This document summarizes observations of a 4-year-old child, referred to as Child K, during free playtime at preschool. The observer recorded Child K's behaviors over 10 minutes, noting the types of play, developing motor skills, and social interactions. In the summary, the observer interprets Child K's behaviors as demonstrating parallel play initially that transitions to cooperative play, improving gross motor skills like balance, and developing social and emotional skills through group activities. The observer analyzes Child K's behaviors within the frameworks of child development theorists like Piaget, Erikson, and Vygotsky.
3. EARLY CHILDHOOD 3
Part II
Date: Oct 24 Begin time: 9:47 End time: 9:57
Child’s initial: K Child’s age: 4 Child’s sex:
Description of the location and scene: 15 kids 4 adults. Group of boys on the carpet banging the
drums, group of kids the treehouse, and group of kids at the table painting pumpkins with adults.
It’s loud from the drums and screaming and many people are talking.
Time Running Record Interpretation
9:47 Child K is standing next to a table
holding a purse in their hand. Using
the other hand, they are holding a
puzzle piece and talking to Child A.
Both children are putting the dinosaur
pieces on the puzzle and Child K is
pointing to each dinosaur saying,
“and that’s red and that’s orange”.
Child K walks over to another table
and hands adult the purse.
Child K could be showing advanced fine motor
skills, as they are holding the puzzle piece and
able to put it in the correct place. By conversing
with the other child doing the same puzzle, it
may be implied that they are working toward the
same goal together, demonstrating cooperative
play.
9:48 Then he takes each toy out of the
purse, gives them to the adult and
tells her “hold this” each time.
Picking up magnetic square blocks off
of the table, child K puts them
together and starts building
something. While building, they
begin speaking gibberish like “ayyy
ayyy” and making roar voices. Child
K stands on tip of toes and reaches
across the table.
By connecting the magnetic squares on top and
beside each other, Child K appears to be
building something, demonstrating constructive
play. The gibberish may imply that they might
be beginning to use private speech because they
are not directly using words to guide or explain
their actions. Child K is showing good balance
standing on toes which could suggest they have
developed some gross motor skills.
9:49 At the table, Child K reaches over and
takes a square from another child’s
pile. Child K reaches in a basket,
pulls out more squares, and continues
stacking them. While bending down
and picking a square off the ground,
Child K says, “this one fell on the
ground.” Then they hand it to the
adult and say, “Can you hold this”
They could be participating in parallel play
because the children are playing with the same
toys at the same table but are not talking or
building together. Talking to themselves when
picking up the square shows a more developed
example of private speech than before because it
is better established language that could be
helping them think about how to behave and act
in the particular situation.
9:50 After walking around the table a few
times, Child K picks up a small doll,
I think the box thing that Child K was building
looked like a car because it had four wheels and
4. EARLY CHILDHOOD 4
bends it, and places him in the box he
made. Child K takes the man out of
the box and stands him up on top of
it.
was square and it just looked like a car. When
Child K bent the toy man at the hips and sat him
inside the box, it furthered my belief that it was
a car. This could mean that Child K is
exemplifying age appropriate make-believe play
using non-realistic toys that represent a realistic
thing.
9:51 Child K bends down, picks up more
squares off the ground and adds them
to his box. Then, they pick up the
man doll, tries to bend him again, and
says “scary” to the toy in a deep
voice. Child K holding the doll’s feet
starts banging him against the table.
Child K is continuing with constructive play.
When Child K says scary, it appears to be
directed at the toy man, this could mean that
Child K gave a toy a lifelike characteristic. By
hitting the toy against the table, it could imply
that Child K wants to hurt the man because he is
“scary” representing animism. Or if could mean
that they are partaking in pretend play because
Child K did not give the toy emotions or feeling
when they first started playing and is now
playing make- believe.
9:52 Child K says to Child A “No that
one’s mine” when Child A takes a
building square off the table. Holding
a square in one hand, Child K wipes
their face with back of their other
hand. Then they switch the square
from their left to right hand and add it
to their box.
Child A may be trying to discourage cooperative
play by not allowing the other child to play with
the same toys at their table. This might be a sign
of socioemotional difficulties because they may
not willing to share and play with other.
9:53 Child K reaches down and picks up
another square off ground and adds it
to the thing. Then, they bend down
and crawl around on hand and knees
under the table. Child K stands up and
talks to Child A, and they both add
squares to the car box thing.
This continuous bending down and standing up,
while it is a milestone at an earlier age, still
helps the gross motor skills in this stage by
building and strengthening muscles that are
invaluable in this stage of rapid gross motor
improvement. Now Child K is exhibiting what
appears to be cooperative play because they are
talking and working together with Child A.
9:54 Child K picks up their box thing turns
around and runs to the play kitchen
area. Child A follows him through the
kitchen area and back to the table.
Child K puts his car box thing back
on the table and pushes the man doll
through the top of the box, breaking
apart the squares. They put the toy
man headfirst in a bucket, pick up the
squares that fell off, and put them
back on the box.
The run through the play kitchen could be a
result of developing gross motor skills because
the hurried walk becomes quicker and they are
able to maneuver around furniture and
equipment in their way. Placing the toy man in
the bucket could insinuate that Child K is not
exhibiting animistic thinking toward the toy.
Although earlier, they appeared to give the toy
feelings, it could mean that they are showing a
developed form of make-believe play, where
they can give the same toy different identities.
5. EARLY CHILDHOOD 5
9:56 After Child K rebuilds the toy car, he
and other children sit on the ground
and they take the squares off of the
box. The children appear to be talking
to each other and start picking the
squares off the ground and putting the
box back together.
More cooperative play with more kids. This
could show developing social skills and
socioemotional growth that is important during
this time.
9:57 Child K reaches over and takes a
square out of the other kids’ hands
and adds it to the box. Child K points
to the other child holding the square
and then points to the top of the box.
Child K stands up and walks back to
the table. They put both hands on the
table, extend their arms and lifts their
feet off the ground balancing on their
arms. Child K looks to Child A,
smiles and laughs when they dropped
their box and it fell apart.
Pointing to the other children and then to where
they should put the square could be an example
of how Child K is becoming assertive and taking
initiative in group activities. This behavior is
described by Erikson in his third stage,
insinuating that Child K may come out of the
Initiative vs. Guilt stage successfully. Laughing
at the other child when they broke their toy,
suggest that Child K could be having trouble
with emotional regulation and empathy because
they are not exhibiting the correct coping
behavior when their peer may be sad.
6. EARLY CHILDHOOD 6
Part III: Interpretation
Child K demonstrated some of the different types of play discussed in class. Mildred
Parten coined the different types of play and suggested that the more developed types replace the
earlier ones (Berk & Meyers, 2016). When they first began playing with the magnetic building
squares, Child K and another kid were at the same table, playing with the same toys. Because
they weren’t talking or influencing each other’s play, they are exhibiting parallel play. Later on,
Child K and Child A would talk, share toys, and work together to build a tower, demonstrating
cooperative play. By partaking in different types of play, Child K’s behavior better supports the
idea that the various types of play can coexist. Because cooperative play is prominent in Child
K’s everyday play, it could mean that they are developing cognitively and socioemotionally,
further improving their social skills.
Child K is exemplifying improving gross motor skills when they run around the room and
push themselves up on the table. By extending their arms, flexing their muscles, and lifting their
feet off the ground, Child K balanced their body on top of the table. As their body and center of
gravity changes, preschoolers’ physical abilities change as they are able to use and strengthen
large muscles (Berk & Meyers, 2016) By demonstrating their balance and strength, Child K
could be showing appropriate development for their age and stage.
7. EARLY CHILDHOOD 7
Part IV
Physical development
Gross motor skills, the big muscle movements such as back, arms, and legs, differ greatly
from infancy to early childhood. The center of gravity changes and balance improves as
children’s bodies grow and become more streamlined (Berk & Meyers, 2016). In the classroom,
an adult stands in “tree pose” on one leg with both hands in the air. Many of the children mirror
the adult, showing advancing gross motor skills balancing on one foot for many seconds. In
infancy, major milestones such as walking and jumping show development of gross motor skills,
while GMS in early childhood emphasizes the efficiency and speed of previously learned skills.
Fine motor skills greatly improve as small muscles and coordination grows. Between
ages three and five, the ability to correctly hold a pencil and other utensils improve to adapt to
the angle and direction of markings (Berk & Meyers, 2016). As infants learn to develop an ulnar
and pincer grasp, young children learn how to best grasp a pencil for maximum ease and
efficiency. As a group of kids were at a table painting, one of the children was holding the
paintbrush with their index finger and thumb supported by the other fingers. The advanced,
adultlike grip of the paintbrush suggests that the child’s fine motor skills could be developing on
track for their age.
Cognitive Development
Both Piaget and Erikson stressed the importance of pretend play during early childhood.
Make-believe/ pretend play strengthens new schemes as children understand that their play
becomes representational of real life (Berk & Meyers, 2016). In the classroom, Child B had their
hand in a dinosaur puppet making roaring noises and moving at around in front of Child C. Child
8. EARLY CHILDHOOD 8
C screamed and ran behind a chair. The children could be exhibiting sociodramatic pretend play,
as they each have roles and appropriately respond to emotions in the make-believe game.
Piaget’s animistic thinking suggests that children give lifelike feelings and thoughts to
inanimate objects. Child D demonstrated this when they were holding a baby doll and feeding it
a banana. This type of play could suggest that Child D gave the inanimate doll realistic emotion
of hunger and believed that feeding it would satisfy its discomfort. This type of thinking supports
Piaget’s suggestion that children’s logic reasoning is limited in this stage of life.
Private speech comes from Vygotsky’s findings that children’s self- directed speech
helps them think about mental abilities and behaviors. Private speech can improve cognitive
skills, memory, and efficiency. (Berk & Meyers, 2016). In the preschool room, Child E was
adding Legos to a tower saying, “and this is, and this is” each time they put a piece on. When the
tower began to fall over, she said “no” to herself. This personal talking may have helped the
child understand her actions and better think about how to react.
Overregulation is when young children extend grammar rules to words that do not apply.
It is very common among this age because children are still developing cognitively and are not
constantly exposed to the exceptions of grammar. When talking to another child, Child Z stated,
“I no like”. It can be inferred that the child knows the word no means something negative but
uses it in a grammatically incorrect way. It could be because Child Z is more exposed to the
word no than “do not” because they mean similar things but have different grammatical rules.
Socioemotional development
Erikson’s third stage, Initiative vs. Guilt, occurs between ages 3 and 5,when children try
to increase their purposefulness and become more assertive. Success in this stage depends on if a
9. EARLY CHILDHOOD 9
child takes initiative and tries new tasks or is ridiculed and dismissed during play. Ending this
stage in guilt can result in constant reliance on others or creating a superego identifying with
their same-sex parent (Berk & Meyers, 2016). In the classroom, many of the children were
sitting on the carpet with one child facing them. Child F initiated play with the other children
when they said, “ready, go” and began singing. The other children caught on to the singing, and
then Child F started flipping through a book appearing to be reading to them. Although the
children can’t read, mimicking the assertive actions of the teachers and initiating activities that
the other children adhere to can predict a successful completion of Initiative V. Guilt.
As children gain the language and understanding of many emotions, they increase their
emotional regulation. Being able to talk about their emotions and better control them helps
children appropriately react to the emotions of others and develop empathy. On the carpet, in the
classroom, the teacher sat in front of all the children, smiled and asked, “what face is this?”, and
all the children said “happy”. Then the teacher frowned asked, “what face is this?”, and got “sad”
in return. Then the teacher asks, “what happens when we hurt our friends?”, and one child
replies, “they get sad.” The teacher then asks, “do we want to make our friends sad?” and the
whole class says, “no.” This interaction may imply that the children’s emotional regulation is
improving because they can pick up on social cues and understand emotions.
This talk about keeping hands to themselves and emotions was provoked by an incident
of aggression seen a few minutes earlier. Aggressive behavior increases during early childhood
and may go along with Erikson’s idea that children try to assert themselves during this stage
(Berk & Meyers, 2016). Two children were on a couch, one with their arm around the other’s
neck rocking them both back and forth. The one child kept saying “slower, stop”, but until the
10. EARLY CHILDHOOD 10
teacher saw, the behavior continued. This act of physical aggression could just be a form of
rough and tumble play or as a means to assert themselves.
