QF 4010: Child Development Observation and Assessment Report

This report presents a comprehensive analysis of child development through observation and assessment, focusing on a case study of a 5-year-old named Tyler. The report details ethical considerations, observational methods including running records, jottings, and photographs, and the application of these methods to assess Tyler's physical, cognitive, social, language, and moral development. It integrates relevant developmental theories like Piaget's and Kohlberg's, providing a deep understanding of Tyler's progress. The analysis compares the observations with established child development milestones and guidelines, supported by Freud's psychosexual theory. The reflection section offers personal insights and recommendations for future assessments. The conclusion summarizes the key findings, emphasizing the importance of a holistic approach to understanding child development.

1
QF 4010
CHILD DEVELOPMENT, OBSERVATION AND ASSESSMENT
Student Name:
Student ID:

2
Table of Contents
COMPONENT ONE: OBSERVATIONS.......................................................................................3
Case study....................................................................................................................................3
Ethical Considerations.................................................................................................................3
Observational Methods................................................................................................................4
Observations.................................................................................................................................5
Analysis........................................................................................................................................7
Reflection.....................................................................................................................................8
Conclusion...................................................................................................................................9
References..................................................................................................................................10

3
COMPONENT ONE: OBSERVATIONS
Case study
The case study under consideration is all about a child whose name is Tyler is a five-
year-old kid. The assessment is all about identifying the observations regarding the child
development phase as the considered observations are only focused on the case study of the child
development as the observations mentioned are solely related to the phases of development of a
child for improving the skills which are linked with the daily life routines. The concerned child
Tyler has been observed as a boy with a light complexion, round eyes, blond hair, and a hazel
eye upon which the observations were carried over a tenure of approximately three days. The
overall observation done was all about the assessment of the child’s moral, social, cognitive,
physical, and language development which has been assessed and explained briefly in the below
sections of this phase of observing the major attributes.
Ethical Considerations
For observing the development phases along with the concerned child Tyler, it was
necessary to take permissions for analyzing the behaviour of the child as the observations must
have to be following the ethical rules and the essential permissions from the parents of the child
as it has been the correct protocol followed by most of the observational studies. As an observer,
the permission form the parents of Tyler were taken before commencing any activity of assessing
the child development present and the observation followed the ethical principles to be catered as
the observation done on Tyler involved taking permission from the school principal on
maintaining the confidentiality and providing no harm to Tyler while observing his development
phases as part of the study. The observation proceeded only after the approval provided by the
principal and all the methods conducted for assessing the behaviour were related within the
theories for not providing any sort of distraction towards the child (Hopkins et al., 2017).

4
Observational Methods
The assessment of the child is essential to analyze the performance and major attributes
present within each child and in the case of Tyler, a 5-year-old boy, it has been several methods
for collecting the data regarding the performance of Tyler in each development phase. There are
various methods of observations but the most effective methods observed within the
observational studies include (Öhlander, 2018):
 Running records: This recording method is considered as viable as it involves the
assessment of the behaviours associated with a child by recording every statement that
the child says during the limited and set period of time. These sentences are observed to
be written in the present tense and the running record have been found providing a briefer
account of the behaviour of the child in particular interventions. This approach can be
utilized for observing Tyler by recording the views for about the period of ten minutes
and it will be helpful to analyze the data obtained from hidden development areas.
 Jottings: Jottings refers to the limited details of conversations, behaviours, and prominent
events that can be few sentences that can be found effective for recording the significant
behaviour and events. This method is considered as efficient as it involves no cost and is
easy to utilize.
 Photographs: A picture or a video may be best utilized for assessing the levels of
development of a child as a picture tells 100 words about the behaviour of an individual.
The photographs of Tyler can be the method for assessing the development cycles while
performing any sort of activity as the researchers can easily identify the behaviour
possessed by the child in the photograph and this is because the visual representations are
easy to assess and understandable as compared to the written texts, as highlighted by
most of the studies conducted.

5
Observations
The three selected methods for observations have been utilized for discussing the five
observations which are conducted upon the considered child Tyler based on the five
development phases which included physical, social, cognitive, language, and moral
development.
 Physical Development
Based on physical development, the relevant observations were related to Piaget's theory
which stated that the children move towards the growth stages by following the physical
attributes possessed by their role models or any person whom they pertain to follow (Waite-
Stupiansky, 2017). It was observed in the case of Tyler that he was observed having a strong
capacity and physical ability to grasp the situation by involving maximum confidence which is
also considered as the major element of physical personality. The activities in which the
concerned child was involved appears to be providing the key skills within physical development
which included Fine and Gross motor skills.
 Cognitive Development
In terms of cognitive development, Tyler was observed having key elements which
included the element of great imagination, trying out the latest things, and inquisitive nature.
Observing the cognitive aspect which is assessing the thought processes, decision making, and
problem-solving skills, it was found that Tyler was a fast learner as compared to other children
and had a good memory with the accuracy to utilize at the needed time. The instructions
provided to him were clearly understood by him. Cognitive theory can be effective to improvise
the cognitive aspect more as it involves the key elements necessary for maintaining the children
to undergo various activities which are related to improving the thinking skills (McLeod, 2018).
 Social Development
The social development phase of Tyler involved the observers to assess various points
which included listening while others are speaking, understanding things well, being better at

6
sharing things with others, involving in activities related to imaginations, friendly nature, and
possessing the behaviours on certain actions either bad or good.
The social learning theory could be effective to relate the observation for providing the
evidence as referenced texts as this theory involves social behaviour learned by undergoing
imitating the behaviours possessed by others (Parke et al., 2019).
 Language Development
Observing the language development has also been effective as language is the most
effective aspect where the observes can assess the major enhancements and other aspects as well
by involving effective communication with them. The parents are engaged more in enhancing the
skills of language development as children are more observed communicating towards their
parents as compared to other individuals. According to Piaget’s theory, it has been observed that
the children are observed creating mental structure in their minds and from these structures, the
development for language initiates (Waite-Stupiansky, 2017).
 Moral Development
Lastly, the moral development within Tyler involved the observer assessing the key
attributes which involved Tyler to be correctly addressing the situations by involving effective
skills (Lenczewska, 2021). Also, Tyler was observed having the levels of understanding skills as
he was found exhibiting moral skills by involving a sense of kindness towards his friends. It was
observed that he was kind with friends and was sharing his every personal toy with this friend
living nearby. Kohlberg's theory of moral development can be best utilized for assessing the
moral skills possessed by Tyler as this theory involves the belief that the young children behave
well morally as they are observed fearing the authorities and observed trying to avoid the
punishments which lead them to be fair and very innocent in their activities within other
children.

7
Analysis
The observations conducted focusing on the development aspects within Tyler, a 5-year-
old child has been found effective and can be directly related to the child development
milestones and guidance established by CDC for 5 years child which shows that a child is able to
speak clearly and possess the friendly nature among his fellows at this age. Moreover, a child of
this age is found to be possessing cognitive skills by assessing the environment within him. The
key examples include counting things that are more than 10, drawing a person with at least six
body parts, and copying some letters. The physical development can also be related to the
guidelines as the observed activities are similar to the mentioned activities within the CDC
guidelines of the children of age 5 years as they are found to be climbing and swinging, using
forks and knives while eating, skipping or hopping, and utilizing the toilets on their own.
Thus, based on the observations and milestones present for a 5-year child, it can be stated
that the guidelines are directly linked with the observing child and the child under consideration
has been found promising in providing similar activities under each considered development
phase as that of the guidelines and other research studies mentioning the development of a 5-
year-old child.
For supporting the evaluations obtained from observation of the development of Tyler,
Freud's psychosexual theory can be linked as based on the observations of Freud, it has been
observed that child development occurs in a variety of stages focusing on various pleasure areas
of the body and during every phase, the child is observed encountering the conflicts playing an
effective role in development (Jenkins, 2017). Thus, the theory of Freud has been well elaborated
in terms of driving the improvement within the developments related to aspects in a child and
can be utilized for further studies for assessing the varying patterns in child observation and
assessment.
With respect to a standard followed for children of 5 years known as the early year’s
foundation stage, it can be recommended for future assessment of children that the observations

8
must include key aspects which include motivating about the belief you have in your child,
involving him in various activities which are prone to the concept building process, allowing
your child to speak and clear all types of confusions within his mind (Pascal et al., 2019).
Reflection
The provided case study has been really promising in identifying the major aspects
required to be considered while developing the major elements within a very small age as it is
effective for the future. The child under case study namely Tyler has been observed passing all
the observational aspects and by utilizing the relevant theories for relevant processes of key child
development phases, it has been observed that the phases mentioned within the development of a
child are essential as these are the key attributes that facilitate a child to carry out the challenges
observed by him after every particular year as the child is observed improving the skills with
respect to social, physical, cognitive, language, and moral development.
In terms of my own perspective as an observer of the development phases of Tyer, I have
predicted that the child has been very sounding in grasping the knowledge more effectively as
compared to the other children present within him under the same situation. The cognitive skills
were more advanced and were not similar to other children as Tyler was observed with immense
growth within his cognitive thinking skills which were found effective as he had ample power to
easily understand the signals and other things by collecting the information in a step-by-step
process. The example included the lectures presented towards him and he gradually understood
all the lectures by dividing the sections.
The observations regarding social, moral, cognitive, language and physical development
conducted upon Tyler can be assumed to predict the effective results on the children having ages
under five years as although it would be difficult to analyze the patterns in such a young age but
the observations under relevant theories explained in above sections can be facilitated to undergo
future research studies for assessing the development phases of children below five years as that
would help the practitioners or educators to make engaging arrangements for facilitating their
development sections.

9
Conclusion
The assessment phase of observation related to Tyler's development in response to social,
physical, language, cognitive, and moral devolvement has been prudent and transparent
throughout the phase s the observation found various improvements within the considered phases
of development and analyzed that the guidelines and key observations were helpful to analyze
the things with key information and the key information allowed the observer to analyze the
eminence of the process of the development of Tyler considering each phase mentioned in depth
along with the referenced sources. The observations mentioned under Tyler can be utilized to
predict that every single child is not similar to another and the levels of progress are different
with respect to individual children as the considered child has been found providing the sounding
results.

10
References
Ciesielska, M., Boström, K. W., & Öhlander, M. (2018). Observation methods. In Qualitative
methodologies in organization studies (pp. 33-52). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.
Hopkins, B., Geangu, E., & Linkenauger, S. (Eds.). (2017). The Cambridge encyclopedia of
child development. Cambridge University Press.
Jenkins, W. J. (2017). An Analysis of Sigmund Freud’s The Interpretation of Dreams. Macat
Library.
Lemberger-Truelove, M. E., Carbonneau, K. J., Zieher, A. K., & Atencio, D. J. (2019). Support
for the development and use of the Child Observation of Mindfulness Measure (C-
OMM). Mindfulness, 10(7), 1406-1416.
Lenczewska, O. (2021). Kant and Rawls on the Moral and Political Development of Persons
(Doctoral dissertation, Stanford University).
McLeod, S. (2018). Jean Piaget’s theory of cognitive development. Simply Psychology, 1-9.
Parke, R. D., Roisman, G. I., & Rose, A. J. (2019). Social development. John Wiley & Sons.
Pascal, C., Bertram, T., & Rouse, L. (2019). Getting it right in the Early Years Foundation Stage:
a review of the evidence. Centre for Research in Early Childhood.
Waite-Stupiansky, S. (2017). Jean Piaget’s constructivist theory of learning. In Theories of Early
Childhood Education (pp. 3-17). Routledge.