Question

record EVERYTHING that one infant or toddler does in the span of 15 minutes, especially focusing on physical, cognitive and psychosocial skills.   Includes all physical activity, all evidence of thinking, problem-solving, and language, and all interactions with other children and adults. Record what the child is doing, how the child appears (facial expressions, movements, how the child carries him/herself), etc.

DO NOT SUMMARIZE anything you see. The point of a running record is to maintain a running play-by-play account of the child’s behavior. Admittedly, this is a lot of writing. However, what appears to be pieces of behavior episodes for older children and adults may be an entire behavior episode for an infant or toddler. And often, it is in retrospect, when observation notes are reviewed, that this becomes apparent.

Analysis:

After you have completed your observation, go back through your notes, and:

1. Identify two physical skills, two cognitive skills, and two psychosocial skills that the infant or toddler exhibited during the observation. In the span of 15 minutes, you will most likely see at least several of each type of skill displayed in the child's behavior.

2. Describe those specific skills (behaviors) that you observed. What was the child doing? How was the child doing it? For example, if the child was walking, describe how that physical skill was observed. Where was the child walking? If the child was talking or somehow communicating, describe how that cognitive skill was observed. How and to whom was the child communicating?  If the child was interacting or looking at another person, describe how that psychosocial skill was observed. Who was the child interacting and with whom?

After you have completed analyzing the child’s behavior:

3.  Write a statement of what you learned about this child in particular and about infant/toddler behavior in general. Did the behavior surprise you? What was the infant or toddler telling you about his/her development? What was the infant/toddler trying to learn? What use did the infant/toddler make of the adults in the environment? Of the other children? What one thing remains in your mind about this child and why

Answer 1

In the span of 15 minutes, I was able to notice the following

Physical skills - I was able to see that the toddler tried to stretch its arms to pick things while sitting, instead of crawling towards it. Also, the toddler jumped on the place. This shows his stretching and jumping skills. His arms and legs are gaining strength.

Cognitive skills- When the toddler was told to play his favourite game, he picked his favorite toys from the rack where it is usually kept. It shows his thinking and memory skills.

Psychosocial skills- The toddler imagines the toys as his friends and talks to them. Trying to include each of them, so that it doesn't feel aloof and lifting them saying sorry when it fells shows his empathetic and team playing skills. He may continue to extend the same to humans as well.