My early nine o’clock appointment was at the Children’s Center in Fairfield, I entered through the rear of the building, because I found parking close by. I see children in their rooms it was a quiet walk from the laundry area down the hallway towards the Front Desk, but occasionally I will hear a child scream. Everything seemed clean and organized. The staff at the front desk was courteous, very helpful and friendly. I signed in and they gave me batch to wear while I am there.
I chose a twenty-nine month old little boy named Mario, he was the oldest and the tallest of the other four, age ranging from a year to two years. “By the time a child reaches the age of two their weight increase by seventy-five percent, their head circumference increases from fourteen to nineteen inches”. Mario weight about thirty to thirty-five pounds, he has a full head of hair, so his head size to me is equivalent to his body size and weight. “Emotional regulation and impulse control continue to develop…[the] first cognition of exiting, social interactions and later cognitions of more abstract thoughts” Berger, Grossman (2013). Mario is quite a character, he speaks and teaches the little ones with authority.
“In Biosocial growth, a caregiver enables babies to grow, to move and learn” (p. 129) 9:00 a.m. The three caregivers were joining in play time of how to change baby’s diapers. Mario was holding three play baby bottles for a doll wearing a green outfit. The caregiver respond to Mario’s request that he wanted to feed the baby doll instead.
9:05 The baby changing diaper class continues, and the caregiver showed the kids how to change the baby’s diapers, the other toddlers were not really paying attention except for Mario as he hands over baby wipes to the caregiver. The caregiver asked Marion if he wanted to wipe the baby doll, he said “no” “milk”, holding two bottles. Caregiver is still responding and playing with the other boy, both are busy. Mario decides run to the other side of the room, and then comes back to the baby changing station. “Specialization in the areas of the cortex, visual cortex, auditory,…the sense of touch for each body part including each finger of the person” (p. 130) Mario was still involve in feeding the baby doll, he then stops, and begins banging the two bottles together. He follows another boy to the mat area where I was observing, he notice and faced me, acknowledging me that he knew I was there. “Perception is the mental process of sensory information when the brain interprets a sensation”. He begins to sway his hips side to side while banging on the baby bottles together and smiling at me. Then he crawled on the floor to grab another and toy briefly played with it, once more held the two baby bottles. In Cognitive Development, “toddlers use mental combinations, intellectual experimentation, imagination [during stage six] sequence begins with a thought and then the toddler will move into action. At this stage, the toddler can pretend, or thinking about consequences by hesitating a moment before action”.
9:10 a.m. Marion begins to suck on both bottle nipples, after he was done he asked the caregiver to put the doll down so he can feed it, he then ignores the doll and runs to the middle section of the room climbed on the bench near a window and sat briefly on the bench. His gross motor skills are more advance than the others his, “physical abilities involving large body movements [in] walking, running, climbing and jumping” (p. 140) in advance stage. He will follow a caregiver and stands near them and will have a conversation with them. He was in the other section of the room talking to the caregiver, and rubbing his forehead at the same time. “Language [can be] too complex to be mastered through step-by step conditioning…language itself is experience-expectant, although the specific language is experience-dependent, all babies are eager learners and language may be considered one more aspect of neurological maturation”.
9:12 “feed baby” he said and carries the doll to the high chair looks at the baby doll he says, “baby he thirsty” “yeah he did not eat”. Caregiver responded to him to get some food.
9:16 He told the caregiver he fed the baby “corn”. The caregiver repeated what he said.
9:19 Diaper in the basket, he is interacting with the caregiver about the cookie monster character on the diaper. What’s this? He takes out baby wipe from the box “There’s wipe in here” Messing with the wipes and taking them out of the container, he got a wipe and wiped the baby dolls head, he speaks loudly “now what?” 9:21 Caregiver reminded Mario that he needs to have his diaper change because it’s time.. He says “I’m still feeding the baby”. Goes to have is diaper change in another by a second caregiver. There are three caregivers. His diaper is being change standing up by the toilet. I can only see the top of his head. He climbs up on a stool to wash his hands, the caregiver reminds him to use soap so he did. He then waits for the caregiver to hand him a paper towel.
9:23 He goes back to check on the baby for a brief moment, gets another baby doll in a basket then puts it down. He goes back to the original baby doll wearing green, carries while talking to another boy and told him to put the doll into the high chair (showing authority) and communicating about the box of baby wipes. He then takes the doll out of the high chair, carrying one green baby bottle. He puts the baby down, and gets another bottle banging them together and swaying his hips side to side and looking at my direction. He stops dancing and goes for different toys. He stops playing with the other toys.
9:25 He is back to holding two bottles, the caregiver remind him to feed the baby with the bottle. He asked “where’s the baby” the caregiver reminded him he had placed the baby in the sink beside the high chair. He takes the doll out of the sink, and placed the baby doll in green back into the high chair.
9:28 The third caregiver ask everyone to gather around so she can show them how to change a diaper. Caregiver asked, “who wants to wipe the baby” Mario says “You!”
He is taller than the rest of the toddlers, he trying to communicate with a little girls who is about a year old, then he runs off still with bottles in his hands, he comes back pouting because the little girl was playing with the baby doll in green.
9:30 He says, “There mine wipe” Caregiver asked him where’s his baby? He answers, “right there” “I feed the baby” all three caregivers are reminding the kids five more minutes, then everyone sang, “just 5 more minutes to play, to play, to play” Caregiver told Mario to burp the baby, so puts the baby on his shoulder holding a purple bottle while pads the baby’s back.
9:35 The caregiver says, “Everyone bring your baby to the reading room for storytelling, everyone gathered around, sits on the bench, before the caregiver began reading, Mario points to pictures hanging from the ceiling, showing the other kid, he said something like “huh, huh, yeah”
The caregiver picks up the book and read, the kids got up to point at certain animals. He points at the photo, he says “duck, duck” the caregivers says “goose” he continues to stand near the caregiver pointing out animals and making sounds like “meow” as point to the cat. He sat on the beach for a second, sits for a second, then stands up with his favorite doll and goes closer to the third caregiver. When he saw a picture of bubbles, he immediately said “achoo” Still pointing and then his closes eyes, opens eyes still pointing bee says bzz bzz; and snakes, puppy, baby.
9:40 Caregiver ask everyone if their baby is asleep. “Good night” Singing “Time to sleep time to put the baby in bed, rock the baby in bed, give the baby a bottle, feed the baby milk, kiss the baby goodnight” Caregiver asked is your baby asleep? No not yet, “baby needs to eat again” Mario put his finger over his lips and said “shoo baby’s asleep”
9:42 Everyone whispering a rhyme then clapping after.
The imaginary balloon, stretching out the balloon (arms stretched out to the side), blow the balloon, Caregiver asked “where’s the balloon “it flew off” Another game played Bumble Bee what your name When the caregiver points to a child is suppose to call out their name. Marion seems to know each child’s name and speaks for them when a kid is quiet. The Caregiver had to remind him to let them speak for themself.
9:43 Dance…he stays close the caregiver who is in charge of a game. They played a Tahitian song with lots of drumming. They are all given a pom pom. Mario chooses a blue pom pom he watches everyone shake the pom poms he stands and watches, shakes a little, he jumps, the other boy wiggle his pom pom on Mario’s face. There was no reaction from Mario.
9:48 They were reminded to put their pom poms away. He saw two other kids going towards Jack in the Box so he proceeded to do so. Caregiver announced if everyone is ready to go outside and play. He and another boy runs to the glass door, looks outside from the glass door, he tries to open door but couldn’t. He saw a photo of a tiger placed on the glass door, as he is saying “tiger, tiger” he points to the photo showing the other boy. Mario tells the caregiver “I need jacket”
9:55 So everyone was let out to play, most of them to a small table covered with white paper, each child was given a squirting water bottle. Mario chooses a green bottle. All were standing spraying water for at least 5 mins. Surprisingly Mario turns around looks me in the eye and says “no touch” then turns around and continues spraying water on the table. “no, no, no,” when water starts to squirt outside the white paper. They were given a water color cakes to do artwork. Mario chooses a red cake and he followed instructions, He said “I made that” the Caregiver who is now smiling say’s “you made that?”
9:58 He picks up the water color cake and starts to roll it across the table to the second caregiver. He was focus on padding the water colored cake on the table and listening to the other kids as they say all the colors.
10:00 He then picks up a green water color cake to complete the artwork. Mario Born 29 months the oldest of the group Mario American/African with red curly hair, today he is wearing a black and red outfit.