Observation of a toddler at 18-30 months old

Toddler

The subject is a two and a half year old boy, he has one older brother who is five. His father is an electrician, while his mother works part-time at a travel agency. He spends most days at home with his grandmother, who baby-sits the subject when his mother is at work. The family are Polish immigrants and speak primarily Polish in the home. His older brother attends preschool and is was not around during the observational study. The study took place at the playground that is part of the apartment complex where the subject lives, and where I performed the study. The subject is familiar with me, as I also live in the complex and interact with the subject and his parents. His father and mother are my friends and allowed me to observe the subject during his "play time."

The subject arrived with the grandmother at the playground around 2 pm, and immediately ran to play with other children who were already there. There were five other children, all were several years older than the subject, except for one child who was only a few months older. At first the subject tried to keep up with the older children, but due to his size, inability to climb very well, and lack of coordination on some of the more difficult aspects of the playground, the subject eventually broke off and played almost exclusively with another younger child. They immediately went to some of the other rides, ones that were built for younger children. The two remained playing together for the entire hour.

The subject did not interact with the grandmother until some of the older children were playing on the swings and he wanted to join them. The subject lacked the ability to speak in full sentences and because of this, the subject simply grabbed his grandmother's hand and pulled her toward the swings. At first the subject is reluctant to be pushed too high, but then after a while the subject gets over fear of swinging high, and wants grandmother to push the subject higher and higher. The two children seem to be competing as to who can go the highest. She played with the subject and his friend on the swings, but when she needed a break, the subject began to cry. This is the first outburst on the part of the subject. The grandmother sharply scolded the subject and sent him and his friend to play on other things. He and his friend followed the older children on a rope bridge, but the subject was unable to get across as he lacked the coordination to cross a moving bridge. He needed his grandmother to take him off the rope bridge, but the other young child made it across.

One of the interesting aspects of this study is the fact that both the parents, and grandmother are from Poland. They speak Polish at home, and the grandmother speaks very little English. What communication there was between the subject and his grandmother was in Polish, and the subject did not speak much to the other children, he simply played with them. The other child that the subject paired up with also comes from a home where Polish is spoken and these two, when they spoke, did so in Polish. I do not speak Polish so I do not know what they were saying. I have spoken with the subject and he is able to communicate somewhat is English, but only simple things.

Being only two and a half years old, the child has some difficulty walking, but can do it. He can climb up ladders and stairs, but very slowly, and only if the steps are not too big. However, the rope ladder proved to be too much for the subject's poor coordination skills, and even led to a crying fit, most likely due to the subject being afraid of falling. The grandmother must come and rescue the subject from the rope bridge.

Another interesting aspect of this study was the subject's desire to play with the older children. Even if that meant doing something that he was physically unable to do. When he first arrived, the subject wanted to play with all the children, and tried to keep up, but was unable to. The subject then broke off to play with his friend who is just slightly older than the subject, but always remained close to the larger group of children. When the older children went to play on the swings, the subject wanted to follow. It is important to mention that the subject did not show any interest in swinging until the older children began to do so, then the subject wanted to also use the swings. And when the grandmother wanted to stop swinging, the older children were still playing on the swings, perhaps this was the motivation for the child to begin crying when forced to stop swinging.

It was also the older children who late began to play on the rope bridge, when the subject also wanted to do so. While his friend was able to make it across, the subject did not demonstrate the appropriate coordination to do so. His failure to cross the bridge, and the fact that it moved around, may have caused the subject to become afraid and fear falling through. It could also have been his frustration at not being able to accomplish the goal that drove him to cry.

After spending a few minutes with the grandmother, the subject ran off to play with his friend. As the hour was up the study came to a conclusion with the subject playing with his friend.

Observational Notes

Subject: male 2 1/2 years of age, youngest of two children, one older brother age 5,

Father is an electrician, Mother works at a travel agency. Family are immigrants from Poland and speak primarily Polish. Subject's grandmother takes care of the subject during the day. Relation to author is friends child.

Setting: Apartment building complex playground area. There are several other children playing at the playground beside the child, his brother is at pre-school. The other children are older, the subject is the youngest of all.

Time: Monday, afternoon, from 2:00pm to 3:00 PM.

Subject arrives at playground with grandmother, the child immediately goes to play with other children, he is well acquainted with them, even though they are a bit older. The subject first plays on the twisty slide. Other children can climb up the slide, but subject is too small and weak to do it. He must go around and climb the ladder.