Analyzing Child Development Through Observations

Introduction

Child development is concerned with the changes that occur during childhood; some people consider the prenatal period to be part of this because of the consequences of this era for later development and puberty (Zhang, 2008). Growth is both continuous and discontinuous, indicating more stable qualities such as temperament and discrete changes such as speech acquisition. Growth can be predictable or erratic, and it impacts and is impacted by the environment. The relative importance of genetics, that is nature and environment , that is nurture, to the process are a long-standing dispute (Wood, 2014; Miller, 2002).

The paper is concerned with observing the activities of a certain two year old named Ava and trying to understand her developmental abilities through observing her actions. By observing her day to day functions, the paper intends to locate her development from the perspective of a non-biased observer. These observations will then be used in the context of certain developmental theories, in order to understand where Ava stands with respect to her development.

Because the paper availed of a pre-recorded video of the two year old Ava in order to analyze her functions and record her actions, it was not an active participant who was present in the physical surroundings of Ava. Additionally, all these observations took place in a natural setting, whereby the setting were Ava’s home, her playground, her nursery and other places where she goes to naturally. Hence, the observational approach which was used is naturalistic approach.Psychologists and other evolutionary biologists frequently utilise naturalistic observation as a research approach. This approach entails monitoring and researching individuals' spontaneous behaviour in natural settings. The researcher just takes whatever notes they can on what they saw. The researcher captures all important behaviour through unstructured observations without using a system. Because there may be enough to record and the behaviours collected may not be the most essential, the technique is often utilised as a pilot study to explore what kind of behaviours would be captured (McLeod, 2015; Šogoric et al., 2008). The observations which will be garnered from observing Ava’s activities will be studied in the context of three theories of child development; Erikson’s Psychosocial Development theory, the theory of Bandura and Piaget’s Cognitive Development theory. In order to better reflect on the activities of Ava. The theories under which Ava’s activities will be contextualized will be discussed in the forthcoming sections.

Reflecting academically is an important exercise and it achieves several educational goals. We must consider our methods, processes, and identities as part of critical reflection. It also necessitates that we look beyond our personal circumstances to other variables, policies, and individuals who may have an impact on our decisions and behaviours (Sutherland, 2013). The paper will academically reflect into the activities of Ava, in an academically observational manner.

2. Observational Discussion

The following section will look at the daily activities of the two year Ava and observe her around her natural surroundings. By trying to observe her around her natural surroundings, the paper will try to relate some of her activities to her development and observe her actions in the context of various developmental theories.

The individual who is being observed in this video is a two year old little girl named Ava. The two videos show her in various places, in and around her house, doing her daily activities. The activities involve her going to various places with her mother like going on a walk or going on a shopping trip are observed and recorded. These observations have been included in the appendix 1, but for the purposes of this report, only the relevant observations are included.

General Observations

There are many observations which could be made about the child on the basis of the videos which were shown. firstly, it is evident that the child in question, Ava, is a toddler who can speak well and be understood through her speech by her parents and other caretakers. Secondly, Ava has achieved significant motor skills and is able to play and walk and eat with confidence and un-assisted. The child is shown across various settings, such as market places, nursery and her home. At home, the child is mostly interacting with her mother and the child is quite interactive in her play. She likes to speak in detail about what she is doing and likes to answer questions intelligently, when asked. Se I every interactive when she is interacting with her mother, but she is not as interactive when she is interacting with her peers who are around the same age as her. She is very interactive with people who are older than her. Although the videos which were observed did not give any insight into what the child is like with adult males, the child is very interactive with adult females like her mother and the teacher in the nursery. Mostly, the two year old Ava seems to be a well-developed, well-behaved and disciplined child as she is polite and doesn’t throw any tantrums or screams when she wants something. Ava is a child who likes to play very much and actively takes part in any activity which has play, she mostly likes to keep to herself when she is playing and doesn’t want to interact with other children when playing. This shows a possibility to Ava being a only child and most of her playing activities being at home, she is not used to interacting much with her peers.

In my personal opinion, Ava is a well-behaved girl and it is evident by the video which depicts her activities, she is a girl who likes playing and enjoying by herself. She can speak clearly and can identify the names of animals, she can successfully identify the animal with the animal figure. However, because she is used to spending time on her own, even when she is in the nursery with other children, she prefers to spend time by herself, playing with her own toys. However, when her caretakers try to engage her, she successfully engages with them. In my opinion, this means that Ava is a child who needs to get more used to the company of other and her other peers. She has been isolated from children her own age, and hence has been unable to interact with children her age properly. Unfortunately, the videos do not show further into Ava’s progress in the nursery as she grows older. I am confident that Ava would’ve made excellent strides in her communication further into her nursery education and if the film would’ve continued till then, it would’ve become evident.

Erikson’s Psychosocial Development in the Context of Two Year Old Ava

Erikson's Stages of Psychosocial Development is a hypothesis developed by psychologist and psychotherapist Erik Erikson during the 1950s. It expanded on Freud's psychosexual cognitive development by drawing similarities in transition from childhood and adding the impact of social dynamics and also the extension of psychosocial development into maturity. It proposes eight phases of individual human development that are impacted by biological, psychological, and social variables during the course of one's life. Gerontology, personality development, identity creation, life cycle development, and other disciplines of research have all been affected by this bio-psychosocial approach (Orenstein and Lewis, 2020).

From childhood to maturity, Erikson believed that individuals develops in a set order via eight phases of psychosocial development. The individual goes through a psychological crisis at each level, which can have a good or bad impact on their personality development. These crises, according to Erikson (1958; Berzoff, 2016), are psychosocial in origin because they include individual psychological demands (i.e., psycho) colliding with societal requirements (i.e., social).

During infancy, adolescence, and maturity, people go through stages as they mature and confront strategic changes and important moments. Two conflicting psychological inclinations – one positive/syntactic and the other negative/dystonic – characterise each stage. An egotistical virtue/strength or maldevelopment emerges as a result of this. When a virtue is practised, it can aid in the resolution of a present choice or dispute. It will also aid later process of growth and assist to the establishment of a solid foundation for basic belief systems in regards to the self and the outside world (Chung, 2018).

The stage which is most relevant to Ava’s case is the second stage which is elucidated by Erikson. The second stage which is described by Erikson is the stage which is referred to as Early Childhood. The virtue of that stage is the will, the maldevelopment of that age is compulsion. The concomitant freudian stage of that age is the stage whereby the child is at the anal stage, this is an understanding which has been adopted by Erikson from Freud. According to Freud, the libido becomes concentrated on the anus during the anal psychosexual development, and the kid receives considerable pleasure from defecating. The kid is now fully aware that they are individuals in their own right, and that their desires may conflict with those of the external environment. This sort of tension, according to Freud, usually comes to a head during toilet training, when parents place limitations on when and where a kid can excrete. The child's future connection with all types of authority is influenced by the character of this initial clash with authority. Early or severe toilet training can cause a kid to have an anal-retentive mentality that despises mess, is meticulously clean, punctual, and respectful of power. They might be obstinate and stingy with their money and things (McLeod, 2019).

The second stage is referred to as the stage of Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt. Toddlerhood is the first stage toward growing as an individual, or establishing a sense of autonomy, once newborns have learned to live in a familiar setting and that they can rely on others. The expression of this job, like other Eriksonian tensions, is linked to current biological and cultural conditions. As a result, according to Erikson, defecation and the act of toilet training are the major ways in which toddlers try to build a feeling of autonomy. In a world where toddlers have little power, this is one area where they have somewhat control and are encouraged to use it. Erikson saw toilet training as the start of learning about the processes of "holding on and letting go," which are crucial for future growth. This stage is seen significantly in the case of Ava, as she is not completely toilet trained (Syed and McLean, 2017). However, Ava possesses the abilities of knowing the proper process of going to the bathroom and can successfully use the toilet which is put on top of a commode before she uses it. It was evident through the video that Ava is still in the process of being toilet trained, as she still needs to be in diapers. She looks very in control of her bowel movements, however, she is also very disciplined about it. She elects to put up the toilet seat herself, verbally tells her mother that she is done when she is finished using the potty and hands her guardian tissues when asked. The guardian follows her instructions and when she says that she wants to do something herself and allows her to do it herself. This is evident in the way the guardian (presumably mother) lets her pick out some items by herself when they are out shopping.

Bandura’s Theory and Ava

Albert Bandura's social learning theory emphasises the significance of observing, imitating, and copying others' behaviours, attitudes, and emotional responses. Environmental and cognitive variables interact to impact human learning and behaviour, according to social learning theory. Albert Bandura (1977) agrees with the behaviourist theoretical perspectives of classical conditioning and operant conditioning in social learning (McLeod, 2016). Bandura’s theory of social learning is especially important in the present context of visual-based learning for several reasons. Social learning is linked to the lessons we get from people or through observing the environment. The importance of the environmental element in social learning is explored in the context of human visual forms. Learning through observation is more effective than knowing by reading and listening in terms of achieving faster outcomes and more satisfying experiences. As a result, in the age of visual culture, the rate and direction of visual learning has improved. Learning is useful and vital because of the chances provided by internet technology, such as learning and watching through images (Yilmaz et al., 2019). It is feasible to remark on the visual culture that we confront and feel in the twenty-first century's everyday existence founded on Albert Bandura's work on observant learning. If we regard visual culture to be an environmental element, it does not appear that individuals can avoid observing it or reflecting its traces on their behaviour in any manner (Nabavi, 2012). Famous figures in visual culture, such as movies, television, cartoons, fashion, social media, and other sectors, have been seen to behave similarly to the model engaging with the Bobo Doll in Bandura's study. It is hypothesised that social learning may be used to explain observed behaviours as well as the observers' views on such actions. As a result, this study discusses social learning in the context of human interaction with visual culture, which is a human phenomenon. Before diving into these debates, it's important to assess the current condition of the subject of visual culture and how this is approached from this perspective (Bandura and Walters, 1977).Albert Bandura conducted the Bobo doll experiment in 1961, which investigated aggression-related patterns of behaviour. In 1963 and 1965, Bandura did more experiments of similar nature. A Bobo doll is a prepubescent child-sized inflatable toy. The goal of Bandura's study was to show that if children witnessed an adult engaging in violent conduct, they would replicate it if given the chance. Bandura et al. examined 36 boys and 36 girls ages 37 to 69 months from a Stanford nursery school. One adult guy and one adult female served as role models for them. The kids were paired up based on how violent they were before. They did so by watching the kids at the kindergarten and grading their aggressive conduct on four 5-point measures. The youngsters in each group may then be matched so that their levels were comparable (Do, 2011). Hence, the objective of this theory was, that if children look at violent behavior, they are likely to engage in violent behavior as well. Hence, Bandura postulates that children imitate the behavior that they are used to.

In the case of Ava, this theory holds true; Ava imitates many behaviors that she sees around her and that is evident. When she is ‘playing shop’ with her peer, a significant thing which can be seen is how she imitates the cashier. She and her peer are playing shop, where one is the customer and the other is the shopkeeper/cashier. Little Ava plays the role of the cashier, whereby she is is the one checking out the stuff from the “customer”. What is remarkable about Ava’s playtime in this scenario is that she remembers to make the sound which the machine which reads the barcode makes, when she is playing with her peer. She makes that sound each time her peer hands her a pretend item that needs to be checked out. She interacts with her peer in a manner which closely resembles how shopkeepers and supermarket employees interact with customers. earlier, we saw that Ava would accompany her mother to the store, and she would interact with her mother as she bought groceries. Ava is an active child and she would take part in choosing the materials that her mother would buy. In the two videos that were watched by me, the only time that I saw Ava being difficult was when she was being disallowed from seeing or touching things in the supermarket. This is indicative of he fact that Ava is a social learner and she learns a lot from the surroundings and from the people she sees around her. Because parents are the people who are most easily watched by youngsters. One example is how instructors' actions may serve as a model for students. Models might include not just well-known and trustworthy persons such as parents, siblings, and instructors, but also people and their actions that we are unfamiliar with.hence, I believe Ava finds these models in many people, people like the supermarket employees and the cashiers in the supermarket she goes to, which is why when she is playing with her friend, she is polite and considerate and she thanks her friend who is playing the part of her customer, just like all supermarket employees do.

Piaget’s Cognitive Development Theory and Ava

According to Jean Piaget's theory of cognitive development, children go through four stages of mental growth. His thesis is concerned with not only how children gain information, but also with the nature of intelligence. Sensorimotor stage, Preoperational stage, Concrete operational stage, and Formal operational stage are the stages identified by Piaget. Piaget thought that children participate actively in learning, functioning as mini-scientists conducting experiments, making observations, and learning about the environment. Kids constantly add new knowledge, expand on current knowledge, and alter previously held beliefs to fit new information as they interact with other people around them (Cherry, 2020). As Piaget became increasingly convinced, the first two years of cognitive ability serve as a model for all that follows, and this is true in this presentation as well. Each successive operating system for each succeeding stage is developed using identical processes, goes through comparable substages, reaches a midway defining moment, and then is implemented in predictable manner, pushed to its limits till another, more effective system is built. Although, as Piaget points out, this evolution is not the only possible path, it is a natural development that is part of the permanent core of human psychological growth. Because the kids have not yet learned the capacity to conduct mental operations, this phase is known Pre-Operational. During this stage, children's thinking is guided by what they perceive rather than logical concepts.(Feldman, 2004). There are certain features in the pre-operational stage in a child’s life, the first one is referred to as egocentricism, the child thinks mostly about themselves and a frequent signifier of that is how the child wants something at the very moment when they want it and they are not willing to wait to get it. The second feature is centration; this is the propensity to concentrate solely on one element of a problem. If one tries arranging two rows of paper clips so that a row of five is longer than a row of seven, they can undertake an exercise to understand. When one asks their small child to point to the row with the most paper clips, they will point to the five-row row. This is due to the fact that they are only concerned with one element (length) and are unable to manage two (length and number). The child's capacity to decenter will develop as they get older. Another element that Piaget speaks about is conservation. The concept of conservation is linked to the concept of centration. It's the idea that an amount remains constant regardless of the size, shape, or container it's in. Before the age of five, Piaget discovered that most toddlers are unable to comprehend this idea. Another aspect of this stage is called animism, when children refer to inanimate objects as though they had life-like traits and can act, this is known as animism. Another aspect, Seriation, occurs when an individual lacks the capacity to classify or organise items into categories. Finally, there's the semantic function. During this period, a child's capacity to think in symbols and signs improves. Symbols signify something or someone else; a doll, for example, might represent a baby, kid, or adult.

The stage that Ava is in is the Pre-Operational Stage, according to Piaget, and that stage starts from when a child is two years old and extends till the child is seven years old. She shows many of the signs that Piaget talks about in his theory, firstly, Ava is centered around her own needs and doesn’t see anything beyond it. This is made evident by the fact that she refuses to listen to her mother at the supermarket, when she wants to put her in a trolley. Ava throws a tantrum then and refuses to get in the trolley. However, she is very cognitively developed in the sense that she knows how to put on her shoes and how to put on her jacket. She displays signs of being animistic in her play when she prefers to play with dolls which she pushes around in her stroller.

According to Bandura, the adaptation process is an inborn propensity to become more sensitive to environmental situations. The learner, according to Piaget, is actively involved in an ongoing process of change or transformation. Learners adapt by constantly arranging and reorganising the data and experiences they encounter in their daily lives. The process improves the match between the learner's experience of the world and the new knowledge and how he or she understands it. From infancy onward, learners are continually challenged by new information from their environment, and they build more sophisticated cognitive frameworks of their world in their minds to organise, interpret, and adapt to it (Lefa, 2014). The child uses items and symbols to symbolise something that exists in a tangible form, such as an automobile that is played with as if it were a real car. The kid is unable to think abstractly at this age and requires specific physical circumstances. Is also the growth of semiotic functions, which help to build language. Because the kid can work with images and symbols, the child's language, thinking, creativity, and problem solving grow at a quicker rate during this period. Even if the object's characteristics have been modified and appear to be different, the kid may identify them. At this point, the youngster finds it impossible not to believe the evidence in front of their eyes. The vocabulary of children grows, and their utterances advance from one- and two-word phrases to entire sentences. Children may consider several points of view and consider multiple perspectives (Lazarus, 2010).

Ava shows signs of identifying objects clearly and categorizing them in accordance with their categories. When she is playing, she likes to keep the similar animals together and puts them back in the same place in her toy chest. Ava is also proficient at identifying which animal is which, she can recognize an animal such as a cow when a cow figuring has been kept in front of her, but she can also figure out if it is a duck when a live duck is in front of her. The fact that Ava learns new things and incorporates it to her knowledge increasingly is clearly shown in the three days when she arrives at her nursery and is left at the nurses by her mother. The observer can see her quickly adapt to her surroundings and being very comfortable with her new surroundings fairly quickly.

3. Conclusion

The paper looked at the activities of two year old Ava and related them to some of the developmental theories which have been put forward by Erikson, Bandura and Piaget. From these observations, it can be concluded that Ava is a bright child and is very well developed for her age, and her cognitive abilities are appropriate for her age.

Dig deeper into Analytical Approaches And Critiques with our selection of articles.

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Appendix 1

Child’s Name: Ava

The first video shows the child is playing at home. The child is playing with blocks, can successfully identify questions and answers. Child knows the name of animals as it is playing with small animals. The child identifies the name of the animals.

Getting dressed: the child is independent, tries to put on clothes by herself, but is unsuccessful. Mother helps her get dressed. Child is able to put shoes on by herself.

Playing with dough: Responds positively to playing with dough, with peer. Doesn’t speak initially unless spoken to. Ava is initially quietly playing and the individual overlooking them is engaging with her peer as she is more interactive. Peer responds to questions first, Ava starts talking a little after minute 2. Ava seems more occupied with her own play more than interacting with her peer, she only speak to the individual who is overlooking their play when directly spoken to. She repeats some of the phrases that the guardian says when discussing salad, she is given plenty of opportunities to interact with her peer (Molly), but both Ava and her peer seem to be more interested in talking to the elders than talking to each other.

Going shopping: The video shows Ava going shopping with her mother, she wants to stand up on her own and doesn’t want to be carried by her mother. She throws a tantrum when her mother asks her to be patient, and to sit on a trolley. She starts screaming when asked to behave, but quickly regains her composure again. Later she allows her mother to carry her and interacts about which vegetables to buy. After she starts behaving she is put down and she walks behind her mother quietly.

Going on a walk: Ava is out with her mother in the outdoors, she is clearly having a good time. She is talkative and interacts with her mother. Her mother shows her her shadow and she is intrigued by it, she imitates her mother when her mother moves her hand to move her shadow. She knows the name of animals as she is saying which animal she wants to be and says she wants to feed the ducks. She isn’t afraid of the ducks and rushes forward to feed them. She goes into the water and splashes around, she isn’t afraid of the water.

Playing with animal toys alone: She talks to her mother when she is playing alone, she is adept in making up playing scenarios herself when she says she wants to get on a bus and go somewhere. Her mother then leaves her alone so she can play by herself. Once she is alone she still keeps talking and she talks out loud when she is playing, narrating to herself what she is doing. She goes and briefly interacts non-verbally with the car and arranges similar kinds of animals in the same place, indicating that she knows which animal is which. When she gets engrossed in her play she ceases to talk and takes out toys from the chest and puts them back again.

Playing shops: Ava is interacting more with her peer, it is unclear if this child is the same child she was interacting with earlier. She plays shops intelligently, where she plays the role of a cashier and she is checking out the shopping of a customer. She makes the ‘beeep beep’ sounds which machines which check out goods at supermarkets do with her mouth. She gives the goods to her peer, and says ‘there you go, bye!’. She takes the shopping basket and leaves.

Playing with rice with peer: She is playing with a peer, it is unclear whether its the same peer as last time. Both children have spoons and are playing with rice and water. They are interacting quite a bit with each other and telling each other what the are doing. Ava imitates what her peer is doing when her peer is scooping out rice with her hands. They discuss within themselves how to share the rice that they are both playing with.

2. At the Nursery

Arrival: Ava arrives at the nursery, seems a little intimidated at first. Her mother explains that she needs to go to work and leave her at the nursery. She interacted with the teacher immediately. Her mother discreetly moves away when the teacher starts talking to her, she is not very anxious. Her mother leaves, and Ava doesn’t cry or throw a tantrum. She waves her mother goodbye and smiles.

Arrival 2: Ava seems more relaxed at this arrival and doesn’t need to prompted by her mother to hug and kiss her good bye. She leaves her mother to go inside and sit with the other children even before her mom leaves.

Arrival 3: Same as arrival 2.

Reunion with mum: She is happy to see her mother at the nurses, but is still engrossed in the play. Her teacher said she liked to play with multiple toys.

Reunion 2: She is engaged completely in the story session when her mother comes but she still runs to meet her mother. She is full of stores about what she did.

Reunion 3: Still engrossed in play, even when her mom comes she is playing. Clearly very comfortable with nursery now. She hugs her teacher and is clearly bonded with her teacher. She doesn’t immediately say of going home.

Lunch time: Ava is sitting and eating quietly and not interacting as me other children are.

Lunch time 2: Ava is still quietly sitting and eating, she interacts a little this time. Mostly concentrated on eating, plays with her food a little. She is well disciplined, doesn’t shout or scream.

Lunch 3: She doesn’t leave her seat, mostly eating.

Playground: Ava is playing with other children, but she mostly likes playing with herself. She is pushing a stroller and mostly observes what is happening around her. She takes he r toy stroller inside and then outside again, mostly keeping out of the way of the other children. Her teacher comes to interact with her and thats when she firsts interact. She moves to the centre of the playground only when her teacher leads her. She moves around and plays when her teacher enables her to.

Mark making: Se is drawing with her classmates and primarily the person she interacts with is her teacher. She still doesn’t seem to interact very much with her peers and seems more interested in the task she is doing and discussing what she is doing. She seems very interested in art. Unlike other children, she doesn’t get distracted and continues with her task.

Playing with pasta: in this activity she is interacting with a peer initially and telling her what she is doing. She moves around physically more and seems more comfortable with her surroundings. She is also more vocal as the other children were in the previous settings. She plays creatively with the car and repeats words and phrases. She doesn’t mind when other children come and start playing with what she’s playing with and when the pasta she is playing with falls, she picks it up again and doesn’t get upset.

Care routine: she doesn’t mind getting changed and interacts with the person changing her. She is playful and in a good mood, she is told to cooperate while she being changed and she is very helpful. She is polite as she hands her caretaker a tissue. She is aware of the fact that she needs a special toilet seat on the commode and she puts it there herself. She says she doesn’t need help and she knows where her special toilet seat goes. She knows how to wash her hands and is responsive when showed the proper way.

Key person 1: She plays very well and intelligently with key person 1, makes intelligent connections between animals and color. Laughs and has a good vocabulary.

Key person 2: Doesn’t try to grab toys off person’s hand, is very good at make believe , gives stories to characters.