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Child Study
3. Introduction:
A) Child: The child I chose is in my classroom in a GSRP preschool and her name is Marsha
Miles. The information I gathered about her background I asked questions to her mother and the
rest of the information I gained from my lead teacher in Marshas records. Marsha was born on
October 6, 2011 in Waterford, Michigan and she is four years old and female. She is the youngest
in our classroom and the youngest in her family. Marsha is about average height for her age and
her mother is Caucasian and her Dad is African American. Marsha has light brown skin, black
hair, and brown eyes. Marsha has two older sisters who are 13 and 7 years old. Marsha is an easy
going child and will do anything you ask of her and we have no problems with her in the
classroom. Marsha is also very smart and can pick up any information fast and remembers the
information. These are the reasons I chose to observe Marsha, she has, since the beginning of the
year, impressed us with her ability to learn information and being so easy going. By choosing
her, I wanted to focus on her abilities and further help her in her education now and going
forward to kindergarten.
B) Family:

Marsha has two sisters and her Mom who lives in a house her Mom owns

although her Father is involved her life. Her Mom works at the Palace of Auburn Hills, for an
Alzheimer patient, and an at home caretaker for a person who was in a car accident. Marshas
mom is Caucasian and her father is African American. There arent any recent changes within
Marshas life and she has two sisters who are 13 and 7 years old. Marshas familys
socioeconomic status is that she qualifies for GSRP and her risk factor is poverty. There arent
any known family problems or concerns or crises or tragedies. Marshas mom is a very laid back

person. She is very encouraging to her daughters education and very open to anything teachers
have to tell her about her child. And she is very happy with the program that her daughter is in
and very supportive of us as teachers. Overall, she is one of the easier parents that we have in our
classroom.
C) Child Health:

Marshas mother did have prenatal care while she was pregnant for

Marsha. When Marsha was born she was 8 pounds and 21 inches long. When she was born they
were worried that she had a heart murmur and was also deaf. However, Marsha doesnt have any
issues health wise and hasnt even missed one day of school so far this year. Marsha also doesnt
have any issues with developmental milestones and, in most cases, seems to be ahead when it
comes to developmental milestones.
D) Child Care History:

Marsha was at a daycare called The Breakie Bunch Learning

Center for two years and at the moment is babysat by her Grandmother or family friend when her
mom is at work. The Breakie Bunch Learning Center is a one owner daycare that has separate
rooms for various age groups thats open Monday-Friday from 6:30 a.m.- 6 p.m with a play
based philosophy. While Makenzy was there she was in the infant room which is ages 6 weeks-1
year and young toddler room which is ages 1-2 years where their ratios were 4:1 with eight
children in the classroom. The Breakie Bunch serves families of different ethnicities as well as
various income levels. Marsha currently attends Stepanski in the GSRP program and her
classroom is from 8:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m. There are 16 children in the classroom with 9 boys and 7
girls, and two teachers.
4. Report

A.i. Physical: At the beginning of the year, it was obvious where Marshas gross motor skills
were because she would skip everywhere she went. Now Marsha is swinging on her own and
going hand over hand on the monkey bars. When it comes to Marshas fine motor skills, she can
use the tripod grasp when she writes as well as using tweezers. Marsha can also zip up her coat
without assistance. Marsha enjoys dancing and will move her body to a steady beat when we put
on music. She also knows to wash her hands after going to the bathroom. Overall, Marsha is at or
above where she needs to be when it comes to her physical development.
A.ii. Social-Emotional:

Marsha is a pretty evenly tempered child and doesnt have any

issues when it comes to social-emotional. Shes very good at telling other children make her feel
sad or identifying other emotions that shes feeling as well as feeling empathy towards children
when theyre sad or angry. She can also engages in conflict-resolution with no or minimal help
from adults and even helps other children who are having a conflict. Shell ask other children if
she can play with them and will play with different children on a regular basis in various parts of
the room. Shes also comfortable asking adults to play with her and engaging in an ongoing play
scenario with adults that some times last through most of the work time. Also, if a child hits
another child or does something theyre not supposed to then she will remind them of the social
expectations of the classroom or at school. Marsha is a very easy child when it comes to socialemotional and thrives in relationships with different personalities that she has in her classroom.
A. iii. Cognitive:

Marsha does very well picking up new knowledge in various categories

like math, science, and social studies. Marsha is already picking up on how to do addition and
even subtraction. She is curious about the world and will make observations and predictions
about what and why things will happen. She likes to talk about things that happened in her past
or things that happened in the classroom. Shell also remind us of things that we said we were

going to do if we forget. She is creating various patterns that are A, A, and B or A, B, C. As she
is using the magna tiles shes creating more complex shapes than just a simple square or
triangles. I have no doubt that she will be successful in school with how fast she picks up all
areas of academics.
A. iv. Language:

Marsha knows most of her letters both upper and lower case and can write

her first and last name. Marsha also loves books especially The Colors of Us which she
requests that we read to her at least once a week and can tell us the story back almost word for
word. She also likes to predict what will happen in a book that she hasnt read before or go into
detail about what she sees in the pictures. We also have rhyming words with pictures that the
children can match up and she enjoys using those during work time and pointing out throughout
the day which words do and dont rhyme. Marsha hasnt had any issues this year with speech and
shes pretty advanced in her speech by the words and phrases she uses.
A. v. Approach to Learning:

Marsha is very helpful with other children and to adults

within the classroom. If I a child cannot do something like open milk, Marsha will help them.
She will also identify her own problems and how to possibly solve them and when she does
solve a problem shes working on, she gets excited and will jump up and down. Marsha is a very
eager learner. She enjoys trying new things in small group for example, the children cut up
apples to put into a crockpot to make applesauce and the group discussed the steps of making
apple sauce. Marsha will make detailed plans and recalls discussing what she planned and did
throughout work time. Marsha is very focused when it comes to play, sometimes shell spend
most if not all of work time playing with one toy or toys especially when it comes to the people.
I hope her love of learning continues throughout her life.

A. vi. Creative:

Marsha loves using various types of art materials to make art but her

favorite thing to do is use anything yellow. Marsha loves to dance and is in dance classes and
will usually dance to whatever song that we put on for them. She also likes to make her own
music with the instruments in the room or even pots and pans. She also loves to sing songs
especially Baa Baa Blacksheep. Marsha, like most children, has a very interesting imagination
and will use her imagination throughout her pretend play either by herself or with other children.
Her favorite thing to pretend play is with the doll house, the people, and the bus although now
shes branching out to create her own houses with magna tiles.
B. Strengths and Interests: Although Marsha likes to try various ways of play; her favorite is in
the art area and in the block area with the people. Shes also expanding by playing with the
people more with other people when she used to do it mostly by herself. If anything is exciting or
has peaked her interest, however, she will explore it at least once. She also enjoys dancing and
being outside to explore and try out the playground equipment in new ways that show her
growing gross motor skills. And she tells me shes going to grow up and be a dance teacher.
Marsha is smart and I believe she can do anything she puts her mind to and has strengths in all of
the categories that were discussed and that will make her a very well rounded child as she
continues her education and I feel her kindergarten teacher will have to challenge her.
C. Conclusions: Marsha continuously surprises me with her knowledge and ability to learn
things very quickly. Its not always that you find children who are academically as well as
socially and emotionally talented like Marsha is. She is a very easy going child but also a child
that thrives on learning and interacting with adults and children. To that end, Im excited what
her future holds for her and for her future accomplishments.

D. Recommendations: My recommendation is to keep Marshas thirst for knowledge alive and

growing. Also, because Marsha picks up things so quickly, is to keep her challenged so she wont
get bored even at home. And to let her kindergarten teacher know what to expect with Marsha so
that he or she will be able to see where Marsha is at now and continue to challenge her in school
as well.
6. Closing Statement: It has been a pleasure to get to know Marsha as well as her mother
throughout the school year. And by doing this project, Ive enjoyed being able to spend more
time with Marsha and to see what an incredible child she is. Also, I would like to thank my coteacher for allowing me to get the time to spend observing Marsha while she handled the rest of
the classroom.
7. Parent Meeting: I e-mailed my boss to let her know about the meeting that I will be having
with Marshas mother in my classroom. I enjoyed discussing Marshas progress throughout my
observations as well as throughout the year with her mother. I think by having this meeting made
Marshas mother feel like enrolling Marsha in this program was a great idea and she was able to
see more specifically the things that we do with Marsha and what Marsha does on a more daily
basis. Its important that parents feel comfortable with their childs teachers because they are
entrusting us with them. Also, the parents may or may not have a great experience with school so
we want to make sure that they have one with us so their children do have a positive outlook on
school from an early age. And by keeping the parents involved will hopefully keep them
involved throughout their childs education.