Observation Paper #1

FHS 1500-006
Madison Prudhomme
Observation 1

Background Information

Childs Age: 2 years old

Fictitious name: Nick
Location: Daycare video online
Brief Description: The video follows a toddler (Nick) around at preschool and shows
him playing with toys and interacting with other children.

Biological Development
The online daycare video was a great video to show toddlers in their natural
habitat at daycare. I did see a lot of things in the video that taught me about Nick and
other toddlers and how biologically developed they are at this age. I noticed that Nick
can walk and run pretty well, however he is a little unbalanced at times and does seem
to fall over every once in awhile. He also climbs up the stairs well and uses his hands
and the railing if he needs assistance. Walking and running are two milestone skills that
a child should normally develop by the time that they are two years old. As shown in the
video, it looks like Nick is on the right track. In our book it says that Every basic motor
skill, from the newborn's head-lifting to the toddlers stair-climbing, develops over the
first two years (Berger, 2016. pg 100). So Nicks ability to walk, run and climb up the
stairs to the slide, are motor skills that most toddlers develop by the time they are two
years old. I read in the book that a 2 year-olds brain is already 75% of what it will weigh
in adulthood. (Berger 2016, pg 166). I thought this was so interesting because that
means that a lot of things are starting to change in Nicks brain at just age 2. This
explains why he can walk, run and climb so well.
Nick also liked to pick up a lot of different toys and play with one and then move
on to the next toy. This showed me that he had no trouble with his fine motor skills,
which include the ability to grasp objects. While observing the 4 videos, I found that Nick
liked to use all of his senses to experience his environment and surroundings, but
mostly touch and taste. He liked to touch everything and he also he kept putting things
in his mouth and licking his hands. When he was playing in the pool of water and water
bottles at daycare, he kept licking his hands and he was acting like he wanted to drink
the water. These are just a few examples of how he used his senses to experience what
was in his surroundings more.
Cognitive Development

As for cognitive development, Nick didnt seem to talk very much. According to
Invitation to the Lifespan, At about two years old toddlers should be able to say
multiword sentences. Half the toddlers utterances are two or more words long (Berger
pg 120). Nick seemed very quiet compared to his peers at the daycare. He said just a
couple words during the whole time I observed him in the video. After observing him I
am guessing that he is either behind on speech development or he may just be a more
reserved toddler compared to his peers.
I did notice when observing that when Nick saw another child yelling, he started
to yell. He seemed to observe his peers a lot and learn from what they were doing. For
example, when he was inside there was another child climbing up the slide, the wrong
way, and Nick observed this. Later Nick tried the exact same thing, which shows me
that he learns a lot from his surroundings and what other people are doing. According to
Invitation to the Life Span, Vygotsky agreed with Piaget that children are curious and
observant. (Berger, 2016, Pg 176). So this backs up the theory that children learn by
observing others including peers, parents, siblings, teachers and even strangers.

Psychosocial Development

Nick didnt seem like the most social butterfly, he was mostly running around
doing his own thing. When he did interact with the kids however, he was very good with
the other kids. It looked to me like Nick observed his peers a lot and likes to copy or
imitate what they are doing. For instance, when Nick was on the playground, another
kid ran past him screaming and then he started to do the same thing. He was also
playing with a ball and his teacher threw the ball up in the air and then Nick tried to do
the same thing. This is a form of social learning where children learn from their peers
and others around them by observing them and then imitating what they do. (Berger
201, pg. 152). Nick did a lot of this from what I observed in the videos. Nick seemed like
a very social learner as he imitated his peers a lot during the observation. Nick seemed
to me like a very independent two year old. Even being filmed, he ran around and
played and did whatever he wanted. He seemed to stop somewhere to play for a few
minutes and then get up and move on to somewhere else to play. He didnt seem like
he needed his peers guiding him, more that he liked to observe them and do his own
thing. Most infants and toddlers go through a stage where they have stranger
awareness which means that they may have social anxiety or fear new people around
them. (Berger 2016, pg 119). Nick definitely didnt seem to have social anxiety as he
seemed very calm even being filmed.
 The observation was a great way to teach me about Biological Cognitive and
Psychosocial Development in toddlers and I think that I learned a lot about these three
topics by observing the videos, although there is always more to learn.

Sources: Berger, K. S. (2016). Invitation to the Life Span. New York, NY: Worth
Publishers.