Preschool Child Assessment Abstract This case study is on a young girl, Child E.

I observed her in a preschool classroom at an early childhood catholic school. Child E is 4 years old and the second child born in her family. She lives in a house with her elder brother, her mother, father and grandmother. Throughout this paper I have compared developmental milestones to Child Es development. I focused on social, fine motor, gross motor and language skills in this paper. I will be giving examples as to how Child E is developing positively, traditionally and even surpassing the norm for her age.

Introduction This case study is on a young girl, Child E. I observed her in a preschool classroom at an early childhood catholic school. Child E is 4 years old and the second child born in her family. She lives in a house with her elder brother, her mother, father and grandmother. Throughout this paper I have compared developmental milestones to Child Es development. I focused on social, fine motor, gross motor and language skills in this paper. I will be giving examples as to how Child E is developing positively, traditionally and even surpassing the norm for her age. Her class consists of one teacher and ten children, including her. She is the only girl in the classroom on Tuesdays and Thursdays and on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays she is joined by one other girl. Child E was in her classroom Monday through Friday. Child E says that she is a princess, she likes the color pink, and every day at preschool she plays house. She also says that she likes playing with dolls, playing kitchen, and she told me that her favorite thing to do outside was to play Frozen. After asking Child Es teacher what Frozen was, she told me that it was a movie where a princess could freeze things such as, people, water and cities. At recess Child E would play freeze-tag with the other children but call the game Frozen. Social Emotional Every day that Child E was in the room she wanted to play in the pretend play area. In that area there was dress up items, play pots, pans, food, baby dolls, a kitchenette, a table with chairs and other miscellaneous pretend play items. Child E will usually find the play keys and pretend to lock and unlock the door (the two feet of space between the wall and storage self). Child E is a very active child. During recess, when the class goes outside, she enjoys running

around and playing games with her friends. She can kick, throw, bounce, and catch a ball adequately. She also can stand on one foot for more than five seconds and can walk up and down stairs without support. She interacts with her classmates in positive ways. I have noticed that she tends to interact more with the other girl in her class, on the days that she is there. The boys in the class do not treat her any differently than they do each other. They are kind to her but play with her just the same as they do each other. Personal Care As I watch Child E I notice that she does not need any assistance in buttoning or unbuttoning her pants to go to the rest room. I asked her mother if she was able to do the same at home and she told me that Child E dressed herself, fed herself and served herself when they had things that she could easily handle. Child E also has basic responsibilities such as getting herself ready for bed, brushing her teeth, doing homework when she gets home from school and helping put dishes into the dish washer. A regular routine has been established at her house and she knows what will be happening from the beginning to the end of her day. Her putting away the dishes every night is a part of that. However, anytime something happens to disrupt the routine she becomes upset and begins to cry. She will continue to cry until her routine is put back on track or she has had a nap. Mathematics Child Es parents and grandmother work with her on the alphabet and the numbers one through twenty at least once per week. Child E is able to count to thirty-two and can recognize numbers one to twenty-eight. She is even capable of writing the number one to eleven, fourteen to sixteen, eighteen and twenty. According to the Indiana Early Childhood Foundations, children

should be able to identify attributes of objects, sort a group of objects and name the group of objects. Child E has done this while I was observing her; she was playing with dinosaur toys and decided to sort them by long and short necks. She then looked at me, pointed to the two piles she had made and said, These have long necks and these have short necks. Physical Development The day of Child Es birth she was unable to breathe and there was also fetal distress. Her mother has told me that they were fearful that their child wasnt going to make it. Child E is four years old and stands at two feet seven inches. This is about the normal height for a four year old. She also weighs thirty-seven pounds. The normal weight for a four year old is about 40 pounds. Since she is close in height and weight to what is expected I believe that physically she is developing as she should. Over the course of three months I have studied how Child E has grown and what her physical capabilities are. She is able to throw, catch, and kick balls; move forward and backward with ease; and she can climb stairs and other climbing manipulatives (jungle gym, rock wall, etc.). Child E has shown that she is capable of doing multiple physicals activities with little to no help from adults. On the playground at her school, there is a rocking horse. This rocking horse has a seat that is two feet off the ground. Under my supervision she went inside, retrieved a stepping stool and was able to get herself onto the rocking horse. Child E has shown that she is an independent child. English/Language Arts Child E is capable of recognizing all upper case letters of the alphabet as well as most of the lower case letters of the alphabet. As I asked her about the different lower case letters she had

some trouble recognizing the lower case x. She called this the letter y and then proceeded onto the next letter calling it the letter y as well. I went back to the letter a second time and she repeated the previous action. However, when I asked her about the different sounds the letters made she was able to say the sound of every letter correctly, including the x. She went through a list of different words starting with the letter of the sound she was speaking of. Aa Apple, Bb ball, Cc cat, Dd dog, Ee egg, Ff fish, Gg goat, Hh hippo, Ii ice-cream, Jj jellybean, Kk kite, Ll lollipop, Mm moon, Nn newspaper, Oo orange, Pp pig, Qq queen, Rr racecar, Ss shoes, Tt turtle, Uu umbrella, Vv violet, Ww whale, Xx x-ray, Yy yo-yo, Zz zebra. Science Like most children, Child E enjoys exploring the environment around her. In the science center in the classroom there are magnifying glasses. On a nice warm day, the teacher took the children outside and Child E asked if she could take a magnifying glass outside. After receiving permission she walked around the whole playground before stopping at a tree. On the ground, underneath the tree, were pinecones that had fallen from the heavy wind the day before. She picked up a pinecone and pine needles then brought them to me. She asked why the tree had no leaves and I talked to her about the differences in trees. She and I spent the rest of recess looking up different tree information on my computer after that. I was able to expand this scientific inquiry by talking about the changing of the seasons and how the leaves on some trees change and how pine trees keep their needles all year long. I could tell that this subject really interested her so I talk to her teacher about using the tree subject in the classroom. Her teacher is now planning a lesson about trees. Dr. Haim G. Ginott has said, Ive come to a frightening conclusion that I am the decisive element in the classroom. Its my personal approach that creates the climate. Its my daily mood that makes the weather. As a teacher, I possess a

tremendous power to make a childs life miserable or joyous. I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration. I can humiliate or heal. In all situations, it is my response that decides whether a crisis will be escalated or de-escalated and a child humanized or dehumanized. I believe that when her teacher decided to invest her time into working what the children wanted to learn into her curriculum she made the decision to be a positive, joyous and inspiring to her students. Social Studies Child E has been working on memorizing her address. Her teacher told me they like to teach the children three things early: the childs address, the childs home phone number, and how to dial the police in case of emergencies. Child E is able to remember her home phone number and the number to call in case of emergencies. She is still trying to remember her full address but she can remember the number of her house, her city, and her state. Child Es family is very close. She sees her mother, father, brother and grandmother every day. She is also capable of naming every person in her family from her current generation to three generations past and can identify family members up to second cousins. Her family gets together once a year at a family reunion. The reason for Child E being enrolled into a catholic preschool was to get her to understand God and how to be closer to him. Her mother believes that by teaching her the ways of God it will make her respectful, caring and open to the world around her. Child Es mother has also said that she believe ministry run preschools to have better structure and curriculums. Fine Arts

Child E seems to really enjoy working with paints, stamps, musical instruments and other art manipulatives. Over the past three to almost four months, I have collected a wide variety of artwork belonging to Child E. She seems to prefer working independently rather than working in groups. I believe that this has to do with the working space around her. She tends to spread out when she is completing different art projects. She will open her art box and place all of the materials inside around her so that she can easily reach and see all that is available to her. Reflection Statement I believe that I witnessed a typically growing child despite the difficulties had at birth. Child E participates happily in almost all classroom activities and engages with her classmates. Mentally Child E is developing at a steady rate and is slightly above average. Physically she is very slightly below average but only by a few inches and pounds. I believe this to mean that she is progressing positively. I hope to check in with her mother a few years from now and see if she is still developing as quickly and positively as she is now. Child Es mother, the staff at the school and Child E was wonderful to work with. This opportunity has helped me see how differently preschools are run and how to handle preschoolers. Child Es growth over the course of three to almost four months is outstanding.

Reference Education, I. D. (2012). Foundations to the Indiana Acaemic Standards for Young Cgildren from Birth to Age 5. Indiana Department of Education Staff. Ginott, H. G. (n.d.). Haim G. Ginott Quotes. Retrieved from goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/81938-i-ve-come-to-a-frightening-conclusion-that-iam-the NAEYC. (2012). NAEYC Standards for Early Childhood Professionals. NAEYC.