Early Childhood Unit
AP Psych
Mr. Aiello
Clayton Family Center
Observation Assignment
1. Describe the physical set up of the area where the children are playing. Describe several of
the activities that were taking place.
2. Discuss any observations you have about gender. Were they noticeable differences in how the
boys and girls played? Did they play together? With what toys? Were there any noticeable
differences in how the adults interacted with them?
Early Childhood Unit
AP Psych
Mr. Aiello
3. Describe an incident where the adults had to stop inappropriate behavior. Explain the
situation, how the adult(s) intervened, and the reactions of the child(ren). Did the adults use
more of authoritarian, authoritative, or permissive style? Did they use positive or negative
reinforcement, punishment, withdrawal of love, etc?
4. For a few moments, listen to one child as they talk with others, and focus on their language
development. Write down some examples of their trying to use a rule, but misapplying the
rule, or maybe their immature enunciation, or other signs of their verbal development.
Early Childhood Unit
AP Psych
Mr. Aiello
5. As you watch groups of children, make some casual observation notes on their relative
achievements in the domains of developmental psychology. In other words, give a brief
description of a child who has successfully mastered a particular skill, and a description of a
child who is in Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development, with a description of any
scaffolding that adults or peers use to help the child.
Physical Development –
Cognitive Development –
Social/Emotional Dev. –
Moral Dev. –