Deck 3: Observing Children Through the Lens of Early Childhood Development

Question 1

Imagine a child you encountered recently who you didn't know---they could be any age. You can observe some of their characteristics and behaviours, but what are the things that have contributed to making them they way they are today?

Answer 1

We need to appreciate the individuality of children but acknowledge that some aspects of their development are similar in pattern. This development is influenced by a variety of factors including genetic inheritance, life experiences, and social contexts.

Question 2

Can you recall how any adults described your own development as you grew up?

Answer 2

By using our "lens of development" we tend to see the children in a very detailed way and attempt to notice as much as possible about every aspect of their abilities and physical characteristics according to each of the developmental domains. These observations aid us to better understand "who" the child is above and beyond the physical development and the behaviours that we can directly observe. We can enter the child's world through participatory observation or observe from a distance. Research aids us in uncovering why children behave the way they do. Using the "lens of development" helps educators to better understand attachment, self-regulation, emotional expression, social relation social learning, and play behaviours.

Question 3

If you were a four-year-old, what would you want an adult to know about you, or understand, before they started observing you in your preschool program (supposing you could put it into words)?

Answer 3

The more we know about how children develop, the better sense we will make of what we see. Our learning often starts with studies of normative development. Our experience working with children also helps build this knowledge base. Biological information is particularly helpful in comprehending children's behaviour. Further in-depth studies, reading research, exploring theories of development, or conducting research are necessary for a greater understanding of development. Conditions that drive developmental progress also need to be reviewed. Finally, sociological, political, and economic issues that influence development must be studied so the context of the child's development can be appreciated.

Question 4

Child development theories offer explanations of why children behave the way they do.

Question 5

Studying child development can be supported by observing children.

Question 6

Behaviourists think that children behave like animals.

Question 7

Piaget created a model that explained cognitive changes as processes of adaptation.

Question 8

Facilitation physical development is ensured by meeting only physical needs.

Question 9

Supportive relationships with adults help develop resilience in children.

Question 10

Aspects of moral understanding can be seen through a child's pro-social skills.

Question 11

Separating the domains of development is a good way of remembering many of the specific components of a child's development.

Question 12

Sexual development begins at 13 years of age.

Question 13

Children should conform to profiles of development that specify norms.

Question 14

Sequences of skill development vary from individual to individual.

Question 15

Spiritual development is considered a significant development in the field of early childhood education.

Question 16

The cephalo-caudal principle

A) explains how children gain bodily control from the head downward
B) explains how children gain bodily control from the centre of their bodies outward
C) explains how children gain cognitive skills
D) explains how children learn to socialize

Question 17

Observing physical skills in a naturalistic way may involve

A) testing reflexes
B) recording fine motor skills
C) testing endurance
D) measuring height and weight

Question 18

Self-help skills include the following

A) skipping with a friend
B) climbing the stairs
C) using the toilet
D) wearing socks

Question 19

Communication can be observed by recording when a child is

A) looking at books
B) crying and running
C) sleeping
D) gesturing and eye gazing

Question 20

Social interactions can be observed in

A) solitary play
B) individual puzzle play
C) watching television
D) cooperative play

Question 21

Emotions involve feelings, but they can be inferred from

A) facial expressions, conversation, and a child's clothing
B) conversation, facial expressions, and gestures
C) eating patterns, facial expressions, and a child's clothing
D) eating patterns, conversation, and a child's clothing

Question 22

Temperamental types are thought to be

A) changeable through life
B) relatively stable
C) unimportant
D) learned behaviours

Question 23

Moral understanding can be inferred from the following behaviours

A) making decisions about what to do in social situations and the way a child tell a story
B) following instructions for a craft activity and then painting
C) using scissors safely and opening a glue bottle
D) the way a child tells a story and sings the alphabet

Question 24

Which of the following lists contains skills that are mainly cognitive?

A) seriating, counting, walking, singing
B) decoding, sorting, matching, seriating
C) sorting, matching, running, crying
D) seriating, walking, laughing, counting

Question 25

What professional reason might a teacher offer parents for not including spiritual development in her assessment profile?

A) Spirituality is only for new-age thinkers.
B) Spirituality is concerned with religious belief, which does not matter in the classroom or child care centre.
C) Spirituality can be considered as part of religious extremism and is not developmental.
D) Spirituality is about religious beliefs that I do not share and that I think are unsophisticated.

Question 26

Milestones are

A) cognitive skills learnt through modelling.
B) significant self-help skills.
C) significant steps during the process of human development.
D) engineered by adult initiated activities.
E) variations in the developmental trajectory.

Question 27

A proponent of the behaviourist theory would say

A) that modelling is the key to motivating development.
B) that focusing on demonstrated behaviour is the central focus.
C) inner drives are the critical factor in understanding development.
D) that internalizing of role models explains behaviour.
E) it is important that children direct and represent their own learning.

Question 28

Emotional and social development includes

A) self-regulation, attachment, social play.
B) morality, indicators, social play
C) self-regulation, attachment, social emotions.
D) assimilation, motivation, conservation
E) milestones, proprioception, adaptation.

Question 29

What are the principles of child development that influence how we approach observation and data collection?

Question 30

What do we need to look for when we observe the development of young children?

Question 31

How does observing children in an open-ended way affect the data?

Question 32

How does having developmental understanding influence our perceptions of young children?

Question 33

How might a child's physical development affect other domains of his or her development?

Question 34

Why do we emphasize the individuality of development when we usually care for children in groups?

Question 35

Why is observing cognitive activity so difficult?

Question 36

In what ways does Piaget's theory of developmental psychology help us to understand how children construct knowledge (through our lens of knowledge construction)?

Question 37

Describe emotional intelligence and its impact on child development.

Question 38

You are going to give a presentation to a group of high school students. Prepare materials that could be used to teach them about each of the domains of human development. Incorporate an activity that would demonstrate how the domains interact with each other.
Note: Review the assessment rubric for this task. It offers details that will help you prepare for the task and be successful as you carry it out.

Question 39

You have created documentation for your centre, based on the experiences of the children in your group. You have organized the documentation panels by developmental domain and have chosen to include the spiritual domain for the first time. A parent approaches you, quite concerned that you are teaching her child religious beliefs that she is not comfortable with. How would you respond?