Example Of A Child Observation

For my child observation, I went with a friend to observe Alex, a 4-year-old male, whom she babysits every Friday afternoon. Alex was born into a middle class American family with a mother and a father, and a younger 2-year-old sister. When we arrived, Alex and his sister were just finishing lunch and their mother had to run some errands.
Notable Differences I was expecting Alex to be an unmanageable child who wouldn’t listen to my friend once his mom left. For the majority of the time that I spent with him, he was well behaved. It was only towards the end of the time that my friend was watching him that he was starting to get irritable because he was starting to get tired. My friend had suggested he take a nap and he got very upset. However, before that point, he would play with and be very focused on his blocks while we were on the floor with him. He would allow us to engage with him, but he kept mostly too himself. From my research, I was also expecting to see him have better coordination but he had to use the railing when climbing the stairs and he did not have very good balance. Another surprise that I had was that he was able to focus for a very long time with his toys, which I had expected that he would get distracted and want to get into trouble. …show more content…
Children this age, including Alex, can be very picky eaters. It is especially important in this time in a child’s life that they get the nutrients required to thrive because of how much mental and physical growth that they need to do. A child in this time grows a significant amount; about 2-3 inches a year and gains about 5-7 pounds (Arnett, 2016). It is imperative that the parents and caregivers ensure that the child has access to the nutritious food that they need and to encourage the kids to eat that food, even if it isn’t what the child