Ymca Observation

For my observation I chose to survey a few students that attend after school/day care at YMCA Elmonte. YMCA elmonte has guidelines for volunteers and requires A background check for non staff. I was not able to get full access to the YMCA as a volunteer due too time constraints for this first observation, but should be processed in time for observation number two for older aged adolescents. I choose to pay attention to age groups 4-5 years old for my first study as grounds for learning about Social Cognitive Theory. This age group is very high energy yet, not very logical in their decision making abilities. The city of Elmonte has a very high population of Latino and White children. The social demographic of this area has a lot of young
He attends kindergarten about 5 minuets away and is dropped off at the Elmonte location with his friend every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. He is in the youth section of the YMCA, So he is able to play with peer older than him without constant supervised interaction. I found that a blind observation would work best for the situation whence, to not change john’s normal behavioral routine during free play. I wanted his expression and emotion to be uninfluenced without him putting on a show. Although john did not return the second Monday I visited I had learned a bit from his interaction with members of this program. John came to the program with a polo t-shirt and tan pants so it seems as though his elementary school requires him to wear a uniform to school. There were about five other kids out of around 45 who had similar dress code. john tended to play more with his friend who he came with and one other child in the same uniform when I came to the
This student was there both times I visited. The boys name is Kenneth. Kenneth did not come to the program with a fancy school uniform like john, he wore regular clothes and had a few stains on his shirt. He was not as high energy as john yet still had a social circle of students he hung out with. Kenneth is also 5 years old but seemed kind of withdrawn from the environment. When I visited the first time Kenneth was the first student I paid attention to because he seemed kind of odd out of the group. Coming to find out Kenneth has and older sister that attends the Y also and is 3 years older than him. He is in a different class than his sister In not sure why. His sister is pretty active and runs and plays with things around the center but is very much involved in group activities she has 2 friends of which she spends the most time with. When presented with a new activity it takes Kenneth a few moments for his brain to kick into gear and move on to the next task he kind of sits and stares at the other children and then he goes about joining the group. Snack time he sits with kids of his age group and doesn’t speak to often. During physical activity of music time Kenneth joins the choreography but he isn’t overjoyed or making rambunctious movements that disrupt anyone else he tended to stay to the side of the room and tries to create as title attention as