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Final Child Study Paper

Holly Clauson
EDPS 250: Fundamentals of Child Development
Sara Swenson, Section: 001

This past semester I have been attending Hill elementary school in Lincoln Nebraska as a
practicum student where I also have been observing a student for the course, EDPS 250. Hill
elementary school is home of the Hill Hawks and also the home of a very diverse student body.
You can ask any teacher at the school and they will all say the same thing, Hill is a very diverse
Lincoln Public Elementary school as far as ethnicity and learning disabilities go. Statistically,
one out of every 4 kids have some sort of learning disability.. The schools teachers do a really
good job of accommodating to all the needs that are present and still find a way to make
education successful and fun for the kids.

The Child
The Child I observed was a second grade boy whose name I covered with the alias name
of Noah for privacy reasons. Noah is eight years old and is an average size of about four foot
three, not taller than his peers but also not shorter. He has dark brown hair and it is buzzed,
meaning that there is no different ways he could style it. He has hazel eyes and a round head
with a slender body that looks as though he is interested in athletics. The reason I say this is
because every day he has some sort of athletic shirt on, 90% of the time a Nebraska Husker shirt.
Noahs personal development in my perspective is that he is pretty average for his grade. He
doesnt seem heavier than other children nor does he seem taller or shorter. If anything he is a
little more slender as I had mentioned previously.
Noahs social development is a bit lower than his peers and it is evident in his actions and
reactions. Noah doesnt have quite as much emotional regulation as his other classmates do.

Another name for this is strategies to manage affective states, (McDevitt & Ormrod, p. 437).
An example of a time when Noah showed signs of poor emotional regulation, which I touched
on in one of my journals is when the morning announcements played and Noah shot up from his
desk knocking over his chair and everything on his desk fell to the ground. The teacher then told
him to move to isolated desk and het got upset and started crying because he said he didnt mean
to any of that. He thought that if he knew it was an accident, he shouldnt get in trouble. I also
notice other emotions in Noahs personality. When Noah get moved to the isolated desk, he
sometimes get really upset and burrows his head in his arms and cries. He also doesnt let
anyone talk to him and he doesnt say a word. This would show that Noah has high levels of
sadness. Other times when he gets talked to by the teacher he will get mad and throw his pencil
at the ground and sits with a pouty face and ignores anyone who tries talking to him. These are
signs of high levels of anger.
Temperament is a childs characteristic ways of responding to emotional events, novel
stimuli, and personal events, (McDevitt & Ormrod, p. 6). Noahs temperament was a good
helping tool for understanding his response to things, how he acts in accordance with his
surroundings, and his relationships with others. His temperament tended to be distracted and
disruptive, and sometimes angry where most of his peers were generally focused, hardworking
and mostly happy. When it came to getting along with peer and having to work with them, he
was fine and the other children had a liking toward him. They often found his disruptions
humorous. When Noah was partnered with some of his peers, he wouldnt take the work
seriously by just messing around the entire time. This is him being egocentric. Egocentrism is

the inability of a child in Piagets preoperational stage to view situations from another persons
perspective, (McDevitt & Ormrod, p. 202). One thing I would say about Noah that is import to
note is that, despite being disruptive and egocentric, he is not categorized as a rejected child.
Rejected children are children whom peers rarely select as someone they would either most like
or least like to do something with, (McDevitt & Ormrod, p. 579). His peers get along with him
and usually find his behavior humorous or entertaining. When it comes to authority, Noah is not
great at following directions. It seems as though when he is told an instruction, he cant seem to
bring himself to do the task. With this in mind, he never is rude or disrespectful to any teacher he
works with. He always seems to appreciate them, he just doesnt like the idea of being told to do
something.
The Concrete Operations developmental stage is what Noah would be categorized into
according to Piagets Theory. He is developing will lead him to the Concrete Operations stage,
but as of his development right now, he does not fit some of those requirements. One of those
being the ability to see into another persons perspective. From my observations, I have
concluded that Noah is quite capable of higher logical thinking, but his cognitive development is
not yet complete. One of Noahs challenges is egocentrism, which would put him in the
Preoperational stage. In addition to the example of this I used earlier, Noah shows multiple
cases of egocentrism. When Noah stole a girls spot in line before recess, the girl got upset and
told the teacher. When the teacher confronted Noah about the issue he was unsure why the girl
was upset about it. He couldnt see it from her perspective. Noah strengths consisted of

multiple classifications and the ability to make sense of objects and then putting them min the
correct order.
Noahs intellectual abilities varied across the board. When it came to math, all the
teachers would use Noahs work as an example to look off of. He exceled and was above his
grade as far as math skills went. When a math worksheet was put in front of him, he was alert
and usually the first to finish. On the flip side, writing is what Noah struggles with. This could
be because the fact writing takes a lot of time and abstract thought and Noah lacks good
concentration skills whereas Math is more concrete and a form of operations. The weekly
comprehensive writing assignment would scare Noah. I would always notice that he would act
up and cause more distractions as the time for the writing came. Every Monday he would have a
special teacher come and take him for a half hour to strictly work on his writing as a form of help
to improve his writing when the writing was something he was capable of , he just needed help
to achieve it. This is known as a form of scaffolding, or a support mechanism, provided by a
more competent individual, that helps a child successfully perform a task within his or her zone
of proximal development, (McDevitt & Ormrod, p. 223). In the Zone of Proximal
Development, or ZPD, a child is able to perform a task but at the moment cant perform without
guidance or help. (McDevitt & Ormrod, p. 219). When Noah would be struggling in class, the
teacher would go over and try to direct his writing and try to tell him where to start and he was
usually able to go from there. Scaffolding and the ZPD are both part of Vygotskys theory of
cognitive development. Vygotskys main point to cognitive development was that if the right
tools are provided, the child will be able to succeed. He also bring up the theory that group

learning activities help children internalize cognitive strategies and can affect his/her social
interactions. In some cases this theory could possibly be true, but with Noah and the way he
doesnt take group work seriously and gets distracted easier in groups proves this wrong in
Noahs case.
Noahs self-esteem comes off as pretty high. He never seems ashamed of himself or
embarrassed easy. He did partake in self-handicapping though by reducing his efforts in his
school work. For example his writing assignments, whenever he felt challenged he would give
up because he thought he couldnt do it. But because of his high self-esteem, he was able to
create friendships in the classroom and in areas such as math, he was able to see the potential and
do good while trying hard and challenging himself. So for math is self-efficacy wasnt suffering
but for writing it was. It comes down to the social interactions a child engages in and that in turn
plays a role in motivation because when a child has a support system or a group of people
wanting them and pushing them to be successful they are more likely to perform well. They tend
to behave in ways that mirror their self-perception.

The Family
According to what I observed, Noahs parents parenting styles are clear for the most
part. Noahs constant disruptive behavior might be a result of an indulgent/permissive parenting
style meaning that at home Noah isnt getting into trouble very often and feels as though he can
act the same way at school. An indulgent/permissive parent is a parenting style characterized
by emotional warmth but few expectations or standards for childrens behavior, (McDevitt &

Ormrod, p. 80). Noahs mom actually visits and volunteers in the classroom to help try and
manage his behavior and he seems to like that shes there. This could mean his parents are also
exerting the authoritative parenting style. An authoritative parenting style is defined by
emotional warmth, high expectations and standards for behavior, consistent enforcement of
rules, and the inclusion of children in decision making. (McDevitt & Ormrod, p. 80). When
shes there, he isnt clingy to her but he respects that she is there and he tries to behave while
shes around. I have concluded that Noahs parents dont use authoritarian style parenting or
indifferent/uninvolved. If that were the case, his mom wouldnt come to his classroom to try and
fix his behavior. If Noah were having to deal with Authoritarian parents, his behavior in class
would turn from high self-confidence to low self-confidence and self-efficacy. He would
probably not be as disruptive for the fear he would get in big trouble by his strict parents.
Culture is defined as behaviors and belief systems that characterize a long standing
social group and provide a framework for how group members decide what is normal and
appropriate, (McDevitt & Ormrod, p. 5). Culture is important on self-discovery and at such a
young age, self-discovery is very important to esteem and social development. Noah has used
culture to fins what he was good at and what peers he got along with the best. He needed a sense
of belonging and his culture helped him do that. For example, Noah is good at math and he feels
like he can succeed there. He also finds peers who are also good at math and they form
relationships that wouldnt have otherwise been made without the connection on culture.

The Teacher

The most common way the teacher would handle Noahs behavior is sending him to the
isolated desk or confronts him about it and talks through it with him. The teacher would also
allow his mom to come in and volunteer to see if having her in the room will lessen his bad
behavior. Once he was in the isolated desk, there wasnt much else she would do. She would just
sort of ignore the fact he was sitting there. If I were the teacher in these situations and the childs
behavior was not improving like Noahs isnt, I would start taking away special privileges such
as recess time or other things the class earned so the child could truly understand that his
behavior will not only just be punished by moving to a desk, but by taking away privileges that
students have to earn. This would teach then that not everything in life will just come to you,
you have to earn it. That is a very valuable lesson in life because it is valid all the way through.
I agree with the idea of the teacher isolating him at a desk, but then pretending like hes not there
wont let him know how to fix what he did wrong. As a teacher it is your job to explain to a
student what they did wrong, they deserve to know that.
As far as the teachers theoretical orientation goes, she wasnt clear enough with the
students what exactly what they did wrong because she never spent the time telling them. A
second grader isnt going to fix a behavior that he doesnt see as a bad one. They are still at that
age where they need to be told what they did to really comprehend it. The teacher also wasnt
very strong with her discipline. She would always send him to the same spot every time and no
results were being seen. She was a very good teacher all together though. As far as helping the
students with their ZPD, she would always get them started and they could go from there. She

also had lots of group activities to promote social development which was a great
implementation on her part.

Reflection
Ive learned so much this past semester working with kids, but one of the most important
ones is that not one child is the same. My preconceived notion of elementary school was a lot
different than how my practicum actually was. Being a teacher in this day and age, you have to
be prepared to work with everything. There will always be different cultures, learning styles and
attitudes but as teachers it is our job to know how to effectively teach to each and every one of
them evenly. One thing I learned form observing Noah is that there are certain dos and donts of
behavior management. If you say or do one wrong little thing the child could break down or get
angry and be in danger. An important thing for teachers to be able to do is just look at a child
and know how they are feeling and be able to address that without making a scene or without
hurting feelings and actually making a difference. Also as a teacher being able to scaffold your
students so you arent just giving them answers and letting them be able to learn and grow is one
of the most important things. I truly have learned so much through this experience and I will
walk away a better person and hopefully someday implement everything I learned in my own
classroom and be an effective teacher while still making learning sun and exciting.

APA Citation
McDevitt, T. M., & Ormrod, J. E. (2002). Child development and education ( ed.). Upper Saddle
River, N.J.: Merrill/Prentice Hall.

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