Intro To Child Dev and Learn

I completed my observation at the UB Child Care Center where I had interned this semester. I observed a girl named Clara. Clara is a three and a half year old girl in the preschool classroom at the UBCCC. She is an outgoing and intelligent young child. She’s always participating and raising her hand before all the other kids. She seems to be very liked amongst her peers in the classroom and some of the other girls even tend to follow what she’s doing. Clara is an only child and lives with her mother and father. I have observed Clara in multiple settings due to my internship this semester at the UBCCC. This has assisted me to draw conclusions in regards to her social, cognitive, physical and emotional development. Her sense of independence in the classroom is very visible as she moves from center to center at her own discretion and may be attributed to the fact that she is the only child. Clara shows typical proper development, if not more advanced development than most children her age. She is often a finds something she is interested during center time and could easily remain engaged for a significant period of time. From observing these actions I can see that her cognitive abilities are developing properly. In a sense of physical development, she has much control over her gross and fine motor functions. She runs around outside at the playground with ease. Her social and emotional development is also developing properly and she shows a lot of maturity for such a young child. She plays very well with other children and maintains a good relationship with the teacher as well as the assistant teacher and interns in the class. Being able to interact with Clara and her classmates as an intern in this class, it allowed me to watch and understand her and her actions in a more meaningful sense. It also helped me because it provided an environment where I could see Clara in close proximity and analyze her different stages of development. During center time the teacher had assigned me to my own center for the children to come to and play a color and shape bingo game. Clara came to my center along with a few other girls. The girls are too young to carry out the game as it is meant to be played but this was an age appropriate game and provided her a lot of joy. She could place the bingo chips easily on the proper colored shape. She was having trouble with the difference between a rectangle and a square. She seemed to be hesitant when placing the bingo chips down when she wasn’t positive. I showed him how to remember the difference between the different shapes and drew a picture for her to get a better understanding. The next square card that was called Clara got excited because she could remember the difference between the shapes unlike the other times. After we played a new round she was able to remember the difference in shapes. This lead me to the conclusion that she was able to learn by observing and listening. Other children approached the table to play bingo and Clara had no problem who came over to play with her. Clara interacted so well with adults and other children. Her and her friends were hugging and laughing all the time when they were together. This conveys that her emotional connection to people is valuable to her and very strong. She will continue to develop her social emotional skills, as well as other areas, more thoroughly as she ages and has more exposure to other children and situations. Though I had to focus on other children and not just Clara throughout my internship, I can connect theories through my experiences. As I was observing, certain aspects of Vygotsky's Sociocultural perspective were noticeable. As children grow, their culture, surroundings, parents and teachers certainly influence the way they develop. Going to school from 8am-5pm as a child is an obvious example of how a child's environment and social experiences shape their development. One of the topics Vygotsky highlighted is the Zone of Proximal Development. This is the difference between what a child can accomplish on their own versus what they can accomplish with the guidance and instruction from a parent or teacher. As I was playing with Clara and modeling how to remember the difference between the shapes, it helped bring her to her zone of proximal development. At first she couldn’t remember the difference between some of the shapes. After I showed her how to she did so with ease. After reflecting on my experience at the UBCCC, as well as other early childhood settings I have encountered I could not help but notice that Clara is an intelligent and fast developing child. She exhibited great behavior and great listening. There were barely any conflicts with other children, tantrums, or even crying that one might expect to see when observing in an early childhood environment. I really enjoyed observing and interacting with this group of children especially Clara and had an overall great experience.