Piaget and Vygotsky Child Assessments

The first child I observed was a three year old girl. During my observation of child number one I engaged her into play with a multiple array of transportation vehicles and some plastic fish, and some wooden blocks. During the course of play she was sorting out the different vehicles in piles based upon whether they were cars, trucks, or SUVs. There were two cars which looked identical, when I asked her about their similarities she noted the decals and the colors were the same, but he informed me they were not the same even though they looked alike. When I asked her to sort the trucks out by their similarities she was unable to do this. Instead, she placed one in the middle with all of the others around the middle one. Child one was able to classify a few of the transportation vehicles and yet she struggled with both one-to-one correspondence and conservation of number. While playing with the plastic fish she was able to sort the colors in piles this shows she has an understanding of seriation. Child one demonstrated causality by explaining to me the wooden blocks were made of wood. This child also displayed a sense of artificialism, space, and time. While the child seems to have surpassed the sensorimotor stage she has only begun her way into the preoperational stage. I feel she has a ways to go based upon his interactions with others and objects during this observation. Reflecting on the information I gained during the observation, it is my belief I may need to guide the child along on a few of the activities I will be creating. Building upon what she is able to accomplish will lead to her ability to grasp the concepts needed to move to the next phase of development.

Child 1: The first child I observed for the Piaget observation was a young girl at the age during my observation of child number one I engaged him into play with a multiple array of transportation vehicles and some plastic people. During the course of play he was sorting out the different vehicles in piles based upon whether they were cars, trucks, or SUVs. There were two cars which looked identical, when I asked him about their similarities he noted the decals and the colors were the same, but he informed me they were not the same even though they looked alike. When I asked him to sort the trucks out by their similarities he was unable to do this. Instead, he placed one in the middle with all of the others around the middle one. Child one was able to classify a few of the transportation vehicles and yet he struggled with both one-to-one correspondence and conservation of number. While playing with the plastic people he was able to sort the men and women in piles, which he named mommies and daddies. This shows he has an understanding of seriation. Child one demonstrated causality by explaining to me the wooden car tracks were made of wood grown from a tree. This child also displayed a sense of artificialism, space, and time. While the child seems to have surpassed the sensorimotor stage he has only begun his way into the preoperational stage. I feel he has a ways to go based upon his interactions with others and objects during this observation. Reflecting on the information I gained during the observation, it is my belief I may need to guide the child along on a few of the activities I will be creating. Building upon what he is able to accomplish will lead to his ability to grasp the concepts needed to move to the next phase of developments thirty-four months. I began by telling the child if she wanted to play some games with me and that I needed her help. For classification I asked the child if she could separate the colored transportation into two piles by

color, but she grabbed them out of the bucket and started matching them by their colors but had a hard time putting them into two piles. I did not ask her to stop what she was doing. For conservation of number I put a bunch of fish into groups according to their color and I had her help me, then I asked her what the colors of the fish they were and she knew her colors then I ask the child then I asked the child which colored fish had the most and she had some difficulty with this tasks, because she could not decide which group had more. For seriation I laid out different sized wooden block and asked her to put them in order from shortest to tallest. The child proceeded to build with the block and putting them in order, she had some blocks out of order but I went along with it. For artificialism I continued talking about weather, and asked the child what the weather was like on that day. She looked out of the classroom window and said, It is sunny, and asked her what she would do on a sunny day and she said go outside and play. I observed this childs awareness of space by providing her with three different sized colored cups from the kitchen area. I asked her to place a medium sized, round disc into the cup she thought it would fit. She went straight for the biggest cup and placed the disc in it, and then tried fitting it into the smaller cups but it would not fit. When considering the childs sense of time, I was letting her paint a picture and asked her What would happen if you mixed the two colors together what color would you get She said the same color. The 1st color was yellow before then she mixed green paint to get the after. For this childs Vygotsky observation I observed her while she was playing during free time in the classroom. She was playing in the colored frogs again and she was trying to see which group had the most fish. The teacher would transition her and help her and show her which group had the most.

Child 2: The second child I observed was a boy at the age of four-eight months. For classification I asked the child if he could separate two separate types of animals. So he went and showed me two types of animals in same group but are different, he showed me 2 tigers and 2 dinosaurs and told me the name of them and told me that there were different. For conservation of number I put a bunch of fish into groups according to their color and I had him help me, then I asked him what the colors of the fish they were and he knew he colors, then I asked the child which colored fish had the most and he had no problem he counted them and made sure that those were the ones with the most in them. For seriation I laid out different sized wooden blocks and asked him to put them in order from shortest to tallest. The child instantly started to put them in order, he even stood them up to make sure they were different sizes. For artificialism I continued talking about weather, and asked the child what the weather was like on that day. He looked out of the classroom window and said, It is wet and rainy, and asked him what she would do on a rainy day and he said stay inside and play with his toys. I observed this childs awareness of space by watching him with the animals and blocks, he was using his space up. When considering the childs sense of time, I was letting him paint a picture and asked him What would happen if you mixed the two colors together what colors would you get he said you will get a different color. The 1st color was yellow before then he mixed green paint to get the after. For this childs Vygotsky observation I observed him while he was playing during free time in the classroom. He was playing with the shapes, he was having problems with some of the shapes and the teacher would transition him and help him with the ones that he is having troubles with.

Child 3: The third child I observed was a girl at the age of 60 months. For classification I asked the child if she could separate two separate types of animals. So she went and showed me two types of animals in same group but are different, he showed me 2 zebras and 2 giraffes and told me the name of them and told me that there were different. For conservation of number I put a bunch of fish into groups according to their color and I had her help me, then I asked her what the colors of the fish they were and he knew she colors, then I asked the child which colored fish had the most and she had no problem she counted them and made sure that those were the ones with the most in them. For seriation I laid out different sized wooden blocks and asked her to put them in order from tallest to shortest. The child instantly started to put them in order, she even laid them next to one another to make sure they were different sizes. For artificialism I continued talking about weather, and asked the child what the weather was like on that day. She looked out of the classroom window and said, It is wet and rainy, and asked her what she would do on a rainy day and she said stay inside and play with her toys and play with her siblings. I observed this childs awareness of space by watching her with the animals and blocks, she was using her space up. When considering the childs sense of time, I was letting her paint a picture and asked her What would happen if you mixed the two colors together what colors would you get she said you will get a different color. The 1st color was yellow before then he mixed green paint to get the after.

For this childs Vygotsky observation I observed her while she was playing during free time in the classroom. She was playing with the shapes, she was having problems with some of the shapes and the teacher would transition her and help her with the ones that she is having troubles with.

Overall, I feel that the child observations were very successful. It really helped me to adjust the way I judge children. Not all children will sit quietly and respond exactly the way a teacher wants them to. It is important to go with the flow of things and let the child take the wheel sometimes. These methods of observing and assessing have really expanded my horizons and I am going to continue to utilize them as I continue throughout my career. I learned that each child is at different rates at different ages, one child may not know as much as the other whether or not there around the same age, same age or even older.