Documenting Child Development Through Painting: An Observation

This assignment provides a detailed observation of a 4-year-old child engaged in painting an underwater scene, documenting her cognitive, emotional, and motor development. The observation includes an anecdotal narrative describing the child's actions, such as using watercolors, finger painting to create fish, and adding details like plants and bubbles. The document references theoretical perspectives, particularly Piaget's pre-operational stage, and links the child's activities to the Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF) outcomes. It highlights how the child's painting enhances her observational skills, imagination, hand-eye coordination, and fine motor control. The assignment also suggests future learning possibilities, such as stamp color games, to further improve the child's color recognition skills. The document emphasizes the importance of creative activities in fostering a child's overall development and provides a comprehensive analysis of the observed painting activity within the context of early childhood education theories and frameworks. Desklib offers a platform for students to access similar solved assignments and study resources.

DOCUMENTATION, PLANNING & ASSESSMENT RECORD
Date: Context: It is an Indoor activity where the child is
painting and colouring an underwater drawing. She is
in her drawing room and was painting on a chart paper
placed on a table.
Child Name: Age: 4
Observation:
Anecdotal
Narrative written like a
story after the event in
past tense.
The child is 4 years old and is sitting in her living room and painting. She was using a chart paper to paint with the help of paint
brush and water colours. The chart paper was placed on the top of a table in her living room. She first sprinkled droplets of water
colour on the chart paper and started colouring the paper with blue colour. She had kept a painting tray where the five paint colour
that she would use was present for her convenience. She kept a rough chart paper below the chart paper that she was using for
painting to avoid any kind of spill on the table. She was drawing a painting of underwater marine environment and hence was
using blue colour symbolising the water. The child was holding the wide paint brush in her right hand and she was quite quick in
mixing the droplets of the colour. She filled the chart paper with blue colour as water and took yellow water colour to make fish.
She took the colour from her thumb finger and was using seal finger painting method to draw the body of fishes. She could easily
locate places to make body of the fishes and was making the body of the fish completely round and varying in different sizes. She
made approximately 38 fishes using seal finger painting method. She was using a narrow paint brush to make the fins of the fish.
She was using red colour to make fins. She completed the fins of all the fish. The fins she made were not in similar proportion but
was little rough with varying sizes. She was using her left hand as support on the chart paper and was painting the fins of the fish
from her right hand. She corrected the water colour on the chart paper by using her left thumb. She used black colour to make the
eye of the fishes. Some fishes had small eyes and some had larger eyes. She used green colour to make few underwater plants and
white colour to make water bubbles as the fish will release oxygen that will develop the water bubbles. She randomly made water
bubbles which were not straight but were little titled towards the sides. She completed her under water drawing.
Referenced
Interpretation of
the skills and/or
developmental
domains. Add
specific
information on
behaviour/skills
Cognitive Development:
The child could learn the names of the shapes and colours through this creative activities and thus enhance their observational
skills. According to Malin (2019), the child uses their imagination and creativity to draw and learn about various objects and
entities.
Emotional development
Shellharbour TAFE Higher Education

DOCUMENTATION, PLANNING & ASSESSMENT RECORD
from research
Focus on cognitive
development
(include motor,
emotional and
social development
where significant)
The child used her imagination to draw and express her experience through art rather than speaking and communicating.
According to Meloy et al., (2019) the child used underwater drawing to exaggerate her thoughts that are important to her. It will
help the child to increase her self-esteem.
Motor development
The child had an excellent eye-hand coordination thus supporting the child’s small and large muscle development. Bashwiner &
Bacon (2019) stated that using crayons, paintbrushes and water colours will assists the child in developing fine motor control that
will be required by them in future. The child had a firm grip and was holding the paintbrush correctly.
Imagination
The child had a great imaginative power as she was drawing and colouring without using any reference image. According to
Holmes et al., (2019) it is very important for a child to enhance their imaginative skills as they will develop intellectual and
imaginative power that will help them in later phase of life.
Learning and
development linkage to
Theoretical Perspectives Early Years Learning Framework
Piaget- According to Piaget the child was in pre
operational stage (Thompson 2019). In this stage the
child develops and grows the power of imagination to
include in this creative art. They tend to learn about
different names of colour, shapes and the
development of physical activity. This mental
advancement occurs when the child cooperate with
her quick response causing assurance in rationale,
thinking, expectation and basic leadership (Houde
2019). Hence, encouraging the child to think
critically and enhance their imaginative skills and
motor skills to enhance their vital necessary abilities.
Outcome 1.1: “Children feel secure, supported and safe”.
Outcome 1.2: “Children progress their developing autonomy, sense of
agency, inter-dependence and resilience” (EYLF Learning Outcomes,
2019).
Outcome 1.3: “Children improve knowledgeable and self-confident self-
identities”.
Outcome 2.2: “Children react to variety with admiration”
Outcome 2.4: “Children develop social responsibility and display
admiration for the surroundings”.
Shellharbour TAFE Higher Education

DOCUMENTATION, PLANNING & ASSESSMENT RECORD
Outcome 3.1: “Children come to be strong in their emotional and social
wellbeing” (EYLF Learning Outcomes, 2019).
Outcome 4.2: “Children improve a variety of processes and skills such as
investigating, problem solving, hypothesising, inquiry, experimentation,
and researching”
Outcome 5.4: “Children initiate to recognize how pattern and symbols of
systems work”
Outcome 5.5: “Children use effective communication and information
technologies to contact information, examine thoughts and signify their
thinking” (EYLF Learning Outcomes, 2019).
Objective for future learning and development Learning Possibilities for inclusion in the curriculum
The child was very much interested in drawing and colouring hence
providing her with the ability to draw without any reference image. She used
her imaginative skills to draw thus improving her motor skills as she was
using her muscles to move and draw (Nobre et al., 2019). The underwater
also exhibited that she had an excellent hand-eye coordination as she was
holding the paint brush firmly from right hand and correcting any spills from
her left hand. The child used seal finger painting method to draw the fishes
in the chart paper thus showing an excellent motor development and skills
(Crinall 2019).
Shellharbour TAFE Higher Education

DOCUMENTATION, PLANNING & ASSESSMENT RECORD
Stamp colour game can improve the colour recognition skill in children
Reference
Bashwiner, D., & Bacon, D. (2019). Musical creativity and the motor system. Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences, 27, 146-153.
Crinall, S. (2019). Sustaining Childhood Natures: The Art of Becoming with Water. Springer.
EYLF Learning Outcomes. (2019). EYLF Learning Outcomes - Aussie Childcare Network. Retrieved from
https://aussiechildcarenetwork.com.au/articles/childcare-programming/eylf-learning-outcomes
Holmes, R. M., Gardner, B., Kohm, K., Bant, C., Ciminello, A., Moedt, K., & Romeo, L. (2019). The relationship between young children’s language
abilities, creativity, play, and storytelling. Early Child Development and Care, 189(2), 244-254.
Houdé, O. (2019). 3-system Theory of the Cognitive Brain: A Post-Piagetian Approach to Cognitive Development. Routledge.
Malin, H. (2019). Art-making as Activity: How Children Make Meaning through Art. Postdevelopmental Approaches to Childhood Art, 13.
Meloy, B., Gardner, M., Wechsler, M., & Kirp, D. (2019). What Can We Learn From State-of-the-Art Early Childhood Education Programs?.
Sustaining Early Childhood Learning Gains: Program, School, and Family Influences, 101-132.
Nobre, J. N., Prat, B. V., Santos, J. N., Santos, L. R., Pereira, L., Guedes, S. D. C., ... & Morais, R. L. D. S. (2019). Quality of interactive media use in
early childhood and child development: a multicriteria analysis. Jornal de pediatria.
Thompson, C. M. (2019). Early Childhood Art Curriculum. The International Encyclopedia of Art and Design Education, 1-13.
Shellharbour TAFE Higher Education

DOCUMENTATION, PLANNING & ASSESSMENT RECORD
Shellharbour TAFE Higher Education