Child's Stages of Development and Their Development Needs Aged Between 1-5

Child's Stages of

Development and Their Development Needs

Aged

Between 1-5

İlknur Şemşek

September 05

Child's Stages of Development and Their

Development Needs Aged Between 1-5

Introduction

The target child, who I observed is 3 years 7 months old

and she has been coming to our nursery since she was 2

years old. The target child attends to our setting Monday-

Thursday everyday accept Fridays. The target child lives

with her parents and older sister. Her sister used to come

to our setting too. Before the observations started, I

discussed them with my leader in the nursery. My leader and

I spoke to the target child’s mother to ask for permission.

I informed her mother that I would not use the child’s real

name during the observations. I got written permission from

the child’s mother. I also told all the nursery staff team

that I would be carrying out some observations from time to

time during the sessions.

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The Target Child’s Five Areas of Developmental

Stages

l-Physical Development:

Gross motor skills: As we see in the observations, my

target child can walk and run forwards (obs. 1,4,5), walk

on tiptoe (obs. 1,4), throw a large ball (obs. 4), pedal

and steer a tricycle (obs. 4) and can aim and throw a ball

(obs.4). My target child can also run changing direction

and can control her body movements if she wants to. I

noticed during my observations, target child prefers

walking rather than running. TC can walk on a line but she

usually needs help from an adult while she is on the

balancing beam.

Fine motor skills: The target child can turn pages in a

book one by one (obs. 1&3), hold crayons or coloring

pencils (obs.3), take off her coat (obs.1&3), cut out

simple shapes (obs. 3). According to the Diploma Child Care

and Education (Penny Tassoni, Kate Beith, Harriet Eldridge,

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Alan Gough, 2002, p/ 168) book’s developmental norms of 3

and 4 years old, my target child is at the right level of

fine and gross motor skills development. She can carry out

almost every stage of 3 years old and some of the stages

from 4 years old with her ne and gross motor skills. Myfi

target child is not good at hopping, balancing on one foot

or catching a large ball, but according to Diploma child

care and education book (p/ 168), these stages are for 4

years old and my target child is not yet 4 years old.

2-Intellectual (Cognitive) Development:

The target child can talk about an object (tray) that is

heavy (obs.3, 10am). In observation l(pl , last line), T.C

talks to an adult about her dolls and about the story she

made in her mind e.g. the dolls are not well, she puts them

into bed but they would not stop crying. . .etc. In

observation 3 (p6, llarn), T.C points to the books and

talks about “Humpty dumpty” and “Thomas the tank engine” to

the another child. Also observation 3 ( 10am), T.C makes

the tray full of food, plates and at the end she realizes

that she needs to complete the tray with the cutlery (fork

and knife). This shows that TC is matching a meal tray with

the needs of a cutlery set. Again in observation 1 with

picking up a buggy and a doll shows that T.C is making

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another matching. In observation 5 (p10, first line), T.C

watches another child putting the bricks on top of each

other, points to them and mentions that he is making them

so high, which shows TC is aware of some mathematical

concepts e. g. long, short, low or high. Again in

observation 5, T.C sorts the wooden shapes out into their

colour and size groups before she places them into the

board and she can also say their names and colours. With

the pegs and basket activity in observation 5, TC can count

them 1 to 10 and she can also pick up a certain number of

objects. T.C tells the adult “6 pegs around the basket, 4

on the table”(p9, line 7 ,8,9,lO). According to the Diploma

Child Care and Education (p/201) book’s cognitive

intellectual) norms of 3-4 years, TC is at the correct

level for her developmental age and ready to start the next

level’s stages.

3-Language Development:

In observation 3 (p6, 10am), T.C imitates a familiar

adult’s speech by saying “are we need to share?” and also

in observation 1 (p2, line 4), she tries to put the dolls

to sleep and imitates “hush” like an adult. In all my

observations, T.C shows clear speech, even though she makes

some grammatical errors nobody seemed to have any problem

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understanding her speech (obs 1,2,3). The target child

shows that she knows some names of household objects e.g.

telephone, fork, knife, tray, plate, brush, blanket. . .etc

(obs 1,2,3). As we see in the observations the target child

makes some gra1nmati.cal errors such as not using “a, is,

the”(obs, pl, line8- obs2, p4, boxl&8- obs3, p6, lOam obs5,

plO, linelé). My target child enjoys singing nursery rhymes

(obs &3), especially in the role-play area. Also the target

child likes asking questions (obs3, p6, l0am, lO.45am,

ll .30am- obs2, p4, box4). According to the Diploma Child

Care and Education (p/210) book’s Language norms of 3-4

years, T.C is at the correct level of her development.

4-Emotional Development:

T.C comes in every morning, holding her mum’s hand, but she

is quiet happy to leave her primary carer as she gives her

a kiss and says good bye (obs, pl, first line- obs3, p6,

9.30am). Time to time the target child shows strong

emotions e. g. her attention to the dolls and the teddy and

she gets upset in observation 2 because another child jokes

with her sister’s name and also in observation 3 she

complains about a child when he would not give the

telephone back to her. According to Diploma Child Care and

Education book, between 3-4 years old, many children would

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need their comforters, but T.C did not bring in any of her

comforters. In observation 1 (pl, last line), T.C goes to

an adult and talks to her about her dolls and in the other

observation, she appears good at listening and taking

instructions from adults, which shows that the target child

likes to please other familiar adults. My target child also

likes to imitate familiar adults demonstrated by her

looking after the dolls, feeding them, putting them to

sleep, covering them with a blanket, reading a story for

them. . .etc (obs) and in observation 3, target child tries

to prepare a meal tray, talks on the phone and in

observation 2 she asks to another child to put the fruit

plate in the middle with an adult speech (obs 2). According

to the Diploma Child Care and Education (ip/236) book's

Emotional norms of 3-4 years, TC is at the right level of

her emotional development, infact she is above her average

level with some of the emotional aspects as she does not

need a comforter and is confident enough to express

herself.

5- Social Development:

The target child enjoys socialising with other adults and

children (obs l,2,3,4,5). She plays along side other

children but seeks out one particular friend ( Obs3, p6,

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l0am, l l am- obs2, p4,boxl&2). My target child often

demonstrates her social skills in the observations such as

showing concern for the crying dolls, singing, reading and

putting a blanket on them. She also likes mixing with other

children and adults (obs, 2,3,4,5), sharing and taking turn

(obs3 &4) and co-operating with other children (obs). Only

once, the target child had a sharing problem. In

observation 3 at 10.15 am, the other child snatches the

phone from her where she was playing with it. According to

the Diploma Child Care and Education (p236&237) book’s

social norms of 3-4 years, my target child is at the

correct level of her development and is already starting to

develop the next age group’s stages of emotional and social

development.

Theoretical Perspectives and how they relate to my

Target Child’s Development

According to Maria Montessori, children are active

learners, without needing the medium of language children

can choose a task, complete it and then return it ready for

the next child to use. Children are free to select on

activity and no child is forced to work and children can

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continue to their activity as long as they don’t disturb

other children. In the mean time adult’s role is to observe

the child and answer to child’s individual needs (Diploma

Child Care and Education, p/368 and handouts from tutor).

In observation 5, the target child chooses to come to the

Montessori table. First of all, she picks “pegs and basket”

then “wooden shapes” activity with no forcing or offering

(Intellectual development). My target child spends as much

time as she wants at the Montessori table, so she acts like

an active learner as it says in the theory. The environment

at the Montessori table is calm and quiet and nobody

disturbs each other. The adult at the table only observes

the two children and helps them out if they struggle with

the activities. In the Maria Montessori theory children

would not need any minimum language, but in observation 5

the target child struggles with the activities and she

needs to use the language to be able to express herself and

adult needs the language to be able to meet the target

child’s needs at the Montessori table (Language

development). This shows that even with the Montessori

equipments we do need language. After target child finishes

her activities, she leaves them ready for the next child

and this helps her to understand the needs of others and

keeping the environment clean and tidy (Social

development). According to Albert Bandura, children learn

by watching others and children are more likely to imitate

models that are warm and powerful and model their behavior

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on the behavior of adults around them. (Diploma Child Care

and Education, p/232 and handouts from tutor). ln

observation 1, the target child imitates like an adult by

brushing doll’ s hair, feeding the doll, putting the dolls

and the teddy into a buggy, singing and reading stories to

them, stroking their hair and covering them with a blanket.

This shows that target child observes and imitates like an

adult during her role plays, so she models a familiar adult

as in Bandura’ s theory. Her imitating an adult will help

develop her emotions and personality. Also, in observation

3, page 6, l0.00 am the target child prepares a meal tray

with food and cutlery like an adult and asks the other

child if they need to share them. Again here the target

child imitates an adult with her acts and speech. This also

will help her to develop her language and social and

emotional skills.

The Developmental Needs of the Target Child:

l-Physical Development:

Fine motor skills: During the observations, the target

child shows that she has met her developmental stages with

her ne motor skills. In observation l and 3, target childfi

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takes her coat off on her own, but she cannot do the

buttons or the zip, which shows that the target child’s

next stage will be doing the zip up and the buttons. In

observation 3 at 9.30 am, the target child uses crayons to

colour in a flag and this shows that the next stage will be

drawing. After she gains enough experience with crayons or

colouring pencils the target child will be able to draw a

person or other types of images e.g. ower, butterfly, andfl

house. etc. Again in observation 3, the target child can

cut out a rectangle shape for the ag, which shows her nextfl

stage of cutting, which will be other simple and difficult

shape cuttings. In observation 5, the target child gets

help from an adult to squeeze and pin the pegs. When she

builds enough strength in her hand, she would not need the

adult’s help with the next step.

Gross motor skills: In the observations, the target child

controls her bodily environments. In observation 4, she

sometimes can hop on one foot and her next need will be

hopping on one foot more often and for a longer time. She

can throw a large ball; out she sometimes cannot catch it.

After more experience with a large ball, the target child

will be more successful with catching a large ball. Again

in observation 4, the target child can pedal a tricycle,

but she nds it difficult to pedal up the hill and she usesfi

both legs to push herself forward. When she has more

experience with the tricycles, she would not struggle to

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pedal up the hill. Also needs more practice to balance on

one leg as well as jumping over low type of objects. The

target child’s next stage of development will be balancing

on one leg longer and jumping over low and high objects in

this level.

2-Intellectual Development:

According to Diploma. Child Care and Education book, if a

child can identify whether an object is heavy or light (3-4

years), then their next stage will be identifying the

heavier object (5-6 years). In observation 3, 10.00 am, the

target child tells that the tray is heavy, that shows the

target child’s next stage need will be identifying the

heavier object. In observation 1, the target child goes and

tells about her role play with dolls to an Adult and after

this stage of repeating a story, she will need to go on to

the next stage of naming times of a day such as bedtime,

tea time or dinner time. In observation 3, 10.00 am, the

target child matches her meal in the tray with fork and

knife as she can match objects one to one. Which shows that

the target child’s next stage in this level will be

matching symbols like letters and numbers. In observation

5, the target child points at the model that another child

makes and says how high it is. In here she appears aware of

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sizes, as the next step will be able to know the higher

one, longer one, lower one or the shorter one. Again in

observation 5, before she places the wooden shapes into

their boxes, she picks them in order to their size or

colour sequence as she can sort simple objects out. Her

next development of stage will need to be placing objects

beside, behind and next to. (Diploma Care and Education,

p.f20l ). The target child knows the primary colours as we

see in observation 5 and her need will be to name a minimum

of eight colours after this stage of development and same

thing with the shapes, she will need to identify more than

3 shapes. Also observation 5, the target child shows that

she can already count until 10 without support and which

shows that it will not be too difficult for her to be able

to count by rote up to twenty as next stage.

3-Language Development:

According to Diploma Child Care and Education book’s

language development stages, the target child is at the

correct level of her development, therefore her errors in

her speech will become fewer and she will enjoy using her

language as a socializing key and also she will express

herself better. The target child’s vocabulary will need to

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be increased and she will try to use complex sentences,

also the target child will start telling and hearing jokes,

so this will make her understand that language also has

written aspects.

4-Emotional Development:

The target child’s next emotional developments will need to

be as follow; she has not got a problem with leaving her

primary carer, but she still comes in holding her mum’s

hand and this will link her to next stage, as she will be

more con dent and independent to leave her primary carer.fi

The target child has got strong emotions and reacts. (Obs

2&3). As she develops more language, she will be able to

express her emotions better.

The target child also likes imitating adults and this stage

will take her to use the words and actions of the people

she likes to imitate.

5-Social Development:

As we see in all the observations, the target child is

sociable. T.C is already showing the beginning skills of

next stage’s social development. The target child enjoys

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mixing and socializing with other children and adults, she

is very confident and independent with it.

She seeks out a particular friend who is the same gender

like her and also plays along side all the children. Her

development needs will be much more playing with girls as

it is a gender role. The target child sometimes has

difficulty sharing the equipment e. g. in observation 3,

with the telephone, this stage will help her to develop her

social skills to be able to go on to next stage and her

needs will be sharing, turn taking and respecting other

people.

My Suggestions to My Setting

I would make my suggestions to my setting for the target

child and also for the other children in my setting. In

observation 4, which is outside physical activity, the

target child cannot balance on one leg and jump over low

height objects and she is also not good at hopping and

catching a large ball. Thinking on behalf of the target

child and the other children, when we set up outside the

play area, I would put out large balls as well as small

ones with at box or net more often, then the target child

and the other children would have more chance to practice

and I would also get help from an adult to demonstrate how

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to throw and catch a ball. As a setting we have got a

balancing beam and we tend to put it out almost everyday,

but I think it is bit short and not large enough for older

children to control their balance on it. The target child

can walk on it, but she

sometimes loses her balance and needs to hold on to an

adult. Therefore until she builds enough strength to her

legs, I would get help from an adult to stand by the

balancing beam to encourage and help the target child and

other children to do more practice with the balancing beam.

I would also try to get a longer balancing beam for older

children. I believe if the target child does more practice

by balancing on one foot, which will help her hop better. I

will also suggest to buy setting to draw or supply

hopscotch for the outside area and demonstrate to the

target child and the other children how to use the

hopscotch. in our setting we have got hoops and the

children tend to jump in them so therefore I believe

something like hopscotch will help better with the hopping.

As we see in the observations, the target child tends to

walk rather than run- As a physical gross motor

development, running helps children to build their stamina

a lot as long as they are in a safe area and there are

enough adults around to watch them. 1 would suggest to my

setting to set up some running or walking fast games e. g.

duck, duck, goose” or other type of sports day activities.

As we see in the observations the target child has got good

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social skills, she plays with everybody and likes mixing

with adults. The target child also takes turns, shares and

co-operates, but in observation 3, at 10.15 am, she does

not want to share the phone with the other child because he

snatches it from her. In observation 2 at snack time, the

target child passes the fruit plate to the next child, but

when the other child tries to do the same thing, she tells

him to put the plate in the middle of the table. In

observation 3 at 11.30 am, the target child shares her

sticker bricks happily with another child. I would suggest

to my setting for the target child and for the other

children who has got sharing or turn taking difficulty, we

could ask all the children to bring in their favorite toys

and swap them around with other children and allow them to

keep the toys for one day. Giving toys away will help

children to learn how to share and how to be patient in the

mean time and they would take the message better.

As I noticed during my observations, the target child tends

to sing all the time, especially during her role-plays. The

target child makes some errors with her speech as we see in

the observations (obs l,2.3). I will suggest to my setting

to supply background music during the sessions, which I

believe is going to encourage other children to sing and

learn about the nursery rhymes as well as the target child.

This activity will help children to express themselves

better. As a setting if we do more circle groups and

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talking time about the weekly themes. it would help

children to correct their grammatical errors. I would also

suggest creating theatre and sketch groups with children

for special occasions e.g. Christmas. Easter or end of

term. This will be a different activity for children who

like to imitate familiar adults during their role-play by

using their language skills.

References and Bibliography

Glen A, Cousins J, Helps A, 2004, Tried and Tested

Strategies: Behavior in the Early Years, London, David

Fulton publishers.

Meggitt C, Sunderland G, 2004, Child Development An

illustrated guide, Oxford, Heinemann Educational.

Palmer S, Bayley R, 2004, Foundations of Literacy: a

balanced approach to language, listening and literacy

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skills in the early years, Network Educational Press Ltd.

Sharrnan C, Cross W, Vennis D, 2004, A practical Guide,

Observing Children, Third Edition, London, YHT Ltd.

Tassoni P, Beith K, Eldridge H, Gough A, 2005, Diploma

Child Care and Education, Oxford, Heinmann Educational.

OBSERVATION l

Date of observation: 23.05.05

Observation method: Narrative (Straight Account)

Time commenced: 09.50 am

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Time completed: 10.00 am

Number of adults: 1

Number of children: 3

Name/Initial of child: T.C

Age: 3 years 6 months

Gender: Female

Aim and rationale: To observe T.C’s emotional development

and how

T.C expresses her feelings during role-play.

Setting the scene: In the role-play area, which has been

set up as

“looking after dolls” and TC plays with 2 more children.

T.C comes in at 09.50 holding her mum's hand; she gives her

a kiss, takes her coat off and gives it to her mum. T.C

also smiles and waves to her mum. She looks around and

walks to role—play corner. There is 1 adult and 2 more

children in the corner. T.C smiles to everyone, picks a

baby buggy and swings it in the air. "You can go on a

holiday like this and you have a nice dress,” says Cl to

T.C. “Yes but it’s bit dirty, now” says T.C to Cl (TC is

wearing a Snow white dress). T.C leaves the empty buggy on

the floor and walks over to the baby bath and starts

playing along another child. T.C picks up a doll and a

hairbrush and starts to brush the doll’s hair, but gives up

quickly. After brushing the doll’s hair, T.C starts to

pretend feeding the doll with a feeding bottle. Other

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children try to put the other dolls to sleep. When T.C

realizes what they are doing, she goes and helps them to

collect the other dolls. T.C puts her doll into a buggy

with a teddy and starts singing to them. During her singing

she sees another doll on the oor, picks it up and puts itfl

next to her doll and the teddy. “Miss Polly had a dolly,

who was sick. . .etc.,”’ sings T.C. As T.C carries on

singing, she finds a blanket on the oor and puts it on thefl

dolls and the teddy. T.C leaves them on the side and goes

next to Al,

starts talking to her about the dolls. “Oooh my dollies

crying” says T.C to Al. T.C pretends that the dolls are

crying, goes to a book box, chooses a book and walks back

to the dolls and starts reading the book. In the mean time

strokes the doll’s and the teddy’s hair. “Hush, hush, hush”

says to the dolls and the teddy. After showing her

attention to the crying dolls and the teddy, she comes to

Al and tells her about the situation. Al listens and nods

her head and smiles at her. During her conversation with

Al, C2 calls T.C. “Your children are poorly,” says C2 to

T.C. ``o.k I make them some banana pudding” says T.C to C2

and carries on chatting to Al .

OBSERVATION 2

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Observation method: Target Child


Time completed: l l .00 am

Number of adults: 1


Name/Initial of child: TC


Gender: Female

Aim and rationale: To observe T.C’s language development

and how

T.C uses her language skills during snack time.

Setting the scene: It is snack time and T.C sits at a table

with 3 more

Children and 1 adult.

Code:

T.C: Target Child

A: Adult

C: Child

PR: Pair, two children

WA: Watching other adult

DA: Domestic activity, includes snack or meal

SINP: Social interaction with another child e.g. chatting

but definitely not play.

OBSERVATION 3

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Observation method: Time Sampling


Time completed: 12.03 noon

Number of adults: 5

Number of children: 24 (All children)



Gender: Female

Aim and rationale: To observe T.C’s social development and

how T.C uses her social skills during a session.

Setting the scene: T.C is being observed during one

session, every 15 minutes with 3 minutes periods.

OBSERVATION 4


Observation method: Tick List

Time commenced: 11.10

Time completed: 11.30

Number of adults: 4

Number of children: 22 (“All children)


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Gender: Female

Aim and rationale: To observe T .C’s physical development

and how outdoor physical activity play affects T.C’s gross

motor progress.

Setting the scene: All children are having their outdoor

physical activity play with 4 adults.

Comments: During the outdoor physical play T.C was very

confident. As resources, there were tricycles, balancing

beam, tunnel, hoops, small and large balls, cars, scooters,

prams and dolls. T.C spent a very short period of time with

the tricycles; she was much more interested in prams and

dolls. T.C could pedal Very easily, only when she was going

up to hilly ground she was putting both feet on the ground

and walking instead of pedaling. T.C was chatting and

making her imaginary plays with other children and adults.

Most of the time she was walking rather than running. She

was also sharing and taking turn with the equipments.

OBSERVATION 5


Observation method: Narrative (Straight Account)


Time completed: l0.l5 am

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Number of adults: l




Gender: Female

Aim and rationale: To observe T.C’s intellectual

(cognitive) development and how T.C shows her understanding

of concepts at the Montessori table.

Setting the scene: T.C comes to Montessori table from arts

and craft table. There are l adult and 2 children at the

table and it is a quiet environment.

T.C looks around and comes to l\/Montessori table and picks

pegs and a basket from two other activities. At the table

Al helps Cl with “wooden bricks” activity. T.C picks one

peg from the table and tries to squeeze the top, but she

cannot manage to pin it around the basket. Al sees and

demonstrates how to hold, squeeze and pin it for T.C. There

are 10 pegs altogether. “How many eggs have you got around

the basket?” asks Al to T.C

“l,2,3.4,5,6 6 pegs” counts and answers T.C to Al. So how

many pegs are there on the table?” asks Al to TC. “l,2,3,4”

(4 pegs) counts and answers T.C to Al. Al phrases T.C after

her correct answers. T.C nishes all the pegs and countsfi

them successfully 1-10. T.C leaves the pegs and basket

activity and gets another one on the same table, which is

different colored, sized and shaped wooden activity. T.C

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takes all the shapes out from their places, while she takes

them out and puts them on the table. She watches Cl, who

sits opposites her and does another wooden activity. Cl

puts all the bricks on top of each other. “Look, how you

made it high” points T.C to Cl. As soon as she says that

they collapse. T.C smiles at him and starts to put the

shapes back into their places. First of all, T.C picks a

yellow circle and a yellow rectangle and places them into

the board successfully. T.C gives extra attention to the

shapes’ size and colour sequence. “Are you all right?” asks

Al to TC. TC nods her head in reply and carries on placing

other shapes. While she is doing that she watches the role

play corner and picks a red rectangle and places it in a

square box, which is the wrong way round. T.C picks a

cylinder and a circle shape and places them into the board.

The last shape she picks is a yellow square and she cannot

t it into last box on the board. T.C tries very hard asfi

she turns the shape upside down, side to side, but cannot

fit it in the box- In the mean time, A l watches but does

not interrupt unless the children struggle and need help at

the table. TC gets uncomfortable and looks at Al ’s face.

“I can’t do this, I need red triangle” says T.C to Al. What

shape are you holding and what colour is it‘? “ asks Al to

T.C. "l’ve got Yellow Square but it doesn’t fit, “ answers

T.C to Al. O.k., let’s try to swap other shapes, maybe we

can fit them all together” says Al to T.C After the

encouragement, Al and T.C start to swap some of the shapes’

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places and now they have got one blue rectangle. “Blue

rectangle” says TC and ts it immediately into the woodenfi

board, smiles to Al runs to the role-play area.

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Documents

Child's Stages of Development and Their Development Needs Aged Between 1-5