Child Observation: Faustine Bui - Essay Example

Child Observation Essay

For this child observation essay, I observed Faustine Bui. Bui is my niece, and she is six years old. I did my observation at a park that had many children and did not mind allowing dogs to play in it. The park was perfect because it consists of a large play area that ensures that all children have enough space while moving around. It also has a separate sandy area with an array of playing equipment that is ideal for children. I first observed her biosocial development, including physical growth and excellent motor skills.

At 3 feet tall, Faustine appears to be shorter than most children at the park are. However, her height is standard for a child of her age. Her parents are quite short, so this might have significantly contributed to her height.

While growing up, Faustine was a chubby baby. However, she has grown up and has become very lean. She is neither too skinny nor chubby. According to famous authors who focus on the development of children, her physical growth is average for a child of her age.

The ideal weight for a six-year-old is between 40 and 45 pounds, while the typical height is about three and a half feet tall. When a kid attains the age of six, he or she begins to have body proportions that are similar to those of an adult. It essentially means that the legs of children of this age make up about half of their entire height. Kids aged 5 to 6 are very lean because they do not have a lot of body fat compared to other ages. It is attributable to several things, including intense playing and movement that helps to get rid of excess body fat.

Faustine is not only lean because of the typical growth patterns attributable to children of her age, but also because of her eating practices while at home. Her ideal diet excludes fat but includes vegetables and fruits for all the three meals that she consumes daily. Her healthy eating habits have further been exhibited today during our park visit. Her packed snacks for the trip were fruits and fresh fruit juice that was made at home.

My observation of Faustine playing with other children in the park today has made me conclude that her gross and motor skills are satisfactory compared to other children of her age. Faustine was able to run across the park with other children and even managed to beat them in a race that they held. However, her biggest challenge was Jungle Jim. She kept swaying whenever she attempted to move her feet to the next bar. She gave up eventually and did not want to deal with Jungle Jim again for the time she played at the park.

Faustine was only able to throw a countable number of balls. Although she was not able to throw them accurately or far off. When children get to the age of three, they can do an array of activities. They become eager to know new things, and it is common to see them jumping from one place to another. When they reach the age of six, they develop more skills that they did not have before, including the ability to skip.

Although I was not able to detect many excellent movement skills from Faustine, there was an instance where she got hold of a stick, held the stick like a pencil, and immediately began drawing on the ground. Most two-year-old children can do many things. The notable ones are drawing vertical lines and scribbling. When they get to the age of six, they can easily copy letters and complex shapes. They are also able to hold pencils like adults.

I also observed the intellectual capabilities of Faustine. It entailed observing her memory, language, and perception skills. When watching her, I got to learn that Faustine is a very chatty child. She would talk about everything that came to her mind.

There were times when she would just sit and converse with us while there were other times when she spoke to herself while playing. Lev Vygotsky explains that sometimes children make use of private speech to review and explain to themselves specific theories or events. This theory brought forward by Lev is known as the social learning theory.

The theory stresses the critical role that social interaction plays in the development of cognitive skills. Lev believes that the community plays a significant role in the development of particular abilities that children possess. A lot of questions that Faustine asked us were “why this” or “why that.”

Sometimes she would run towards us, utter non-comprehensible phrases, and run off entirely. There are times that she would just run towards other children and converse with them. She has a useful vocabulary that is almost wholly developed. Although her sentences made sense, some of the statements she made were silly and wild. She can fluently speak English and Vietnamese. All characteristics she exhibited are quite typical for a child of her age.

When children get to the age of three, they murmur and pretend to read. By the time they get to the age of five, they begin to talk well and understand many concepts. When they get to the age of six, most children start to write and have developed admirable language skills. While at the park, I did not observe the memory capabilities of Faustine.

However, Baddeley’s model explains that children over 4 have good working memories and can easily remember things. It is worth noting that the minds of children below seven years is weak but improves when they are over seven, and they often remember what happened, and where an event took place.

Bui was aware of her surroundings. She steadily dug in the sand to find pebbles and other tiny items. I observed that she would explore the park with the other children because of her curiosity. I also observed Bui’s psychosocial skills and noted that she is not a shy girl. While she was running through the park, she quickly made new friends with everyone she met.

She even went over and conversed with a very shy girl. Their conversation was just perfect, and anyone could have thought that they have known each other for ages. She did not come to request that we have fun with her and, at times, acted as if we were non-existent. It is understandable because children prefer to play with their peers as opposed to themselves or their parents.

Further, younger children prefer to play with kids who are of their age and those of a similar social status. However, Faustine befriended any kid at the park that who wanted to play with her. The kids were involved in sociodramatic playing; they would stand on their playing equipment and pretend to be pirates.

She was very friendly and did not get into any trouble when interacting with the rest of the children. Every time she came over to eat her snacks or adjust her clothes, she was very eager to go back to the playground to play with the other kids. Erik Erikson explains that there are eight stages of psychosocial development that help when transitioning from childhood to adulthood. Bui is in the competence stage.

It is a stage that children start realizing that they are their own individuals. The age range for this stage is usually between 5 to 12 years. This stage quickly manifested itself when Bui was playing at the park. She rarely needed us for anything, explored on her own, made new friends, and discovered how the playing equipment worked on her own.

What was evident is that she still has a lot to learn about the feelings of other people. While she quickly talked to other children and made new friends, she could not read the other kids’ moods and emotions. Some of them were calm and just wanted to be left alone, but she insisted on talking to them and making new friends. Learning to understand other people’s feelings is one thing that people acquire as they grow older. While she currently has not obtained this skill, she might acquire it later.

I also observed that Bui needs to be more aware of all her surroundings. Although she loved to play and take note of the things around her, she had no idea of what the other children were doing.

For example, she was uneasy and kept jumping from one child to another without realizing that some of those children were trying just to have a good time and play with her. I further observed that she would move from one location to another, forgetting where she had left her toys. She forgot that we were watching her, and Bui was so absorbed in the activities that she thought were meaningful to her.

From my observation, I noted that Bui is very healthy and fit. She remembers things and is very active. Her psychosocial, cognitive, and biosocial development is just similar to the kids who are of the same age as her. She is an athletic child and likes to socialize with other kids.