Graduate Diploma in Early Childhood Education: Observation Analysis

This assignment analyzes three video observations of children in early childhood education settings. The first video focuses on three- and four-year-olds engaging in outdoor play, using a running record to describe their interactions, speech, and actions. Interpretations highlight the children's enjoyment of free play, motor skill development, and responses to the educator. The second observation, a narrative observation, examines infant play and routines, describing the physical environment and behaviors of infants, including crawling, crying, and interactions with educators and toys. Interpretations focus on motor skill development, communication, and the importance of educator responsiveness. The third observation utilizes a time sample method to analyze the play of three- and four-year-olds, focusing on a guided play activity where children create spider webs. Interpretations highlight fine motor skills, social interaction, and the role of educators in facilitating the activity. The assignment emphasizes the importance of play in child development, referencing Vygotsky's and Piaget's theories, and the ELYF framework.

Running head: Graduate Diploma in Early Childhood Education
Graduate Diploma in Early Childhood Education
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1
Graduate Diploma in Early Childhood Education
Part 1
Video 2: Three and four year-old play in the outdoor space
https://youtu.be/lxc_29ZjYqw
Running record
Description of the physical environment:
The play centre is an outdoor space which is two storeyed and the camera has been fitted to
a suitable place between the two storeys, in order to get a better view of the children.
Almost a glimpse of 3-4 children of 3-4 years can be caught in the camera. A small
climbing cargo net can be seen between the two storeys and there is a toy motorcycle.
Children’s speech and action
Ron calls to Adams for playing police? “Hey Adams, you wanna play police with me?”
Let’s climb this rope, Hurry up, we need to catch the thieves, they are high up that
mountains”. Both Ron and Adams are trying to climb up that rope.
Sophie asked the educator by pointing to the camera, enquiring “what is this fitted on the
wall, can we see through it? Is anyone spying on us?
The educator said “No dear it’s just a camera that is recording everything”
Sophie starts making sounds of car horns, “peep-peep-peep: `all the students started
making the noise peep-peep-peep-peep.
The educator said, “Is that everything you’re gonna do infront of the camera?” “Yeah!!!!”
shouted the children”.
While Ron had been climbing up the rope, Adams, had been showing no interest in the
climbing. Adams had laid down in the ground and is sometimes crawling forward.

2
Graduate Diploma in Early Childhood Education
Notes and Interpretations: It is evident from the video that all the children are
enjoying to their fullest during their free play activity. Ron instructs Adams to play Police
and what part he have to play, but he agrees on his roles. While Ron is proactive in
climbing the cargo nets, whereas Adams is not very proactive in climbing the cargo nets.
Adams has been found to be avoiding the cargo nets, rather than preferred stairs to get up
the next basement. This might indicate towards lack of motor skills. Acts like delayed
sitting, walking sitting or avoiding sports like climbing ropes and cargo nets indicates
towards delayed motor skill development (Temple et al., 2016). In another interpretation it
can be seen that the children are not very interested structured play, as when the educator
asked the students whether they want to do anything interesting in front of the camera, they
stated making noise in front of the camera. Although guided play might be helpful in
managing a chaotic class, where the number of students are less. Intrinsically motivated
free play provides the child with the true autonomy, whereas guided play is the avenue by
which the parents can provide more targeted experience. It can be seen here that most of
the children are enjoying the motivated free play and are not agreeing to sit on their own.
None of the children in the video looked lazy or disinterested in the play.
Video 3: Infant play and routine in an ECE setting
https://youtu.be/Ivi49PzTr64

3
Graduate Diploma in Early Childhood Education
Narrative observation
Description of the physical environment
There are almost seven children in the ECE setting. All of the children are less than 2 years.
The class is well decorated and contained enough lighting. The entire space have adequate
equipment for allowing the toddlers to play.
Observation
The ECE contained seven to eight children. The one in pink dress (Aliyah), is
crawling around the entire ground. Just as she was put down in the ground she started the
crawling. She crawled aimed to get hold of wooden cupboard, but the educator removed it
from her reach such that she doesn’t get hurt. One of the educator carried another infant
Mariyah who would not stop crying throughout the entire observation. The educators started
to sing song so that Mariyah would stop. Another child in blue dress named Joseph can be
seen, who is seen to crawling across the entire space of the setting, but he is not crawling in a
normal way. But is sitting, folding his legs, and is moving the entire weight of the body by
his own hand. Justin, the one with blue pants has been found to trying out each and every
thing present in the room and seems he is not distracted by Mariyah’s cry. One educator is
seen to be playing with him and cuddling and he is laughing out loud.
Interpretation
From the observation, it can be analysed that Aliyah had been active in crawling. This
is important as she had been using her hand, neck, arms, back and legs. This would help her
to walk without assistance. Furthermore, she has also displayed interest in small toys littered
in the ground. She is also responsive when a teachers called her from the back and hence

4
Graduate Diploma in Early Childhood Education
turns around. Responding to sounds is an age- appropriate milestones meant for the toddlers.
No activity of Mariyah can be detected as she was with the educator most of the time and was
crying. It is necessary to find out as of what is troubling Mariyah or if she is not in a sound
health to match up with the other children. Normally, crying is the primary strategy that is
used by an infant to communicate her distress or the need for care to someone (Petzoldt et al.,
2016). Hence, crying can be a symbol of her needs or if the child is hungry or if he/she is in
any kind of physical discomfort (Petzoldt et al., 2016). Joseph can be seen crawling over the
floor, but it seems that he is having some sort of injury or faces trouble in folding his legs
required to crawl. Normally scooting around the bottom, using a hand behind and a foot in
front to propel, or slithering on the stomach, or rolling across the room assists a child to
develop his/her sensory motor skills (Adolph & Tamis‐LeMonda, 2014). Hence, it is
necessary for the educator, to have her development milestones checked properly. Justin’s
fine motor skills are well developed as he is seen to grab, hold and bring the baskets. He is
also able to jump and bend, which is an important indicator of the motor skill development.
However, much knowledge about the fine motor skills cannot be got as none of them are
engaged in activities that required fine motor development.
A time sample
Video 1: Three and four year-old play and routine In ECE
https://youtu.be/yUrigUT0g4I
A time sample – Each time sample is of five minutes
Age group- 3-4 years
1. 10-10:05

5
Graduate Diploma in Early Childhood Education
During the first five minutes , we can see the children entering in the early childhood
setting. They are sitting in their allotted places and all of them has been provided with
orange coloured places. All the children are talking among themselves and are trying
to do something out of them. One of the educator is assisting the children.
10:05-10.10
Cathy is wearing a party mask, George is wearing a sorcerer’s hat. They are making holes in
the plate and in sewing wools in it to make it a net like structure. Lily is cutting out a spider.
She is holding it up n air and is shouting, “Show me your spider”. Cathy is unable to sew the
wool in to the plate and hence the educator is instructing her. A boy had just entered and Lily
said loudly, “don’t disturb us!” Girls we are busy”
10:10-10:15
Lily has successfully made sewed the wool in to the plates. It is neat and looking like a
spider’s web. She is challenging George,” can you make something like this?”. June is
wearing a blue hat and he is asking the educator, “ do we have to make the exact shape of the
spider” . Ron is able to cut strings and hence the educator assured to cut longer strings for
her.
10:15-10:20
Cathy is slow and steady. She is not interacting much, but is sewing the cut strings in to
plates neatly. Lily has already finished with her part and is supervising other works and
helping out others.
Interpretation
It is evident from the play activity that it is a guided play, where all the children are instructed
to make a particular object. As per the video, it seems that the children have been asked to

6
Graduate Diploma in Early Childhood Education
construct a spider web in the plates by sewing wools in to the plates uniformly. They are
making spiders made by cutting a black chart paper. The most interactive child that could be
found in this group of four is Lily. Lily could quickly cut out a spider out of the black chart
paper. Looking at the promptness of Lily, it can be said that her fine motor skills are well
developed. Fine motor skills are mainly developed in children as they learn to use their
smaller muscles, like the muscles of the wrist and the hand (Oberer, Gashaj & Roebers,
2017). Cathy has been found to be a little bit slower, as she had been struggling a lot to use
scissors and to sew the wools in to plates. It seems that the fine motor skills of Cathy are not
well developed and hence needs to be developed. Ron had previously asked for the help of
the educator to cut strings from him, but finally he is going at a steady phase. All the children
are exchanging ideas and are helping out each other to complete the task. While one can see a
competitive tendency between the children as of who will be completing it first, but a mutual
harmony can be found between the children. All the children required the assistance of the
educators throughout the activity.

7
Graduate Diploma in Early Childhood Education
Analysis of the activities
All the three activities mentioned above are play based activities. Play is so important
in the optimal development of children that it has been recognized by the United Nations
High Commission for the Human Rights as a right of every child. Play is necessary to the
cognitive, physical, societal and mental well-being of the youth and children. Play permits
children to use their creative skills during the development of their imagination, physical,
mental, dexterousness and emotional strength (Johnson, 2014). Play is important for the
healthy development of the brain. It allows the children to develop and discover the world
around them. As a play allowed to be child-driven, children tend to exercise decision making
abilities, move at their own speed, discover their own interest area and eventually involve in
passions which wish to pursue (Johnson, 2014). As stated in the ELYF framework, play can
be termed as a context for the learning that permits for the manifestation of uniqueness and
personality, in has been found to enhance the disposition like curiosity and creativity
(Australian Government Department of Education and Training, (2017). In almost all he
videos, it can be seen that most of the children are enjoying the play. The importance of play
has also been pointed out in the Vygotsky’s cultural historical theory, where play is
recognised as an important part of the childhood. Vygotsky believed, that history of the
human development is a complex interplay between the natural and a biologically determined
development created by the interaction of growing individual with other people (Holzman,
2016). These interactions causes acquisition of the expectations, values and competencies
promoted by specific culture.
Play has been explained by another notable psychologist of the period- Jean Piaget.
Piaget has defined play as an assimilation or the effort of the child to make the environmental
stimuli match his or he own concepts. It has been claimed by Piaget that play was juts for
pleasure and allows children to practice things that they had already done before, and does

8
Graduate Diploma in Early Childhood Education
not help in learning new things (Bergen, 2014). Hence, as per Piaget’s concept it does not
necessarily teach a child anything new. On the contrary, Vygotsky theory states that play
actually helps in the cognitive development (Bodrova & Leong, 2015). According to him,
children not only get to practice, what they had already done, but also assists in the cognitive
development of the child. However, from the observation we can get example of both the
Piagetian as well as the Vygotskian theories.
It can be understood from the video that all the play areas are well organised and
decorated to promote creativity and learning. It cannot be denied, that a safe, responsive and
nurturing environment is an important part to support the learning and the development of the
toddlers, infants and the pre-schoolers. Such environments also help to prevent the
challenging behaviours that serves as a core component of intervention for the young
children. One such example of a classroom is the Reggio inspired classroom. A Reggio
inspired classroom is a learning environment where the teachers do not follow fixed
curriculum (Wien, 2015). Instead they create a learning environment which empowers the
creativity, curiosity, exploration and response of the students. Children are allowed to pursue
with any topics they finds interest with. Apart from the curriculum, the decoration of
classroom is another aspect of a Reggio Emilia classroom (Wien, 2015). It can be seen from
the videos that the classroom has every necessary amenities to promote learning for early
years children.
In one of the video, an infant named Mariyah can be seen crying continuously.
Normally, crying is an important means of communication for the babies. It plays an
important role in ensuring living, health and growth of a child. Being able to recognize the
various types of crying is hence the key to meet the needs of the child and is a relief for many
parents. But crying can also be helpful to detect the unmet need of the toddlers.
Furthermore, while analysing the videos, it can be seen that many children are jumping and

9
Graduate Diploma in Early Childhood Education
climbing cargo nets. Rope play and using cargo nets for climbing is necessary for the
development of the motor skills, development of muscles and the improvement of the muscle
skills (Tortella et al., 2016). Due to the flexibility of the rope, it possess constant challenges
to the children as they climb and any action on any one part of the structure has a reaction in
another part. In all the three video, it can be seen that all the children get moderate scopes to
engage in motor activities like jumping or climbing up. Some of children in record display
jumping skills, whereas the toddlers are not very fond of constant jumping in this case. It
should be remembered that the Jumping needs a lot of power and strength and power, thus
continuing to develop the muscles that are required for the gross motor development (Lestari
& Ratnaningsih, 2016). Jumping tends to put stress on the bones. Hence, those children who
jump spontaneously are found to be having a well-developed motor skills (Temple et al.,
2016).
However, it can be seen from all the videos, that there are teachers who had been
assisting the children for a guided play. It is the fact, that the early childhood teachers are the
facilitators of play in the classroom. The teachers helps in facilitating play by providing
suitable outdoor or indoor play. While choosing the play and equipment they have to be age
appropriate (Jennings, 2015). Teachers provide play materials related to the thematic material
related to the thematic instructions ,the early childhood teaches can establish links between
the indoor and the outdoor play in the curriculum of the program. However, it is necessary
that children be the important decision makers of the play, choosing roles for each of the
players and choosing how the play would proceed (Jennings, 2015). The early childhood
teachers also play an important role in providing comfort to the toddlers. In the video, it can
be seen that the educators are comforting the toddlers by cuddling and playing with them.
However, it has been argued in several papers that some of the colleagues are too physical
when it comes to hugging and kissing. The educators should always know the level where the

10
Graduate Diploma in Early Childhood Education
children need a hug. It has been stated that physical aspects such as physical contact and hugs
can be associated with motherhood, which can be regarded as opposed to being a professional
teacher. Hence, there is a risk that the educators might withhold physical contact. Another
dilemma, which affects the use of touch is the physical interaction between the educators and
the children (Hedlin, Åberg & Johansson, 2019). But in this case it can be seen that the hug
and the cuddles can be nurturing for the children. In video 1 , it is clearly evident, that all the
children required the assistance of the children to make the spider web and to cut out the
spider. Here, a social interaction between the children and the educator can be witnessed and
the children could do the task all by themselves to a certain level, but ultimately required
assistance of somebody more knowledgeable. In context of this, it is necessary to discuss
about Vygotsky’s scaffolding, which is a part of the educational concept of “zone of
proximal development”. It is sometimes referred to as the difference between what a
learner can do all by themselves or can be done with help. In this condition, the teacher is
applying the concept of the “zone of proximal development” where the teachers instruct to
take small steps as per the child, where the child is already capable of doing independently,
but gradually increase the complexity of the steps (Wass & Golding, 2014).
Establishing partnership with the families to facilitate learning in an early childhood
setting is an important aspect of the EYLF. It is the duty of the educators to recognise that
families are the first priority of the children and can serve as most influential teachers
(Australian Government Department of Education and Training, 2017). However, no family
involvement could be found in any of the videos. It can be said conclusively, that the early
childhood setting and the classroom environment greatly impacts upon the teaching and the
learning experiences of children. The classroom settings that has been displayed in all the
videos give a perfect ambience to the children.

11
Graduate Diploma in Early Childhood Education
References
Adolph, K. E., & Tamis‐LeMonda, C. S. (2014). The costs and benefits of development: The
transition from crawling to walking. Child development perspectives, 8(4), 187-192.
https://doi.org/10.1111/cdep.12085
Australian Government Department of Education and Training, (2017). Early years Learning
framework .Access date: 19.3.2020. Retrieved
from:https://www.acecqa.gov.au/sites/default/files/2018-02/belonging_being_and_be
coming_the_early_years_learning_framework_for_australia.pdf
Bergen, D. (2014). Foundations of play theory. The SAGE handbook of play and learning in
early childhood, 9-21.
Bodrova, E., & Leong, D. J. (2015). Vygotskian and Post-Vygotskian Views on Children's
Play. American Journal of Play, 7(3), 371-388.
Hedlin, M., Åberg, M., & Johansson, C. (2019). Too much, too little: preschool teachers’
perceptions of the boundaries of adequate touching. Pedagogy, Culture & Society,
27(3), 485-502. https://doi.org/10.1080/14681366.2018.1545246
Holzman, L. (2016). Vygotsky at work and play. Taylor & Francis.
Jennings, P. A. (2015). Early childhood teachers’ well-being, mindfulness, and self-
compassion in relation to classroom quality and attitudes towards challenging
students. Mindfulness, 6(4), 732-743. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-014-0312-4
Johnson, J. E. (2014). Play provisions and pedagogy in curricular approaches. The SAGE
handbook of play and learning in early childhood, 180-192.

12
Graduate Diploma in Early Childhood Education
Lestari, I., & Ratnaningsih, T. (2016). The Effects of Modified Games on the Development of
Gross Motor Skill in Preschoolers. International Journal of Evaluation and Research
in Education, 5(3), 216-220. http://iaesjournal.com/online/index.php/ijere
Oberer, N., Gashaj, V., & Roebers, C. M. (2017). Motor skills in kindergarten: internal
structure, cognitive correlates and relationships to background variables. Human
movement science, 52, 170-180. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.humov.2017.02.002
Petzoldt, J., Wittchen, H. U., Einsle, F., & Martini, J. (2016). Maternal anxiety versus
depressive disorders: specific relations to infants' crying, feeding and sleeping
problems. Child: care, health and development, 42(2), 231-245.
https://doi.org/10.1111/cch.12292
Temple, V. A., Crane, J. R., Brown, A., Williams, B. L., & Bell, R. I. (2016). Recreational
activities and motor skills of children in kindergarten. Physical Education and Sport
Pedagogy, 21(3), 268-280. https://doi.org/10.1080/17408989.2014.924494
Tortella, P., Haga, M., Loras, H., Sigmundsson, H., & Fumagalli, G. (2016). Motor skill
development in Italian pre-school children induced by structured activities in a
specific playground. PLoS One, 11(7). 10.1371/journal.pone.0160244
Wass, R., & Golding, C. (2014). Sharpening a tool for teaching: the zone of proximal
development. Teaching in Higher Education, 19(6), 671-684.
https://doi.org/10.1080/13562517.2014.901958
Wien, C. A. (2015). Emergent curriculum in the primary classroom: Interpreting the Reggio
Emilia approach in schools. Teachers College Press.