Observing Young Children
Why observation is important?
1. Can help us understand theories
2. Help us to understand children and what you read.
3. Formal testing procedures are not as valid – stranger anxiety.
4. To determine a child’s strengths.
5. To resolve a particular problem involving the child.
6. To make individual plans based on observed needs and abilities.
Patterns, trends or clusters of behavior will emerge and the teacher needs to use these observations to make recommendations. Excellent records of no use or value unless information is interpreted.
At some point in the study of children, we must watch, listen to them, touch them, and learn from them, if we want to understand them.
Setting of the observation, location of the behavior should be noted, time of day, stimulus, what triggered or got the behavior(s) started, and what behavior was actually exhibited.
Assessment requires information from parents, recorded observations of the child at play and in routines, organizing all the information into a comprehensive picture of the child and applying the information to curriculum planning.
Factors that effect observation:
1. Fatigue, illness, discomfort
2. Noise, temperature, poor lighting, crowded conditions
3. Our knowledge, values, attitudes and experiences
4. Influence of self or personality “sorting” – Tendency to project own feelings onto a child. You may believe that the child feels what you felt as a child or would feel in the present situation. Important to control our biases and not pass judgments (The way you were raised or the way you parent). This is called the halo effect. This is why it is difficult to observe your own children.
5. Errors of omission – leave out information that is helpful or necessary to understand child’s behavior. Distractions, simply missing behavior that has already occurred. The longer you wait to take notes the more you forget.
6. Errors of commission – Include more information than is actually present in the situation and report behavior or speech that did not occur, such as, inattention, faulty memory, and gaps in our perception.
Objective:
Recording what you see precisely and completely as possible without bias or prejudice. Describe what you see. Include information about body movement and facial expressions, verbal exchanges, etc. Be specific. Sharon is playing with a doll vs. Sharon is playing with a doll in the dramatic play area of the room. She is hugging the doll tightly and saying, “It’s okay, don’t cry.”
Subjective:
Try to explain and give some meaning to what you have observed and attempt to identify the cause of the behavior. Apply your attitudes and opinions to the child’s behavior based upon the class discussions, textbook readings, videos, etc. This section contains your educated guess.
Processing your request, Please wait....
