Child Observation Project

For my child observation project, wanted to observe my cousin who is three years old. She has recently migrated here in San Jose, California. Her name is June(This is not her real name). June was born and raised in Eritrea (The country resides in Africa(west from the red sea)). Since she has recently migrated here to America she does not have a lot of friends unless if it is through family members who are around the age of 6-12 years old. Her first language is not English, but Tigrinya (the language that Eritreans speaks); as a result, she does not talk much. She was raised by a single parent ,her mother, the father finally gets to meet the daughter through video chat and now he has directly raised the child with the mother. In Eritrea it is common that most children are raised in an …show more content…
With that it shows that there is a possibility that June's mother was very responsive and had a warm relationship with her daughter. What I plan to find out in my observation is to identify her personality, cognitive and social development when I am with her during my family reunion and my time are the restaurant/ time at the park. In her early childhood I believe she was able to go through two of Erikson’s eight stages/crises of personality development. She was able to go through the first stage/ crises which is Trust Versus Mistrust through her mother’s warm and responsive parental care that she has given her. This was noticeable because she was able to sit down with my parents who are considered total strangers to my observee and she was able to behave herself and not be distressed when her mother left her either of my parents. June also shows signs of Erikson’s second stage/ crises also known as Autonomy Versus Shame and doubt. I noticed this through my observation that she showed self-care characteristics. For example, she is potty trained and she knows when she needs to use the restroom