Anecdote-Based Developmental Insights: A Week in the Life of a Two-Year-Old

The assignment content focuses on a child's development progress in various areas, including physical, social, emotional, cognitive, and language skills. The report highlights the child's achievements and challenges, as well as their interests, strengths, and cultural practices. The observation guidelines used by ACECQA are also discussed. The report concludes with four suggestions for future learning experiences based on the child's needs, interests, and strengths.

CHCECE013 - USE INFORMATION ABOUT CHILDREN TO INFORM PRACTICE
Child profile:
Age: 3 years
Developmental Level: Enhanced Language and Cognitive Skill
Background: Urban Australian, girl child with no disabilities, single child of parents
The child, whom I observed is three years old. She belongs to the urban Australian community and has
no sibling so far. The child is currently developing the enhanced language and the cognitive skills. Still
now, no sign of physical or cognitive disability is observed in the child.
Observation and recording techniques used:
The child is observed using anecdotal nodes and the check lists.
The anecdotal nodes are used for recording particular observations regarding the behaviour of
individual child. The anecdotal nodes are also used for recording the skills and attitudes of the child, the
ability to comprehend the instructions, and identifying the learning directions. The anecdotal notes are
taken on basis of the continuous observations. However, the anecdotal notes can also be taken on basis
of the performances done by a student. The notes are written in brief and objective manner. In addition,
the notes focus on recording specific outcomes. The anecdotal nodes are taken immediately after an
activity is executed. As an effect, the notes are generally highly accurate.
The anecdotal notes aim at fulfilling the following goals—
 Collecting information regarding development of the child over a period
 Collect information regarding the instructional needs of a child
 Observing the significant behaviours of the child
 Documenting the learning process of a child
The checklist is a tool that records particular traits and behaviours of a child in logical order. Checklists
are effective for recording the specific type of behaviour in a child. The information in the checklists can
be interpreted easily because of their objective nature. The checklists are advantageous because they
enable the observer to record the data in time-efficient and easy manner. Recording the data over
checklist does not require any skill set. The observer can collect the data in presence of the child.
However, in case of checklists, the observer can record the observed data later also. The checklists
enable the observer to give importance on several behaviours at once. The checklists help the observers
to compare the behaviours of a child with the expected development milestones. Therefore, using the
checklists, the observers can identify the behaviours which a particular child has not shown yet.

Therefore, the curriculums can be planned accordingly so that the particular behaviour in the child can
be encouraged.
The checklist does not facilitate the observer to collect information in very detailed manner. The
checklist also does not provide any information regarding the context or sequence of the events. Finally,
the checklists do not facilitate the observers to include all information. Therefore, the important
information can be missed while recording information on the checklist. Finally, the checklists do not
facilitate the observer to record the duration of a particular behaviour.
Original observations:
Anecdotes
Anecdote 1: 1st Week Observation
On the first week, the child has shown remarkable progress in different areas. The child can eat from the
cups without any help. She can wear dresses without any assistance. The child is able to hold pencil and
crayon properly and tries drawing sketches. She has gain efficiency in catching balls. She enjoys playing
with adults and her peers. She also shows interest to get involved into the play activities which require
highly intense physical activities. The child shows interest to interact with others during play. The
observation indicates that the child faces difficulty to balance herself on a single leg. However, still now
she has not shown any preference over the same-sex playmates. She enjoys playing equally with any
playmate in her peer group irrespective of the gender. The child is strongly attached to her parents and
tries to copy them sometimes. However, she likes being at the center of attention for the adults. The
child also developed several cognitive abilities. For instance she can differentiate between the images of
male and female. She can count objects. She is able to identify the similarities and differences between
two and more objects by pointing them out. The child shows interest to play with natural objects such as
the sand and water and enjoys learning about those objects more by asking questions. The child can
accept two or more instructions at a time and can act accordingly. She can imitate rhymes and copy
animal activities. The language skill of the child is developing rapidly. The child is able to develop small
sentences. The child is developing knowledge on right grammatical structure as well and she is able to
develop correct sentences. The child can take part in the singing and dancing activities.
Anecdote 2: 2nd Week observation
In the second week of observation also, the child showed different signs of development. In the second
week, she was equally enthusiastic regarding the play sessions with high –intensity physical activities.
The child also started taking part in the activities such as the squat, jumping, moving over hurdles, get
dressed without assistance, and eat from cups. This week also, the child showed difficulty to keep
balance on a single leg. The drawing skill of the child with pencil and crayon improved. The vocabulary of
the child improved significantly. The child learnt new words and so, the social interaction of the kid also
improved. Along with interacting with the peers, the child is also showing interest to interact with adults
as well. In this week as well, the child has not shown any specific interest over the same-sex playmates.
The child does not prefer sharing toys with others. However, the child shares toys when she is instructed

to do. In the second week, the child showed sign of feeling guilty for not obeying her caregiver and
disturbing other kids during mealtime. The child also showed progress in making structures with
different shapes. In this week, the child has showed strong attachment with parents but she does not
show any sign of distress when the parents leave her at the care center every day. The child shows
knowledge on space with help of physical activity. The child also has showed interest in listening stories
from the adults.
Checklists
The checklists are prepared as per the EYLF and NQS guidelines.
The goals that the child has attained are highlighted.
Development Area Development Goals EYLF/NQS area achieved
Physical goals Able to walking running climbing
and jumping
Able to use steps
Able to do squat and does not
need support for rising
Play with balls ( catching and
kicking)
Can balance on one foot
Able to move over obstacles
Able to open doors
Moves with music
Turn pages perfectly
Able to sketch or scribble with
help of pencil or crayon
Can get dressed with assistance
Can eat from cups and other
utensils without assistance
The child faces little problem
while balancing on one foot.
The EYLF outcome 3 focuses on
enabling the children in ensuring
physical well being. In this case
also, the child becomes able to
dress and feed themselves.
Social goals Interact with other children
through play
Prefer same-sex playmates and
toys
Shares toys with others
The child does not have any
special preference over the
same-sex playmates or toys.
While sharing toys, most of the
times the child protests.
EYLF goal 2 attained which says
that the child should be able to
develop respectful relationship
with others.
Emotional Goals Expresses strong attachment to
the parents
Expresses distress when parents
leave
The child shows strong
attachment with parents but
does not show any distress when
they leave.
As per the EYLF area 3, the child

Shows guilt for misdeeds
Prefers adult attention
becomes able to ensure social
and emotional well-being.
Cognitive goals Create tower of 5 to 7 objects
and arranges them in lined-up
manner
Identifies the common objects
by pointing
Plays with sand, water
Identifies picture of a boy and
girl
Counts number
Identifies similarities and
dissimilarities
Imitate rhythm and animal
activities
Knows about space with help of
physical activity
Take two and more instructions
The child has met the EYLF goal 5
by communicating effectively.
Language goals Uses short sentences with two
three words learns new
vocabulary, be grammatically
correct
Knows own gender
Copies actions
Perform dance and music
Prefers listening to stories
Along with EYLF area 5, the child
also attained EYLF area 1 which
focuses on making the child able
to know own identity.
Guidelines used for observing child
The child should be observed appropriately and the activities of the child need to be documented in an
unbiased manner. Observing activities of the child and documentation is necessary to identify the skills
and abilities. The documentation also helps the educators to get an idea on the weakness of the child. In
other words, the observation and documentation of the children activities are useful for identifying the
extent to which the child has met the development goals. The documentation also helps the educator to
identify the areas where the child needs further development. So, with help of the documentation, the
future learning process can be planned. Therefore, accuracy of the documents is important for
maintaining the quality of the lesson plans. In the current case, the observation and the documentation
tasks are done as per the observation guidelines provided by ACECQA.
 information that you have gathered on the child’s strengths, interests, needs and cultural
practices

 a brief description of how information is exchanged with and discussed with other staff and
families
 four suggestions for future learning experiences (including interactions and communication)
based on the child’s interests, needs, strengths and cultural practices
 a summary of the National Quality Framework (NQF) and National Quality Standard (NQS) and
how the Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF) incorporates the standards to be enforced to
service providers