I attended eighteen months old class in the nursery at ten o’clock in the
early morning for 1 hour. My goal is to observe children in natural
setting so I used Semantic Observation (Naturalistic). And find
out the relation between what theories study is matching with what I
saw and if these children hit the milestone in their age. I used specimen
record in collecting data. There were five children in the soft play area.
While I was setting on the stairs watching them, two kids tried to talk
with me, the rest of the children were playing with each other nicely.
Although I was a stranger to them, the kids were very sociable. Their
nanny started to make sounds and tones, the kids started imitating her
by making the same sounds. Then the nanny turned on the tape recorder
for the kids to sing with the songs. the kids sang and danced with the
Nanny. The kids were making the same movement the nanny made. I
Noticed a lot of imitation between the nanny and the kids and between
the kids themselves. This would agree with what we have learned in the
class that what child sees could impact his behavior and they learn from
the interaction with others in their environment (social learning Theory).
I noticed that these kids were able to get up and down the stairs with
The support of their hands sometimes. after that the kids played with
Different colored balls and when the nanny asked them to bring a
specific
Colored one they responded by showing the right ball,children in this age
can identify the colors. As I sat down to play with them I noticed
a child who took a slipper from the ground and walked to
Gave it to his nanny and when I asked her why he did that,she said that
It is her slipper. Children in this age can recognize others belongings.
Another child tried to play with the socket by putting his finger in
To find out what is it. This shows that kids in this age would like to
explore the world around them. I found out that these children hit some
of the milestone like the gross motor, speech & language through their
singing and conversation with each other, and personal social through
imitation. At 10:30 the nanny asked the kids to line up and follow her
to
another room for art work. she gave the kids color pencils & papers and
tried to teach them how to hold the color. one child her name Sara held
her color properly so the nanny praised her verbally. This shows an
example
of positive reinforcement. Sara smiled & felt proud of herself. The
nanny
asked the kids to look at Sara and hold their colors the way she did.
All the kids imitated Sara(model).This indicates to Bandura’s
Terms(Arousing emotions so students/kids are motivated to imitate the
model.
My Analysis for the observation study is that children have different
levels in learning. Some of them can learn faster than others, some of
them prefer learning by imitation and others by observing only at the
first time then they imitate in the next time. children are able to
imitate themselves and adults at the same time. Also children feel proud
about themselves when they are being praised from someone else.
Over all I enjoyed my observation for the children and I learned
a lot about what kids do. Also I realized that imitation is a greater way
for children to learn and a sociable test to find out how far they can
reach in their progress in life. I’d like to add that every one should be
a good model for his/her kids or students so they will learn better how
to be acceptable in their society as well as family.
Name: Rabia Elayan AlArgan
Assignment# 1
Child Observation Report
Settings:
1- Soft play area
2- Art Room
3- T.V room