Naturalistic observation paper Child psychology

On January 27, 2009 at twelve noon, I went to the Children’s Brooklyn museum with the purpose of completing a Naturalistic observation of a toddler aged child. When I arrived, there were a couple of children in the free play area playing with the make believe toys. Five minutes into my observation I found my subject. I observed a young Caucasian boy who for purposes of this paper I will name Christian. Christian who fits in the 2-3 age group was accompanied by his nanny. What made me so interested with particular little boy, and not the group of children who were already there, was that his demeanor caught my attention. Like the other kids, I expected him to start interacting with the other children when he came in, but he passed them like they were not even there. In terms of physical appearance Christian was wearing blue jeans, a white t-shirt, black jacket and blue cap. He was kind of short and average weight his hair was curly in a mini afro. I noticed he was very independent he took off his coat and hat by himself without any assistance from his nanny. He made himself comfortable by sitting down as the nanny picked up a book to read to him. Christian has wonderful fine motor skills, which involve physical movements with his hands and fingers. I watched him turn pages in the Winnie the Pooh book with no hesitation or problem. After she read the Winnie the Pooh book to Christian they colored together. Christian held the crayons perfectly, with both his thumb and his finger. He is capable of drawing and can use circular strokes. Christian’s attention started to shift. As someone who had just waken he started to notice the other little boys and girls who were off playing on the opposite side of the room. He slowly started to remove himself from sitting with his nanny. He began to watch the other children play nosily across the room. His nanny began to call him to sit back, but he was engrossed with the other children. Just when I thought that he was going into the direction of the other children, he goes into the opposite direction. Christian made no immediate attempts to interact with the other kids. He appeared to be shy or even afraid, but then I took into consideration that maybe isolating himself for a reason. At this age we learn that children usually interact with other children their age in certain settings, such as playgrounds, parties, museums e. t .c. Christian again exhibits his independence and tries to place a video. His nanny tries to assist him but he screams “no” and takes out the tape and tries to insert it himself. After many attempts he allows the nanny to insert the video tape about 2minutes into the video I hear him say very clear ‘’I’m hungry ’’ gets up and runs back towards his belongings. He goes into his knapsack looking for something then he retrieves what he looking for which is his snack. He begins to eat his pudding then one of the little boys from the group comes over to him, he just gives him his snack and runs away from the little boy looking back at him. The nanny calls out to him he stops running and looks at her she tells him to come back and eat his cheeks turn red and he shaking his head “no” then he says no glaring at little boy who is devouring his pudding before running back to the group of children he was with. Then Christian finally walks back to his nanny he begins putting on his coat and hat getting ready to go home. My next observation took place on February5th around 6pm my co-worker brought her 4 yr old son to the job. His name is Dorian he was wear orange and black boots with an orange sweater and black jeans a black jacket and an orange hat. Dorian is kind of short for this age carrying his average ideal weight. My coworker Nichole introduced him to everyone he smiled and said hello and shook hands then hid behind his mother. His mother asked him to sit in a chair and he did so without fuss or complains. While sitting there another co-worker came in with her 4yr old daughter. She left her daughter downstairs for a minute so she can run upstairs. The little girl began crying yelling and screaming for her mother. Dorian began to look at the little girl like she was crazy as if he was much older than her he even shook his head from side to side then looked at his mother as if to say” mommy what’s wrong with her why is she crying”. He just kept looking at her with this confused expression on his face. In terms of behaviorism Dorian acts more mature than children his age, where he display’s strong command of his environment also clear language skills. Dorian is clearly mastering great social skills. Observing children is a fascinating experience. It is amazing to see how differently children interact in their natural environment. As a child grows environmental circumstances such as interactions with immediate family and peers impacts on behaviorism and emotional development. While the above statements are true, it is also important to note that no two children are exactly alike therefore every child develops differently and uniquely.