Check Lists

Check Lists are easy to use when observing. A professional would use this method when observing a fast paced classroom or an individual child. It is a quick and somewhat easy way to see if a child is meeting certain milestones. It can also be very beneficial in many ways like observing behavior or the overall classroom atmosphere.

Below are some examples of check lists being used to observe a child and explanations of how the observation relates to that child's development.

Example 1

I observed a little girl named Abbey who is eleven years old at Top Gun Gymnastics. I observed her in two settings. The first was a one on one private lesson with her instructor and the second observation was when Abbey was in a class among her peers. These were back-to-back observations. I was looking to see if Abbey would be considered a typical eleven year-old. I was determining this by checking off if she met certain milestones of kids this age in the four major categories of development, Physical, Social/Emotional, Language and Cognitive. I put an X if I saw her exibit the certain behavior I was looking for and an / if she displayed somewhat or nonverbally

Example 2

I observed Charlie at the Pemi Youth Center. Charlie is nineteen years old. He is currently a very high functioning boy with Down syndrome. I observed him to see how his development met the typical development of a nineteen year old.

I used a checklist to observe Charlie. I used this because it was easy to follow Charlie and inconspicuously observe him.

Many nineteen year olds physical development has came close to stopping. They are not as preoccupied with body changes. Also they should know their sexual identity. Charlie expresses his knowledge of his sexual identity because he has told me before that we are getting married and he likes to flirt with other girls his age at the center. They have adult bodies, but are not always prepared entirely for adult hood.

For social/emotional development nineteen year olds make their own decisions. Charlie displays this when he tells Sense he can call him what he wants. They want help from adults but only guidance Charlie somewhat displayed this when he was asking for help with homework he may have in the future. Many nineteen year olds are starting to develop community consciousness. Charlie is very aware of everything that is going on in the community especially what is going on at the Pemi Youth Center. They also have a greater concern for others. Charlie shows this when he

For cognitive development on major milestone is that nineteen year olds start to make future plans. Charlie does this when he talks about going to college.

Charlie is a typical nineteen year old. He meets many of the milestones even though he has a disability. His disability doesn’t hold him back much besides some obvious physical differences.

From my observations Abbey is a typical eleven year-old. In physical development one of the biggest milestones to meet is that a typical eleven year-old is restless and very energetic who needs lots of physical activity. Abbey showed this through doing back-to-back tumbling classes with little to no rest in between. She has back-to-back classes every Friday.

I observed many social/emotional developmental milestones while watching Abbey. Milestones include moodiness, being sensitive, challenging the rules, arguing verbally or non-verbally, testing limits, being cruel, needing time to social with peers, and being impulsive. Abbey was very moody towards her instructor during her private lessons. However became very sensitive when she couldn’t accomplish a task right. When Abbey was supposed to not cut corners and to do 10 leg lifts on each leg and she didn’t she was testing the limits and challenging the rules. Abbey never argued with her instructors but she did so no verbally through eye rolls, grunts sighs and faces. Abbey did express some cruelty and impulsiveness when the instructor says she is going to make her back handspring great Abbey replies with it will be horrible. One main milestone is the need to talk to her peers and she exhibited this when her friends came to class. Abbey and her peers spent the majority of class socializing.

I also observed some typical language and cognitive development in Abbey as well. She enjoys arguing but also appreciates humor; She would often smile at instructor’s jokes. One main milestone in cognitive development is that a typical 11 year old would rather learn new skills than review or improve previous work. Abbey demonstrated this when the instructor told her to work on her back walkovers and she replied with no.

Observation