Aiden was observed twice in the same week, totalling 10 hours. It was observed in his home with the presence of his mum and younger sister. For Aiden’s physical development, he was able to demonstrate confident gross and fine motor abilities throughout his physical movements walking and running on his own. He is also able to utilize his body movements for example, when he was pulling his toy bike from his back, he could turn his body around. It has been observed that he is able to use his hand-eye coordination when he was using the crayon to scribble all over the paper. With his left hand, he holds the crayon by using the fisted grasp to scribble. I noticed that he was able to use some of the grips, in particular, Palmer grasp, fisted grasp, and pincer grasp. For his age group, he is progressing well for his gross motor and fine motor skills.
As for his cognitive/intellectual development, he is able to communicate and express himself by verbally using simple language amid his social interactions. He has likewise established labelling words and could understand commands. For example, when his mum calls out his name; he would turn in her direction and look at her. During his nap time, when he was asked to sleep with his mum, he would place his head on the mattress and covers both of his eyes by using his hands. He is able to identify the usage of some things, such as the utilization of the telephone.
He picked up his mum’s phone and instantly places it over his right ear. He is able to demonstrate the skill of helping himself until the point when he realises that he could not manage on his own, and then he would request for help by showing gestures and pointing to the item that he needs help with. For instance, when he could not reach out for his toy bike, he would call his mum out to assist him with getting the toy bike down. However, when he was demonstrated by his mum to colour sorting, he does not show an interest to it. For his emotional/affective development, he was able to express his needs and wants by using simple language and gestures. For example, after he was assisted with bringing down his toy bike, he would express himself by applauding both of his hands as a form of satisfaction.
When his sister took a ball away from him, he was able to say “No” to show that he refuses to share the plastic toy with her. He also demonstrates temper tantrums when he is unhappy particularly when he was stopped by his mum from doing the things which he prefers; when he was told to keep the toys and he did not get more food than what he wanted. Lastly, for his social growth development, Aiden appears to be confident when interacting with the people whom he is able to identify. When a stranger gave him a smile, he returned the stranger back with a smile however, it was noticed that he demonstrates a feeling of fear as he shook his head, to convey himself to the stranger. It has been also identified that he was not able to apply the social skills of taking turns or sharing things. For example, when his younger sister wants to play with his toy, he would grab the toy away from her.
Through the observation, there are some of the theories from different researchers that studies and understand child development in different areas. In one of the observation, I did a test on Jean Piaget’s theory in Object Permanence where I hid Aiden’s bolster under his blanket, and he was able to retrieve it back by lifting the blanket up. This shows that he has achieved the sensorimotor developmental milestone where coordination of sensory input and motor responses develop object permanence. Piaget believes that children at the age of 18 to 24 months, they are able to form mental representations of objects. Since they can symbolically imagine things that cannot be seen, they are now able to understand object permanence. During the observation, I could also notice that Aiden is able to imitate his mum.
When his mum showed him the method on how to stack up a few pieces of blocks, he observed and followed by picking up the blocks and placing it on top of the other blocks. There are other behaviours that I believed he has learned through observation. For example, when he uses the phone and placed it over his ear. This social learning theory was developed by Albert Bandura (1977) where his theory proposes that learning can occur through observation and imitation of the behaviours displayed by others. He has also demonstrated a sense of dependant on someone when he needs assistance.
For example, Aiden was experiencing difficulty in trying to put on his shoe on his own. When he realises that he could not put on his shoe by himself, he seeks for help through someone who is older. Lev Vygotsky’s theory, it views cognitive development as a socially mediated process, in which children rely on assistance from adults and more expert peers as they acquire knowledge and problem solve. Based on the information gathered by his parent, Aiden is more attached to his dad as compared to his mum. When his dad has left for work, he seeks secure attachment from his mum.
As his mum gave birth to his younger sister when he was at the age of___, he tends to show more affection towards his mother after the birth of his sister. They also have a strong culture practice in their religion as an Islam. When I came over to their house, Aiden would greet and welcome me by grabbing my right hand and kisses it. After his mum and dad say their blessing and supplication to him, he would return them with “Aamiin” while using both of his palms to give a quick wipe over his face. Before he goes to sleep, he would recite his supplication. This is due to the enforcement that his parent has nurtured and influenced him that he is able to emulate their practices.
