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Daidra Gordon March 7 th , 2005
Child Development Case Study
Introduction
I chose to do my case study on a young boy from Little Friends in Wabash. He is
a very active little boy and he has trouble sitting still everyday. He loves to talk and gets
along with one little boy, Clayton, very well. Clayton and Daniel are always together,
but when they are together problems arrive. These two boys are always picking on the
other kids so it is hard sometimes. Daniel is four years old and he lives in Wabash with
both his parents and two sisters. One of Daniel’s sisters is five and the other sister is
seven. He has two cats that he really likes. As a young boy he said that he really likes to
play games and to be outside. Daniel said that both his sisters try to read to him
sometimes and that his mom reads to him quite often.
Part 2 Physical Development
Children grow rapidly during the first two years of their lives. Infants are born
with some knowledge, but as they grow they continue to learn more from everyone they
come into contact with. Infants have basic reflexes and some motor skills when they are
born. I am doing my case study on a little boy named Daniel and he is very active.
During the first three years of a child’s life they start to gain weight and they get
taller rapidly. Around this same time is when the child begins to wiggle, sit up, crawl, and
walk. The first time he crawled was when he was about eight in half months old. The
book mentions that most infants begin to crawl between and eight and ten months so
Daniel fits in with that typical age. Daniel starting walking at about twelve months, but
before that he was using furniture to support himself. I have noticed in other infants that
I have observed they generally hold on to everything when they first start walking.
Daniel is four now. He loves to talk and has lots of energy. I have noticed that
Daniel can not tie his shoes yet. Usually children learn how to tie their shoes around this
time, but he does not know how. I thought that preschool was when children learned to
tie their shoes, know the difference in colors, shapes, know the alphabet, and count up to
ten. According to CNN.com, “preschoolers need a more focused instruction on literacy”
(CNN July 26). I never went to preschool, but my little sister did and I thought that the
only thing they really did was play and learn how to tie their shoes. Daniel can not tie his
shoes yet, but neither can any of the other preschool children. I have noticed by doing
this case study that most of the things that I thought happened in preschool really does
not.
Piaget believes that there is only one stage that children go through during preschool and
that is called the preoperational stage. According to Feldman, this is when “children’s
use of symbolic thinking grows, the use of concepts increases, and mental reasoning
emerges” (261). Infants are beginning to understand object permanence and experiment
with the physical world where as the preschool kids have already past that stage. My
case study is over a four year old boy named Daniel.
My first day in class I noticed that he was a little shy and didn’t talk much, but as
the day went on though he started to act like his “normal” self. He was one of the kids
who sat right beside another boy and all they did was talk. He loves to talk and play, but
it is always with this one boy. As an infant his language was increasing, but now his
sentence length and vocabulary has improved. When Daniel was younger he would just
say one word like mama or dada, but as he got older he could include more words. He
would say stuff like “me water” or “me go outside” (Talk with Mother, April 6 th ). It
amazes me just how much one can grow in a year.
In class they always begin by saying the alphabet, saying the colors, counting up
to the number of the week, and they recall shapes. While this is going on in the class
Daniel is one of the first ones to yell out the color yellow or the letter N. Daniel is very
good at remembering what they have learned so later it is easy for him to respond to the
teacher. Another major thing that I have noticed is that Daniel has a very short attention
span. When I am trying to teach a lesson in class he is always up running around or
talking. When we start to do something he always has to ask questions because he wasn’t
listening. Daniel is never afraid to ask a question even if it has nothing to do with what is
going on in class. Why is it so easy to ask questions when you are little, but as you get
older it gets harder to ask questions in a class?
Part 4 Social/Personality Development
The first six years of a child’s life is when they become aware of many things. In
the first three years of a child’s life they start to become attached to an individual care
giver, they start making expressions which appear to reflect emotion, and they exhibit
different temperaments and activity levels. In the next three years they grow a great
amount. Children begin to form friendships, they develop selfconcepts, play becomes
more constructive, cooperative, social skills become important, and they become aware
of gender and racial identity.
When Daniel was an infant he was very attached to his mother. His mom said
that every time she would leave Daniel would cry. The book talks about mothers being
able to provide the appropriate response to an infant when they cry and this may
contribute to why most infants are attached to their mother’s instead of their father’s. As
Daniel got older there were things that he would want his mother for, but other things
where he would want his father. According to Feldman, “when they are in unusually
stressful circumstances, most infants prefer to be soothed by their mothers than by their
fathers” (213). This just tells us that even though infants are usually attached to their
mothers that does not mean that they are not in some way attached to their father also.
Now that Daniel is older he has started to become more independent. At Little
Friends when his mom leaves he is okay with it and when she comes back he is usually
so busy playing that he does not even realize she is around. When it is free time and
Daniel is allowed to play, he always plays with the same little boy. These two boys
always play cooperatively, but if they play with blocks they are never really constructive.
The thing that I have noticed quite often with Daniel is that he never plays with any of the
girls in the class. If one of the girls comes up to where he is playing most of the time he
leaves. This shows me that some little kids do know the difference between a boy and a
girl.
Reflection
When I was first told that this class required me to do a case study on an
individual student I got nervous. I did not know what was expected of me and I was
afraid that I would have trouble getting the information that I needed. After the case
study was explained in class I felt a little better about the whole thing and then once we
started talking about each part by going through the chapters it seemed like it was going
to be easier then my original thought. There were a total of six parts to this case study
and as I went on it seemed like each part got a little harder. I had the most trouble with
trying to write about the physical development of Daniel. I’m not sure why I had the
most trouble with the physical part, but the other parts weren’t bad. Being able to
observe one child for each development really helped me understand the material being
talked about better in class. I am a handson learner so it is easier for me to be involved.
With class we talked about each section and then later we had to write about it. Class
time was preparing students for the paper they were going to be turning in soon and this
help me relate it to something happening now. If we did not have to do this case study I
think I would have had trouble actually paying attention because I would not think that it
had anything to do with me as a future teacher. As a future teacher I know it is important
to know how each student grows. In class discussions help with understanding the
different elements to learning, but being able to do a case study helped me see it first
hand. Teachers have to be able to understand these developments so they can adjust to
make sure they are teacher to each student rather then to just one. It is hard to do that, but
now that I have learned about it plus wrote about how you can understand a student’s
growth I think that when I am a teacher I will be better at helping my student develop
something they struggle with.