Jacqueline Perez Child Development 201 April 28, 2014 Professor Benita Hunter Observation, Assessment and Documentation

to support young Children and Families Spring 2014 Child Case Study

Child Case Study

Adam is a very energetic 4 year old boy born in Chicago, Illinois. His ethnicity is Hispanic and Polish. He has blonde hair, light skin, brown eyes, and its a normal weight and height for his age. Adam seems to be very healthy. He attends the Daycare Lab Center at Richard Daley college, located at 7500 S. Pulaski. There are 17 kids in his classroom and they are all 3 and 4 years old. My overall impression of the place was very positive. The classroom is colorful, it has a lot of the kids work on the walls, educational posters, numbers, and most importantly the alphabet. I believe that Daleys Center has everything that is required in a Day Care. For example, the dramatic area, the block area, an outdoor playground for the children to use in the summer time etc. I think that two teachers are not enough to take care of 17 kids in total, but I liked the way the staff works and tries their best to give every kid the attention and education they need. I selected Adam for my case study because I noticed he had a few challenges that I will be talking about throughout the passage. I observed him playing alone while his classmates were doing activities together. Right away I knew there was something going on with him. After an extended period watching and observing Adam, I will be able to see his challenges and where Adam is developmentally growing physically, mentally, and emotionally as a child. The first Day of observation was chaotic. Adam slapped his classmate Josue I believe because he took one of the toys Adam was playing with. He tried to hug the teacher, in attempts to excuse his misbehavior. It seemed like he was trying to get away from the problem. The teacher talked with him and he apologized to Josue soon after. Adam was kind to the teacher and listened to everything she had to say. After the talk he sat down on the table and resumed to play

alone. It appeared that he did not want to share or be around anyone. Later on that day Adam acted selfishly with his peers, he also did not want to be away from the Teacher. On the second day he was playing matching cards with Ms. Nancy and Gerardo one of his classmates. Later that day he spent a considerable amount of time on the computer section with classmate Kassandra. Adam spent most of his time in the dramatic area engaging an imaginary play acting as an airplane captain, or other characters from movies and cartoons. The teacher talked with Adam about sharing material with his peers, and following that conversation his behavior changed towards the kids around him. Adam hugged his classmate, Oscar, to comfort him after he hurt himself. The teacher thanked him for being a good friend. He helped the teacher during clean up time, and danced to a song in the computer area with the other kids after. Not listening to the teacher. Then Ms. Ortega took him out of the class to talk to him. Back in the classroom, Ms. Nancy started reading a book to him while giving him attention while the other kids were playing. Adam enjoys playing by himself with Play Dough especially the blue kind. This morning he participated in the class activities, and danced to Stir the Soup. At lunch time, he washed his hands and sat on the table. He seemed to be hungry. Adam ate everything, especially the fruit. The following day, Adams dad brought him at 9:15 am. He started acting silly during the health check, running around the class not listening to his dad or the teacher. It seemed like he was trying to get everyones attention. He went to hide from the teacher when she was trying to tell him to go wash his hands so he could eat breakfast. He was just screaming NO! Finally after a few minutes he calmed himself down and decided to go eat at the table. Afterwards Adam cleaned up his space on the table, brushed his teeth and washed his hands. He then played in the block area, and acted like a pirate, trying to scare his classmates Olivia and Ryan. He was trying

to take over everything and be in control by doing things like, turning off the lights without the teachers permission, screaming, pushing the other kids, and trying scare them by acting like a dinosaur. The teacher has to constantly tell him to keep his hands to his own body. After the teacher gets mad at him, he goes to the computer section to calm himself down and get away from everyone. During circle time he was dancing and behaving very well. He looked really happy, smiling the whole time and he was excited to go to the gym, even standing in line quietly. Adam asked the teacher if he was being a good boy and the teacher responded Yes Adam. Thank You. He Listened to the instructions and participated in all the games. Adam Wanted to be next to the teacher the whole time. When they arrived to the gym he started fighting over a hula hoop with Ryan. Making other classmates feel better when they are crying. However, back in the classroom, Adam didnt want to wait in line to wash his hands, Kassandra got upset because he was trying to cut the line and she scratched him. Adam started crying and went to tell Ms. Nancy right away; after fixing the problem he quietly and calmly ate his lunch next to the teacher. The next day, at the start of the day, he was in the computer section with Kassandra. He was very calm and participated in the class activities. He had trouble sharing and socializing sometimes but overall he was behaving well and getting better being around everyone during circle time. If he was not playing by himself he was next to the teacher. He did not fight throughout the day, he was about to hit Oscar his classmate but the teacher stopped him and talked to him about hitting the pillow or trying to calm down when angry. However, when it was time for cleanup, he wasnt helping but playing on his own. During circle time he danced the cha cha slide, he was energetic and happy. The teacher sang a song about hands not being to hit, but to hug and work.

It was 11:04 am. He was in the computer section with the teacher. After that he was running around the classroom trying to take a toy from Gerardo his classmate. The teacher talked to him about not being selfish and about sharing with others. He argued that he wanted to spray the bottle to clean the tables. Ms. Nancy had Adam help her wipe the tables instead. When he fought over the computer with Josue, the teacher grabbed him and took him to the circle. Adam was constantly trying to be next to the teacher and did not participated during circle time. It seems like he was upset because he wanted to use the computer. He sat alone on the couch, pinched Josue when he tried to get close to him, Adam ran away and laid down on the bed. Later on that day he fought with Josue again. The teacher separated them and gave Adam Play dough so he could distract himself. He was later fighting during the large motor play over a ball, and then cried, kicked and screamed loudly because the teacher took it away. She said she was not going to give him attention if he kept acting like that so Adam calmed down in that moment. He then Plays with Allison, riding a bike and then Cried because Kassandra hurt him. During lunch time, he did not want to wash his hands because he washed them in the morning. The teacher said that he has to wash them because he was touching dirty stuff so he helped the teacher get the soap and paper towels for the other classmates to wash their hands as well. Getting noticeably jealous when someone else wanted to be next to Ms. Nancy during lunch. Adam always eats the fruit first. He ate everything afterwards mashed potatoes, turkey, and broccoli. It seems like he enjoyed the lunch. The next day his dad brought him. Adam was trying to use the computer. He started fighting with Oscar so he could get out the chair so he could sit down. During breakfast time he washed his hand and ate his Cereal and a Banana. He seemed to be in a bad mood. Adam was making faces and bothering his classmates. Kicked Gerardo and Josue under the table. The

teacher taught him how to put the volume up on his ears and listen while the teacher or his peers are talking. He put his plate in the garbage properly when he was done eating and put his chair in the right place. Later that day he played with Play Dough during free time and argued with the teacher because he didnt wanted to share with Kassandra. He started acting silly, making faces trying to get attention in the block area by pushing other kids. He started fighting with Oscar over a block, Adam pinched him in the chest and scratched his neck. The teacher got upset and told Adam that she was going to have to talk to his parents. Adam said not to tell them anything that he was going to behave. By the end of the day he was following directions and danced with the whole classroom. Four days later. It was early in the morning when Adam was play fighting with his classmate Santiago. Then he decided to go to the dramatic play area to role play with Olivia and Kassandra. However he took a toy from Santiago and started running around the classroom until the teacher went up to him. During circle time he went to hide because he didnt wanted to participate. The teacher had a talk with him so he decided to go back to the circle because the teacher was going to write him on the list. He started participating and following directions. After a while he was doing well until he pushed Allison. Adam got upset with the teacher because she put him in the list. He started misbehaving and acting up. Ms. Ortega got him and sat him next to her, as soon as he calmed down he started dancing five little monkeys. Based on my Observation, Documentation and Assessment approaches that I used; I believe that Adam has a little bit of problem with some of the five developmental domains. For the Physical Domain: He loves running, playing games and doing different activities that include jumping, dancing, playing sports and anything that has to do with large motor. One of his strengths is that he participates in all the large motor activities with no difficulty. The only

problem is that his always hurting himself because he has no control when running. This challenge can be address by teaching him when to start, stop, and turn. For the Social Domain: I believe he needs a lot of help. Most of the time he prefers playing and being by himself. He does not like to share, take turns, cooperate or communicate with others. We could fix this by providing more group play or anything that has to do with Adam being around more people to interact with them. For the Emotional Domain: I think he needs help with this one as well because he is constantly changing his emotions and how he feels. Adam expresses anger physically rather than verbally. He changes his attitude all the time. Sometimes his happy and other times his attitude is completely different. For example if he gets mad he starts acting very aggressive and screams when his upset to get attention. Sometimes he acts really calm and seems to be sad. We could help him with his emotional challenges by providing a lot of positive encouragement. For the Cognitive and Language development: I believe his at the level his supposed to be for his age. He knows how to talk well and communicate with others. Adam is a fast learner with numbers and the alphabet. I believe he speaks in relatively complete sentences. The only problem is that he is always having a hard time understanding and following directions. We can address this problem by talking to him constantly every time he does something wrong and, rewarding him or say something nice to him when his participating and doing the right things. In conclusion I believe this was a great experience. This experience has taught me a lot about how preschoolers act and why they do the things they do. It help me understand Adam better. By observing Adam for specific Domains like physical, cognitive, and emotional growth, I was able to do my case study with all this great information and observation. After completing my 30 hours of observation I feel that now I can comprehend and understand how a preschool

child functions. By completing this case study I was able to learn, feel good about myself and accomplish a lot.