Observation
Part 1: Running Record

Thomas is watching Paw Patrol on the couch. He is not so much sitting as he is lying on his stomach with his feet in the air. Paw Patrol ends and Thomas cries out, “IT’S OVER!” He gets no response, so hops down from the couch and looks for his mother. “It’s over, Mama!” he whines. “Okay, well, I told you you could watch one episode!” she responds. Thomas whines more loudly. “I want to watch another one! I want to watch Blaze!” Thomas cries, stretching out the sounds in the last words to emphasize them. He pouts and fusses and pulls at his hair and face as though he can’t stand this predicament. His mother says, “Why don’t we color?” Thomas cries more vehemently. His mother, unperturbed, says lovingly and with some excitement in her tone: “We got those new coloring books and crayons from the store! Remember?” Thomas stops crying. “Oh yeah! We got crayons and coloring books!” He is now excited about coloring and jumps up and down and claps his hands and smiles and laughs. His mother gets up to get the crayons and coloring books.

Thomas colors for a few moments. He does not stay in the lines. He uses a variety of colors. He colors each individual section of the page with a color and gets a new crayon to color another section. He colors a few pages and says, “All done, Mama! Now can I have uh apple?” His mother says, “Just one minute.” Thomas sidles up alongside her and persists, “Mama, can I have uh apple?” “One minute,” she says. He waits maybe three seconds and asks with a little more pout in his tone, with the familiar face pulling and whine appearing, “I want uh apple…” and follows it up with a whimper. “Okay, let’s get an apple,” his mother says. He follows her happily into the kitchen, jumping and skipping as he goes. She cuts an apple for him and he dances around the room while he eats it. When his older brother and sister come in, he roars with excitement and shouts with a mouthful of apple, “APPLE!” and spins in several circles before crashing off down the hall. He follows his older siblings in playing with Legos, watching them and mimicking their actions. He sets his apple down and picks up Legos. Thomas puts three Legos together. He holds his Legos in his hand and picks up his apple as he stomps around the room. He roars like a dinosaur as he stomps. Then he stops and moves his head side to side, and his whole body moves as well. He sings the Paw Patrol theme song in broken toddler English: “Paw Puhchol, Paw Puhchol! Be there on uh double!” as he continues to sway side to side and walk around the room clutching his Legos and finishing his apple.

Part 2: Analysis

Physical Development

Thomas is well developed for a two year old. He is stocky with full cheeks and a healthy glow. His fine use of fingers is evident as he was able to hold individual crayons and color with them. Though he did not stay in the lines when coloring, he showed awareness of the lines and did not color haphazardly as though there were no lines...…his siblings build Legos before joining in), and parallel play (building alongside his siblings). Each of these types of play is consistent with his age and his social emotional development (Fiese, 1990; Garner & Bergen, 2006). In relation to Erikson’s stage of trust vs. mistrust, Thomas showed a high degree of trust towards his mother and siblings.

Part 3: Conclusion

The observation supported my understanding of infancy and toddler development by showing that at certain age levels, children are going to tend to behave in typical ways, as they are learning motor skills, emotional regulation, and how to play in different ways. What I learned from the observation assignment overall was that at the toddler age, the child is developing ways of expressing himself and will rely on old formulas to get what he wants. He is also learning emotional self-regulation and a mother’s soothing words and ability to distract the child from negative emotion by using positive emotion can be very helpful.

Summary

The child observed for this study was a two year old named Thomas. The observation began with Thomas finishing up a show. When it ended, he complained he wanted to watch another. The mother switched the child’s negative emotion to positive emotion by remaining calm with the pouting, whining child. The child colored for a while, demonstrating solitary play and motor control. The child then asked for an apple and danced happily in more solitary, physical play. When his siblings arrived, he watched them play and then entered into parallel play with them. Overall, the child showed typical signs of social emotional, physical, language and cognitive development for his age.