The Use of Memory, Development of Communication Skills, and Applies Self-Derived Solutions to Solve Simple Problems - Essay Example

Observation Journal #2 Child’s Name: Avery Age: Three years old Observer’s Name: Alanoud Alrasheed Areas of Development: Avery shows establishment of self through continuous world exploration, tries to respond to others, tries to make use of memory, development of communication skills, and applies self-derived solutions to solve simple problems. Anecdotic Note: During my second visit to the childcare center, immediately I enter Avery’s class, he left all he was doing and began staring at me, just like some of the other children. He looked at me like I was familiar to him, but he could not remember my name. ‘’Hi Avery!’’ I said to him shaking his hand. ‘’Hi!’’ He said to me looking down as if he was trying to remember my name. Avery began touching a bunch of keys that I had in my hand keenly examining one key after the other as he asked me questions about them. ‘’Your door key?’’ He was trying to ask me if the keys were for my door. ‘’Yes,’’ I said to him. After they had been released to go to the playground, I sat back in the same corner as last time to observe Avery. When he got out of the classroom, Avery ran quickly to join the other children in the playground where they were kicking the ball. He shouted, ‘’Ball!’’ ‘’Ball,’’ as he ran towards the ball. Avery then got hold of the ball and held it to his chest. ‘’Avery, Avery,’’ shouted the other children. The teacher then said to him, ‘’Avery put the ball down and play with the others.’’ He then put the ball down and hurriedly kicked it hard until he fell down. Another child begun to laugh at him. He got annoyed and stood up quickly and slapped the child on his cheek. The child begun to cry as Avery ran away and squatted down at a drainage that connected the water tank and the flower garden. The teacher then quickly responded to the cry of the other child and cautioned Avery not to beat others again even when they wronged him. The teacher then gave a sweet to the crying child who then stopped crying afterwards. ‘’You need to tell me in case anyone annoys you and I will deal with them personally,’’ said the teacher to Avery. Avery then began scooping the wet soil from the drainage as he tried to make a hole where more water collected. With the scooped soil, he begun molding it to a structure that looked like a car. Even before the molding was done, Avery had begun dragging his car down with his knees down on the ground. Suddenly, he saw an insect in the nearby grass and he left his car made of soil and ran towards the insect. ‘’Look!’’ ‘’Look!’’ ‘’Look!’’ Avery and other few children begun chasing after the insect until they caught it. As they were struggling for it, one of its wings pulled out and was left in Avery’s hands. Avery begun looking at the wing keenly as he ran towards the teacher. He asked the teacher,’’ What is this Teacher?’’ ‘’That is an insect’s wing,’’ replied the teacher. ‘’Wing is for what?’’ Asked Avery. ‘’A wing is used by an insect to fly,’’ replied the teacher as she demonstrates using her hands how flying takes place. Avery looked keenly at the wing, spread his hands with the wing on one of his hands, and left running as he shouted, ‘’Buuzzzzzzzzz!’’ He then stopped and looked at his pair of short at the knee area, it looked dirty! Avery ran back to the teacher saying, ‘’Teacher see!’’ ‘’Teacher see,’’ as he pointed at his knees. The teacher took out a piece of cloth from her pocket and wiped the dirt on Avery’s short. Before it was long, the teacher begun calling the children to get back to the classroom. Interpretation: After I was through observing Avery for this particular day, I went back home and read the book, Infancy: Infant, family and society by Alan Fogel. After reading Chapter 11 of this book, I got to understand that children of the same age as Avery pass through physical, social, emotional, intellectual and moral development ([Fog14]). In this book, Fogel puts it clear that play makes a child learn more and more new things every day. Children are very aggressive at trying to discover new things that they are knowing for the first time. For example, during my observation, when Avery came across the wing of an insect, he apparently did not know what it was. He then asked his teacher about it without hesitating. Through this, we can say that Avery is developing intellectually by trying to explore things around him[Fog14]. By Avery making a car out of soil, he was demonstrating a physical development through using his fingers to make items out of clay and intellectual development by knowing that he can make his car out of soil. When Avery slapped another child who laughed at him, this was deliberate. It shows that Avery has developed morally and he knows that any wrong done should be compensated by a punishment. During the observation, I found out that Avery tried to play with other kids and wanted other people around him like his teacher to assist him where he needed help. He therefore tries to derive self-solutions to the simple problems he encounter hence, he develop socially. Avery also tries to learn through demonstration and we see this as he tries to demonstrate how to fly after the teacher demonstrated it to him. This also gives evidence to his physical and intellectual development. Avery already knows that dirt is bad, he therefore demonstrates characters of one who has developed morally and knows that dirt should be wiped away by elder people. Reference Fog14: , (Fogel, 2014, p. 368), Fog14: , (Fogel, 2014), Read More