Ms. Simpson Turks
Nursing Program, LACC
February 25, 15
Child Development Center Observation
In this paper I will describe a child observation that I have done at the Children’s Hospital Child Development Center for about five hours in a play setting. The child development center deals with children of various ages, from infant to school age. Unfortunately my student peer and I were not allowed to observe the infants, and were only allowed to observe toddlers to school age children. The setting of the CDC was more similar to a preschool than a day care. Children were grouped together and placed in a room specifically designed for them depending on their age and learning level. There were about two infant rooms, two toddler rooms, one preschool age room, and one school age room. In the rooms, there were books, toys, art supplies, and music instruments that are age appropriate for the children assigned. There were many staff members in the center, who each play an important role to the children. There were teachers, caretakers, a cook, a supervisor or director, a front desk clerk and volunteers. There were no specific preparation required in order to care for the children other than hand hygiene and appropriate manner. I will discuss the area of growth and development observed in each age group. The growth and development I observed in the toddlers ages 1-3 were quite surprising. Each child has their own unique personality, have different point of views, likes to engage in parallel play, and are easily frustrated. There were many incident where one child might hurt another, purposely or accidental. Tantrums are prominent in this age group, but the children observed seemed to recover from what had upset them in short period of time. Discipline from teachers were made to the child that did wrongfully in a manner that didn’t shame them. Most of them were not toilet trained yet, so they were still in diapers. The physical and motor development in