Chirana Berntson

Child Case Study

Profile

Child A is 18 months old. She is a mix of Thai and Caucasian, her mother is Thai and
her father is Caucasian. She was born on September 9th, 2013.
During the prenatal development, her mother took care of herself very well. She ate
heathy food, took prenatal vitamins, and had regular checkup. Throughout the
pregnancy her mother didnt experience any complications at all, and all in all she had a
fairly easy pregnancy. However, her mother did have an intensive and difficult labor. Her
labor took about 28 hours and at one point the doctors were considering performing a
C-section.
Significant Development Milestones for A: She started to eat solid food at the age of
four months old and started to crawl at the age of seven months. At eight months, she
could say daddy and mommy which is impressive because she did not start out by
saying the easier child version of mama and dada. By 13 months she started
walking. By 17 months she started to know about the English alphabet and numbers.
According to her pediatrician, A is small but she is healthy and from looking at her
chart it is clear that she is growing. She weighed 20 lb. at 18 months checkup. Two
languages are spoken at home. They are Thai and English and A is bilingual. Her
mother only talks to her in Thai, her dad talks to her in only English, and her
grandmother visits every week to teach her English and play with her. She understands
which language to communicate in depending on the person she is interacting with. The
child hasnt attended a preschool yet, instead her mother is home taking care of her.

They are planning to have her go to school at the age of three. She is also still breast
feeding. The mother teaches her new concepts one at a time and one after the other.
Since her mother is home with her all day, A prefers spending time with her mom the
most since that is what she is most used to.

Chirana Berntson
Physical Checklist
Child A. 18 month old

FINE MOTOR
Milestone
Picks up and inserts
objects with dexterity
Use spoon and fork
Fastens, unfastens
zippers and buttons
Turns knobs/lids
Pours without spilling
Molds clay and play
dough with dexterity
Scribble with pen
Build a tower of two
to four blocks
Can turn two or three
pages of book (board
book)

Observati
on
DATE
4/02/15

Usually

Emerging

Not Yet

X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X

GROSS MOTOR
Runs with control
over speed and
direction
Throws ball
Bend over to pick up
object
Kicks ball
Walk up stairs while
holding rail with one
hand

4/02/15

X
X
X
X
X

Not Observed

Get on small chair

without help
Walks heel to toe on a
long piece of tape on
the floor
Push, Pulls objects
Jumps, hops
Walks up and down
stairs alternating feet

X
x
X
X
X

Chirana Berntson

Physical Checklist Analysis

On April 2, 2015, I had a child, A, and her mother visit me at my home to conduct an
observation. I used a checklist method to gather information about As fine and gross
motor skills. The checklist will help me to get an overall view of their motor progress.
After analyzing the physical checklist filled out during the observation, I can conclude
that the child could use some help in developing her fine motor skills. When you look at
the checklist, it is quickly visible that for the fine motor area many of As skills are
emerging, while in the gross motor area many of the skills are occurring usually.
Examples where A could use more help in developing her fine motor skills include:
When feeding herself, she prefers to eat with her hands because using the fork and
spoon is too hard. When I had her try and line up objects in a row, she could do this but
she couldnt line them up in a neat line. When stacking blocks, A was having some
difficulty stacking the fourth block. Usually adding the third block would make the stack
fall over. Finally, when coloring A is still learning how to hold the crayon tightly and
correctly so her color is very light on the paper.

With her gross motor skills, examples of A showing strong development include:
Jumping vigorously with or without music, hopping on one foot and with feet together,
and walking up and down the stairs while holding the rail.
From this observation I am going to use this information to develop a lesson plan that
will focus on developing her fine motor skills and strengthen the muscles in her hand. I
think it is normal for a toddler to develop their gross motor skills quicker than their fine
motor skills but fine motor skills are just as important. It will be my goal to make a lesson
plan that encourages and engages the child while helping them to develop their skills.
Name: Chirana Berntson

Title of Lesson

Pasta Threading/Stacking

Content Area

Fine motor skills

Targeted Age Group

18 month old
Learning Objective(s):
After this lesson the students should be able to:

1 The child will have better control with their hands

2 The child will be better able to concentrate on their hand-eye coordination
Resources/Materials Needed:

1 Rigatoni pasta
2 Chop sticks or other thin sticks
3 Play-doh
Strategies:
In this activity, I plan to get the child interested and excited about exercising their
fine motor skills. I took play-doh, formed it in a ball, and then stuck it to the floor. I
then stuck several chopsticks into the play-doh. The play-doh acts as a base. From
here, it is up to the child to take the rigatoni and thread it onto the chopsticks.
They do this over and over again, stacking up the different chopsticks with the

pasta.

At first I showed her how to do it and how much fun it was. I helped her along with
positive reinforcement by saying things like, good job, and clapping.

Results/Reflection: This activity was very successful. The child was happy to
participate and the activity had her full attention nearly all of the time. The child
showed patience and concentration when trying to get the pasta pieces threaded
onto the sticks. This turned out to be one of my favorite activities. I believe it
could be very useful in helping children develop their fine motor skills and small
muscles in their hands. In addition to helping develop fine motor skills and
concentration, this activity also helps the child to develop their creativity, hand
eye coordination, and a feeling of success when they complete the activity.

Source of Idea/Information: www.pinterest .com, Milestones of Child

Development.

Chirana Berntson
Child Case Study
Anecdotal Observation
Cognitive Development
On Monday March 30th, 2015, I observed a child, A, who is 18 months old at her home
with her and her mother. I learned from that the child already knew the numbers from 19, but she was confused about the number 0 and the letter O. She also knew a lot of
the letters in the alphabet when asked what certain letters were. When she got it wrong
her mother would ask her again and more often than not she got it right in the second
time. When she didnt know her mother had to tell her.

When talking about her knowledge of colors, she started learning about colors not too
long ago with her mother. The mother would read her a book and while reading would
give her crayons to match the color. She can match the colors correctly and easily most
of the time. However, sometimes she wouldnt match the colors correctly and would
appear confused.
She can match an animals sound with the animal picture, and can also put together a
wooden puzzle that has the same picture inside the cutout of the missing piece. From
this observation, I learned that the child could use reinforcement in learning about
colors, and Ill use this information to create an activity to help her learn about colors.
Since she can match colors and puzzles, I will use this knowledge to create an activity
to promote her cognitive learning by grouping objects.
Chirana Berntson
30/3/2015
11AM-1 PM
Anecdotal Observation with A. 18 months
She sat and played with her mom when I got at her house. When she saw me her mom
told her to greet me doing Thai culture by palm her hand together and bow. She was
only fit her hands together between her chest and bow and walk to me. Her mom was
teaching her about alphabet and numbers by using small magnetic alphabet and
numbers with many different colors. Her mom asked give mommy number 1, 2, 3,9.
She got most of them right and handed to her mom and some handed to me sometime.
When she got the wrong number her mom said no that not where is.. then she got it
in the second time. When the mom asked what is this number (0) she said o
Then her mom started to play with her the alphabet. The mom said Give mommy D.
Dog then e for elephant, a for apple, k for knit, m, o, F for fish. When the mom asked
for d dog, first she got her letter I, her mom has to asked again and then she got the
right one. Then the mom asked for I for igloo. They stopped at that the girl walked
around the living room and pick up toys and handed to me, to her mom.

Later, they started to read Brown Bear book. While the mom was reading and teaching
about the colors, the mom got crayons to math with the animal on the page they are
reading. Yellow duck, the mom gave her yellow crayon. Some of the colors the mom will
ask which one purple crayon to match with purple cat. After they finished reading, I
pointed to the green frog in the book and ask her what is this color?, she said red.
Sometime she said it wrong when I asked what is this colors.
When her mom was out of her sign she will walk away to find her mom. She mumble a
lot sometime I understood and sometime no one know what she was saying. I played
gently with her toy and throw stuff on the floor sometimes but still gently, and climbed on
to the bookshelves two time. She always walk around and looking around.
I played animal puzzle with her I made animals sound and ask her what animal and
then asked her to put in to the puzzle board. She got them all correct.
She found her donut pile and the ring and play with them. At lunch time, the mom fed
her first and then let her eat by herself using spoon and hands. She got cranky and her
mom nurse her then she fell sleep.

Name: Chirana Berntson

Title of Lesson

Fun with Color Sorting

Content Area

Cognitive Development

Targeted Age Group

18 month old
Learning Objective(s):
After this lesson the students should be able to:

1. The child will be able identify colors.

2. The child will be able to group object by colors.

Resources/Materials Needed:

1.
2.
3.
4.

Paper tubes of different colors

Pompoms and buttons of different colors.
Tape
Cups to collect objects underneath the tube.

Strategies

In this activity, I created different colored tubes and taped them to the wall. I then
found various objects (pompoms, buttons) of the same colors as the tubes. The
child is meant to match the color of the object to the tube and let it drop through
the tube and collect into a bowl underneath. It is a fun learning activity for
children because they learn how to match and sort colors and also get to have fun
dropping and watching the objects fall through the tubes.

I engaged the child by getting her excited by letting her play with the objects
used in the activity and then demonstrating how much fun it was to let the
objects fall through the tubes. Some questions that I asked her included, What is
this color? and, can you match that color to the tube? My goal for this activity
was to create a fun activity for the child that would reinforce the learning of colors
and how different objects can have the same color. Letting the child drop it
through the tube is a way to make it more fun and to keep them engaged in the
activity.

Result/Reflection:
The child was very active in participating. This activity got her attention right
away from the moment she saw me setting up the activity with all of the different
parts. She also liked to pick up and play with the small pompoms and buttons
before the activity even started. She was easily able recognize the color and put
the object in to the right colored tube. However, she sometimes liked to hold it in
her hand and didnt want to let it go down the tube. When we started I had to
show her what we are going to do several times. I told her to pick one object,
recognize the color and then match it and put in the tube. She did the activity
slowly and at her own speed but I could tell that she was having fun. I thought
this was a very effective activity for helping children to recognize and match
colors. Next time, I would have liked to write the actual names of the colors above
the tubes.

Source of Idea/Information: www.pinterest .com, Milestones of Child

Development.

Chirana Berntson
Running Record/ Language Development
Child A Age 18 month old
April 10, 2015

At the childs home. After arriving at her house, the mother told the child to greet me by
bowing as in Thai culture. She did bow but didnt say hi or anything. She pointed at me
and my baby and said, baby, baby. I said, This is Lily. Can you hi to Lily? The mother

said to the child, Can you say Lily? The child said, baby, then she ran to the couch
and to play with her pony, mumbling by herself. I didnt understand what she said. I
asked her mom and she didnt know neither.
She went to get a book and walked back to me and handed the book. I asked, Do you
want me to read the book to you? I asked again but she didnt answer. Instead she sat
next to me. I read her the book.
While we were reading, she looked around and then called, mommy, mommy. She
didnt see her mother around, so she ran to the kitchen to find her mother. She came
back to me with a toy bag and handed it to me. I asked, Do you want me to open it for
you? She didnt answer. I asked again, but again she didnt answer. I gave it back to
her and she tried to open it but couldnt. I helped her open it.
She walked around the house in the living room. She saw eyeglasses, grabbed it and
said, Mommy, mommy. The mother came and took the eyeglasses. The child saw the
phone on the table next to the eyeglasses, she grabbed it and put it next to her ear and
pretended to talk on the phone while walking. I didnt know what she was saying
because she was mumbling to herself.
We are talking about colors and I pointed to a green cup and asked her, what is this
color? The child said red. Then she saw black shoes she pointed to it and said black,
black. She pick up the pony and said, purple, purple, which it was.
She ran to the kitchen and cried. The mother asked her what she wanted and she
raised her arms to the mother and said, pick up, (in Thai) to her mother. The mother
picked her up and put her in the high chair to eat. She was eating and then started to

cry. The mother gave the child a tablet and let her watch video about the alphabet and
shapes. She repeat it with the video A apple
The child said, out, (in Thai) then we all moved to the living room. The mother had a
visitor then come over to the house and the child sat with the mother and pointed to the
guy and said who, who? The mother is talking and didnt answer her.
The child is starting to cry, the mother nursing her and put her to bed.

Chirana Berntson
Running Record/Language Development
On April 10, 2015, I visited a child, A, at her house to observe how her language
development was progressing. The child already knows her ABCs and understands
some word that start with a specific letter of the alphabet. With the letters of the
alphabet displayed in front of A, her mom would say something like, Give mommy letter
F, which one is F for fishy? A could then pick out the letter F and hand it to her mom. I
found that the child understands language spoken to her, but she doesnt want to
communicate back.
She understands directions both in Thai and English, but prefers to speak in short
sentences and says a lot of holophrases. For example, when she wants me to open a
toy bag she hands the bag to me and expects me to open it for her. I know that she
wants me to open it but doesnt want to say it out loud. If she doesnt know a word she
might relate it to a word she does know. For example, she saw eyeglasses and said,

Mommy, Mommy. This is because her mom wears eyeglasses. Also, she usually
mumbles to herself and no one can understand what she says.
Since A is learning both Thai and English, some words she only knows in Thai and
others only in English. Some words she knows both English and Thai. I found that she
can follow directions well when I ask her to do something simple or when playing a
childrens game with her. Most of the time she didnt want to say anything. With this
knowledge, I will create an activity to get her to have fun speaking aloud to give her
confidence with speaking and to improve her vocabulary and language development.
Name: Chirana Berntson

Title of Lesson

Feeding Santa Words

Content Area

Language Development

Targeted Age Group

18 month old

Learning Objective(s):
After this lesson the students should be able to:

3 Practice speaking aloud

4 Learn new vocabulary words
Resources/Materials Needed:

1. A cardboard box with a picture of Santa on it with a line cut through the
box for his mouth.
2. Pictures printed out of different age-appropriate objects cut to fit into
Santas mouth.
Strategies

I will start by showing all of the pictures of the different objects to the child saying
what the object is, talking about what it is, and having her repeat the word. After
this, I will start out by picking three pictures at a time and laying them out for the
child. I will then ask the child, what would you like to feed Santa? The child will
then get to pick an object that they want to feed Santa but they can only feed him
if they say the word out loud. If they dont remember the word I will tell them how
to say it but the child has to say the word out loud to feed Santa. If she doesnt
want to say the word and still tries to feed Santa I will put my hand in front of
Santas mouth.

Result/Reflection:

Before the lesson plan began I was thinking that the child was going to act a lot
more excited while doing the activity. While she was excited to feed the Santa the
object, her short attention span made her forget that she had to say the word in
order to feed him. Even with my hand in front of his mouth she was still trying to
force the object in. She would say what the object was out loud but it did not
seem like it was getting through to her how the word and picture of the object
were related. I feel that the activity was successful however because she did
practice saying the names of objects out loud and learned some new vocabulary
words. However, I feel that this activity might be better for a little older child such
as a two year old.

Source of Idea/Information: www.pinterest .com, Milestones of Child

Development.

Chirana Berntson
Reflection

When I first met the child, she was quiet and didnt really want to play with anyone
except her mother. However, after a few visits she finally began to feel comfortable
around me. When she began to open up to me I learned that she is a smart little girl

who is well behaved and knows a lot of her mothers language. She is a fast learner and
eager to learn and play with new things. The child doesnt talk much but it is clear that
she understands when I talk and play with her. It was very impressive to me that she
knew most of the English alphabet, numbers, some shapes, and colors. Through
observing her and her relationship with her mother I learned that it is never too early to
introduce the child about those foundational concepts. Because her mother was very
nice and kind, I believe that this had a positive effect the childs behavior and learning.
The child participated well in my activities with her because the mother engaged in the
activities with us as well.

Observation is the first thing that has to be done before I can plan activities.
Observation is very important because through observation I get to know all about her
progress and behavior, her unique qualities, and how she applies her knowledge all in a
relaxed environment. Through this project, I have learned that observation helps to build
a positive relationship through interaction between the observer and the child. From this
strong relationship comes a more positive chance for success in the childs
development and learning. Observation not only helps me gain information about the
child, but also it helps develop a bond between the child and me. This leads the child to
trust, be engaged, and participate more with me. Observation helps me determine and
plan activities that are most appropriate and helpful for the child.

After reflecting on the activities I did with the child, I would say that they were
successful. I chose age appropriate activities for her that were not too challenging and

also not too easy. I can say that they were successful activities because the child
participated well, was engaged, and she got practice in areas that I saw she needed
help in from the observations. From about the third visit I could see that she was very
excited to see me when I got to her house and excited to see what games I fun activities
I had planned for her that day. Everything to her was new and exciting so she was
eager to learn and participate. She followed my directions well and was engaged in the
activities given that she is only 18 months old and has a short attention span. She would
stay and do the activity and then get distracted and leave and then come back again.
This was fine and understandable for me. I had to give her as much time as she needed
because I needed the results from the activities.

After completing this project, I have further learned that I love working with children. I
want to help and see children succeed in their learning. I found myself enjoying creating
props for activities as well as enjoying adapting and doing research for activities. I get
very excited to think about and then finally see how children react and engage with my
learning activities and I love to see the results of my work. I really want to be there for
children to help them learn new concepts and help them improve with their life skills. I
also learned about the process of how children learn from doing the activities with them.
It was a very good learning experience for me. It had me doing a lot of research and
also looking back, reflecting, and researching from my previous courses. I learned how
to connect with parents and families, how they can help me learn about their child, and
also how we can work together to improve their learning. I got to use my knowledge and

experience in working with children and package it all together in this project and
because of this it helped me grow as a professional in this field.