Running head: DOMAINS OF THE CHILD

Education Field Experience: The Four Domains of the Child Observation

Samantha Hess
Raritan Valley Community College
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I. Observation 4:
The four domains of the child

II. Grade Level and Subject Area:

2nd grade

III. Setting:
Rural private school, in the elementary building. 1 head teacher, 8 students.

IV. Pre-Observation:
Previously in my Foundations of Education class, I also had to observe a child
and analyze their emotional, social, physical and cognitive development. I am
familiar with what I am looking for in the child’s development not only from
Foundations, but from other education classes I have taken at Raritan Valley
Community College as well. In these classes I have learned about child
development and understand how to identify developmental milestones and/or
any delays. I have also read the “Developmental Milestones Chart” and
printed it out to bring it to the classroom to help guide me during my
observation (The Institute for Human Services for The Ohio Child Welfare
Training Program, 2007).

V. Data:
I observed a seven-year-old girl in this class. I printed out the developmental
milestone chart (see appendix 1) to use as a guide on what to look for. In
terms of her physical development, she is average height for her age. All the
girls in this class are about the same height. Throughout the day they do
different activities and lessons that enhance fine and gross motor skills. The
class does a lot of hands on activities that use these skills. The class practices
a lot of writing, spelling and typing which improves fine motor skills. The
student I have been observing struggles a little bit with writing. She has a hard
time holding the pencil. She writes very slow and writes the wrong letters
often, which has her constantly erasing. This also goes for when they are
working in their cursive books. As I have been in this classroom for a few
months now, I have seen how all the students are doing with these different
skills. The student I am observing is the only student who cannot keep her
pencil down while writing in cursive. The other students understand that the
letters flow from one letter to the next without lifting the pencil. This girl
always lifts the pencil and writes letters separately, then tries to connect them
afterwards. The students have a class laptop where they practice their typing.
They learn where they need to position their fingers, and where all the letters
are. There are different activities where they need to spell different words.
This student struggles on the laptop as well. She does not understand that her
fingers need to be placed in a certain spot. My cooperating teacher told me
that she never chooses to practice her typing when it is language arts choice
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time, so she is behind the other students in typing. He now made it mandatory
that she includes typing practice during language arts work time. During their
recess time, the students play in the woods. This student loves climbing on the
trees and building with branches. This is helping her gross motor skills. She
loves to run, and she is always moving around and staying active. She is
where she needs to be with her gross motor skills.

This student is very verbal and will always express how she is feeling. If she
does not like what someone is doing, she will let them know. Sometimes she
is too verbal, and some other students call her mean. She likes to take charge
and lets everyone know it. When they go back inside from recess they line up
with their class at the door. She shouted at her peers to get in line and they
started calling her mean, but she told them that she was just telling them what
they are supposed to be doing. She is in tune with how she feels, and she lets
people know. One day when I was there, she was feeling sick and she made
sure to tell both me and Mr. Mann and told us exactly what was wrong with
her. She insisted that she needed to see the nurse, and she was right. The nurse
sent her home sick.

This student is friends with everyone in the class and does different activities
with different students depending on the situation. Many of their lessons and
hands on activities require them to partner up or form a group, and I have seen
her work with different students in different situations. Over the course of
time I have been observing her, I have seen her work at least once with evert
other student in the class. She gets along well with all her peers. This student
is very focused on following the rules. She wants to be the first one to get her
work done, and she always shows the teacher what she is working on. If she is
talking when she is not supposed to be, or doing something she should not be
doing, she feels bad if she gets called out on it. She tries to please the teacher.
She knows the classroom rules and follows them, and she will call out other
students if they are not adhering to the rules.

This girl has a high self-esteem about herself. My cooperating teacher told me
that this student has always been confident and very verbal with expressing
herself. Even if another student calls her mean, she defends herself and her
reasoning. She is very vocal about how she is feeling about any situation,
including anything about herself. She can express herself and talk things over
rationally with her peers. During a measuring activity, her and her partner
were not measuring the same way. They began to argue about how to do it but
then she stopped him and said “wait” and then they came up with an idea on
how to use rocks as markers to where their meter sticks ended, and she helped
him measure properly.

VI. Analysis:
After observing this child and talking to my cooperating teacher about this
student, overall, she is where she needs to be. In each stage of development,
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she hits all the markers on the developmental milestones chart (The Institute
for Human Services for The Ohio Child Welfare Training Program, 2007, pg.
8-9). In the emotional development area, there was no evidence of any sexual
questions or interest. In every other area, there has been evidence that she is
right where she needs to be.

VII. Recommendations:
The main skills I would have this student work on improving her handwriting
and typing. My cooperating teacher told me that in third grade they use
computers a lot more and she will be behind on her typing skills next school
year. The teacher should make her a separate work time schedule, as I have
seen him do for other students who need extra time working on skills that
need improving. She should have more time to do writing and typing. It
should not be an option for her to work on these skills daily, it should be
included in her language arts routine (Watanabe-Crockett, 2016). The teacher
can also encourage her to write and type more and provide feedback on how
she is doing. If she knows she is not doing well, she will not want to do it. The
teacher wants her to improve, he just needs to guide her in the right direction.

VIII. Post-observation:
Overall, this student impressed me that she is doing well overall in each
developmental stage. My cooperating teacher has been very open with me and
told me that this particular student would be a great one to observe because of
how verbal she is. This helped me indicate how she is feeling, and I can get
more of a read on her. He pointed out certain things she was doing that I
should be paying attention to, such as when she was working on her typing
practice. I am also grateful that my cooperating teacher was willing to help me
and gives me tools and skills to become a better teacher and observer

IX. Citations:
The Institute for Human Services for The Ohio Child Welfare Training
Program. (2007, October). Developmental Milestones Chart. Retrieved
from
http://www.rsd.k12.pa.us/Downloads/Development_Chart_for_Bookle
t.pdf
Watanabe-Crockett, L. (2016, September 2). 6 Ways To Improve Students'
Academic Writing Skills. Retrieved from
https://www.wabisabilearning.com/blog/6-ways-improve-students-writing-
skills

X. Appendix:
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