Rosemary Curtis

HDFS 421
Fall 2014
Lab 4
Introduction
Purpose: The purpose of this observation was to assess the current skill levels of a group
of children within the class related to general developmental benchmarks that students
should reach at this age. I will then use this information to decide whether or not I should
continue the learning activities being used or move on to help the students reach more
advanced benchmarks. These observations will also be used to determine if any children
need any specialized or extra support to reach the desired developmental benchmarks.
For these observations, I used a checklist. Checklists are used in the classroom to record
students skills or attributes (Mindes, 2014). A checklist contains a list of behaviors, in
this case developmental benchmarks, as a student demonstrates the behavior this behavior
is checked off the list. The behavior is only given a check mark the first time that the
student demonstrates it because this observation technique is not used to record frequency
of the behavior, it is only used to record whether or not the child is capable of the
behavior. The developmental categories observed on this checklist include movement,
language, hand and finger skills, cognitive, and social milestones.
Children Observed: For this observation, I observed six children. I observed Camden, a
four year old boy. I observed Martin and Victor, both also four year old boys. I observed
Nicole and Elsa, they are four year old girls. Lastly, I observed Jacob, another four year

old boy. Note that all of the names used in this lab report are pseudonyms used to protect
the childrens identities.
Classroom Setting: Ms. Colons classroom of four year old children. Observation
occurred on Monday, October 6th from 2pm until 3pm. During this time the students
engaged in free choice play and then transitioned into large group before going outside.
There were 4 adults in the classroom and 16 children.
Physical Environment: The classroom is organized into specific domain areas. There is a
block area that contains large shelves that are used to store the wooden blocks. The
pretend play area is set up as a kitchen, including cupboards, table and chairs, a
refrigerator, sink, and stove. There is a cognitive area that has a large shelf containing
manipulatives and two tables with puzzles. In one corner there is a writing area that has a
desk with a variety of writing utensils for the students to use. Near the door into the
classroom there is a large table next to a shelf with creation station supplies. The
backsides of the cognitive area, pretend play area, and writing table outline a large group
area for all of the students to gather. Here are lead teacher materials such as a stereo for
music as well as large group supplies such as attendance board and job chart.
Childrens Behaviors and Developmental Interpretation
Camden: Camden was able to hop, swing and climb, and may be able to skip. He
received check marks for three out of the four movement milestones, the one he did not
receive a check mark for was to be able to stand on one foot for 10 seconds or longer. He
did not have the opportunity to demonstrate this behavior during the observation period.
Out of the six hand and finger skills, he only had the opportunity to demonstrate one
milestone during the observation period and that was that Camden usually will care for

his own toilet needs. Camden was able to demonstrate three of the five language
milestones. He was able to recall parts of a story, speak sentences of more than five
words, and he can say his name and address. He did not have the opportunity to use the
future tense or tell longer stories. Camden did not have the opportunity to demonstrate
any of the cognitive milestones. For the social milestones Camden demonstrated all of the
milestones: he wants to please and be with friends, he is more likely to agree to agree to
rules, he likes to sing, dance and act, and he shows more independence.
Martin: Martin was able to hop, swing and climb, and can stand on one foot for 10
seconds or longer. He received check marks for three out of the four movement
milestones, the one he did not receive a check mark for was to may be able to skip. He
did not have the opportunity to demonstrate this behavior during the observation period.
Out of the six hand and finger skills, he only had the opportunity to demonstrate two
milestones during the observation period and that was that Martin usually will care for his
own toilet needs and can dress and undress without assistance. Martin was able to
demonstrate two of the five language milestones. He was able to recall parts of a story
and speak sentences of more than five words. He did not have the opportunity to use the
future tense, say his name and address or tell longer stories. Martin did not have the
opportunity to demonstrate any of the cognitive milestones. For the social milestones
Martin demonstrated all of the milestones: he wants to please and be with friends, he is
more likely to agree to agree to rules, he likes to sing, dance and act, and he shows more
independence.
Victor: Victor was able to hop, swing and climb.. He received check marks for two out of
the four movement milestones, the ones he did not receive a check mark for was to be

able to stand on one foot for 10 seconds or longer and to be able to skip. He did not have
the opportunity to demonstrate these two behaviors during the observation period. Out of
the six hand and finger skills, he only had the opportunity to demonstrate one milestone
during the observation period and that was that Victor usually will care for his own toilet
needs. Victor was able to demonstrate two of the five language milestones. He was able
to recall parts of a story, and speak sentences of more than five words. He did not have
the opportunity to use the future tense, say his name and address, or tell longer stories.
Victor did not have the opportunity to demonstrate any of the cognitive milestones. For
the social milestones Victor demonstrated three of the four milestones: he is more likely
to agree to agree to rules, he likes to sing, dance and act, and he shows more
independence. However, he did not demonstrate a desire to please and be with friends.
Victors social behavior has been examined in previous lab reports.
Nicole: Nicole was able to hop, swing and climb, and may be able to skip. She received
check marks for three out of the four movement milestones, the one she did not receive a
check mark for was to be able to stand on one foot for 10 seconds or longer. She did not
have the opportunity to demonstrate this behavior during the observation period. Out of
the six hand and finger skills, she only had the opportunity to demonstrate two milestones
during the observation period and that was that Nicole usually will care for her own toilet
needs and she can dress and undress without assistance. Nicole was able to demonstrate
two of the five language milestones. She was able to recall parts of a story, and speak
sentences of more than five words. She did not have the opportunity to use the future
tense, say her name and address, or tell longer stories. Nicole did not have the
opportunity to demonstrate any of the cognitive milestones. For the social milestones

Nicole demonstrated all of the milestones: she wants to please and be with friends, she is
more likely to agree to agree to rules, she likes to sing, dance and act, and she shows
more independence.
Jacob: Jacob was able to hop, swing and climb, and can stand on one foot for 10 seconds
or longer. He received check marks for three out of the four movement milestones, the
one he did not receive a check mark for was to may be able to skip. He did not have the
opportunity to demonstrate this behavior during the observation period. Out of the six
hand and finger skills, he only had the opportunity to demonstrate one milestone during
the observation period and that was that Jacob usually will care for his own toilet needs.
Jacob was able to demonstrate two of the five language milestones. He was able to recall
parts of a story and say his name and address. He did not have the opportunity to use the
future tense, or tell longer stories. He had the opportunity, but did not speak sentences of
more than 5 words. Jacob did not have the opportunity to demonstrate any of the
cognitive milestones. For the social milestones Victor demonstrated two of the four
milestones: he likes to sing, dance and act, and he shows more independence. He did not
demonstrate the desire to please and be with friends, and he is not likely to agree to rules.
Jacobs social development has been discussed in a previous lab report.
Elsa: Elsa was able to hop or somersault and may be able to skip. She received check
marks for three out of the four movement milestones, the one she did not receive a check
mark for was to be able to stand on one foot for 10 seconds or longer and to swing and
climb. She did not have the opportunity to demonstrate standing on one foot during the
observation period, however she did have the opportunity to climb when outside and
chose not to climb. Out of the six hand and finger skills, she only had the opportunity to

demonstrate two milestones during the observation period and that was that Elsa usually
will care for her own toilet needs and she can dress and undress without assistance. Elsa
was able to demonstrate four of the five language milestones. She was able to recall parts
of a story, and speak sentences of more than five words, use the future tense, and say her
name and address. She did not have the opportunity to tell longer stories. Elsa did not
have the opportunity to demonstrate any of the cognitive milestones. For the social
milestones Elsa demonstrated all of the milestones: she wants to please and be with
friends, she is more likely to agree to agree to rules, she likes to sing, dance and act, and
she shows more independence.
Interpretation
The category of developmental milestones that received the highest percentage of
check marks was social milestones. This was calculated by taking the number of
milestones in the category and multiplying it by 6 because there were six children
observed. I then added up the number of check marks and divided this number by the
total number of milestones. The rest of the categories ranked in the following order, from
highest percentage to lowest percentage: movement, hand and finger skills, language,
cognitive. I think that its important to consider that almost all of the milestones that did
not receive check marks, the students did not have the opportunity to demonstrate these
developmental milestones. The students were observed during free choice, large group,
and outdoor free play. The free choice led to a large number of behaviors demonstrated
that fell into the category of social milestones. The outdoor play led to the large number
of behaviors demonstrated in the movement category of developmental milestones. And
during large group the students were given the opportunity to recall parts of a story,

which increased the percentage for the language category of developmental milestones.
During the observation period, none of the students had the opportunity to demonstrate
any of the cognitive milestones and the students had very few opportunities to
demonstrate hand and finger skills. Based on this observation, I think that its safe to say
that the class is either where they should be or close to reaching the developmental
milestones for social and movement domains. However, based on this one observation it
is not possible to determine the classs status in reaching the hand and finger milestones,
language milestones, or cognitive milestones because the students were simply not given
the opportunity to demonstrate these behaviors.
Moving Forward
I think that it is not fair to the students to fully determine how to move forward
with my curriculum based solely on this observation. The students were only observed
for one hour and therefore were not given the opportunity to demonstrate many of the
items on the developmental milestone checklist. I were to determine their developmental
abilities based solely on this assessment, I would assume that the students were extremely
far behind in the cognitive, fine motor, and language domains. But because the students
did not have the opportunity to demonstrate most of the behaviors, this would not be a
valid assumption. Moving forward, I would use this information to continue assessing the
students cognitive, language, and fine motor development before making any decisions
about my curricula. I would like to continue adding to this checklist as the students
participate in activities such writing their names, counting, discussing art (naming
colors), drawing different shapes, and discussing their plans for later in the day. Not only

would these activities improve the students development in these domains, but they
would also allow me to further assess the students development.
Reflection
In completing this observation assignment, I learned that observational checklists
can be an extremely useful tool when determining students developmental levels or
skills. It is useful for determining where students are at in the class to help the teacher
determine how to move forward with the activities in order to support the general
development of the children. I also learned, however, that checklists are significantly
more effective when used over a long period of time. Im familiar with and have either
worked with or observed nearly all of the students I observed, and I think that given the
opportunity these students would be able to check off nearly all of the developmental
milestones. However, since I only observed them for a very short period of time, they did
not demonstrate a lot of them. Overall, this is a useful and organized way to observe the
classs development over an extended period of time.

Child Name
Developmental Milestone Camden Martin Victor Nicole Jacob Elsa
Movement
Stands on one foot for 10
seconds or longer

Hops, somersaults

Swings, climbs

May be able to skip

Milestones in Hand and Finger Skills

Copies triangle and other
geometric patterns
Draws person with body
Prints some letters

Dresses and undresses

without assistance

Uses fork, spoon

Usually cares for own
toilet needs

Language Milestones
Recalls parts of a story
Speaks sentences of more
than 5 words
Uses future tense
Tells longer stories
Says name and address

Cognitive Milestones

Total
Checks:
67%

Total
Checks:
25%

Total
Checks:

50%

Can count 10 or more

objects
Correctly names at least 4
colors
Better understands the
concept of time
Knows about things used
every day in the home
(money, food, etc.)

Total
Checks:
0%

Social Milestones
Wants to please and be
with friends
More likely to agree to
rules

Total
Checks:

88%

Likes to sing, dance, and

act
Shows more
independence