Final Paper Throughout ECED 2110, I have learned a great amount about early childhood development that can be beneficial to my current and future experiences working with children. I had the opportunity to learn different concepts through reading the text and discussions, then got to see those concepts demonstrated through the field experience. I discovered the importance of imitation, equipment to the development of motor skills, and interaction with adults to the development of language. In the class I discovered that imitation is crucial to children learning new concepts and motor skills. According to the textbook, during the first two years of development, the ability to imitate greatly increases and plays a large part in the course
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Initially, I was extremely nervous to perform the observations because I was unsure that I would be able to record all of the significant information into the running record fast enough. I also felt that it would be difficult to sit in one position and watch a child for twenty to ninety minutes. Once I completed my first multi-age observation, my nerves subsided because I realized that I was able to sufficiently record the child’s behaviors and actions in the running record, and the time passed by quicker than I had expected. Throughout the ten hours of observations, I discovered that the years of early childhood are extremely crucial to children’s development and significant changes take place in each stage. I was able to see these changes and developments, while completing the multi-age observations. For example, the infant, toddler, and preschooler that I observed were all on different levels of language development. As written in the first multi-age running record, the infant could only articulate one word phrases or sounds, like, “Voo.” The toddler could speak phrases with two or more words, such as, “See it, see it, see it!” Then, the preschooler could communicate with complete sentences, like, “I’ve got another pancake.” It was interesting to see each of the children developing language within different stages of early childhood. I was also surprised by the toddler and preschooler’s ability to imitate adult actions. During the first focus child observation, L picked up a broom and walked around the room, brushing the floor with the broom. She also repeatedly said, “Sweeping,” while brushing the floor with the broom. The preschooler I observed during the third multi-age observation, pretended like he was baking a cake and picked up a spatula, shouting, “Okay, I got a spatula!” One of the greatest challenges I faced
Initially, I was extremely nervous to perform the observations because I was unsure that I would be able to record all of the significant information into the running record fast enough. I also felt that it would be difficult to sit in one position and watch a child for twenty to ninety minutes. Once I completed my first multi-age observation, my nerves subsided because I realized that I was able to sufficiently record the child’s behaviors and actions in the running record, and the time passed by quicker than I had expected. Throughout the ten hours of observations, I discovered that the years of early childhood are extremely crucial to children’s development and significant changes take place in each stage. I was able to see these changes and developments, while completing the multi-age observations. For example, the infant, toddler, and preschooler that I observed were all on different levels of language development. As written in the first multi-age running record, the infant could only articulate one word phrases or sounds, like, “Voo.” The toddler could speak phrases with two or more words, such as, “See it, see it, see it!” Then, the preschooler could communicate with complete sentences, like, “I’ve got another pancake.” It was interesting to see each of the children developing language within different stages of early childhood. I was also surprised by the toddler and preschooler’s ability to imitate adult actions. During the first focus child observation, L picked up a broom and walked around the room, brushing the floor with the broom. She also repeatedly said, “Sweeping,” while brushing the floor with the broom. The preschooler I observed during the third multi-age observation, pretended like he was baking a cake and picked up a spatula, shouting, “Okay, I got a spatula!” One of the greatest challenges I faced