I spent 30 minutes observing Antony – a 4-year-old boy – to observe, estimate, and explain his domains of development and their intersection with one another. Firstly, he and his friend were rolling their cars on the carpet, having a kind of speed competition or race. Later they joined the girls’ game with their cars playing the roles of taxi drivers or bodyguards. The purpose of the paper is to combine the different perspectives on the child’s actions and, based on it, reflect the overall level of Antony’s preschool development.
Therefore, Antony shows excellent cooperation and teamwork while playing with the girls, and he is good at following instructions and directions as well. Those aspects relate to the cognitive and social/emotional domains of development. Children of that age are usually good at following the rules and behaving as a team, and they express protest against those who violate the rules (Paulus, 2017). Therefore, in the aspect of being a team member and following the rules, Antony is in a normal stage of preschool development.
The boy can identify both genders (gender identification skill) and define their functions in the play. For example, boys protect girls with their cars and compete, while female characters dress up and lead the small talk. Additionally, Antony is an important team member due to his ability to contact establishment, which is depicted in the cognitive and social/emotional domains. Paulus (2017) concludes that more prosocial children are more popular than less prosocial ones. His expression of emotions is in its development stage as the boy started to express support or disapproval when asked to comment on the dolls’ outfits.
Additionally, such behavioral patterns as creativity in developing ideas beyond what is told to was observed. The basic understanding of conflict solving was also present as Antony suggested performing races for the most beautiful dress. Although Paulus (2017) states that girls are more likely to develop faster, Antony can compete with the statement. Therefore, during the observation period, his creativity in race organization and clothes choice was presented.
From this, it can be seen that Antony has developed the cognitive and social/emotional skills of an older preschool child. Language development and usage, along with body changes in weight and height, are expected to happen next. Teachers and parents need to introduce the ways of physical and verbal emotional expression along with the further development of motor skills.
Reference
Paulus, M. (2017). How to dax? Preschool children’s prosocial behavior, but not their social norm enforcement relates to their peer status. Frontiers of Psychology. Web.