Infant Observation and Parents Interview

Ryon is a twelve-month-old, blond-haired, blue-eyed, White toddler. He is fair-skinned with almond-shaped eyes. I met him at a friend’s suburban residence, on 1st November, 2017, where her mom provides daycare services. I spent time between 2 p.m. and 5 p.m. at her place. I discovered Ryon seated on the living room floor. Though equipped with only a TV set and a couple of couches, the setting seemed rather comfortable and safe (Lake, 2017).

The boy seems to find no difficulty sitting up. It appears he is confident of his ability to maintain balance. He is seated feet-outwards, with legs wide out. The boy is able to lean forward till his tummy reaches the floor, though he requires a certain amount of effort in order for sitting back up. When he crawls, his hands are spread flat across the floor, with fingers made wide and feet pointed nearly directly behind the boy. When shifting from a crawl to a seated position, Ryon first raises one leg (the right one), placing the foot flat before leaning back and touching his bottom to the floor. When shifting from a crawl to a standing position, the boy goes all the way over to a couch, takes its support with one hand, leans his head back, steadies himself with right foot, and places the other hand as well on the couch prior to standing up. This activity requires a certain amount of effort. Ryon appears heavy and tall as compared to others his age and has yet to commence walking without support. (He is able to walk with the couch’s support, along its edge). His size is perhaps what deters his walking independently. The boy is sturdy, in good health, and demonstrates normal coordination. All of the above elements are considered normal by Piaget, for a toddler aged one (Lake, 2017).

Ryon is seated on the ground surrounded by his toys. Beside him is his mom, to whom he starts handing the toys. The boy shows interest in his mom’s response to the blocks he gives her one after the other. He leans forward to pick up a block, which he passes along to her. He scrutinizes her face, mouth agape in wait for her response. His mother reads out the letter, followed by stating the block’s color. Ryon nods and moves towards the next block. When he is done with five blocks, the boy crawls to retrieve a toy car which he pushes around for some time. He then looks to observe what his mom is up to, moving the toy towards her and smiling. His mom returns the smile, asking him if the care is his. Ryon smiles and nods – he seems rather interested in how his mom reacts to him. Irrespective of whether he is near or moves off for a toy, his mom continually watches him. Ryon occasionally turns around to see whether her focus is on him or not; when she begins retrieving toys from the floor and tidying the place up, Ryon moves towards her from time to time interested in her actions. He appears to be highly dependent on her mood. If his mom smiles, he does too. When she seems distracted, he desires her focus back on him. Ryon seems to be reading and responding to his mother’s facial expressions. Overall, the mother-child relationship appears positive, with the former being highly attentive to the latter (Lake, 2017).

Being a learner of a kinesthetic nature, Ryon depicts a sound sense of balance, learning best through touch or personal performance of tasks. Babies, from the outset, actively construct individual understandings based on personal experiences. Their sociocultural setting mediates and relates to such understandings. Children display active learning through observation and participation with peers, educators, parents and other adults.

Given his age, I was unable to adequately observe linguistic and cognitive development within the child. Ryon is able to push, pull and carry things around. As mentioned previously, he dragged his toy car to and fro over the floor. Crawling over to it, the boy placed his right hand atop the car with fingers inserted through its front window opening. Initially, he pushed it over to his mom’s sitting place, paused, ceased pushing before sitting down from his crawl, and finally pushed it to and fro, whilst making noises. He started drooling at some point; his mother had to wipe his mouth. The boy demonstrates normal behavior for a 12-month-old. His gross and fine motor skills are age-appropriate. He can take hold of objects which fit within his hand when sitting, standing or crawling (Lake, 2017).

Ryon shows particular interest in people’s facial expressions, which he responds to. If his mom smiles, he too smiles, opening and closing his hands. On occasion, he simultaneously starts wiggling his toes. If he finds his mom unsmiling or not focused on him, Ryon observes her for some time prior to fetching a toy for her. I believe he gauges her feelings, and takes comfort in her observation of him. He watches me as well, desiring to understand my emotions. I desired to observe him without participating; however, whenever his focus was on me, I responded. When jotting down my notes, he occasionally crawled towards me, sat nearby with one of his toy, and looked at me from time to time. When I smiled or spoke about the toy, he would go back to play, satisfied. In my view, he behaves normally for a one-year-old. Ryon is a rather social child, who likes independent play and interacting with other people for short durations (Lake, 2017).