Levi: A Child Case Study
Mallory Howresko
Klamath Community College

Table of Contents INTRODUCTION 2 DATA COLLECTION 2 Child Information 2 Family Background 2 Medical History 2 Current Functioning 2 ANALYSIS/SYNTHESIS 2 Strengths and Weaknesses 2 How to Improve on Weaknesses 2 Reflection 2 OBSERVATIONS TOOLS AND SAMPLES 2 Rating Scale 2 Running Record 2 Anecdotal Record 2 Rubric 2 Work Samples 2

INTRODUCTION
The following case study is on a young preschool boy. The study took place over 56 days. The observations were done at two places, Frenchglen School and Rock Creek Ranch. The observer was able to see and document how the preschool years impact a child’s physical, mental and emotional development.
DATA COLLECTION

Child Information
This case study is on a young 4 year old Caucasian boy. For the sake of confidentially I will refer to him as “Levi” throughout this study. Levi M. was born on March 15, 2010 in Helena, Montana. He is four years old with blonde hair, brown eyes and a slim build. He weighs approximately 40 pounds and is 38.5 inches tall. Levi is full of energy, talkative and curious. He is incredibly outgoing and always eager to show you what he can do or say. He has a tendency to be a tad bossy, but has a huge heart. He loves anything cowboy and the color blue. Levi is an only child and lives at home with his father and mother.
Family Background
He lives with his mother and father on a ranch in Oregon. Their house is part of Rock Creek Ranch’s property. There are two other families that also live on the ranch, as well as the ranch hands who live in the bunk house. They have one bird and one dog. Although Levi loves all the cows that the ranch has, especially the milking calves. His dad is a working cowboy and his mom stays at home as a housewife. They have been married for five years and recently moved to Oregon from Montana. Levi is currently the only child, however sometime in October he will become a big brother, because his mother is pregnant right now.
When talking to his mother she expressed that her only concern at the moment was how Levi would handle having another kid around. Her exact words were, “He’s been my only baby for four years, so it will be interesting to see how he responses to someone else getting some of the attention.”
Medical History
Levi developed normally through the prenatal, infancy, and toddler stages. He was born on March 15, 2010 by a natural birth after a full term, healthy pregnancy. At birth he weighed 6.15 pounds and measured 21 inches long. Levi hit the developmental milestone of rolling over at four months and sat up at seven months. Levi’s first word was “ba,” for bottle. He really starting talking at ten months. All in all, as a toddler, he hit all the important milestones, including learning to walk which occurred at 12 months and being potty trained at 3 ½ years old.
Current Functioning
According to Piaget, Levi is in the pre-operational stage cognitively. Pre-operational stage is from ages 2 to 7. Levi fits this stage because, he is 4 years old. Cognitively, he is developing normal for his age. Examples are, he knows how to write letters in the alphabet. He knows how to write his name, is able to count, and he is becoming interested in how to sound out certain words. Levi is learning the months and days of the week. He knows the colors: blue, green, red, and yellow. Levi is in the process of learning letters and sounds in the alphabet. He recently learned how to write his name, which is a great achievement. He enjoys listening to other people read. Often times he will point to a word in a book, and will ask, “What is that word?” He will then repeat the word that you just said.
Even though Levi just turned four he has hit many of the required gross and fine motor skills. He can run, hop, and jump. Levi is incredibly independent. He can walk up and down stairs alone, dress and undress, and use the bathroom on him own. He needs more time to get skipping down, but he tries his best. Everyone once in a while you will catch Levi talking to himself or to his dog, Maggie. Usually he is trying to figure something out. It is quite assuming to watch.
Levi really enjoys imitating the people around him. He likes to try to be like his dad and John Wayne. He wants to be older and be able to ride horses, like everyone else. Levi also has an amazing memory. His mother says that he is sometimes able to recall something that has happened nearly a year ago. As a preschooler, he is still progressing in terms of memories. His memory and symbolic thinking has improved, yet he is still working on his attention span. Sometimes he has a difficult time staying on task. Nevertheless, he has developed on track thus far in life.
From observations, it is clear that Levi has formed friendships and has had no problem doing so. This could be because he is a verbal and outgoing boy. He goes about making friends by jumping right in there and having fun. Levi seems to enjoy playing with all the kids, but one of his really good friends at the Frenchglen School is Justin. They play together at the school and even sometimes at Levi’s house.
As a four year old, Levi engages in functional and constructive play. His functional play comes from his play of repetitive activities such as playing with cars and trucks. His constructive play is when he plays with blocks to construct or build something. He really enjoys building things and can often be found at Lego or blocks.
As a happy, and for the most part, easy going four year old, Levis is accomplishing many of the expected landmarks, yet needs more time in other areas. You can observer Levi feeling safe and comfortable in areas other than those he is familiar to. However, he can and or will lose complete control of his temper and lash out violently to those around him. For example, he will yell mean things at his mother, hit or throw things at her. The fact that he loses his temper and becomes mean may have to do with the fact that he feels he has no other option and is frustrated. It is likely as he grows up he will be able to use his words as to what is making him so angry, right now his mother explains how what he is doing and or saying is not okay. She also tries to model the behavior she wants her son to have.
Levi seems to be developing well in his social/emotional developments. Levi is learning to get along with others, that other children have feelings like himself and to share with others. Thus, it seems that Levi is on track with his social/emotional developments as a 4 year old, just as he is with his physical and cognitive developmental skills.

ANALYSIS/SYNTHESIS
Strengths and Weaknesses
At four years old, Levi is a very social child, motivated to please others and interact with adults and peers. His ability to articulate his words clearly and logically is clearly a strength. He often carries out conversations and tells some of the most detailed stories. Along with that, Levi is incredibly outgoing and tries to play with anyone new he meets. He will even try to pull others in asking, “Do you want to play?” Although, he does not do this often, normally he favors his friend Justin the most. He engages in functional and constructive play. He’ll often act out cowboy scenes. Where he is the good guy and is trying to capture the bad guy, which is normally Justin. Another area of strength for Levi is in his cognitive development. Levi knows how to write his name and identify the colors: blue, green, red and yellow. He shows ample ability to recognize and create patterns. Along with that he is able to problem solve with concrete objects. There was a day when he was searching all over the ranch for his toy rope and just could not find it, so to solve his problem he found a piece of bailing twine and made a new rope. He continued to develop cognitively a little more as the days passed. His great sense of curiosity and his willingness to learn will help him to continue to accomplish all the key milestones. Levi’s greatest area of weakness is his emotional competence. He struggles with releasing stressful feelings in an appropriate manner and did not show his ability to express his anger in words rather than feelings. Although Levi did not get angry very often, but when he did he would throw things or say mean things to the people around him. In addition, when something does not go Levi’s way he will often retreat into himself and stay quiet and withdrawn the rest of the day. Other areas that have room for improvement are Levi’s short attention span. He gets distracted easily and often will have to be told to stay on task. He needs more practice using scissors, catching and throwing items.

How to Improve on Weaknesses
Learning about emotions and how to manage and express feelings is one of the most important tasks of childhood. The two items that are of most concern for Levi are: his inability to release stressful feelings in an appropriate manner and not expressing his anger in words rather than feelings. In my opinion the two items go hand in hand. Due to the fact Levi does not know how to release his stressful feelings he might be repressing them, thus leading to him lashing out when it builds up.
My suggestion for improvement is to go back to the basics. Start talking to Levi about the most basic feelings: mad, sad, glad, afraid, and hurt. Interject the names of these feelings into everyday conversations. I would make it a point to ask if he knows the name of the feelings he is having at the moment.
Once the identification of basic feelings is beginning to be understood by him, it is time to move on to learning how to express those feelings appropriately. It needs to be verbally told to Levi that hurting others or yourself is never allowed as a way to express their feelings. That instead it is important and helpful if he states his feelings aloud. When he expresses a feeling to an adult, that adult needs to paraphrase back to him what you heard, so that what he feels will both be heard and understood.
Levi might need an outlet other than speaking his feelings. Outlets can really be anything, from going outside and running, let him draw or paint what is upsetting him, getting him a drum, or letting him play fetch with him dog.
Teaching Levi how to identify what he is feeling and then showing and allowing him to appropriately express those emotions, will be giving him a tool that will reap many benefits. Levi is a very sweet and compassionate kid and although his anger issues are alarming now I believe as he grows up and other work with him he will have his temper under control.
Reflection
This term of college was a term in which I was allowed to research the impact of preschool in-depth. My technical writing class gave me the opportunity to research longitudinal studies that tracked the impact of high-quality early education programs on children throughout adulthood. In addition, through my assessment and evaluation class, coupled with the child study project, I was then able to witness first-hand how important preschool is and the joy that comes from being a preschool teacher. I truly enjoyed watching and learning about Levi in a more professional light these past two months. Through observing Levi for specific characteristics I was able to bring the lectures and class discussions to life.
If I could do this experience over again, I wish I could have observed Levi at different locations. For the majority of the study I only got the chance to observe Levi at Rock Creek Ranch. Even though, there were several occasions I was able to observe Levi at Frenchglen School I would have liked to see how he reacted at different locations with different people. One downfall into living out in the country is how far away everything is. I believe I did a good job getting observations and information about Levi interacting with peers I wish more of my observations could have been done involving more children.
My first preschool experience was very interesting and I am walking away with a better understanding of how preschoolers develop cognitively, emotionally, and physically. Levi was a joy to work with. He told fascinating four year old stories and made it a point to always tell me he liked my red hair, because it was just like his mother’s. He taught allowed the material from the textbook to come to life. I was able to study the material for the week then observe Levi and pick up on what the book and lecture were saying. I can easily say that I am leaving this class with a better understanding of how a preschool-aged child operates.

OBSERVATIONS TOOLS AND SAMPLES
Rating Scale
Child’s Name: Levi____ Date: 5/14/14______
Child’s Age: 4___________
Observer:_Mallory_____

Behaviors | Always | Often | Sometimes | Seldom | Never | Shows increased willingness to cooperate | | X | | | | Is patient and conscientious | | | X | | | Expresses anger verbally rather than physically | X | | | | | Has strong desire to please | | X | | | | Can decide how things fit together as a part of a sequence or a series | | | X | | | Respects properly rights of others | | X | | | |

Running Record
NAME __ Levi__________________ AGE ____4___________ DATE__4/30/14_____
OBSERVER __Mallory____________ PLACE_ Rock Creek Ranch__ TIME _12:00 -12:15____
This is an observation of child L. a young four-year old at Rock Creek Ranch. The 15 minute observation includes the child playing outside while his mother, M and I watch. OBSERVATION | DIALOG | COMMENTS | L is sitting in front of the TV | M: “Let’s go outside and play” | L looks calm and familiar with this routine | L jumps up and runs outside | L: “Can I ride my bike?”M: “Of course” | Displays strong and speedy running | L walks over to the tricycle and attempts to sit on it swinging his right leg over the seat first. He sits down on the seat and pauses. He places his left foot on the pedal and then his right foot onto the other pedal and begins to pedal the tricycle | | L is attempting to ride his tricycle so he is developing his gross motor skill | L rides around the house three times. He gets off the bike and runs over to the toy slide. | | L lost interest with riding the bike in a matter of minutes | L climbs up the slide using the staircase to get to the top. | | He does this with ease and appears very confident | He slides down and runs over to the mud. | | | L picks up a bucket and places handfuls of mud into the bucket. | | Seems to have good strength in his hands | He picks up several pieces of grass and starts to pour it on top of the mud. | L: “I’m making a cake” | Maybe L really enjoys cooking | He picks up a small shovel and mixes the mud and grass together. | | He holds the spade with both hands and mixes using a stabbing motion. Showing the development of fine motor skills | He drops the shovel and begins to use his hands to take the mud and grass out of the bucket and into a small metal dish. | L: “I’m making a cake just like mom does” | He clearly is imitating his mother’s actions | He pats the mud down using a flat hand. | | | He carries the metal dish over to a wooden board. | L: “the cake needs to cook” | Well aware of the process to making a cake | He walks back to his tricycle | L to M “the cake is cooking” | |
Anecdotal Record
NAME __ Levi__________________ AGE ____4___________ DATE__4/25/14_____
OBSERVER __Mallory____________ PLACE_ Frenchglen School __ TIME _10 AM ____

It is Friday, April 25th at 10 am. Levi and I have been at Crane Fellowship for an hour now.
Levi is in a group with three other boys. Each boy has a small toy cowboy and a paper turtle shell for that cowboy.
Levi to Justin “My cowboy’s name is John Wayne.” Justin to Levi “My is Jack.”
Levi: “Someone stole all of his cows.”
Teacher: “So how is John Wayne feeling?”
Levi looks at the cowboy for about 20 seconds, then to Jack. Levi: “I think he’s pretty mad.”
Teacher: “So John Wayne is mad because someone took all of his cows. What does tiny turtle tell us to do when we get mad?”
Justin: “Take a deep breath”
Levi is staring at the cowboy and the turtle shell. Levi lets out a sigh and sticks the turtle shell over the toy cowboy’s head. The other three boys also stick their cowboy’s head in the turtle shell. Levi to Justin: “John Wayne is not angry. How is Jack?” Justin: “Jack is happy.”
The teacher goes on to explain how important it is for us to realize we are angry and to calm down. Teacher: “Always pretend you’re like the turtle. Just go into your shell.”
Levi and the other kids left the table, but took their cowboys with them.

Rubric
NAME __ Levi__________________ AGE ____4___________ DATE__5/29/14_____
OBSERVER __Mallory____________
1 = Lowest Characteristics of Drawing | Scoring | Comments | | 1 | 2 | 3 | | Makes random marks on paper | | | X | Several random scribbles | Makes basic shapes | | X | | Some ovals, triangles, rectangles | Makes controlled scribbles | | | X | More vertical lines just drawn over and over | Combine circles/squares with crossed lines | | | | Shapes are separate from one another | Makes suns | | | | No evidence of suns being made | Draws person as sun-faced with arms/legs | X | | | The “people” are circles with vertical lines | Draw animals, trees, flowers | | X | | Did point out a cow | Draws objects together in a picture | X | | | Objects are more free floating |

Work Samples