Child Development
After learning through text about the acts and reactions of an infant, we were able to observe these different acts on different children and notice how they differ from each other. On March 21, we had our class baby day and observed the children in the center of the room filled with different objects to play with. The child I observed was Alaina. Alaina is a seventeen month old Hispanic girl. She is very adorable and in my opinion, is much smaller than most 17 month old babies I have seen. When I first seen her, I thought she was the one of the youngest from the children, but she was actually about the same age as them. Alaina is a full term baby living in a home that includes her mom, dad, four older brothers, and herself. Through this report, I will talk about the ways in which Alaina demonstrated some of the infant traits we learned about and the ways in which she didn’t demonstrate others.
1. Sensory/Perception and Motor Skills Alaina demonstrated only a few of the sensory exploration traits. She mainly looked around to her surroundings and played with toys but never really put them into her mouth or smelled them. One thing she did often was turn when a certain area of the play area was a bit louder. She turned to where there was noise all the time or to where she heard a toy that made different sounds. She demonstrated her gross motor skills (160) by waving her arms, walking, and getting back up as she fell. She also demonstrated fine motor skills (163) by picking up a piece of paper, pointing fingers, and also by grabbing the tissues from inside the box and removing them. When Alaina saw a toy she liked she was able to grasp (159) it and pick it up with ease. She was active after a while and began moving around more and showing more of her abilities to play with certain toys.
2. Piaget Cognitive Development During the first 15 minutes of the observation, Alaina did not seem as if she likes to explore. She sat and just looked around to what others were
1. Sensory/Perception and Motor Skills Alaina demonstrated only a few of the sensory exploration traits. She mainly looked around to her surroundings and played with toys but never really put them into her mouth or smelled them. One thing she did often was turn when a certain area of the play area was a bit louder. She turned to where there was noise all the time or to where she heard a toy that made different sounds. She demonstrated her gross motor skills (160) by waving her arms, walking, and getting back up as she fell. She also demonstrated fine motor skills (163) by picking up a piece of paper, pointing fingers, and also by grabbing the tissues from inside the box and removing them. When Alaina saw a toy she liked she was able to grasp (159) it and pick it up with ease. She was active after a while and began moving around more and showing more of her abilities to play with certain toys.
2. Piaget Cognitive Development During the first 15 minutes of the observation, Alaina did not seem as if she likes to explore. She sat and just looked around to what others were
References: Santrock, J. (2007). Chidren 10th Ed. New York: McGraw-Hill Baby Day Carina Cortes Child Development 103 Michelle Moen April 16, 1013