Observing Young Children

Why is Observing Children Important? To better understand their development this helps make it easier to see how each skill leads to the next. It helps you learn about individual children. This will help: Identify activities to meet his or her particular needs. Can help you identify children who have special needs or disabilities. Then they can receive the special care and learning opportunities they need. Gives you important feedback about your own approach to parenting and teaching.

How to Observe Young Children One of the most difficult parts of becoming a good observer is learning to separate facts from opinions. Observations are either objective or subjective.

Subjective Observations Subjective observations: Use personal opinions and feelings rather than facts to judge or describe things. They are based on the false assumption that the observer knows what is going on in the child’s mind. If you don’t record facts, it is hard for others to use the information observed.

Objective Observation Objective observations: Uses facts not personal feelings or prejudice to describe things. Describes what the observer saw and heard and nothing more. More valuable than subjective ones. Recording only what is seen and heard. Doesn’t use feeling words such as happy or sad, good or bad. Can record that the child smiled or laughed.

Types of Observation Records 4 methods of recording observations: Running record- writing down for a set period of time everything observed. Useful analyzing a certain area of development, such as social interaction or motor skills. Anecdotal record- recording the behavior that has to do with same issue. For example seeing how a child adjusts to a new child care center. You write down how the child behaved at arrival time each day for several days.

Frequency count-is a tally of how often a certain behavior occurs. This kind of record is useful when you are trying to change an undesirable behavior. Developmental checklist- identifies a series of specific skills of behaviors that a child of a certain age should master.

Preparing Observation Records It is important to write down what you see as you see it. Otherwise, important information may be forgotten. Each record should include the date and time, the number of children present, their names and ages, and number of adults working with them, the setting where you made the observation and where it occurred.

How to Act While Observing You don’t want to be noticed. Your presence can affect their behavior, which makes it difficult for you to gather objective information. You should try to blend in.