Child case study

CHD 265

JAZMIN LUNA April 1, 2017

Jazmin Luna

CHD 265

Parent interview

March 1st, 2017

The child was conceived naturally by mother who was 20 and father was 21. She began getting regular checkups at the doctor when she was about 5 weeks pregnant. Her pregnancy was normal all throughout. She is an O negative blood type so she got the RH shot during pregnancy. The mother was 38 weeks pregnant when she went into labor. Her water broke at home around 4:00am and she went to the hospital after she showered and got ready. She was in labor from 5:00am until 1:30pm that same day. She was dilating slowly but progressively and was trying to hold out from getting any medication for pain but chose to get epidural eventually. Once it was time to push she had no complications and gave birth vaginally. Child A was 5lbs 6oz and had no health complications.

The doctors encouraged the mother to breastfeed as much as she could so he could gain weight quicker because he was on the smaller side of average weight in newborn children. The mother decided to breastfeed him along with formula bottles. Child A got his first tooth (bottom middle) when he was about 3-4 months old and began eating smooshed solid food when he was about 9 to 10 months old, but continued breastfeeding until he was almost 2 years old. He rolled over when he was about 4-5 months old, walked when he was almost 1 year and 2 months, and said his first word when he was 1 year old. Overall, his mother believes that he had a normal development because he reached all his milestones even though some were a little later than average. His doctors never recommend the parents to find child A any special assistance with anything.

Jazmin Luna

CHD 265

Teacher Interview

February 28, 2017

The teacher has known child A for about a month now since he began attending day care. She knows this is his first time being in a classroom, having a teacher, having schedules, and having peers. The teacher began by stating that child A had difficult drop off’s the first couple of days but progressively got better and better; However, lately child A has been having difficult drop off’s again every day and that he also has cries and asks for his parents a few times a day specifically outside, during lunch, and during nap.

While child A is in school, the teacher noticed that he occasionally plays with other children but prefers to play by himself, wonder around the classroom, and watch what others are doing while holding his stuffed animal. The teacher mentioned that there is a curriculum that dictates centers and lessons but that because there are so many children in the classroom and only 2 teachers, time goes by really fast and they don’t get to open centers. The teacher prefers to allow for the children to go play with whatever they want to play at the moment. She mentioned that during centers, child A follows her around a lot and wants to see what she is doing and help out.

Child A’s teacher believes that overall his development is normal except for his language and some life skills like eating. The teacher knows that child A comes from a bilingual home so the believes that it might be the reason why he barely talks and also mixes words from both languages. The teacher also thinks that the child gets babied at home in some areas like feeding because he cries during lunch time and doesn’t want to eat, but will eat if the teacher feeds it to him.

Jazmin Luna

Physical Development- Gross motor skills

(Rating scale)

BEHAVIOR NEVER

SOMETIMES ALWAYS

Coordinate movements in grabbing, rolling, tossing, and throwing a ball

Moves with some balance and control

Uses whole body to successfully catch and throw a ball

Use alternating feet to climb stairs

Can stand on 1 foot

ANALYSIS:

I used an observation tool called a rating scale to make observations on child A’s physical development: Gross motor. I observed the child playing outside using his gross motor skills and noticed that he has control of his whole upper body most of the time. He can throw a ball with both hands but sometimes the ball slipped out of his hands before actually throwing it. When it was the child’s turn to catch the ball, he would stick out both of his hands in front of him but was not able to catch it even though it was being thrown straight to his arms. He had no trouble standing on one foot but could not use alternating feet going up the stairs, however I noticed his parents dress him in skinny jeans so I am not sure if the tight clothing prevents him from being able to stretch far enough to use alternating feet when going up the stairs. I also noticed that he sometimes has trouble keeping control of the ball and where he wants it to go. From my observations, I believe the child needs to improve his gross motor skills such as having control of his body when playing with a ball. I also believe he needs to improve the use of alternating feet when going up the stairs.

I will apply these observations to my project by creating activities for the child to practice and further develop these gross motor skills. The activities will consist of providing an easy and large target for the child to throw the ball at. This will help the child improve his skills of using his whole body to control and aim the ball in the direction that he wants. I will move the target at different appropriate heights so the child can practice rolling, tossing, and throwing the ball depending on where the target is located and how far. To further his gross motor skills the child and I will dance to a song that asks to use the whole body to pretend to be animals. When doing this song, the child will be able to practice his gross motor skills such as using his whole body to balance and control his body when imitating animal’s movements. I will also play a game of follow the leader where I will do things like standing on 1 foot, run, and march so that he can

practice his gross motor skill of using alternating feet to go up the stairs before practicing going up actual stairs while holding his hand and modeling to him how to use his alternating feet.

Jazmin Luna

CHD 265

Language Development

(Running Record)

Teacher is placing 4 puzzles on a table for children to play with if they wanted to

Teacher sits down and is inviting other children who are running around the classroom to come sit with her

James is standing by his cubby

Teacher: hey “child A” do you want a puzzle?

Child A scrunches his forehead and pouts his mouth and faces the door

Teacher: Come here do this puzzle you can’t just stand by the door all day

Child A is still standing by the door holding his stuffed animal. Teacher stood up, pulls out a chair for him to sit.

Teacher picks up a puzzle of farm animals

Teacher: Do you want this puzzle?

Child A: yeah.. (nodding his head)

Teacher: Ok here you go (puts the puzzle back down on the table), come sit at the round table

Child A is walking over to her and sits down on a chair

Teacher #2 comes and sits down next to child A

Teacher: aw “child A” you’re doing your favorite puzzle. what animal is this?

Child A: Is cow

Teacher: yeah, and what about the other ones?

Child A picks up the cow puzzle piece and puts it close to his nose and says “Cow!”

Teacher: okay but which one is this? (points at another animal puzzle piece)

Teacher proceeds to point at all the pieces asking child A to name them

----END OF MY RUNNING RECORD----

Analysis:

I used an observation tool called running record to observe and record child A’s language development during centers where the teacher was encouraging the child to move away from the door and go sit down at the round table to do a puzzle. I noticed that the teacher clearly knew that puzzles are one of his favorite activities and tried to get him to practice his vocabulary during that activity. I also noticed that the teacher didn’t encourage the child to participate in a different activity afterwards. When she was done asking him about the animals on the puzzle she didn’t offer a different puzzle, introduce and encourage the use of new words other than names of animals, and she also didn’t encourage the child to try a different activity. From my observations, I believe the child is not being challenged and introduced to new vocabulary. It is great that the teacher knows that puzzles and farm animals is one of child A’s favorite activities and topics but she does not engage the child in activities that will help the child learn more about that topic and expand his vocabulary.

I will use these observations to create activities for child A’s language skills to continue to develop. My activities will consist of reading him an age appropriate book about farms and farm animals that will have new words and new things to learn about his favorite topic. During the story, I will model proper reading skills such as using my finger to point out the word that I am reading, show him we read from left to right, top to bottom, and encourage him to repeat new words. After we read the book together I will ask child A to tell me about his favorite farm animal and everything he knows about it and then proceed to drawing a picture of it and help child A write the name of the animal. It is important that the child can identify objects on his own so I will take him on a nature walk and encourage him to point and tell me what he sees and what it is called.

Jazmin Luna

CHD 265

Social/ Emotional Development

Anecdotal Record

Child A came inside from the playground with his classroom. They played outside for 30 minutes and then came inside for lunch. Teachers began to change diapers and take restroom trained children to the restroom. Child A is restroom trained but went straight to his cubby and grabbed his stuffed animal that he had brought from home. He then went and sat down on the carpet holding his stuffed animal. Some children were sitting at the table waiting for lunch, some were running around, and some were getting a diaper change/going to the restroom. After some time, child A got up He walked over to his teacher and began to cry.

The teacher asked him what was wrong but he repeated “mommy/daddy”. The teacher told him mom and dad were at work and he would see them in the afternoon, she also said it was lunch time and asked him to sit down at the table but he cried louder and louder the more she talked to him. The teachers continued to do what they were doing while child A followed one of the teachers around the classroom while crying. He did not want to sit down at the table for lunch and did not want to try his food. The teachers sat down at the table to eat lunch with the children and child A stood by one of the teachers while still crying. A few minutes went by and he then started to say “pipi, pipi, pipi” while crying and slightly hopping on each foot. The teacher got up, grabbed his hand and took him to the restroom (restrooms are located between two classrooms, separated by a wall and a door that stays closed, so a teacher has to take several children at the same time in order to leave the room and stay in ratio). This concluded my anecdotal record.

Analysis:

I used an observation tool called anecdotal record to record the child’s social/emotional development. I observed child A after he came inside from the playground to get ready for lunch. As soon as he walked he went straight to grab his stuffed animal that he had brought from home. He was crying, did not want to sit down at the table, or try his food.

From my observations, I believe that the child cries when he is holding his stuffed animal. I believe that the stuffed animal reminds him of his parents and therefore has a strong attachment towards it. After he began crying he would repeat the same words over and over again and when told to sit down for lunch he cried even more. I also noticed that he was not taken to the restroom at the same time as the other children until child A had a strong urge and began jumping, holding his private area, and continued to cry. Another thing I noticed was that

he didn’t engage with any children. He didn’t go sit down with the children who were at the table, and he didn’t engage in play with the children who were running around the classroom. He simply came inside and went to sit by himself on the carpet.

From my observations, I believe the child needs help in further developing his social/emotional skills such as being able to manage his emotions, expressing his feelings to others, and maintaining healthy relationships with others. Social/Emotional skills are just as important as learning to count and learning the ABC’S. Social/ Emotional skills are essential for every aspect of their entire life including school, home, and work. I plan on using these observations to help child A improve his social/emotional skills with activities such as reading him an age appropriate book about emotions that talks about what they are called, and how to express them. Review the emotions after reading the book, and then we will do a picture description activity. I will show child A pictures of children’s faces with emotions such as sad, happy, and mad. As child A identifies the emotions in the pictures I will continue to remind him to use his words and let his friends/teachers/parents know how he is feeling so they can help him.

With these activities, I would like to be able to help child A learn to manage his emotions by recognizing how he is feeling and think about his emotions before acting on them impulsively. I also would like for him to learn how to clearly communicate his wants and needs, and if his needs are being met then he will gain the confidence to engage with other children and adults and build strong, positive, and trusting relationships.

PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT LESSON PLAN

Type of Lesson: Physical: Gross Motor skills

Child’s Age: 2 years 11 months

Observation Tool: Rating Scale

Theme/Idea: Physical Development- Throwing a ball through a hoola-hoop

Standards Connection: Coordinating movements in grabbing, rolling, tossing, and throwing.

(A4)

Lesson Objectives:

By the end of this activity the child will be able to use his hands and whole body to throw, toss,

and roll a ball at a target at different distances. This will help him further develop his gross motor

skills.

Procedure: “Hands On” Activity:

Teacher will hold the hoola hoop at a certain distance.

The child will hold the ball and stand in one spot for all 3 turns with the goal of getting the ball

through the hoop.

1st turn- child will throw the ball

2nd turn- child will toss the ball

3rd turn- child will roll the ball

Once the child completes all 3 turns with ease then teacher moves back further and repeat the 3

turns. The hoola hoop is the target so the teacher should encourage for the child to use his hands

and whole body to aim at the target. The teacher should also encourage the child to get creative

on how he wishes to throw the ball to complete the task allowing the child to have more fun.

Materials/Resources:

Hoola hoop

Small ball

Large play area

Differentiated Instruction:

Physical Adaptation: A child with a physical disability such as not being able to stand can sit on

a chair. The teacher can begin by holding the hoola hoop closer than for a child without a

physical disability and move backwards in small distances. The teacher should also move around

constantly to give the ball to the child for their next turn.

English Language Learners: For a child who is an English language learner, the teacher can

demonstrate the activity while describing it verbally so the child can gain vocabulary while

observing what to do, and then allow the child to repeat what she was doing.

Advanced Learning Skills: For a child with advanced learning skills, the teacher can use

different types of balls and different sizes; football, basketball, soccer ball, and a baseball.

Teacher can also use a smaller target to make the target more difficult to reach.

LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT LESSON PLAN

Type of Lesson: Language Development

Child’s Age: 2 years 11 months

Theme/Idea: Language Development- Practicing the ABC’S

Observation tool used: Running record

Standards Connection:

Enjoy patterns of rhythm and repetition of familiar voices, sounds, rhymes, and songs. (B3)

Understand questions, some basic concepts, and simple directions. (A5)

Lesson Objectives:

After this activity, the child should be able to recognize and know all the letters in the alphabet and begin to know how to write them.

Procedure: “Hands On” Activity:

The teacher will begin by reading the book with the child. It is important for the child to follow the book and read out loud with the teacher so the child can practice his letters and other vocabulary in the book. After reading the story the teacher will hand out the sheet of paper with the letters A, B, and C in an outline form for the child to trace them with the writing tool. Provide made opportunities and guidance for the child to follow the lines and to practice outlining multiple times in different colors.

Materials/Resources:

Book- Dr. Seuss’s ABC Worksheet- Outline of ABC’s Different color writing tools for child

Differentiated Instruction:

English Language LearnerFor a child who is an English Language learner, the teacher can begin by first introducing to the child the ABC’s in a simple chart. The teacher can read them out loud and point to each letter one at a time. The teacher can then introduce the ABC song to the child so the child has another form of practicing and remembering the letters.

Advanced learnerThe teacher can read a story book with more vocabulary and encourage the child to expand on their ideas not only answer the teacher’s ideas. Ask open ended questions to allow for the child to speak on their own and express their thoughts.

SOCIAL/EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT LESSON PLAN

Type of Lesson: Social/Emotional Development

Age: 2 years 11 months

Theme/Idea: Learning to recognize facial expressions and communicate feelings to others.

Observation tool used: Anecdotal Record

Standards Connection: C11. Name and talk about own emotions and can associate them with varying facial expressions.

Lesson Objectives: After this activity, the child should be able to better recognize facial expressions such as mad, sad, happy, and surprised. Along with learning to communicate with others on how he feels.

Procedure: “Hands On” Activity:

The teacher will read the book(s) and mimic the facial expressions while encouraging the child to also mimic the facial expressions. After the teacher reads the book, then the teacher will use the index cards to review the emotions. The teacher will present one index card at a time and the child will look at the card and describe the emotion. It is essential that the teacher talks about the facial expression in the index card in order for the child to recognizes differences among other facial expressions.

Materials/Resources: Facial Expressions/Emotions index cards Picture book about emotions

Differentiated Instruction: English Language Learner: For a child who is an English language learner, the teacher should try to find a book that is bilingual so that when the book shows and names a sad face, it also names it in the child’s language and the child can make that connection. If a book is not found, then the teacher can print out index cards with the facial expressions in the child’s language and read the English language index cards and the child’s language index cards so that the child can see that they are the same but called differently.

Advance skill learners: For a child who is an advanced skilled learner, the teacher can choose a more difficult book with more words that has a story line rather than just pictures with one word. After reading the short

story book about emotions, the teacher can begin a discussion about the character’s actions, feelings, and how they expressed them.

WORK SAMPLES

Language development

LANGUAGE DEVELOPMNT BOOKS

WORK SAMPLE

SOCIAL-EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Social/Emotional Books

WORK SAMPLE

PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT

PARENT PERMISSION SLIP

TEACHER PERMISSION SLIP

Jazmin Luna

CHD 265

Reflective Summary

March 29, 2017

A child case project can help a future Early Childhood Development teacher learn and practice the skills she/he needs in order to figure out what a child’s developmental needs are. Although a child case study focuses on one child, all the knowledge gained about the child will help in other observations and child case studies to compare and contrast. Child case studies won’t always be successful but one can still learn from the mistakes and results to continue to make improvements.

After all the hours of observation on the child and the activities, I have learned that it takes a lot of time, effort, and work to really get to know a child’s needs and ways to help their development. What I learned about this child during the whole project is that he truly enjoys interacting with adults while learning something new. He does best when he is interacting with an adult and is very eager to learn. I also learned that what his teacher thinks is a language development problem is an incorrect assumption made due to her lack of knowledge and experience.

Observation is a very important part of a teacher’s role; however, it can’t be done right if the teacher doesn’t observe from the outside. The incredible difference it makes to give your full

attention to solely observing is outstanding. One can see details and circumstances that occur in the blink of an eye that a teacher on duty would most certainly miss. One of the most important things I learned was that there are many ways to observe that can help you find different information about the child. Different methods and different tools of observation can help you learn about an individual child’s need, the needs of a group of children, the relationship and effectiveness of the teacher, and the environment the children are in and how that also affects their development.

During the language development activity that I prepared for the child, he was very vocal in both languages, although not yet fluent in either, which can be typical for a child who is introduced more than one language at a young age. However, one of my activities consisted of him practicing writing the letters of his name and writing the letter A, B, C &D from an outline. This worksheet activity did not work because it was too advanced for his age due to his young developing fine motor skills. The worksheet activity also didn’t work because it wasn’t interesting, interactive, or attention-grabbing.

During the gross motor skills activity, I used a hoola-hoop as a target for the child to aim at with a ball. The task was for the child to use his whole body to aim the ball at the target using different methods such as overhead throwing, tossing, rolling, and kicking the ball through the hoop. This activity worked really well because it was developmentally appropriate for the child, it was interactive, and the child was excited to begin because he enjoys playing sports. The activity also helped the child practice his listening skills when he needed to listen to my directions.

During the social/emotional development activities I found it really difficult to read the stories about emotions because the child was distracted by the new environment and by his mother trying to help him focus. I was not able to finish reading all the books because he would get distracted and wanted to go play with something he saw. What I would do differently would be to get a short picture book with cartoon characters that the child is highly interested in so that it can catch and keep his attention longer. I also realized that the environment also had substantial impact in the focus of the child because he was curious about everything he saw.

After all the observation hours and work to make the activities and do the activities with the child, I have learned that you can never finish learning about early childhood development. I also realized that it takes a lot of time and knowledge to observe a child in order to find out what their needs are. It is not simple or fast to observe a child a few times and take down some notes and suddenly know exactly what the child needs. It takes a great deal of observation hours and early childhood development knowledge to begin to understand what a child needs from their teachers and their environment. During the final stages of the project I realized that it is also a learning process because what one might think will work and help the child might be incorrect and have to be redone. Every part of a child case study is incredibly important, you cannot complete a child case study by skipping or shortening any of the parts of the study.

The child case study project is a very important part of the field experience to help the future early childhood development teachers gain the knowledge and skills needed as a

professional. As a teacher, one must have the skills and knowledge to look out for the children’s well-being, and that includes their development in all areas. A child case study project helps one prepare to become a professional, promote child development and learning, build family relationships by including the parents in the project, using previous content knowledge to build meaningful activities for the child, practice observation skills, using observation tools, documenting, and assessing the information. Overall, not all the activities with the child were successful, but I can learn from them to improve my skills and do better in a future child case study.