You are responsible for identifying the child and getting permission for observation from the classroom teachers/director (and maybe parents, if required by the center). Please locate the child in the first two weeks of the class.
Observe the child in FOUR developmental domains: physical, cognitive, language, and social (OR emotional). Observation of each domain should take at least 5 hours.
Document, analyze, and describe the child’s development in EACH of the four domains. You are required to use various observation documentation techniques to collect DETAILED, FACTUAL data about the child’s development. The techniques include, but not limit to, anecdotal notes, photos, milestone checklists, frequency counts, child’s task performance, work sample, and etc. Your conclusion about the child must be strictly based on objective, factual data. Do NOT make arbitrary personal interpretations about the child’s development.
The data HAVE TO BE analyzed and summarized in each observation paper (e.g., how many percentage of the milestones the child achieved; how frequently a certain behavior happened; how many vocabularies the child has in your records, and how the child’s sentence structure looks like). In other words, you have to analyze the observations/documents you collected, and interpret the key information on child development out of your data.
Attach the anecdotal notes and other documentations of development as appendixes at the end of the paper. DO NOT drop the raw data/documents (e.g., anecdotal recording) in the middle of the formal paper. The paper itself needs to be coherent and self-explaining, so that even without the data/documents attached in appendixes, your readers still can understand exactly what you talk about. Four Observation Papers
1. Observation of Physical Development: Observe the child and collect evidence of physical development in both fine and gross motor skills (e.g., pincer grasp, run, jump, one-foot stand; eye-hand coordination). Use the textbook and the links provided below as references.
2. Observation of Cognitive Development: Observe your child and collect evidences of cognitive development (e.g., attention, memory, play) and milestones/stages (e.g., stages based on Piaget’s theory). Use the textbook and the links provided below as references.
3. Observation of Language Development: Observe the child and collect evidence of language development (e.g., receptive vs. expressive language, speech, vocabulary, and gesture) and milestones (e.g., two-word sentence). Use resources and milestone information in the textbook and on the webpages to determine the child’s level of language development.
4. Observation of Social OR Emotional Development: Observe the child and collect evidence of the child’s social or emotional skills (e.g., self-regulation, prosocial behaviors, temperament) and milestone (e.g., display higher-order emotions such as pride, shame, and guilt). Use the textbook and websites for references.
Please refer to the following links for observational milestone checklists:
• http://www.med.umich.edu/yourchild/topics/devmile.htm Physical:
• http://www.livestrong.com/article/179484-normal-physical-development-in-children/
• https://childdevelopment.com.au/resources/child-development-charts/fine-motor-developmental-chart/
• https://childdevelopment.com.au/resources/child-development-charts/gross-motor-developmental-chart/
• https://www.verywell.com/physical-developmental-milestones-2795119
• http://www.rsd.k12.pa.us/Downloads/Development_Chart_for_Booklet.pdf
• https://www.communities.qld.gov.au/resources/childsafety/practice-manual/physical-cognative-milestones.pdf Cognitive:
• http://psychology.about.com/od/early-child-development/a/cognitive-developmental-milestones.htm
• http://www.communities.qld.gov.au/resources/childsafety/practice-manual/physical-cognative-milestones.pdf Speech and language: http://www.nidcd.nih.gov/health/voice/pages/speechandlanguage.aspx
• http://www.greenappletherapy.com/development.php
• http://www.readingrockets.org/article/speech-and-language-developmental-milestones
• http://www.ldonline.org/article/6313?theme=print Social and emotional: http://psychology.about.com/od/early-child-development/a/social-and-emotional-milestones.htm http://www.kamloopschildrenstherapy.org/social-emotional-infant-milestones http://www.rsd.k12.pa.us/Downloads/Development_Chart_for_Booklet.pdf
Child Study Paper
1. Include a brief introduction of the child and his/her demographic background (just based on the information you have; do NOT press the teacher if he/she does not want to share the child’s personal information); 2. Include a brief description of the purpose of the study;
3. Include the description of the child’s development in each domain. DO NOT simply put the 4 observation papers together to form your case study paper! The case study paper should well integrate the observations, and tell a coherent story about the child.
4. Include an overall conclusion about the child’s development; acknowledge any contextual factors might have implications on the child’s development. However, please remember that the focus of the paper is to objectively observe and assess the child’s development, but not to explore what factors might impact the child.
5. The paper should be no less than 6 pages (double spaced, 12-point font, and 1-inch margins all around; NOT count the observation documents).
6. The paper needs to follow APA style: (http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01/; but do NOT need “abstract” page) 7. Make sure to include at least six academic references by the end of the paper, and cite references in APA style. Please refer to this website for more information on APA: https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/07/
