Case Study:

Emerson
ETE 443: Early Childhood Assessment
Fall 2018

Lily Harding
 Table of Contents

General Information 1

Background Information 2

Observations & Running Records 6

September 9, 2018 6

September 23, 2018 13

September 30, 2018 15

October 7, 2018 17

October 14, 2018 18

October 21, 2018 20

November 18, 2018 22

November 25, 2018 26

Authentic Assessment Data 30

Work Samples with Anecdotal Notes 30

Pictures with Anecdotal Notes 37

Developmental Checklist 45

Standardized Assessment Data 47

AGS Expressive Vocabulary Test 47

Assessment Results 59

Instructional Recommendations and Educational Goals 63

Communication Plan for Sharing Results 65

Documentation Panel 66
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General Information

Name: Emerson

Birthdate: October 8, 2013

Gender: Female

Educational Placement: Half-day preschool, five days per week

Language Spoken at Home: English

Language Spoken at School and Church: English

Ethnicity/Race: Bulgarian

Other: Emerson was adopted from an orphanage in Bulgaria when she was 30 months old. The

family has little information about Emerson’s life and development prior to that time.
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Background Information

Prenatal and Birth History:

Because Emerson was adopted as a toddler from an orphanage in Bulgaria, very little is

known about her prenatal and birth history. There were no known major complications. The

family has no other information regarding factors such as irregularities before or during birth,

drug or alcohol use during pregnancy, prematurity, or birth weight or length.

Developmental Milestones:

Emerson’s mother has noticed irregularities in Emerson’s social-emotional development

throughout her life. Of the eight basic human emotions, Emerson only truly exhibits three – fear,

anger, and anticipation. However, she frequently imitates other emotions when she observes

them in other people. She is also gaining fluency in the ability to gauge the appropriate times to

“fake” these other emotions even if she might not truly feel them herself. However, her mother is

concerned that she rarely seems to show true feelings of sadness, joy, disgust, surprise, or trust.

Additionally, she mostly still engages in parallel play. She will initiate cooperative play, but does

not continue for more than a couple minutes. When she does play with other children, she does

not yet use any strategies such as sharing, turn-taking, or asking an adult for help to allow her

solve conflicts independently. Emerson can also be very defiant. She typically shows little desire

to please caretakers and peers other than for the purpose of serving her own interests or avoiding

punishment. Another social-emotional concern is that Emerson has a tendency to hoard things.

She will often take lots of food from the kitchen or toys from the toy room and hide them in her

bedroom closet or under her bed, even though she is allowed plenty of access to both of these

things throughout the majority of the day.

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Emerson’s language development appeared that it may be delayed at the time of her

adoption; however, she has since reached all of the language milestones. While she lived in the

orphanage, Emerson was surrounded primarily by Bulgarian speakers. When she was adopted at

30 months, she knew no English and very little Bulgarian. She only used a few words, such as

yes, no, and a few common words related to basic needs. She did show interest in language and

was eager to imitate others’ language. She has made tremendous improvements in language

development since then. She now speaks English fluently and with ease. Her vocabulary is a bit

smaller than typical for her age, but she knows enough words to convey nearly any thought she

wants to, and she understands most of what is said to her. Her grammar and syntax patterns are

fairly typical for her age.

Emerson’s cognitive development has been mostly typical, though her mother voiced a

few current concerns. Emerson still has difficulty answering open-ended questions; she needs

choices to choose from rather than simply being asked “why” or “how” questions. Her mother

believes it is partly, but not fully, due to vocabulary limitations. Emerson is also very impulsive,

and she does not think about the consequences of her actions before she acts. She also does not

explore, problem-solve, and take initiative during play and daily activities as much as most

children her age. She prefers imitating adults and other children and shies away from

“independent thinking.” Aside from these components however, Emerson has generally acquired

most developmental milestones. Her mother had no concerns about Emerson’s current literacy or

math skills.

Emerson has always me all milestones in the development of self-help skills. She is

toilet-trained, she washes her hands, buttons and zips clothing, eats, and drinks independently,

and has started to try to comb her own hair and brush her own teeth.
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Emerson has also always met all motor-development milestones. She can run, jump,

follow simple dance moves, and briefly stand on one foot. She also writes and draws with age-

appropriate control.

Medical History/Concerns:

Prior to her adoption, Emerson’s parents have little information regarding Emerson’s

medical history. She was hospitalized in Bulgaria when she was five months old, but it is

unknown how long or why. She was misdiagnosed with Bartter Syndrome, but that has since

been corrected. Her parents are not aware of any other past health concerns. Since she was

adopted, she has had no major health concerns or illnesses. She does have nightmares and

hoarding tendencies but has never received any therapy or treatments for either. She does not

take any medications. Her current weight is 35 pounds and current height is 44 inches – both of

which are within healthy range. Her last regular checkup was about one month ago.

Agency Information:

Emerson lived in an orphanage in Bulgaria from birth to age 30 months, when she was

adopted by her parents and moved to the United States. Very little is known about the orphanage,

including the routines, philosophies, or living conditions.

Family Information:

Emerson lives with her mother, father, and brother in Morton, Illinois. Her mother and

father are in their early forties and they have been married for fourteen years. Emerson’s brother

is ten years old. Since before Emerson was adopted, her mother worked part time as the Youth

Coordinator at a local church the family attends. This past August she also began a part time job

as the school librarian at a local elementary school. Emerson’s father works full time as a

physical therapist in a nearby town. Emerson’s brother attends a local public school.
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On a typical weekday, the family starts with breakfast; the parents go to work and both

children go to school; Emerson and her mother come home; they play and read; Emerson’s

brother comes home; the children play, read, and watch TV; Emerson’s father comes home; the

family eats dinner; the children play and read; and finally the children get ready for bed.

Emerson’s mother is the primary care taker of Emerson. She provides most of the

structure and routine in Emerson’s life. When Emerson has any wants or needs, she typically

addresses those first with her mother. Emerson also likes to test her limits most with her mother,

since she is the primary enforcer of rules. Emerson’s relationship with her father mostly involves

playing together and pleasant interactions. Emerson’s relationship with her brother is a little

more volatile. Though they play together often, it almost always involves conflict and fighting.

They both like to provoke each other for fun, and neither deals with it well.

Educational Experiences:

Emerson began attending preschool in 2017, a few months before she turned four years

old. On Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings, Emerson attends a preschool with an active,

play-based curriculum. At this school she still has the same teacher that she did last year, as it is

a combined three- and four-year-old class. On Tuesday and Thursday mornings, Emerson attends

a preschool with a more “traditional” approach that includes more direct instruction. It is part of

a private, faith-based school that serves pre-K through eighth grade. At this school she has a

different teacher than she did last year, as she has moved from the three-year-old class to the

four-year-old class. Since she started preschool, she has attended for two-and-a-half hours every

morning. The family plans for Emerson to attend Kindergarten at the local public school next

year.
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Running Record 9/9/18

Emerson was the only child in the church nursery today. Also present was the regular nursery
caregiver, Miss Tahdra, and myself. I told Emerson I would be spending time with them in the
nursery for the next few weeks. I told her I was going to work on my homework whenever I was
in the nursery, so she could just ignore me and play with Miss Tahdra like she usually does.
Emerson was content with all this information.
Today, I observed Emerson for the entire nursery time from 8:57 AM – 10:02 AM.
• Emerson exclaimed, “Let’s play kitchen!” very enthusiastically.
• Immediately then, she noticed my keys sitting next to me which distracted her
• She ran to the play kitchen and dug through the toys.
• She found me a plastic cup, brought it to me, and told me it was to store my keys in.
• She noticed my pencil bag and asked me for a marker.
• She looked in the bag at the available colors and then specifically asked for yellow, pink, and
blue.
• I gave her those three colors of highlighters and a piece of paper.
• She drew on the back of the paper with the paper upside down.
• She drew a face by starting with a circle for the head, drawing the eyes, then the mouth, then
ears, then hair.
• Miss Tahdra asked who she was drawing and she said it was herself.
• Held markers securely with thumb and index finger.
• Capped each marker before switching to a new one each time.
• Grabbed my pencil bag and Miss Tahdra reminded her to ask for it, so she put it back down
and asked to see it.
• I held it open for her and asked what she wanted from it.
• She asked for a mechanical pencil and I gave it to her.
• She examined it, twisted the top, tapped the bottom, and shook it.
• I told her I could show her how it worked and she handed it to me.
• I modeled how to push the eraser down to get the lead to come out.
• I gave it back to her and she did it successfully then and was proud of herself.
• As she played with the pencil, she stated matter-of-factly that she hated purple (the pencil
was purple).
• She asked to see my other pens from my pencil bag and I laid them out.
• She tried putting several of the pens inside the plastic cup she gave me earlier, but the cup
kept tipping over.
• I pointed out that the cup was too light and Miss Tahdra pointed out that the pens were too
heavy.
• Emerson tried to take more of my paper without asking.
• I reminded her to ask first and she did.
• I gave her another piece of paper.
• She began to draw on her hand with highlighter for just a moment but then stopped.
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• She began drawing with highlighter on the new piece of paper.

• She was singing her own made-up song to herself as she drew.
• Miss Tahdra asked what she was drawing now and she said she was adding hair (the pink and
blue part).
• Emerson used the eraser on the pencil to try to erase some of the highlighter she drew, but
she realized it wouldn’t erase.
• She asked me to make her a paper boat (note: she saw me making paper boats with her older
brother several weeks ago when I babysat).
• I told her I didn’t remember how because the last time I made paper boats, her brother was
just showing me exactly what to do.
• She asked Miss Tahdra and I if we could make a paper heart.
• Miss Tahdra showed her how to fold a paper in half, draw half of a heart, rip the paper along
the line, and unfold it to have a heart.
• Emerson stood right next to her and watched the whole process extremely closely.
• When the heart was finished, Emerson took it excitedly and folded and unfolded it again.
• Emerson chose the pink marker and began putting dots all over the heart.
• I asked if they were polka-dots and she said that, no, they were “flower-drops.”
• She chose a red pen and added some dots with the pen as well.
• She switched back to the marker and scribbled over part of the heart.
• She asked Miss Tahdra for crackers and Miss Tahdra gave her a small cup of crackers.
• Emerson asked to put the box of crackers away on the shelf herself and Miss Tahdra let her.
• She began eating her crackers, saying “num, num, num” as she ate the first few but then she
stopped and ate silently.
• She asked for a juice box and Miss Tahdra got her one.
• Miss Tahdra began to unwrap the straw but Emerson frantically asked her to stop so she
could do it herself.
• Miss Tahdra let Emerson poke the straw in herself.
• While she was still eating, she came over to me and was examining and playing with my
necklace.
• She pointed to the biggest one and said “that one’s bigger!”
• I responded, “Yes! That one’s the biggest! Do you see which one is the smallest?”
• She pointed to the smallest black one.
• I responded, “That is the smallest black one! Can you find the smallest of all of them – not
just the black row?”
• She paused a minute and pointed to the silver one furthest to the right. (All of the silver ones
are actually the same size; but in the other rows the jewels get progressively smaller as you
move toward the outside.)
• She pointed to my wallet and asked if she could play with it and asked if I could give her
money.
• I told her we weren’t going to play with my wallet.
• She went to get more snacks without asking.
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• Miss Tahdra reminded her to ask first and she did.

• Miss Tahdra refilled her cup with crackers.
• As she was eating, Emerson was looking at the art and words on a wall nearby.
• She began walking around the room and she purposely pushed a toy off of a shelf and kept
walking.
• She walked over to the baby doll area and exclaimed that someone lost one of the babies’
hats.
• She said “poor baby” as she searched in the doll supplies for the hat and found it.
• I asked her what the baby’s name was and she said “Vranna.”
• She spent several full minutes trying to put the hat on the baby and eventually she got it on
successfully.
• She told me I was a baby.
• I said, “I’m not a baby!” and she laughed.
• I told her I was a baby about 20 years ago and that she used to be a baby too.
• She said she was a baby “twenty-six thousand years!” ago.
• She stopped playing with the dolls and told me my necklace was shiny.
• She asked me if she could have more paper and I asked her what for.
• She told me it was for “a project.”
• I gave her several more pieces and told her to use one at a time.
• She said she was trying to make a heart as she folded the paper once and tore it into pieces.
• She tried opening several of the pieces and realized none of them looked like a heart, so she
asked Miss Tahdra to help her make a heart.
• Miss Tahdra suggested that she would draw the line and Emerson could tear along the line.
She asked Emerson what she thought about that idea and Emerson said it was a “good plan.”
• Emerson watched Miss Tahdra fold a paper in half, draw the outline of half a heart, and start
the tear for Emerson.
• Emerson tore along the line little-by-little.
• When she was almost done, she said happily, “I almost got it!”
• When she finished, she opened it up and smiled big.
• She laid out the paper with the hole in it and placed the heart back in the hole and asked,
“Does it match?”
• Miss Tahdra said it does match because that’s where the heart came from.
• Emerson asked Miss Tahdra to make a “tinier” heart and watched her do this.
• Emerson asked for an even smaller heart and watched her make that one.
• Emerson asked for a bigger heart and watched her make that one.
• Emerson used a pen to draw dots on the biggest heart. It made holes since she was doing this
on carpet.
• We suggested she move to the table so that it wouldn’t poke holes, but she told us she liked it
this way.
• Emerson told us her grandpa gave her a “pickle.”
• Miss Tahdra asked her if she liked how it tasted and she said “you don’t eat it!”
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• Miss Tahdra asked confusingly, “What do you do with it?”

• Emerson explained that her grandpa gave her a pickle and he gave her brother a pickle for
them “to keep… for money.”
• I made a face to show I was confused and asked what it looks like.
• She said it’s a circle and motioned how big it was with her hand.
• I said, “Oh! That’s a n-nickel!” and she repeated happily, “a nickel!”
• She asked me, “Why is your hair like that?”
• I told her I went for the messy look today and asked if it looked a little crazy.
• Miss Tahdra said it looked nice and Emerson said, “No, it looks nice and handsome!”
• Emerson began playing with barbies in the dollhouse.
• Put a family of barbies in the barbie car.
• She spoke as the barbies and narrated as she played.
• Used a higher-pitched voice when talking for the baby barbie.
• She explained that the daddy was driving (and put him in the driver seat) and the boy and girl
are in the back seat of the car.
• She asked Miss Tahdra to help her buckle everyone up and proclaimed, “Everyone needs to
be buckled.”
• The car door fell off and she tried to put it back on.
• Miss Tahdra reassured her it was okay it was broken and that we could play with it without
the door, but Emerson insisted on fixing it.
• She became frustrated and said, “Uhhh!” several times as she continued to try to put the door
back on the car for about a minute.
• Miss Tahdra asked her, “Are you disappointed about the car door?”
• After a few more seconds of trying Emerson sighed and stated, “I’m just disappointed.”
• Emerson placed the car door off to the side and returned to happily playing.
• She crawled around on the floor pushing the barbie car.
• She parked the car in the doll house garage.
• She spent several minutes choosing furniture out of the bin and carefully placing it around
the doll house.
• As she was placing the furniture, she occasionally revised her placements or switched up
rooms.
• Once all the furniture was placed, she put the baby barbie in the crib.
• She tried to push the buttons on the crib to make it sing but it didn’t work.
• She asked, “Can I put some batteries in it?” but Miss Tahdra said she didn’t have any
batteries but that she would get more before next week.
• Emerson rocked the crib as she sang “da, da, da…” to the tune of Rock-a-Bye Baby.
• Next she picked up the young girl barbie, took off all her clothes, and placed her in the
bathtub to “get her squeaky clean.”
• She pretended to turn on the bathtub faucet and made a long “sssssssss” sound before
pretending to turn it off.
• She scrubbed her hands together in the air like she was washing them.
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• She took the young girl barbie out of the tub, redressed her, announced, “Now all ready for
bed!” and placed her in her bed.
• She placed the parents in their bed while she said, “Then the momma’s bed time, then the
dad’s bed time…”
• She exclaimed, “Oops! Forgot the boy’s bedtime!” and grabbed the young boy barbie.
• She took all of the barbies out of their separate beds and moved them all to one bed instead,
saying, “And that’s how I make a big bed.”
• She took a minute to fit and balance them all on the one bed.
• She continued to narrate as she made the baby wake up first and climb up the stairs and walk
out the doors onto a balcony. Then she made the mom wake up and walk up stairs “one at a
time.”
• Emerson asked Miss Tahdra where the doors go and Miss Tahdra explained that they go out
to the balcony, which is like a porch.
• Emerson continued to narrate as she made the family cook breakfast, made them go on a
horse ride, and pushed the baby in a stroller.
• Emerson asked where the mommy horse is, claiming she had the daddy horse.
• Miss Tahdra asked how she knew that, and Emerson explained that “the mommy horse has
eyelashes and the daddy horse has no eyelashes.”
• Note: Emerson sustained in uninterrupted play with dollhouse and barbies for 20 minutes.
(9:42-10:02)
• Emerson heard the praise band playing a song upstairs as her dad walked in the room to pick
her up and she said, “I have church songs at my house!”
• Her dad talked with Miss Tahdra briefly while Emerson kept playing with the barbie horses.
• Her dad asked if there was anything she needed to pick up and Emerson immediately cleaned
up the dollhouse area on her own while Miss Tahdra tidied up the rest of the room.
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Running Record 9/16/18

Emerson was the only child in the church nursery today, along with Miss Tahdra and myself.
Today, I observed Emerson for the entire nursery time from 8:59 AM – 9:59 AM.
• Emerson went to get juice for herself without asking.
• She asked for paper from me immediately.
• She said she saw me and my family at the pumpkin festival (earlier this week).
• She then told me about how her mom gave her a piece of paper.
• I asked her what it was and she said it “had a little blue.”
• I asked her what shape it was and she said “diamond.”
• She asked Miss Tahdra, “Can I have crackers, please.”
• Miss Tahdra gave her crackers and pointed out that she was supposed to ask for the juice
before getting it herself.
• Emerson started spinning around in circles.
• Emerson brought her paper over to me and asked me to draw a “face,” “body,” and “toes.”
• I asked her how many toes I was supposed to draw and she said five toes on each foot.
• I asked how many fingers and put out my hands for her to count. She counted to eight as she
pointed at my fingers randomly and then said there were two fingers on each hand. She said
“But I have eleven.”
• Then she walked over to the other teacher and said enthusiastically, “FIVE hands!”
• She came back to me and asked me to draw “shoes,” “eyelashes,” and “earrings.”
• She looked at me and started talking quietly about the time she “went up and down after bed”
and she smiled mischievously. (A couple weeks ago when I was babysitting she would not
stay in her room after bed time.)
• I told her, “It’s probably not something to smile about because you got in really big trouble,
remember?” and she responded, “Yes.”
• She went over to the kitchen area and played with the food.
• She heard her mom’s voice over the speaker. (Her mom was talking upstairs in church in a
microphone.)
• Emerson told Miss Tahdra and I to be quiet while her mom talked.
• Her mom made a joke and Miss Tahdra and I laughed, so Emerson copied us and laughed
too.
• She put a toy pie in a pot and put the pot in the oven.
• She went to the doll house and put a baby doll in a toy swing and pushed the button on the
toy to start the music.
• She went to the table and spilled her gram crackers. She said sorry and picked them up
without being asked.
• Miss Tahdra gave her a new cup of crackers.
• Emerson asked, “Is that the same cup?” She held up the cups side-by-side to compare them.
• Miss Tahdra said that the new one has sea horses on it.
• Emerson concludes: “Not the same.”
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• Emerson laid down on the ground to keep playing with the toy swing.
• After a minute, she loudly says, “Beep, beep!” and goes over to the kitchen.
• She opened the oven and took out the pot with the pie inside.
• Then she answers the play phone on the kitchen and says, “Hello?” and then hangs it back
up.
• She went over to the toy slide and pushed a race car down it. Then she asked, “Where’s the
red car?”
• She dug through the toys and found the red car.
• She pushed the red car down the slide and it went further than the blue car did.
• She yelled, “This one winned!” then added “The blue one won tooooo.”
• She took the cars over to the car garage.
• She found the gas nozzle and held it to the bottom of the cars where there was a small hole
for a screw.
• As she did this, she moved her ear very close to the speaker on the toy and said it doesn’t
work.
• She pouted for a second to herself and then cheered up.
• Next she grabbed a toy horse and pretended to put gas in the horse.
• She said she needed to put lots of gas in the horse, because the horse was sad.
• I told her that real horses don’t need gas because they eat foot instead. That’s how they get
their energy – from food, like us.
• Next Emerson went back to the kitchen and grabbed the pie and brought it to a baby doll.
• I told her to hold her baby’s head carefully because babies’ heads are fragile.
• She held the baby’s head carefully and played music for the baby from a toy.
• She asked me to hold the baby.
• Her dad came in the room to get her.
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Running Record 9/23/18

Emerson was in the church nursery with one other child today (four-year-old girl, pseudonym:
R), along with Miss Tahdra and myself.
Today, I observed Emerson for the entire nursery time from 8:59 AM – 10:04 AM.
• Emerson went right to the kitchen and grabbed two hotdogs and seven fries. She told me she
had hotdogs and fries and I asked how many things she had all together. She counted the two
hotdogs first, then started back at one to count the seven fries and stated at the end that she
had seven things.
• R came in the room and Emerson said her name happily.
• Emerson was telling us about how was going to go on a “cation”. When we asked what that
was she said, “acation. ation. You know, like a trip you go on.” I answered, “Oh, you’re
going on a vacation!”
• Emerson grabbed some fake money and said it was two dollars. She put it in her purse and a
few minutes later she said it was 15 dollars. She took it out of her purse and moved it around
and examined it and said it was fifty dollars.
• She went to the kitchen area and found some toppings to start stacking on a sandwich. R
added some lettuce and Emerson insisted, “R! I’m gonna make my sandwich myself!” and R
started looking through the food bin again.
• R handed Emerson some fries and Emerson took it and responded, “Thank you, R!”
• Emerson kept playing with the food as R went to play with Miss Tahdra.
• Emerson repeatedly interrupted Miss Tahdra and R’s conversation to ask Miss Tahdra to help
her find the apple.
• R took the cup Emerson was playing with. Emerson said, “That’s mine!” R said, “I was
playing with it!” (She was playing with it about 15 minutes earlier.)
• Emerson and R kept yelling about whose it was. Miss Tahdra said, “No fighting…” but they
didn’t stop. Miss Tahdra helped them sort it out and the girls agreed Emerson could play with
it first, and when she was done then R could play with it.
• Emerson played with the cup and other food for a few minutes.
• Emerson asked for a snack and went to the table to eat it. R went over to the cup and
Emerson complained that she was taking it.
• I explained that it was R’s turn now since Emerson stopped playing with it to eat a snack.
Emerson was ok with it then.
• Emerson brought lots of toy fries over to me to play with. R asked if she could have some
and Emerson responded, “No, they’re mine!”
• I told Emerson, “We have a lot. We could give R some of them and we could keep the rest,
because that would be FAIR. What do you think?” Emerson paused for a second and then
said, “Yeah!” and gave some to R.
• Emerson and R both sat at table to eat snack and play with different toys. They occasionally
talked to each other but played separately.
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• Emerson told us she got a haircut and I said that was exciting! R said she doesn’t like
haircuts.
• Both girls went to play with doll house. Before they started I asked if they could clean up the
kitchen first, since they were both playing with it earlier and it was a mess. They both did it
together without fighting, then went back to the doll house.
• Emerson took a toy dog out of R’s hand and R complained. Miss Tahdra asked Emerson to
give it back to R and Emerson said, “But R had it first!” Miss Tahdra said, “But R’s not done
with it. You need to give it back.” Emerson said, “But I like this doggie…” Miss Tahdra
asked her again to give it back and she didn’t. Miss Tahdra counted to three and Emerson
gave it back at the last second.
• The girls played with the doll house separately, side-by-side.
• R handed Emerson one of the dolls and Emerson said, “Thank you, R.”
• R took a baby doll that Emerson was playing with and Emerson said no.
• Miss Tahdra asked R to give it back. Emerson sat with her head down and tears in her eyes
until R gave it back. Then Emerson cheered up and started playing immediately.
• Emerson was looking for a chair and R helped her find it. Emerson responded, “Thanks, R.
That’s a good friend.”
• Emerson took a toy out of R’s hand and it broke. Neither girl seemed to mind that time.
• R said she didn’t have a bathtub and Emerson said, “I can wash your puppy for you.” R said
thanks and asked if she could wash the baby with it. Emerson said “No. I wash the puppy
THEN you wash the baby AFTER.” R agreed.
• They pretended to wash the baby and the puppy.
• Emerson’s father came in to pick her up.
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Running Record 9/30/18

Emerson was the only child in the church nursery today, along with Miss Tahdra and myself.
Today, I observed Emerson for the entire nursery time from 9:01 AM – 9:57 AM.
• Emerson asked for a snack right when she came in the room.
• As soon as she saw me she asked if she could have some paper and I told her I would give
her some after snack.
• She ate her snack.
• She came over to me to use my paper and colored pencils.
• She looked the rubber band off my colored pencils and looked through them. She tried
putting the rubber band back on them, struggled for about a minute, but persisted and finally
got it.
• She went over to Miss Tahdra, pointed at her name tag and asked, “Does this say Tahdra?”
• Miss Tahdra said yes that’s her name!
• Emerson asked if R was coming. (Girl that came last week.) Miss Tahdra answered that she
didn’t see her upstairs, so probably not. Emerson asked, “Does R like haircuts?” (They were
talking about that with R last week.) I reminded her, “No, she said she didn’t.”
• Emerson went over to the kitchen and asked, “What did R make?”
• Then she stated, “I LOVE broccoli.” I responded, “Oh! Do you?” and she answered, “No, not
much.”
• She put toy fries in a cup and served it to a baby doll. As she played in the kitchen, she sang
made-up songs to herself with made-up words and tunes. Then she began singing made-up
words to the tune of “Oh My Darlin’ Clementine.”
• Emerson brought a purse over to Miss Tahdra and asked her to help close it, but it didn’t
have a way to close, so Miss Tahdra tied the straps in a knot.
• When they came untied, Emerson tried to re-tie them by twisting them.
• Emerson came over to me and brought me food and asked for money for them.
• I gave her a pretend credit card. She took it over to the phone and swiped it and brought it
back and asked for money again. I explained that the credit card is money.
• Emerson put toy fries in tea pot and in a muffin tin. Then she moved them into a silverware
storage container.
• Emerson heard her mom’s voice over the speaker and paused for a second to listen, then
continued to play.
• She used various sound effects as she played in the kitchen.
• She suggested to me, “How about you be the kid and I be the mom.”
• She brought me a tiny doll house slide (about three inches) for me to slide down. She pointed
out that I’m too big for it and suggests that just my fingers go up the stairs and down the slide
instead.
• She suggests that the fries could also go up the stairs and down the slide and that would be
“so funny.”
 16

• She brings me some pie and tells me not to eat it. She pauses for a minute and then says to
me: “Say, ‘Ok, Mom.’”
• She points to the numbers on the toy microwave and names each number (1-9) as she points
to each one. Then she pointed to 0 and asked what number that was, so I told her it was zero.
• She announced, “Zero minutes seconds till food is done.”
• She began looking for plates and asked where the green one was. She kept looking and found
it.
• She told Miss Tahdra to be the mom and me to the baby. Then she announced, “I’m the dad
and I’m gonna hammer,” as she began playing with toy nails and a toy hammer.
• Then she stopped and she found two balls that were similar. She said excitedly, “They’re the
same!” I responded, “Yes they are similar! But what is different about them?” She pointed at
them and answered, “That’s blue and that’s red.”
• Then she went over to the play phone, put it to her ear, and said hello.
• Miss Tahdra pretended to pick up a phone and said, “Hello, this is Miss Tahdra. Who is
this?”
• Emerson told Miss Tahdra she needed to use a different phone, and took another toy phone to
her. Then she put the original phone back up to her ear.
• Miss Tahdra repeated, “Hello, who is this?” Emerson answered, “My name is Emerson.”
• Miss Tahdra asked, “Hi Emerson, how are you?” Emerson said, “Good.”
• Emerson said now she will be the mom and hid behind a toy shelf. She said into the phone,
“This is Mom.” Miss Tahdra answered, “Hi, Mom.”
• Emerson’s dad came to pick her up.
 17

Running Record 10/7/18

Emerson was the only child in the church nursery today, along with Miss Tahdra and myself.
Today, I observed Emerson for the entire nursery time from 8:57 AM – 9:54 AM.
• As soon as she saw me, Emerson noticed I was wearing a sequined sweater and exclaimed,
“You’re SPARKLES!”
• She came over and touched and examined my sweater for a minute.
• Then she went to the baby doll area. She got out the new toy crib and tried to unfold it, but it
was a bit broken so it was droopy.
• Miss Tahdra and Emerson both focused on experimenting with how to fix the crib for about
15 minutes, when Miss Tahdra finally fixed it.
• Emerson put the baby in the crib and played music for the baby from another electronic toy.
• Emerson wanted to draw a heart and asked Miss Tahdra to do it for her, so Miss Tahdra
showed her how.
• Next Emerson played with a steering wheel toy, pushing buttons and turning the wheel.
• Then Emerson made sure Miss Tahdra had a toy phone and she had a toy phone and she
pretended to call Miss Tahdra.
• Miss Tahdra said hello and Emerson said hello and hung up.
• Emerson said she needed a Kleenex, but Miss Tahdra said they ran out and don’t have any in
the room right now.
• Emerson points at the Klorox wipes on a shelf and suggests they use those instead.
• Miss Tahdra explained that we don’t use those for our nose because they would sting, but
they could go get a Kleenex from the bathroom.
• Miss Tahdra took Emerson to the bathroom to get Kleenex and blow her nose.
• When Emerson got back, she went to play with the doll house.
• She found paper stuffed into the doll house garage. She inferred, “Some big kids left papers
in the toy… They made a bad choice… That was a bad choice.”
• Emerson continued to play with the doll house for the rest of the time.
 18

Running Record 10/14/18

Emerson was the only child in the church nursery today, along with Miss Tahdra and myself.
Today, I observed Emerson for the entire nursery time from 8:54 AM – 9:59 AM.
• Emerson came in the room and immediately showed me her new bracelets, excitedly. I asked
if she got them for her birthday and she said yes.
• She went over to play with the baby dolls first. She noticed there were new toys this week.
There were real diapers to use on the baby dolls. She put one on the baby doll and looked
very proud of herself after.
• She found a new doll stroller and Miss Tahdra untied it for her. She watched and said, “It just
unties?”
• She got a baby and said, “Come here little baby! Come here!”
• She brought me the baby to hold and asked which baby bottle I wanted. (They were different
colors.)
• I chose one and pretended to feed the baby. Emerson said, “Cow gives us milk. These have
milk because milk gives us –.”
• She took the baby from me and buckled it in the stroller. She shook the milk and put it in the
stroller.
• She said she was going for a walk and rolled the baby around the room.
• She paused and looked at both bottles again and said, “These are the same.” I replied, “but
there’s one difference; what is it?” She said, “One’s purple and one’s pink.”
• She continued taking the baby on a walk many laps around the room.
• She stopped and said, “Let’s undress this baby.” She took off the baby’s clothes, then the
baby’s diaper. She looked inside the diaper and exclaimed, “Yuck and disgusting!”
• She put the baby doll away and looked around at the toys. (She sustained in play with baby
doll things for 40 minutes.)
• She noticed a new notepad and became excited. An older child had written on it at some
point and she asked what it said. I told her it was a grocery list and pointed to each word as I
read it.
• She took off the top paper and asked me to write on the next one.
• I asked what to write and she said: “Write ‘Buy coffee at the store.’”
• I asked if she wanted me to write just the word “coffee” or the whole sentence. She said the
whole sentence.
• She watched very intently as I wrote each word and said the word I was writing.
• When I was finished, she took it from me and took it over to the kitchen. She played with
food for a while.
• She said she needed me to help her make snacks. She told me I needed to make twenty
snacks for twenty people.
• I found foods from the bin and began laying them out in a row and counting them. After I
laid the ninth one down, she said, “One more for ten!”
• After I laid the tenth in a row, I laid the last ten in a row below and counted them as I went.
 19

• (She sustained in play with food and kitchen things for 15 minutes before her dad came to
pick her up.)
 20

Running Record 10/21/18

Emerson was the only child in the church nursery today, along with a substitute nursery teacher,
Miss Ashley, and myself.
Today, I observed Emerson for the entire nursery time from 8:55 AM – 9:50 AM.
• When she came in the room she found the notepad and asked me for a pen. I suggested she
use the new crayons in the room, but she really wanted the pen so I gave it to her.
• Miss Ashley asked if she could write her name and she paused a minute and said no.
• I said, “Yes you can, silly! Show Miss Ashley how big of a girl you are, how you can write
your name!”
• She giggled and wrote her name on the paper, saying each letter as she wrote it. Miss Ashley
told her that was awesome!
• Next she walked around the room and looked at the toys, and briefly played with a few.
• She began sneaking around the room, hiding from me and Miss Ashley and then popping out
smiling.
• Miss Ashley asked if she wanted a snack and she said yes. She stood by and watched as Miss
Ashley and I got the snack.
• She sat at the table and I ate some of it. She ate the rest at the play kitchen where she began
playing.
• She played at the kitchen for a little bit.
• Then she asked me if she could have some of my paper and pencils, so I gave her some. She
practiced drawing shapes with Miss Ashley. She copied and identified circles, triangles,
rectangles, and squares.
• Emerson asked if they could cut out the shapes.
• I told her I only had grown-up scissors, so only Miss Ashley could use them and she agreed.
• Miss Ashley cut out the shapes they already drew. She also drew and cut out an octagon. She
asked Emerson if she knew this shape. Emerson said no and Miss Ashley told her it’s an
octagon because it has eight sides.
• Emerson tried counting the sides but kept getting confused where she started. I helped her
mark the first side with her finger and count the rest.
• Miss Ashley cut out a trapezoid and asked if she knew that shape. Emerson didn’t and Miss
Ashley told her it was a trapezoid.
• Next, Emerson walked around the room and looked at toys again. She briefly stopped and
looked at the bookshelf. Miss Ashley excitedly suggested they read a book. They sat on the
rocking chair together and read a book about numbers and counted objects in the pictures.
• Emerson’s dad came to pick her up and saw scraps from the shapes on the floor and asked
Emerson to help clean it up. Miss Ashley said we were practicing shapes.
• Emerson excitedly showed her dad the octagon. Miss Ashley asked if she remembered what
that shape was called.
 21

• Emerson looked at it for a minute and said no. Miss Ashley said, “It’s an octagon. Do you
remember how many sides it has?” Emerson tried counting them but got mixed up again. I
helped her mark the first side with her finger again and she counted eight sides.
• We finished cleaning up the room and Emerson left.
 22

Running Record 11/18/18

Emerson was in the church nursery with one other child today (four-year-old girl, pseudonym:
R), along with Miss Tahdra and myself.
Today, I observed Emerson for the entire nursery time from 9:02 AM – 10:10 AM.
• When Emerson came in, she asked for a snack and ate part of it.
• She examined the new easel in the room with paper on it and crayons available, but she
didn’t use it.
• She found a Bible book for children that she began looking at. She sat in the rocking chair
with Miss Tahdra and they flipped through the pages.
• Emerson pointed at one thing on a page and asked, “What’s this?” Miss Tahdra didn’t
answer, so she asked again. Miss Tahdra said it’s a snake, then saw she was pointing at
something else and said, “Oh, looks like a pomegranate.”
• Emerson added, “My brother read me this book.” Then she asked about the same picture:
“But what is he doing?”
• She kept flipping through the pages one-at-a-time and looking at them in the correct order.
She flipped it over to the back and said, “It’s on the back.”
• Miss Tahdra asked what it was on the back and Emerson said a rainbow.
• Emerson continued flipping through the pages where she left off.
• She asked again: “But what is he doing?” When Miss Tahdra still didn’t answer, Emerson
said emphatically: “BUT WHAT IS HE DOING?”
• Miss Tahdra answered, “I’m not sure. He’s making a funny face. It’s a strange picture.”
• Emerson said, “It’s a BIG book! How is it big?”
• Then she exclaimed, “I saw R!”
• Miss Tahdra said she might come down to the nursery after a bit. Emerson said, “I think
she’s not. Not here yet.”
• Emerson heard a toy make a noise and she asked, “Did the boy say bye-bye? Why?”
• Miss Tahdra explained that the toy says goodbye when you don’t play with it for a while and
it turns off.
• Emerson asked if she could use my paper, but I suggested she should use her own paper on
the new easel in the room. She really wanted to use mine instead, so I told her she could use
mine after she tried her own for a little while first.
• Emerson heard the bell choir playing upstairs through the speaker. She said, “Doing bells
downstairs. I think Mr. U’s playing the big bells.” (A man named Mr. U does usually play
the lowest bells.)
• Emerson went to the easel and scribbled on it. She threw a couple crayons on the floor and
Miss Tahdra asked her to pick them up. She did but she left one.
• Miss Tahdra said, “There’s one more on the floor,” and Emerson said, “I don’t see it,” and
ignored it.
• Emerson noticed my necklace with one vertical bar and one matching horizontal bar. She
held both pieces and said, “They’re the same!”
 23

• She asked, “Why does it light up?” I said, “It sparkles. The light from up there (pointing at
the light in the ceiling) bounces off the necklace and makes it sparkle. It’s like lots of tiny
mirrors.”
• Emerson asked, “Can we try it in the dark? PLEASE? In the bathroom?”
• I agreed and told her to ask Miss Tahdra if that was ok.
• She asked and Miss Tahdra agreed.
• I walked Emerson to the bathroom and told her we will see if it sparkles more or less in the
bathroom.
• We went in the bathroom and turned off the light. I asked if the necklace sparkled and she
said no. I said, “It doesn’t sparkle in the dark because there is no light in the room that can
bounce off it!”
• Emerson suggested, “Now try it with the light on!” We turned on the light and she said, “It
sparkles!”
• We went back to the nursery and Miss Tahdra asked what we found out. Emerson explained
that it didn’t sparkle.
• I added that it didn’t sparkle in the dark, but asked what happened when we turned on the
lights. Emerson added that then it sparkled!
• Emerson began playing with an electronic toy that prompts you to twist, push, or pound
various colors and shapes of fake nails, screws, and buttons.
• Emerson became frustrated by the electronic toy because it kept repeating the same prompt
because she was pushing random buttons.
• Miss Tahdra showed her how to listen to the directions it was saying and follow those.
• When Emerson began following the prompts, she enjoyed the toy and played for about 6
minutes.
• Emerson always followed the color, shape, and number directions correctly on her first try.
Sometimes the toy didn’t register her action and responded like she was wrong even when
she was right. When this happened, she always tried a different, wrong button rather than
trying the correct one again.
• Emerson returned to her juice and finished drinking it.
• Then Emerson went to the bookshelf and looked at it briefly.
• Miss Tahdra showed Emerson that she kept the papers Emerson colored on last week and left
them on the bookshelf.
• Emerson told Miss Tahdra one was for me and she brought it over to me behind her back.
• She said to me, “You have to tell what it is.”
• I asked to give me a hint about what it looked like. She said, “It has a shape.”
• I asked what kind of shape and she said, “It has squares and circles.”
• I guessed a few things and she said I was wrong, so she finally gave it to me. It was many
circles and squares all over the page.
• R came into the room now and Emerson noticed. She said happily, “I made a picture for you
R! Which one do you want?” She showed R two pictures she drew the week before.
• R picked one and Emerson said, “You want the airplanes? You get to take this home.” She
gave it to R.
 24

• Next Emerson went over to the easel to draw more pictures. First she scribbled and took off
that sheet of paper.
• I asked her if she could draw me a picture of my necklace and she happily said, “Sure!”
• She begins to draw what she remembers about my necklace without looking back at it for
reference.
• As she draws, she tells me about Miss Tahdra and R: “They’re building a house.” She also
eats while she draws.
• She finished eating and asked Miss Tahdra for more snack.
• Emerson finished the drawing of my necklace and gave it to me.
• Next she drew another scribble.
• Emerson walked over and took a baby bottle from R. Miss Tahdra said we can’t take things
from each other without asking, and took it from Emerson and give it back to R.
• Emerson came over to me and opened her mouth to show me her chewed up food.
• Next she went over to the baby stroller and tried to fit a block through one of the folds of the
stroller.
• Then she walked over to the book shelf and started pounding on it with long blocks that
looked like drum sticks. She watched Miss Tahdra as she pounded loudly. Miss Tahdra said,
“That is loud music.”
• Emerson stopped and said, “It’s thanksgiving!”
• I told her it is almost thanksgiving and asked if she has been thinking lately about what she is
thankful for.
• She said, “I’m thankful for nothing.” I told her I thought maybe she was just being silly.
• She spotted my cell phone and asked if she could “do silly faces” (use Snapchat filters).
• I reminded her we don’t use the phone during nursery time and that she’s not supposed to be
asking for people’s phones (per mom’s rule).
• Emerson asked if she could do my hair and I agreed.
• She stood behind me and played with my hair.
• She asked if she could have the rubber band and I gave her my hair tie.
• She clarified that I could keep writing (taking notes) while she did my hair.
• She put part of my hair in a pony tail and asked for another rubber band, but I told her I only
had one.
• She took my pony tail out and started working on my hair again.
• Emerson heard R ask about a toy, “Can you play with this?” and Emerson answered her,
“That’s a shaker.”
• Emerson started pulling really hard at a knot she made in my hair.
• I laughed and said, “There’s a knot in my hair, isn’t there?”
• She said, “Yeah,” paused, inferred that she was hurting me, then said, “Sorry, Lily.”
• Emerson hears a person through the speaker say someone is “five months old.”
• Emerson asked: “Five months? Is that me?”
• I told her, “No, you’re five years. Five months means she’s still a little baby.”
• Emerson said, “Oh! A baby! What’s her name?”
 25

• I told her I didn’t know her name, but we could ask Miss K (the lady speaking) after church.
• Still doing my hair, Emerson told me, “I’m making ponytails. Then you will be pretty. Pretty
beautiful.”
• She finished my hair and switched to coloring with crayons.
• She tried coloring with a peach color and got frustrated when it didn’t show up. I suggested
she get a darker color so it would show up better. She switched to a dark blue and started
happily scribbling with it.
• Her dad came to pick her up.
 26

Running Record 11/25/18

Emerson was the only child in the church nursery today, along with Miss Tahdra and myself.
Today, I observed Emerson for the entire nursery time from 8:58 AM – 10:07 AM.
• Before I came in the room, several young boys (two years and four years) were in the room
with their grandma, but they decided not to stay, and left as I arrived. Emerson and Miss
Tahdra were in the room with the boys.
• When I came in, Emerson asked for my phone and I reminded her that she is not supposed to
be asking for people’s phones.
• She asked Miss Tahdra for a snack and Miss Tahdra got it.
• Emerson ate some of it.
• Then she walked over to me and asked, “What shall I serve you? For breakfast.”
• I asked for pancakes, then eggs, but she said no to both. Finally I asked for fruit and she said,
“Yes! One fruit!”
• She ran to the kitchen and got me a toy tomato, gave it to me and said, “A pineapple!”
• I said, “Oh! I think it’s a regular apple, or a tomato. Thank you!” and pretended to eat it.
• Emerson walked over to the easel and saw that there was already a drawing of a face on it.
• Miss Tahdra said it was a silly looking face and asked if she agreed.
• Emerson said she thought “the boy drawed it” but Miss Tahdra told her that she drew it.
• Emerson drew a little bit on the next sheet then asked Miss Tahdra to “draw that silly thing
again.”
• She watched closely as Miss Tahdra drew another face and named the body parts she was
drawing.
• Emerson said, “It looks like a daddy.”
• She instructed Miss Tahdra: “Now a BIG chin.” Miss Tahdra added it.
• Emerson asked, “Now can you draw inside the earrings?” She did.
• Miss Tahdra asked Emerson, “Can you put eyebrows on her?”
• Emerson hesitated, then added eyebrows on top of her head where hair is.
• Miss Tahdra added some more eyebrows in the right place.
• Emerson looked pleased with the finished picture, then scribbled all over it.
• She threw a handful of crayons on the floor.
• Miss Tahdra asked her to pick them up and she threw more.
• Miss Tahdra told her again she needed to pick them up.
• Emerson began picking them up very slowly and counting them with one-to-one
correspondence. Then she put some of them back down and picked them up very slowly
again and repeated this.
• Miss Tahdra pointed out that she wasn’t listening and she needed to pick them up now or she
would have to be in time out. Miss Tahdra counted slowly to three.
• Emerson still didn’t pick them up, so Miss Tahdra told her she had to go in time out and sit at
the table. Emerson quickly put the crayons back and pleaded, “No, Miss Tahdra! Please! I
want to listen!”
 27

• Miss Tahdra told her she had to do the time out because she chose not to listen when she was
supposed to.
• Emerson stood up from her seat and said angrily, “I don’t WANT to be in time out!” She sat
back down and said, “It’s taking so long!”
• Miss Tahdra told her, “I’m getting the timer ready.”
• Miss Tahdra placed a one minute timer on the table in front of Emerson. Emerson
immediately calmed down for the rest of the time out as soon as she was able to watch the
timer run out while she sat.
• When the timer rang, Emerson got up and was cheerful again.
• She went to the easel and drew a scribble.
• She took it down, crumpled up the paper, and took it to the trash.
• Emerson began talking about Thanksgiving. Miss Tahdra asked if she ate turkey and pie and
Emerson was shocked that Miss Tahdra knew that!
• After a moment more of coloring, Emerson said to Miss Tahdra, “Don’t tell my mom I made
a bad choice.” Miss Tahdra said she would think about it, but Emerson just shouldn’t worry
about it.
• Emerson began playing with a hammer toy, but couldn’t find the hammer. She asked if
someone took it away.
• They found another toy hammer that worked.
• Emerson burped and said surprised, “Excuse me!”
• Emerson asked Miss Tahdra if she could take off her shoes.
• Miss Tahdra said she didn’t know what her mom’s rule was about that. She asked Emerson if
her mom would want her to take them off or keep them on.
• Emerson hesitated and said smiling, “Take them off?”
• Miss Tahdra clarified: “So if she walked in the room right now and your shoes were off,
would she be happy or sad?”
• Emerson admitted, “Sad,” and moved on to play with the baby doll.
• She asks me if she can use my pen but I told her that I needed it.
• She told me the baby wanted to use the pen, though.
• I told her I would give her five seconds to help the baby use the pen, but then I needed it
back.
• She agreed and I counted to five while she wrote with it.
• It didn’t work at first, so I told her I would give her enough extra time to finish writing her
name.
• When she started writing lots of m’s instead of finishing her name, I took it back and told her
that was too many m’s!
• We counted how many m’s were in her name on her nametag and there was one. Then we
counted how many m’s she wrote on my paper to compare and there were five. She said,
“That’s too many!”
• Emerson went to the toy shelf and played with baby rattle toys. She talked with Miss Tahdra
about how some of the things on the inside were stuck and not rattling.
 28

• Emerson told Miss Tahdra again, “Please don’t tell my mom,” and Miss Tahdra told her that
we aren’t going to talk about that anymore right now.
• She found another toy with a ball that stayed inside the bars. She asked, “Does this ball go
out?” Miss Tahdra explained, “No, it’s just another type of rattle for babies.”
• Emerson asked why the boy in the room at the beginning cried.
• Miss Tahdra explained that he was just kind of nervous being somewhere new, and that he
just wanted to stay with his grandma instead.
• Emerson found a toy tractor made out of the same material as a rubber duck. She asked,
“Why is it squeaky?”
• Miss Tahdra asked what she meant and said, “Oh, you mean it just looks like it might
squeak? That’s just how it’s made.”
• Emerson picked up a baby doll, held it very carefully, and stared at it very lovingly.
• Then she set it back in the crib and began riding on a small rocking horse.
• Miss Tahdra told her she looked like she was getting a little too big for it.
• Emerson asked, “So it’s for a baby?”
• Miss Tahdra explained, “No, I think it’s for someone who’s like three.”
• Emerson replied, “I was three in the picture!” (Not sure what picture she’s referring to.)
• Miss Tahdra took Emerson to the bathroom.
• When they got back, Emerson found some party hats.
• She asked me, “Do you fit this?”
• I tried it on and she told me I was ready to trick-or-treat! I told her I think it looks more like a
hat for a birthday party.
• She tried putting a hat on with the strap in the back and I explained and showed how she
should put it in the front, and she changed it by herself.
• She told me, “I’m gonna make you a cake for pie. It’s you’re birthday today.”
• She gave me a toy cake and put toy ketchup on it.
• I asked if it was ketchup, or cherry sauce, or something else.
• She told me, “No it’s the fire you put…” and she motioned that she was putting it in the
middle of the cake.
• I said, “Oh! It’s like a lighter.”
• She told me she was gonna mix the pie with coffee, but the pie didn’t fit in the coffee maker.
• She found a dish and said, “A wonderful cute little dish.”
• She asked where the lid that fits it was. She found one that was the wrong color, but the right
size and was satisfied.
• She put the pie in the oven and declared, “20 mile minutes.”
• She slowly and carefully carried some toy ice cube trays to Miss Tahdra and instructed,
“Don’t spill it!”
• She turned the dial on the water maker on the fridge.
• She picked several foods out of the toy bin.
 29

• She transfers the foods one-by-one from one container to a smaller container. When she gets
to the lettuce, she immediately notices before even trying that it won’t fit, giggles, and starts
counting all the food as she moves it into yet another container.
• She finds all the French fries and says, “That’s a lot of French fries!”
• I told her I didn’t think I could eat that many!
• She took some of them out, showed me, and asked, “How ‘bout that?”
• I told her, yes, I could probably eat that many.
• She gives some fries to me and some to Miss Tahdra.
• She declares, “Birthday’s over,” takes her hat off, and says, “Now it’s bedtime.”
• She brought me a tiny doll pillow, blanket, and light up toy for a “bedtime light.”
• She told me she would sleep with me.
• I told her, “I hope we can both fit our heads on this pillow!”
• She pointed to one half of the 2-inch pillow and said I could lay there, and she pointed to the
other half of the pillow and said she could lay there, and I laughed.
• Her dad came in to pick her up.
 30

9/9/18
Self-portrait
“Myself. Head,
eyes, mouth,
ears, hair.”
 31

10/14/18
Emerson’s
grocery list.
 32

10/21/18
Emerson said each letter
aloud as she wrote her
name independently.
 33

11/11/18
Shape drawn by
Emerson.
 34

11/11/18
Circles and squares
drawn by Emerson
and Miss Tahdra.
 35

11/18/18
Drawing of my
necklace that she
loves. Drawn from
memory. The
necklace has a
sparkly vertical bar
on a shorter chain
and a sparkly
horizontal bar on a
longer chain.
 36

11/25/18
Drew an oval,
then scribbled
over it happily.
 37

9/9/18
Puts father in car,
driving, and girl in
back seat. Parks car in
the garage and
“takes off seatbelts.”
 38

9/9/18
First independent
attempt to fold and rip
out a paper heart.
 39

9/16/18
Second independent
attempt to fold and
rip out a paper heart.
 40

9/16/18
Emerson put a pot of pie in
the oven and said, “My job is
the baker.”
 41

9/30/18
Persisted for
several minutes
before successfully
putting rubber
band around
pencils.
 42

10/21/18
Emerson took this
picture with a smart
phone all by herself.
 43

10/21/18
Concentrates
on toy.
Correctly
“pushes,”
“twists,” and
“pounds” the
correct colors,
numbers, and
shapes of
buttons and
nails.
 44

11/18/18
Concentrates
on drawing a
picture of my
necklace that
she is
fascinated
with. Chooses
to draw it
from memory.
45
46
 47

Emerson X
Morton IL 61550
Pre-K

Lily Harding 18 11 21
13 10 8
Case Study 5 1

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stop sign

stools

baseball game
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Assessment Results

Observations & Running Records

There were several key findings that were well supported based on the observations and

running records of Emerson. First, Emerson does not generally sustain in a certain line of play

for very long. A couple of the days, Emerson remained engaged in a single thing she was playing

with for 15-40 minutes. However, most days she bounced from one thing to another without

spending more than about five minutes with a single toy. Additionally, Emerson engages

primarily in parallel play with other children her age. She appears interested in cooperative play,

as she does this frequently with adults. However, she engages in parallel play with other

children, probably because she is not yet very adept at navigating conflict appropriately. She

does not initiate turn-taking, purposeful sharing, or asking an adult for help resolving issues

when she plays with other children. The observations also provided a window into Emerson’s

cognitive and academic skills. Her math skills were observed to be fairly consistent with what is

typical for her age. Her rote counting is strong, and she counts with one-to-one correspondence

frequently, but inconsistently. She is very familiar with numbers, length, comparison of various

attributes, and shapes, and mentions these things often in the environment around her. Emerson

shows great appreciation for literacy, and constantly asks for the necessary materials for drawing

and writing. She also responds to books read aloud and tries to make sense of books on her own

based on pictures. However, her vocabulary and grammar still appear slightly more limited than

most peers her age – yet appropriate, given her early literacy experiences. Her ability to represent

her thinking through drawing is also someone limited, as she generally draws shapes and lines

without meaning behind them. Finally, the observations showed Emerson’s curiosity for her

world around her. She asked lots of questions relating to both the physical and social
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environment. While she does engage in lots of imitation, she also explores and tests things for

herself frequently.

Work Samples

Based on Emerson’s work samples, it is clear that Emerson has a developing ability to

represent ideas on paper. Most of her drawings involve basic shapes and lines that are not used to

represent more complex objects or ideas. However, she did create a self-portrait that included

many appropriate features. She also, when asked, was able to draw a couple features of a

necklace that she showed particular interest in. One of Emerson’s work samples also shows her

fascination with scribbling over her drawing when finished. Based on observations, it is not

angry or dissatisfied scribbling; she simply enjoys scribbling it out at the end. Her work samples

also show her current stage of writing. She is able to write her name with a combination of

upper- and lower-case letters. When writing other words, she uses a combination of scribbles and

letter-like forms. Children at this age are typically transferring from letter-like forms to actual

letters. While Emerson is not quite at this stage yet, she appears that she will be soon.

Pictures

Based on the pictures of Emerson playing, we can see her understanding of social roles

and conventions. She plays dolls, makes the father doll drive with the little girl in the back seat,

and parks the car in the garage. She also often plays kitchen and puts a pot in the oven as she

declares herself the baker. The images also show Emerson’s engagement in academic tasks. In

one picture, she is concentrating hard as she draws a picture of a necklace, including details from

her memory. In another picture, she concentrates intently on a toy as she twists, pounds, and

pushes the correctly colored, numbered, and shaped buttons. The pictures also show Emerson’s

persistence at challenging tasks. Emerson’s first attempt at creating a paper heart ended in many
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pieces. She tried again the following week and was proud of her improvement. Another picture

shows when Emerson was able to persist in putting a rubber band around a group of colored

pencils. She spent several minutes persisting at this task before reaching success. These pictures

also demonstrate Emerson’s fine motor skills as she was able to rip paper along lines, and stretch

and manipulate a rubber band around several discrete objects. Another image shows Emerson’s

technological fluency, as she independently took the picture of me holding up her piece of

writing. The picture was clear and included all of the important parts of the visual.

Developmental Checklist

Emerson demonstrated proficiency in the majority of skills on the Work Sampling

developmental checklist. There were only two individual skills for which Emerson has not yet

shown she is in the process of developing – using simple tools for investigation, and following

basic safety rules with independence. Emerson’s language arts skills, social studies skills, and

fine arts skills were very strong, with proficiency in nearly all skills. Emerson’s math skills were

less consistent – she is proficient in numbers and operations, mathematical processes,

measurement, and geometry; however she is still in the process of developing skills in patterns,

relationships, and functions and data collection and probability. Emerson’s science skills were

also inconsistent. She is proficient in physical science and technology in society; however, she is

in the process of developing skills in inquiry, life science, and earth science, and not yet

developing many safety skills. Within the domain of physical development and health, Emerson

is proficient in motor development and physical fitness, but is still developing team-building and

personal health and safety skills. Finally, she was fairly proficient in social/emotional skills,

though she is still developing social problem-solving.

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EVT Standardized Assessment

The EVT assessment measured Emerson’s expressive vocabulary. Emerson scored in the

34th percentile, with a test-age equivalent of 4-6. Her score is somewhat low, indicating that she

knows and can recall significantly fewer words than most children her age. However, this score

is expected and probably not a concern for Emerson, as it is likely a reflection of a lack of early,

consistent language experiences as a baby and toddler. Because Emerson spent the first 30

months of her life in an orphanage in Bulgaria, it is predicted that she did not have a normal

amount of exposure to language and literacy prior to this time. Furthermore, she had virtually no

exposure to English prior to age 30 months, which is now her primary language and the language

in which she was assessed. At 30 months, Emerson’s expressive vocabulary was far behind.

Given these circumstances, her present score at the 34th percentile suggests major growth and is

indicative of typical cognition and language acquisition skills and a current healthy literacy

environment.

Summary

Overall, assessment results showed that Emerson’s main areas of strength are her math

and literacy skills, her physical development, and her curiosity and engagement in the

environment around her. Areas for growth include social problem-solving and team-work,

empathy, understanding of and willingness to follow safety rules independently, and written

representation.
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Instructional Recommendations and Educational Goals

1. One area where instruction should focus is on social problem-solving and teamwork.

Emerson is typically the only child in the nursery every Sunday. This is an unfortunate

missed opportunity every week to learn about social skills and working with others in a

slightly less structured environment than when she attends preschool. I would recommend

that Emerson attend Sunday School with the Kindergarten through fourth graders for at least

part of the time on the Sundays when she is the only child in the nursery, so that she has

more opportunity to practice working through social conflicts with people who are closer to

her in age, but slightly more adept at social problem-solving so they can serve as a model.

Additionally, Miss Tahdra can accompany her there and provide more explicit comments

about sharing, taking turns, and considering others’ feelings. All of this will also eventually

help Emerson move toward the goal of engaging in more cooperative, rather than parallel

play.

2. Another goal for Emerson is to improve her ability to represent her thoughts through drawing

and writing. Miss Tahdra and Emerson’s mother can both encourage this through modeling

more intricate drawing and writing. For example, her mother works with Emerson a lot on

shapes and faces and modeling how to draw shapes and faces. She can do this with a variety

of more complex objects as well. She can model for Emerson how when they see something

exciting on a trip or while they are playing, they can draw a picture of it to remember it and

show it to others. By encouraging more drawings connected to real-life experiences, Emerson

will learn the habit of doing this more on her own as well. Additionally, Miss Tahdra can

encourage literacy experiences more as well. Now that new literacy materials like an easel,

crayons, and more library books have been added to the nursery, Miss Tahdra can start to
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model excitement for using these the ways she already models excitement for other toys.

This will help Emerson further develop her drawing, as well as her writing with conventional

letters.

3. Another goal for Emerson is to continue to improve her verbal language abilities. Because of

the improvements shown in the case study, I recommend that her teachers and family

continue providing Emerson with the literacy environment they have currently created for

her. They should continue to use a wide range of descriptive vocabulary, and provide

Emerson with opportunities to practice her language with older children and adults, as well

as with children her own age.

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Communication Plan for Sharing Results

To communicate results with Emerson’s parents, I will meet with them in person. First, I

will begin by showing them the documentation panel as a glimpse into the findings of this case

study.

Next, I will share actual assessment data with the family, as this particular family is

familiar with working with data, and Emerson’s mother has worked in the field of Elementary

Education and is well-versed and interested in the data that supports the results and findings.

However, presenting the data in person will also allow me to interpret various pieces and explain

it in a way that is easier to understand.

Finally, I will share a summary of the results of the assessments and my instructional

recommendations and educational goals. I will also leave the family with a copy of this particular

section of the case study for them to keep for reference.

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