Child observations...help!?

Question

i am currenly studying cache lavel 2 in pre school pratctice as part of my assignement i have to do two observations and write about them. i done an observation based on how long a child stays at an activity and how many different activitys the child does whithin the space of 15 mins.. the child i am observing stayed at the same activity for a full 15 mins... im not sure if there is much i can write about this other than the fact the child has a good attention span... should i do another one or just use this one?

Answer 1

You can write about what the child did the time he was there....it is hard to write without knowing what he was doing....I will use an example...if it was a stamping activity...did the child use the same stamp...was there different colors, did they mix the colors....What you need to do is describe why the child was there for so long...what made it interesting....if he was there for the whole time you can write about the different components that were done at that activity.....then write how the child did and what they did ....

You could do another child...but i would stick with this one...maybe they did just one activity but they may have done it 15 different ways....

Answer 2

WELL IT DEPENDS HOW MUCH YOU HAVE TO WRITE ABOUT THIS CHILD AND HAVING A GOOD ATTENTION SPAN ISN'T THE ONLY THING THIS CHILD HAS THIS CHILD ALSO SOUNDS AS THOUGH TTHE CHILD CAN MAKE UP HIS OR HER MIND ABOUT SOMETING.WHY DON'T YOU TRY 30MINS. MAY BE THEN THE CHILD WILL CHOOSE ANOTHER ACTIVITY

Answer 3

Well,, what did the kid do the entire 15 minutes?  

Repeat the same movements over and over?  I doubt it.  So did the kid experiment with the activity?  What did the kid do, exactly, during the entire 15 minutes?

If you don't know, better choose a different kid and re-do this assignment. And pay really close attention to exactly what the kid is doing the entire 15 minutes.  That would be my advice.

Answer 4

It almost seems like you would need to compare the activity to another child to keep this observation.

Answer 5

I agree with llselva4. (Very good answer)

Answer 6

It sounds as if you need to write more specifics about your observations.  15 minutes is plenty of time to write down what is going on with a child during an activity.  2 fifteen minutes sessions, involving diverse activities are even better.

When a child is involved in an activity observe his/her movements, facial expressions, reactions with their peers, teachers and  other adults.  Is he/she engaged in conversation by  him/herself or with others? How are his/her language skills?  Does this child solicit interaction?  Is he/she participating fully or not seem interested?  Is he/she curious, focused?

A child observation offers you an opportunity to see periods in a child's learning development in the context of of relationships and early experiences. Observe with a keen, objective eye and you will see much more than you thought you could.  Like yoga, this takes practice.  The more you do it the better you get at it.    Good luck!