Running head: CASE STUDY
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Dan Pham
Dr. Darling
HDFS 330
Paper: “Case Study” Developmental Domains
Penn State York
CASE STUDY
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Throughout this paper, I will summarize all of my findings upon the child I have
observed. The data collection within the confines of this paper as well as the portfolio I created
can be only view by: the parent of the observed child, the primary teachers within the program
the observed child is enrolled in, and my professor of this particular assignment Dr. Darling. All
the information will be kept under confidentiality and the rights of the child will remain private.
Information on Observed Child
The child I observed throughout my assignment (independent study) for Human
Development and Family Studies (HDFS) 330, is a male individual who will be referred to as
(PHI). (PHI) is an African American individual and is four years and four months old. He is an
active boy who loves the attention of his classmates as well as adults. (PHI) is the smallest
member of his class, but that doesn’t stop him from being enthusiastic with the kids he’s around.
At the age of four, he is quite capable of handling his own business by himself with minimal
guidance. He is a healthy developing child both physically and mentally. With my observations
throughout this semester, I only see educational growth influencing his remarkable awareness of
well-roundedness.
Throughout (PHI)’s life, his primary care taker was his mother; in addition to his care,
some of his close relatives, who happen to be all females, look after him as well. (PHI) is the
only child in his nuclear family and he constantly likes to have people around him. The
difficulty of not having a male figure in his life takes some impact on his self-concept. From the
information I have collected about his family history was limited. (PHI) is like any other child
developing in their own way and trying to live life to the fullest. He’s appreciation towards me
(observer) he looks forward to every time I come to observe him every Wednesday’s and
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Friday’s. Although it is difficult to keep out my own biases, but he looks up to his observer and I
conceptualize myself as the “big brother.”
This section of the paper, I will summarize all of my findings upon (PHI). I will discuss
the four developmental domains throughout a child’s development: physical, socio-emotional,
language, and cognitive. In addition to the four developmental domains, I will also discuss
comparable norms other children have with (PHI) from relevant sources upon children
development. Again, this case study I will discuss is the information I have observed on (PHI).
Information about him will be confidential and his rights will also remain private.
The Four Developmental Domains
In consideration of the four developmental domains, (PHI) showcased those
characteristics throughout my observations. As a four year old child, one could see such
developments unfolding and his eagerness to expand his learning was amazing to watch as well
as experience. There is much to discuss about (PHI)’s development in the four developmental
domains, the information I collected through my observations will provide evidence in my
evaluation within this paper.
Physical
(PHI) is a very active individual where physical play is his passion. When it comes to
play outside, he takes full advantage of the open area to run free as well as play with his
classmates. The outside area consists of an open field as well as a playground with various
obstacles. Again, he takes full advantage of the time he has to play outside before going inside.
In comparison to his classmates, there is no comparison in my belief because (PHI) is too
outgoing for his classmates to keep up. He is always full of energy and enthusiasm which
sometimes overwhelms everyone.
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Furthermore, (PHI)’s gross motor abilities is developing quite well due to his physicality
and upbeat energy. For his fine motor abilities, that too is also developing well. Throughout my
observations with (PHI)’s fine motor skills, he is able to perform tasks in limited amount of time.
Unlike his other classmates, his attention span sometime becomes bothersome for him because
he is always active. Needless to say that when (PHI) stumble across an activity that takes
interest to him, he will dedicate his efforts in accomplishing said goals.
(PHI)’s self-care he needs minimal guidance from his teachers of the program. His
abilities to go to the bathroom and washing his hands have become a normative routine for him.
The mother told me that at home she makes sure (PHI) correctly as well as thoroughly wipes
himself so he practices healthy hygiene. After lunch, the teachers of the program implement nap
time in their schedule. For (PHI), nap time could be difficult because again he is an active child.
Many times one of the teachers would sit next to him while rubbing his back till he falls asleep.
From observing, this routine for (PHI) can take some time.
Overall Evaluation of Physical
From the observations I have investigated upon (PHI), the physical developmental
domain is the best characteristic for him compared to the other domains. His physicality
expresses who he is as an individual. This is what makes him happy, joyous, and loves coming
to the program every day. (PHI)’s physical characteristics as well as his abilities could be
compared to the norms of other developing four year olds. During the first two years of life,
children have the abilities to perform gross as well as fine motor skills. Throughout their
experiences, they will eventually develop a mastery of motor skills and produce more effective
ways of exploring and controlling the environment (Berk, 2012). As children age, their abilities
would improve along the way as they face motor activities.
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In the classroom I observed, there were mixed age ranges of (3-5) year olds both
pertaining males and females. Furthermore, by the body structure of both genders, there are
physicality differences due to gene heritance and different hormonal growth (Santrock, 2010).
As children grow throughout the years, changes physically and psychologically is a normative
process in life’s transitions. When it comes to the self-care perspective of children around the
ages of (3-5), they believe their goals of one’s own needs can be accomplished for themselves;
this would be known as autonomy due to Erikson’s theory (Nilsen, 2010). This notion has been
quite clear to me during my observations and children’s willingness to prove they can
accomplish said goal boosts their confidence.
Socio-Emotional
(PHI) interactions with children and adults are very friendly as well as outgoing. His
personality has his classmates gravitate towards him because he’s polite to everyone.
Throughout the classroom, there are many activities that involve gross as well as fine motor
skills. (PHI) enjoys all the activities he does whether it is: creativity through art, playing with
blocks, and dramatic play. From my observations, dramatic play is probably his favorite activity
to do because of his full of energy activeness.
Earlier in the paper, I discusses that he is the only child of his nuclear family and being
raised by a single parent may be difficult for many children. Every day when his mother drops
him of at the program, he’ll sometimes have difficulty separating himself. Although he is getting
better, he still fears that his mom may not pick him up. In addition, his mother proclaimed that
sometimes throughout the night he fears of being alone. But once he is in the building, his
adjustment to his day routine becomes a smooth transition. Furthermore, his own self-concept is
very high because he knows he has friends to play with as well as the ability of making new
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relationships with others. Never throughout my observation upon (PHI) have I ever seen him
with low self-esteem. He is always very active and engaging with classmates as well as adults
who come and go in the classroom. He is just a happy child in general.
Overall Evaluation of Socio-Emotional
From my observations upon (PHI), I would say that socio-emotional development is
probably his second favorite characteristic. As a four year old child, he does whatever it takes to
ensure friendly relationships with others. Personally, I believe it is the absence of his father or
male figure throughout his life. (PHI) express himself through physical activities in essence
boosting his self-esteem, self-confidence, and self-identity. As for any person or this case any
child, trying to do better for themselves; (PHI) surrounds himself with positive attitudes every
day.
The importance of socio-emotional development among developing children serves a
path in transition they will take throughout their lives. Among children at the ages of (3-5), they
have comparable characteristics when it comes to different kinds of emotions. Children who
want something may express their needs through a set of emotions that is contributed to facial
expressions. Tantrums are the most common forms of emotions children demonstrate because of
their lack of internal control managing (Nilsen, 2010). Of course, these types of behaviors occur
among all children and dealing with those kinds of situations is handled differently with each
child.
Expressing emotions is one thing, but understanding emotions is another. Children that
undergo different emotions eventually realize it affects behavior (Santrock, 2010). Around the
age of four or five, children begin to understand that the same emotional event may provoke
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different feelings from different individuals. With this in mind, they obtain an awareness that
they need to control their emotions in meeting social standards.
Language/Communication
Throughout the four developmental domains, language/communication would be the area
(PHI) needs to improve on; more specifically literacy perspective. At the age of four, (PHI) is
beginning to take interest in literacy books such as colorful picture books. His abilities to read
the words throughout the pages are imaginary to him. He sees the pictures and portrays his own
story what is happening. His creativity comes into play with his work which makes him wellrounded in other areas of development.
(PHI)’s verbal and nonverbal is developing very well with his age. He communicates
towards his classmates as well as his teachers if he wants something. His speech is developing
nicely through his experiences with interactions. Sometimes his speech can stumble within a
sentence, but he can correct himself to say it clearer. Personally, I’m quite impressed how much
he knows at his age; for instance, his ability to explain his favorite hobbies to me in detailed
form as well as the pros and cons. With his nonverbal communication, it is clear when he is
happy or upset with something. I’ve noticed his body language during my observations that he
becomes actively jittery when he’s happy and becomes angrily stiff from everyone when he’s
upset.
Overall Evaluation of Language/Communication
Language/communication development is another important aspect of childhood
development. The way we as a society interact with people is an important developing
characteristic. How children want to express their needs as well as emotion through
language/communication instead of tantrums, they will eventually learn this process.
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Throughout (PHI)’s observations, he portrayed normative developmental characteristics of
language/communication in comparison to children around his age.
Interactions with children are a positive confidence booster for their
language/communication. All aspects of interactions will influence a child’s language and
communication development such as: one on one, small-groups, and whole-groups (Nilsen,
2010). Another important aspect through a child’s learning would be listening and becoming
engaged through conversations. In doing so, helping professionals could perform structured
interviews and evaluate areas where potential risk may be sighted.
(Otto, 2010) stresses the importance of home environment engagement in addition to
parent’s scaffolding with preschool children. The guidance and supporting children’s learning
throughout development will adjust their level of performance. As children gradually increase
there their completion of tasks, care takers will decrease their amount of assistance. This would
create success in a child becoming independent when faced with problem-solving tasks in the
future. When it comes to literacy, the author believes that there are many contributors in
influencing language development as well as communication such as: frequently reading with
your child, number of picture books, asking questions between pages, and etc. (Otto, 2010).
Cognitive
Children in preschool year ages showcase interesting cognitive abilities through different
perspectives within a classroom. Since preschool setting classroom have different hands-on
activities for children, they can express their creativity through play. My observation with (PHI),
I have seen how his mind works with different activities. In addition, the other children within
the classroom also demonstrated differences on cognitive development, not all learning paces
were similar to one another.
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(PHI)’s attention span is one of the areas where it needs improvement. With his full of
energy characteristics, it often times disrupts his attention span throughout story time and
napping sessions. His mind seems like he’s always “on the go” and wants to make every activity
into a physical one. (PHI)’s cognitive abilities is developing well and it was difficult for me to
observe that because often times his uninterested behavior towards activities. Whenever we have
one on one conversation, he expresses his thoughts happily and his engagement throughout the
conversations was informative. I would say that his intellectual development is going well and
the program he is enrolled at they’re doing an excellent job of enriching education.
On the days I observe (PHI); usually he participates in activities that involve some
physical aspect such as: dramatic play, building blocks, and art. Throughout all these activities,
he expresses his creativity by the actions he does and his true emotional feelings during as well
as after activities. But during my observation, there wasn’t an activity where it immensely
involved math. There were however certain activities that involved some math and children
were able to depict numbers. I don’t doubt that (PHI) has any concerning areas that involve
math as well as logical thinking because he displays that in puzzle piece activities.
Overall Evaluation of Cognitive Development
In my opinion, cognitive development is the most fascinating as well as most difficult
perspective to fully understand. I say it’s difficult because researchers can theorize the natural
understanding of what may be occurring through one’s developing cognition, but sometimes
inaccurate evaluations may occur. For instance, standardized tests may have children feel that
they are intimated and their natural behavior comes to a close. Providing incorrect answer
throughout the tests could contribute too many factors, but the standardized tests lack that aspect.
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(Nilsen, 2010) discusses various techniques in measuring as well as examining cognitive
development. As mentioned in the previous paragraph, the way to measure the learning from a
child is through standardized testing. This would help professionals dictate which areas of
concern they have to work upon to help the intended child. There are various concepts of
enriching a developing child’s cognition is too vast for a helping professional to cover all
perspectives. Theories were conducted to try to understand the cognition of developing humans.
A well-known theorist in the educational system and is the works of Jean Piaget cognitive
developmental theory; in addition, his theory of information processing (Berk, 2012). Piaget
breaks down the developing processes into stages where he believed children learned. There are
individuals who agree and disagree with his work, but how is it any different from standardized
testing?
Recommendations
What I believe would be appropriate activities to support children development are the
different subject activities one should implement upon developing children. For instance, the
program I did my observation at, they conducted different activities throughout the classroom
which engaged many perspectives such as the four developmental domains. Furthermore,
enriching education should not only be done at school setting facilities, it should also be
implemented in one’s home environment. Although it may be difficult for some care takers to be
quite involved for the educational purposes of their child, but simply reading a book before bed
time is a positive influence in his/her development. I recommend to all care takers that putting
some kind of effort in implementing an educational exercise for your child in some form would
only benefit their development.
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Conclusion
After discussing about the four developmental domains; hopefully this paper proves the
importance of childhood education and its influences upon their development. A lot of
information about children developing is still under investigation of how it all unfolds. Many
theories and assumptions were made in understanding the process children go through. This
topic is a fascinating phenomenon where experiencing it for yourself one may have to write a
paper to express their opinions. This paper was a case study conducted on (PHI), my observed
child. He portrayed real-life examples of what a four year old develops physically as well as
mentally. This assignment was a great experience for me to understand the developmental
domains of a child. I would like to thank (PHI)’s mother in allowing me to observe her child
throughout this semester. (PHI) is a fantastic kid whose future looks to be bright in the way he
has been developing. If children were like (PHI), what kind of world would this be? I would say
an uninteresting one.
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References
Berk, L. E. (2012). Infants, children, and adolescents (7th ed.). Boston, MA: Illinois State
University.
Nilsen, B. A. (2010). Week by week plans for documenting children’s development (5th ed.).
Binghamton, NY: Broome Community College.
Otto, B. (2010). Language development in early childhood (3rd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ:
Northeastern Illinois University.
Santrock, J. W. (2010). A topical approach to life-span development (5th ed.). New York, NY:
University of Texas at Dallas.