Brittany Rubado- LaVare

Observation Paper

Do you ever wonder what goes on in a childs mind on a daily basis? Like what they
want to do the minute they spy or say something that interests them, or even what theyre going
to do next once they have that thought in their minds, as well as what comes out of their mouths.
Although every child is different in the ways that they do or say things, but you just honestly
never know what theyre going to do next. Childrens minds show us the way they think, do, and
express so many things. A childs brain is endless with many ideas, creations, expressions,
experiences, interactions, and conversations. Children learn more from what you are, that what
you teach. W.E.B. Dubois.
On November 2nd, 2015 at 1pm to 3pm, I observed a two year old little boy at his own
house. He was playing, watching TV, eating, cleaning and roaming around his house, while his
mom, nana, papa, and aunt were around, but his mom and nana were mostly present during my
whole observation. While observing him, I have witnessed a lot of different behaviors. I
witnessed cognitive, physical, and socioemotional behaviors. I have also witnessed many
milestones throughout this observation and its so crazy what you observe when observing
someone youre so close too. Its like when youre around them you never really what they can
do when you dont actually pay attention to them. But the things that he says and does, I could
never imagine that for being a two year old, the many things he does or say.
I observed many developmental milestones that he obtained when I was observing him.
Milestones are when the child explores boundaries, rules, and physical developmental limits that

occur during a childs time in the next few years (American Academy of Pediatrics, 2015). There
are many milestones like, movement/physical, hand and finger skills, language skills, cognitive
skills, social skills, and emotional milestones a child can obtain. Each milestones and or skills
has different abilities for a child to overcome. A milestone can show the success and needs of
improvement for a child to work on. Milestones can define how a child plays, learn, speaks, and
acts when as a child is growing. Developmental milestones are things most children can do by a
certain age (CDC, 2015).
Some of the milestones that I observed with the two year old are, milestones in his hands
and fingers because when he was helping his nana wash the dishes he kept filling the cups up
with water and dumping the water back out. That is an example of him using his fine motor skills
by moving his hands and fingers to pour the water back out. Fine motor skills is the coordination
of small muscle movements (Gordon, 2013). Fine motor skills are when you use your hands,
fingers, thumb, foot, toes- basically hand-eye coordination (Coon, 2014).
Another milestone is language and let me tell you a two year old can talk! Language
development is the way a child speaks, read, writes, and listens (Coon, 2014). While he was
washing the dishes with his nana, he was talking up a storm. He said, Nana, Im making a
mess because water was going everywhere and he said, Now I am a mess. She quickly
cleaned it up and they proceeded to finish the dishes. He also stated to Nana about there being so
many bubbles. They conversed back and forth throughout the whole experience. He also had a
mini conversation with me, he yells my name, Brittany, look it! So I got up and looked, he
wanted me to see that he was helping his nana with the dishes. I said to him, wow youre big
boy and so nice to help nana with the dishes. He simply looked at me and gave me a BIG smile
and went about the dishes.

I also observed another milestone within him. Cognitive development is the way a child
thinks, remember, process, and problem solves (Gordon, 2013). When he was playing with his
toys, his Mickey Mouse clubhouse to be exact. He has little figurines for it and he was using
them to interact and play with each other. He definitely had to use his thought process on what
he wanted his figurines to pretend to say when they were talking to each other. A child can
express their selves so many ways when theyre thinking and processing things in their minds.
Socioemotional was another milestone I saw. Socioemotional behavior is how a child
expresses their own thoughts and feelings while they interact with other people (Papalia,
Martorell, Feldman, 2014). At this point I was observing the two year old bonding with his nana.
Theyre were laughing, singing, smiling, and communicating with each other. These are some
factors of socioemotional because theyre were both expressing, showing, and voicing their
feelings towards each other. He and his nana have such a close relationship with each other that
its only going to get stronger as he grows older. He also used language development by
communicating with each other on how they felt with their reactions towards one another.
When a child is involved in hands-on/active experiences, they play, explore, experiment,
and interact with people and objects (Copple, 2006). The experiences that a child goes through,
they try to always make sense of their experience as theyre happening. For an example, when
the two year old was washing dishes, sweeping the floor, playing with his Mickey Mouse
clubhouse, eating lunch, roaming around, bonding with his nana, and seeing what his mom was
doing. Every one of those experiences that he had that day, he will always remember them
because he went through them himself. Children learn best when theyre able to relate to new
knowledge to what they have already encountered (Copple, 2009). The knowledge that they
encounter is what is important to them. Mentally child are active learners who construct their

knowledge or understanding of the world (Gordon, 2013). Children are always working to figure
things out on their own terms.
Children have so many milestones and skills that can define their success in this world.
Many children go through improvements to help them succeed through them and thats okay
because some take longer than others to develop as theyre growing. Children are constantly
active, whether its to do with what theyre saying, showing, or doing. They have a mind of their
own and they definitely know how to use it. They are at a constant, get up and go because
theyre always finding things that they like or are interested in. Children are our future and the
way that we teach them, it the way that they learn. Children are so brilliantly intelligent and they
should be able to express that however they want. They learn the way that they see it and thats
important because children can be many great things as they grow older by what they learnt and
how they been taught.
Over all, I really enjoyed doing my observation. Im glad that I chose the little boy that I
did because I know for his smart intelligence that I encountered, he is most definitely going to do
bigger and greater things for himself. He is super smart and is developmentally above his age
level in many things. He makes me proud and prouder every day. I was happy to do my
observation on him because even though I see him, I never really knew how much he had to say
and do in the time that I observed him. He shocked me so many times.
This observation also made think of my children at my student teaching site. When I went
over the milestones that I did many children in my site came to mind. I know that for some of the
milestones, some of my children would definitely succeed in them and I know that some would
need improvements and would need to work on them with help. Every child in my site is
different in their own unique way and thats whats makes them, them and thats one thing I love

about being there. My passion has always been to work with young children since fourth grade
and that is why I am here today, in college to make my dream happen and I surely am going to
no matter the struggles and challenges because I have so many people that I love and care about
that support me every day and I cant thank them enough.