Child observation in early childhood education

¶ … working with children, it is important to look at both cognitive development and various theoreticians. Cognitive science is a multidisciplinary field, comprising cognitive psychology, artificial intelligence, linguistics, neuroscience, and anthropology. In recent years, cognitive science has become a predominant paradigm in studies of the mind. Cognitive science incorporates concepts and methods from philosophy, cognitive psychology etc., whereas behaviorism dominated the psychological sciences during the first part of this century. Cognitive scientists are interested in mental structures and processes of the mind. For this particular observational exercise, the basic development sets of Skinner, Erickson and Piaget formed the background.

Observations -- During the sessions, eleven children were observed, ranging in estimated age from 2 to 7. Both observation days were Sunday, time chosen was noon, specifically to attempt to observe children potentially coming home from church services. Seven children were male ( 64%), 4 female (36%). During this particular observation, all children were either Hispanic or African-American, for the purposes of this paper not a significant modifier. No information was available on demographics, although in all by one case it was a female (either relative, caregiver, or mother) who attended the children. The play lasted approximately 13.4 minutes on average, and was interrupted by the caregiver rather than the child tiring of the interaction.

Whether due to the particular place involved (a playland environment) or to the familiarity with the area (all children seemed to "know" how to get to the play area, where the toys were stored, what was available, etc.), the children were eager to begin a play session with whomever was in the area. It did not appear that any of the children knew each other beforehand, with the exception of one family who had three children within one group. Indeed, the children were far more interested in finishing their meal in order to play than in the games that were included as part of their lunch.

None of the children introduced themselves by name, instead, there seemed to be an innate and unspoken level of communication, which allowed the introduction and departure of group members on a rather random basis without interrupting the play cycles. For example, one young boy, about 5 years old, was the ostensible "ruler" of the slide tower. When a new person came into the area, this youngster immediately asserted his role by directing them how to climb the stairs, how to sit, and interestingly enough, how to be safe when sliding down the ramp. In general, the female children were more verbal in their naming of the characters present -- Ronald McDonald, Mayor McCheese and the Hamburgler especially. The verbal naming of characters was reinforced with the coloring books brought from their meal (Happy Meal?). All but one of the 11 children spent at least some time coloring.