules. He said, The baby rock doesnt eat from the bucket; it only eats from the
sandbox. Noah and the little girl each simultaneously played with the rocks pretending they
were baby and mommy, and at the same time began using the sand to build a place for the rocks
to live.
After about fifteen minutes of outside play, the head teacher announced that it was time to
clean up and go inside. The children were instructed to help put the toys away in the shed, get
their backpacks and jackets, which were hanging on the outside fence, and then line up in front
of the door to go inside. Once inside the center, the children gathered in a semi-circle in the main
room. The teacher started the group by asking them to sing On Top of Spaghetti with her,
which had hand gestures that went along with it. They had learned the song during the previous

school day. Noah participated, at times using the teacher as a reference for what gesture to use.
After the song, the teacher picked up a bag that contained blocks that were labeled with
each childs name. She then chose a block from the bag, and said name of the child whose block
was chosen. Once their name was called, the children were instructed to take a tag with their
name written on it, and move it from the Not Here to the Here list on the easel. They then
were told to stack their block on one of the three activities that they wanted to participate in for
the day. The choices were arts and crafts, drama, and water table. After doing that, they were to
take their backpacks and jackets and hang them up along the wall in the hallway, and then go to
their assigned activity.
During the process of the teacher picking blocks from the bag, Noah raised his hand and
asked to use the bathroom. He went into the other room, and used the toilet without assistance.
When Noah returned, his name had just been called, and he began to follow the directions that
were given. He placed his block on the water table pile, which was the fourth one high by that
point, and proceeded to the hall to hang up his things. He did need assistance getting the loop of
his jacket over the hook. Noah then went to the water table to participate in the activity that he
had chosen. At this point, the observation concluded.
Relation to Child Development Theories
Immediately, it was clear that Noah was in Piagets preoperational stage of development.
This stage differs from the sensorimotor stage in that it shows an increase in mental
representation, which is characterized by the ability to pretend. Noah displayed a growing
symbolic mastery by using the rocks as dinosaurs. After age two, children pretend with less
realistic toys.And gradually they flexibly imagine objects and events without support from the
real world (Berk, 2005, p. 317). When Noah told the teacher every baby has to be small, it

was an example of the way that Piaget said children think at this age. According to Piaget,
young children are not capable of operations - mental representations of actions that obey
logical rules. Instead, their thinking is rigid, limited to one aspect of a situation at a time, and
strongly influenced by the way things appear at the moment (Berk, 2005, p. 319).
Mildred Parten was one of the first people to study peer sociability among two to five-yearolds, and she identified four different types. The type that was seen when Noah was playing by
himself in the sandbox was nonsocial. This type of sociability can be defined as solitary play.
After the little girl came over to play in the sandbox, there were two types of peer sociability that
took place; first parallel and then cooperative. Parallel is defined as playing near other children
with similar toys but not trying to influence one another. This was seen when Noah and the little
girl were each doing their own activity in the sand with similar toys. Cooperative is defined as
children working towards a common goal. This was seen when Noah and the little girl were
making a place for the baby and mommy rock to live, and talking to each other using the rocks.
There are also three cognitive play categories, two of which were seen during the
observation. When Noah was playing by himself in the sandbox, the type of cognitive play that
he was engaged in was make-believe play. This is described as acting out everyday, imaginative
roles. After the little girl came over to play in the sandbox, the type of cognitive play that they
engaged in was both constructive play and make-believe play. Constructive play is described as
creating or constructing something, and it was seen when Noah and the little girl were using the
sand to make a place for the baby and mommy rocks to live. Make-believe play was seen when
the children were talking back and forth with one another using the rocks.
Noah also demonstrated characteristics of Eriksons Initiative versus Guilt stage while he was
engaged in play. According to Erikson, part of this stage involves, play as a means through
which young children find out about themselves and their social world (Berk, 2005, p. 358).

Vygotskys thinking was also evident in the observation because he saw make-believe play as
the ideal social context for fostering cognitive development in early childhood (p. 331). In
addition, this could be seen as a Vygotskian classroom because It promoted assisted
discovery. Teachers guide childrens learning with explanations, demonstrations, and verbal
prompts (p. 331).
Temperament is defined as stable individual differences in the quality and intensity of
emotional reaction, activity level, attention, and emotional self-regulation (Berk, 2005, p. 258).
Noahs temperament throughout the observation was adaptable, approachable, and easygoing.
Therefore, he could be described as having an easy temperament. His personality was shown as
being somewhat quieter than the other children were, but when participation was required, he
was able to do so.
During the observation, Noah seemed capable of the same tasks as his peers. He was able to
follow the directions he was given. He helped clean up, and got in line outside with the other
children. He sat in the circle quietly waiting for his name to be picked from the bag of blocks,
and was able to choose which area he wanted to go to for his activity that day. He was also
capable of making the teacher aware of his needs by raising his hand to ask if he could go to the
bathroom. Noah was observed as being developmentally on target for his age. He was able to
pile his block on top of three other ones, and go to the bathroom without assistance. The fact that
he needed help getting the loop of his jacket over the hook just showed that his fine motor skills
were still developing, and may not be exactly precise yet. Noah also seemed well adjusted
socially because he willingly interacted with the little girl in the sandbox, but was fine playing by
himself as well, and he was able to share the sand toys with the little girl when she came over to
play.

In conclusion, from what could be seen from this forty-five minute observation, from a
developmental perspective, Noah is well within the ranges of what would be considered normal
for his age. This will only help serve as a benefit to him throughout the rest of his childhood, and
into adulthood; it has been shown by many theorists and researchers that childhood sets the stage
for being successful throughout the rest of your life.