Early Childhood Education- ECE 101

Child’s Physical, Psychosocial, Cognitive and Development

1. Date and time of observation

July 23, 2024 from 11:00 AM to 11:30 AM

• Relationship to the child

A boy child of a friend.

• Describe the setting

The observation occurred in the living compound of the child’s home environment. I was invited to observe the baby and we settled in a proofed room with different toys on the floor, a play mat and cartoons were on running on the television in the background.

• Physical description of the child (list factual, observable information: hair color, skin tone, age (approx.), height (approx)

The child has light brown hair and kind of fair skin and moreover the child is of around two years of age. He is about 30 inches in height and weighs approximately 25 pounds. He was wearing a blue t-shirt with blue shorts and I like the way the little boy stared at me.

• What do you notice about the child’s physical development – what skills do they seem to have mastered, and what skills are they working on?

I noted the child can walk and run several steps, climb up on some kinds of furniture surrounding him, and use the pincer grip and take up small objects like toys. He is still struggling to jump with both feet off the ground. He was also struggling to turn pages of book using his fingers. I likes the way he paid attention on the things I was recording in the book.

• What do you notice about the child’s psychosocial development?

The child was mostly observed to be securely attached with the caregiver. Any time I tried to hold him he could ran to his mother or when distressed and played games such as peekaboo only with the people he knows in the room. He frequently expressed pleasure in interpersonal communication as he smiled and laughed at many occasions but as long you do the same to him. I also noted that the baby would want to do some things for himself such opening the door and picking some toys and snacks from the table.

• What do you notice about the child’s cognitive development?

The child was curious and when I tried picking his toys, he could stare at me and later came to snatch them. This proved that he knows his things in the house. He could pick some blocks and tried to sort them in different shapes and this which showcased problem-solving abilities. The baby could also take some objects and put them on the ears the way he saw me speaking with my phone.

• What do you notice about the child’s language development?

The child spoke basic things like ‘momm’ ‘nananana’ and ‘ball.’ He babbled a lot and responded to his name. But I was surprised when the kid was mentioning simple sentences and understood very basic commands such as ‘come here,’ ‘give me the toy’ and ‘high five.” I also noted that the kid could understand any non-verbal cues.

• List 1 quote from the textbook that you feel help you better understand what you observed related to milestones of this age group.

“Holophrastic speech: Children begin using their first words at about 12 or 13 months of

age and may use partial words to convey thoughts at even younger ages. These one

word expressions are referred to as holophrastic speech. For example, the child may say

“ju” for the word “juice” and use this sound when referring to a bottle. The listener

must interpret the meaning of the holophrase and when this is someone who has spent

time with the child, interpretation is not too difficult. They know that “ju” means “juice”

which means the baby wants some milk!” (Paris, Ricardo & Raymond 133).

The example from the textbook on holophrastic speech sheds light on the language used by infants and toddlers. This stage is commonly detected at about the age of one year and a half when children start to speak and use their first words, which are, as a rule, simplified fragments of the adult language. Holophrastic speech refers to these single words used by children, and such developments are significant as they depict the first stage of the child’s ability to express elaborate thoughts using a few words. For instance, a child may use “ju” to refer to the meaning “juice,” here, the listener, who is at times a nearby familiar carer, must decipher the child’s need. The study of the nature of holophrastic speech re-emphasizes the contextual and relational aspects of early language acquisition development. The primary caregivers of such a child will not find these attempts puzzling because they spend more time with the child and can support the child’s development in other aspects, especially in the part that concerns language growth.

 This understanding of holophrastic speech proves informative when describing language’s cognitive and social development. Responding to this situation highlights that language development is not only about the number of words used in a child’s communication but also about the quality of relationships he/she has with caregivers who can decode the child’s messages. The stage can be considered very important as it provides the base for further developing complex sentence structures. Understandably, acknowledging the importance of holophrastic speech contributes to appropriate interaction with children by exposing them to the languages and helping educators and caregivers adjust to the child’s particular level of language skills. Altogether, this quote contributes to the awareness of growth and development throughout the development process by indicating the significance of children’s initial attempts at communicating regardless of their slight inaccuracies.

Works Cited

Paris, Jennifer, Ricardo, Antoinette, and Rymond, Dawn. (2019). Child growth and development: An open educational resources publication. Santa Clarita, CA: College of the Canyons