2. KEY LEARNING OUTCOME
The course- ‘Observing Child Development’ was a valuable source of
learning and knowledge for me. I learnt how to remain unbiased while
observing toddlers. I learnt how to avoid any false or subjective
evaluation when I was recording children behaviors. I was told
beforehand not to make any assumptions regarding their personality
traits or characteristics. So, I learnt how to carefully record only the
aspects of their behaviors that I saw. Above all, I learnt how to
scientifically assess children development in terms of their age-levels,
and to apply them to any future contexts. While I was watching and
recording their behaviors, I readily understood which developmental
key would match with a particular behavior. This experience is a
milestone for my career to objectively and non -judgmentally record
every aspect of toddler activities, and depending on such observation,
to prepare checklist on their developments, which I can use for future
planning and strategies.
3. THE MOST VALUABLE ASPECT
The most valuable aspect of this cour se for me is that now I know how to
match my obser vati on with various developmental indexes. I achieved in -
depth practical knowledge of how a cer tain behavior of a toddler indicates
a cer tain level of his/her par ticular development. This has been really an
asset for me to learn about six dif ferent development areas such as gross
motor development, fine motor development, social skill, emotional skill,
cognitive skill and language & communicati on skill, and their practical
reflections through behavior s. I obser ved a par ticular toddler to make the
checklist. My obser vati on was based on watching the toddler’s activities
during my working hour s. I obser ved her activities continuousl y tracking
her in dif ferent places inside the center and map out her various
developmental skills on its basis.
4. THE MOST CHALLENGING ASPECT
When I was doing toddler checklist assignment, in many ways,
observing toddler’s activities and behaviors was an interesting
experience, but challenging too. Precisely because, I had to
observe for appropriate understanding regarding toddlers’ age -
specific developments and progresses. I had to be always a
keen and careful observant, so that I was able to record every
bit of behavior that was relevant to toddler’s progress. I
observed, compared my observation with my classroom -
knowledge and kept written records at the same time, which
was a stressful task. Although it was a tremendous source for
learning, nevertheless it made me anxious time to time. At
times, I could not understand the situation properly or the
question seemed to me difficult or confusing in order to prepare
a correct answer. Also, in many cases, after I prepared an
answer, I realized that it was wrong. But when I realized that it
was wrong, I was not even able to change the answer
afterwards.
5. ONE CHANGE
Making a checklist is a responsible job for me. I was told
to be very careful to avoid subjective or emotional
language in preparing it. I was also very cautious not to
make any inference or use any guess -works while
recording my observation. It has been a hard task for me,
because we are always used to use our judgments or
evaluative words in our everyday conversations or
communication. I was aware of these common human
habits, and tried not to allow them in my checklist
preparation. But I might have used some evaluative words
or adjectives in my writings without even being conscious
of them. Next time, I will be more cautious to be choosing
fully descriptive or objective words or sentences while
preparing my records or reports.
