Class/Section: FHS 1500: Life Span Development

Name: Lacey Wright

Assignment: Observation 3
Background information
Childs Age: 11 years old
Fictitious Name: Avalon
Location: Marlon Hills Elementary School- 5th Grade class
Brief Description: There is 1 teacher and 26 students- I observed for 30 minutes while the
students did independent study for 20 minutes and 15 minutes while they learned a history lesson
Physical Development:
Avalon seemed to be a little more developed physically than a lot of the other children in
her class. She appears to have begun going through puberty. She is taller than most of the boys in
her class. While she is larger than some in her class she does not appear to have a BMI above the
95th percentile which would indicate childhood obesity (Berger, 2014, 247). She appeared to
have good health habits, brain maturation and well groomed, didnt appear to be malnourished.
According to the text children have better habits and more often wash their hands and cover their
sneezes, establishing these habits before adolescence is vital (Berger, 2014, p245).
Cognitive Development
Avalon was a very outspoken child in class. She spent a great deal of time answering the
teachers questions and was very willing to help her peers when they needed help. While when
the teacher was conducting her lesson Avalon was paying full attention, but was able to
demonstrate the ability to use selective attention. She demonstrated this while working on
independent study by being able to block out the distractions of her peers around her (Berger,
2014, p256). She demonstrated mastery in vocabulary and grammar. She used Adjectives,
adverbs, and nouns and verbs. In my opinion she was very mature and had a high aptitude for
learning. She didnt seem to exhibit any signs of Attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder,
disruptive mood dysregulation disorder, autism spectrum disorder, or any other learning
disabilities.
Development of the corpus callosum and the prefrontal cortex are evident in early
childhood and continue in middle childhood. Various parts of the brain connect to enable
reading, writing, logic, and social decisions (Berger, 2014, p255). All of these things were
demonstrated by Avalon. According to the text when girls begin puberty sexual thoughts may
interfere with academic ones and grades may dip (Berger, 2014, 265), this did not seem to be the
case with Avalon, she seemed very involved in her assignments and her education.

Social/ Emotional Development

The thing that was the most interesting thing to me about Avalon is that she didnt appear
to be shy. She conversed with almost anyone who would listen. Her sense of self concept was
well developed. While Avalon didnt appear to be popular she was well liked by many and did
have a small group of friends. According to the text having no close friends by age 11 predicts
depression by age 13 (Berger, 2014, p 305), this may not be an issue for Avalon.
Morals begin to develop in middle childhood as this a prime time for this developmental
stage (Berger, 2014, p 309). In my observation I believe that Avalon was somewhere between
pre-conventional moral reasoning (emphasizing rewards and punishments) and Conventional
moral reasoning (emphasizing social rules) (Berger, 2014, p 309).

Reference List
Berger, K. S. (2014). Invitation to the life span (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Worth Publishers.